separation ; reggie peters (julie and the phantoms)

6: willow

Life was a willow, and it bent right to your wind
They count me out time and time again
Life was a willow, and it bent right to your wind
But I come back stronger than a '90s trend...

- taylor swift, willow

Quinn woke up staring up at the ceiling in the garage, feeling a weight on top of her. She smiled fondly, not even having to wonder where the pressure was coming from. She glanced down at Reggie, who was sound asleep with his face buried in the crook of her neck. They were both still in their clothes from the night before, except both of their pairs of boots and Reggie's leather jacket were in the floor.

It was almost odd, the feeling of Reggie laying on her, but without the rise and fall of his chest or the feeling of his breath against her skin. Her chest tightened a little, her anxiety rising. She knew deep down that nothing was wrong, but that night in the alley still lingered in her mind. 

She reached down and gave him a gentle nudge. "Hey...Hey..." she whispered quietly. Reggie jolted against her, glancing up at her, obviously startled.

"I'm sorry...I...just got nervous..." she said, looking away from him.

"Hey, don't apologize..." he said softly, adjusting his position so that he could take her into his arms, bringing her in close. "Are you okay?" he pressed a kiss to her temple.

She nodded, "Yeah, just not used to the we can sleep but we don't need it, thing. The you laying on me, not breathing, thing is also kind of freaky."

 "Hey, I'm fine. I'm not going anywhere...I mean unless we run into those Ghostbusters again, whew." he said.

Quinn giggled, turning towards him so that she could snuggle into his chest, "Reg, they're just guys in costume. You know that."

"Okay, but how can you be so sure? You've never even seen them. What was it that we learned in driver's ed...like...overconfidence kills?"

"Says the guy who went out and ate street hot dogs, fully confident that he'd be fine."

"You know what, given what you went through, I deserved that."

Quinn touched his cheek, letting her hand travel down his face, "You really did."

Reggie caught her hand in his, turning his head, quickly kissing her palm, "What do you wanna do today? We can do basically anything we want, because you know, invisible."

"I wouldn't even know where to start..." she trailed off, shrugging her shoulders, "Maybe as close to a normal day as possible? Obviously, we don't have school, but maybe rehearsal, a writing session, and ending the day with all of us watching a movie? You know, I still haven't heard you all plus Julie yet. She seems really sweet. I bet she has a lot to offer."

"Dude, she's awesome!"

"I know you did not just dude me."

"Sorry, but, seriously, she's awesome!" he gushed, smiling widely, "Her voice is...amazing. Like, I always thought that Luke was talented and you couldn't really get better than Luke..."

"Oh, so your in-band crush of the week is Luke? What'd Alex do?"

Reggie huffed, "Alex didn't do anything! He just met this guy the other day and won't shut up about him."

"Wait, a guy? How? He's--"

"Also a ghost!"

"Interesting, but aweh, baby, you got your heart broken." She pouted dramatically, reaching up to pinch his cheek.