Finally Free -- JATP Luke x MaleOC

Chapter 25

Jay walks into the house, closing the door behind him as he looks around frantically. His eyes finally land on Julie, who was pulling out her homework on the living room couch.

"Julie, that was uncalled for," he says, walking up to her. She barely gives him a glance as she opens her binder, getting to work on her assignments.

"Julie, listen to me," Jay says. "Yes, the boys messed up really bad last night. And you have every reason to be angry at them. But you can't claim something like that when you don't know the full story."

"What story?" Julie asks, finally looking up at Jay. "The story is that Trevor took their songs and they're too caught on the fact that he's made thousands off of those records."

"Yeah, that's what it looks like," Jay admits. "But Julie, there's more about them that you don't know. About Luke."

"Really?" Julie asks. "Like what?"

Jay hesitates at Julie's question. As much as he wants Julie to change her mind, to reconsider the band, and to really think about the weight of her earlier words, Jay hesitates. He doesn't want to spill Luke's secrets, not when he's already hurting so much. Luke barely even opened up to him, it was mostly through Jay's observations and drawing his own conclusions.

"Mhm," Julie hums eventually. "That's what I thought."

She returns to her homework and Jay's jaw flops open, trying to find the words to say, but he quickly closes it.

There's only one thing you care about and that's yourself.

That must have stung Luke even more, knowing that he had run out on his parents all those years ago. Luke had always regretted running out on his parents, Alex and Reggie had told them that. He had regretted all the arguments with his mother, and guilt from all of that led him to think he was selfish.

"Julie," Jay says, stepping around the table and crouching down so that he was looking up at her. "I know how you feel. I get it, I was angry too. But Luke isn't as selfish as you think he is."

"He's right."

Both Jay and Julie look up to see Reggie and Alex standing before them, having poofed into the living room during their conversation. Julie huffed and returned to her homework and Jay gave them a look that said 'I'm trying.' Alex nodded and made his way over, resting on the arm of the couch.

"Julie, please," Alex said. "Before you decide you're done with the band forever, we just..."

"We wanted you to know that you've got Luke all wrong," Reggie filled in for Alex.

Julie simply scoffed and Jay, Reggie, and Alex looked at each other.

"You remember that song 'Emily?'" Alex said eventually, earning a warning look from Jay. "Can we at least show you who that's actually about?"

"Alex, no," Jay said, his voice soft but urgent. "That's too close to him."

"She needs to know," Alex retorted with the same soft voice. "It's not fair that we do and she doesn't."

"Technically Jay didn't even mean to find out so..." Reggie trailed off at a look from Alex.

Jay sighed, looking down as he debated his options. He knew Alex was right, it wasn't fair that they all knew so much about Luke and she didn't. It was because she didn't that she had said those things to him in the first place. But he also saw things from Luke's side, he knew how Luke would feel if his boundaries were pushed and someone saw him at his most vulnerable. It was how Jay had felt when the Molinas had found him when he was at his most emotionally vulnerable.