Reggie and Lara are sitting with Ray watching him go through photos. Reggie leans over to look at the screen better, "Ooh, I like this one. It's got a good composition, buddy."
"What are you doin'?" Alex pops in and sighs loudly.
"Eh, I needed a pick-me-up, and hanging with Ray always does the trick."
"Does it? Ok," Alex looks to Lara who shrugs.
Carlos walks into the room holding a box, "Dad, I have a ghost update."
"Ok, this might be interesting," Alex fully turns to face the smaller boy.
Ray stops working on his computer, "Really? Come on, Carlos, we've talked about this."
"I know you're not a believer, but listen to this."
"Do I have a choice?"
Carlos places the box on the table, "No."
"You go, little man," Reggie grinned.
"After Julie played with her hologram band last night, I couldn't sleep."
Ray agreed, "Those songs do get stuck in your head."
"He likes our new music too," Reggie looked to Alex and Lara.
Alex shakes his head, "Ah, still doesn't count."
"He so does count," Lara laughs.
Carlos opened the box, "I learned on YouTube that ghosts haunt because something's bothering them. So to get rid of them, you gotta find out what crawled up their ghost butts!"
Reggie giggled, "He said 'ghost butts'."
"Reg, really?" Lara gave a slight smile to him while Alex gave him a weird look.
Ray points to his son, "Language."
"Sorry." Carlos and Reggie both say.
Alex gives Reggie another weird look.
Lara shakes her head and stands up, laughing, "Well have fun with these boys Alex I gotta go." She vanishes before they get the chance to ask her where she's going.
Lara lands in front of her old door. Noticing Luke and Julie were talking. Julie ran her plan by Lara earlier that day and she agreed to it, but she still wanted to be there for her brother.
Luke hadn't noticed Lara show up, "You were spying on me? Even after all your speeches about boundaries? You were spying on me?"
"I know. I'm sorry. It was wrong. But I'm worried about you," Julie apologized.
"You don't have to be," Luke turned and noticed his sister was behind him.
"I get it. I know how hard it is when you want to speak to someone you love and can't. I feel that way every day."
"I don't even know what I'd say to her, even if she could hear me."
"Yes, you do. You've already said it. Trust me."
Luke looks to his sister who grabs his hand in support and he presses the doorbell.
Their dad answer's the door, "Hello. Can I help you?"
"Hi. I'm Julie. Um... I believe you had a son named Luke, and a daughter named Lara?"
"Oh yes, that's right. And you are again?"
"Julie Molina. Um... their band used to play in my family's garage? I... I came across this song that they wrote and figured you might be interested?"
"Um... well, yes. Uh, please... please come in. I'm... I'm Mitch."
"Nice to meet you."
Luke follows Julie inside the house, Lara still holding his hand always right by his side.
"Can I, um, get you something?" Mitch asks.
"Oh, no. I'm good. Thank you." She looks at a picture frame. "Is this your son?"
"Yeah, that's Luke. When he was two."
"Do you have any other children?"
"No, just the twins."
"Did I hear the doorbell?" Their mom walks into the room. This makes Luke and Lara look at one another.
"Hi, hon. Um, this is Julie."
"Hello, Julie. Oh, that's a beautiful sweater."
Julie looks down at her sweater, "Thanks. It's my mom's."
"Julie lives in the house where Luke, Lara, and the band rehearsed. She was just telling me she found a song that Luke and Lara wrote."
"It's a song about a girl named Emily?"
"Oh... I'm Emily."
Julie hands the paper to her, "Then I think your son and daughter may have written this song for you."
The parents begin to read the song.
Luke, Lara, both
"First things first
We start the scene in reverse
All of the lines rehearsed," Both twins are remembering that night. Luke, Lara, and their mom all arguing about the band and their dreams (December 1994).
"Disappeared from my mind
When things got loud
One of us running out," Luke grabbed his things and ran out of the house, their mom shouting after him.
"I should've turned around
But I had too much pride," Lara ran to her room and started to grab her things as well. She walked out of the house, looked at her parents, got on her bike, and followed after her brother.
"No time for goodbyes
Didn't get to apologize
Pieces of a clock that lies broken," In the studio Luke starts to write a song about their mom, Lara notices he's having trouble with it, she takes the notebook from his hands and starts to read it.
"If I could take us back, if I could just do that
And write in every empty space the words "I love you" in replace
Then maybe time would not erase me
If you could only know I never let you go," Lara looks at her brother and writes the word Emily on the page.
"And the words I most regret are the ones I never meant to leave
Unsaid Emily," Luke looks at the girl and writes 'unsaid' before Emily, the two nodding at each other and finish the song together.
The two start to put the song to music, just the two of them, both feeling the same emotions, "Silent days, mysteries and mistakes
Who'd be the first to break?
I guess we're alike that way
He said, she said
Conversations in my head," Luke remembers hiding in the bushes of his parent's house to check on them but stays hidden.
"And that's just where they're gonna stay forever
If I could take us back, if I could just do that
And write in every empty space the words "I love you" in replace," Sunset Curve starts to rehearse the song, each member knowing exactly what the song is about.
"Then maybe time would not erase me
If you could only know I never let you go
And the words I most regret are the ones I never meant to leave
Unsaid Emily
Ah-ah-ah
Ah-ah-ah," Lara remembers Reggie comforting her every time she wanted to run back home and apologize but wouldn't dare without Luke there by her side. She always wished she just dragged him by the ear.
Their parents remember the night both of their children died, getting told by police officers, "If I could take us back, if I could just do that
And write in every empty space the words "I love you" in replace
Then maybe time would not erase me
If you could only know I never let you go
And the words I most regret are the ones I never meant to leave
Unsaid Emily".
Everyone is crying by the end of the song.
"Thank you," Emily sniffles.
Mitch looks to his wife, "Um... You... you have no idea..."
They both sniffle.
Julie wipes away a few tears, "I write music in the same room that they did, and I can tell you it is a magical, happy place."
Emily and Mitch gently chuckle. "That's so nice to know," Mitch smiles.
"I know they were only 17 when they... But they lived doing the one thing that they were born to do. Not many people find that, but Luke and Lara did. They were lucky."
They all sniffle and Luke vanishes.
Emily looks to Julie, gratitude showing on her face, "It was so nice to meet you."
"It was nice to meet you too," Julie and Lara leave the house.
On the porch, Lara stops Julie, "Hey, um... thank you, for doing that. I... we really appreciate it."
"You guys helped me with my mom and now it was time to return the favor."
"I know it's just... I'm really glad Luke has someone like you in his life. And I'm really glad I also have you in my life."
"I'm glad I have you guys too. I don't know what I'd do without you."
They both laugh and head home.
On her porch, Luke is waiting for Julie.
Julie notices him, "Hey."
"Hey."
"I'm sorry for overstepping."
"No, I... I just had to leave. That was..."
"You don't have to say anything."
Lara puts a hand on her brother's shoulder, "I'm gonna head to the studio and let you guys talk." The others nod and she vanishes.
Reggie doesn't even say a word when she came into the studio. He could tell just from the look on her face that she needed a hug, so he pulled her just outside of the studio and that's exactly what he gave her.
"How do you always do that?" She has her face buried in his chest.
"Do what?"
"Know exactly what I need."
Reggie tucked a fallen piece of hair behind her ear, "Well, princess it's probably because I just know you so well."
Lara laughs, "Well Julie just brought 'Unsaid Emily' to Luke and I's parents."
"How'd it go?" Reggie holds her tighter.
"Really really well." She pulls back, a few tears still falling.
Reggie wipes them away before she gets the chance. She leans into his touch, just appreciating that he was there for her.
"Thank you, for always being there for me."
"You've always been there for me when I've needed literally anything. And what kind of prince charming would I be if I wasn't there for my princesses when she needed me?"
Lara laughs and hugs Reggie again. The two break apart and go into the studio, joining Alex in doing nothing.
Alex is laying on the couch trying to balance a drumstick on his nose, Reggie grabs Lara and makes her sit on his lap while he mindlessly strums his guitar. Alex gives Reggie a questioning look that Reggie ignores. Luke walks in and just sits on the ground, not even saying a word about how Lara and Reggie were sitting.
Luke sighs, "I told Julie about Caleb."
"How'd she take it?" Lara looks down at him.
"Not very well."
They all go back into silence.
Lara makes her legs dangle over the chair of the arm but still leaning fully against Reggie, who has one arm around her waist and the other strumming his guitar some more.
Julie walks in after a few minutes.
Julie sighs, "Snap out of it!"
The sudden noise makes Alex fall and his drumsticks go in different directions.
Reggie looked over to him, "Jeez, I think you broke Alex."
"Do you guys want to cross over or what?" Julie clapped her hands emphasizing her words, "Get it together!"
Luke looked at the girl, "They're never gonna let us play the Orpheum."
"We're nobody," Alex sighs.
Reggie holds Lara tighter, "We're less than nobody. We have no bodies." Luke snaps and points at him in agreement.
"Someone once told me that you don't ask for permission," Julie looks at the sadden band in front of her. Luke chuckles lightly remembering that conversation. "You book gigs by doing."
Reggie says, "That was me."
"Mmm...," Lara tilts her head.
Julie looks at him and shakes her head, "No, it wasn't."
"No, it wasn't," Luke also says giving Reggie a look.
Reggie pouts, "Yes, it was."
Lara places a small quiet kiss on his cheek to make him feel better, which makes him get a small smile on his face.
Julie looks at all of them again, "This isn't over. We were brought together for a reason: to help each other."
"Yeah, but like Luke said, people don't just play the Orpheum because they want to," Alex argues.
"People don't, but ghosts do," Julie has that 'I have an idea' look on her face.
They all look at each other.
~
One more episode left and I'm kinda upset about it. I've had so much fun writing this and will definitely be sad when it's over.
-A