Painted to Life || Julie and the Phantoms

CHAPTER 29: Flying Solo

I KNOW IT'S wrong to use Julie's personal poems to write a song, but her problems won't solve themselves. My conscience already holds enough weight from the burden of Bobby's theft.

Julie's a sweet girl and I'm sure she will forgive us after the initial anger. My morals may be skewed, but my heart is in the right place.

What's a little songwriting going to hurt?

It's better to ask for forgiveness than to beg for permission.

After a few hours of work, the guys have a song down. I was able to help with arranging the lyrics. Even though I can't sing, I do write poetry similar to songs sometimes.

"Reggie, what do you think of this riff?" Luke asks. He vocalizes for sixteen beat.

"Sweet!" Reggie compliments, nodding his head and smiling. "I'm feeling that."

"Sounds great," I add, regardless of the fact that he didn't ask for my opinion.

"And then I come in with a little uh..." Reggie plays some notes and I start jamming with him. We stand side to side, doing a little dance.

"Then Julie comes in with her killer lyrics," Luke adds.

"And Sunset Curve is reborn!" Reggie pauses to high-five me, then jumps right back on beat.

Julie walks in. "Guys, you aren't supposed to be playing out here alone."

"But we're not alone, 'cause we always have each other!" Reggie gives me a cheesy smile and Julie sighs in exasperation.

"But...but we had the volume level on one!" Luke protests. I know it was killing him to keep it that low.

"Julie, they've been writing a song for you and I really think you'll like it," I say to her. "They've worked really hard."

"Yeah," Reggie agrees, propping an elbow up on my shoulder. "Appreciate us. We would rock it on volume ten. Want us to play it again?"

Julie pulls the chord out from the amp. I wince, almost expecting it to give awful feedback.

"I don't think she does," Luke whispers.

"Appreciate us or want us to play again?" Reggie asks.

Luke raises his eyebrows at me like see what I meant?

"We've actually been waiting for you to get home, okay?" Luke says, grinning as he hypes himself up. "We have some pretty major news. We had a band meeting and..."

He looks at Reggie, cueing a drum roll.

"...we wanna invite you to join Sunset Curve! And no, you're not dreaming."

"Oh," Julie responds, less than enthused.

"I told you not to be so cocky," I fuss.

"Oh? Uh...she said 'oh.'" Luke frowns. "That's what you say when you get socks for your birthday, not when you get invited to join the most epic band ever."

"I dunno, man," I say, "llama and avocado socks are all the rage. Crazy socks are in."

Luke gives me a look. "You're not helping."

"Sorry, I'm honored, but I can't think about anything but Flynn right now," Julie explains. "She's still mad at me for lying. She hasn't even texted me back!"

"Yeah, you're in a tough spot," Luke says, kneeding his hands together.

"Yeah," Reggie says lowly.

"So, you wanna join the band?" Luke asks again, eager for an answer.