when luke came back into the garage, i was laying on the couch scrolling on julies laptop and reggie was tuning his bass over by the amp.

"hey check out what i found." luke holds a piece of paper to us. "it's a poem julie wrote, and i already have an idea for a melody. you guys wanna work on it together?"

"do i want to know where you found that?" i point at the paper and luke looks at me with a guilty look.

"probably not." he admits.

"okay, just don't tell me and i can have deniability." i nod, hopping over the table in front of the couch to grab the paper from him and reading it. "wow this is really good." i pass the note to reggie who had moved to stand beside me and grab my guitar.

"yeah and check this out," luke starts a riff on his guitar and i can already tell which part of the lyrics he was matching to.

we had been playing for a while, shooting ideas off of each other and jamming out.

"okay what do you think about this riff?" luke asks us and begins playing.

"sweet, i'm feeling that." reggie nods. "and then i come in with a little-" he starts strumming a bass line. both of them nod at me to join and i add in a rhythm guitar line, making both of them smile.

"guys, you aren't supposed to be out here playing alone." julie says, walking into the studio.

"but we're not alone," reggie says as luke wraps an arm around his shoulder. reggie does the same to pull me into a small band huddle. "because we always have each other." luke and i grin at the dark hair boy between us. he can be so innocent some times, it's kind of adorable.

julie rolls her eyes and unplugs reggies bass from the amp.

"we had the volume level on one." luke defends.

"but we rocked it on volume 10." reggie adds.

"yeah, want us to play it again?" i ask as julie looks at us deadpanned and rips the plug to mine and luke's guitars out of the other amp.

"i really don't think she does." luke tells us.

"we've actually been waiting for you to get home!" i turn back to julie after setting my guitar down.

"yeah, so we have some pretty major news to tell you," luke continues. "we had a band meeting earlier and" he points to reggie and i to start drum rolling, "we want to invite you to join sunset curve!"

"and no, you're not dreaming." i add.

"oh," julie sighs.

"oh, oh she said oh." i whisper to the boys.

"that's what you say when you get socks on your birthday, not when you're invited to join the most epic band ever!" luke tells her.

"sorry! i'm honoured, but i can't think about anything but flynn right now." julie sighs. "she's still mad at me for lying. she hasn't even texted me back."

"yeah you're in a tough spot." i sigh with her.

"so you wanna join the band?" luke asks again.

"read the room dude." julie and i say simultaneously. julie starts to walk out of the studio.

"oh come on. we need you, and you need us because you need music!" luke says and julie starts to turn around. "i found this poem you wrote and, the three of us, we added this really cool melody to it, it sounds awesome-"

"where did you find that?" julie snaps.

"uh, definitely not your dream box." luke grabs my arm and pulls me in front of him, to which i grab reggie and pull him in front of me. julie stomps towards luke as reggie and i each jump out of the way, and reaches for the paper.

"you went through my stuff!?"

"yeah we can do that now!" reggie exclaims.

"cool right?" i add.

"no, not cool. you can't go through my stuff!" julie continues as she chases luke around the room. "boundaries! give it back!"

"no!" luke hops onto the piano bench. "you need to realize how insanely talented you are! okay just listen to this: if somebody hurts you" julie reaches for the paper again but luke pulls it back. "if somebody hurts you, i'm gonna get hurt too. and my life my life will be real low, zero, flying solo."

"Oh Oh!" reggie and i sing the melody from behind julie and she rolls her eyes at us.

"it's a killer melody." luke tells her.

"i wrote that about flynn, when she was helping me with all my mom stuff." she sighs. "i gotta go." she spins on her heels and walks out of the garage.

"hey! what about the band?" luke calls after her.

"oh, i almost forgot!" she says, turning back around at us. "stay out of my room!" she slams the garage doors shut.

"yeah? we will if you join our band!" luke pops his head through the door.

~*~

later that day, reggie, luke and i were still gathered around the piano, perfecting the song.

"wait so, when she says deep dish, is she talking about like pizza or?" reggie clarifies. before either of us could respond, alex poofed onto the piano in front of us.

"oh hey man!" reggie greets him.

"where you been?" i ask, noticing the giddy smile on my best friends face.

"kind of everywhere." he says. "yeah, i met a new ghost friend."

"for real?" reggie asks.

"yeah he answered a ton of questions." alex smiles.

"like whether julies gonna join the band or not?" luke rips his book out from under alex.

"well we didn't really get to that, but i think i know why we're here!" he turns to reggie and i. "all ghost have, like, unfinished business, so we need to do our unfinished business so that we can cross over."

"why would we do that?" i question, stepping back slightly.

"yeah, i mean this is our second chance." luke agrees. "all we need to do is get julie to play with us."

"yeah, not only can that girl sing, she can write too." reggie explains.

"we made a killer melody to one of her lyrics, check it out." i grab the paper from luke and hand it to alex.

"oh." he read the paper. "without your drummer, cool."

"dude, drumming is so 90s. we're just gonna stomp our feet now." luke says and i roll my eyes.

"okay, well you know what else is so 90s?" alex responds. "being rude, alright get woke, these are sensitive times." he slams the paper back at luke's chest before leaning over the reggie and i. "i learned that from my ghost friend." he whispers.

"woke," reggie repeats. "that's a cool word."

"what does it mean?" i ask.

"no clue."

~*~

i decided to try to go find julie, i may not have the best experience with girl friends but i want to help her if i can. i found her just as she found flynn.

"hey julie!" she turns back at me quickly before shaking her head and turning back to flynn.

"flynn! what are you doing here?" she ignores me to focus on her friend. "i've been looking all over for you!"

"not every where, because here i am." her friend responds sarcastically.

"i've been texting you all day! the least you could have done is text me back."

"i sent a poop emoji, i think it said everything."

what the hell is an emoji?

"i was just leaving this," flynn pulled a white t-shirt out of her bag with their 7th grade band name on it. "i won't need it any more."

"just tell her julie," i say, stepping closer to her.

"i'm not taking it." julies tells flynn, continuing to ignore me.

"fine, then my dad can wash his car with it. though all this betrayal on it might scratch his paint." flynn says.

"okay that's a little bit dramatic." i roll my eyes from behind julie.

"look, i'm very sorry for not telling you!" julie continues. "but i need you to know how important you are to me. there's no way i would have made it through this year if it wasn't for you!"

"yet it was four strangers who got you back into music."

"julie, tell her, she'll understand." i can see julie shaking her head at me subtly.

"i don't need someone in my life who lies, and keeps things from me." flynn sighs. "goodbye julie."

"we can prove it to her, just tell her!" i'm practically shouting at julie by this point.

"they're ghosts!" julie grabs flynn shoulders to stop her from walking away.

"thank you!" i exclaim. "it's about time." i add under my breath.

"what?" flynn asks.

"the people in my band. they aren't holograms, they're ghosts. and when we play together people can see them." she explains.

"what do you mean ghosts?" flynn clarifies. "like the kind that rattle chains and go 'boo!'?"

"hey!" i say offendedly.

"no, and i'm pretty sure that's just a hurtful ghost stereotype. these are just normal dead dudes." she pauses. "well, reggies a little questionable." she adds, making me laugh.

flynn grabs her phone and starts typing.

"who are you texting?" julie asks.

"your dad. he told me to text him if i was worried about you, and i'm worried." she sighs. "you're saying things jules."

"that's not good, you should probably stop her." i tell julie, who rolls her eyes and grabs flynn's phone from her hands.

"alright, so you want to be difficult." julie starts. "meet me in my moms studio in 30 minutes and i'll prove to you that i'm not crazy! and please don't text my dad."

"you have 30 minutes." flynn agrees, grabbing her phone back.

"are those eggs?" i point to flynn's bag and julie glances down.

"eggs? why did you bring eggs?"

"what? no, see i grabbed those by mistake." flynn stutters. "it's not like, i was gonna throw them at your bedroom window or anything."

julie sighs and walks towards the house, followed by me.

"30 minutes!" flynn calls after us.

"i told you to stop that!" julie turns to me once we get into the house.

"invisible side kick, remember? i'm just here to help." i defend, holding my hands up in surrender. she just rolls her eyes and continued up the stairs. "i'll tell the guys!" i shout after her before poofing back to the studio.

~*~

exactly 30 minutes later, flynn knocks on the studio doors.

"thanks for coming. we just wanted to rehearse the song so it was perfect, which it's not, but whatever." julie explains.

"no, if i'm going to hear a song from your imaginary ghost band, i want it to be perfect. so get back in there." she points around the room. "all of you. you too!" she points to air.

"they're not out here." julie laughs.

"oh i know." flynn pats her friends shoulder as she walks past julie into the studio. she stopped only a few feet away from where reggie and i were stood, holding our instruments.

"alright guys, you ready?" julie looks around to all of us and we nod, before she turns back to flynn. "actually, can you go over there? reggie needs some space to rock out and he feels kind of weird walking through you." julie tells flynn, making reggies cheeks redden slightly.

"boy, when you create a world, you really live in it." flynn laughs.

"just sit," julie pushes her into a chair. "if you'll notice, there's no equipment that would produce a hologram. feel free to look around." she walks back over to her keyboard before continuing. "the band took a poem that i wrote about you, and put it to music."

"aw, i wish i didn't have to talk to your dad after this." flynn replies.

"it's called flying solo. i hope you like it."

julie begins the play the intro as the guys and i glances around at each other preparing to blow a young girls mind.

"when i look at you it's like i'm looking at me."

the four ghosts pop up in front of flynn, wailing on our instruments. she jumps and screams as we sing the backing vocals behind julie.

My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo
My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you
Hey, yeah, yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah
My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you

julie walks towards her friend and crouches in front of her, grabbing her hand.

Yeah, you know who I'm likin' way before I liked them, duh
'Cause you liked them first
And if somebody hurts you, I'm gonna get hurt too
That's just how we work, yeah, that's just how we work

luke and reggie start to share their mic for the back up vocals as i use the mic on the other side of alex.

It will never change
We both know what I, what I
What I mean
When I look at you it's like I'm looking at me

julie pulls flynn up from the chair and pulls her around the room to each of us as luke moves to the mic behind the couch.

My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo
My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you
Hey, yeah, yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah
My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you

as the music slows, flynn shoves a hand through reggies shoulder.

"weird right?" he smirks at her.

"they're ghosts!" she exclaims.

"oh, uh we prefer musician spirits." alex tells her.

"julie! so does this mean you're joining our band?" luke asks from across the room. julie walks towards him, quickly followed by flynn.

"actually, i think your joining her band."

"i'm gonna go with what she said." julie agrees.

"i think we can work with that." i laugh, nodding at the guys.

My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo
My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you
Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah
Hey, yeah, yeah
My life, my life would be real low, zero, flying solo without you

"still want to talk to my dad?" julie asks.

"no, i'm good." flynn says with a laugh

~*~

later that night, the boys had gone out somewhere again and i was hanging out in the studio with my guitar, strumming quietly and working on some songs. i was going over a song that luke and i worked on together called Finally Free when julie entered the studio.

"oh, hey." she said when she noticed me.

"hey." i offered her a smile as she walked towards the piano to grab her laptop. "oh, thanks for letting us use that. it's been really helpful."

"yeah, of course." she leans against the back of the chair beside the couch. "i can't imagine how hard it must be to suddenly be 25 years in the future."

"yeah, it's definitely weird." i nod, leaning back on the couch.

"how have you been doing?" julie asks timidly, sounding almost like she wasn't sure if she should ask.

"i'm basically okay. besides the guys, i wasn't really all that close with anyone." i explain. "i would definitely be struggling a lot more if i didn't have them. especially luke, he gets me through everything."

"yeah, he's pretty sweet." she sighs happily, making me wondering if she might be developing feelings for luke. i decide not to say anything about it because i don't want to make it weird.

"so you and flynn are all good again?" i change the topic to the first thing i could think of.

"yeah! we're great." she smiles.

"that's awesome! i'm so happy for you." i tell her excitedly, though i kind of already figured that by the way they made up after the song.

"and i couldn't have done it with out you guys, so thank you, again." she laughs. "you make a pretty good invisible side kick." she adds jokingly.

"i told you it was i good idea!" i say, a bit too loudly, making both of us break out laughing.

~*~