I looked around the busyness of the Hollywood strip trying to see if I could find Alex. I have to be honest I will still upset with Luke and Reggie by how they felt with Alex. They don't understand how big of a deal this is for me but I do because I was. The only difference is that I was completely alone and not trapped in a dark room for 25 years. I did my best to walk around the living as I searched for one of my new closest friends. That's when I noticed the familiar pink champion hoodie not far from me. I quickly appeared beside him.
"There you are" I stated
"Yeah here I am" Alex stated with a hint of sass in his voice
"Oh don't get like that with me Alex, I didn't follow you nor yell at the boys for you to get sassy with me," I told him
"You yelled at them?" He asked softly
"Of course I did, who else was gonna do it?" I asked chuckling as I wrapped my arm around his shoulder
Alex gave me a huge smile but that turned sour as he let out a gasp looking ahead of us. I followed his eyes and let out a laugh as he watched two men dressed as ghostbusters come toward us.
"Oh man, we're busted!" He yelled as they got closer "NO!"
Alex instantly hid behind me holding tightly onto my arms as I let out a laugh. He looked at me confused but then noticed that they walked right through us. Out of relief he shyly smiled at me and rejoined my side.
"Are you finished now, drama queen?" I joked
"I am not a drama queen" Alex huffed "I really thought they were after us"
"Alex were ghost nobody can hurt us" I informed him
But just as I said that I wasn't paying attention to the sound of a skateboard coming near us. Obviously, I wasn't paying attention to it cause I thought the boy on it would just go through us but I was wrong. I watched as he collided with Alex, causing the both of them to crash onto the ground.
"Ah!" The ghost yelled
Alex looked up at me as I helped him up, "you were saying?" He glared at me as he rubbed his arm
"Whoops" I chuckled
I picked up the ghost's skateboard and noticed something all too familiar with the board. Engraved on the bottom was the letter "W" and a small image of a daredevil beside it. I threw the board next to the ghost as he slowly got up. When he picked it up he seemed disappointed.
"Oh man, oh you dinged my board!" Willie exclaimed to Alex
Alex look at me in shock before looking back at Willie, "I dinged your board? Dude, you ran me over!" Alex yelled "you're lucky I-"
Alex stopped for a second and looked at me in disbelief as he realized what he said, "Y-you...you ran me over. You're a ghost?" Alex questioned
"Mm. Yeah," Willie answered as he undid his helmet "ever since I learned that the hard way..."
"Skating in traffic was bad" Willie and I said at the same time causing him to look away from Alex and onto me
"Mel?" Willie asked in shock "no way Mel!"
I let out a laugh as Willie rushed over to me and gave me the biggest hug. He ended up dropping his board and spin me around.
"It's been forever since I've seen you!" He exclaimed as he put me down and pulled away from the hug
"Well yeah, after everything went down and- well you know" I shrugged "I decided to spend time with Rose's family more"
"I get that" he nodded "wish I was smart like you"
"No one is as smart as me" I smirked as the two of us laughed
"I'm sorry" Alex interrupted "but how do you know each other?"
"Oh right sorry- We use to be really close ghost friends" I answered
"Yeah" Willie nodded as he picked up his board "hey, uh, sorry I uh, smashed into you. I thought you were a lifer and I'd just pass right through"
"Uh, a lifer?" Alex asked
"Yeah, that's uh, that's what we call people who are living. You're new to this whole ghost thing aren't you?" Willie mentioned
"Yeah. Is it that obvious?" Alex chuckled
"Extremely" I nodded
"Totally" Willie laughed as he reached out his hand "hey, I'm uh, I'm Willie"
"Oh, uh, Alex" Alex grabbed Willie's hand and shook it but he held it for a few seconds longer
Alex may think he has me fooled but I know that he finds Willie attractive the love-struck look he gave Willie when he took off his helmet did not go unnoticed.
"And you know Amelia" Alex said as he quickly let go of Willie's hand
"Of course" He nodded "so what brings you to Hollywood? You sightseeing? Pictures with that uh, Marilyn girl?"
"Uh yeah, actually I was having a minor afterlife crisis, so you know, just cleaning my head until you tried to crack it open" Alex teased
Willie let out a laugh and I smiled at their interaction, "I did pancake you, huh?" Alex looked down and I glared at Willie who was embarrassing Alex. Willie looked at me and I gave him a look telling him to switch the subject.
"I'm sorry, um so, minor afterlife crisis?" Willie asked making me nod in approval
"Yeah, I just...keep freaking out about everything, you know? Shouldn't we be in heaven or something?" Alex asked
"Or something sounds more like it," I said
"Who's we?" Willie asked
"Oh, uh, me and my bandmates" Alex replied, "we all died."
"Right" Willie nodded "that's tragic man, you guys in some kind of accident, or?"
Alex let out a chuckle as a blush rose to his cheeks, "yeah. Yeah...you should say that we ate some bad hot dogs."
I immediately looked directly at Alex with so many emotions, I wasn't aware of how they died and I personally didn't know how to take in this information.
"Excuse me?" I asked trying not to laugh "did you just say hot dogs?"
"Woah no way!" Willie exclaimed
"Yeah," Alex replied
"Out of all things. You died from hot dogs, tainted hot dogs. Oh, you're going to regret telling me that." I told Alex laughing
"You haven't changed Mel" Willie chuckled "but hey that isn't so bad you know they say that Mozart died from eating a hot dog"
"Don't forget that Elvis died on the toilet, so it could've been worse. I think a hot dog is better than getting into a car crash because of Green Day?" I shrugged as I compared his death to mine
"Green Day?" Alex questioned
"Yeah they're my favourite band" I shrugged "anyway Willie I'll let you give Alex here a tour of the ghost world as I go make fun of two boys for eating bad hot dogs"
Alex rolled his eyes as Willie key out a chuckle, "it was nice seeing you Mel" Willie said
"Likewise" I nodded "I'll see you back at home Alex. Don't have too much fun now that I'm leaving you two alone"
I sent Alex a wink and quickly vanished back into the studio where I was faced with Julie chasing Luke around the studio.
"Woah what's happening here?" I asked
"Luke went through my dream box!" Julie whined like a child
"You did what?" I asked while glaring at him
"No-well yeah but listen to these killer lyrics!" Luke shouted as he jumped on the piano "and if somebody hurts you, I'm going to be hurt to"
"And my life, my life will be real low, zero, flying solo" Luke sang
"Woah-woah!" Reggie chimed in
I smiled at Reggie and appeared next to him. He gave me a guilty smile and I raised my eyebrow.
"What?" I asked
"I'm just-I'm sorry" he stuttered "I didn't mean to make you upset even though I still don't know what made you upset, I know it was my fault and I'm sorry"
In an instant, all my anger that was towards Reggie's actions were gone. He looked so sincere and upset over the fact that I was mad at him. I gave him a small smile and pulled him into a hug. At first, he was tense but he quickly eased up and wrapped his arm around my waist pulling me closer to him. When we pulled away we were still looking at each other as if we were alone. We completely missed out on whatever was happening between Luke and Julie. It took everything in me to not lean in and kiss him right there but I couldn't ruin our friendships no matter how loud my thoughts were and it was hard because every time I look at him they shout shouting "Ruin it! Ruin the friendship"
I swear that I caught Reggie look at my lips and that thought alone made it even harder to not grabbed ahold of his flannel and pull it towards me. But thankfully for the yelling between Julie and Luke, I was brought out of my trance and pulled my body away from Reggie's.
"Stay out of my room!" Julie yelled as she aggressively slammed the studio doors shut
"Yeah!" Luke yelled as he ran after her sticking his head out the door "we will if you join our band!"
Reggie and I glanced at each other before I went over and pulled Luke back into the studio.
"What do you expect Luke, you went through her things. Didn't we have a talk about boundaries?" I told him "geez you're like a child who needs constant reminders about do's and dont's"
Reggie let out a chuckle as I pulled Luke
towards the piano, I grabbed ahold of the sheet Luke was reading and placed it on the top of the piano.
"Now I really liked what I heard what else do you got?" I asked
The next hour or so Luke, Reggie, and I were working on lyrics and trying to actually putting the song together.
"You know all my secrets, I know all your deep dish. Guess that means some things they never change" Luke sang
"That sounds great, this one is a conversation so what if right here instead of singing we do that half sing/talk thing" I told them as I underlined the parts of the song with my finger
"That would be perfect" Luke smiled
"Wait so...when she says 'deep dish', is she talking about, like, pizza?...or?" Reggie questioned
I let out a laugh and shook my head, "what's with you and pizza?"
"It's my favourite food" he noted, "who doesn't like pizza?"
"People who don't like pizza" I stated as it was obvious
Luke let out a chuckle as I attempted to explain to Reggie what Julie meant by deep dish but got interrupted by Alex who appeared on top of the piano.
"Well look who's back" I smirked
"Oh! Hey man, where you been?" Reggie asked
"Um, kind of everywhere. Yeah. No, I met a new ghost friend." Alex told us with a wide grin on his face
"For real?" Reggie asked excitedly
"Yeah, turns out he's also friends with Melia" Alex added
"You have other ghost friends and you didn't tell us?" Reggie asked me
"Willie and I aren't exactly friends just hung out a few times, it's complicated," I said
"Did you guys date?" Reggie asked extremely quickly
"What no!" I exclaimed "trust me I'm not exactly Willie's type"
I have Alex a wink and I think he got the hint causing him to blush. I gave him a slap on the leg and let out a small chuckle.
"What did you two do anyway?" I asked changing the topic because I did not want to talk about why Willie and I weren't friends anymore
"Nothing really, we talked a lot. He answered a ton of my questions." He explained
"Yeah? Like if Julie was gonna join the band or not?" Luke asked annoyed
"Um..well, we didn't...we didn't really get into that, but I think I know why we're here." Alex stated "okay? All ghosts have, like unfinished business so that we can cross over."
"Well, I could've told you that" I informed them "unfinished business is literally the reason why you're here. It's something that you couldn't do when you were alive, something that you haven't exactly accomplished, or something that your soul is literally missing. It's different for each ghost"
Alex smiled brightly at me and nodded
"Why would we do that?" Luke asked making Alex turned his head towards him
"I'm just saying, this is like our second chance. All we need to do is get Julie to play with us" Luke continued
"That might be difficult considering you broke into her dream box and stole her song," I told him
"We did make a killer melody to her lyrics though" Reggie spoke up as he showed Alex the song
"Oh..without your drummer?" Alex said hurt "cool.."
Luke pushed him jokingly, "drumming is so 90's? We're just gonna.." Luke stomped his feet against the floor "stomp our feet now.."
My mouth fell open a little at how rude Luke was, I crossed my arms and shook my head.
"Okay" Alex replied "well you know what else is so 90's? Being rude. Alright? Get woke. These are sensitive times"
I held back a laugh as Luke shook his head and Reggie looked completely fascinated. Alex smiled proudly at Reggie and myself.
"Learned that from my ghost friend," he told us
Reggie nodded, "woke" he repeated in awe
"Yeah" Alex smiled
"What does it mean?" Reggie asked
"No clue" Alex whispered as he shook his head
At that point I couldn't contain my laughter, the three boys looked at me causing me to try to stop.
"I'm sorry but that was the most precious moment I've ever witnessed" I explained to them after I stopped laughing "anyway my Julie sense is going off so I gotta go check on her"
"Julie sense?" Luke questioned confused
"Yeah it's like this feeling I get and every time I get it, it usually means Julie is having an issue." I told them "I guess it's a guardian angel thing"
"Huh" Alex commented
"Yeah it's weird I know," I said "anyway gotta blast!"
The boys laughed at me as I waved and vanished before their sight. When I appeared in Julie's room I seen her sadly sitting on her bed.
"Jules, what's wrong?" I asked
"It's Flynn" she stated
I nodded my head understandingly and took a seat right in front of her.
"She's still not talking to you huh?" I asked
Julie just nodded, I looked at her for a moment before placing my hand on her knee. Julie looked up at me and I smiled softly.
"You know, as hard as it may be to believe your mother and I have had our fair share in bad arguments," I told her
Julie's head perked up, "really?"
I leaned away from her and got off her bed, walking over to Rose's old chest.
"Oh definitely," I said as I opened the chest
"See there was this one time that like Flynn, she wouldn't even talk to me. The situations were different but nonetheless, she was extremely upset with me, the one thing your mother didn't like about me was that I was always reckless." I mentioned
I looked through the chest and pulled out a picture of Rose and myself, the two of us joking around. Victoria was the one who took the picture.
I smiled at the memory and held the photo to my chest.
"The thing about fights with your best friend is that they never last because no matter how mad you are at each other you know that deep down if you ever lost them you'd be a complete mess." I continued "and as hard as it may be, sometimes you might have to be the one to apologize or in this case tell the truth."
"I can't tell her the truth, she'll think I'm crazy" Julie noted
"You just gotta give her a reason to believe, I know you're mad that Luke went in your dream box and took that song but you did write it for Flynn and Luke, Reggie and I made it a really good song," I said trying to convince her to sing the song for Flynn
I closed the trunk and handed the picture to Julie. Julie looked at it and smiled sadly.
"If Flynn heard us play the song than she'd see that were ghost, she'd believe you and she would get to hear how thankful you are for having her as your best friend.....think about it"
Julie glanced up at me and jumped off her bed, "you're right" she nodded
"Of course I am" I laughed
"I gotta tell her the truth and when she knows the truth she'll be able to help us cover up our act" Julie smiled
"That and you'll have someone other than me to talk to when it comes to the boys," I told her smiling
"That too" she laughed
Julie pinned the photo of Rose and myself on her mirror, I stood beside her and wrapped my arm around her shoulder.
"Go get your best friend back" I told her
"Will you come with me?" Julie asked looking at me through the mirror
I made eye contact with her in the mirror and nodded, "well I'm not gonna stay here by myself" I laughed
Julie shook her head as I laughed, together Julie and I walked out of her room and went searching for Flynn.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hey lovers! I just wanted to thank everyone for all the support on this story as I've received nothing but love on it. Not only that but I have recently seen that my story was recommended on JATP TikTok!!! To say I jumped around in pure happiness and reading comments made me feel so proud. Thank you all for reading and loving it as much as I am. You are all amazing! Next update will be soon! I'll see you on the flip side, much love <3
~StayBeautiful