Regret || Reggie Peters

//*Chapter Twenty*\\

•Asher POV•

"What's going on??" I ask Julie's mother, who is standing right in front of me. "Where are we? I thought I was supposed to not exist anymore."

"You crossed over." She tells me with a smile on her face and my jaw drops in shock.

"H-how's that possible?"

She doesn't give me a straight answer. "What was the one thing you wanted to do more than anything, that you never got to?" She asks me, already knowing the answer.

I stay silent, still not getting where she's going with this.

She rolls her eyes at me in exasperation. "To tell Reggie how you feel about him, dumbass!!" She shouts and I reel back in mock offence.

"Um okay, wow. That was rude."

"You'll get over it." She replies. "Come on, don't you want to see how Reggie is doing?"

I gasp. "We can do that?!"

She just shakes her head with a sigh before holding my hand in hers and poofing into the studio, as if we were still ghosts.

"We wanted you to think we crossed over so we pretended to." Luke tells Julie. "We just...we had nowhere else to go."

Shit. It wasn't supposed to end like this. 

"We thought you'd go straight to bed." Reggie admits, still looking down at his hands as if I'd just reappear back in his arms.

"Yeah well, I knew she was gonna come out here but nobody ever listens to m-agh!" He grunts in pain as all three of them fall back from another jolt.

"You have to save yourself right now!" Julie yells at them. "Go join Caleb's-wait. W-where's Asher??"

The boys stay silent and Reggie tries his best not to let his true emotions show.

"I'm right here!" I shout with tears rolling down my face. "Julie! Reg! I'm here! Please!!"

"They can't hear you." Rose whispers. "We've passed on. Not even ghosts can see us now."

"It's not fair." I cry, my voice cracking slightly.

"Guys, where's Asher???" Julie demands with fear in her voice.

That's what cracks Reggie. He breaks down into strangled sobs and Julie rushes over to him to hug him in her arms, but only falls through. "I can't believe he's gone." Julie whimpers.

I walk over to them, thinking that if they have to feel sad because they think I'm gone, then the least they should be able to do is comfort each other.

I grab Julie's hand in mine and she gasps.

"I-I just felt something." She tells Reggie. "Like-like someone was holding my hand."

I then grab Reggie's hand as well and his eyes widen in a similar shock to Julie's. "Oh my gosh, I feel it too."

I then take both of there hands and put them on each others shoulders. They don't pass through.

"You know..." I begin to tell Rose. "For someone whose never crossed over before, I think I'm catching on pretty quickly.

She just smiles and shakes her head.

"Reggie, I can feel you!" Julie and exclaims. "Luke, Alex, come here!" She shouts, ushering them over. They all share one big hug and I make sure that it works. 

"You didn't just allow them to be able to feel one another." Rose tells me and I look at her in confusion. What does that mean?

"I feel stronger." Luke comments.

"Me too." Reggie says.

I reel back in shock, looking over at Rose. "Wait, you mean Caleb's curse??"

"Gone." She smiles gleefully. "After all, how could a ghost curse work on humans?"

"Hu-what?!? I turned them human?!" I exclaim in disbelief. "I can't believe this."

"We should probably go now, Asher." Rose tells me and I frown slightly. "I have yet to show you what the paradise of the other side looks like."

"You go on without me, I'll catch up." I tell her.

She nods and leaves me alone with the company of my former band mates who can't see or hear me.

I want to sing for them. I want to tell them how I feel, even if they can't hear it. So I do.

"Tell me your story and I'll tell you mine
I'm all ears, take your time, we've got all night."

"Do you hear that?" Reggie asks and they all listen.

Can they hear me?

"Show me the rivers crossed, the mountains scaled
Show me who made you walk all the way here
Ooh
Settle down, put your bags down
Ooh
You're alright now."

"It sounds like Asher." Julie whispers in amazement.

"We don't need to be related to relate
We don't need to share genes or a surname
You are, you are
My chosen, chosen family
So what if we don't look the same?
We been going through the same thing
Yeah, you are, you are
My chosen, chosen family"

Reggie starts singing the next verse. We wrote this song together, so he should know it better than anybody.

"Hand me a pen and I'll rewrite the pain
When you're ready, we'll turn the page together
Open a bottle, it's time we celebrate
Who you were, who you are
We're one and the same, yeah."

We both harmonize for the chorus.

"We don't need to be related to relate
We don't need to share genes or a surname
You are, you are
My chosen, chosen family
So what if we don't look the same?
We been going through the same thing
Yeah, you are, you are
My chosen, chosen family."

"I chose you" I sing.

"You chose me" he sings back.

"I chose
Chosen family." We sing together.

"I chose you" I sing again.

"You chose me" he repeats.

"We're alright now." I sing softly before he takes over.

"We don't need to be related to relate
We don't need to share genes or a surname
You are, you are
My chosen, chosen family
So what if we don't look the same?
We been going through the same thing
Yeah, you are, you are
My chosen, chosen family."

We both harmonize together again for what will most likely be the last time.

"We don't need to be related to relate
We don't need to share genes or a surname
You are, you are
My chosen, chosen family
So what if we don't look the same?
We been going through the same thing
Yeah, you are, you are
My chosen, chosen family
We don't need to be related to relate
We don't need to share genes or a surname
You are, you are
My chosen, chosen family
So what if we don't look the same?
We been going through the same thing
Yeah, you are, you are
My chosen, chosen family"

"I don't think he's gone." Luke breathes out.

Alex gives him a look. "No, really?!"