𝚝𝚑𝚛𝚎𝚎
𝚊𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎 𝚊𝚐𝚊𝚒𝚗
'𝙸 𝚔𝚗𝚘𝚠 𝚏𝚘𝚛 𝚊 𝚏𝚊𝚌𝚝 𝙸 𝚑𝚊𝚟𝚎𝚗'𝚝 𝚐𝚘𝚝 𝚛𝚞𝚜𝚝𝚢.'
"Hey, maybe we should go check out your house." Alex suggested to Ash as she stood in the garage. "You know, to see if anything's changed."
She just shrugged, "I dunno, Alex. I don't want to see what twenty-five years has done to it."
"Oh, come on, what's the worst that can happen?" Luke encouraged her. "And it you're really that scared, I'll hold your hand."
"Oh wow thanks." She rolled her eyes sarcastically, but took his offer, and grabbed his hand and latched on quickly. "Come on then."
"Yeah." Luke grinned. "Come on boys." The guys followed as Luke and Ashton walked around the backyard. She looked at her mother's dahlia's which had been salvaged by Julie's family. The purple flowers stood tall in proud in the wooden flower beds. Ashton smiled softly at the fond memory of her and Bobby messing around in the backyard with the boys when they were just twelve years old. She already missed her brother. Sure, it had only been an hour for her, but according to the rest of the world it was twenty-five years since she had seen him.
"Huh." Ashton smiled. "They're still here."
"I did not think Julie would've wanted them here." Luke shuddered. "Ugly things, they were."
"Only because you fell into them face first." She nudged his shoulder with her own, he squeezed her hand quickly before she moved on. The four of them walked into the house, where it appeared Julie and her family were having dinner together.
"Moving from here is only gonna help you move on." A lady said, her hand on Julie's shoulder. "You've got to rip that Band-Aid off and get the pain over with." Reggie tripped over as the band moved through the back door, and it got Julie's attention.
"Argh!" She yelled out of fear, before the family turned to look at her with confused expressions. "That's me. Ripping off the Band-Aid. Aah!" She chuckled awkwardly.
"There's my brave girl." The lady said, her hands now either side of Julie's face as if she were a child.
"Hey, Julie, I really like what you guys did with the place." Luke leant forward and whispered.
Ashton muttered to Alex, "I sure don't.", as her eyes scanned what used to be, and still was, the kitchen. But it wasn't her kitchen. A lot had been changed; it was a lot more modern than it used to be. For instance the table was glossed down, and skinnier. When Ashton was young, the table was merely a slab of wood on legs, nothing too fancy.
"You shouldn't be here." Julie hissed at the bandmates.
"Oh, I'm just here to help, mija." The woman apologised, making Julie's head turn around again to face her.
Alex whispered, "Oh... I think that's our cue to leave."
"I mean, you should be at Pilates." Julie saved herself before her family could ask anything else. "Thanks for bringing us food."
"We should've called first." Reggie pushed his friends out the back door frantically as he tried his hardest not to cause a fuss. When the four ghosts appeared back into the garage, Ash decided to venture into the loft. She climbed up the ladder cautiously, not knowing how rickety each step had got over the past few years. She looked around the cramped space in the top where she and Luke had spent many Fridays watching movies after school.
She took a look at the boxes to her left, and saw familiar black cases along with a stand-out red one covered in stickers. Ash giggled at the sight, remembering the night where she and Reggie made custom stickers and decorated their guitar cases with them. "Guys!" Ashton called out, pulling the case on top, which she saw the initials 'L.P' carved in with some sharp object that the boy found. "I've found stuff!" She heaved the guitar around the loft, eventually made her way down the ladder with it. She panted as she placed it gently on the ground beside her, not wanting to break the contents.
Reggie, on the other hand, didn't have the same concern, "Luke!" He called as he threw the case behind him, hoping that Luke would catch it. Luckily, he did and he grinned at his instrument case.
"Oh that's rad! My guitar!"
"What did you find? Anything cool?" Alex asked, inspecting the case.
"All our stuff is up there still!" Ash exclaimed as she and Luke climbed back up the ladder to get the rest. "Help me get it all down." She pulled the cases down carefully, and passed them down to Luke gently, who handed them to Alex. Reggie stood at the end of the line, yawning as he did practically nothing.
"The least you could do is help." Luke complained at him.
Reggie shot back, "Hey, this is hard work watching you all struggle!"
"Just leave him." Ash rolled her eyes and continues passing instruments down.
Once they had everything down, they came to the floor of the garage where there was a sheet covering a suspiciously large object. Alex and Ashton grinned at each other and pulled the sheet away swiftly, and underneath sat Alex's drum kit, sticks and all. The foot drum at the bottom still had the 'Sunset Curve' logo on from the last time they were played. The guys began to tune their instruments, whilst Ashton pulled her case over to the couch and opened it eagerly. Inside, sat her white electric in all its glory. In the top of the case, were framed polaroid pictures she had took when she was alive. Ashton smiled as she inspected each and every one, most of them consisted of her and Luke, but some photographs were taken by Ash's mom of her and the whole band - including Bobby. There were a few of her, Reggie and Alex, which were mostly them messing around, but a couple nice ones were stuck up.
"You ready?" Luke approached her and sat beside her. He took a look at the photos and grinned. "Hey, that's me."
"Yeah, a couple years back." Ash chuckled. "Remember that?"
"I can't forget, I almost died that day." He laughed. The photo they were looking at was Ashton driving Luke around in the new car her mom and dad bought for her birthday.
"I wasn't that bad!" She shook her head. "And what are you all getting ready for?"
"To play again!" Luke exclaimed with excitement. "We're gonna test out our music and play a song or two. See if we've got rusty or not. You coming?"
"Well, I don't know about you, but I know for a fact I haven't got rusty." She smirked and took her guitar out and joined the rest of the band, standing on the left where Bobby would normally join her. As the music picked up, Ashton started to nod her head along, and she sang along with Luke as her partner instead of her usual one - Reggie. When the instrumental came in, she jumped up and down in time as Alex drummed.
"This is so cool!" Ash exclaimed, before running a riff on her guitar and she joined back in the chorus. Before the chorus could finish, Julie barged into the garage and pulled the plugs on all the instruments, which left Alex's drums still playing. Reggie nudged him in the arm gently before he stopped his rhythm and looked up innocently. Julie stomped her feet, which she wore dinosaur slippers on, and crossed her arm angrily.
"The whole neighbourhood could hear you!" Julie hissed at them.
"Sorry." Ashton mumbled, before adding, "But, we were kinda good."
"Kinda?" Luke scoffed. "Dude, we sounded rad!"
"Well you weren't 'rad' when the entire block could hear you!" Julie scolded.
"Wait. People can hear us play?" Luke asked her, all three boys stepping closer to her.
"Yes! And so, did my dad and my brother!"
"W-W-Wait. Wait." Alex stopped her as he stood up from his drums. "So, only you can see us, but everyone can hear us? I mean, what kind of ghosts are we?"
"Who cares, man? People can hear us play!" Luke said, fist bumping Reggie, then Alex.
Reggie grinned, "We might be dead, but our music isn't.", he held his fist out to Ashton, and she hits it swiftly, as Luke placed an arm around her shoulder.
"Dad!" Julie greeted her father, who walked in the garage. "Hey."
"Just making sure you were OK." He grinned.
"Yeah, I'm fine." Julie nodded. "I just forgot to turn off the CD player." She pointed to the player in the corner.
"Wait. Is this the junk that was in the loft?" her dad asked, gesturing to the instruments.
"Junk?" Luke scoffed and followed Julie's dad around the drums, as did the other two boys.
Ashton looked the man up and down, "I think you mean 'the paint brushes of music'."
"Some of this stuff's in pretty good shape." He said as he inspected the drums. He hit the cymbals heavily with his hands, and Alex stood behind him having a breakdown about it, he ran his hands through his hair and tried to intervene. "Hey, maybe we can make a couple bucks." He played a very bad rhythm on the drums themselves, which made Alex only panic more.
"What?" Luke exclaimed.
"No way. You sell my six string, I end you." Ashton threatened.
"Yo, stop touching my drums." Alex begged. "Tell him to stop touching my drums."
"I liked that song you had on." Julie's dad complimented their music taste, and all four ghosts perked up.
"Sweet! We're Sunset Curve." Alex said confidently.
"Tell your friends." Ashton and Reggie added, and they had to do the wink every time they did it.
"It's just an old CD I found." Julie shrugged, and all ghosts turned their heads..
"Old CD?!" Ashton scoffed. "Speak for yourself, I thought we sounded great." The other boys nodded in agreement, defending their band honour.
"Well, still, it's nice that you're listening to music again. Out here you can play whatever you want, whenever you want." He threw his arms out, and Julie's eyes widened as they went straight through both Reggie's and Luke's stomachs.
"That's nice." Reggie giggled, touching his own stomach.
"Stay out of this." Julie said through gritted teeth.
"I-I'm sorry, honey. I didn't-"
"Oh no, no, no, no. Not you. I mean... Uh... Err" Julie ran out of stalling time.
"You know, I'm really tired. And now the CD's off, I think I might settle down." I save her, laying down on my couch and getting comfortable.
"He likes our song." Luke said excitedly, could you blame him, he hadn't played for twenty-five years.
"He doesn't count." Alex broke the mood. "He's a dad." Reggie nodded in agreement.
"Why can't you guys just be normal ghosts?" Julie asked, which got the attention of both the ghosts. "Hang out at an old mansion. I hear Pasadena's nice. Ugh!" She huffed and stormed out the garage, shutting the door lightly.
"I think she's warming up to us." Alex said with a sarcastic smile.
"Yeah, I've always wanted to go to Pasadena." Reggie chimed in happily, and Alex hummed in a satisfactory tone. Luke ignored the conversation, and did what they now called 'poofing' and poofed himself out of the garage. The remaining three shared a look of confusion before following him out.
"Clearly, your mom is into music." Luke was telling Julie outside.
"Was." Julie corrected. "She passed away."
"I am... so sorry." Luke told her.
"Yeah, we... we didn't know." Alex sighed.
Julie asked, "You guys haven't seen her anywhere, have you? From wherever you're from."
"Um... No. No, I mean, you're kind of the first person we've seen." Alex answered.
"Yeah, but she's not dead, so it doesn't answer her question." Reggie told him.
"Yeah. I think she knows what we mean." Alex said, while Ashton hit the back of Reggie's head gently. "I'm sorry for your loss."
"Thanks. Sorry I got mad." Julie exhaled. "You guys are kinda good."
"Kinda?" Luke repeated.
Ashton muttered to Alex, "Rude."
"Y-Y-You know that's like 25 years of rust just getting dusted off." Luke told her excitedly.
"We all felt alive again." Ashton added.
"Yeah. Do you play the piano too?" Reggie asked, gesturing to the garage, where the piano was set up. Originally, the five band members bought it for the studio by saving up all their birthday money and any extra wages from weekend jobs.
"No. No, I don't play." Julie lied through her teeth, but nobody could tell. "That was my mom's stuff in there."
"No way. She's an amazing songwriter." Luke exclaimed.
"She was." Julie nodded. "Wait. How would you know?"
"There's a song on the piano."
Ashton added quickly, "Yeah, a really good one too."
"If it's hers..." Luke continued. "Your mom was really talented."
"I guess... if you need a place to stay, you can stay in there." Julie offered. "There's a bathroom in the back and a couch that turns into a bed if you still use any of that stuff."
"Dibs on the shower!" Reggie raised his hand excitedly. "I just really like showers
and sometimes the occasional bath."
"This..." Julie gestured to the group of ghosts. "This is just too weird." And then she made her way into the house, leaving all the band members giggling.
"How do you feel about a field trip?" Ashton smirked.
Luke nodded, "Hey, I know just the place!", before poofing the guys on top of the Orpheum. "Hey, I know being dead isn't our first choice, but, I mean, it sure is easy getting around."
"Easy for you, maybe. I lost my shirt on that one." Reggie complained, gesturing to his naked chest before his plain white t-shirt appeared. "Ooh never mind! There it is."
"OK, so, why'd you bring us here? Just another painful reminder of where we never got to play." Alex chuckled, patting Luke on the back. "Thanks, Luke."
"I mean, boys, the game isn't over yet." Luke told them.
"Not a boy." Ashton raised her hand quietly. It didn't bother her that much, in reality though.
"Honorary." Luke rolled his eyes before continuing his inspirational speech. "I'm telling you; we've been given a second chance. Let's find some music. Let's see how many clubs we can hit before sunrise." As the band poofed down onto the street of Sunset Boulevard and raced off, Alex and Ashton bumped into a man with a tall hat and black cloak on.
"Hey! Watch it." Ashton called to the man. He turned around and tipped his hat as an apology before going on his way again.
"Hey, Alex. You coming?" Luke called back.
"Hurry up, Ash!" Reggie told her, and both of them ran towards the other two, meeting up. Luke placed an arm around Ashton's shoulder and pulling her close.
"Let's go!" She cheered.
After a long night of club searching and dancing with all three of her favourite boys, Ashton and the guys decided to call it a night. They could see the sun rising outside, so thought it would be a good idea to head back into the garage. But as they did, they heard Julie playing the most beautiful song on the piano, and singing along.
𝚆𝚊𝚔𝚎 𝚄𝚙
𝙿𝚎𝚛𝚏𝚘𝚛𝚖𝚎𝚍 𝙱𝚢: 𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚒𝚎 𝙼𝚘𝚕𝚒𝚗𝚊
Here's the one thing I want you to know
You got someplace to go
Life's a test, yes
But you go toe to toe
You don't give up, no, you grow
And you use your pain
Cause it makes you you
Though I wish I could hold you through it
I know it's not the same
You got living to do
And I just want you to do it
So get up, get out, relight that spark
You know the rest by heart
Wake up, wake up, if it's all you do
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost, it's what you'll gain
Raising your voice to the rain
Wake up your dream and make it true
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost
Relight that spark
Time to come out of the dark
Wake up, wake up
Better wake those demons, just look them in the eye
No reason not to try
Life can be a mess, I won't let it cloud my mind
I'll let my fingers fly
And I use the pain 'cause it's part of me
And I'm ready to power through it
Gonna find the strength, find the melody
'Cause you showed me how to do it
Get up, get out, relight that spark
You know the rest by heart
Wake up, wake up, if it's all you do
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost, it's what you'll gain
Raising your voice to the rain
Wake up your dream and make it true
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost
Relight that spark
Time to come out of the dark
Wake up, wake up
So wake that spirit, spirit
I wanna hear it, hear it
No need to fear it, you're not alone
You're gonna find your way home
Wake up, wake up, if it's all you do
Look out, look inside of you
It's not what you lost, it's what you'll gain
Raising your voice to the rain
Wake up your dream and make it true
Look out, look inside of you
When you're feeling lost
Relight that spark
Time to come out of the dark
Wake up, wake up