Alex and Luke; A 'Julie and the Phantoms' AU

Part 10: They're Onto Us

1995, Saturday, 7 days before the gig

The guys have spent every day for the past 2 weeks rehearsing for the gig they have. They really want to make the best impression they can for the grand opening of this venue so that they'll be guaranteed to play there often and grow a good fan base (and also make a fair amount of money but, hey, it's about the music).

It's now almost midnight, and they have just received their 3rd noise complaint from the neighbors. All it took was a threat to have the cops called on them for them to finally all agree that maybe they should call it a night.

Alex was the first to get all his stuff and head to the door to leave. "Alright, see you guys around." he called, with a chorus of 'see ya' thrown back at him.

To Reggie and Bobby, "see you around" was just a casual long-form way of saying goodbye. Luke, however, knew of the secret message it hid. Luke and Alex had created a few short coded words to use when they were around the guys but had to communicate something to just the other. "See you around" meant that instead of leaving, one of them was going to walk down the drive a bit before making a sharp left turn and going "around" the garage where he'd wait for Bobby and Reggie to leave so he could go back in and see the other one alone. They came up with this one out of fear that Reggie or Bobby would start to get curious as to why Alex or Luke would always be the last ones to leave.

There Alex waits, behind the garage and occasionally peering in through the window to see when Reggie and Bobby leave. It only takes a moment before they're saying their goodbyes to Luke. "You guys go ahead," Luke says to them, "I've got this song I've been tryna write for a little while now and the lyrics are giving me a hard time. I'm gonna stay back and try to get it right." With this not-entirely-pulled-out-of-no-where lie, Reggie and Bobby make their way out of the garage and down the drive. Once far enough away, Alex makes his way back around and walks into the garage again, quickly shutting the doors behind him.

He turns around to face Luke who is standing with his hands in his pockets, looking back at him. "Hi." Luke says. Alex sighs and lets out a soft smile, "Hi." he says back. Alex takes off his bag and places it down on the ground next to him. Luke saunters over to Alex and stops a few inches in front of the boy. He takes his hands out of his pockets and puts his fingers through Alex's belt loops, pulling him closer as he goes onto his tip-toes to kiss the taller boy.

As much as Alex enjoys the kiss, he has to say what is on his mind. He puts his hands on Luke's waist and gently pushes him so they come apart. Luke looks at Alex's pensive face. "What's wro-" Luke begins to say, but Alex interrupts.

"They're getting suspicious." Alex blurts out. Luke, still on his tip-toes to look the boy in the eyes, quickly goes into a reassuring tone. "What? Wha- no... no they- they don't-"

"Luke," Alex interrupts again, "don't act like you haven't noticed the way Bobby watches us sometimes. And- and the way he and Reggie exchange looks. Okay, they know something is up."

Luke lets the words hang in the air between them for a moment, wishing he could disprove what Alex just said, but he knows he can't. He sighs, comes down off of his toes and let's go of Alex. "Yea," he says quietly, "Yea... I know." Luke turns away and walks over to the couch and falls onto it, his whole body giving into gravity pulling him down.

Alex watches Luke crash down onto the couch hard and begins to feel bad for bringing this up. He puts his hands in his pockets and looks down at his feet, gently brushing one across the ground. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have brought it up now. I should've just let us enjoy this time we have together. Y'know maybe it's just my paranoia and they don't actually know anything, right?" Alex says.