Finally Free -- JATP Luke x MaleOC

Chapter 23

Luke was laying back on his couch, repeatedly strumming a light tune on his acoustic guitar. His mind kept wandering and no matter how much he would try to focus on the tune, his fingers just wouldn't cooperate.

Eventually he cried out in frustration as the string caught on his finger, shocking Reggie and Alex. He set his six-string aside and jumped up from the couch, grabbing his jacket and pulling it on.

"Geez, what's up with you?" Reggie asked as Luke rolled up his sleeves.

"I can't focus," Luke said quickly, hoping that the boys wouldn't question him. He was fine, completely fine. There was nothing worrying him, nothing that was constantly on his mind-

"You're thinking about Jay and Julie, aren't you?" Alex asked before Luke stormed off.

"What?" Luke said. "No, dude, I just can't focus-"

"Because you're thinking about them," Alex finished. "Actually, I'm pretty sure you're thinking about Jay having a flashback yesterday and how you never got to apologize to him until he got so mad he punched a brick wall, not to mention letting Julie down even though we all knew exactly how important last night was. She came all the way to Bobby's house just to make sure we were okay and we knew about the gig, and we blew it."

Luke stuttered, staring at the blonde drummer that had just read him like an open book.

"Wow," Reggie said. "Guess we've all been thinking about that."

"You guys too?" Luke asked once he registered Reggie's words.

"Yeah," Reggie said. "I mean, the three of us got so caught on Bobby that we forgot about them. We remembered the band, but we forgot about them."

Luke recalled the events of the Hollywood Ghost Club the previous night, when the three of them repeatedly told Caleb and Willie that they had a band, that they had a show that night. They kept that in their minds, at least until the club's magic really took hold of them. And in the end, it was the performance that they remembered. When they were dashing out of the club, they were more focused on their band than the people in the band.

Reggie was completely right. They remembered the band. They forgot about the people in the band.

"I know Jay said he would talk to Julie about it, but," Luke sighed. "I just can't stop thinking about all of it."

"You can trust Jay to talk to Julie," Alex said.

"I'm pretty sure you're thinking more about the whole flashback thing," Reggie finished.

Luke let out a breath, his nostrils flaring.

"It was my fault," Luke said, looking down to the floor, his voice barely louder than a whisper.

"None of us knew," Alex said. "We never would have guessed either."

"He's good at hiding it," Reggie commented. "But if it's bothering you so much, why not talk to him? He's in trig right now."

"I can't just show up in the middle of his class and say 'hey, I gotta talk to you,'" Luke retorted.

"Why not?" Reggie shrugged. "He said only during that class."

"Or you could just wait until he gets out of school," Alex said, overexaggerating his words.

"But what if he heads straight home?" Reggie asked.

"Really? Jay, the guy that gives Flynn and Julie rides for school, is going to head straight home and not come by?" Alex asked, sarcasm dripping from his voice.

Whether the conversation continued after that or not, Luke didn't know. He chose that moment to warp away from the studio and into Jay's trigonometry class because he knew that if he didn't do anything now, he would probably forget about it by the time school ended, losing himself in the music.