𝐑𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐥𝐞𝐬𝐬 | 𝐉𝐮𝐥𝐢𝐞 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐏𝐡𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐨𝐦𝐬

𝟒𝟑 | 𝐋𝐞𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐬

We arrived in the garage to see Julie nervously pacing back and forth.

"Oh my gosh! What took you guys so long?" Julie asked. "Did Willie do it? Did you talk to them? Did they watch the video? Did they like us? Are we playing tonight? Can someone answer me? Why is no one saying anything?"

"Whoa! That's a lot of questions!" Reggie exclaimed.

"Great thinging!" I praised. "Although next time, I would add in a little more existentialism."

"Luke, you wanna take this one?" Reggie asked.

"Take a seat," Luke calmly advised.

We all sat around Julie and took deep breaths.

"It's fine," Luke reassured her. "Everything's fine."

It reminded me of when we first arrived in Julie's garage. When I started freaking out and Luke calmed me down as if it was nothing - as if it came naturally to him.

"Yeah, you should be getting a call right ... now!" When the phone didn't start ringing, Alex tried again. "Okay, right ... Now!"

The phone started ringing. We all cheered in triumph.

"Go!"

"Answer it!"

"Hello!" Julie answered the phone.

"Hi, this is Tasha from the Orpheum in Hollywood. Is this Julie of Julie And The Phantoms?"

We all jumped around chaotically.

Julie cleared her throat, we all paused. "Yes, it is."

"Hi, are you available to open for us tonight?"

Chaos erupted once again as excitement took over.

"Yeah, totally!" Julie replied enthusiastically. "Thank you so much!"

Julie ended the call and we all continued to dance around. Luke and Reggie picked up Alex and spun him around in the air.

"We're playing the Orpheum, baby!" Julie exclaimed.

———

To be entirely honest, I didn't have a good feeling going into this. I never had a good feeling about anything. There was always a voice inside my head telling me that something would go wrong or that I had to worry about the smallest of things. But this whole situation was no small thing.

We didn't even know if playing the Orpheum was our unfinished business. We could've wasted our time doing all of this when we could've been trying to figure out what our actual unfinished business was. Even worse, what if this was only some of our unfinished business? What if we had so much more to do and so little time to do it?

At least I had finally gone on the last of my daily walks - they always gave me too much time to think and that was the last thing I needed.

When I walked into the garage, the guys were preparing for the show. Luke was scribbling on a clipboard and going through song choices.

"Julie and I were thinking we'd start with Bright," Luke said.

"Ooo, my favourite!" I beamed, causing the guys to jump.

"Where did you come from?" Reggie asked as he placed a hand on his chest.

"Don't worry, it's not like I can give you a heart attack," I joked. "I'm just back from my walk."

"Cool, we're just going through songs," Luke said. "So, open with Bright?"

"Perfect," Alex said.