Wake Up| JATP

Chapter 26

The boys and Nicole were thrilled with the nights outcome, eventually everything was put away and they were left on their own to do what they pleased. For some reason, they wanted to play basketball. "Feels like we should be celebrating or something. What do you guys wanna do?" Nicole perked up at the idea. "I agree with that." Suddenly all three boys fell the floor in a heap as some purple light flashed through them. "What the hell was that?" Nicole grabbed the boys up one by one. She was in a panic and began pacing back and forth. "What have you idiots done? Was it that Caleb guy? Seriously you can't keep yourselves out of trouble for five seconds." She threw her hands up in the air in anger as she carried on pacing not even registering the now perfectly fine boys watching her. "Okay Nicole, babe. We're fine, you need to sit down." She glared at Luke but sat down on his lap nonetheless. "That wasn't like the other ones. It's getting worse." This took things to a whole new level. "Other ones?! Your meaning to tell me this has happened before and you didn't tell me?" Before anybody could calm her down Nicole had teleported away leaving no sign of where she would go. "Great, well Nicole knows now."

Nicole sat and watched as her best friend slept. It was creepy, she knew that but Marley was the only thing she needed in that moment in time. So she sat and she stared, or rather observed. She saw the way her eyes wrinkled slightly, how her skin wasn't as fresh as it used to be. She realised that her best friend would get to live the life she never could, Nicole would be stuck in her teenage body forever. "I thought I'd find you here." Nicole didn't move at the sound of his voice, she didn't move until he was knelt down in front of her. "We did it to protect you, you know?" Nicole scoffed and turned her head. "I'm serious Nicole, we didn't know what it was and we still don't but Willie is waiting back at the garage he's gonna tell us everything, I just want you to come back with me." Nicole still didn't speak, her eyes were void of emotion. "I can't lose you again. I won't. You know what happened last time." Luke faltered, his knees nearly buckling beneath him. He hated the way she died, he tried not to think about ever but it proved difficult. "I know, but nothings going to happen to us Nicole, we're right here." She stood up and he followed suit, without hesitation she wrapped herself in his arms. "I swear to god Luke Patterson if you ever leave me again." He kissed her forehead, stroking the back of hair. "I won't."

"All these jolts that we're feeling is because Caleb put his stamp on us?" Luke was outraged and it took all of Nicole's strength to stop him from punching someone. "He's threatened by you, he wants you under his control. You're the only ghosts visible to lifers without his help." Nicole didn't really understand what was going on she just knew someone hurt her boys and they were going to pay for it. "And you let him do this to us?" The group came to an abrupt stop. Alex was really hurting, he felt betrayed by Willie. "I can't stop him! He owns my soul. All right? He owns everybody's soul at that club. If he even knew I was talking to you, he.." Willie stuttered but eventually gave up trying to finish his sentence. Nicole had to admit she felt bad for him, he didn't have control of himself. "..he would destroy me." Everybody was quite, there wasn't much to say. "What happens with this zap thing? When does it stop?" Willie looked at her with his pity in his eyes. "It doesn't. It just keeps going until they're- until they're done." Nicole furrowed her eyebrows but didn't get the chance to question what he meant as Reggie beat her to it. "Uh huh and what do you mean by 'we're done'?" Willie sighed in frustration. "You just.. you just don't exist anymore. Not anywhere."

The next few days were a blur. Willie told them that the boys had to find they're unfinished business to get away from Caleb. The downside to that is that they would be leaving Nicole and Julie behind. They had figured out what they had to do but tried to put it on hold to spend as much time as they could with Nicole. Although, she didn't really speak to them much anymore, she kept to herself, Luke barely managed to get her to speak.

Nicole and Luke were cuddled up on the sofa, her head was burried in his chest and he played with her hair softly. "Hey, you wanna do something fun?" She looked at him through her eyelashes. "Like what?" He grinned and pulled her up. He took her all around LA, to all of her favourite places and even to places that they went to as children. Nicole was thankful for his efforts of trying to cheer her up. He even gave her his ice cream when she dropped hers. When they got back, Alex was gone. He left a note saying he would be back soon but other than that there was nothing else. Nicole and Reggie occupied themselves by playing catch whilst Luke was writing some new songs.

Nicole tried to savour every moment, she realised she was wasting previous time the last few days and she wanted to make the most of it. God only knows how long she has left with her boys.