Nothing to Lose | Luke Patterson

Chapter Fifteen

"Oh, hey, guys!" Reggie greets Alex and me after we poof in; both of us sitting on the piano, "Where've you been?"

"Um, kind of everywhere," Alex answered for both of us, "Yeah, no, we met a new ghost friend."

"For real?" Reggie asked, looking back at me for confirmation.

"Yeah," I confirmed, "He answered a ton of questions."

"Did he tell you whether Julie was gonna join the band or not?" Luke snaps; I turned to look at him, shocked by his suddenly aggravated mood.

"um, well, we didn't really get to that," Alex answers awkwardly.

"But we did find out why we're here," I say, mainly to Reggie. "Willie told us all ghosts have unfinished business," I explain, "so we need to do our unfinished business in order to cross over."

"Why would we do that?" Luke asks, his voice no longer harsh like it had been moments earlier, "I'm just saying, this is like our second chance; all we need to do is get Julie to play with us."

"Yeah, not only can that girl sing, she can write too," Reggie informs us, gesturing towards the piece of paper sitting next to me. "Luke and I made a killer melody to one of her lyrics." Luke hands me the notebook, and I hold it out so Alex can see.

"Oh..." Alex says, reading over the paper, "so you did all this without your drummer and pianist." Alex nods, "cool."

"Drumming is so '90s, okay?" Luke informs my brother, "we're just gonna stomp our feet now." Luke turns to me and opens his mouth to say something, but I shoot him a glare, and he stops.

"Okay," Alex said, "well, you know what else is so '90s?" Luke shakes his head, "Being rude, all right? Get woke; these are sensitive times." I roll my eyes at Alex's use of slang, Willie had used that word when talking to us, but I had no clue what it meant.

"Ah! Alex..." Luke mumbles after my brother shoves the book back into his hands.

"I learned that from my ghost friend," Alex whispers to Reggie, smiling proudly.

"Woke," Reggie says, nodding approvingly. "That's a cool word. What does it mean?"

"No clue," I answer for Alex; He nods in agreement, and I giggle lightly. I hear Luke sigh in frustration, and I turn to look down at him. "So, are you guy's gonna show us this song, or?" Luke looks up at me with wide eyes, shocked that I was talking to him directly.

"Oh, um," He stuttered, grabbing his guitar off its stand, "Yeah."

45 Minutes Later

Julie had burst into the studio half an hour ago; her friend Flynn was waiting outside the studio, so we could prove to her that we were ghosts.

"Okay, Flynn is waiting," Julie announced, stepping away from her mic stand. "You guy's ready?" The boy's all hollered in agreement. "You sure you're okay with the loop pedal and pads, Charlie?" I salute her and nod; Within these 30 minutes, Julie showed me how to use this electronic attachment for the keyboard.

"Thanks for coming," Julie opened the studio door, greeting her friend, "We just wanted to rehearse the song, so it was perfect, which it's not, but whatever."

"No, if I'm gonna hear a song from your imaginary ghost band, I want it to be perfect. So get back in there," Flynn shoos Julie away, "all of you," She gestures to the empty space behind Julie, "you too."

"They're not out here." Julie chuckled, shaking her head.

"Oh, I know," Flynn walks in the studio, patting Julie's shoulder as she walks by.

"All right, guys. You ready?" Julie asks us, shutting the studio doors.

"you might wanna ask Flynn to move," I advise, noticing she's pretty close to where Reggie is going to be playing. "Reggie will go right through her."

"True," Julie replies, nodding her head at me, "Actually, can you go over there?" Julie asks, pointing to the chair we set out for her, "Reggie needs some space to rock out, and he feels kinda weird walking through you."

"Boy, when you create a world, you really live in it." Flynn bursts out laughing at Julie's strange request.

"Just sit," Julie says, lightly pushing Flynn into the chair behind her. "If you'll notice, there's no equipment that will produce a hologram; feel free to look around." Flynn crosses her arms, scanning the room for the projector. "The band took a poem that I wrote about you and put it to music."

"Aw," Flynn pouted, "I wish I didn't have to talk to your dad after this."

"It's called flying solo," Julie picked up her mic off the keyboard, "Hope you like it." Julie nodded for me to start playing; her friend's eyes widened slightly because music was coming from the keys, but no one was playing them.

"If I leave you on a bad note, leave you on a sad note." Julie began singing into her mic; Just as she did, Flynn gasped in surprise, able to see me now. Flynn scanned the room, Cleary trying to find something that would prove my sudden appearance. Right as Julie started singing the chorus, the boys poofed in with their instruments, causing Flynn to yelp in surprise and grip the arms of her chair. As the chorus came to an end, Julie went to grab her friend's hand and sing to her. Flynn's scared expression soon changed to a happy one, and she started nodding along to the song. When the chorus came around again, Julie dragged Flynn out of the seat, guiding her over to where Luke was sitting; He jumped at her, and Flynn jumped back, startled. Both girls glanced at one another weirdly and moved away from him, over to where Reggie and Alex were; they danced around with the two of them for a little bit before Julie waved her over to my keys.

"Hey," I greeted the girl, still playing with my keys; Flynn stuck her hand through my arm, her eyes widening slightly. "Weird, right?"

"They're ghosts," Flynn exclaimed.

"Oh, we prefer musician spirits," Alex corrects the girl, Reggie nodding in agreement with him.

"So, Julie," Luke called out, still playing his guitar. "does this mean you're joining our band?"

"Actually," Flynn spoke, pointing over to Luke, "I think this is their band." Flynn gestured to Julie and me.

"I'm gonna go with what she said," Julie agreed; I chuckle lightly and nod in agreement. The drums kick in one last time, and Julie starts singing the chorus again; the rest of us backing her up.