Chapter Two - Julie and The Phantoms

It's Innocent

"Dude, have you seen Willie around lately?" Luke asked Alex. The guys were bouncing melody ideas off of each other while Julie was in school as usual.

Alex shrugged and shook his head.

"Like not even when you go off into the city?" Reggie asked.

"Nope," Alex sighed. "Haven't seen him since the night we sang at The Orpheum."

"You don't think Caleb...?" Luke raised his eyebrows and slid his hand across his neck as if he was slitting his throat.

"What is wrong with you?" Alex shook his head.

"Dude, too far," Reggie said.

Luke put his hands up in defeat. "Alright, I'm sorry. We won't talk about your love life anymore."

"Don't call it that. It doesn't even exist," Alex grimaced and started pacing. He stopped abruptly and turned to Luke with  huge grin on his face. "Actually... speaking of love lives," he wagged his eyebrows.

Luke rolled his eyes, "oh, no.. not this again."

Reggie laughed. "Dude you can't deny anything anymore. We saw you guys almost kiss the other day and then hold hands last night after Bobby left!"

"It doesn't mean anything, okay? She likes Nick," Luke defended himself. "We're just friends."

"Yeah, okay. So are me and Willie," Alex scoffed. "Bro it's okay to have feelings. We support it."

Reggie smacked Luke across the back, "we encourage it."

"And... she does like you," Alex added. Reggie nodded in agreement.

Luke couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Really?" He asked.

"Dude she tries way too hard to not look at you. It's obvious. Trust me. I know girls," Reggie said.

"As much as I hate that he just said that, Reggie's got a point, man," Alex agreed.

"But I'm a ghost," Luke's face fell. "It's not like I can actually be with her."

"Yeah you would be kind of holding her back from finding her actual soulmate," Reggie cocked his head and nodded in agreement.

Alex smacked him in the back of the head. "Don't listen to him," he said to Reggie.

"But he's right!" Said Reggie. "I'm not real! One of these days I'll finally move on and Julie will be heart broken!"

"Okay but-"

"Or one of these days, she'll move on and I'll be heartbroken," Luke's face fell.

"Luke," Alex shook his shoulders. "Look, those are all very valid thoughts but you need to realize that you both have some kind of feelings for each other. So it's better to talk about it with her than with us. Otherwise you're gonna throw yourself over the edge and end up in a dark room crying for 25 years," his eyes glazed over for a second as if he was transported back to that dark room.

"He's right, you know," Reggie said over Alex's shoulder, which brought Alex back to reality.

"I know," sighed Alex as he let go of Luke's shoulders. "I'm always right."

"Not always," Luke teased. "But this time you might just be on to something," he nodded, making a mental note to talk to Julie about it later, acknowledging the amount of butterflies that just appeared in his stomach at the thought of it.

—

At school, Julie and Flynn were giggling together at their lunch table. Julie had just told her about Luke holding her hand the then being caught by Alex and Reggie.

"So when is he going to just tell you he likes you?" Flynn asked, "because I'm gonna need it to hurry up and happen so you have the time to hook me up with the dark haired cutie."

Julie burst out laughing. "You kind of need to be able to see them first."

"And touch them. Don't forget touch them," Flynn sighed, daydreaming about touching Reggie.

"Hey, Julie." Nick had made his way over and joined their table. Flynn was still daydreaming about Reggie and didn't even notice.

"Oh, hey, Nick. How's it going?" Julie asked.

"I wanted to see if you would maybe go out on a date with me?" Nick asked.

This snapped Flynn back to reality and she stared at Nick, not believing it.

Julie's eyes widened. Again? Why is he asking her out again? He's being really persistent. He must really like her if he asks her out after she turned him down once and said she had feelings for someone else.

"Nick, I," she didn't know what to say. "I already told you there was someone else," she said awkwardly. She started feeling guilty. This was what she wanted for so long. Why was it happening at the most inconvenient time?

Nick's face fell. "Oh, right." He said. "Is it that guy in your band?"

Julie was taken aback by the question. "Oh, uh. It's complicated, really," she laughed nervously and looked over at Flynn who was eyeing Nick suspiciously.

"Right," he gave a half-hearted laugh. "It's always complicated," he said.

Julie felt really guilty at that point. "I mean, we can totally go out," she said. "As friends," she added quickly. Who knows? Maybe he would help her get over the whole Luke thing that would never work out.

"Great!" Nick said standing up to leave. "I'll text you later, Julie." He smiled, but it wasn't his normal smile. Something was off about it. "Flynn," he said in acknowledgement. "Don't ghost me now," he winked at Julie and walked away.

Julie's eyes widened.

"Wait, what did that skinny little boy just say to you?" Flynn asked.

"There's no way," Julie laughed then stopped abruptly. "Right?" She asked Flynn.

"Nah, I think that was a coincidence," Flynn said. But something didn't sit right with Julie. That's the same thing her brother said when he found out. But how would have Nick found out about them?

"Forget about it," Flynn said. "It's innocent, trust me."