Devyn
I sat on the bench across from The Orpheum staring up at the neon blue sign that lit up the Sunset Strip. I did this often. Everyday for the past 25 years. My body came and went. There were times I'd sit in a black room by myself and when I'd come back into the world, years would have gone by. I don't know why this happened or why it happened to me specifically, or if I was the only person that this happened to. Ghost, I should say. It became apparent to me that I was no longer alive after the first time that happened. After I crossed the street at Sunset and I got hit by a car.
Have you ever stood up next to your own body?
It didn't hurt, in case you were wondering. I did feel the car hit me, but by the time I hit the ground my entire body was numb. It didn't take me that long to just die. I was dead long before the ambulance even arrived, though I wasn't pronounced dead until I arrived at the hospital. Dead is more of a feeling. I felt dead, even though I wasn't.
I remember seeing strangers crowd around me, I could literally feel blood pouring from my body, I just couldn't pinpoint where. I couldn't move, no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't speak. I could barely twitch the tips of my fingers.
In that moment, that feeling was worse than dead.
I was expecting to see the rest of Sunset Curve on this side, but I didn't. That's kind of the only thing that made me let go of the last bits of life I was clinging on to. Was the thought of seeing the boys again. That wasn't the case. After following my body to the hospital and being pronounced dead, I sat in a dark room for what felt like an hour. When I finally poofed out of that room, everything was different.
The first thing I did was look for Bobby, who now was going by the name of Trevor Wilson. He did this after the guys died so we could still release music without his parents finding out. What I did find out is that Trevor was releasing all of Luke and I's songs and giving Sunset Curve none of the credit.
I tried to find a reason for this, any reason to justify him doing this, but I only felt anger. I wanted to punch him, throw him down a flight of stairs, something. I couldn't believe he'd ever do something like this, I didn't want to believe he'd do something like this.
After relishing my anger on Trevor, Bobby, Traitor whatever you wanna call him, I looked for Rose. It took me a while to find her, but I eventually did. She was moving into the house where we used to rehearse as Sunset Curve. My parent's old house. My parents left and I had yet to find them, or where they moved to but they sold the house to Rose and Ray, who were now raising a baby girl named Julie.
Rose and I became best friends pretty quickly after Alex, Reggie and Luke died. She was there for me as much as she could be. It was a short lived friendship, only lasted seven months considering I died. Maybe if I hadn't died, we'd still be best friends. Maybe I'd also be marrying someone and having kids of my own.
When I finally poofed back into the world, I was sitting on the bench staring up at The Orpheum. I don't know what made me poof back into the world this time, but as I looked around for what changed this time, I noticed that it wasn't really much. It must've only been a few years.
I stayed sitting on the bench until the sun went down. A lady with dahlias walked past me and I stood up quickly. Dahlias weren't necessarily a common flower to be sold on the strip. I was a firm believer in signs and I knew that dahlias were Rose's favorite flower so I poofed to my parent's old house. Well, I guess it's now the Molina house now.
I noticed a girl walking into the studio that looked like Rose from behind, but I could tell it wasn't her, because she was shorter than Rose.
This must be Julie, I thought. The last time I saw her she was only 10, she had to be at least 16 now. So that answers the question of how long I'd been sitting in that dark room.
I followed her into the studio and watched as she pulled the sheet from the piano and sat down at the bench. I was confused at the fact that the piano had a sheet over it at all. The past few times I came to visit, Rose and Julie were always out here sitting at the piano.
"I'm so sorry, mom. That I haven't been in here." Julie said, looking up at the ceiling.
I put my hand over my mouth, shuddering at the fact that Rose was dead. It didn't feel real that she was gone, but I had yet to see her. Unless those dahlias were her showing me a sign that she no longer was present on this planet.
She climbed the ladder to the loft and I followed her and sat on the beanbag behind her. It was shocking to myself that I had not yet started crying. All of our old instruments were still up here and looking at them did make my eyes water, but I refused to cry.
Julie opened the wooden box that had some of my old clothes in it, though I knew most of my stuff was upstairs in the trunk that Julie kept of her mom's clothes. I wondered if she knew that some of them were mine. She pulled out photos of me, photos that Luke took, and then stumbled upon Luke's journal. The page that was bookmarked with a photo of me is the page she opened and in Luke's messy handwriting scribbled at the top was 'Devyn'.
That's when I broke down. I poofed out of Rose's studio and back in front of The Orpheum. I didn't understand why these horrible things happen to the goodest people. Why I was stuck on this planet alone. I didn't have Rose. I didn't have my parents. I didn't have Alex or Reggie.
And worst of all, I didn't have Luke.
back at the molina residence
"Last night was supposed to be a really big night for us. It was gonna change our lives." Luke said to Julie.
"I'm, uh.. I'm pretty sure it did." Alex said quietly to Luke.
"This is freaking me out." Julie said as she pulled her phone from her back pocket. Alex, Luke and Reggie looked confused as cell phones when they died, looked like mini boxes. Not a mini TV screen.
"What is that, what are you doing?" Luke pointed at her phone. Julie was still holding up the miniature wooden cross decorated with silver emblems up at the boys as if it would help her.
"It's my phone." She huffed. "Nope, stop talking to them, they aren't real, there is no such thing as cute ghosts."
"Oh, think we're cute?" Reggie smiled as he crossed his arms.
Julie ignored the comment and proceeded to google the name of the group on her phone, "Who you calling?" Alex asked leaning forward.
"I'm googling Sunset Swerve." Julie said, matter of factly. She still held the cross out defensively.
"Sunset Curve." The boys responded aggressively, as if she were supposed to know.
Julie again ignored the comment, fixed her mistake and looked down at her phone, "Woah... There is a Sunset Curve. You did die. But not last night. Twenty five years ago?" Julie said, but it came out more as a question. After a pointless conversation about a dark room and Alex crying, Julie showed them her phone which had an article with a picture of them and Jade plastered at the top.
"Wait, guys,Jade! I wonder where she is, she'll be so happy to see us." Luke said looking at the boys before turning to Julie, "Can you 'google' Jade Devyn Taylor'?" Luke asked, air quoting the word google.
Julie obliged and looked up the name Jade Devyn Taylor. She clicked the first article and her jaw dropped when she saw the pictures, "I know this girl, there's pictures of her in the loft."
"Where is she, what is she doing? Is she mega famous now?" Luke asked, his questions coming out one after the other.
"She died... seven months after you did." Julie dropped her arm that was holding the cross and read from the article, "She was hit by a car outside The Orpheum. It says that she planned on carrying the legacy of you guys through her music."
"Oh." The boys standing in front of Julie looked down at the ground, tears brimming their eyes. Not only did they die, but Jade died too. Sunset Curve was nothing more than a distant failed and dead music group. Literally dead. Imagine the bad luck you have to have for everyone in your band to die.
After Julie went inside and agreed that they could stay, they made their way back into the studio and went up into the loft. Luke pulled the box that Julie left open and pulled the stack of photos out of it. The first half of the stack was photos that Luke had taken on his mom's old camera and the second half were photos that Luke had never seen before.
"I wonder what happened to Bobby. If Jade and him stayed friends." Alex said.
"Where did those come from?" Reggie asked looking at the pictures in Luke's hand.
"I don't know, I didn't take these. These must've been after we died." Luke stared down at them a dull ache in his chest, "Why haven't we seen her?"
"I'm sure she just crossed over or something, right?" Reggie asked.
"How did we all die? If we came back when Julie played the demo, why didn't Jade come back with us?" Alex asked.
"I don't know," Reggie took the photos from Luke's hand and shuffled through them while Luke reached over and picked up his journal that was open to the page bookmarked by Jade's picture titled 'Devyn'. "This was my favorite picture of her."
"I'm so sorry, Luke." Reggie said, putting his hand over Luke's.
"We should all be sorry." Luke stood up on the ladder and then climbed down.
"Jade didn't deserve that. There's gotta be a reason that we all came back, you know? We gotta figure it out and do it for her."
dang imagine if jade wouldve just stayed a minute longer and she would've seen the boys
anyways
im wayyyy too excited ab this
all the love