𝚝𝚠𝚘
𝚜𝚞𝚗𝚜𝚎𝚝 𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎
'𝚖𝚎𝚑, 𝚜𝚠𝚎𝚛𝚟𝚎 𝚑𝚊𝚜 𝚊 𝚗𝚒𝚌𝚎𝚛 𝚛𝚒𝚗𝚐 𝚝𝚘 𝚒𝚝'
As it turned out, Ashton had been right about the street dogs, they were the things that had caused them to begin coughing violently and throwing up. When the four band members floated out of the rescue ambulance that had been called for the teenagers, they all looked around the place their souls had taken them. It was black, just a huge room of nothing for them to stay. Ashton looked over at the boys who were equally as confused.
"I swear." She scoffed, marching up to Luke with her arms crossed against her chest. "How many times?!"
"Here we go." He sighed as she approached them.
"How many times did I tell you that street dogs weren't a good idea! I told you each and every time you boys wanted to eat those... things!" She cringed. "I always told you no. no, Luke you cant. But you couldn't stop yourself, could you? You couldn't have got a burger from a licensed food truck on the strip? You just had to get the street dogs. Of course you did. I can't believe it. The one time I trusted you to share those poisonous hot dogs, they kill us! That's it! We're dead!"
"You done?" Luke looked her up and down, waiting for her to finish her rant.
She shook her head and stepped closer, "You know what? No, I'm not done. This was our chance, Luke. We were playing the Orpheum! It took us years to get that gig, Luke! And then you guys made me eat that street dog and I died!"
"Now?" He asked, moving back to give her space. Ashton and Luke were the two that were provoked easily. The band could only deal with one of them angry at a time, and Luke decided that Ashton had every right to be unhappy with him. She exhaled and nodded. "Right, I'm sorry that we're dead now, but it was gonna happen eventually, whether or not it was my fault is debatable. So we cant do anything now, we've just gotta live like this."
"We cant live anymore!" Ashton spun around. "You killed us all!"
"Fine, then we've gotta... after live like this!" He shot back. "Go talk to Alex or something." Ashton took his advice and walked over to the boy in the pink shirt, who was hugging his knees in a dark corner sobbing. She knelt down beside him, and placed a hand on his knee to make her presence known to him.
"You good?" She asked as he looked up from him. Judging from the redness of his face and the deep, unrhythmic intakes of air, Alex was not good. "Oh come here." She pulled him into her chest, hugging him tightly. Being two years older than the boys meant she was always the one who was cried on – the mother of the band. Ashton didn't mind it, she found comfort in the responsibility of the band's happiness. It also meant that she had nobody to cry to, they always expected her to deal with her own emotions, apart from Luke, he always understood her since he moved into the Brooks' garage out back.
𝙵𝚕𝚊𝚜𝚑𝚋𝚊𝚌𝚔 𝙽𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗-𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚢-𝚝𝚠𝚘, 𝟷𝚊𝚖.
It was late at night, technically the morning, when the doorbell sounded throughout the large house Ashton and her parents lived in. The oldest sibling was first to the door, not wanting to disturb her parents. She opened the door and saw that it was raining outside, and there stood her guitarist, looking up at her with tear-stained eyes.
"Can I come in?" He pleaded her, and she nodded silently. As he walked past, she noticed that he had a loaded backpack strapped to his back. She shut the door behind him and rushed him to the kitchen where she put the kettle on.
She looked at the boy leant against the counter and saw how broken he was, "What are you doing here so late?" She reached up to pick out two cups at random to make hot cocoa, the boy's favourite. "Another argument?"
"Yeah." He nodded weakly as he looked down in shame. "About the band."
"I'm sorry, Luke. What was it this time?" She questioned, knowing about the previous arguments with his parents, mainly his mom.
As Ashton placed the cocoa mix in exact proportions, Luke explained the situation, "They wanted me to quit. No more playing. I couldn't do it, Ash. We've worked too hard for me to just bail."
"You can stay for the night. There's room on the couch for you." She offered with a smile as she poured the water into the mugs. "And then I can walk you back home tomorrow, if you'd like."
"I don't want to go back." He shook his head defiantly. "I was thinking I could stay here for a couple weeks."
"And where would you go after that? You cant expect me to let you live on the streets forever." She handed him one of the drinks, making sure he got the one with extra cinnamon.
"Well, I thought I would go to Alex's house, stay at his for so long before I ask Reggie and the-"
"No, no way." Ashton shook her head firmly. "You cant couch surf, Luke. It's not fair on the others. For now, just get to bed, and I'll see you in the morning. I'll ask mom and dad if you can move in."
Luke's eyes went wide as he choked on his hot cocoa, "You'd do that?"
"You're important to me." She smiled and took her mug upstairs to finish her drink and sleep.
𝙽𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚎𝚎𝚗-𝚗𝚒𝚗𝚎𝚝𝚢-𝚏𝚒𝚟𝚎 - 𝚙𝚛𝚎𝚜𝚎𝚗𝚝 𝚍𝚊𝚢
Ashton smiled as she thought back to the fond memory that she treasured. She was soon taken out of her thought, and focused more on her friend. She rubbed small circles on Alex's back comfortingly as he sobbed into her 'Green Day' shirt she picked up from a concert she went to a few years ago.
"Hey, listen." She pulled away from him, but still held his shoulders firmly. "We're going to be fine. I was pretty dramatic with Luke, but I've got this under control, okay?"
"Yeah." He nodded slightly. "It's just... I didn't get a warning, or any notice. I didn't get the chance to say goodbye to anyone. At all. Not my mom, my friends."
"I know." She sighed as she looked down. "Yeah, it's gonna suck, but we kinda have to suck it up. It's our own faults for eating them stupid hot dogs." She chuckled lightly, trying to lift the mood. "You're gonna be okay."
"Promise?" He held his fifth finger out for her to hold onto.
"Promise." She nodded, shaking their pinkies in an unbreakable vow. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm gonna check on Reggie." She stood up from the floor, and made her way over to the boy in his leather jacket, and sat beside him.
"How are you?" Reggie asked quietly as she leant her head on his shoulder.
"I'm good, I guess. Just miss Bobby." She sighed. "I cant believe myself. I had one job to keep him safe, and I manage to die and leave him to play the Orpheum alone. I hope he's okay."
"He will be." Her best friend assured her. "I'm sure he's playing right now."
"I hope so. He deserves to play there. It was his dream." She smiled softly. "It was all of our dreams."
"Yeah, too bad we died." Reggie chuckled. "If only we listened to you."
She lifted her head and looked up at the boy, "Are you insinuating that I was right for once?"
"Just this once." He nodded with a few girlish giggles. "But not ever again."
"Sure, Reg." She ruffled his hair and then he began complaining about his gel going in his face. He got up and tried to comfort Alex, but the taller boy refused, shaking his head. Reggie was left to sit alone a few meters away, playing with the hem of his red flannel. Ashton felt an arm go around her shoulder, and she looked to her right and saw that Luke had replaced Reggie and was using her as a source of comfort.
"I'm sorry." She mumbled quietly.
Luke looked up with a grin and teased her, "What was that, Ash?"
"Nothing." She lied. That was another thing she hated. Apologising. It was never her strong suit being as serious as most people, so when she got into an argument she usually just instantly forgave them without an official apology.
"No, I definitely heard something." He chuckled.
"You didn't."
"I did."
"Did not."
"I'm pretty sure I did." Luke nodded. "Was it a 'sorry'?"
"Maybe. I dunno." She shrugged. "I didn't have any reason to shout at you and make you take the blame."
"Yeah, I mean if you're gonna blame anyone, it should be Alex. It was his hot dog you ate anyway." He joked. "But I knew you needed to shout so... I let you."
She smiled, "Thanks."
"So we're really dead." Luke stated. "Huh."
"I guess so." Ashton stared onwards.
"What do we do now?" He asked her, thinking that she would know. That's what he normally did, they all did. All the boys went to the girl with any questions or queries they had.
"How the hell do we get out of here?" She answered with another question, not wanting to tell him that she had no clue of what to do next. It was very rare occasion that Ashton didn't have an answer, but that moment was one of them.
The band's heads lifted when they heard their song playing. 'Now or Never' began playing through the black room, making them all the tiniest bit happier.
Take off
Last stop
"What do you think that is?" Alex asked.
Ashton shrugged, "Maybe Bobby's playing the Orpheum with a recording of us."
"Maybe." Reggie nodded in agreement.
Countdown till we blast open the top!
The floor suddenly disappeared from beneath them, and the four bandmates began to fall down gradually, taking their time screaming. Luke screamed the most, a high-pitched note left his throat as he grabbed onto the girl beside him for security. The other boys screamed too, but not as loud. Alex mainly cried his way down, thinking of the worst scenario that could play after they hit the ground. Ashton squealed a bit, but was used to the sensation of falling after all the trips to fairs she had been on with Bobby when they were younger.
Face first, full charge
The group finally hit the ground aggressively. Due to Ashton's immaculate luck, she landed straight on top of Reggie, making him groan once more at the impact. Luke had hit the ground in the middle, Alex on the other side of him. The group groaned as they hit the wooden floorboards of the familiar room.
"Whoa!" Luke managed to say as he gasped for air "How did we get back here?"
"The... studio?" Ashton stated as she took a look around the blue walls of her old garage. Reggie coughed as she helped him up. All four of them turned around at the same time, to see a young girl, about a year or two younger than the boys. Her black curly hair framed her face as she stood in front of them all. She took one look at the band, then looked back at what Ashton recognised as the band's demo CD.
The girl started screaming loudly, which only provoked the four in front of her to join in. The members of Sunset Curve screamed back and grabbed onto each other desperately. It was mostly Alex and Reggie clinging onto Ashton, forcing her to hold onto them in return.
The young girl ran outside, leaving the doors wide open as she screamed for her dad.
"Well, that was weird." Reggie smiled in his bubbly way.
Ashton just scoffed, "Didn't even close the doors."
"Shouldn't we be backstage right now?" Alex asked as he searched around the garage. "Not in the studio."
"Well, tough luck. Looks like we're here and it's obviously for a reason too." Ashton shrugged as she took a seat on the couch which Luke adored much.
A few minutes later, the girl came back into the garage, this time equipped with a cross which she held tightly for safety.
"Are you still here? ...whatever you are?" She questioned as she paced cautiously around the room. "I know I saw something. I'm not crazy."
"Well, we're all a little crazy." Luke transported the band to behind the girl, starling her. She began screaming again, causing the four ghosts to cover their ears.
"Oh my God! Please stop screaming!" Alex shouted at her over the noise. The girl thought it was better to compromise with him, and shut her mouth almost immediately.
She took a shaky breath in before asking, "Who are you, and what are you doing in my mom's studio?"
"Your mom's studio?" Ashton laughed as her and Luke stepped forward. "This is our studio." The girl held the cross closer to them in an attempt to scare them off. Ashton held her hands up in defence and moved back to the group.
Reggie placed his arm around her shoulder and whispered, "She seems fun."
"Trust me," Luke said, as the girl thrusted the cross towards him in a threatening demeanour. He swiftly scrambled onto the piano that sat at the side of the room, "the grand piano is new."
"Literally got it a week ago." Ashton confirmed, turning her head away from Reggie for the slightest second before getting distracted by the shiny studs on the boy's leather jacket again.
"Yeah, and... and... and ... My couch!" Luke giggled as jumped onto the couch and sighed happily at the feeling of home.
Ashton made her way over to Luke, and joined him on the couch, before they both looked up at a guitar that leant against the wall beside them. "That is definitely not my six-string." Luke frowned as he looked at Ashton.
"Not mine." She shrugged.
"Can you give me just one second?" Luke asked the girl, picking Ashton up swiftly by her waist and he carried her to the other boys as she giggled childishly. "Just... give me a second. Thank you."
"Won't be long." Ashton smiled at the girl once Luke put her down. The two of them huddled into their band circle, like they would before performances when they were alive still.
"How did she get her stuff in here so fast?" Luke asked the group.
"Maybe... maybe she's a witch." Reggie suggested, pointing at the roof of the garage. "There's chairs floating on the ceiling." Ashton followed his finger, and saw exactly what he said, there were indeed wooden chairs hanging down from the ceiling.
Ashton nodded in agreement, "Wait, that's a good point."
"OK, there is no such thing as witches." Alex gave them both a reality check.
"You sure? I used to think there was no such thing as ghosts." Reggie fired back.
"I'm just tryna explore all out options here." Ashton told Alex as she sided with the boy in the flannel.
Alex turned his head and whispered, "That's fair."
"OK, so we're going with witch?" Luke gestures to Reggie and Ashton.
Alex was quick to intervene, "No! We are not going with witch. She's not a witch."
Ashton shrugged as she looked back up at the chairs, "You never know."
"OK, look. She's just scared. OK? Let someone with a softer touch handle this." Alex held a hand to his chest and made his way over to the terrified girl slowly before he leant in and asked, "Why are you in our studio?"
"Softer touch." Ashton scoffed. "Who is he fooling?"
The girl pushed the cross through Alex's chest, where his heart should be, but it just went straight through.
"Oh my gosh! How did you do that?" She gasped.
"Clearly, you're not understanding... She doesn't get it." Alex sighed before explaining their situation, "OK, look. We're ghosts, all right? We're just four ghosts, and we're really happy to be home. So, thank you for the flowers.
They really brighten up the place."
"And the chairs." Ashton giggled as she pointed to the ceiling.
"We're in a band called Sunset Curve." Luke stepped forward to the girl.
"Tell your friends." Reggie and Ashton chimed in on cue, laughing afterwards like they always did.
Luke sighed, "Last night was supposed to be a really big night for us. It was gonna change our lives."
"I'm, uh... I'm pretty sure it did." Alex leant in.
"Yeah, we died." Ashton agreed.
"This is freaking me out." The girl pulled out a small brick with a light up screen and began tapping on it frantically before holding the cross back up.
"What is that? What are you doing?" Luke asked calmly, pointing to the device.
"It's my phone." She answered, before snapping out of it. "No! Stop talking to them. They aren't real. There's no such thing as cute ghosts." She told herself.
Reggie grinned at the compliment, "Oh, think we're cute?" the girl looked up and sent him daggers, making him shut up fairly quickly.
Ashton flicked her hair back and smirked, "She's obviously talking about me."
"Who you calling?" Alex leant over and asked her.
"I dunno, Alex, the police perhaps?" Ashton suggested as she pulled him back by the back of his pink hoodie.
The girl looked back at him and obliged, "I'm Googling Sunset Swerve."
"Sunset Curve!" The guys were eager to correct her.
Whereas Ashton didn't mind as much, "Meh, Swerve has a nicer ring to it." She shrugged before Luke glared at her.
"Whoa. There is a Sunset Curve." The girl took a shaky breath in as Ashton nodded; glad her point was proven true. "You did die. But not last night... Twenty-five years ago?"
"What? No. No, no, no. Th-Th-That's impossible." Reggie shook his head in denial.
Luke agreed, "Yeah, after we floated out of the ambulance, all we did was go to that weird, dark room where Ash shouted at me."
"And Alex cried." Reggie added.
And with a high-pitched voice, the boy turned around to defend himself, "Well... I don't think... I think we were all pretty upset. OK."
"And I only shouted at Luke for a couple minutes." Ashton chimed.
"But that was just for like an hour." Luke said. "We just showed up here."
"Look." The girl passed them the phone, and they saw the bright screen with their faces on, and date of death. "I'm just telling you what my phone says. See? You died in 1995."
"Correct." Ashton nodded.
"When you were 17."
"Another fact."
"It's now 2020."
"Lie." Ashton frowned.
"N-No, that's not a lie. It is 2020, look." The girl pulled up the date on her phone, and the band saw that it was indeed 2020.
"So, this is the future?" Reggie gasped in awe.
"I hope it hasn't changed much." Ashton sighed.
"Wait. So So, it has been 25 years." Alex stepped forwards. "I have been crying for 25 years? How is that possible?"
"Well, you're a very emotional person." Reggie answered without hesitation.
The boy shook his head at him, "I am not!"
"Just a little bit." Ashton told him, patting his back as he shook his head. A small boy came into the garage, about the age of twelve, Ashton guessed. He folded his arms and walked to the girl.
"Thought you were afraid to come out here." He says. "You talking to your ghost friend? How does he look? Is he hideous?"
"He can see you." Alex chuckled as he looked as Reggie, who was quick to take offense.
"No, he can't." The girl looked up at them.
"Play nice, Alex." Ashton said sternly.
"What?" The young boy questioned, clearly confused as to who she was talking to.
The girl was quick to think, "Uh... What do you want?
"A normal sister, for starters." He scoffed. "Stop being weird and come eat." And he left the garage as quickly as he came.
"He couldn't see you." The girl stated once he was out of ear shot.
"Yeah. I mean, that's... usually how ghosts work." Alex nodded slowly.
"She's really not good at this, is she?" Ashton muttered to Luke, and Reggie responded with a satisfied hum.
The girl only sighed, "Look, I'm very sorry for what happened to you guys, but this isn't your studio anymore. You have to leave."
"But wait." Luke followed her out for a second. "We... We didn't get your name."
"It's Julie." She answered.
He chuckled, "Cool. I-I'm Luke," The girl held the cross up again, preventing him from going any further. "By... by the way."
"Ashton."
"Reggie. I'm Reggie." The boy grinned in his bubbly ways.
"Alex. How's it going?"
"Ba-da." Luke sang softly as he gestured to the group.
"OK?" Julie trailed off as her footsteps became quieter, indicating her leave.
"Julie seems nice." Reggie smiled to his three bandmates.
Alex groaned at his slowness, "Did you miss the part where she kicked us out, or..." It was no secret that Reggie wasn't the brightest of the band, but it managed to add fun and liven them up all the time.
He sighed, "Yeah."
"I'm sorry." Ashton approached Luke, knowing he deserved an apology. "For, you know... shouting at you for twenty five years." All the boy could do was chuckle at her, the way she looked down at her sneakers in her shy pretence.