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Being in a band that’s three fourth ghosts can be pretty fun, Julie has to admit.
Sure, it’s taken all of them a while to get used to everything that comes along with it, especially her, but Julie thinks that they’re doing a pretty great job by now.
And yeah, there’s the whole object impermanence thing they still struggle with, but for the most part, once you get used to having them around (constantly, as Julie sometimes mourns, but always in good humor), it becomes surprisingly easy to forget that her bandmates are not, in fact, human.
Julie feels like, as the token human member of the band, she’s the only one slipping up on that account. Considering Flynn has been the first and so far only person to point it out to her, it’s safe to assume that the boys haven’t even noticed. For the sake of all of their sanity, she promises Flynn to work on it, but, even though Julie has always preferred music to maths, she still knows that the odds of her succeeding converge to zero.
In Julie’s defense: When she’s lounging on the couch in the music room, essentially mirroring Reggie’s position next to her, both of them listening to what Luke and Alex are working on while Reggie browses through a magazine and Julie scrolls through her Instagram feed, it’s easy to forget that they’re not the same. It’s very easy to get fooled by the mundanity they fell into.
Once Julie registers what just happened, she doesn’t even remember what Reggie said, only that it was funny, and that she had offered him a high five in response, as well as the tingling sensation going through her arm when he’d tried to reciprocate her gesture. The two of them keep staring at their hands and the point in the air where they failed to connect, wondering where their high five went wrong.
“Well, that was unexpected,” Reggie says drily and Julie bursts into laughter.
It’s not that funny, but Reggie joins in after a beat and they don’t stop laughing until long after Alex and Luke stopped playing and share a worried look over the state of their friends.
When she’s thinking about it later, the failed high five serves as a calming reminder that Julie’s not alone in this.
It also helps that it keeps happening.
The day is windy and cold, clouds slowly darkening overhead and making Julie believe it’ll probably start raining soon.
All in all, not the best weather conditions. For a human, that is. Reggie next to her doesn’t seem bothered in the least.
Which is good, Julie thinks to herself, as he may have decided against keeping her company otherwise, quickly poofing back into the warmth of the studio, leaving her cold and alone , instead of just cold.
“What’s wrong?” Reggie asks then, causing her to subconsciously wrap her thin cardigan more tightly around her shoulders.
“Oh you’re cold,” he realizes, stripping off his leather jacket, “you can have my jacket if you want.”
Julie furrows her brows as he proceeds to cautiously drape it over her shoulders, only for it to softly float down towards the ground, as if Julie was made of air. Well, no. It’s the jacket that’s made of air.
“That was unexpected,” Julie quips, lacing her words with teasing irony, startling a laugh out of Reggie.
Picking his jacket off the ground, he crosses his arm defensively.
“How was I supposed to know that my jacket is a ghost too?”
This time, it is kind of funny.
Her dad only lifts an eyebrow in question when he comes to retrieve her, soaked through but giddy with laughter. Reggie responds with a smug smile, for once both of them aware that Ray won’t be able to see it.
Other times, it isn’t quite as funny.
Like the time when they’re backstage at one of the bigger venues (those that Julie is afraid to ask how Flynn got them to play at), where there’s a lot of people, but the corridors are still empty.
Julie’s been making music her whole life, been backstage more times than she can count, but the bigger venues never stopped being a little terrifying.
The boys are poofing in and out of rooms and corridors, their curiosity knowing no bounds, their movements not limited by having to be granted access to pass. It’s fun hearing what they discover, small and big practice rooms, signed posters on the walls, rare instruments collecting dust under protective coverings. She wishes she could see it herself.
But mostly, she wishes that Flynn were walking with her to keep her company in these dimly lit corridors with the sickly artificial lights while the boys disappeared in discovery. Still, she wasn’t about to ask them not to. She wants that info of what’s hiding behind the closed doors just as much as them. She can handle some weirdly lit concert hall hallways on her own.
But then Reggie poofs back in next to her with the words, “Alex thinks we should take turns staying with you because you seem uncomfortable.” and Julie exhales.
“The hallways are a little creepy,” she admits, shrugging.
Reggie nods. “Don’t be scared. I’m right here,” he says, and Julie has to admit that she feels better having someone by her side.
Then he adds: “I’m gonna protect you.”
Julie says nothing, just clears her throat, careful not to make him self-conscious.
“I did it again, didn’t I?”
“Yeah.” She smiles at him. “For what it’s worth, I do feel safer with you here. Even if you can’t protect me.”
They stay quiet for a while, just walking past the doors that lead to the other practice and storage rooms, listening to the echo of their steps on the linoleum floor.
“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Reggie asks, and Julie gets the feeling that he’s been stewing on that for a while.
“The ghost thing?” she says, “Uh, yeah.”
“That too.” He shrugs. “But I don’t really mind it. Of all the supernatural beings that could exist and that we could be, ghosts are kinda chill.” There’s a small smile playing around his lips now. Julie nods along.
“We’re still together, and we met you, so that’s cool. We adapted quickly, and so have you, but…”
She turns her head to a surprisingly quiet Reggie, a contemplative look on his face.
“Sometimes you still slip up and forget what it means to be a ghost?” Julie prompts, searching. Finally, she sighs. “Me too.”
Reggie sways in her direction. Julie draws her eyebrows together, then laughs.
“Was that supposed to be a shoulder bump?”
Reggie covers his face with his hands a little too forcefully for it not to have hurt. If ghosts feel that kind of pain.
“Yes, it was.” He sighs exasperatedly. “Why does that happen to us?”
“I think,” Julie says, “that it happens to remind us that you still have unfinished business you have to get to.” More quietly, “And to remind me that I won’t be able to keep you forever.”
“That’s sad,” Reggie says.
Julie shrugs noncommittally. “It’s life, I guess.”
“And death, in our case,” Reggie adds.
That puts a reluctant smile on Julie’s face. “And death, in your case.”
“Do you think that if we just never do our unfinished business, the four of us could stay together?”
“That would be nice.” Julie sways towards Reggie, imitating his earlier shoulder bump.
Reggie answers with a grin.
That’s when a tingling sensation through her whole body causes Julie to stumble. Once she’s caught herself, she looks towards Reggie, who fell a few steps back, now half-obscured by the body he ran into. She recognizes the pink sweater.
“We didn’t aim well,” Alex apologizes.
Julie concludes that she must have walked through Luke then, turning in the direction she expects him to be in.
“You okay?” She finds herself looking up to worry etched onto his face and a hand outstretched to steady her.
A hand outstretched to steady her.
Her gaze flits to Reggie, only to see that his eyes have caught it too. He lifts his eyes to meet hers and god, does she wish they had a better reason to burst into laughter.