"You hide your torment behind a beautiful smile, but if you only knew, your heartache throbs in my chest. Your tears swell in my eyes and your scars burn into my soul."
~☠️~🌹~☠️~
The boys were standing at the beach staring at what use to be Reggie's home. "A bike shack right where my house used to be." He sighed. "Right here."
"Yeah, I'm sorry man." Luke patted his friend on the chest.
"They made the Meyersons' house into a noddle shop. Why couldn't they have made mine a pizzeria or something?"
"They tore down the whole neighborhood." Alex gestured towards the empty, but crowded area that no longer held the building they grew up knowing.
"I guess my folks are gone."
"No, everyone's gone." Alex gained a confused look from Reggie, not fully understanding what his blonde friend was insulating. "Twenty-five years, gone. Friends, family, Bobby, Em, everyone."
Luke could feel his dead heart crack at the mention of his sister, as his mind flashed back to the one day he regrets the most. Remembering the shouting and broken promises he made to her before ultimately doing the one thing he always said he would never do to her, his little dahlia, when she was only a few minutes old.
"I guess that vegetarian lucked out." Reggie's mindless conversation was what Luke was brought back to after making a note to visit his old house to see maybe he could catch a glimpse of his little sister. "What do you think happened to him?"
"He probably just got old like everybody else and moved on." Luke felt himself say angrily back towards his friends.
Earning a glare from his blonde friend. "Dude, how are you so casual about all of this? Don't you wanna figure out what happened?"
"Let's be real for a second." He said angrily back, not liking his tone, knowing full well he wasn't calm. "It's not like we were that close to our families. My folks always regretted buying me that guitar."
Alex and Reggie knew not bring up the one thing they all knew that was on their minds, as they briefly stood they're in silence thinking about the little brunette that they all missed. Luke let out a cough. "Reggie, your parents were literally a fight away from a divorce. Alex, I..." He hesitated, not knowing what to fully say. "Alex, your parents were never cool again after you told them you were gay."
"Ok, none of us had it great. All right, but at least we had something, you know what do we have now? And before you say cool teleportation skills, just know that I'm not entirely ok with that either." Alex shouted, looking more at Luke, before whispering/speaking to Reggie. "All right? It tingles. In weird places."
Luke honestly had no idea what to say for a minute, as he slightly agreed with Alex's statement, but just a little graze over the bracelet was what made the fog of confusion clear from his mind as he jumped up to stand.
"I'll tell you what we had." He said gaining his friends attention. "It's what we've had since the day we came together. Boys, we have us. We're the only family we're ever gonna need. You know what else we have?"
"I'm gonna guess death breath." Reggie shrugged not understanding what Luke was trying to encourage.
With a roll of his eyes, he gestured towards the raven haired boy letting our a little chuckle. "Our music, you dork. We have our music, you guys. People, actual people, can hear us play! They can't see us, fine, but they can feel us."
Not seeing the looks that he was hoping for, Luke began to feel his hope start to sink, before letting out a sigh. "If I had my guitar, I'd play for all these people right now. Just like what we used to do down at the pier."
"Yeah, they can't tip what they can't see." Alex said, causing Luke to feel like he was about to pull his hair out. "It's not about the tips, Alex. It's about playing music, connecting with people and making a difference in their day."
Frustrated with the doom, Luke backed away from the two. "I just....I just wish I had my guitar." Luke could all of a sudden feel a pulse rush through his arms, especially near the bracelet before it went away as a guitar sat comfortably in his hands.
"Whoa!" Reggie said in shock before pointing his hand at Luke. "That was rad, how'd you do that?"
"I don't know." He said slightly afraid, staring at the wood instrument. "I-I-I mean, I wished for it, and then it came in my hands..."
Before Luke could finish his explanation, Reggie was slightly squatting with his eyes closed and his hands open awaiting for something. "I-I-I wish I had a puppy." Sadly nothing happened, which Reggie saw.
"A hamster?"
Nothing, happened once again earning a eye roll and an ok from Alex as the two other band members watched their friend.
"Pizza?"
When nothing appeared in the boys hands, he let out a groan kicking the sand before sitting down on the ground with a grim look on his face.
"Hey, I think I know something that'll cheer you up." Luke smiled, gaining a look from Reggie, before strumming his guitar with an upbeat tune, watching as Alex slowly walked over to him giving him a gesture to help him encourage their friend.
With a little sigh, Alex turned to Reggie. "Come on, Reginald." Before joining along with a beat by slapping his chest and thighs, him and Luke smiling at each other before they started an all to familiar song they made years ago.
(Luke, Reggie, Alex)
A one, two, three, four
Can you?
Can you hear me?
Yep, loud and clear!
We gotta get
Gotta get ready
'Cause it's been years!
Woah, oh, oh, oh
This band is back
Reggie sang happily as the three jumped around the beach, watching as the people either danced around on the sand, water or even their seats to their music.
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
This band is back
Woohoo, ooh, ooh
Woohoo, ooh, ooh
Woohoo, ooh, ooh
Can you
Yes, we can
Can you hear me?
Loud and clear
We gotta get, wanna get
We gotta get ready
A guy just happened to be walking by with a surf board in his hand, when Reggie sand over top of him, earning a very confused man not knowing where the singing is coming from or why it sounded so close to him.
'Cause it's been years
Hey
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
This band is back
Whoa, oh, oh, oh
This band is back...
"You won't find the speaker. It's direct spot audio." The band told the female as the boys happily sang around them. "I heard about it in a TED talk."
Woohoo, ooh, ooh
Whoo-ooh...
The boys started to happily dance away when the song began to come at an end, when Luke strummed his last note before throwing the guitar over his shoulder letting it rest there for a moment. "See what I mean, Reggie? Music will always come through for us."
"Ok, you might be right on that." Reggie smiled, running his hand through his hair. "I honestly forgot about that song, till you started playing it, but why did we make it again?"
Alex and Luke could feel a smile grow on their faces. "It was during the summer, before we started high school, remember." Alex said, already feeling a laugh wanting to escape his mouth, from the memory.
"We all fought over what we should do for our last day of freedom before, as we like to call it, going to prison, again for a whole year. It got so bad that all of us went towards separate part of the garage and were glaring at the walls." Luke smiled, as he remembered how angry he was that they all wanted to do other things.
Reggie's eyes began to glow, as his memory started to work for him. "Oh, yeah I remember. I suggested we watch Star Wars and just chill in the garage, Alex wanted to be prepared for school, Bobby wanted to head towards the mall to find a girl while Luke wanted to come play and hang out at the beach."
The three guys just smiled, but it was quickly lost when Reggie began to talk once again. "It was good that E came out and straightened us out, other wise we would have never created the song in the first place." He began to laugh, only to see that he was only one as Luke looked down towards the ground and Alex rubbed the back of his neck. "Sorry, guys I shouldn't have brought her up."
"No, it's ok Reg." Luke shook his head, before grabbing his friends shoulder. "You're right, Emmy was the only person to actually help make us great and will never forget that, ok."
When he got a nod from his friends, Luke cleared his throat before stepping away. "We should probably head back to the garage." Not allowing them to answer, he was once again gone, the other two ghost following him a second after.
~☠️~🌹~☠️~
After all the drama Julie had experienced during the school she could honestly say, her room sounded so comforting right now after setting her book bag down and heading upstairs towards her room. What she wasn't expecting as she opened her door to her purple room, was three ghost doing things in her room.
"What are you doing in my room?" She yelled, gaining the guys attention not noticing her arrival as they tried to come up with a reasonable excuse.
"We were looking for the kitchen?" Luke questioned, earning looks from the three, which he only gave a shrug to not knowing why that was the first thing he could come up with to her question.
Julie just sighed, before pointing at the three. "This...This can't happened, it's creepy. Get off my bed, please." She said gesturing to the boy who was originally tryin to make snow angels on her sheets.
Luke started to raise his hand. "Hey, Julie." He asked before pointing towards the beautifully decorated box. "What's in the box?"
"That's off-limits." Responding quickly hoping that would end the conversation, but instead encouraged the boy to chuckle. "Oh. Oh, ok. Girl stuff."
"Oh, like butterflies and glitter?" Reggie asked, not understanding what Luke was trying to insight.
Alex, just rolled his eyes from second hand embarrassment from his two idiot friends. "Oh, come on. I'm sorry about them."
"It's none of your business." Julie said frankly before looking at the Raven hard boys with a sad puppy dog look. "And yes, there might be some glitter."
Reggie just smiled in victory, before their attention was drawn to Alex who slowly carried the picture frame over to Julie's bed before dropping it.
Luke, now getting a better look, saw a man with what looked to be a younger version of Julie in his lap as the two sat behind the piano. You could see the love and happiness the two carried for each other as the man started at his child, while she gazed at the piano.
"Is that your dad?" He felt himself asked, still not looking away from the photo, until Julie hardly yanked away from their prying eyes. "Yes, and it's my favorite picture of us. So if you break it, I'll break you."
"Ok, well, sorry because we're kind of unbreakable at this point." Alex said back sarcastically, only getting a fake smile from the girl as she set the picture frame back down.
Julie just rolled her eyes. "I don't get it. You guys can mess up my bed, pick up your instruments, but you can't pick up other stuff?"
"I know, right? It's hard." Luke felt himself say to Julie. "But for some reason, our instruments, easy."
"Yeah, like super easy." Reggie smiled, already excited to show Julie what they learned earlier today. "Oh, and check out what I learned today." His hands were out and ready to catch his instrument as he stood up, only to let out a groan when it didn't go to plan.
Julie could feel her eyes bulge, before responding to this incident sarcastically. "Yeah, that looked super easy."
Luke just ignoring his still groaning band mate, continued to speak to the girl. "It's like I always thought, our instruments are attached to our souls." His lips curling up into a smile.
Before either could say anything, a knock resonated through the room. "Hey." Emily called out to her daughter, not seeing the three ghost who were still a little frightened from the surprise entrance.
"Everything ok?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Julie gulped trying to not sound too suspicious to her mom.
Emily, just stared at her daughter for a moment, briefly glancing around trying to see if her daughter friend was here. "Ok, I thought I heard you talking to someone."
"Nope." Julie hesitantly stated. "Must've been my laptop..." Quickly realizing that her lie wasn't going to work. "That I just closed."
Not longer wanting to question her daughters weirdness, Emily just nodded her head. "Ok. If you need anything..." Just before she left, Emily signaled to the door, earning a nod from her daughter.
Reggie just smiled after the woman left. "Your mom seems like the kind of woman who likes to bake. I bet she has a great muffin recipe."
"I don't know, but if you guys wanna talk to me, we have to do it in the studio. She's worried about me enough as it is." Luke could tell the girl was frightened of how her mother would react to them, but he also knew the girl was kind of exaggerating a little bit.
"She seems chill, you should just tell her about us." He said, but immediately regretted it a little bit as the girl glared at him.
"You're kidding, right? This past year, everyone's been watching over me, being super nice, as if they're waiting for me to snap." Julie, could already see the concern looks that she was getting from the three other ghost. "If I tell my mom I met a ghost band, I'll be back to talking to Dr. Turner three days a week."
Luke just let out a tongue click. "You probably shouldn't tell her." Only to immediately start going towards the one thing that he knew would bug the girl. "Julie..."
Seeing what he was insinuating, she let out a sigh. "Oh my gosh! I told you to leave that alone!"
"I know, but you just shouldn't have said nothing, 'cause now I can't stop thinking about it, so... what's in the box, Julie?"
"It's just my dream box, ok?" When she saw that he wasn't accepting that answer, she let out a sigh. "Whenever I get a thought, I write it down and get it out of my mind."
"Like lyrics?"
All she did was give him once again and eye roll. "They would be if I still wrote music like I used to with my dad. Now it's just full of stuff that doesn't make me sad."
"But, I mean, you do play we heard you this morning." Alex said happily, not realizing his mistake till it was too late when her glare got more scarier.
"In the garage?" Luke quickly walked over to his friend and didn't think twice about slapping in the shoulder, earning a yelp from the blonde as he rubbed the sore spot. "So you were these too?"
All three of the guys tried to think up the right thing to say, but ended up coming towards a blank, before Luke jumped on the bed and looked at the girl in a friendly way. "So, where is the kitchen, by the way?"
Julie, lowering herself to be more towards his level looked at the boy. "Ok, we need to set some boundaries. For starters, stay out of my room!"
Julie shouted pointing towards the door, which the boys quickly followed seeing the girls look and not wanting to earn any more snaps from her, they left.
So, yeah guess who's finally back? I'm sorry that it took me so long to finally update, but it was nice to worry more about my school work rather than updating my books, no offense to you readers. I just needed a few weeks to myself to sort things out.
One of the reasons why I decided to more than anything update was because my birthday is coming up this week and I want to do Luke's birthday on that day. Fingers crossed I can reach the deadline, in all honesty.
Another reason is because I will also be graduating soon in the next few days and I hope to finish this book before than as well.
Once again thank your all for sticking around and waiting for my updates, I love you all.
-Mech-x4fan