Phantom Next Door

9. Until Next Time

Soft hums floated in the empty classroom where Rosie sat, her songbook in her hands. For the first time in weeks, she had gotten inspired to write. Every single feeling she had felt lately, was soon scribbled on the paper. She sang a little bit of the chorus.

When I Look at You -Miley Cyrus

~Yeah, when my world is falling apart

 When there’s no light to break up the dark

 That’s when I, I

 I look at you~

Sound of applause cut off the girls' train of thought. She looked up from her work...there was no one there. Rosie was still the only person in the room. 

“That was absolutely breathtaking Bella.” The mysterious person complimented.

No it couldn’t be. There is no way that he was there. But who else would call her Bella? The shocked girl twirled around to face the newcomer. There he was - standing right in front of her.

“Noah?” She reached to grab the boy's arm but went straight through him. So she couldn’t touch him like she could the guys. Tears started to fall down her rosy cheeks. 

“It’s okay baby. You can move on… I want you to be happy. Promise me you will live for me. Please?” 

Rosie sniffled quietly “I promise. I miss you so, so, so much NJ.”

“Until next time. I love you Bella, always will.”

“I love you too and I will NEVER forget you!” She cried out. 

Her first love slowly faded away. And Rosie broke down crying. “Until next time.”

That was something they used to say, when the other was going away for a while. Neither of them liked the word goodbye - it sounded so permanent. So they came up with “until next time”. It was a promise that they would always come back to each other, no matter what.

The bell rang. Meaning that lunch hour was over. The girl hadn’t eaten anything. First she had been so caught up on her new song and then her dead boyfriend made an appearance. She hastily got up and used her phone as a mirror to wipe away her tears. Days like these made her feel lucky that she didn’t really use any make up. 

She then left for her next class. 

Back at home, Julie was telling Luke and Reggie about their gig at the school dance. In reality Rosie wasn’t paying that much attention to their discussion. They tried to ask the blond girl if she knew where her brother was, but she was not responding.

“Ro are you okay?” Her best friend asked.

“Hmm… yeah, totally.”

Luke crouched in front of the girl he liked “You are not okay. Anyone could see that. What’s going on?”

“I was writing a new song and then Noah appeared and he talked to me and…” She mumbled.

“What??” Luke questioned.

“I saw Noah!” 

She proceeded to tell her friends about what happened during lunch break.

“I don’t wanna talk about this anymore. And I believe you should be practicing for the dance.”

They completely dropped the topic, respecting the girls wishes. “You are absolutely right, Rora.”

Alex poofed in, he was back from his little “date” with his new friend with Willie. Maybe it wasn’t an actual date but Rosie liked to tease him with calling it a date. Flynn came in a couple seconds after Alex. Great timing. 

Wow it started to get a little crowded when Julie's brother Carlos also decided to join them. Carlos explained how he believed there were ghosts in this one picture. Obviously he isn’t wrong about that one. He went on how he was the man of the house.

Julie chuckled “Isn’t dad supposed to be the man of the house?”

“There can be two... Dad needs all the help he can get, right? Especially now when Rosa is living with us.” 

Carlos pulled a bottle of salt out of his pocket “According to the internet, salt burns their soul out. A little sprinkle will keep them from ever coming here.” He started to sprinkle the salt around the room. Unknowingly towards the three ghosts who were looking terrified. 

Alex got hit “NOO! Oh god, I’m… I’m fine. I’m fine. Totally fine.” 

Julie motioned Flynn to get the young boy out of there. They then continued the rehearsal or at least tried to. Turns out that Bobby aka Trevor Wilson aka Carrie’s dad stole Sunset Curve songs. Julie made a mistake by telling them where the man lives… three angry ghosts went ahead and poofed in his house. So the girls followed them there to get the three idiots out of there. 

The girls went back to Julie's house to plan for their outfits while the boys had gone to meet Willie. He told them about this one ghost who could help them confront Bobby. 

Ro and Jules were walking to the dance when someone bumped into Rosie. The man touched Rosie’s shoulder as his way to make sure she was alright.

“I’m sorry. Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m good.”

The odd man nodded his head and walked away. Ro and her friend looked at each other and bursted into laughter.

Julie and Rosie arrived. The gym was full of dancing people. The two girls made their way to the stage - Flynn was already there. Now they just had to wait for the guys to show up. But they were late. Since the boys had been determined to get revenge on Bobby so Willie had taken them to this club - Hollywood Ghost Club. Some ghost named Caleb Covington owned the place and he was the one who could make lifers see ghosts.

Julie was getting nervous when the boys had still not shown up. Flynn decided to put Rosie to perform in the meanwhile. 

“Is everybody fired up for Julie and the Phantoms?” Flynn yelled in the mic and the crowd cheered.

“Great! Keep that fire ‘cause that's later. We’re a bit behind schedule, but don’t worry, just enjoy this mind-blowing music by Rosabella Mae!”

The crowd was cheering loudly.

Julie had never seen her friend move so fast. Rosie was in total shock. They had not agreed on this, no they hadn’t even talked about this.

“What?!” Rosie yelled.

Heyy! I have to go and get a covid test tomorrow FUN. I've been feeling really drained for the whole day and let's just say I hate being sick. But let's just hope the test comes back negative.