Cross Faded

Chapter 2: An Understanding

Reggie never told the others about Carrie. Everyone seemed to be having a lot going on, Alex stressing about his relationship with Willie, and Julie and Luke doing their best to figure out theirs. And then there was so much focus on the band and getting good gigs, and what happened after the Orpheum and the fact Julie can touch all them now. Reggie didn't want to add to the stress.

The next day, everyone was busy again so Reggie went to the beach and just kinda laid in the sand letting his mind wander to wherever it wanted to.

"What are you doing?" He hears a voice he sits up and Carrie is standing there.

"Just chillin. You should try it some time you seem pretty uptight, no offense." Reggie says, standing up and dusting the sand off him.

"I'm not uptight." Carrie says. "Shouldn't you be rehearsing with Julie or something?"

"Nah. She's finishing up a song with Luke. We'll probably rehearse later." Reggie says. "So I'm just hanging out here. Actually, I use to live there." He points to the bike shack.

"You lived in a bike shack?"

"No." Reggie frowns. "It was a house but they tore everything down and instead of making mine something cool like a pizzeria they made it a lame bike shack."

"Oh...okay." Carrie says. "So...you just hang around by your old house?"

"Well yeah I mean I grew up here." Reggie says. "And it's not like I really know what happened to my parents, where they moved to. I don't even know if they're still together. They got into huge arguments all the time, like fight to the death arguments. Which apparently isn't normal."

"Oh." Carrie nods. "You love to share don't you." She says. She's encountered him twice and she already knows about his traumatic death and his family trauma.

Reggie honestly still wasn't use to the fact Carrie could hear everything he was saying. He told all this stuff to Ray just as easily knowing he'd be able to just talk about it without having to worry with dumping it all on someone since Ray couldn't hear him. It allowed him to talk about things he was too afraid to actually say.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah sorry, I'm not really use to lifers being able to hear me. I usually just talk to Julie's dad because he can't actually hear me, but he's also a great listener. We're actually pals now."

Carrie nods again, thinking to herself "Julie's got some interesting friends."

"Well, I myself know a thing or two about parents and fighting." Carrie says. "My mom doesn't live with us anymore. Haven't heard a thing from her since she left."

"Oh, I'm so sorry." Reggie says. He suddenly felt lucky enough that at least in his life time his mom never left him. Sure the arguments were ugly, but he had always hoped one day they would just stop. Stop without anyone leaving. No more shouting or loud crashed from things being thrown during the night, day, and morning. No more feeling like any small thing could set his parents off because they were always tense from arguing all the time. If his mom left him alone and it was just him in his dad, his dad would only have him to be angry at.

Carrie noticed the look on his eyes. She understood the look in his eyes. It was at that moment she saw him not just as one of Julie's holograms, but as someone who understood something she thought no one would. Something her own best friend didn't understand, and now they aren't friends.

"Hey, so you said every one else is busy." Carrie says. Reggie nods. "Well...I'm not busy, if you wanna hang out."

Reggie's lips curve into a smile. "Of course, yeah sure!" He says, excited to have someone to hang out with. "I have to show you one of my favorite things to do! Lifers are so fun to mess with, they're always taking pictures of their food instead of being normal and eating it."

Carrie chuckles. "People take pictures for instagram." Carrie says.

"What's instant gram? Does it have anything to do with gram crackers. Those are one of my favorite snacks. Although I can't eat anymore becuase I'm a ghost..." he trails off.

"No, it has nothing to do with gram crackers. Has Julie never shown you?"

He shakes his head. Carrie pulls out her phone and opens the app, showing him her feed. Pictures of the dirty candi girls hanging out together and pictures from their last performance flooded her feed. "Most people post cute pictures and stuff but some people post ascetic things and post their fancy food." She says. "It's just a way to show the world what you're up to, of your account his public that is. If it's private only you're friends can see."

"Rad." Reggie smiles. "Wait so...how does instant gram-

"Instagram." Carrie corrects.

"That's what I said. How does it know who your friends are. Does it like stalk you? Or...."

"Your friends are just people who follow you and you follow them back."

"So like stalking?" Reggie says.

"No, no it's not stalking." Carrie says. "When you follow someone on instagram, their posts show up more on your feed, and if it's a private account you can only see the posts if you follow the account and the owner of that account has to approve your follow request. And if two account follow each other it's called friends."

"So what you're saying is I don't actually have any friends because none of them are following me on this instagram app thing and I'm not following them back?"

"No...no you just don't have instagram friends. But you know, it's probably better to stay off social media anyways." Carrie shoved her phone back into her pocket. "Let's just do what you were saying. Mess with...lifers?"

"Alive people." Reggie explains.

"Is that like an insult?" Carrie says. "Am I a lifer? Are you insulting me!?"

"No, no of course not. It's not an insult. At least I don't think it is." Reggie thinks. "I didn't make it up."

"Okay, let's just go mess with some lifers." Carrie says.