1.4 𝙇𝙪𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙘𝙤𝙘𝙠𝙗𝙡𝙤𝙘𝙠
♬ ♬ ♬
𝘼𝙣𝙙𝙮 𝙩𝙬𝙞𝙧𝙡𝙚𝙙 𝙍𝙚𝙜𝙜𝙞𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙤𝙪𝙣𝙙, 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙖𝙨𝙨𝙞𝙨𝙩 𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙥𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙫𝙚𝙧 𝙝𝙞𝙨 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙩.
Despite the feud Andy & Reggie used to have with one another, their dance hadn't been as awkward or uncomfortable as you'd think, in fact, both of them were enjoying it.
Andy cleared her throat making Reggie focus on her eyes and not the brown-eyed ballerina dancing with Damon.
"I know we haven't been the best of friends, you know since you always had a crush on Antonella," The bassist looked down at his shoes, hiding the red on his face, "She was gonna break up, but she- uh- you guys died before she got the chance, what I'm trying to say is she loves you Reggie and I want her to be happy,"
Reggie looked taken back at her comment he would've thought that Andy was still well and truly smitten with the curly-haired rockstar.
"But you're back in her life now, what if it changes," he questioned, he needed reassurance more than anything right now. The last thing he wanted was to mess up his chance with Nells, not only would it break up their friendship but it risks breaking up the band.
"Trust me she loves you. In the few years I've been a ghost, I've gotten over AJ but I'm just gonna wait for her to break up with me like she wanted, that's when you shoot your shot." She smiled up at the taller boy in front of her,
"Now I can see why she likes you." He chuckled as they were now both watching Damon twirl Antonella.
"Take care of her for me."
"I promise."
♬ ♬ ♬
"So you and Andy?" Nella asked with a hint of playfulness in her voice, just from watching them interact once she was convinced they had chemistry,
"Sorry about that love, I know your history now so I'll back off," the last thing Damon wanted was to come between two lovers. AJ smirked at the English guy in front of her, she knew that they'd get together eventually.
"What?! No, go for it, you like her, I'm over her. Trust me, the night I died I was going to break up with her. Convenient I know." She explained,
"Break up with her for Reggie?" Damon span Nella around, dipping her lowly,
Brown met blue, the two spirits staring at each other as Damon continued to speak, "I saw how jealous he was gettin' earlier, he really likes you," He teased, his voice raising an octave as he sang the last part of his sentence.
Nella did a quick double take at Reggie and Andy, one to just look at him and two when she realised he was also staring at her. Her face instantly became warm so she danced to the other side of Damon where she wasn't visible to either Reggie or Andy.
"Do you think so?" She whispered,
"I know so love," Damon & Andy looked at each other deciding to spin their partners around so Nella & Reggie now become dance partners.
Nella stumbled slightly, the high heels she wore making it hard to find balance, Reggie instinctively reached out catching her by the waist, the dancer being dipped just like Damon had done previously. For a ballerina Nella wasn't very graceful but then again that only happened around Reggie.
The musician admired her from above "Hi," he spoke softly looking into her twinkling eyes.
"Thanks for catching me," she replied in a lower, breathier voice. It was clear as day that she was flustered at this stage.
"I'll always be there to catch you Nells,"
Realising that he had his hands on her bare skin Reggie moved them up slightly, not wanting to keep his hands there out of respect, the bassist slid his hands up but realised he was too close to her boobs and so he slid them down, pulling away when he laid his hand on her lower back, grazing her butt.
Nella shivered underneath his touch giggling and grabbing Reggie's hands, positioning one of them at the small of her back and the other in the air as she laid her hand on his shoulder, adjusting him so they were in a waltz stance.
"Relax Reggie, you can touch me, I won't break,"
"S-sorry,"
Nella furrowed her brows, Reggie was always hugging her when she was in crop tops or bikinis so it's not like he never touched her bare skin. Not only was he more hesitant to touch her but the teenager seemed to be more nervous than usual.
Being in the black box for 25 years made Reggie realise something, not only was he dead but he died without telling the only girl he ever lived how he felt. Sure there were other girls he'd been with but none of them were Antonella Jace Russo. The only thing keeping him from confessing is the fear of being rejected; I mean he is the bassist of a band and he has blue eyes, girls love him. Unfortunately, this wasn't just any girl it was Nells, a 17-year-old ballerina who likes to play guitar in her spare time.
After that little scene Reggie had caused, he decided to shift the conversation topic to something else, "How are you doing tonight? You know, with everything,"
"It's weird seeing my ex but it's nice to know that she's doing well," AJ replied gazing into Reggie's eyes. If you haven't realised by now, Nella has a thing for blue eyes, especially Reggie's. There was something so captivating about seeing the ocean every time she looked at the raven-haired teen.
"Ex?" Reggie spoke snapping her out of her daze.
"Yeah, she invited the band out tomorrow then proposed that we talk about "us" so I figured I would tell her tomorrow,"
"What I'm hearing is that you're single?" He asked, voice raising a few octaves at the end.
"Hopefully not for long," Nella had moved closer to Reggie so they were chest to chest, butterflies swarmed her stomach when Reggie pulled her even closer.
"Hey it looks like we got what we wanted," she smirked as they danced side to side, Reggie quirked his eyebrow in question, "In the studio, you said you wanted me to save you a dance and then I told you that we'd dance at the club and I mean look at us now. We're slow dancing," the teenage girl paused looking around at the dance floor seeing how everyone was dancing in an upbeat manner, "which is pretty weird because it's swing music."
"I don't mind what dance we do as long as I can hold you, y-you look great by the way, you're so pretty," Reggie whispered in her ear, making her heart skip a few beats, well a few more beats seeing as she's dead.
"You look cute too Reginald,"
"I didn't change?"
"I know." Reggie had been gradually leaning in closer to Nells. Just as Antonella leaned in Luke patted his shoulder causing Reggie to turn to face their Bandmate, making sure to brush him off so they can finish the moment.
"The haunting hour is upon us," Caleb called out as the clock chimed,
"Dude, we lost track of time-" Luke trailed off noticing the position his friends were in.
"Not right now, man." Reggie flailed his hand around, pulling Nella in closer by her waist. Reginald placed her hand under her chin tilting her head up slightly just as he felt Nella's lip touch his he was being carried away. Seeing as his hands were gripping onto Nella's waist so she was pulled along too.
"Reggie!" Luke exclaimed
"Hey! What the fuck!" Reggie protested staring at AJ.
They were about to kiss but all he got was a brush of her lips, way to go Luke.
"We were kinda doing something," Nella scoffed at Luke, Reggie pointed to her in agreement, taking her hand in his to compensate for their lack of touch.
"I'm well aware of that princess. We were supposed to be at Julie's school at 9:00." Luke pointed out snapping them out of their trances,
"Oh fuck!" Nells cussed under her breath, realisation hitting her, they'd missed Julie's dance.
"Oh shit.! That's right. Maybe we can still make it." Reggie asked, of course, he wanted to be optimistic but even he knew they were done for.
"Where's Alex? Alex, we forgot-" Luke called trying to find their drummer. Someone called back their voice sounding far away. Sunset Curve turned their attention to Alex who was spinning around in a giant hoop, "Up here. Julie. I know. This place is- One sec," Alex shifted his body to the left, forcing the hoop to swivel around so he could face his friends, "This place is some kind of time warp."
"Poof down here, bro. We gotta get going." Alex poofed down, Luke rounding up his friends and directing them towards the exit.
"Gentlemen, Lady, what's the rush? The party's just getting started, and you have an eternity, after all." Caleb asked as he too teleported towards the door,
"You know that girl that can see us? We sort of bailed on her. There's this dance at her school, and her friend Flynn is a super cool DJ, like-" Nella put her hand over Reggie's mouth cutting his story short and proceeding to groan when he licked her. Her mouth didn't touch his but her hand did, that was an accomplished right?
"-I don't think he has an eternity to hear the story." Alex cut in,
"Basically, we're late for a gig." Luke clarified.
"But what about my offer?" Caleb tried to bargain with them once again.
"It's very cool of you, Mr. Covington, but, like I said, we already have a-"
"A band of your own. I understand." Sunset Curve tried to rush out the door yet again only to be stopped by Mr Covington, "Oh, guys- if you ever wanna come back and fix that little problem with your friend, the Hollywood Ghost Club is always open."
"Yeah, man, we'd love to come back," Luke spoke on behalf of the band
"Ah! Music to my ears," Caleb extended his hand to Luke offering a handshake which he took without a second thought. A sizzling sound filled the air and the teens had directed their attention to Luke's wrist which now had a purple stamp on it. The same thing happened to Alex and Reggie.
"Oh, it's just a little club stamp."
He went to shake Nella's hand but she refused, "Sorry I don't shake hands, those things are filthy." He nodded at her trying to think of another way to burn his stamp on her, Caleb extended his hand out yet again, this time offering a fist bump. Nella accepted.
"Cool."
"Until next time."
"Peace." Luke had already made his way out followed by Antonella, "Bye Chris!"
"It's Caleb," He corrected
"I like Chris better!" She responded walking out of the club altogether,
"See you around," Reggie told him mimicking the laughter Caleb had made, resulting in a slap and a scolding look from mother Alex.
"What? That's what he just did." Reggie stated, rushing off in Nella's direction.
"Uh, if Willie asks, uh, not that he would, but if he does, will you let him know that I was looking for him? Thanks." And with that, Sunset Curve had left the Hollywood Ghost Club
♬ ♬ ♬
The phantoms linked arms as they collectively poofed outside of Julie's school. The boys had darted through the corridors making Nella roll her eyes at them, "Can you slow down? Some of us are in heels." Without a second thought, Reggie rushed back and picked her up like she was a bag of sand and continued his running. "This is not what I meant and you know it," she yelled.
When they finally reached the gym, Reggie reluctantly put Nella down, he wouldn't have put her down if it wasn't for Luke and Alex grabbing them both and ushering them to hurry up.
"Julie, we are ready to rock this dance, which is clearly over," Reggie yelled when the band made it into the auditorium, instead of seeing Julie by the stage they saw her on the floor popping balloons,
"Look, we are so, so sorry that we bailed on you." Luke tried to apologise,
"Yeah, I mean, the night really got away from us," Alex explained hoping Julie would forgive them.
"And Nells," Reggie muttered under his breath,
"We are so sorry songbird, we still thought we had time left," until Caleb announced that it was haunting hour, the ghosts had all thought that they were there for a measly 45 minutes or so,
"Just please tell me it had nothing to do with you getting back at Carrie's dad." Julie fired at them making the boys go pale.
"Pfft! Oh, of course not."
"No! We wouldn't do that."
"Us? No. No."
The boys tried to dismiss her claim failing AJ had just stayed silent. She couldn't lie to Julie, she wouldn't lie to Julie, especially seeing as Bobby didn't actually steal their songs but recorded them as a tribute.
"Seriously? You're lying to me?" Disappointment evident in her tone,
"Okay, look, it was something we needed to do," Alex confessed coming clean.
"Well it looks like you had a good time doing it," she snapped, pointing out Nella's sparkling white showgirl costume. The musician spirit wouldn't lie, she did have a good time, and the club made her feel alive. She could dance, eat, drink, and talk to others, this one night had been the best she'd experienced since becoming a ghost and now it's all coming crashing down. It's most likely for the best though seeing as Caleb gave her creeps, tonight was the first and last time she'd be at the Hollywood ghost club.
"B-But we'll do whatever it takes. We'll play the next school-" By now Luke had stepped forward trying to reason with Julie who was evidently hurt by their actions.
"What? Another dance where you can bail on me and make me look like a fool? Save it. You know what really sucks? Our songs were good. And all four of you knew what I've been through, and how tough it's been for me to play, and then you do this? Bands don't do that to each other. Friends don't do that to each other. This was a mistake." Julie stated her voice cracking in some parts.
Luke and Bella took her speech the hardest, you could physically tell, Luke's expression dropped, the high of the Hollywood ghost club wearing off. Nella adverted her gaze not wanting to look at Julie and so she focussed on the hassles of her skirt, playing with them and distracting herself.
"You mean the school dance, right?"
"No. I mean joining a band with you guys." Julie finished before she turned towards the door and ran out.
"Julie1 Julie!" She didn't even look back at the boy calling her name.
"Well, if-if Julie's not in the band, then-" Reggie started looking at his friends, "There is no band," Luke told them, Sunset Curve wanted a second to process what had happened but they were rocked by a purple jolt of energy. The band stumbled back, gripping at their stomachs.
"Are you guys okay," AJ asked as they shook their heads at her.
"What was that?"
"It felt like we were dying all over again."
"How can we die if we're already dead?"
A million thoughts ran through Nella's head yet the most important one was Julie. And maybe Reggie.
♬ ♬ ♬
𝙀𝙫𝙚𝙧𝙮𝙗𝙤𝙙𝙮 𝙨𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙪𝙘𝙠 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙇𝙪𝙠𝙚 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙞𝙣𝙩𝙚𝙧𝙪𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙣𝙜
𝙄 𝙡𝙞𝙠𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙞𝙙𝙚𝙖 𝙤𝙛 𝙎𝙪𝙣𝙨𝙚𝙩 𝘾𝙪𝙧𝙫𝙚 𝙨𝙬𝙚𝙖𝙧𝙞𝙣𝙜, 𝙞𝙩 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙛𝙚𝙚𝙡𝙨 𝙧𝙞𝙜𝙝𝙩