when styx finally got back to her house, it was after midnight. she quietly opened the door and tip-toed in, thinking that her dads would be asleep. to her surprise, both of them were sitting on the couch in the den, arms crossed and glaring at her.
"uh, hey." she chuckled awkwardly, dropping her bag at her feet and smiling at them.
"how was studying?" her dad asked and she sighed, knowing that ray probably called them and told them she helped julie sneak out.
"i'm so sorry." she says quickly, sitting in the chair across from them.
"yeah, you've been saying that a lot lately." her pops reminds her and she nods.
"not only did you lie to us about where you were going," her dad starts. "but you also helped julie break her dads rules."
styx look down at her feet, avoiding their eyes.
"you said you would tell us when your band started playing shows?" her pops questions, sounding much less angry than her dad. he almost sounded hurt.
"i know, but i didn't think you'd let me go." she explains quickly. "because i missed school this morning."
"well you thought right." her dad nodded.
"it's just, this was our first real gig." styx sighs. "i didn't want to let the band down. julie needs this! it's helped her feel so much closer to her mom."
her dads glanced at each other for a moment, both of their faces softening slightly. they didn't say anything for a moment, and styx looked back and forth between them.
"i guess, that's understandable." her pops sighs, and she smiles ever so slightly.
"but you're still in trouble!" her dad adds quickly, looking to her pops for confirmation, who nods in agreement.
"understood." she nods quickly.
"so, how was the show?" her pops asks, making her dad smack him lightly on the arm. "what? it's not like we can change that she did it!" he explains and her dad sighs.
"fine, how was it?" he asks plainly.
styx smiles and sits up slightly.
"it was amazing! we rocked it." she gushes, and smiles grow on both her dads faces. "and after we played a manager came to talk to us!"
"that's amazing!" her dad says excitedly, suddenly much more interested in the conversation than before. "what did they say?"
"well, she introduced herself, and then julie's dad showed up." she says, frowning slightly. "but hopefully we'll get another gig like that and eventually someone will sign us." she perks up slightly.
"absolutely, i'm sure you guys are amazing." her pops tells her. her dad quickly checked his watched and sighed slightly.
"it's late," he starts. "you need to get to bed so you don't miss school tomorrow too." he says, turning back to a somewhat serious tone.
"yes, chef." she says, grinning jokingly. her pops chuckles slightly while her dad rolls his eyes.
"bed, now!" he points towards her room, and she grabs her bag and heads down the hall, giggling slightly.
when she reached her room, she was surprised to see reggie sitting casually on her bed.
"uh, what are you doing here?" she asks quietly, shutting her door.
"i kind of haunted carlos and tía, so i'm hiding out from julie here." he shrugs, flipping through styx's song book, which they'd been using to write music together.
"okay, well i have to go to bed." she tells him.
reggie grins at her and scoots over to the side of her bed, patting the now empty space next to him. she rolled her eyes, but a smile grew on her face and she crawled on to her bed next to him, snuggling into his shoulder.
he let out a soft chuckle, wrapping his arms around her. reggie was so happy that he was able to touch her. he couldn't imagine not being able to, like luke and julie. as sad as what happened to make her this way was, he was just happy he was lucky enough to have her.
he held her in his arms until she drifted to sleep, at which point he gently moved out from under her and placed a blanket over her before poofing away.
~*~
the next night, styx's dads let her stay over at julies so that the band could rehearse. as the two girls were walking downstairs the next morning, they heard ray singing their song from the other night. then they heard reggie join in and turned to each with confused looks.
they rounded the corner into the kitchen to see ray making breakfast, and reggie standing next to him, smiling.
"this is new." julie comments as the girls walk up the the island.
"yeah, i was in the mood for cooking some breakfast." ray shrugged, and reggie laughed.
"ha! he thought you were talking to him. me and your dad are pals now." reggie giggles and styx ducks her head so ray doesn't see her fighting off a laugh. "it's a little one sided, but it works." he explains.
"look, after the talk we had the other night, i was thinking i may have cost your band an opportunity with that manager." he tells the girls. "so, i was thinking-"
"dad, no." julie cut him off. "i should have never snuck out."
"and i shouldn't have helped her." styx nods beside her. "still sorry about that, by the way." she adds in a mumble, making reggie laugh slightly.
"let the man speak!" reggie stops the girls. "he's been stress eating all week. i don't know where he puts it, though." he motions around the mans torso. "it's like, firm."
"i know," he sighs, looking at both girls. "but i really want to support your band so, i called in some favours and booked you guys a local gig!" he tells them and both girls gasp.
"best dad ever!" reggie announces excitedly.
"oh my gosh! where? did you call your buddy from drakes?" julie asks quickly.
"not quite." ray says hesitantly. "i called flynn, and she's going to help us throw a party. here. tonight." he explains and the girls nod slowly.
"oh! so you booked us a gig at our house?" julie asks, trying to sound excited.
"maybe i was a little early with the best dad ever award." reggie admits awkwardly.
"all right, hear me out." he starts. "you girls invite some of your friends over, you play with your band, and i'll get some of my colleagues to put you on film." he explains. "that way you have something professional for your, youtube." he finishes and julie and styx smile softly.
"you'd do that for us?" julie asks him.
"yeah!" he nods excitedly.
"back to best dad ever!" reggie says decidedly. "i'll go tell the guys." he says, his eyes lingering on styx for a moment. he quickly winked at her before stepping back. "have a good day at work ray!" he tells the man. "it's cool, you don't have to answer." he adds awkwardly before poofing away.
both girls chuckle softly as ray turns back to the eggs on the stove.
"do you girls want any breakfast?" he asks, turning to them. "i'm sure it's no where near as good as your dads cooking." he adds jokingly.
"i'm sure it tastes great." styx assures him.
"and we'd love to have some dad, but we gotta get going." julie says quickly, grabbing styx's wrist and dragging her out of the house. "bye, love you!" she shouts before closing the door behind her. "oh my gosh he winked at you!" she says excitedly as they rush down the path.
"oh, you saw that?" styx chuckles awkwardly.
"of course i saw it!" she says quickly. "what's going on?"
"yeah. um, we kissed." she states as the girls climb into the car. julie gasped and stared at her with wide eyes as styx turned on the ignition and started driving to school.
julie spent the drive drilling her with questions, and flynn joined in when they picked her up. by the time the girls reached the school, styx was sure there was nothing left to asks, but flynn still had one more question.
"you know it can never work though, right?" she asks seriously, raising her eye brows at the red head.
styx nodded slightly, glancing down as the girls walked through the front doors into the school.
"obviously i know that." styx mumbles. "but that doesn't change how i feel. he's real to me." she explains, stopping in front of her classroom.
"after school, we'll figure out something to help you guys both forget about your ghost boys." flynn tells them with a nod. styx's chuckles softly and rolls her eyes, turning into her class room.
~*~
later that day, just before last period, flynn approached styx in the hallway between classes.
"hey, do you have your phone on you?" flynn asks her and styx tilts her head in confusion, but pulls out her phone nonetheless.
"yeah, did you leave yours in your locker or something?" she hands flynn the phone, and the girl shakes her head.
"no, i just need your phone to text dylan." she explains casually and styx's eyes widen.
"what?!" she questions loudly, and flynn shushes her. "why are you texting dylan?"
"i'm just sending a friendly text, asking him to come to the party tonight." she says, typing away. "i did the same for julie, with nick."
"okay, julie has liked nick for years. but are you forgetting that dylan cheated on me?" styx reminds her.
"meghan kissed him, and you guys having been getting along great lately." flynn points out, handing her phone back to her with a grin. "and besides, you don't actually have to get back together with him, you just need to distract yourself from reggie until this crush as passes."
crush. styx knew this was definitely more than a crush. this was a new level of feeling she had never experienced before.
styx looked at her phone to see the message. it was definitely friendly. there were more emojis than words.
"you know he's gonna know this was you, right?" she tells flynn, rolling her eyes slightly.
"doesn't matter, he'll still come." flynn smirks before spinning her heels to head to class.
after last period, dylan approached her at her locker as she was packing up her things.
"hey." he spoke somewhat awkwardly.
"hey." she glanced up from her bag to look at him. "what's up?"
"so flynn texted me from your phone." he states, smiling slightly.
"yeah, i know." styx laughs.
"i just wanted to check if you actually want me at the party." he asks timidly. "i don't want to bother you."
styx took a moment to think about what flynn said. she was right, styx didn't have to get back together with him, she just needed something to keep her mind off of reggie. and maybe they could fix things? their relationship had been getting better over the last few weeks.
"uh, no, it wouldn't bother me." she smiles at him. "you can come." his grin grows and he nods happily.
"awesome, okay. i'll see you tonight, then." he says and she nods. "okay bye." he adds quickly before turning and walking towards a few of his friends down the hall.
flynn and julie approached her a few moments later, both of them smirking.
"what was that about?" flynn asks teasingly.
"dylan wanted to know why you were texting him from my phone." she replies and flynn's smirk drops.
"got it, i need to work on my styx impression." she nods and styx rolls her eyes.
"not my point, but i suppose that's true." she laughs slightly. "but no, he wanted to know if i actually wanted him at the party." she tells them and they look at her expectantly. "and i told him to come." she sighs and julie and flynn grin at her.
"good! so both of you are paying attention to human boys tonight, and not ghost boys!" flynn says, hooking her arms around theirs and leading them out of the school.
~*~
later that night, styx was sitting in a chair inside the studio, waiting for julie and the boys to arrive. julie was in her room getting ready, while the boys were off somewhere unknown.
she was trying to think about dylan, or anything really, to keep her mind off of reggie, but she always ended up thinking about him anyways. his blue eyes were permanently in her brain, and she didn't hate it.
as much as she wanted to convince herself to stop liking him and move on, she just couldn't. every thing reminded her of him, and she just always wanted to be near him.
alex poofed onto the couch across from her, making her jump slightly. she wasn't expecting anyone to poof in and she had been off in a day dream.
"sorry." he says with a small laugh. "thinking about reggie?" he asks teasingly upon noticing her grin. she shook her head and tried to glare at him through her smile.
"no." she says weakly and he laughs again.
"sure you weren't." the blond rolls his eyes. and styx sighs. "where's julie?" he asks, glancing around the room.
"in her room getting ready." styx explains. "where are the other guys?"
"who knows?" alex says, making styx laugh. the room falls silent for a moment.
"hey, i wanted to ask you something." she says and he nods. "that's ghost that willie said could help you talk to trevor, do you think he'd know anything about whatever is happening to me?" she asks, slightly hopeful for a good answer.
"i don't know." alex shrugs, his face falling slightly. "willie's been avoiding me since that night." he tells her and styx sighs.
"that's sucks." she says and he nods. "i'm sorry."
reggie and luke poofed in suddenly, landing on the couch on either side of alex.
styx quickly looked down, reminding herself not to meet eyes with him, or she'll forget all about trying to stop her feelings.
reggie's face falls when he noticed the girl refusing to meet his eyes.
her phone buzzed in her pocket, providing her with an actually excuse not to look up. she looked to see a text from her dad wishing her good luck.
when she went home after school she told her dads about the party and said she would show them the video when it was done.
she smiled softly at the message, replying with a quick thank you. just after she sent the message, julie walk into the studio.
"okay, people are starting to arrive so you gotta get over there." she tells styx, point to the area of the studio under the loft, where no one would be able to see her from out side.
she sighed and stood up, dragging her chair across the room. the boys and julie watched her in amusement as she slumped into her chair on the other side of the room.
"this would be so much easier if i was invisible too." she mumbled, making the others laugh.
"let's just do this thing, yeah?" julie asks and they all nod, beginning to hear the chatter of people out side the studio doors.
~*~