Chapter Text
Julie is starting to have a lot of regrets.
She’s sitting across from three guys that she met less than ten minutes ago and realizes that perhaps she should’ve looked more into the Craigslist posting. Maybe asked more questions when she emailed. Or you know, not answer an ad from complete strangers on the internet.
And she definitely shouldn’t have shown up alone to meet the strangers at the apartment, even though they turned out to be very cute strangers.
She can practically hear her tìa screaming at the mere thought of her even doing this. But at least she’s sharing her location with Flynn and agreed to check in, so if Flynn doesn’t hear back from her in an hour she’s going to send help (which probably means she’s going to call Julie’s dad and the two of them are going to show up here).
Overall this was probably a bad idea, but desperate times and all that.
“I’m going to be honest,” she starts, when the silence feels like it’s gone on for far too long. “When I read your ad, I kinda thought this apartment was girls looking for a roommate.”
The guys laugh. And the one who’d answered the door, and introduced himself as Luke, asks, “Why would you think that?”
“I don’t know, I guess the words used,” she shrugs, looking between them, and notices that the two on either side look at the blond in the middle. “Like sun-soaked and beige-y. Guess that’s on me for assuming.”
“Alex wrote the ad,” Luke says.
“Well, sorry, for wanting our ad to sound nice!” Alex says, throwing his hands up in exasperation, “I thought using nice, descriptive words like that would give us non-sketchy applicants. Besides it’s way better than what you wanted it to say.”
Julie watches Luke roll his eyes and Alex elbow him. “How’s that working for you?”
“Not great,” the third guy answers immediately, “All sketchy. Obviously excluding you. At least so far.”
“Reggie,” Alex whispers, shaking his head slightly, as if in warning.
Julie sighs, looking around the room, taking in the eclectic decor and the sight of instruments all set up and surrounded by amps, before landing on the piano. She remembers the ad had included must enjoy music and a mention of the three roommates being in a band.
“Whose piano is that?”
All three of them look towards it as if checking that it's there. “Oh, yeah, that was here when we moved in and we decided to just keep it since it was still in good shape,” Luke says, “Doesn’t get much use these days. Do you play?”
She pauses for a brief moment, considers being honest, eventually settles with, “No. No, I don’t.” It’s only a slight lie, she doesn’t anymore. “Um, my mom played. Hers is just like that one.”
Julie looks at their curious stares, clears her throat and asks before any of them can respond, “Why do you guys need a new roommate? What happened to the last one?”
“Oh, well, Bobby-”
“We’re the ones interviewing you,” Luke says pointedly, cutting off Reggie and sending him an equally sharp look. “In case you forgot. So, why do you need a new place?”
Julie glances at them before narrowing her eyes at Luke. “I asked you first,” she responds.
Luke reels back slightly, pausing for a moment as he looks at her. “Fine,” he says slowly, “Uh. We just realized we could use the help with rent ever since our old roommate decided it was time to move on and all that.”
“And that he dumped Luke,” Reggie adds in a stage whisper.
Luke’s eyes widen as he sends him an alarmed look. He shakes his head and scoffs, “”Dumped’. Bobby didn’t dump me, it was mutual. Okay? Fine, maybe he dumped me. But I’m over it, it was six months ago. Get past it, guys! Why are you looking at me like that?” he asks, looking more like a kicked puppy with each word. “I’m fine. God, stop talking about it so much.”
“Okay, touchy subject,” Julie says, nodding, and making a mental note to avoid mentioning it again.
“Yeah. It really is,” Alex mutters, his hand squeezing Luke’s shoulder reassuringly. “So, why do you need a place?”
She reaches up to readjust her baseball cap even though it definitely doesn’t need any, she just needs the moment to think. She knows she doesn’t need to explain everything to them but she’s worried about any possible questions that they might have.
“Well, I’m transferring schools. But I live on campus right now, so obviously I need a new place, since I can’t exactly stay if I don’t attend the school anymore,” she explains, forcing a smile and trying to make it sound not that serious. “I mean, I would move back home but that’s…” She shakes her head, “My dad already worries too much about me.”
“Wouldn’t moving in with strangers make him worry more?” Reggie asks.
“Oh, yeah, definitely,” she answers, shrugging. “But I figured he’s going to worry about me either way. At least this way he isn’t hovering over my every move.”
Reggie nods, humming in consideration. “That makes sense.”
“That’s… Okay. So, you’re in college?” Alex asks, he’s got a clipboard in front of him and scribbles something down.
Julie frowns, feeling like she’s back in a therapy session before shaking that thought away. “Yeah, I’m in my junior year. And I work at a record shop.”
“Oh! Could you get us a discount?” Reggie asks.
“I mean, yeah?” Julie offers, frowning slightly as she watches his eager expression turn into one of delight. She turns to the others and asks if she can look around.
They lead her on a quick tour that includes being shown the room that they’re offering up, pointing out which doors lead to each of their rooms, the bathroom, and the makeshift recording booth that looks like it used to be a large walk-in closet.
“Can I be honest?” she asks, once they’re in the kitchen. “I really need a place and this… Is surprisingly the only decent place I’ve been to all day. Everything else is too expensive, or in awful shape.”
She watches them exchange looks, except Alex, who leans forward against the counter and says, “I still have questions actually. I mean, no offense, but we don’t even know you. And you don’t know us.”
“That's fair," she says, "What do you want to know?”
“Uh, well,” Alex starts, scratching his neck and glancing at the others as if for help, but neither seem to offer up any. He sighs, tilting his head in thought.
“Excuse us, I need to talk to the boys,” Luke says to her with a smile. He shoots them a look and nods his head towards a doorway that leads towards where most of the bedrooms are.
Immediately Alex follows. Reggie stays behind, smiling brightly at Julie and opens his mouth clearly about to start a conversation, when Alex comes back and grabs his arm before dragging him away.
Julie watches them until they disappear from her sight. Once she's left alone, she can't help but feel awkward as she looks around, eventually deciding to walk around to get a look without any of the guys watching over her shoulder.
The band meeting happens in the bathroom, they stand around in a semi-circle, and Luke announces, “I think we should let her live here.”
“Yes!” Reggie exclaims. When they both look at him, he continues, bouncing slightly as he does, “She’s a girl, she’ll have friends who are girls, who’ll probably come over. Maybe even invite them to our gigs? So, yes.”
Alex shakes his head, looking pointedly away from Reggie. “I wish you were moving out.”
Reggie pouts at that even though Alex definitely doesn’t mean it. Luke knows Alex loves them and wouldn’t want to see either of them leave, especially not after the whole thing with Bobby.
“We need to think about this logically,” Alex decides, “This is a big change and we don’t even know her. Let’s look at the pros and cons before deciding.”
“Pro: she seems nice,” Reggie says, holding up his pointer finger.
“Pro: she’s the only applicant that’s normal. Like, seriously, those others were complete weirdos,” Alex replies, shuddering slightly at the thought of their other roommate interviews.
“Isn’t that a bit harsh to those guys?” Luke counters. “The bird guy seemed chill.”
“Pro,” Reggie says, interrupting whatever was going to be Alex’s response. “Girls.”
“Con: girls,” Luke says, earning a betrayed look from Reggie. “Listen, she moves in and invades our space,” he gestures around them, “With all her girl stuff.”
“Oh,” Reggie nods in understanding, “Like butterflies and glitter?”
At that Alex shoots them both judging looks, and says, “What is-” He shakes his head, briefly running a hand over his face. “Okay, pro: she said her mom’s into music, so she’ll be understanding when we practice.”
Luke points at him and nods. “Okay, yeah. That’s a really good point in her favor. Con: we really don’t know her,” he continues, “I mean, right now, she seems cool. But what if she ends up being a terrible roommate?”
“Or worse,” Alex says, eyes widening, scratching his neck slightly. “Aw, man. I didn’t think about that. We shouldn’t have put an ad on the internet. What if she turns out to be an axe murderer?”
“Dude, c’mon, does she really seem like a murderer to you?”
“Nah.” Reggie shakes his head. “Seems too nice to be a murderer.”
“That’s how they get you! They lure you into a false sense of security and then...” At this Alex makes a noise as he uses his finger to make a slash across his neck.
“Then draw a line across your neck?” Reggie asks, frowning in confusion. “That makes no sense.”
“What? No! Murder us!” Alex exclaims, shaking his head and folding his arms over his chest. “You know what, I… I don’t think we should do this anymore.”
“Do you need a hug?” Reggie asks, moving towards Alex to comfort him during his impending spiral.
“No, don’t touch me,” Alex says, stepping away from them. Reggie huffs and shakes his head, muttering about how this is why they don’t hug him more often. And Alex begins pacing around the bathroom.
“Look what you did!” Reggie tells Luke, gesturing towards Alex pacing and pulling his hood up to cover his head.
“Yeah, sorry, this spiral is on me. That’s my bad,” Luke says, apologetically. “But... We need a new roommate and like you said she’s the only normal one. So, executive decision! She’s in.”
“Wait, really?” they hear Julie ask, making them all turn towards the closed door behind them.
Luke walks over to open the door and is greeted by the sight of Julie clearly trying to act like she hadn’t been listening despite being caught already. She’s feeling the wall right across from the bathroom, nodding to herself, and says, “Wow. This... This is a nice wall. Very sturdy.”
She turns towards them, smiling innocently. “So, have you decided yet?”
“You’re in,” Luke says.
“Right. Thanks,” she says, nodding again. “Thanks, you won’t regret this,” she adds, letting go of the wall and giving them awkward finger guns before shaking her head as if she’s clearly judging herself.
And Luke has to admit it’s a cute sight. He smiles at her, says, “You can move in whenever you want.”
She packs up her entire room that same day with the help of Flynn, who keeps insisting that since they’ll no longer be on the same campus their friendship will fall apart. And Julie has to keep insisting that their years-long friendship will take much more than that to end. It doesn't completely ease Flynn’s worries, but it does make her smile a bit, and actually start packing things instead of slowly unpacking as if this isn’t happening.
Julie supposes that it helps that the loft isn’t actually that far away, which means it’s easy for both of them to visit each other whenever they want.
The next day, the two of them get ready to move everything into the loft.
“Julie, hey,” Luke says, coming out of the building. “I saw you out here. You need help?”
“Sure,” Julie says, gesturing to the back of her car that’s filled with all of her things. She glances towards Flynn who’s staring at her pointedly, nodding towards Luke. “Flynn, this is Luke. One of my new roommates. Luke, this is Flynn.”
“Her best friend in the entire world,” Flynn introduces with a smile that doesn't falter as she continues, “And if you let anything happen to her, I will come here and crazy murder you all. Got it?”
Julie smothers a laugh as she watches Luke's expression shift between alarm and confusion on how serious she is.
“Noted. Completely,” Luke says, nodding his head quickly. “Uh. Nice to meet you.” And then gets right to work with grabbing a box.
As soon as he’s disappeared into the building, Flynn turns towards her with a smug smile and raises her brow.
“What?” Julie asks slowly, already dreading whatever Flynn is going to say.
Flynn shrugs in an obviously not casual way. “Oh, nothing,” she says in a tone that means it’s definitely something. “Just that you didn’t tell me your new roommate was super cute. No wonder you chose this place.”
“Oh my God,” Julie says, rolling her eyes, but finds herself smiling as she looks past Flynn, making sure Luke isn’t coming back yet. “I did not choose this place because of that.”
“Mhm,” Flynn hums, clearly not buying it, she grabs one of the boxes.
Julie grins, “But he really is cute, right?”
Flynn laughs and nods, but before she can say anything else, Luke is coming back out and grabbing some more things to take to the elevator. It’s not long before Alex and Reggie come out to help too, and Flynn gives her a pointed look that means she’s going to be hearing more about keeping the cute roommates a secret.
After a morning meeting with her advisor about finalizing her transfer, she comes back to the loft to find the boys having a band rehearsal. She stops in her tracks, she knew they were in a band but finally seeing the proof of them in action is different. She watches them for a moment and realizes that they’re good. They’re really good.
She can't help but nod along to the beat as she looks over each of the boys with their bright smiles, none of them have noticed that she’s there yet. And she aches at how happy they look playing music together, it makes her miss her mom and music. She aches to be able to play that freely again.
She shakes herself out of the moment and heads for her room, leaning against the closed door as she listens to them play and hears their happy laughter, making her remember all the times she’d played songs with her mom.
And it hits her that they have a similar sound to the kinds of bands her mom used to like, makes her think that she would've liked them. At that thought, she shuts her eyes tight as tears threaten to spill over.
Her minor emotional breakdown gets interrupted by her phone going off reminding her that she needs to get ready to head to work.
“Julie, hi!” Reggie greets when she walks into the living room, “I didn’t know you were home.”
She looks at them all sitting on the couch, clearly taking a break. “Yeah, I saw you guys playing,” she explains, pointedly not looking in the direction of their instruments. “Didn’t want to interrupt.”
“Oh, by the way,” Luke says, reaching across the coffee table to grab a piece of folded up paper and walking over. He holds it out. “Uh, I found this on the floor. It must’ve fallen out when we were moving your stuff in.”
“Thanks,” Julie frowns, grabbing the paper hesitantly.
“Your mom’s an amazing songwriter,” he says.
“She is,” she says automatically then freezes, eyes wide as she looks at him, “Wait, what? How do you know that?”
Luke frowns now, pointing at the paper in her hand. “That… It’s a song. An amazing song and if your mom wrote it, she’s insanely talented.”
Julie looks down, unfolding the paper even though she knows what it is now, taking in the familiar handwriting. She knows the note on the last page, that gave Luke the information on who wrote it, by heart.
“Was,” she says, looking away from the sheet music, she notices the moment realization dawns in his expression. “She passed away.”
“I am so sorry.”
“We didn’t know,” Alex adds, from his spot on the couch, looking apologetic. “I’m sorry for your loss.”
“It’s okay,” Julie says, carefully folding up the paper before putting it in her pocket. She takes a deep breath and decides to change the subject before the emotions boil over. “Uh, you guys are pretty good.”
Luke’s expression changes quickly from sad to something close to offended. “Just pretty good?” he asks, tone edging on incredulously, making her laugh slightly.
“Yep,” she answers, backing away towards the door. Grinning at Luke spluttering out an offended reply to her not thinking they’re epic. “I gotta get to work.”
Before she leaves out the door, she hears Reggie call out, “We’re Sunset Curve. Tell your friends!”
The loft is empty when she comes back again, she calls out for the guys just in case, but there’s no answer.
She’s grabbing something to drink when she finds herself directly facing the piano. She remembers Alex had explained that while none of them really play it much, they make sure it’s kept in good shape.
As she’s staring at the piano, she thinks about her mom’s song still folded up in her pocket and pulls it out.
She can’t really explain why now, but maybe it has to do with the fact that she’s moved in with a bunch of musicians and really misses her mom. Whatever the reason, she makes her way to the piano and spreads out the sheet music in front of her.
And she plays for the first time in a year, let's herself get carried away in the words her mom wrote for her.
Afterwards she can’t help but cry as she sits at a piano that’s not her mom’s but looks so much like it and holds the last page close to her. Thinking over the lyrics and realizes it’s a sign somehow.
Her phone rings while she’s wiping her tears, she wastes no time answering it when she sees that it’s Flynn, and listens as she begins talking about how her first day of classes without Julie there went.
“Hey, Flynn,” Julie says, when there’s a pause, “I… I just played.”
There’s a drawn out silence as if Flynn is in shock, before asking, “Wait? You played?”
“Yeah, I played this song my mom wrote for me,” Julie explains, slowly running a hand over the piano again. “I’ve been so scared to play it. But I don’t know, today I realized maybe that’s exactly why I should.”
“Jules! This is amazing!” Flynn exclaims, she can practically hear the smile in her voice. “Wait. Oh my god. We need to let Harrison know that you can still play. Maybe it’s not too late to get back in!”
Julie checks the time and realizes that right now Mrs. Harrison should be teaching the night class that she has today, if she hurries she can still make it in time to catch her. She grins, and nods, “Meet me outside of her class.”
“Yes! Hurry up, I’ll try to stall her if you’re not here in time,” Flynn tells her.
She immediately gets up, determined to make it in time, practically running into the guys in her rush out the door. They stare at her with wide eyes, she imagines she looks a bit on the crazy side as she grins at them. “Oh, hey,” she greets them, “I can’t talk right now. I need to get back into my music program!”
With that she rushes to the elevator, hearing a chorus of “good luck”s coming from the guys as the doors close.
It turns out that it doesn’t matter that she can play now because Julie's transfer has already been finalized that afternoon and there’s nothing that Mrs. Harrison can do for her even though she’s glad that Julie’s able to play again. All that can be done is reapplying next semester.
Flynn and Julie eat two cartons of ice cream on the floor of Flynn’s room. And Julie calls her dad since Flynn had excitedly texted him the news. He’d been ecstatic to find out that she’s got music back, it sucks to break the news to him that she's still transferring out.
“Hey, Julie,” Reggie greets when she gets back to the loft that night. He and Alex are on the couch, eating pizza and watching what looks like some reality tv show.
“Hey,” she says back, starting to walk towards her room, not feeling up to talking at the moment.
Before she can get there though, Alex calls out, “Julie, wait. Did you get back into your music program?”
For a moment, she wonders how he knew about that before remembering she told them when she was rushing out of the apartment. “Uh, no,” she says.
“I’m sorry, that sucks,” Alex says, frowning, “We heard you playing earlier and you were amazing.”
“Wait, you heard that?”
“We didn’t mean to, we came back and found you playing, and well, yeah,” Reggie quickly explains, “Ended up listening. And may I say, you have the voice of an angel.”
“Thanks,” Julie smiles, suddenly feeling less embarrassed by them hearing her play, none of them speak for a moment. And she nods, taking the chance to go to her room.
In the middle of the night when she gets up to grab some water, she finds Luke in the kitchen eating what she assumes is the leftover pizza.
He wastes no time telling her that the guys told him she didn’t get back in, but she shouldn’t be wasting her talent and that she needs to prove to her teachers that she belongs there by making them listen. He tells her that Sunset Curve gets all their gigs by doing, not asking and she needs to do the same.
Although his weird pep talk includes a lot more violent metaphors about how she’s a wrecking ball, but it’s nice, even though she has to explain that they won’t just let her back in.
“If getting back into this school is what you want then you need to go for it,” Luke says, “You’re too talented not to try.”
And Julie looks at his earnest expression and realizes that he’s right, she needs to try. It’s not like she has anything to lose if this backfires. “I don’t even have anything prepared,” she says with a sigh.
Luke grins at her. “Thought you might say that and I got just the thing,” he says, reaching into his pocket and taking out a piece of notebook paper. He smooths it out onto the counter and shows her the song that he thinks is perfect for her.
The next day, she calls Flynn and tells her the plan and Flynn tells her that the showcase is the perfect time to do it. Then, promises that she'll be over later to go with her.
When Flynn comes into the apartment, she immediately turns to send a glare at the boys. “Seriously, you guys have been in her life for four days and convinced her to perform to get her spot back?” she asks, “That’s not your job. That is my job.”
She stares them down as they all awkwardly apologize, Julie can’t help but laugh at the whole thing. Flynn nods, clearly pleased, “You should be sorry. But,” she starts, grinning at them, “Thank you so much! This'll be great, Double Trouble lives on!”
“Didn't agree to that name," Julie says, and Flynn ignores that as she throws an arm over Julie's shoulders. "I'm really doing this."
“You sure are! We should leave now, if we want to make it,” Flynn says, proudly smiling at her and guiding her towards the door.
“Stick it to the man!” Luke calls out from the couch, at the same time that Reggie says, “You can do this!”
Julie stops at the door and turns towards them. “Aren’t you guys going to come with?”
They don’t hesitate to get off the couch and follow them out. With Flynn claiming shotgun, leaving the guys to all pile into the backseat as Julie drives.
Alex offers up his pre-show mix to help with the nerves and get Julie in the right headspace. The playlist so far has included a weird mix of bubblegum pop and rock music, mostly from the 90’s. It’s strange but she has to admit, it kind of works.
Until she gets to school and keeps driving instead of pulling into the parking lot.
“You know, it’s fine,” Flynn says, nodding along as she gives her an encouraging smile. “You need a minute, we can just drive around the block.”
“Are we sure this is a good idea?” Julie asks, “I mean, crashing the showcase seems like an awful idea.”
“It’s going to be fine,” Flynn insists. “It’s not like they can expel you.”
Julie nods, focusing ahead as she grips the steering wheel and continues to drive. She drives around three more times, going on a fourth, when she frowns at the familiar song playing now. Bill Medley's voice low over the speakers singing, now I've had the time of my life...
She glances into the rearview mirror to look at Alex. "Seriously this is on your pre-show mix?" she asks.
“Yeah,” Alex answers, sounding sheepish, she can hear the others laugh. “You can just skip it,” he adds, already leaning forward to do so.
Julie holds out her arm to stop him. “Wait, don’t,” she says, listening to the lyrics coming through the speakers. “Actually. I think this is working," she nods, muttering along to the words, and for some reason it does help make her feel pumped up.
"What is happening?" Flynn asks.
"What's happening is that this is an amazing song," Alex says, matter-of-factly.
This time she finally turns into the parking lot and the car fills with everyone's excited shouts. Once parked they get out of the car, rushing towards the auditorium.
Julie’s bravery quickly shatters when she makes it inside and sees Dirty Candy performing onstage. The nerves are coming back in full force as she watches their performance, feeling like maybe she can’t do this.
“Now’s your chance,” Flynn says, giving her a nudge once Dirty Candy leaves the stage and Dean Lessa is giving a closing speech.
But Julie hesitates, taking only one step towards the stage before stopping. Everyone is starting to leave the auditorium.
“You got this,” Luke says encouragingly, when she still hasn’t taken the stage. “The piano is right there with your name on it.”
Julie looks back towards Luke and the others, to find all four of them smiling encouragingly and she thinks about the song she’s practiced all night just for this moment.
She faces the stage, takes a deep breath before walking up the steps and slowly making her way to the piano. She sits down, hands hesitating for a moment while watching the mulling crowd before finally starting to play. There must be someone still in the lighting booth because quickly the lights go down until just a spotlight is on her. She notices people moving back to their seats or standing in the aisles while she sings.
And she keeps performing, only nearly messes up when she hears other instruments begin to join her and turns to see the guys on stage with her. Luke nodding at her to continue.
And it feels right, the four of them performing onstage together, as if this is exactly where they belong.
The exhilaration from the performance morphs quickly into nerves when Dean Lessa makes a loud announcement after they're done thanking everyone for sticking around and that now the showcase is really over. Mrs. Harrison walks towards Julie causing the guys to quickly retreat to where Flynn is standing in the wings.
“I’m sorry, Mrs. Harrison,” Julie says before she can say anything, “I just thought if you saw me perform that you’d see that I do belong here.”
Mrs. Harrison smiles, “You do, and I’m proud of you for performing again, but I’m sorry, Julie. Your spot has been filled, there’s nothing I can do.”
Julie nods in understanding, but still feels the disappointment begin to sink in.
“I can do something,” Dean Lessa says, walking over to them. “I don’t appreciate this display,” she continues, causing the feeling to deepen, “However, I refuse to be known as the dean that kicked Julie Molina out of a performing arts school. We’ll need to work out the details, but consider yourself a student here again.”
Julie can’t help the bright grin that spreads across her face. “Thank you, thank you so much,” she says, sharing an excited look with Mrs. Harrison.
“Just don’t pull another stunt like this again,” Dean Lessa warns in a serious tone, before smiling, “Welcome back.”
“So, what happened?” Flynn asks, walking over to her once Lessa has disappeared from earshot and Mrs. Harrison follows after congratulating her. Flynn and the boys are all looking at her eagerly. “Are you back in?”
“I’m in!” Julie says, letting herself be pulled into several hugs and enjoying the excited chatter surrounding her.
“Wait,” Reggie says, eyes wide as he looks around the group, “Does this mean you’re moving out?”
Julie blinks, she hadn’t even considered that as an option yet, but hearing it makes her realize that she probably needs to think it over. Except when she looks at the boys, she can’t imagine just leaving when she’s barely had a chance to settle in.
“You’re trying to get rid of me already?” she jokes, it seems to be answer enough as their concerned looks turn into bright smiles.
“We should celebrate!” Luke says.
“Yes, drinks are on me, guys,” Reggie announces, “Let’s do this!”
“Luke never makes us pay for drinks,” Alex points out.
“Fine,” Reggie says, sounding annoyed, “Drinks are on Luke.”
As promised drinks are on Luke because they go to the bar that he works at. He does however refuse to serve alcohol to Flynn and Julie much to their annoyance. But it’s fine, Julie feels like she’s on top of the world and nothing can ruin her mood.
While she and Flynn are excitedly talking about everything, she notices Luke behind the bar waving her over to where he and the guys are.
“Hey,” she says, when she joins them, she frowns at their expressions. She isn’t sure what to make of the hopefulness on their faces. “What’s going on?”
“So, we’ve talked it over,” Luke grins at her. “And we want to invite you to join the band.” At that they do jazz hands in excitement as they smile at her.
“You want me to join your band?” she asks, unsure if she’s actually hearing him correctly. “Seriously?”
“We do not joke about the matters of the band,” Reggie says, completely serious, and he looks expectantly at her.
“Julie, that performance we did together was incredible,” Luke says, “We’d be crazy not to make this a permanent thing.”
“Yeah,” Alex agrees from his spot beside Reggie, “It was like we found the missing piece. As crazy as that sounds.”
Julie is taken back by their sounds of agreement, she looks over to Flynn beside her, to see that she’s looking thoughtfully at the four of them. “They’re right,” Flynn says, “I mean, that performance was like nothing I’ve ever seen. You guys are amazing together.”
“So,” Luke urges, looking hopeful. “Are you joining our band?”
This time Flynn scoffs, “I think you’re joining her band,” she announces, smiling at Julie when she agrees to that.
“You know what would be a great way to celebrate this?” Reggie asks, turning to look at Luke with an innocent smile. “If you called Bobby and got us into the party tomorrow?”
“Nope,” Luke says, cleaning a glass, “I’m not calling him. If you want you can call him.”
Julie sees Flynn’s questioning expression and shakes her head to tell her not to even bother asking, but a silent promise to explain later.
Reggie spends most of the night attempting to convince him in between them brainstorming new band names and joking around, while Luke rotates between joining them and doing his job when other customers need him.
And it's nice, this small group that they've become.
“Jules, don’t look now, but a cute guy is totally checking you out,” Flynn says, she nods in the direction the guy must be in.
“Which guy?” Reggie asks immediately and loudly, as he looks around the bar.
“Very subtle,” Alex says sarcastically, shaking his head as Julie glares at Reggie. “I’m sorry about him.”
Julie shakes her head, but follows where Flynn is indicating, she has to admit he is cute. “You should talk to him,” Flynn encourages with a smile.
It takes Alex admitting that they know him and a lot of encouraging words before she even makes her way over to him. Somehow, maybe due to the newfound confidence and happiness from the day’s events, she manages not to make a complete fool of herself in front of the cute guy and ends up with a date.
Julie goes home to tell her dad about the news. She finds him hunched over piles of paper, smiling sheepishly when he explains that they’re information about different music schools or ones with good music programs.
“Well, good news. You don't need to keep searching,” she says, unable to control her smile, “I got back in.”
It takes her dad a moment to register what she said but soon enough she’s wrapped in a hug and getting a kiss on her cheek. “I’m so proud of you,” he says, sighing in relief, “Are you going to need help moving back into the dorms?”
“Um,” she starts, she’s been dreading bringing this up, especially since he was trying to convince her to move back home when she first told him. “I think I might stay in the loft with the guys.”
Her dad leans back and looks at her with a frown. “Are you sure?” he asks, “You know you can always stay here for however long you need.”
“I know,” she replies softly. “And I know that I barely know them and stranger danger is a real thing, but they’re good dudes. And very normal," she insists, before reconsidering, "Well, Reggie... He's questionable. But they’re kind of the reason I was even able to get back in.”
He looks at her for a long moment. “These boys must be something special to bring music back into your life,” he says, smiling and points at her, “I still want to meet them.”
“Of course,” Julie says, laughing.
“If anything ever happens, anything at all, you know I’m always here for you,” he adds, “No matter what.” He holds out his hand with his finger pointed out and smiles at her, waits for her to do the same before curling his finger around hers. “I’m so happy that you’re playing music again.”
Julie wraps her arms around her dad, hugging him tightly, the happy feeling she felt since the performance still blooming in her chest. She whispers, “Me too.”
Julie’s date is in an hour and she still hasn’t decided what to wear. She debates calling Flynn but she doesn’t actually know where her phone is because she’s thrown her clothes all over the floor. Instead, she lays in the pile, staring at her ceiling and deciding that she’s not going out tonight.
“Hey, Julie, we’re- Woah,” Reggie says. Julie looks over to where he's standing in her doorway. “What’s going on? Are you doing clothes angels?”
She sighs, “No. I just… I don’t have anything to wear.”
“Um, clearly you have tons to wear,” he replies, gesturing to the clothes strewn across the floor. He raises his hands in surrender when she glares at him. “Not what you meant.”
“I think I’m just going to cancel,” Julie tells him, turning away to stare back at her ceiling. He doesn’t say anything but she hears him walk into the room and watches him out of the corner of her eye as he joins her on the floor.
She turns to look at him but he just stares up at the ceiling, eventually he says, “This is surprisingly comfortable.”
"What are you doing?" she asks, eyeing him suspiciously, he folds his arms under his head and gives her a smile.
"Joining you in the clothes pile."
She huffs, shaking her head. "Why though?"
"Why not?" Reggie counters, shrugging awkwardly in his position. He's facing her now and asks, "Why're you cancelling your date?"
Julie frowns as she looks at him, he's laying in the opposite direction but his face is in her view and there's a large amount of space between them. She notices that he's looking at her expectantly waiting for her answer, a small smile on his face. She looks up and takes a deep breathe, "I don't exactly have a lot of... Dating experience," she admits quietly.
She expects him to judge, or make fun of her, but instead he's looking at her with a thoughtful frown, and says, "So, you're scared?"
"Well, yeah," she answers, "It's stupid. I just... What if I don't know what to say? Or it goes horribly?"
Reggie hums, nodding along, then says, "Yeah. I mean, that's always the risk with these things. So much could go wrong or make it awkward."
"Not helpful," she points out, grabbing the scarf by her face and throwing it at him. He laughs, smacking it away before it hits him.
"Hey, if you're worried about it, you two could always skip dinner and just join us at the party," Reggie says, when his laughter dies down. "Less pressure that way."
"The party?"
"Yep," Reggie says, grinning at her. "Apparently all my convincing worked and Luke texted Bobby to get us in."
"Huh," Julie says, frowning slightly, remembering the way Luke talked about Bobby that first day they met and how much he kept refusing Reggie's pleas the night before. "You must've really wore him down."
"Definitely."
After a moment of silence, Reggie says, "You know, it's okay to be nervous. But you never know how it'll go until you're actually there. And if it goes horribly? Who cares? You don't have to go on another date with him." He sits up and looks down at her. "If it goes really badly you can always call me and I'll bail you out. I know tons of ways to escape places."
"You'd do that?" she asks, not doing a good job at hiding her surprised.
"Duh. That's what friends are for," he states, tone conveying how he thinks it should be obvious, "Well, friends-slash-roommates-slash-bandmates."
She laughs, shaking her head and finally sitting up, she tilts her head as she thinks over everything Reggie's said. "You're full of surprises, Reg," she says.
"I get that a lot," he says, nodding before frowning, "Wait, in a good way?"
"The best way," she agrees, earning a smile from him. "Thanks."
"No problem," he looks around the mess of clothes, "So, I'll leave you to get ready. Unless you need help with picking something out?"
"Nah, I think I got it from here," she says, nodding as she starts picking up things off the floor. She smiles when Reggie gives her a small salute before getting up and leaving, not before saying he'll be in the living room if she changes her mind.
It feels easier to actually decide on what to wear now that Reggie eased some of her worries.
When she's ready and has finally found her phone, she makes her way out into the living room. Reggie looks up from where he's playing something on his bass and grins, "Wow," causing Luke to look up from where he's scribbling in the notebook he uses for songs and Alex looks up from his laptop where he's likely getting work done.
"You look nice, Julie," Alex says.
"Thanks guys," she says, noticing that Luke hasn't said anything, she turns to see him looking at her. She doesn't know what to make of his expression except that he's smiling at her.
When he notices that she's looking at him, he says, "You, uh, you look good."
"Thanks," she repeats, smiling back, before taking out her phone. "I'm gonna text him. Let him know I'm on my way."
"Wait. Have you been texting him this whole time?" Luke asks, a slight frown on his face.
Julie looks up at him and then towards the others. "Is that... bad?"
"No. No, it's nice," he replies, shaking his head, and smiles again. "Have a good night."
"Yeah, you got this," Reggie offers.
She laughs, nodding, "It's gonna be great," she says, earning a thumbs up from Reggie with each hand. "Have fun at your party, guys."
Julie feels like an idiot.
And she’s pretty sure the waitstaff and the people at the tables nearby all feel sorry for her. She imagines that they’ll be gossiping to others for the next few days about how sad and pathetic she is.
It’s embarrassing and even though she's still here, she’s already accepted that Brad isn’t going to show up at all. Right now, she’s debating whether to just eat a meal by herself and endure some more of the waitress’ pity smiles, or finally give up the table.
Before she can tell that to the waitress, she hears a commotion from the entrance and familiar voices shouting, “Wait! We're here! We’re here! Julie!”
She sees Luke rushing towards her table, with Reggie and Alex following closely behind him, they look slightly out of breath and ruffled. “Julie, we’re sorry,” Luke says, “We’re here for the date thing!”
They stop at the table and smile brightly at her. The waitress looks at them warily, “You’re her dates?”
“Yup. That’s us. We’re, uh, we're her boyfriends,” Luke tells the woman with complete confidence even though she clearly doesn’t buy it. Reggie automatically reaches his hand out to rest on the one Julie has on the table as if that's proof enough. "One man just isn't enough for her."
“All three of you?”
“Yeah, you got a problem with that?” Alex asks, crossing his arms and looking at her with judgement. “These are sensitive times. We can all be in a relationship, it’s a thing. Get woke.”
The waitress still clearly doesn’t buy it. But almost as if she doesn’t want to get a complaint, or maybe she just decides she doesn’t want to deal with this, she smiles politely and gestures to the table before walking away.
“Hey,” Luke says, “We ran into Brad. And you know, forget that guy, he was a real jerk. You deserve way better than that.”
And Julie doesn’t know what to do with all the emotions building up in her chest. She looks at each of them and asks, “You guys ditched your party to come here and see me?"
"Of course!"
"Why?" she can't help but ask, the build up of emotions feeling like they'll spill out any second now.
"We care about you," Luke says, leaning against the back of the chair, "We like you."
Alex eagerly nods in agreement. "Yeah, and you're way more important to us than some lame party."
"Well..." Reggie makes a face, "The party was supposed to be epic so- Ow!" He says as Luke elbows him in the gut and sends him a look that makes him backtrack quickly, "But that aside, we do care more about you than that party! I told you we'd be here for you, that's what friends-slash-roommates-slash-bandmates do."
Julie lets out a watery laugh as she looks at them, feeling the tears starting to sting as she nods, "That's so nice. I care about you guys too."
"Hey, no, don't cry," Luke says quickly, "Julie, c'mon, you'll make Alex cry and I can't deal with two of you crying."
"Too late," Reggie announces, tears streaming down his cheeks.
She watches Alex start crying then too and that's what causes the tears to spill over for her.
"Hey, hey, stop crying guys," Luke says, but Julie can hear the way his voice shakes as if he's barely holding back tears. He clears his throat, and starts singing, "Rise through the night you and I, We will fight to shine together, bright forever."
Reggie and Alex join in, singing through their tears. And she knows that Luke is trying to make her stop crying by singing the song from their first performance together, but it doesn't stop the tears at all. It does make her smile through them though. She joins in when they just restart singing the chorus again and she becomes aware that everyone is staring at them.
She thinks that they must make quite a sight, four people crying while singing in the middle of the restaurant, but she doesn't care. She doesn't even care that they haven't even known each other for a full week yet because she's convinced even more that this is where she belongs. With these three guys who have brought music back into her life and have dropped everything to show up when they realized she'd been stood up.
"Excuse me," the waitress interrupts, "I'm going to have to ask you all to leave."
"We were leaving anyway," Luke tells her, before turning back to Julie and nodding towards the exit, "C'mon, let's go home."
And as they walk out of the restaurant towards her car together, already making plans to pick up burgers on the way and debating what movie they should watch, she thinks, home.