LUKE AND I SPENT ANOTHER hour or two walking around Hollywood, talking. I introduced him to some new music and answered some more questions he had about ghosts. Overall we just had fun.

When we caught up with Alex and Reggie again I told them about this hotspot for people in the music industry that I went to a few years back. Surprisingly they are still open.

At the moment I was sitting at a table with Reggie and Alex as the latter was messing with a female who was trying to take a photo of her muffin, as Luke finishes signing up Julie and the Phantoms on a list for those playing tonight.

Luke walks back and sits down where the female just left as I jot down some new lyric ideas in my notebook "Being, a ghost definitely has its privileges. I just wrote us down on the playlist for tonight,"  Luke says to Alex and Reggie.

Alex leans towards me and says, "I'm getting a little worried about him. He keeps forgetting that  Julie quit the band." I look up from my writing and raise an eyebrow in amusement at his comment before going back to writing.

"She gonna come back, as soon as she knows that we've got a great gig," Luke argues.

"But she doesn't come back let's not forget, we do have somewhere else we can play and eat pizza," Reggie says gaining my attention.

"Dude, I know. It was awesome to be seen by lifers at Caleb's party, but we got this with Julie-," Luke replies before I cut him off.

"Wait! Don't finish that sen-," I try to warn but get interrupted by a deadly pain in my chest and look up to see the guys felt it too as they groan at the unexpected pain.

"Oh. It's that same thing again." Alex says as he rubs his side.

"Just like yesterday. Wait. You felt that too?" Luke asks me when he sees me clutching my stomach.

I nod before seeing Willie out the window with a worried expression. When he notices that I see him he gestures his head to say he wants to talk to me outside. I nod again more discreetly at Willie as the guys continue to talk.

"It feels like that time I was fixing my amp in the rain," Reggie says.

"You shouldn't..." Alex starts but decides against what he was about to say and continues. "Ok. Look, do you think there's something wrong with us?" he asks.

"Yeah. We ate like ten pounds of pizza yesterday without a stomach. I'm sure it's just our bodies working through it." Luke says and I can tell that this isn't going to end well. And it definitely felt like it got worse when Reggie spoke up next.

"But, Victoria didn't eat anything yesterday. Did you?" Reggie asks me.

"I- uh, did end up eating a slice before I caught up with you guys," I lie, hoping that I don't sound too suspicious. They don't seem to think much of it since they nodded and let the subject go, which I was grateful for.

I see Willie waving at me to talk from the window and I quickly excuse myself saying that I need some air before Reggie starts a new topic. "So we're going to just gonna forget that...," I hear him say as I make my way outside.

I walk through the closed door before Willie pulls me around the corner to an ally way to talk privately. "I saw the flickering. You okay?" He asks.

"Yeah, I'm fine. It's just been a while since I felt it. I guess I have to watch what I say from now on," I reply as my foot traces the cracks in the concrete below us. "You okay? You seem a little shaken up," I ask as I notice his nervous stance.

" Caleb wanted me to check on how it was going with the guys. And you know how he can be when he wants something," Willie answers quietly.

"He threatened you?" I ask. Caleb has on many occasions has threatened both mine and Willie's existence multiple times and we knew that he would take them away without a second thought if he wanted to.

When he nods slightly I pull him into a hug before apologizing for having to get back to the guys so they wouldn't notice I've been gone for too long. He understands and we say our quick goodbyes before I go back to the cafe.

⋙♪⋘

I helped the guys form a plan to get Julie to join the band again before heading to her house. The guys have already told me a bit about her and to be honest I was looking forward to meeting her. I was also curious to see how lifers can see the guys by only playing with her.

When we get to Julie's studio she wasn't there so we decided to wait until she showed up. After a few minutes of trying to think of what to do to speed up the time we came up with nothing, I took this as an opportunity to look around.

The studio was fairly big. A few bean bag chairs were laid around a coffee table in front of the black couch that had a few throw blankets hung over it neatly. In the back of the room, there was a grand piano. Looking over the piano I see many plants crowding around a wide window.

There is some band equipment to the side of the room which I'm guessing is where Julie and the guys would practice their songs. I briefly looked upstairs to see a few CDs and cassettes labeled 'SUNSET CURVE. Tell your friends.' There are also a few outfits that I quickly guessed were the guys when I saw a white muscle tee with the logo 'RUSH' written on the front.

The only room I didn't check out was the one in the corner of the studio which I'm guessing is the bathroom. Deciding that I would stop looking around, feeling a little bored, I plopped down on a bean bag chair beside Luke, who was scribbling into a notebook. From the look of concentration, which I knew I wore many times, he was writing down lyric ideas.

I look over to Reggie and Alex who were somehow violently playing rock, paper, scissors by the piano. They stop their competing when they hear the studio's double doors start to open. All the guys get up and move to the center of the room ready to do their apology when a boy who looks like he's in middle school walks in.

"Uh. That's not Julie," Reggie says the obvious.

"Yeah, I thought she would look a bit taller," I jokingly reply with a smirk as Luke sinks back into the chair he was in before.

"That's Carlos. Julie's little brother," Luke clarifies for me as Carlos goes to the room in the corner, the bathroom. I snort as Alex closes the door behind him.

I take out my lyric book from my hoodie pocket and open the page I was working on last. Luke looks over my shoulder to see the title of the page before asking "What's 'Perfect Harmony'?"

I quickly flip the book closed before turning to look back at him. "It's a song I'm working on. It's not ready yet," I reply.

"Hey, I'll show you some of mine if you do too," Luke suggests with a smile, holding up his songbook.

I think for a moment before agreeing "Fine." before I flip to one of my first pages. "Um, here. I wrote this in... highschool? I think," I say before scooting closer to Luke so we could both take a look at the page labeled 'To be Normal'.

Why am I normal? I wish something would be going on. But then again I should be thankful, that I've even lasted this long...

"Well, that didn't age well," I remark making Luke huff a smile as I look over the first few lyrics, not noticing Carlos leave the studio.

"I can't judge. I have a whole song about how we lived life with no regret. I don't really agree with it nowadays," Luke says as he shows me a page labeled 'Now or never' which I smile at.

We share songs we've written over the years and he tells me a bit about his song 'Unsaid Emily' and how it's about his relationship with his mom. Since we were on the topic I told him a bit about my relationship with Lila and a bit about how 40 years as a ghost can be.

We give each other our full attention as we share our stories, enjoying each other's company. I make sure to leave a few details or subjects that involve Caleb. We barely notice that it's been two hours and are surprised at the sound of the double doors to the studio opening again only for Carlos's head to pop in.

"What's he doing?" I ask as Luke and I get up from our seats to stand next to Alex and Reggie by the piano.

"Does he need to pee again? That's just awkward... For us, not for him." Alex says as Carlos steps in, holding a roll of burnt sage, and looks around the room.

Carlos holds it up and looks around as he says, "I know you're there, ghost. I just want to talk."

"How does he...? Oh," I ask as Carlos brings the sage very close to my face. "Hello, there."

"Oh, Carlos is an inspiring ghost hunter," Reggie replies with a grin.

"Ahh," I reply with a small nod as Carlos steps back and grabs a stool to sit in, and places the burning sage on a tray.

"I found out what you were," Carlos says. "I asked my dad if he knew about anyone who lived here before and I think I put it together."

"Huh. The kid might have actually found out this time," Alex says, leaning against the piano.

"You were... an actor! Who never got his big break," Carlos says dramatically.

"I take back my last statement," Alex adds.

"He's not that far off," Luke justifies, pushing himself up to sit on the piano.

"He thinks there's only one of us here. And wait! We're not actors," Reggie replies.

Soon after Carlos left and we went back to waiting. I'm hoping that Caleb won't need me to come back right away but knowing him, I'll probably have to be back in about an hour and a half...

About an hour later, we heard some footsteps coming down the concrete stair pathway, which made the guys get back into formation, whereas I just stay sat on a bean bag as Julie walks in.

"We're sorry."

"So sorry."

"We're super-duper, crazy, stupid,"

"Sorry!"

"In case you missed it, we're really sorry," Reggie apologies as they all stand.

"Yeah. I got that part," Julie replies, seeming disappointed to see them. Now that I can properly see her I can see she's very pretty, a bit shorter than me, and is wearing a blue dress with a white top under it, a cream sweatshirt, and a blue headband to hold back her loose curls.

"We've been here for like, three hours," Alex tells her with a smile, before high-fiving a happy Reggie.

"We almost sang to your little brother," Luke informs her.

"He comes in here a lot. Mainly to use the bathroom," Reggie adds.

"Yeah, It's not our favorite part of the day," Alex says.

"But, Julie, it wasn't okay that we flaked on the dance last night. We know we let you down," Luke says, getting back to the main subject.

"Yeah, and none of us wanted to disappoint you. You're the best thing that's happed to us since we became ghosts," Alex agrees honestly.

"So, in hopes that you'll rejoin the band, our new ghost friend helped us book a new gig," Luke says as he walks up to her with the flyer for the event tonight.

"A ghost friend?" Julie asks curiously.

"Oh, that would be me. Hi, I'm Vitoria Blue. It's nice to meet you," I tell her, holding out a hand, after standing up from the bean bag and making myself visible.

"Hi?" Julie replied.

"At the event, there are going to be tons of managers looking out for new bands," I add as I put my hands in my pockets. I also just realized she wouldn't have been able to shake it anyways which makes me a little bummed.

"All we gotta do is blow them all away, and we're living the dream," Luke adds.

"So this means a lot to you, huh? Kind of how playing in front of my whole entire school meant a lot to me," Julie says sarcastically.

"Sounds like sarcasm," Reggie gasps then whispers to me, "I'm starting to think our plan isn't working."

"Probably best not to be whispering about it," I whisper back.

Alex rolls his eyes, ignoring our comments before saying, "Look, we know we messed up."

"But we need you in the band," Luke tells her quietly.

"Of course you do, because, without me, no one can see you guys playing. You know, I thought that the music that we were writing was special, but you're too obsessed with your past to even care," Julie says angrily.

"I do care! Our band has a real chance at greatness. I'm not gonna let that get away from us again," Luke pleas.

"Uh-huh. Right. So then why did you bail on me to get back at Trevor? I'll tell you why. Cause there's only one thing you care about, and that's yourself," Julie says before storming off.

"Dude, she didn't mean it," Alex tells Luke, who looks almost heartbroken. Luke doesn't reply. Instead, he teleports away.

"I know, this is poor timing but I think I should probably go," I tell Reggie and Alex.

"No, we get it. Go. Meet up with us later," Reggie replies.

I nod in return before teleporting back to the club, only to find Caleb waiting for me in my room. "Have fun? How's my new band?" He asks wickedly.

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A/N: Hi, lovelies. Don't forget to vote and follow for more updates! Also, do you guys have any good JATPs fanfics to recommend? - Zoe Manijeh

Word count: 2420