The Rhythm Guitarist

part eleven

"Dude, don't sweat it, they can do it," Luka reassured as she and Julie paced back and forth in the garage. She didn't know if the reassurance was meant for Julie, herself, or simply both.

Suddenly the guys poofed in, "Oh my god! What took you guys so long? Did Willie do it?" Julie asked, bombarding them with questions, "Did you talk to them? Did they watch? Did they like us? Are we playing?" even more questions, "Someone answer! Why's no one talking?"

"Woah! That's a lot of questions!" Reggie finally snapped being overwhelmed, "Luke, you wanna take this one?" he asked.

"Take a seat." he directed the girls, and they did just that. And the guys all knelt in front of the coffee table, "It's fine. Everything's fine." Luke reassured.

"Yeah, you should be getting a call right... now!" Alex said although Julie's phone didn't ring, which left all five in an awkward and eerie silence, "Okay, okay. Right... now!" they tried again, and finally after a hot second, it rang.

"Nailed it," Luke said as they all high-fived.

Julie was signaling for someone else to take it, and since she didn't Luka took it upon herself.

"Hello?" she said as she put the phone on speaker.

"Hi, this is Tasha from the Orpheum in Hollywood." already at that they started cheering, "Are you 'Lucie and the Phantoms?" she asked and they all froze.

Luka picked up the phone, "Yes, it is."

"Hi." Tasha said again, and once again they started jumping and cheering silently, "Are you available to open for us tonight?" she asked.

"Yeah, totally!" Luka said everyone still jumping.

"Okay," Tasha said.

"Thank you so much," Luka said.

"See you then," Tasha said and ended the call.

"We did it!" Luka yelled.

"We're playing the Orpheum, baby! Yeah!" Julie said with glee.

________________

"Are you ready?" Julie asked as she opened the garage doors, revealed the guys.

The two had picked out two of her mom's dresses to wear during their performance.

"Hey, is something wrong?" Luka asked worriedly.

"Yeah. We just got rocked pretty hard by one of those jolt things." Alex answered as they all walked over to the girls.

"Pretty sure I ghost peed a little," Reggie admitted.

"But we're fine," Luke reassured.

"Actually, guys. I'm a little nervous." Julie admitted.

"Listen, there's nothing to be worried about, they're just pre-performance jitters," Luke reassured.

"Luke, uh, can I talk to you for a second?" Julie asked.

"Yeah," he said, and the other three backed away.

"So, how do you guys feel about finally performing there?" Luka asked the other two.

"Well, considering it took us months to book it, and then for us to die? I'd say I'm not sure." Alex said.

"Lovely,"

"Guys," Luke said, "band circle." they all held hands - well, to an extent -, "We don't know what brought us here, but what we do know is, you guys are darn good friends." he said, "And just because this is our last night together, it doesn't mean we won't be watching you from above... or..." he caught himself with the 'or', and looked down, making everyone chuckle, "Now let's go rock this show. Let's give 'em a night they'll be talking about 'til the sun comes up, okay," he spoke.