Dead and Alive

Chapter 12

Her dad was working late and Carlos was with Tia at baseball practice until at least 7:30. The one night when she wanted to talk to her dad and he wasn't home.

Julie stood in front of her door, debating just going into her empty house. She turned and went to the studio instead.

"Hey Julie!" Luke said happily when she entered. He had his guitar in his hands. Alex was at his drum set and Reggie was holding his bass. Willie was sitting on the couch, which was a welcome surprise. "You should hear the sweet tunes we've been putting together!"

She gave him a half-smile. "I'd love to. But maybe later?" She went straight to Willie and curled up beside him on the couch. Instead of leaning on him, she slid right through his body to the armrest on the other side. She sat up.

"Your zap wore off," he said apologetically.

For some reason, not being able to touch Willie made her tear up.

Luke's eyes widened in panic. "Are you crying?"

Alex glared at him. "Tears aren't catching, Luke. Relax."

"What's wrong?" Reggie put down his instrument and went to sit on the chair kitty corner to where she was.

"Yeah." Alex put his sticks down to sit on the floor in front of her. "You don't look happy."

Luke put his guitar on it's stand, and then sat beside her on the couch, close enough that their thighs would be touching if he was alive. He picked up the tissue box on the side table and passed it to her, first try. "What happened?"

"I got into a fight with Flynn," Julie said, which made her tears flow faster. She grabbed a handful of tissues and wiped at her eyes.

"With Flynn?" Reggie demanded, shocked. "But, she's the sweetest!"

"Evidently not." Alex shot him a censuring look.

"What did you fight about? it couldn't have been that bad," Willie said, smiling reassuringly.

"Oh, it was bad." Julie dabbed her eyes with her wad of tissues. "We fought about you."

Willie's head bobbed back. "Me?"

"She told me that she didn't think you were real. That she'd never thought you were real! She 'believed that I believed,' as if that was good enough!"

"But Flynn knows Willie's real. She's seen him." Luke crossed his arms, obviously pissed on Julie's behalf.

"She'd never actually seen me until the night you guys appeared," Willie said.

"But couldn't she hear you? like she hears us when we play?" Reggie asked.

"We're the only ghosts lifers can hear besides Willie's boss," Alex said.

"Really?" Reggie blinked. "Wow."

"Wait," Luke said. "So, the entire time you and Flynn have known each other, she's never seen Willie? Like, at all?"

"Nope." Willie shook his head.

"You didn't, like, wear a sheet around her? Or move the blinds or anything? You know, just so she'd know you were there?" Reggie asked.

"No!" Willie looked affronted. "That shit scares people."

"It's what I would've done to prove I was real," Reggie said.

"Flynn should have believed me without any tricks," Julie said to Reggie. "She's my best friend! She should have believed me!"

"But I thought you said she did believe you?" Alex asked.