Chapter Text
Julie and Flynn were having one of their movie nights together when she first noticed something was different. They were watching High School Musical as a part of their childhood movie marathon when Reggie poofed into the room.
“Reggie, you’re in front of the screen.” Julie motioned for him to move.
“Oh, Reggie is here?” Flynn's face visibly lit up, “Want to join us to watch the masterpiece that is High School Musical?”
Julie watched as Reggie practically leaped onto the couch at the invitation and told Flynn as much, “He’s sprawled out next to you now.”
“Here you go,” Flynn said as she whipped out her phone, opened the notes app and pushed it in the general direction of Reggie. Upon getting an eyebrow raise from Julie, Flynn simply shrugged and continued shoving handfuls of popcorn in her mouth.
Reggie typed onto the phone like he had done that multiple times before which confused Julie even more. She knew that the boys passed notes with Flynn but it was rarely casual and only during rehearsal. It seemed like they have done this before but Julie decided to not let it bother her. It’s good if two of the most important people to her can become friends. Even if she thought movie night was just going to be her and Flynn.
That was the thought process until Flynn basically choked on her popcorn from laughing at something Reggie wrote on the phone.
“Oh my god, you are such an idiot. I cannot believe you,” Flynn said with a huge smile, an obvious adoration in her eyes.
“Uh, what are you guys laughing about?” Julie commented while forcing a smile on. It was weird being the one who could actually see Reggie and still being the one left out of the loop.
“Julie, here.” Flynn passed her the notes app and she read a typical, Reggie-esque pun written poorly on her phone.
Julie forced out a chuckle before handing the phone back to Reggie. Flynn usually rolled her eyes and smiled at her puns. Never has she gotten such a boisterous reaction from making a dumb joke. It didn’t help that Reggie looked so proud and happy that he got her to laugh like that. Julie forced herself to focus on the movie and not the confusing prospect of her best friend flirting with a ghost she couldn’t even see.
Well, this only worked until she kept noticing them flirting. Flynn seemed so against her thinking Luke was cute but she was flirting with Reggie. It was driving her up the wall even if she didn’t want to admit it.
------<3------
Luke was chewing the end of a pencil while staring at the notebook in his lap when Julie entered the studio, an annoyed sigh leaving her lips.
“What’s wrong, Jules?” Luke asked, pencil still being held precariously between his teeth.
She turned quickly towards him, almost as if she hadn’t noticed him, before sighing once more, “I don’t know?” a pause as Julie scrunched her eyebrows in thought, “I shouldn’t be mad, really, it’s stupid.”
Luke sat up on the couch and patted the seat next to him, “Hey, hey, it can’t be that stupid. You’re Julie Molina. Basically the smartest girl I know.”
Julie gave him a small smile before shuffling over to the couch. Luke ruffled her hair before saying, “Okay, you can spill now if you want or we could just jam out.”
“I just,” she makes indiscernible gestures with her hands before continuing, “have you noticed anything between Flynn and Reggie?”
“Flynn...and Reggie? I mean I guess they’re like friends now despite the whole, ya know, ghost thing.”
“Just friends? I mean Flynn is flirting with Reggie, I just know it! They’re always passing notes and, well you know, being all...lovey dovey,” Julie stopped, pursing her lips after realizing that she was getting heated.
Luke began to think hard about the recent interactions between the two. They had been getting closer and sometimes Reggie would ditch just to hang with Flynn. The pieces started to fit together in his head. Reggie smiling at Flynn, them laughing at notes they would pass during rehearsal, it all started to make sense. He was even sure he had found a few love song lyrics Reggie wrote stuck in his notebook. For some reason, it left an uneasy feeling over Luke that made him feel a little sick.
“Luke? You okay?” Julie asked, waving her hand in front of his face.
He broke out of his stupor and shook his head, “Um, uh, well, doesn’t Flynn have a strict ‘no ghosts’ policy? She can’t even see him.”
“I thought she did,” Julie crossed her arms, mumbling, “but I know what she's like when she has a crush.”
Luke stood up, suddenly, throwing his hands up in the air, “What if they get hurt, Julie? No way a relationship where one can’t even see the other is gonna work out.”
“I know right?!” Julie exclaimed in agreement.
“We gotta do something! This relationship can’t happen. I mean, dude, when Reggie falls, he falls hard. He dated a girl back when we were alive and she totally broke his heart. He was sad for, like, a month!” Luke looked back at Julie to see some hesitancy on her features.
“Do something? Like what?” She asked, hints of suspicion lacing her voice.
“Anything, Jules, we can’t let them hurt themselves, right? They’re our friends plus it’d be bad for the band.” Luke said putting his hands on Julie's shoulders to emphasize his point.
Julie sighed, “Fine, fine, but we can’t let this get out of hand. We’ll just try to make them hang out less and see how that goes. Nothing drastic.”
“Nothing drastic, got it.” Luke nodded but Julie squinted her eyes at him anyways.
He squirmed just a little under her scrutiny before giving in, “Okay! Okay, nothing crazy. Stop looking at me like that.”
Julie gave him a satisfied smirk, “Okay, want to jam out now, Lucas?”
------<3-------
Luke was really noticing Reggie and Flynn now that Julie had brought it up. Sure, he had agreed with Julie that they had to make sure that they wouldn’t date but now that he was conscious of it? It rubbed him the wrong way. He wasn’t really sure why but it did.
So, seeing Reggie grin at Flynn as they type back and forth some secret conversation? Luke could barely focus. Both Julie and him were supposed to be focusing on writing a new song. However, both were more focused on throwing the occasional, frowning glances towards the others.
Luke sighed before saying, “Okay, so we’re not getting anywhere with this song.”
“Yeah, I can’t think at all,” Julie said in annoyed agreement.
Flynn let out a bright laugh which made Luke’s eye twitch before he whispered, “Alright, I am going over there.”
“Julie whisper yelled, “Wait, Luke, what are you gonna do?”
“I don’t know. I’m winging it?”
This response did not instill any type of confidence in Julie but Luke started to head over to the two with an unfound amount of confidence.
“Reg! Don’t mean to steal you away,” yes, he did, “but can you come over here and look at some lyrics. Julie and I are not sure about them.”
“Sure! Just let me fi-”
Luke cut him off, “It’s important band business! We need to finish this new song, man.”
Reggie handed the phone back to Flynn saying bye before letting himself be dragged away. Luke clutched his hand like a life line when he pulled him to where they were writing but he wasn’t exactly complaining. He also didn’t complain when Luke wrapped his arm around his shoulders, pulling him closer as he talked about his ideas on how to finish the song.
Julie, upon seeing this, headed over to Flynn since she was alone now, “Hey, sorry that Luke had to steal Reggie.”
Flynn shrugged, “Band business, I get it. I am your manager after all.”
“The best manager,” Julie said, getting Flynn to smile and pat the seat next to her.
“Oh! I have to mention, there is this cute coffee place that I think you guys could perform at,” Flynn didn’t wait for Julie to sit and instead pulled her down to the couch by her hand. She started to ethistaically show her the place on her phone and describing how they would get the gig. Flynn was still holding her hand and Julie could barely focus on what Flynn was saying. Her focus was only how Flynn’s manicured hands fit into her.
------<3------
It was only a couple days later when Luke poofed into the garage to see Reggie strumming his bass and singing to Flynn. Reggie had a note stuck to his chest with his name written in bold letters so that she could look in his direction. They both had bright smiles and Flynn was practically giggling. It was adorable. So adorable that it made Luke feel a sickness brewing in his stomach. He walked over to Julie who was sitting at the piano watching the two with a small frown. Alex, who was laying on the piano reading a glossy magazine, vaguely looked up and greeted Luke.
Luke hits Julie's shoulder and motions for her to follow him across the room. She looks up, sighs but still follows him. Flynn and Reggie are both too preoccupied to really notice the pair but Alex stops reading his magazine to sit up and eye them curiously.
“You sitting here and doing nothing while,” he gestures unsubtly to the giggling pair, “that is happening was not the plan.”
“What do you want me to do? Pull her away?” Julie whispered, panicked.
He gave her an incredulous look before basically pushing her towards the two, “Yes, that is exactly what I want you to do. Now go.”
Julie almost wanted to hit Luke for making her do the dirty work but headed towards the pair anyways. When Luke started to walk back over to the piano, Alex tried his best to make it seem like he had been reading and not observing his friend's suspicious conversation.
“Hey, besties! Looks like you two are having fun.” Julie started but the nervous, wavy tone in her voice was apparent making her want to sink into the earth. No going back now, she thought in despair.
“Aw, I’m your bestie?” Reggie said with a soft smile. Julie wanted to punch herself in the face or maybe Luke. Either way, she was punching someone.
“Of course you are, Reggie. Um, look, I have to talk to Flynn about something like super uber important.”
Flynn looked at her with concern, “Reggie was gonna play me another song but if you need m-”
“Great!” Julie exclaimed far too loudly before grabbing Flynn and leading her out of the garage.
Okay, so maybe Julie was even less prepared than she thought she was. The second she was standing outside, with Flynn looking at her so concerned, every single plausible explanation left her head.
“Are you okay? What do you want to talk about?” Flynn asked concernedly.
“Um, right. So, uh,” Julie started off strong, “We need to go to the mall! That’s right, that’s what I wanted to talk about.”
“The mall?” Flynn asked incredulously, crossing her arms.
“Yup! I need some new, uh, performing costumes and who’s a better shopping partner then my fashionista best friend, am I right?”
“Julie.” She leveled her a stern look and tapped her foot expectedly. This made Julie deflate immediately and wish that Luke had been the one to split the pair. He knew that Julie wasn’t the best liar especially to Flynn who could read her like a book.
“Okay, so, that wasn’t the only thing,” She tried again, wincing a bit.
“Go on,” Flynn said after Julie paused long enough for it to hit her nerves.
“Um, hm. So, don’t tell the boys but I need some time to be with someone who isn’t a teenage boy or my brother. I wanted to sleep over at your house tonight for, you know,” she grabs Flynn's hands, “a girls night!”
Flynn nodded but squinted her eyes, “That's all?”
“Yup! I swear that the boys are just driving me nuts,” Julie says, not exactly lying because they truly were acting like obnoxious teenage boys lately. Reggie, bless his heart, keeps leaving her notes like ‘good morning! I didn’t break the vase in the living room xo Reggie’. Luke would sometimes wake her up bright and early on the weekends for band practice by yanking her blankets off. Alex was the most polite of them but he did steal her brother's skateboard to impress his skater boyfriend. Now that she was thinking about it, maybe she did need a break.
Flynn smiled and squeezed Julie's hands, “Girls night! No more teenage ghost boys who annoy us.”
“Yes, thank you so much, you’re the literal best. I’ll tell the boys real fast and I can grab my stuff from inside. Wait here,” Julie said while heading back towards the garage. So, maybe she was a little less mad at Luke. A sleepover with her best friend did sound wonderful and, most importantly, no possibility of a ghost boyfriend. Only her and Flynn for the night. She had been missing their one and one hangouts, it almost hurt how little time they spent just the two of them.
Once Julie opened the garage doors, she loudly announced her plans for the night and that she didn’t want to come home to the place on fire. Luke, who was now sitting next to Reggie with his arms draped over his friends shoulders, practically beamed and gave Julie a thumbs up.
“Have fun, Julie, and tell Flynn I said bye!” Reggie said, waving bye and smiling wide.
“Yup, bye bye!” Luke added making Julie roll her eyes.
“Don’t set the house on fire or steal any skateboards!” Julie said, closing the doors.
“One time!” Alex yelled in an exasperated tone.