PURPLE JOLTS
CAROLINE WALKED THROUGH her front door. She kicked off her shoes and placed them on the shoe rack. She sighed after having the long day she had and walked up the stairs to her room.
She closed the door once she was through and took out her hair tie. She was about to unclip her bra when she heard movement on her bed. She looked up with wide eyes to see Luke sitting there.
She screamed and turned around to hide her body from the ghost. "Lee, hunny, you okay?" Her father knocked from the other side of the door.
Lee took a deep breath before smiling and opening the door, "Yeah, I'm fine. Thought I saw a spider, but I got it." Trevor nodded and kissed her on the head before walking back to his room.
She sighed and turned around to see Luke covering his eyes with his hands. "You can look now." She rolled her eyes and turned on her light before sitting next to him and reclining onto her headboard, hugging her pillow. "Hey."
"Hey," he responded barely over a whisper.
"I'm sorry for overstepping," she apologized.
He sat up straighter, "No, I... I just had to leave. That was..."
"You don't have to say anything," Lee shook her head. He doesn't have to explain, she understands.
"Yeah, I do. Uh..." He swallowed thickly as he thought of the right words to say, "I didn't have many regrets in my life except for running out on my parents. Especially my mom, so..." he nodded, "..thank you."
She smiled and looked down at her pillow, "You helped me feel more connected to music than the times I shared with my sister and Julie. Two of the most important people to me, so..." she looked back up at him with a big smile, "I wanted to do the same thing for you."
He moved forward, "That was perfect." One of her arms let go of the pillow as she reached out for his hand, but, it went right through. She furrowed her eyebrows in confusion and tried again. It started to make her both sad and mad that she wasn't able to touch him or feel his warmth.
"Wha... What's happening? Why can't I touch you?" She looked to him as if he knew the answer. Water formed in her eyes and she couldn't stop the few tears she let slip.
Luke had an idea and mumbled to her, "There's something I have to tell you." She waited intently for him to continue, "We figured out that we have unfinished business. That's why we came back as ghosts."
"Oh..." She sniffled and wiped a tear, "What is it?"
He shrugged sadly, "We have to play the show we never got to play."
"At the Orpheum?" She nodded to him, "That makes sense."
Luke was flung off her mattress as a purple light hit his chest. Lee jumped from her bed and threw her pillow on the ground as she ran to him.
He hissed in pain and looked up at her, "We don't have a lot of time."
"What was that? Are you okay?" She went to help him, but like before, her hand went right through.
He looked down ashamed, "We did something that we shouldn't have. The night that we missed the dance, we met this ghost, and he put this curse on us. And if we don't do what he says, then those jolts will destroy us."
"Then you gotta do what he says. What does he want?" She practically cried out. She can't handle seeing Luke in pain.
"He wants us to be in his house band for eternity." He sat up to be the same height as her kneeling down, "But if we can play at the Orpheum soon, then we can avoid all that and actually cross over."
She tilted her head slightly, "'Cross over'?" As in, like what? Like go to heaven?"
"That's what we're banking on," he whispered.
"So it's either you cross over, be in his band for eternity, or be destroyed by those jokes?" Lee questioned increasingly hating this ghost guy by the second.
It took Luke a moment before he looked back up at her with sad eyes, "Yeah."
She sighed and rolled her eyes to the universe. "That's just great," she spoke sarcastically and nodded to him. She stood up and sat back on her bed as she picked at her fingers.
"Lee..." he pleaded.
"You said you've been having these jolts since the dance, right?" He nodded so she continued her internal investigation, "What if that curse is the reason why I can't touch you anymore?"
He saw the sadness in his eyes and he felt his un-beating heart break a little inside. Like her, he couldn't stand to see her hurting. She pulled her comforter from under her and laid down, wrapping the blanket around her body. She turned to her side and saw Luke still on her bedroom floor.
"Would you mind giving me some time to comprehend this?" She wiped her nose.
He nodded and slowly picked himself up, "Yeah, yeah. Uh, see ya later." He sent her a short nod before turning her light off and whooshing out of her room.
That's when she let herself bawl her eyes out.
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Carrie heard her sisters cries and ran in to comfort her. She just kept on mumbling mumbo-jumbo that she couldn't understand. So, she took Lee's phone off charge and sent an 'SOS' text to Julie and Flynn.
The two came together and rang the doorbell. They were shocked to see Carrie open the door, but before Flynn could make a snarky comment, Carrie told them to follow her.
When they reached the older twins bedroom, that's when they saw it. Tissues everywhere. The sad pillow and the sad blanket were out. Lee was a wreck.
"I leave my sister in your care. I don't know what's going on, but I know it's something she isn't ready to tell me. But she will when she's ready, so..." Carrie motioned for them to go in before she shut the bedroom door.
They rushed to the bed, but Lee shook her head and gulped, "Don't come too close. Anyone I seem to care about disappears."
"You can't get rid of us," Flynn spoke with a small smile as her and Julie cuddled Lee, "I'm like the crazy glue of best friends and Julie is the baking soda, and Liam is the food coloring, and you're the activator."
The girls laughed and Julie raised an eyebrow, "Did you just list us as the ingredients for slime making?" Flynn shrugged nonchalantly with a smile.
"I just don't get it," they heard Lee mumble in between them, "Right when my life starts to get good. The best friends, great sister, new friend, awesome band, funny guy... then bam!" She clapped loudly. "Destruction!"
"Hey, don't be like that," Julie kissed her friend on top of her head.
She began to calm down, "All this thinking is hurting my brain. I mean, if the boys got the curse the night of the dance. Why was Luke able to boop my nose?"
"Um... was he holding anything of value to you?" Flynn questioned, "Like you're guitar, or—"
"He snatched my songbook out of my hand right before," Lee shrugged in thought.
Flynn jumped off her bed and pointed to her, "That's it! You're songbook!" Her friends looked at her like she was crazy, which, with her, isn't a far off statement. "Oh, come on. Don't look at me like that. It's a sign! It's a sign that it's not over!"
Julie rolled her eyes as Lee questioned, "A sign?"
"No. No, Flynn is just being all witchy-whoo again," Julie shook her head as Lee sat up.
"I am not being witchy-whoo. You're the ones in a ghost band. It's a crazy world," the girls couldn't fight with that logic. "Look..." Flynn sat in front of the girls and held their hands, "you're gonna lose them no matter what. And it sucks. But they helped bring the both of you back to life. Now it's your turn to help them. They have to cross over. Let them go."
Lee chuckled, "Wow. Who knew you could be so inspirational?" The pair joined in with the laughter knowing that they helped their best friend feel better. And that's all they needed.
Lee exhaled deeply when she heard Julie ask, "You wanna go check on the guys?"
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Lee was in the middle as she walked with her two friends back to Julie's home. Flynn went inside the house to distract Ray and Carlos. Also giving the girls time with their boys.
Julie opened the garage door and the two walked in hand-in-hand. The scene in front of them was shocking. Reggie was plucking at the strings of his guitar to a sad tune. Alex was trying to balance his drumstick on his nose as he laid on the couch. And Luke was making duck faces at the ceiling.
Both girls sighed and Julie shouted, "Snap out of it!" Alex fell off the couch in surprise and dropped his drumstick.
"Jeez, I think you broke Alex," Reggie muttered.
"Do you guys want to cross over or what?" Lee snapped with her arms crossed. Alex sat back up and no one moved. "Get it together!" Lee clapped for every word.
Luke looked at her sadly, "They're never gonna let us play the Orpheum."
"We're nobody," Alex complained.
"We're less than nobody. We have no bodies," Reggie added and Luke snapped his finger to him in agreement.
Lee sighed at their lack of motivation, "Someone once told us that you don't ask for permission. Correct me if I'm wrong, Julie, but I think they said something about booking gigs by doing."
Reggie shrugged nonchalantly, "That was me."
Luke, Lee and Julie shook their heads, "No, it wasn't."
"This isn't over," Julie spoke, "We were brought together for a reason: to help each other."
"Yeah, but like Luke said," Alex pointed to the boy, "people don't just play the Orpheum because they want to."
The girls smirked at each other and Lee shrugged, "People don't, but ghosts do."
The boys looked at them curiously as the girls couldn't wipe the grins plastered on their faces.
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Lee and Flynn had slept over Julie's. They went over the whole plan for the boys and told them every detail. Flynn had to go home in the morning, but Lee stayed with Julie in the garage.
Right now, the ghosts were walking to the Orpheum. "Look, don't worry, guys, Willie said he'd get us on that marquee," Alex told them.
"This is gonna work, right?" Reggie pointed to the building.
"It has to," Luke said before another jolt hit the three of them.
Willie whooshed in from behind them. Seeing them crouched over he asked, "Hey, are you guys okay?"
They turned around after gasping from the shock. Alex put on a fake smile as he rubbed his stomach, "Yeah. Yeah, it's nothing we haven't felt before." The band walked over to the ghost, "How'd it go?"
"Well, when that opening band wakes up, they're going to find their bus," he turned around to show them his new jacket, "200 miles outside of Vegas with no chance of getting back in time."
Him and Luke fist bumped, "And that means there's probably a promoter upstairs right about now freakin' out."
Willie waved him off, "Nah. This is Hollywood, man. I'm sure he's being very professional," he nodded sarcastically.
Luke was right because there was a promoter upstairs currently banging the landline on the table, yelling into the phone about how buses don't drive themselves.
Alex stepped closer to Willie and the boys walked away to give them some privacy. Alex took a deep breath before saying, "I know... how much you're risking. Thank you, Willie."
"I told you, I'd do anything for you," Willie spoke with a smile. Just as he thought Alex was going to walk to his friends, he wrapped his arms around him and he repeated the blondes actions in hugging him tightly.
Alex cleared his throat as he unwillingly let go, "All right. You, uh... You'd better get out of here before Caleb catches you with us."
"Yeah," Willie nodded with a clenched jaw. "I'll see you around, hot dog." He skateboarded away, not once looking back.
"Alex, you all right, man?" Reggie asked as him and Luke walked over to comfort their drummer.
He turned to them, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm okay." And this time, they believed him.
Luke smiled, "Well, thanks to Willie, Panic! At The Disco needs an opening band." Reggie nodded.
"Then I guess someone up there needs to know we're available."
Down <Luke Patterson>
(🎤) T TIME!
I don't know if I like this chapter. I'm a little iffy about it... 🤷🏼♀️
Do/have you play/played an instrument? 👉
I used to play the violin! 🎻
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