Our Connection • • Julie and The Phantoms

Chapter 28: "Hotdogs?"

The next few days I pretended like I didn't hear Luke. Honestly, I wasn't sure it I was ready to say it back. Luke's connection with me was extremely strong. Was I ready?

"Pool party at my house. We're grilling hotdogs." Nick says, hugging Julie before he walks out of the studio. The boys quickly look at each other wide eyed. "Hotdogs?" Reggie asks shakily. I shake my head at them. Luke reaches over and grabs my hand. My thoughts had been getting to me, making me accidentally pull away from him. He looks at me concerned and confused.

"Are you okay?" He asks quietly. I nod and smile at him. I reach over to grab his hand again. He calms down as soon as I do.

I got ready for the pool party at Julie's house, putting my hair into a high messy bun. I put on a pair of shorts and one of Luke's t-shirts over my bikini. "Luke said he loved you.. And you didn't say it back?" Julie asks, looking over at me. I play with my fingers and look at her before nodding. "You love him though. We all can tell." She says as she fixes her hair. "I do. I love him but Julie is it too early to feel that? I'm 18 and he was literally invisible to people a month ago." I sigh softly. This was all so confusing to me. People could see him now which was good for us and our relationship but he was still technically dead.

"Make the most of it. He loves you." She says standing up. I nod a little and stand up, grabbing my change of clothes. We walk to the studio together. The boys were already ready to go when we opened the doors. Luke takes my hand and leans over to kiss me briefly. "New shirt? It looks great." He says jokingly. I laugh softly and nod, squeezing his hand gently. We head to Nick's house and walk to the backyard. A few people from school had come out too just to hang out and swim. I set my stuff down on a chair, pulling off the clothes on top of my swim wear. My gazes goes over to Luke just in time to see him pull off his shirt. Not gonna lie, I don't regret looking at all. Luke notices me staring and smirks a little before wrapping his arm around me to jump into the pool. I quickly grab onto him, letting out a little scream as the cold water hits us.

"Gotchaaa" He says chuckling softly. I hit his arm lightly and shake my head at him. He slicks back his hair a bit before pulling me closer to him. I rest my forehead on his. Nobody else had joined us in the pool yet. Everyone was too busy talking or eating to notice us.

"Loving you is a losing game.." I say quietly to him, our breathing becoming in sync as we look at each other. "What..?" He looks at me a little worried. "One day.. you're going to find your unfinished business.. and you're going to leave me." I try not to feel emotional while talking to him about this. The tears couldn't help but form in my eyes. It was bound to happen. My light was only going to glow until he was ready to leave. I knew we were going to talk about it eventually. I only brought it up because he said he loved me last night.

"Baby.." He says softly, cupping my face gently. "I'm such a wreck without you.." He basically says in a whisper, kissing my forehead than moving to kiss my nose before kissing my lips. "I'm not going anywhere anytime soon." He says reassuringly. I wrap my arms around his neck and bury my head into his shoulder. Luke holds me closer, bringing my legs up to wrap around his torso.

"I love you." I say in his ear. He stays quiet and keeps his arms wrapped around me. I feel his smile in my shoulder, which makes me smile. "I love you too, bub." He says and hugs me tighter. I smile more and hold him closer.

"Love birds!" We hear Reggie yell from the side of the pool. Alex rolls his eyes and walks over, shoving him into the pool. Reggie barely had any time to slip off his favorite leather jacket. "Alex!" Reggie whines, making all of us laugh.

Everyone finishes eating and begins to swim. Luke and I had gotten tired of swimming after a while. We sat together on a lounge chair beside the pool. I laid in between his legs, my back against his chest and his arms around me. I had put his shirt back on because I was cold. He lets me cuddle into him however I want before he gets comfy himself. I let myself relax on his chest. He listens to the banter between our friends as his thoughts race a little. What if at some point he did have to cross over? He could just not say anything and do it. He didn't want to break any hearts but he also didn't know how to do this whole ghost thing. Luke was in love. Head over heels in love. He couldn't help but think about a future. Could there even be a future? He was dead. That was no future. But when he saw himself with the girl he was holding in his arms, he saw the brightest futures. Luke saw them together. Happily.