𝐑𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 | 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐬

𝟏𝟕 | 𝐓𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠

When I arrived in the garage, Luke and Reggie were sitting on the sofa watching Alex pace back and forth.

"There you are!" Reggie exclaimed. "Where'd you go?"

"I-"

"We'll get back to that," Luke said, clearly stressed, "Alex is doing the thing you both do."

Alex stopped in his tracks and turned to face Luke.

"What thing we both do?" We asked in unison.

"That thing," Luke gestured vaguely in our direction.

"Maybe you could both thing together and sort this thing out and stop thinging altogether!" Reggie suggested.

"Yeah!" Luke beamed, to which Alex and I exchanged confused glances.

"Alex," Reggie gestured towards Alex. "You were just talking about change."

"Ruth," Luke continued. "What do you think about that?"

"About change?" I asked, to which Luke nodded. "I guess it's ... scary?"

"Right!" Alex chimed. "And when we died, a lot changed."

"That was quite terrifying."

"And now people can somehow see us play," Alex added, referring to the band. "But we have no idea how."

"Or why," I added.

"Or if we can do it again."

"Or for how long it will last."

"Or if it was just a once off thing."

"Or if you were just imagining it."

"Or if Julie let us think people could see us to make us feel better."

"No way, man," Reggie interrupted. "That cheerleader totally saw me."

"Dude!" Luke hit Reggie in the arm. "They were thinging!"

"Yeah, Reggie," I said jokingly. "Let us thing in peace."

"Okay, never mind," Luke sighed. "People being able to see us play? That was a good change. With Julie, we can play on stage again and be the band we never got to be. Come on, I mean, you gotta be down for that."

"Yeah, I mean, who wouldn't be? I just ... " Alex drifted off.

"He needs to know why," I explained.

"Exactly."

"Forget why!" Luke stood up. "Man, I say we invite Julie to join Sunset Curve."

"Yeah, totally!" Reggie agreed. "I mean like, think about it ; with a new lead singer, this band would be legendary."

"Hey!" Luke exclaimed, hurt. "I'm our lead singer."

As Luke and Reggie debated, Alex started pacing again.

"And we're on the runway again," Luke turned to Alex.

"Okay, I'm sorry, alright? I just ... " Alex sighed. "I gotta go clear my head."

With that, Alex headed for the door and attempted to pull the handle. Unfortunately, he had forgotten he was a ghost.

"Dude, you're a ghost," Reggie stated. "Just poof out."

"Don't tell me how to ghost!"

After taking a deep breath, Alex vanished. Reggie whistled at his outburst.

"Guys, give the man a break he just died, became a ghost, became a ghost drummer who can apparently be seen by people and now you're talking about asking someone to join your band?" I exhaled. "Man, that was a mouthful."

"I mean, when you put it like that ... " Reggie admitted.

"Yeah," I nodded wide-eyed. "It's a lot."

"Hey, where were you anyway?" Luke asked. "You missed our killer performance!"

"I was there for most of it. I ... " I shook my head after getting briefly distracted by Luke's mother's eyes. "I just had something to take care of."

The two of them totally knew I was lying, but decided to let me get away with it and changed the subject.

"Well, now that we have an audience," Luke smiled cheekily. "We need to work on some new material."

"Heck yeah, we do!" Reggie agreed.

Before they could even think about their instruments, I had the equipment set up behind them.

"Hell yeah, you do," I smiled, to which Luke smiled back.