Favorite Record | Luke

𝟏𝟔. 𝐋𝐞𝐟𝐭 𝐔𝐧𝐬𝐚𝐢𝐝

        "The Orpheum?" Tessa's eyes drifted all along the empty space. Luke stood behind her, watching as she allowed her fingers to brush over the tables that had chairs stacked onto them. The lights were low and not a single alive person was inside the large theater.

"Yeah," Luke tore his gaze from her, pivoting and hopping up onto the stage. "It was the one thing we all wanted to do together, I mean, we rehearsed right here." A ghost of a smile graced his lips as he dragged his feet across the stage he'd only stood on for one set, for only a moment it had felt like.

Tessa turned and watched as he stood center stage. "So you think this is your unfinished business, it makes sense." 

She moved to rest her arms against the stage, peering up at him and imaging Sunset Curve performing, playing, and singing their hearts out to a packed out room, the crowd chanting their name and screaming the lyrics, the lights bright and blinding but nothing could mask the joy the boys would feel as their dreams came to life.

Luke pulled himself from the past and found his present and future that slipped away before he even knew it, stood before him. Tess gazed up at him as if he was some great thing, but he wasn't. Because he hadn't listened, because he had fallen victim to his anger he was destroying what happiness he'd helped her find. 

Crouching down, he wasted no time in pulling her up and onto the center of the stage before vanishing up into the sound booth where he flipped a few switches before a light cut on, shining down and illuminating Tess in a golden light. Rather than appear with her on stage, he appeared where she'd been leaning and he grinned.

"Go ahead," Luke urged, wanting to witness her on a stage he'd dreamed of ever since he'd been a kid. He'd dreamed of so many things, had wanted to do so many things and for the most part, he lived with no regrets. 

Running out on his parents was his biggest regret, dying before playing the Orpheum was his second, but stood there, peering up at a woman who stole everything from him and gave him so much more, who wanted to make him be better; breaking her would be his heart's greatest regret and that would follow him, be it from crossing over or fading from existence.

Tessa shook her head. "This is your dream," She watched as he rolled his eyes. "I don't have anything?" She tried once more.

Since singing and dancing in her room, they'd spent the rest of the morning sharing stories of when they had been alive, she spoke more about Piper and in turn, Luke mentioned, briefly, that his parent's names were Emily and Mitch and that his father was a history professor at some university and his mother owned a boutique. 

He'd even mentioned the only reason he and even Alex knew how to dance was because his mother's mother had been a ballerina and taught Emily who taught Luke the more classical styles.

After lunch, when Carlos and Ray arrived home, Tessa took Luke to the beach for an hour or so before Luke brought her here, to the Orpheum and confessed that they figured this was their unfinished business but didn't really have any hope of it coming true seeing as it was nearly impossible to book the first time around.

"You have a journal filled with songs that I know for a fact you've memorized," Luke didn't believe her. "Come on, it's just us and if you do this, I'll tell you any secret you want to know."

Tessa raised her eyebrow at this. "One secret?" A million and one possibilities fluttered inside her mind as to what she could ask and what he could possibly keep hidden.

Luke pulled his bottom lip between his teeth and nodded. "One secret, but only if you do an entire song." He pointed at her, shoving down his worry over what kind of secret she'd want him to share. He didn't have many, the ones he had were worth the title of a secret but it was Tess, and seeing her stood where he'd dreamed of standing, was enough to have him word vomiting and making promises he never thought he'd make.