TW !: mention of death
THE 4 GHOSTS DIDN'T SEEM TO CARE HOW LOUD THEY PLAYED .All that mattered was the music, the energy, and the fact that getting to play with Olivia was rare enough.
It wasn't until Julie rushed into the garage in a frenzy and stomped over to the ghosts. "Guys! Guys! Stop! enough, cut it out !" the girl shouted, causing the ghosts to grin at each other as they played the finishing notes with a smile.
"The whole neighborhood can hear you play, I thought I told you to leave."
Olivia's grin dropped immediately, her hands letting go of the guitar as it just hung around her back limply, her hands clenched as it fell to her sides to stop herself from shaking.
It wasn't like she played right in front of them but knowing people could hear her sing was enough to shut her down.
But the boys were too excited to notice the girls' stiffness, " wait people can hear us play " Luke questioned, hope dripping off the words.
Alex and Reggie both moved closer to the girl and Luke while Oliva stayed rooted to the spot, the color still not returning to her face just yet.
"Yes! And so did my dad and my brother!" the girl hissed at the boys.
The ghosts started removing the guitars and placed them in their respective stands. "W-wait so only you can see us but -"
"Other people can hear us play." Olivia finished for him, eyes widening. Alex grins "I mean, what kind of ghosts are we?" he asks, clearly not noticing that his little sister was about to combust.
Luke laughed as he fist-bumped the guys as Oliva gave him a weak high five and shaky smile.
"Who cares man? People can hear us play!" he exclaimed.
Reggie grinned and pointed at the guys. "We might be dead but our music isn't!"
Olivia swallowed her emotions and stamped them down in the depths of her mind, her boys were so happy, that she couldn't possibly let her issues and anxiety affect that.
"So you guys are a ghost band - ooh guys, you can call yourselves the Ghostbusters." Olivia tried to add teasingly, her voice still slightly shaky but the guys didn't notice as they looked at her with raised brows causing her to wince slightly at her joke.
"Too soon?"
Before the guys could even respond, the garage door opened, and in stepped Julies dad causing all of them to look towards him as Julie plastered on a fake smile, "Dad!" she greeted, slightly nervous as the 4 ghosts watched the interaction silently.
"Hey, just making sure you are ok," Julie's dad said, offering his daughter a warm smile.
Olivia turned to Alex, both of them thinking about their dad and how different he was compared to Julie's dad.
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just had to turn off the CD player" the girl said, as her father scanned the room and all the different instruments that had been laid out thanks to the ghosts,
"Wait, is this the junk that was in the loft ?" he asked, causing Oliva to choke and Luke to scoff.
The 4 ghosts watched Julie's dad intently as he walked over to Alex's drums and hit the top of the drums and cymbals with his fingers testing them out,
"some of this stuff is in pretty good shape, maybe we could make a couple of bucks" he said causing Alex to stare at him appalled by the idea of his precious drums being sold.
"What? Yo, stop touching my drums - tell him to stop touching my drums!" he cried, pointing at Julie's father and then at Julie, Luke faced the girl with desperate eyes.
Julie just shrugged at the boys helplessly, Oliva almost had a fit as he brushed his fingers against her guitar strings gently.
Julies father walked back to the girl. "I like that song you had on", he said, Luke grinned and said "Sweet! we're Sunset Curve." even though Julie's dad clearly couldn't hear them.
Olivia added beside him "tell your friends".
Julie just smiled at her dad. "It is just an old CD I found, " she said, the ghosts not missing how she stressed on old.
Julies father smiled at his daughter with warm eyes. "Well it's good that you're getting back into music again, out here you can play whatever you want, whenever you want," he told the girl, Reggie aw'ing at the statement causing Julie to turn to the ghost.
"Stay out of this," she hissed softly, forgetting that her father couldn't hear or see the ghosts which made him confused.
"O-oh I'm sorry honey I was just trying to -"
"Oh no no no not you, I just - can I just have a minute?" Julie rambled apologizes, dragging her father by the hand and to the garage door as the ghosts continue to watch her dad tells her how they were going to figure out the music program problem .
Julie shot him a quick nod as he left.
She immediately shut the door and turned to face the ghosts as they start to grin. "He likes our song", Luke said, with a wide smile on his face that makes his eyes crinkle, something Olivia's noticed about Luke ever since she started hanging out with them.
"Oh yeah, he doesn't count, he's a dad" Alex responded making Oliva laugh.
Julie chose that moment to snap.
"Why can you guys just be like normal ghosts, hang out in an old mansion or something! I hear Pasadenas nice", the young girl huffed and stormed out, shutting the door behind her.
Alex turned to face his friends with an adorable smile on his face "I think she's warming up to us,"
Reggie muttered under his breath "I've always wanted to go to Pasadena."
Luke and Olivia exchanged glances with each other as Oliva poofed out of the garage and to the pathway leading back up to the house, scaring Julie at the same time.
"YAAGH! Stop doing that!" the girl yelped as Olivia ducked her head muttering an apology.
"What do you want?" the girl asked, clearly wanting the whole ghost situation to be over.
Olivia bit her lip as she spoke "Look, I know this is all completely insane but you don't understand how incredible this is or much this means to the guys. People, like actual people, can hear them play. They needed this to get them back on their feet."
Julie looked up at the older girl, Olivia wasn't that much taller or older than the Latino if you were to ignore the 25 years she missed out on.
Olivia's eyes were soft and gentle and as genuine as Julie knew she was she couldn't help but sigh "I know, it's just that I've had an awful day, I gotta go." The girl said as she tried to walk away but Olivia spoke up again.
"I'm sorry you had a bad day, I am. But 4 teenagers just found out that they had a bad 25 years, and then they found out that the one thing they live for in the first place could still be done", she says desperately, hoping to gain even just a drop of sympathy from the brunette and she knew she did the moment she saw Julie's eyes soften at her
"I know...it's just-"
"Bad day, I get it", the older blonde finished for her with a kind smile, causing the corners of Julie's lips to curve up just a little.
Olivia stepped closer to the girl, her voice lowering a little as she stared at her. "Look, I'm sorry we came, but what I just felt in there - I haven't felt that in a, really, long time Julie. Months, maybe even a year, but that feeling made me, made us, feel alive again," she said to the girl, her eyes glossing over at the happiness she felt from letting herself just be one with the music.
She hadn't realized how long it's been for her to truly be happy with music, or how much she missed playing.
Julie's cold exterior had crumbled at the sight of the passionate blonde, she knew how much Olivia cared about the guys.
"The guys, they were devastated when they thought they were never going play again since they're dead. I mean, Julie you should've seen their smiles, it was just contagious" Oliva giggled, causing Julie to unintentionally crack a smile.
Out of nowhere, she felt a hand on the small of her back causing her to jump and whirl around - just to come face to face with Luke's hazel eyes, his eyes shining with adoration for the girl after hearing every single thing she said.
Julie gazed at the two knowingly, she saw Luke poof in behind Olivia but just chose not to say anything.
Olivia smiled at the boy and his hand on her back never moved as he now looked at Julie, a look of determination on his face
"Yeah so you can kick us out if you want, but we're not giving up on our music. We can play again! That's a gift no musician would ever turn down!" Luke exclaimed, his hands moving all over the place to explain his point as Olivia just smiled at him.
"Julie, you gotta know that, your mom's clearly into music," he continued, and Olivia couldn't help but notice the way Julies body froze, her eyes turning stony.
"Was," she said trying to give them a sad smile, "she passed away."
Oliva's heart broke for the girl, she was just 16.
Her face fell as her eyes teared up slightly for the girl.
Luke's face fell as well, no doubt thinking about his own mom, he was at a loss of words for a moment.
"I-I am so sorry" Luke whispered gently, Olivia placing her hand on his shoulder gently to reassure him as Julie just stared at him.
"Yeah we didn't know," came Alex's voice from behind and the three turned to see Alex and Reggie leaning against a wall, their eyes sad.
Julie sighed at ghosts sincerity. "it's alright...you guys haven't seen her anywhere, have you? From wherever you're from?" she asked hesitantly and Olivia's heart broke even more,
"I'm sorry but no, you're kinda the first person we've seen ." Alex said gently.
"Yeah, but she not dead so it doesn't answer her question -"
"Yeah - I think she knows what we mean." Olivia quickly cut Reggie off before he accidentally said something to make the whole situation worse.
The blonde girl then turned to Julie, "I'm sorry for your loss, I bet your mom was awesome." she told the Latino softly causing Julies walls to crumble and smile at the girl with teary eyes
"Thanks, and she was."
Julie was quiet for a moment before speaking up. "I'm sorry I got mad, you guys are kinda good."
"Kinda? you know that's just 25 years of rust getting dusted off," Luke grinned as Julie smiled.
"Do you play the piano too? Like Liv?" Reggie asked, Olivia looked at the girl expectantly as she shook her head not explaining that all the instruments were her mom's.
"What? No way, your mom is an amazing songwriter," Luke said in awe as Julie nodded
"Wait how would you know?" she asked slightly confused since they had never actually met Julie's mom.
Olivia then piped into the conversation "There's a song on the piano, if it's hers...your mom was talented Julie," she said sincerely with a small smile.
It was silent for a moment as no one knew what to say before Julie piped up
"I guess if you guys need a place to stay you can stay in there. There's a bathroom at the back and a couch that turns into a bed - if you guys even still use all that stuff," she said as Olivia laughed.
"Oh yeah, we still use that stuff," she commented, wanting nothing more than to just take a nap after their long day.
"Dibs on the shower " exclaimed Reggie as the group looked at him weirdly.
"I just really like showers and the occasional bath" he explained with the usual dorky Reggie smile, causing the group to smile too.
Julie then bid the ghosts goodbye and once she left the group of ghosts grinned and cheered as they finally got the girl on their side and for a second, Olivia and the guys felt completely and entirely alive.