Work Text:
“Julie!”
“No,” She said flatly from her position somewhere behind him.
Luke wasn’t deterred by her seeming lack of enthusiasm. They had been trapped in this glorified closet with each other for the better part of two weeks and he knew by now that she didn’t dislike him. She might have wanted to but that didn’t bother him.
It just made the victory that much sweeter when they had a moment of undeniable connection anyway.
“Seriously,” He insisted, spinning to face her, his trademark excitement overtaking his tone. “You have to see this one.”
“That’s what you said about the last three,” Julie pointed out. “If we stop to talk about every demo you think is cool, this will take the whole summer.”
Luke shrugged, not really seeing the problem.
As fas as he could tell the other interns were keeping busy by running things back and forth, fetching coffee and taking notes during meetings. Sure, they were doing all of those things inside of a fairly legendary record label and he knew he would probably be able to find moments of music related interest in those tasks too.
But he had a hard time believing any other tasks on offer could be more enjoyable than spending his days looking through old albums in the company of a beautiful girl who knew just as much about music as he did.
So he wasn’t in any rush to finish if he was being honest.
“My way is fun,” Luke said, bouncing a little in excitement, only enjoying it more when Julie rolled her eyes alongside a small smile. “This room is the story of the LA music scene. We’re walking through history right now!”
Julie’s lips tugged up even further at the corners, that small smile not quite so small as she let his excitement infect her a bit.
He had gleaned enough now from a hundred stolen moments and snippets of conversations as they worked to know that it didn’t really take much to get her excited about music, as much as she liked to pretend otherwise.
“I get it, it’s cool,” Julie admitted, gesturing at the boxes that surrounded them, stacks that never seemed to grow significantly smaller. “You’re right, this is history. But that’s not why we’re here.”
She sounded almost regretful and ironically that struck Luke as a very, very good sign. Anytime he could needle something out of her other than forced apathy a spark of something shot through him. She was funny and smart and passionate even if she was determined not to show it.
She was failing.
And Luke wanted to encourage her to keep doing that.
“What if it was?” Luke suggested, a slow grin growing on his face as an idea took hold.
Julie raised an eyebrow.
“You look way too pleased with yourself. I’m scared to ask what you’re thinking.”
Luke smirked.
“But you want to ask anyway, huh?”
Julie groaned and tossed the cd she held onto the top of a nearby box, giving him her full attention, an experience he was pretty sure he would never get sick of.
“Luke.”
She said nothing else but it did the trick.
“Ok, ok, so Crooked Teeth’s anniversary is coming up right? And Trevor mentioned they’re having some big party?” Luke’s hands darted around as he talked, his body desperate to dispel some of the energy that was only building more as he went. “What if we did a thing where we showed off a bunch of bands from their past? Bands that made it, bands that didn’t…we could blow up photos and I don’t know show different eras of music.”
Julie considered his idea for a moment and he took her lack of shooting him down immediately as a positive sign.
“Like an exhibit,” She finally remarked, her voice thoughtful. “That could actually be kind of amazing.”
Luke couldn’t help the flood of warmth that rushed through him at that. He knew she had called the idea amazing not him exactly but…it still felt pretty great.
“But I’m sure they already have a plan for the party,” Julie said with a shrug. “I doubt they need ideas from their interns.”
“Maybe not…” Luke started, his voice going a little high pitched and teasing. “But maybe Trevor might take a suggestion from his niece?”
Julie gave an incredulous laugh, a short burst of reluctant amusement escaping as she shook her head.
“You’ve come from judging my family to wanting me to use my connections in only two weeks, that’s impressive.”
Luke shook his head too, biting his lip before responding.
“I can admit when I’m wrong,” He said. “Anyone related to you can’t be that bad, Boss.”
“Not that again,” Julie responded to the nickname, her words undercut by the smile on her face.
“This is the part where you say you can admit when you’re wrong too,” Luke told her. “Like when you thought I was an idiot who was allergic to sleeves.”
Julie folded her arms.
“I haven’t officially taken that back yet.”
“Ouch,” Luke chuckled, too happy to have her smiling at him teasingly to be remotely put out by the insult. “That hurts, Boss.”
“I bet,” She laughed again, even her laughter arranging itself into music in his ears.
“So…” He took a step closer to her, their eyes locking and that jolt of something shooting through him again. “You gonna ask him?”
It was Julie’s turn to bite her lip.
“I’ll ask him.”
Luke was starting to think he might really be an idiot who was allergic to sleeves.
The last two months had been amazing despite how much he had originally been dreading the whole internship and how it promised to come between him and his band rehearsals.
Meeting Julie, sharing all this time with her, watching her slowly open up not only to him but to music itself as she slowly found her way out of the darkest hole of her grief…
He felt lucky.
He just wasn’t always sure he deserved it.
The interns were all hustling around the room, putting the finishing touches on the exhibit he and Julie had pitched to Trevor. There were huge photos of bands that had been signed to the label throughout the years, interspersed with framed collections of demos representing different eras and genres. There were even a few cardboard cutouts, blown up action shots of some of the bands that had submitted to Crooked Teeth at one point or another.
He and Julie were carefully straightening a large black and white photo of Rose and the Petal Pushers, Julie’s mom staring down at them with a fierce grin, guitar slung behind her back.
“You ok?” Luke asked her carefully, watching her face for any signs of distress as she looked up at the photo.
“I think…I am,” Julie said softly, as though the answer was surprising even to her. “Avoiding anything that reminded me of her didn’t make her not being here hurt any less. And this…”
Julie gestured around the room, the displays and images giving the room an energy he could practically feel thrumming through him.
“She would have loved this,” Julie told him, glancing up to meet his gaze. “Thanks for this. You helped me feel closer to my mom.”
Luke’s heart clenched painfully in his chest.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t so happy for Julie, he was. She was way too amazing to try to keep herself locked away from all the best things in the world. The idea that something he did might have helped her move one step closer to reclaiming her memories of her mom and the music that was so tied into them…that was amazing.
But he felt like his relationship with his own mom was trapped in a moment of time, like he had frozen at the age of 17 and no amount of time passing could have a real effect.
He had thought things were getting better, at least a little bit until he came home from a rehearsal late the night before and overheard his mom crying to his dad.
“I just can’t help it,” She had said in a shaky, pained voice. “Every time he’s late I go right back to that night and I’m just scared he’s not coming home.”
Despite all of their differences, Luke loved his mom. The thought that her main memory of him was always going to be him leaving …he hated it.
And standing here while Julie remembered her beautiful relationship with her mother? Somehow the whole experience was creating a pit of guilt deep in his stomach.
“I’ll be right back,” He announced, turning and walking away in a hurry before Julie could pick up on his mood and ask questions he wasn’t prepared to answer.
He didn’t have a destination in mind exactly, he just let his feet carry him down the hall until his progress was stopped abruptly when he slammed into someone.
“Whoa there, Patterson,” Trevor said reaching up to rub at the shoulder Luke’s forehead had just bounced off of. “What’s the rush?”
“I just need…” Luke trailed off, unsure how to finish that sentence.
What did he need?
A way to get time moving again?
A way to convince himself he hadn’t ruined his relationship with his mom forever when he was 17?
“A minute,” He finished finally. “Just give me a minute.”
Trevor examined his face for a moment then snapped his fingers and started down the hall, waving for Luke to follow him.
“I have a better idea. Come on.”
Luke hesitated but eventually followed Julie’s uncle down the hall and into a door that led to one of the studios.
Luke hadn’t spent much time in the recording areas since he started his internship and he couldn’t help but let out a whistle of appreciation as he took in all of the equipment he and the boys would die to be able to use.
Trevor gestured for Luke to sit and they both dropped into wheeled chairs, Luke’s eyes drifting around the room.
“Want to tell me what’s bothering you?”
Luke’s eyes snapped back to Trevor.
“Not really,” He said with a sigh.
He should have known he wasn’t just getting a free tour.
“You and Julie seem to have come to an understanding,” Trevor observed, leaving Luke blindsided by the change in subject.
“She’s great,” He said quickly, that much coming easily.
It was an incredible understatement but Trevor wasn’t the audience for him gushing over Julie.
“She is,” Trevor agreed proudly. “You seem like a pretty great kid too, Luke.”
Luke let out a little huff of possible disagreement without meaning to.
“You don’t think so?” Trevor questioned, one eyebrow shooting up pointedly.
“I think I screwed up awhile ago,” Luke said carefully. “And some mistakes are hard to bounce back from.”
Trevor scooted his chair forward until Luke had no choice but to meet his eyes, the older man’s expression serious.
“Listen, kid,” He said. “You know as well as I do that I know a thing or two about making mistakes. I hurt a lot of people when I stole that song, and facing them every day after felt impossible, especially Julie’s mom.”
Luke thought back to his judgment of Trevor, how it had come so easy to him a couple of months ago. There was no question the man had done something wrong , something Luke could never imagine doing.
But Luke had made his own mistakes and he understood what it meant to be haunted.
“It doesn’t happen overnight but if you put in the work the people who love you will see that,” Trevor promised, reaching out to pat Luke’s knee. “Nobody is just the worst thing they’ve ever done, Patterson. I promise.”
It wasn’t until later, when he was back by Julie’s side, the party now in full swing, as he listened to her introducing him to her dad that Trevor’s words really started to sink in.
“This is Luke,” She said, shooting him a quick smile before turning back to her dad. “He’s a musician. Like Mom.”
“Like you,” Ray added hopefully, both he and Luke smiling when Julie nodded.
“Yeah, like me too,” Julie agreed.
Julie wasn’t just what she had lost and he wasn’t just what he had done.
His Mom wasn’t just someone with doubts about the practicality of music as a career and Trevor wasn’t just someone who stole a song once.
They were all writing their own history all the time.
Luke glanced over at Julie, losing track of the conversation as he watched her laugh and smile, that something, that spark inside of him expanding into something blinding and bright.
It had been a hell of a summer and it was quickly coming to an end.
Maybe time was moving after all.
And maybe that was a good thing.