After a very long day of Carrie ignoring me, and Jack sending me crooked smiles and not saying a word to me, I'm finally chilling in the studio.
Well about to be.
"Honey I'm home!" I yell bursting through the studio doors and plopping onto the couch.
"Long day Kenny?" Luke says with a smirk.
"The longest." I huff. Shortly after I get my last word out Julie comes through the doors on the opposite side of the studio.
"Flynn booked us a gig!" She says laying the flyer down on the piano. Luke and Reggie head over to check it out. Julie just goes over and starts watering plants.
As soon as Luke reads the flyer his face frowns into his puppy pout. Aw.
"We're playing a school dance? Sweet!" Reggie says with a smile.
After I found out that Reggie was my uncle, we discussed if I should call him uncle Reggie. We decided against it because it sounded really weird.
"It's not exactly the strip." Luke pouts.
I jump up to be with them.
"And your not exactly alive, so you should be happy we have our first gig." Reg says turing his attention to Mr-frown-a lot.
"Shut up frowning boy." I smirk. He rolls his eyes.
"But it's not the strip." He whispers.
"Did you just say you wanna strip!? Luke that's disgusting!" I joke. Reggie and Julie laugh. While Luke just slaps me on the arm and playfully glares at me.
"I wasn't in love with the idea at first either, but it could be a great way for us to build a following, right?" Julie asks the boys. Reggie nods.
"Yeah. Yeah! We need to play wherever we can, whenever we can." Reggie says excitedly. Luke's face brightens up.
"No, you're right.-" Luke agrees, pulling me in for a side hug.
His hand is on my waist.
WAIT HIS HAND IS ON MY WAIST.
Everybody keep calm.
"-Let's rock those kids' faces off play the clubs." Julie smiles, at him. She then notices his hand placing and frowns for a quick second, quickly recovering.
"And then you can record a single that gets a billion streams?" I ask, resting my tired head on Luke's shoulder.
"I don't know what that is, but hopefully it gets us a manager and a tour. And don't think for one second Kendall, that you aren't gonna be in the band eventually." He says looking down into my eyes.
"Think of Jack. Think of Jack." I keep repeating to myself.
Jack who?
JACK THE BOY YOU LIKE! You idiot!
He's still looking at me.
"Uh- Then we release a bunch of hit albums." Julie says interrupting our moment.
"Put out a country album that does surprisingly well." Reggie says. And with that, Luke let's go of me and gives Reggie a look. The warmth of Luke's touch still lingering on my waist.
"I shred on the banjo, so..." He shrugs.
"Then I'll learn how to fiddle!" I add on. Reggie's smile gets bigger.
"And before you know it, we're being inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame!" Luke says pumping his fists up in the air.
"But one of us isn't there!" Reggie adds, pointing his finger at Luke.
"Because we had a blowout in 2032!" I guess, earning a high-five from Reggie. Luke nods.
"My money's on Alex." Reg admits. "He's just so sensitive."
"No! Not Alex!" I say defensively. Alex is my one of my favorites.
"What are we waiting for!? Let's get rehearsing!" Luke yells excitedly. We have seemed to pump him up a bit.
"Talking about Alex... Where is he?" Julie asks.
•••
We waited for about 10 minutes but Alex didn't show up. Luke looked like he was about to burst, so I offered to play the drums in his place just this once.
Right now we are finishing up a new song called Finally Free. We were originally going to play Edge of Great, but we wanted to surprise Flynn with something she hasn't heard at all.
After I finish hitting the last beat, Alex walks through the doors.
"Oh. Hey Alex." Reggie says nervously. I don't know how he's going to react to me taking his place.
"Where have you been man? We need to start practicing!" Luke asks. Alex just smiles. He has this big, goofy, smile on his face.
"Erm-uh- Alex, I hope you don't mind. I played your drums, while you were gone." I say nervously. Luke looks back at me with a reassuring smile.
Alex's expression doesn't even change.
"No worries. Glad you guys could practice-for whatever you're working on." He says happily. I let out a sight of relief.
"Dance news!" Flynn says on cue. "I don't have a date. But I don't care because I'm so psyched to see you guys perform!"
Luke starts to get worried. Kendall wasn't technically in the band, so did she have a date?
"Oh man! We're playing a dance?" Alex sighs.
"Of course, dude. That's how we get a following nowadays." Luke says very matter-o-factly
"Yeah, get with the program, Alex." Julie jokes.
"What?!" Flynn starts.
"The guys are here?!"
"Yes ma'am." I joke earning a lopsided smile from Luke.
"Hey, guys!" Flynn says waving to the other side of the room.
"Other way, sweetie." Julie says. Flynn's smile just gets bigger as she turns to the other side of the room.
"Okay, well, now that Alex has graced us with his presence, can we start working?"
"Yes! We're gonna rehearse. You wanna stick around?" Julie asks an over excited Flynn. I stand up and make my way out from behind the drum set.
I look over at Luke who's sitting in a chair. He moves to sit on the armrest and pats the seat, signaling me to come sit. I gladly take accept and take a seat.
"You should join the band." He whispers in my ear, sending a chill down my spine.
"I'm already in a music group Lucas." I whisper in response. He just shrugs and whispers back;
"Ditch them." Be fore I have time to respond Carlos walks in calling for Julie's name.
(a/n: kendall what the heck are you doing? if luke asked me to join his band I would do it without hesitation.)
"Hey, Julie. Remember those orbs in Dad's pictures?" He says walking through Alex.
"I... I think they're ghosts." I open my mouth in shock. Of course he can't see me, because i'm on the chair behind him.
"But don't worry. This room is...is...This room is clean. I'm not getting the ghost tinglies." He says spinning around and noticing me.
"Wrong again little dude."
"H-hey Kendall. You l-l-look nice today." He stutters blushing a bunch. I smile back at him.
"Thank Carlos. You look good too."
"Have no fear, Kendall. If they come back, I will protect you, because I am the man of the house." Carlos says puffing his shoulders out a little bit.
"Isn't dad supposed to be the man of the house?" Julie questions crossing her arms.
"There can be two. Dad needs all the help he can get, right?"
"I agree with Carlos. Ray would be happy to have your help. You're one of the strongest men I know." I fib. His smile gets brighter and his cheeks reder.
"According to the internet, salt burns their souls out." Carlos says pulling out a salt shaker.
Everybody's expressions change quickly. I look over at Luke nervously.
"A little sprinkle will keep them from ever coming in here." Carlos says to a wide eyed Julie.
Carlos salts the shaker around the room, almost getting Luke and Reggie, but they back away quickly.
Alex was not as fast though and gets salted.
"No!" He screams.
"Oh! Oh God, I'm...I'm-" He yells dramatically.
"-fine.I'm fine. Totally fine." He sighs looking back at us. Everyone lets out a breath.
Julie looks over at Flynn and motions for her to take Carlos away.
"Oh! Carlos! You know who's hungry? Me. Um, salt me a path to the kitchen." Flynn fibs. Carlos nods and starts a trail of salt to the kitchen.
"Phew." Alex says walking to his drums.
"Shall we try this again?" Julie asks. Luke jumps up excitedly. I stand up and walk to a seat behind Julie.
"Yes, please. But remind us later, there's some Sunset Curve songs to show you." Luke says while adjusting his guitar strap.
"Ooo! Show me now." Julie says moving the microphone away from her mouth.
"Yeah, okay." Luke says reaching into his old backpack to pull out his infamous song journal.
Alex and Reggie had both mentioned it to me separately. Apparently if you touch it Luke will go crazy.
"'Home Is Where My Horse Is?' Reggie, stop putting your country songs in my journal." Luke says with a huff.
"That was a gift!" Reggie exclaims.
"Thanks, buddy." Luke says sarcastically, tapping Reggie's shoulder with his notebook.
"You should maybe circle back..." Reggie starts, but quickly gets cut off.
"I dog-eared the ones that I think you would slay." Luke says shoving his hand in his pocket.
Julie grabs the book and begins to look through it, but quickly stops on a page that's not dog eared.
"Who's Emily?" Julie asks. Luke's facial expression changes quickly. He gets super flustered. Obviously this is a sensitive topic.
"That one's not dog-eared." He says quickly, going to take away the book. Julie backs up quickly, not knowing the severity of the situation
"'If you could only know that I never let you go.'" She reads, still oblivious to Luke's change in mood
"Wow, Luke, always such a charmer." I joke, trying to lighten the mood. But the looks on the boy's faces make it clear that this is not something to be joked about. It must've been a pretty rough break up.
"He's not. That one's actually about--" Alex starts but quickly gets cut off. Who could it be about? It sounds like a romantic song.
"No one. Uh, that's just something
that I tried, and..." Luke trails off, trying to regain his spunky energy.
"But if you go to the next dog-eared page,
I got a tune that's just... It's got a killer beat." He finishes. He starts playing a tune that I immediately recognize.
That's Carrie's dad's song.
This is when hell breaks loose. Julie and I try to explain to the boys that we know this song.
"It's pure Sunset Curve. I've never heard of a Trevor Wilson." Reggie says.
They accuse us of mixing up songs, which is a big insult to a musician. I finally just pull up a picture of Trevor on Julie's laptop.
"His first albums were really good. But his latest kinda suck." I explain turning the laptop to face the boys. The color drains form all of there faces.
"That's Bobby." Luke says.
Bobby. There rhythm guitarist. Reggie had mentioned him a few times, and asked if I know him. I told him no, even after he showed me a familiar picture.
Holy crap.
Trevor=Bobby.
He stole there music!?