"It's nice to meet you," Jo said, shaking Luke's hand, though her gaze trailed over to Willie. "Can I steal you for a sec?"
Caleb reappeared with Lina, halting whatever she was going to speak to Willie about for the time being. All three of the new ghosts jumped at his sudden presence, Willie and Jo unfazed as it was one of his consistencies.
"Hello boys. Caleb Covington," he introduced himself. "And of course, you've met my daughter, Catalina, and her good friend, Josie. Welcome to the Hollywood Ghost Club. Enjoying the show?"
Luke stuttered out half-sentences to express the impressiveness of what he just witnessed as Caleb just chuckled. "I know, right," Lina giggled. "Dad, this is Alex, Reggie, and this must be Luke, though we haven't formally met."
"Pleasure," Luke said with a playful salute.
"The pleasure is ours," Caleb said. "Nothing warms my heart more than sharing this magic with new friends. Please, sit, sit!" More chairs were quickly pushed around the table for Caleb, beside Luke, Lina, between Caleb and Alex, and Jo, between Luke and Reggie.
"Uh, thank you for the invite," Alex said as Jo once again tried to catch Willie's eye while he purposefully avoided her gaze.
"Of course! Now my friend Willie tells me that you boys have some magic of your own."
Alex hesitated, then cleared his throat, looking between Caleb and Willie. "Well... Willie and I? I mean, I wouldn't really call it magic, but I mean..."
"Babe, he means your ghost abilities," Jo corrected, cracking a smile.
Willie set a hand on his shoulder. "Like, to be seen by everybody when you play with Julie."
The table fell silent for a moment as Luke and Reggie stared at a speechless Alex. "Right. Totally. No 'cause when you said it, I was like 'Is that what he said?' 'Cause-"
"Yeah, but we can't really wave our arms and do all this magic stuff," Luke took over, realizing Alex wouldn't be getting anywhere after that wave of embarrassment.
"Well, I've had some practice," Caleb excused, glancing at Jo unconsciously. "Our gifts are so rare, so special. It's not often I come across other spirits who possess similar talents. It's no surprise we found each other. Now, if you don't mind fellas, I gotta go pay the bills, if you know what I mean. I'll be back later to chat. I hope Lina and Josie can keep you company until then."
Reggie chuckled lightly. "You mean Jo?"
Caleb's gaze turned ice cold as his eyes landed on Jo. "What did I tell you about this subject?"
Jo pushed her hair back from her face and looked up at him, burying her nerves. "Josie's better for my brand. And for the Hollywood Ghost Club's brand."
"That's right," he nodded, tone devoid of it's previous optimism for only that moment longer before it returned. "Boys, please make yourselves at home."
"I love that dude!" Luke said obviously while Reggie's eyes continued to cut over to Jo. "Please tell me this party's never gonna end."
"It doesn't have to!" Lina said brightly. "My father loves inviting new people to the club. As he always says, a gift this wonderful deserves to be shared. Members can happily live out their afterlives here, carrying out their dreams whether that's skating around all day with my friends or playing bass guitar across the stage."
"You're a bassist! Reggie is too," Alex said.
Jo pushed up from the table and quietly excused herself with one more look in Willie's direction, this time him acknowledging the movement. A moment later, the boy pushed up from his seat and followed Jo up to the bar.
"Y-Yeah," Reggie attempted to match the group's energy, though his focus was on the pair's heated discussion out of earshot.
A clear glass half-full of amber liquid was deposited in front of Jo as she thanked the familiar bartender. Willie sidled up on the bar beside her, staring down at his clasped hands. "I can't believe you invited them here," Jo murmured.
"They want to become visible. To some ex-bandmate of theirs," Willie excused. "I knew Caleb could help. What was I supposed to do?"
"You were supposed to keep your goddamn mouth shut," she snapped quietly. "Duping a bunch of asshole rich people into joining? Fine, whatever, but the guys? You know Caleb isn't going to 'help' them. He's going to do whatever it takes to own them. That's what we are to him! Possessions. To be controlled. The guys, for whatever reason, are powerful which means Caleb will do whatever it takes to own that power."
"Jo-"
"No, Willie! There is no logic or reason here that excuses any of that. Because it's the truth and you know it. The freedom to skate around all day, be together? That's fine when it's just us because it's done. It can't be changed... But I thought you cared enough about them- about Alex to spare them from this."
"I just... wanted to impress him."
Jo's face softened. "I know, Will. You and Lina both. But you have to know... he's manipulating you. To get what he wants because what he wants right now is the guys. And you led them right into the lion's den."
Willie scoffed and pushed away from the bar. Jo, eyes welling up with tears, swiped under her eyes so as not to ruin her makeup and threw back the last of the amber liquid before another was dropped in front of her.
When someone else came to stand beside her, Jo expected to see Willie back, whether to sulk or deliver a comeback, she wasn't yet sure. Instead, she found Reggie's pouting face. "They made eight more Star Wars movies. And they killed Han Solo!" he complained. "What kind of future is this?"
Jo bit her lip. Leave it to Reggie to make her almost smile in the midst of all of this. "Are you lost, little ghostie? This is the big kids' table."
"Ha, ha," he deadpanned as he watched her return to examining her drink. "Are you... good? The thing with Caleb seemed... I don't know. Like we were intruding. What was that about?"
Jo nodded slowly. "Do you know what she/they pronouns mean?" Reggie shook his head. "Well, non-binary people use they/them pronouns, right? So... for me, when I say I use she/they pronouns, it means that I don't really identify with my femininity. I don't mind she/her pronouns, but I'd appreciate the use of they/them for me every once in a while, ya know? But... My full name is Josephine. Going by Jo has always felt like me. Like it's part of my legal name, but it's not so..."
"Girly?" Reggie suggested with a small smile.
Jo laughed lightly. "Yeah, I guess. Girly. Feminine... Caleb thinks it's bad for business. Advertising my genderqueer-ness, I mean. So he thinks Josie produces a better image. And Caleb's not one to take no for an answer."
Reggie stared at the person before him for a moment, committing her features to memory. "I think Jo suits you better than Josie ever could."
Jo turned back towards him as the corners of her lips upturned sadly. "Thank you," she murmured. Jo cleared her throat suddenly. "You know, I feel an obligation to tell you about this new character. Jar Jar Binks."
Reggie pulled Jo by the hand back over to the band's table where Luke and Alex were huddled close together. "You guys are not gonna believe what Jo just told me! They said there's this character named Jar Jar. What's a Jar Jar?!" he complained.
"I take it you boys are enjoying yourselves?" Caleb interrupted.
The boys stood up and corrected their appearances, nervous in his presence. Reggie cut his eyes over to Jo and didn't let go of her hand from dragging her over to the table.
"Yeah, I mean, you'd have to be insane to have a bad time here," Luke said.
"Well, entertainment is our specialty here! Isn't that right, Josie," Caleb winked. "Now I understand there's something I may be able to help you with."
Jo pulled her hand from Reggie's, uncomfortable under Caleb's watchful eye. Reggie noticed her uneasiness and decided to take the focus off of her. "Yeah, we hope so," he said. "There's an old buddy of ours who ripped us off big time and we wanna make things right."
"Yeah," Luke continued, "We wanna look him in the eyes and make him admit what he did to us."
"So if you could make us visible, that would be perfect," Alex concluded.
Caleb chuckled lightly. "Well, sure I could do that, but we're at a party. Why focus on those who have wronged us when we're among friends?"
Jo scoffed and looked down at her shoes. Typical, she thought.
"Now, I understand that the three of you are talented musicians," Caleb said. "I doubt your dream is to settle a score. No, your dreams are bigger than that! You're like me, born to perform your music in front of sold-out crowds." Caleb snapped and a waiter pushed up his seat. "Please, sit."
When Jo didn't immediately take a seat, Reggie looked up at her and offered a hand as an invitation. She forced a smile and took a place beside him.
"What if I were to tell you," Caleb proposed, "with a wave of my hand, you could share the spotlight with me... and join my house band?"
Jo's eyebrows drew together. She knew this would happen. What she hadn't known was that he'd so easily trade off the position as bass guitarist that Lina loved so much to a complete stranger. He'd always stressed that they were replaceable, but his own daughter?
Thankfully, Luke just laughed at this proposition. "We already have a band."
"Yes. Yes. But when you're done performing, you disappear," he exaggerated. "You cease to exist! No bows. No... no soaking up the applause. No real connection to the audience. Yeah? Here, the audience knows what you are, and more importantly, they know how special you are."
Reggie glanced at Jo beside him. Her leg was bouncing as she sat back in her chair, arms crossed. Even her face was contorted like she was holding something back. Jo wanted to help the boys, give her true opinion... but Caleb had too much power. She was already on thin ice recently. One wrong move, one wrong word, and she'd be gone. And, with Caleb's power, gone truly meant gone. Something Jo didn't know if she was ready for.
Luke looked at his friends, a little glint in his eyes. "Well... it could be cool to play here?"
Jo had to literally bite her tongue as her knee bounced more rapidly.
"Oh... it's not just here," Caleb stressed. "We party like this all over the world. Tonight, Hollywood. Tomorrow, Paris!"
"Oh, la, la," Reggie muttered, even he being swept off his feet by Caleb's offer.
"It is all of your dreams come true... forever. Isn't that right, Josie?"
Four sets of eyes turned to the purple-haired girl. Jo uncrossed her arms, plastered on a smile and leaned on the table. "And there's plenty of new friends to make along the way. It's a dream come true."
Her eyes were only on Caleb, waiting for his reaction, the whole time. He nodded slightly and let the moment resonate. "I'm gonna give you some time to think about it. Oh, by the way, make sure to try the sliders. They're to die for."
"W-We can eat?!" Reggie confirmed.
"Here you can," Caleb said. With a snap of his fingers, three huge plates appeared on the table. Cheeseburgers, meatball subs, and pizza. Within seconds, all three boys had their mouths stuffed with food.
Reggie held out a meatball sub to Jo as she patted his arm. "I'll pass. I've got some people to find. But enjoy your meal, boys."
>author's note
this chapter is literally the reason i chose the name jo / josephine. bc i pictured this from the moment i came up with this concept. obsessed.