Dancing Queen (Julie and The Phantoms)

17. Regaining Trust

We left Luke to grief with his parents. It seemed like we were intruding and interrupting a moment of his.

Coming back to the studio after a couple of cries and discussions felt amazing. When talking it up, we chose to rehearse 'Finally Free' since it was our best shot at the café scout concert. It also represented us as a band in this moment. As always, Julie took charge of the vocals.

<Marching on proud>
<Turning it up loud>
<'Cause now we know what we're worth>

To our surprise, Luke poofed on a chair. He sprung himself upwards after he barely grazed the furniture. "Whoa, Julie."

She beamed, the past of our mistakes left behind us. "Grab your guitar. We got work to do."

Not sure why we were given a second chance, he glanced at us. Then he grabbed his guitar by the neck, approaching Julie cautiously. "What made you come back?"

"I realized how important music is to all of us. And we've lost so much already. We can't lose this, too," she responded.

Their eyes were digging at each other's soul, craving for something more. The love is in the air. I wish I could push their faces together so they could kiss, but I can't. My hand would go through her as fast as Luke's lips would by themselves.

"Thanks." Luke nodded. He proceeded to grab the instrument using his muscle memory. "All right boss, where we at?"

"Oh, and by the way, happy birthday." Luke's face, once again, was the definition of shocked. I surpresed a giggle while everybody went back to position. "Let's go from the prechorus."

Gladly, Alex smashed his drumsticks against each other to mark the pace. "One, two, three, four!"

¸¸♬·¯·♩¸¸♪·¯·♫¸¸¸♬·¯·♩¸¸♪·¯·♫

Rehearsing was cut when I glanced at the clock and realized it was pretty dark outside. Julie, having homework to do, went singing back to her house, meaning it was our chance to check out the place. We explored until people were beginning to take seats. Why is she not here yet?

We unanimously avoted that we should go to her house, see what was going. She wasn't on the kitchen, living room, or garage, so our best bet was her room.

Reggie's arm went through the door to knock. We heard a sigh before she said, "What are you guys doing?"

Now, it was his upper body's turn to materialize on the other side. "We're being classy."

"C'mon you cute idiot," I whispered, pulling him back. Maybe I pulled him a little too much.... he kind of stumbled on me. He smirked, bringing a light red tint on my cheeks.

Alex shoved both of us inside Julie's room separately, huffing in the process and doing his pouty face. He gave Reg a quick glare before Luke spoke. "Why are you still here? We're going in, like, 20 minutes."

Sitting on the edge of her bed, Julie's mood completely changed since the last time we saw each other. "I lied to my dad, so... now I'm stuck in my room all night."

"Yeah, but we were just at the venue. I mean, it's packed. Like, VIPs, managers... It's kind of crazy," Alex motivated.

She covered her face. "What are we gonna do about my aunt? She's right downstairs."

"Your aunt," Luke laughed, pushing the window wide open easily.

I rubbed my hand together, not being able to shake off the adrenaline pumping me up. "You're not taking the stairs."