Melody - JATP x Soulmate AU

Prologue Part 2

2019 - Julie's POV

I don't think anyone understands how impossibly difficult it is to lose your mom. At fifteen, it's even worse. Dad doesn't seem to be doing well either, although hiding it well, but Carlos is handling it the best out of the three of us left. We're all upset and feeling her loss in different ways. For me, I can't even sit at a piano bench. Or sing a note. It all feels wrong without her. Everything feels wrong without mom.

"Julie, it's time to go to the visitation." As much as I don't want to go, I know it's not a choice I can make. My dad can barely go an hour with at least one tear dripping down his cheek, while I'm just numb to everything and want time to freeze in place.

My mom and dad weren't soulmates, which isn't super uncommon, and neither of them found their soulmates. Ninety percent of divorces are because one partner or another finds their soulmate. The other ten is due to non-soulmates being extremely incompatible. At fifteen, I have yet to find my own, but once you hit sixteen, your chances of finding them increase exponentially, so I'm still a bit young to find mine. One of the girls in my music class, Kayla, has already found hers and binded to him, although he lives in Anaheim, so it was pure chance she met and binded to him. Carlos hasn't hit thirteen, which is when you can first bind with your soulmate.

"Can I bring my iPad?" He's been obsessed with finding ghosts since mom died, since she hadn't found her soulmate. No ghosts around here, though. At least, according to one of the fifteen apps he's downloaded in the last week. Seven days is all it's been since our world came crashing down.

"Sure, kiddo." Although my dad—in any other circumstance—would usually say no, it's easier to just let some things go. "We all grieve in different ways," is what he always tells us, which is why I spend most nights lying awake for hours wishing mom could hold me tight and tell me everything is going to be okay. "If we don't leave now, we'll be late. Hop in the car, you two." We also have to pick up tía Victoria, mom's sister, who is doing the best out of us all. Then again, she lost her soulmate five years ago, so she understands how to deal with and process it better than the rest of us. Tío Eduardo was okay, but he wasn't the fun uncle. Being our only uncle, he did the best he could with Carlos and I, although I suspect most of his inability to handle children well was because he didn't have any of his own.

"Papá, how long is the visitation, again?" I ask, although I'm sure he's mentioned it a dozen times.

"Five hours." Dang. I was hoping it'd be a little bit shorter. Maybe only three hours.

"We could look for ghosts, Julie," Carlos suggests, and it doesn't actually sound like a half-bad idea.

"Sounds like a plan, Carlos." Smiling, I turn towards him, even though he's staring at his iPad hoping to see a ghost through the lens. According to legend, only those who have a soulmate that is currently a ghost can see ghosts. Even after thousands of years, research is very limited about how it all works. Mostly because not many people have soulmates that are ghosts. More often, it's two ghosts becoming humans again.

"Alright, into the back Julie." My dad gestures towards the other seat in the second row, and I hop in the back as tía Victoria sits in the passenger seat with a sad smile on her face. Between the four of us, we've cried a river's worth of tears since she died. It was sudden, not something we ever saw coming. No one could ever see a deadly car accident coming, not in a million years.

"So, Julie, are you still playing piano?" Tía, you know I stopped the moment I heard she died. I barely even listen to music anymore. Especially Trevor Wilson. His music was my mom's favorite, and it's so difficult to listen to it now, even though I love his songs, too.