The four of us walk straight through the front door, the boys with one thing on their minds: revenge. As for me, I don't know what to feel. I'm hurt, of course, but there's something else there.
Bobby betrayed all of us. Blood or not, we were his family, but at the same time, I'm not sure if I want to return that pain. I want him to pay for what he did, yes, but I'm not entirely sure this is the way to do it.
Luke instantly heads toward Bobby's framed guitar, though it isn't the same red one he played with before we died.
Everything is modern, twenty-five years modern, and everything is either glass or black leather. And the ceiling... Does he house Godzilla in here or something? Why would anyone need this high of a roof?
"Bobby's house is ridiculous," Alex gushes, peeking around the stairs at the endless wall of awards while Reggie slouches beside me in the kitchen. "Have you seen these platinum records?"
"Platinum?" Reggie squeaks, and my ears perk up. I want a platinum record...
"He recorded 'My Name Is Luke!' My name is Luke!" Luke whines from across the living room, pointing to himself and looking like a lost puppy, and my heart drops.
Bobby really did steal from all of us. All he cared about was the fame and fortune, not the fact that his band literally died.
Speak of the Devil.
In comes Bobby dressed in all black, thinking he's so cool that he wears sunglasses inside his own house. The four of us glare and surround him as he pauses at the stairs.
"Hey Carrie! I'm gonna meditate."
Bobby turns around and hops up the stairs, leaving me slouched against Reggie and Alex and Luke beyond angry at just the sight of his old, substitute teacher face.
A sudden burst of anger splurges inside me and I jump at him. "Meditate on this, thief!" Reggie panics and catches me mid-flight, wrapping his arms around me from behind and keeping me still against him. "Lemme go!"
"So you can run right through him? Yeah, sure. That's always a good plan." Reggie peers up at his receding figure, disgusted. "I can't stand him."
"Then let me go!" I practically growl, the fire in my eyes glowing brighter. Reggie glances at the guys and shrugs, retracting his arms, and I go racing up the stairs like a wild dog.
"Time for his past to haunt him," Luke says through gritted teeth and starts pounding up the stairs behind me.
"Wait!" Alex shouts, and the three of us stop in our tracks. "Let's not rush this. You know, it's my first time haunting someone. I wanna make it special."
We glance and each other awkwardly and shrug, rushing up the last couple stairs and completely ignoring Alex.
The boys and I follow Bobby into a naturally lit room filled with bright-colored furniture, incense, and candles. Bobby climbs onto an island seat and begins meditating, leaving dozens of devious ideas swarming around our heads.
Luke sneaks toward Bobby and licks his finger before shoving it into his ear like he did on our last night at the Orpheum. Alex blows out all three of the candles across from him, struggling slightly with the last one, and I laugh.
Meanwhile, Reggie and I try to figure out how his music box works, and I press a bunch of random buttons. Eventually, rock music fills the room, the same song that Luke played for Julie earlier, and I grin, satisfied and beyond proud of myself for successfully using any piece of modern technology.
Bobby glances around warily before getting up and turning it off, but the joke's on him. I know how it works now! I press the same button, the music playing again right where it left off.
He jumps and rushes back, jamming a ton of buttons before giving up and yanking the plug out. He backs away, but by the time he figures out how to stop the music, Alex is already in his bathroom playing with the shower.
Reggie frowns and mumbles, and I pat his back, knowing how much he loves showers.
Bobby peeks around the corner in his bathroom, and Reggie and I tip toe behind him, giggling. He slowly approaches the shower and turns it off, scared out of his mind.
Then, Luke gets a brilliant idea. He bends over the white porcelain bar sink and drags his finger along the foggy mirror, leaving the words "Hello Bobby" in his place.
Bobby freezes in place and stares at the mirror, completely terrified, and rushes to the door, Alex shutting it just in time and making Bobby face plant into it.
The boys and I burst out laughing, and I have to lean on Reggie to keep me from falling over. Alex pushes against the door, and Bobby slams down on it from the other side.
"Let! Me! Out!" he screams, and Alex lets go of the handle with an evil grin.
Suddenly, out comes Bobby panicking his brains out. Bobby stands still and glances around before speed-walking back down the stairs as fast as he can, once again leaving the four of us dying of laughter.
We follow him, deciding that we're only getting started upstairs, and poof outside to see him hopping into his private helicopter, the blades whirring loudly as he vanishes into the sky, probably for his therapist.
"Quick! Let's moon him before he gets too far away!" Reggie says excitedly, and Luke agrees instantly, unbuckling his jeans.
"He can't see us," Alex reasons, but the boys are beyond reason. They usually either do the opposite or continue with their single brain-celled idea.
"Oh, it's not for him, bro. It's for us." Yes, thank you, Luke, for confirming what I already know. All three boys bend over, pulling down their pants. "Whew! Take that, Bobby!"
"No! Gross!" I shout, shielding my eyes from being tainted by their naked butts. "My eyes! They burn!"
"Oh, please," Reggie laughs as he, Alex, and Luke become decent again. "You'd love to see our butts. Our butts are amazing. We're blessing Bobby, really."
"Yeah, no," I frown and cross my arms, and out comes Julie beyond angry. Uh, oh.
"Did you guys have fun in there?"
"OK, you'd do the exact same if he stole all your songs," Luke defends, but I know Julie's response immediately.
"Don't think she'd moon him," I mutter, and Julie nods her head.
"But you have new songs. With me." The boys just stand there and stare at her. "The best way to get back at Trevor is for this band to do great. And to do great, we have to play at dances, then clubs."
"And tours. I know," Luke stops her, stepping forward as I weasel my way between Alex and Reggie behind him.
"I'll see you guys at the school. We go on at nine. Please don't be late. There's gonna be a lot of people there."
"We got it. Alright? Don't worry," Alex assures her, but it sounds more like a kid trying to get their mom off their back.
When Julie's out of ear shot, Reggie's vengeful side returns. "I don't care what Julie says. I'm glad we scared Bobby. Wish we'd done more, like... like written 'thief' on his forehead!"
I laugh at how adorable he looks when he's overexcited. We should have done that, though... Not a bad idea. Mhm, note to self: get permanent marker.
"And, Alex, how did you shut the door?" Luke asks, redirecting the conversation. "You could barely open a garage door."
"Learned that from your new friend Willie, didn't you?" Reggie nudges him and wriggles his eyebrows, and I roll my eyes.
"Yeah," Alex gushes happily. "Well, he taught me some things, and we screamed in a museum. It's a long story..."
"You think he has a few more tricks up his sleeve?" Luke asks slyly, and we all know exactly where he's going with this.
"Let's find out."
The four of us poof into the middle of a park, Willie skating right at us with a bright smile.
"Hey!" He stops, exchanging a handshake with Alex. "What's up, man? You brought friends."
"Yeah!" he says, stepping aside. "These are my bandmates, uh, Luke, Reggie, and Izzy."
"Cool! I'm Willie," he introduces himself and gives fist bumps around the board, though we're already very familiar with him, courtesy of Alex. Wink, wink. Nudge, nudge. "Heck, yeah. So, you guys here to learn some 'tricks?'"
He flicks his wrist, and instantly, nearby sirens wail, making the officers panic and letting the skaters escape. Then with another flick, everything is silent, leaving us incredibly impressed.
"Do it again! Do it again!" Reggie shouts, drowning in amazement and drumming on Luke.
"Actually, we were thinking a little bigger," Luke confesses, ignoring Reggie's adorable childish side. "An old bandmate stole from us. We wanna confront him face-to-face."
"Alright," Willie nods, going along with it and feeling the vibe. He seems like that kind of guy. "Is this, uh, old friend of yours a lifer?"
"Oh, that's fancy ghost lingo for the living," Alex shares proudly before leaning down to whisper to Reggie. "Little something I picked up."
"Ah, then yeah!" Reggie squeals, one hand shoved in his pocket and the other draped around my shoulders in a failed attempt to look and sound cool. "He's a lifer. Too much of a fancy-pants for street dogs."
"Yeah, I'm sorry. Speaking to lifers is even out of my league," Willie grimaces, and we exchange solemn glances.
Guess we'll just have to handle it another way. I wasn't really on board one hundred percent to begin with, so maybe this is a sign that we should give up and prove ourselves with Julie instead. It's one thing to haunt someone directly, but it's another thing to still live out your dream while haunting the person who tried to steal that dream.
Willie backs up a little bit and catches our attention again, though I'm not fully convinced. "You know, but there is one ghost who might be able to help you guys. He's kind of a big deal."
"Literally, anything would help," Luke confesses, and I cringe. Something isn't right here.
"Oh, alright. Well, um," Willie stutters, grabbing his board with a smile. "I gotta go take care of some things, but I'll meet you where Alex and I met, eight o'clock."
Luke nods, and Willie is off again, leaving the four of us standing in his place. Something inside me stirs, and I don't feel too good about this. I poof back to the studio without the boys and sit behind the grand piano, my fingers grazing the black and white keys.
My eyes land on Luke's songbook, and I pull it out from under one of his sleeveless hoodies and flip to the back where all my ideas are. I find a stray pencil and glance over the piano chords, the space where the words should be blank.
I was working on this song before I died, and twenty-five years later, I'm still missing a chorus. I begin to play some notes, testing and changing some chords and crossing out and erasing major sections in Luke's journal.
"Whatcha workin' on?" Reggie asks, poofing in beside me and nearly making me jump and fall off the bench. He catches me in his arms, and I instantly slam the book shut, shoving it under my legs.
"Nothing," I respond quickly, shoving the pencil across the room. "What are you doing here anyway?"
"I, uh," he scratches the back of his head. "I wanted to see if you were alright. After Bobby's. He was your brother, so..."
I don't know how to respond, so I stutter out like a complete idiot, "Thanks," and close the piano. "You know," I start, trying to figure out how to phrase this without sounding paranoid. "I don't think we should go tonight."
He furrows his eyebrows and scrunches his nose. "Why not?"
I sigh and turn to face him, his soft blue eyes glistening with curiosity. "I just... I don't know. I'm just not getting a good feeling off this."
"You're turning down revenge on Bobby over a feeling?" He stares at me blankly, and I huff a breath and shake my head. "You're turning down possibly being seen by everyone over a feeling?"
"No, I just... I just don't think we should go. We have this great thing with Julie. We're playing a dance tonight. I'm playing with you guys, which I thought you'd be happy about. You've been bugging me about it since we've been back."
"I'm not bugging you about anything," he says defensively, and I can tell I struck a nerve. "I'm just trying to help. This is a second chance for all of us, and I don't want you wasting your amazing potential. And yeah, it's rad that we can play with Julie, but Bobby needs to get what he deserves."
"What he deserves is to be shown up and exposed for what he did!" I tell him, standing up and returning Luke's journal back to its place under his light blue hoodie. "And we can do that by playing at dances and clubs and freaking him the heck out when he sees us play. You're forgetting even Bobby can see us when we're with Julie. And if you really want to go there, have Julie bring Luke's journal to the proper authorities. Then our parents would know... Luke's mom would..."
He stands up in frustration and the bench screeches behind him. "This is something you know we gotta do. You and Luke should know this better than anyone. Bobby stole the most from you both. I guess I'm just disappointed that you don't feel the same." He turns around and heads toward the garage doors, peeking over his shoulder. "If you change your mind, you know where we'll be."
And with that, he poofs out, and my breath gets caught in my throat as my heart literally breaks in half.
---
Whelp... that happened. I am curious, though: If you guys were in Izzy's shoes, would you be upset like the boys? Or would you prioritize your friendship and the band with Julie? I think I'd do what Izzy did (and will do). But wow, Reggie, that hurt 😭 Question is, will Izzy go after him? And what's going on with the dance? Will Izzy join them at the Ghost Club or Julie at the school?
And omg thanks so much for 1K already, this is amazing! You guys are so awesome with your comments and it literally makes my day ❤️❤️
Thanks for reading! Tell me what you think, and vote and comment!
-Kait 🧡