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Willie listens as the music comes to a stop once more. He stays where he is though, expecting it to start back up within a few moments, but it looks like there may be other plans. There are not many breaks in Julie and the Phantoms’ practices—Luke doesn’t give them the downtime that Willie thinks other bands probably get. But for some reason, today there have been plenty.
He watches from the back corner of his cove as Luke decides against starting up where they left off in their newest song, and instead wanders over to Julie at the piano. Willie grins. He sneaks over to Alex and folds his arms, resting them on the back of Alex’s neck, and puts his chin on one side of his boyfriend’s head. “Hey, hot dog,” he greets for probably about the fourth time in the past hour or two.
“You don’t have to say hi every time,” Alex murmurs. “I already know you’re here. I am very aware you’re here.”
“Very aware?” Willie grins teasingly, pressing his arms into Alex’s back. He glances over at Julie and Luke. Luke has taken a seat at the piano, hung his guitar on his back, and is plucking at the keys of the piano next to Julie. She’s smiling at him, nodding when he gets it right, and he preens every time. Willie hums, standing up straight. “Looks like we’ve got time,” he says. He taps Alex’s arm. “Move. You’ve gotta show me how it’s done.”
“Is now really the time for a drum lesson?” Alex says, but stands up nevertheless, giving Willie his spot on the throne.
Willie holds a hand out, eyebrows raised flirtatiously, and Alex rolls his eyes, but hands over his drumsticks. Willie expertly twirls them between his fingers while Alex leans over him, wrapping his hands around Willie’s from behind, but before Alex can speak a single word of instruction, before Willie can bring the sticks down onto the drum kit, a loud groan of annoyance interrupts them.
Willie’s head snaps up. Luke’s piano playing abruptly stops. The studio falls silent as all four of them stare ahead at Reggie, who’s flopped down on the couch with his bass slung across his front, pouting at them.
“Are you guys done flirting, or can we get back to rehearsal?”
“We’re not—we’re not flirting,” Luke sputters.
Willie looks over. “You’re flirting, Patterson.”
Luke snaps his head to look at Willie and narrows his eyes, opening his mouth to say something that’s ultimately cut off by—
“All right!” Reggie calls. “Yes, you’re flirting, Alex is flirting, Julie is flirting, Willie is flirting, we’re all flirting. Except for me. I am flirtless. I am not, however, bass less, which means—” Julie giggles and hushes Luke and when Willie looks over, she’s straightening her face out, turning attentive eyes back to Reggie. But when Willie flicks his eyes back towards the couch, Reggie… well. “Yeah, okay. Okay, yeah. Practice is over for the day,” he says, shoving off the couch.
“Wha—” Luke frowns, jumping off the piano bench.
Reggie walks over and places his bass on its stand and walks to the studio door. “You four,” he says, turning to them, “go—flirt. Be cute, be merry. Somewhere else. And be ready to focus tomorrow. I’m going to see if Carlos will play Clue with me.”
He throws open the door and then pauses to toss over his shoulder, “I love you all a lot,” before storming out of the studio with more than a little dramatic flair.
Willie blinks as the doors fall closed behind Reggie. His hands tighten a little self-consciously around Alex’s drumsticks, and he turns to look up at his boyfriend. “Should I feel bad? I feel kinda bad.”
“It’s not your fault, Willie,” Luke pipes up, shooting him a reassuring smile. “I’ll bet Reggie wanted to play Clue with Carlos anyway. He’s not really mad.”
“Let’s just give him some space, and I’ll check on him later,” Julie says, and hits the power button on her keyboard. “As long as we’re done rehearsing, though…”
“Hey, yeah, Reggie did technically give us his blessing!” Luke slings his guitar off his back and places it reverently in its stand. “Wanna do something, Jules?”
“What if we—” Alex starts, then stops when Julie and Luke both look over at him. He blushes from the attention, glances at Willie for encouragement, and then repeats, “What if we did something together? Since we’re all here, I mean.”
Willie’s interest piques. “You mean the four of us?”
“Like a double date!” Julie’s face lights up. “Alex, I think that’s a great idea!”
“I don’t know…” Luke begins, but Julie shoots him a look and he immediately backpedals. “No, yeah, okay, a double date could be cool.”
Julie grins at Alex again. “What did you have in mind?”
This seemingly simple question leads to the most complicated and stressful conversation of Willie’s entire afterlife, and that includes the time he tried to explain the complexities of gender to Caleb Covington in 1993.
Luke wants them to do something cool, something epic and exciting enough that it’ll make missing half a rehearsal and potentially pissing off Reggie worth it. Julie wants to do something fun, something special that they wouldn’t get a chance to do on any normal day, or that wouldn’t be as worthwhile if all four of them weren’t doing it together. Alex wants to do something subtle, because—as he wisely points out—three out of four of them are invisible, and he doesn’t want Julie getting in trouble for talking to herself in public.
Willie’s just happy to be included, so he mostly stays quiet while the other three deliberate.
“We could go to a museum,” Alex suggests. “Willie and I like to do that sometimes, we go to places that are closed for renovation and scream cause no one can hear us.”
“I’m sure that’s great for you,” Luke says, “but Julie would definitely be heard screaming.”
“We don’t have to scream, we can just go and actually look at the museum,” Alex argues.
“But Julie wouldn’t be able to talk to any of us,” Luke pushes back, “because she’d look like she’s talking to herself.”
“That’s… okay. What great idea do you have, then?” Alex asks.
Luke shrugs. “Hike.”
“Hike?” he frowns. Willie thinks he’s considering the option and from the look on his face, he might be upset that he’s not the one who came up with the idea. “Yeah, I guess… yeah, I guess.”
“Hold on, no,” Julie says, putting her hands up. “I’m not going on a hike with you guys.” She stands there shaking her head. “If you haven’t noticed, it’s in the 90s today and I’m the only one here who can sweat.”
“I don’t care about sweat,” Luke tells her.
“I do,” she shrugs. “So I vote no. What—how about the movies?”
“Movies without popcorn?” Luke scowls.
“Wha—come on, Luke,” Alex groans. “You’ve gotta give us something.”
The two of them dissolve into a bickering match, and Willie glances at Julie, who watches them with an exasperated look. Willie looks back at his boyfriend and thinks about all the dates he’s wanted to take Alex on, thinks about all the ideas he has, and then he takes a step forward. “Guys? I have an idea.”
Alex cuts off in the middle of whatever he was saying and snaps his head around to Willie, immediately giving him his attention. Willie smiles at him and takes another step forward, taking his hand. Willie looks at Julie. “Care to give us a lift?”
Twenty minutes later, they’re pulling up in Julie’s car to an old building. The sign is a little crooked, the paint is chipped, and the parking lot is buckled with cracks from years of summer heat, but it’s still in working order. They get out and walk up to the door, and Willie looks at the others and grins. “Not a bad idea, huh?”
Alex sighs, staring at the roller rink’s locked doors with a frown. “It wouldn’t be, but you forgot one thing.” Willie looks at him, eyebrows furrowed. “Julie can’t poof in there when it’s locked.”
Willie rolls his eyes. “C’mon, hot dog. You think I haven’t thought ahead?” He poofs away, reappearing on the other side of the glass door. He flips the lock and pushes the door open, waving the other three inside.
“I knew you could do that,” Alex mutters unconvincingly as he shuffles through the door. “I was just testing to see if you did.”
“Sure you were,” Willie teases, bumping Alex’s shoulder with a smile.
It’s exactly what they needed for a double date. The rink’s been shut down for months now, but whoever’s in charge of clearing out the building has yet to move any of the merchandise, so it’s easy for the four of them to take pairs of skates off the wall until they find ones that fit. From there, all they have to do is toddle out onto the wooden floor and start skating.
Julie holds Luke’s hand, while Luke holds the railing. Willie hijacks the sound system and blasts 80s hits while he shows Alex all his best moves.
It’s as wonderful and rewarding as being with Alex always is, but Willie also really likes getting a chance to hang out with Luke and Julie outside of watching their band practices, likes seeing Alex laugh when Luke phases through the railing and almost falls flat on his face, likes hearing Julie sing along to Pat Benatar with her wrecking ball of a voice, likes seeing Alex’s wide, genuine smile every time one of his friends teases him about catching up to Willie.
He never would’ve suggested a double date, never even would’ve thought of it as a possibility, but now that it’s happening…
Willie’s having the time of his afterlife.