Nothing to Lose | Luke Patterson

Chapter Fourteen

We had been back in the studio for a while now; I had been sitting behind the grand piano, quietly writing in my songbook. While Luke and Reggie watched my brother pace the room.

"I think he's practicing his model strut," I could hear Reggie whisper to Luke from the other side of the room; seriously, someone needs to teach these boys how to whisper properly.

"He's so nervous; he's almost making me nervous," Luke whispers back, once again loud enough for both Alex and I to hear.

"Okay, look," Alex stops pacing and faces the two boys sitting on the couch, "you guys know I don't handle change well," I smirk lightly and nod, thinking back to all the times Alex would be upset over small things changing when we were kids. "All right? Death? That was a change," He tells us; I stand up from the piano bench, moving closer to where my brother was, "Okay? Then we became ghosts, all right? Another change. And now, we can be seen whenever we play with Julie." He rambles, moving his hands widely as he speaks, "Big freaking change!"

"Yeah, but bro, it was a good change," Luke tried reassuring him, "With Julie, we can play on stage again and be the band we never got to be." Alex took a breath, staring blankly at Luke in response, "C'mon, I mean, you gotta be down for that."

"Yeah, I mean, who wouldn't be? I just..." Alex pauses, unsure of how to say what he wants to say next. "I wanna figure out why."

"Forget why," Luke exclaims, standing up from the couch, "Man, I say we invite Julie to join Sunset Curve."

"Yeah, totally," Reggie agreed, "I mean, like, think about it. With a new lead singer, this band would be legendary."

"Hey!" Luke exclaims, "I'm our lead singer."

"Dude, that girl has the voice of an angel, and she can make us visible," Reggie reminds him, "without her, we're just like elevator music."

"You don't gotta be so mean about it," Luke mumbles; Alex begins pacing again, and I sigh, walking over to him. "And we're on the runway again," Luke exclaims, pointing over at Alex. I glare at him and grab Alex's arm, stopping him from pacing.

"Alex, I know things are really confusing right now, but you're gonna be okay" I have never been the best at comforting people, so I don't really know what to say. "Why don't we go out for a bit?" I ask him, knowing that staying in the studio with Luke and Reggie would not help.

"Yeah, okay," Alex agreed, walking over to the studio doors, "I think I just need to clear my head." He reaches for the door handle, but his hand goes right through it, causing him to sigh in frustration.

"Dude, you're a ghost, just poof out." Reggie reminds him.

"Don't tell me how to ghost! "Alex yells; He takes a shaky breath and grabs my hand; the both of us poof out of the studio, landing on the busy sidewalk of Hollywood boulevard. I rack my brain, unsure of what I can say to make Alex feel better; he was the emotional one, not me.

"Oh, no," Alex gasped, stopping suddenly, I turned to look back at him, and he nodded forward, towards men dressed as ghostbusters. "Oh god, we're busted." He mumbled, I shook my head, but Alex pulled me behind him, "No!" He yelled, but the men walked right through us.

"You okay?" I ask, chuckling lightly at my brother's overdramatic reaction, Alex nods, and we begin walking again, "You pushed me behind you?" I ask him, shocked by my brother's first instinct.

"Of course," He said; I smiled gratefully at him, and the two of continued walking; we both walk in silence for a couple more minutes when I hear a skateboard coming towards us, and Alex is knocked to the ground.

"Alex?" I lean down next to my brother, "You okay?" Both Alex and the mystery guy groan, standing up from the ground.

"Oh, you dinged my board." The guy complained, examining his skateboard.