Rose's Journal

Chapter 25: The Retry

Flynn sat planning the perfect speech to give to the boys to get them to rejoin. She decided not to tell Reggie they quit, officially, or else he would have probably quit too, but she did tell him about the drama that happened with Julie. He was upset that he hurt Julie's feelings, but he also couldn't help but think about how Luke must've felt after Julie talked to him. He thought about his sad face as she said those words and how he probably cried after. And I wasn't there to help him, Reggie thought to himself and sighed, feeling guilty about running away when he needed him. Flynn was trying to write what to say when she realized something.

"Wait, Reggie. Willie won't be there when we go over. Do we still include him?"

"No, he's always with Alex he'll probably be there." Reggie wrote on the board

Flynn sighed, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. They broke up."

"WHAAAAT??" Reggie wrote on the whiteboard, drawing an angry face.

"RIGHT?" Flynn replied, "I don't know all the details, but there was some kind of secret keeping, and, in Willie's words, 'relationship trouble.'"

"BUT THEY'RE SO CUTE TOGETHER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Reggie wrote.

"TRUE," Flynn replied, "I was bummed to hear it."

Reggie wrote, "I'm fixing this." He showed Flynn quickly and poofed away. Flynn was concerned with what Reggie would do, or how they would react, but she was glad to see Reggie out of his funk and caring again. She went back to writing.

Reggie ran up and down the Hollywood Walk of Fame, looking for Willie. After realizing he wasn't there, he began to think about all the places him and Alex would always go or used to go: the park, the Ghost Club.... "Aha!" he said aloud, slightly breathless from the running, "The Museum!"

He poofed into the museum, and, just as he thought, he found Willie there. He was curled up on the bench, still asleep, holding the drumsticks Alex had gifted him as people walked around the museum unaware of the ghost. Reggie ran over to him.

"Willie.... Willie??" Reggie said sweetly almost a mocking tone. No response. He shook Willie away and yelled, "WILLIE!!!"

"WHAT THE FUCK?" Willie screamed as he was startled awake. He finally looked up to see who it was. "Reggie? You're back?" Willie was shocked.

"Well.... kinda. I'm not here for me though. But now that I'm all caught up, what the hell were you thinking, breaking up with Alex like that?" Reggie sounded disappointed.

Willie sighed, "It wasn't me. Alex prompted it. He said he didn't want to be hurt by me anymore. So, I let him go."

Reggie was surprised. Alex was crazy about Willie. There was more that was going on here, "Well, did you hurt him?"

Willie looked away from Reggie and down at the drumsticks in his hands, "He said I love you, and I... couldn't say it back." Reggie could hear the shame in his voice

Reggie went to sit down next to Willie, "Why not? You just told me two weeks ago that you did. I even helped you plan out the whole 'romantic dinner in the museum' thing where you were going to tell him. That was supposed to be on Friday, right?"

Willie closed his eyes, "Yeah."

"So, Tuesday just wasn't a good day to tell someone how you feel? What is it?"

"Things have changed, Reggie. For both of us. We just... don't make sense anymore as a couple."

"But you still care about him, right?"

"Yes, more than anything."

"Then, you owe it to him to tell him why it doesn't work anymore because if he told you he loved you, he probably doesn't know it doesn't work."