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There were some things about the ghost world that Julie Molina would never understand.
Like how the guys could be made of air and still get wedgies.
Or how Alex had no working brain but he still had anxiety.
Or how Luke was always be hungry when he had no stomach.
Or how lately, Reggie always seemed to be colder than usual.
The guys always wore plenty of layers for ghosts who were from southern California, but it always seemed like a comfort thing to her. They never actually seemed to be affected by the cold. As soon as sweater weather hit, Julie noticed that Reggie wore more sleeves, sometimes somehow wearing his flannel under his leather jacket, like the mild L.A. autumn was actually affecting him. He even stole one of Luke’s beanies during their last rehearsal and kept doing these horribly painful looking shivers, beaming as he joked “guess someone walked over my grave!” each time.
No one thought it was funny.
The next night, instead of hanging out with Luke, Alex and Willie at the beach she found Reggie curled up on her sofa, watching Chopped with her dad and Carlos. Thank god they could see the guys now because otherwise they might have seen an entire pile of blankets shift itself around. She figured he was just looking for some quality family time (something Reggie couldn't soak up enough of since becoming solid and visibile) but Luke said in passing that Reggie gets too cold by the beach at night.
It was…strange. But then again, a lot of things were strange about Reggie. Like how he could both do a spot on Johnny Cash cover of “Walk the Line” but also join Luke in covering Zeppelin but also shred bluegrass on the banjo. Or how he had managed to fix her dad’s taxes with just one glance at his numbers. Or how he could recite Hamlet by memory, yet he somehow got lost poofing to Flynn’s house three different times (though Alex told her it was because he was so nervous it threw off his ‘ghostie sense’, which was too adorable for words).
Julie tried not to think about it too much, but when she came bouncing into her room after school to find all three of her phantoms curled up on her bed, with Reggie in the middle, something had to be done. The bassist was wearing his flannel under one of Luke’s jackets and was curled up under her fluffiest blankets, with his hands stuffed in the pocket of Alex’s hoodie. He was even wearing one of Luke's beanies. Luke had his arms wrapped around him, both him and Alex watching Reggie with concern as he napped.
“No!” Julie hissed, slinging her backpack on the ground, waving her hands about as she announced her precense. “No, this is not okay! You guys know this, how many times do we have to talk about boundaries?!”
“Reggie’s cold,” Luke announced, as though it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Her mouth hung open, not exactly sure how to respond. How many times could she let them ignore her privacy requests in the name of being adorable, sweet ghosts with a lot of baggage who needed her?
…okay…turns out, a lot of times.
Taking a deep breath, Julie forced herself to calm down as she sat on the edge of the bed.
“What do you mean Reggie’s cold?” Julie asked, more gently now. “I thought you guys were always cold.”
“We are,” Alex nodded, “but Reggie…”
“I’m anemic,” Reggie mumbled.
Julie frowned as the sleeping form stuffed under the blanket pile shifted, the blankets sliding off of him as Reggie sat himself up. Now everything made sense. She knew what anemia was, her mom was anemic after one of the surgeries for her cancer, and once cooler weather hit she was miserable. But Reggie…
“But you’re…” dead, she thought but didn’t dare say, “a ghost. How does that work?”
“In the same way I’m still anxious,” Alex sighed.
Rationally, Julie knew this; it made as much sense as anything else. The guys sat up as she crawled over so that she could sit in front of Reggie and take his hand. Sure enough, his skin was ice cold, so cold that she shivered.
“I've always been pretty anemic,” Reggie explained, groggy as the guys protectively held their arms around him. “I just get real cold sometimes, so I started keeping my flannel on me at all times. It's always either been too hot or too cold for me. And it makes me pretty tired and achy sometimes.
A sympathetic smile crossed her face.
“I'm so sorry, Reggie,” she replied softly. “You should have said, I wouldn’t want you to be miserable. I can find you warmer clothes.”
“I like my clothes.”
He sounded so pouty, almost like Luke, clearly not super happy she woke him up from his name, and she had to bite back a laugh at the adorableness. Her eyes raised up, exchanging glances at Luke and Alex.
“And you guys…?”
“Luke’s a human heater,” Reggie declared, rolling over so that he could hug Luke.
Luke wrapped his arm around him, almost like Reggie was his child as he patted his back, smiling proudly.
“Luke’s…also a ghost,” Julie pointed out slowly, earning a glare from them. She felt a broken record.
“Yeah, we’ve stopped trying to understand it,” Alex sighed, “but from what we can tell some of those problems we had as humans are still around as ghost. I don’t know if it’s just in our head or what but-"
“It feels real,” Reggie finished for him in a too-small voice.
“We think it’s worse, since ghosts are normally cold, so Reggie’s extra-cold,” Luke explained. "Then it got a little cooler out and, well, ghosts normally can't sense that kind of stuff but it's somehow been affecting Reggie."
"And we've always kept extra layers around for him, just in case," Alex admitted. "Plus, you know, layers are comfy."
"No they're not," Luke muttered.
"Oh yeah, Mr. Haunting Flannel?" Alex teased.
"I don't just wear my flannel for haunting!" Luke whined. "I also wear it on bad days. Or back when I got sick. Or...oh, I see what you mean about comfort clothes."
Alex smirked, and her heart melted. Julie had an idea.
“You know what, I think I have something that might help.”
She winked at him as she stood up, and the guys watched as she went over to her closet and fished out the bag of the few winter items that she almost never got to use except for the rare vacation to a colder climate. But down inside the bag was a scarf that her grandmother had knitted her and some gloves her mother had knit her. The gloves were missing their fingertips, perfect for a cold bassist who needed to be able to play and stay warm at the same time.
“This was made by my grandmother,” Julie explained as she wrapped the oversized orange scarf around Reggie’s neck. She smiled, blinking away tears as she slid the maroon gloves onto his hand. “And my mom made these. I never get to wear them, but they should go to good use.”
Reggie looked like he could cry and didn’t waste any time throwing his arms around her. Her eyes closed as they rest their heads on each other shoulders and Luke and Alex quickly joined.
“Thanks Julie,” Reggie whispered.
As they broke away she wrapped him back up in the blanket, not arguing as he lay back down with Luke holding him again.
“Hey…so…do you knit too?” Alex asked her.
Reluctantly, Julie nodded. Knitting was something her mom tried to teach her and she wished she was better at, but she stopped practicing after…
“I did with my mom, some,” she explained. “I’m not that great.”
Alex offered her a soft smile.
“Think you could teach me? It’s just…I think Willie would like a pair of gloves like that.”
Her own smile brightened and her heart melted at how obviously in love with Willie Alex was. The sheepish look on his face was too adorable, and she knew there was no way she can say no.
“Of course! And maybe I can make Reggie his own beanie,” Julie offered, looking to Luke, "that way you can get yours back."
“Noooo!” Reggie whined. “I like Luke’s!”
Luke rolled his eyes.
“You could make me a new one,” he replied cheekily, his eyes shining. “Maybe Reggie can officially adopt this one."
“I want all the beanies,” Reggie mumbled. “Why does Luke get a monopoly on beanies?”
“Go back to sleep, Reginald,” Alex encouraged, patting him on his beanie. "You need the rest."
With a grumble of protest Reggie's eyes fluttered closed, and Julie shook her head, still mindblown at how life-like the guys were.
“I’ll make all of you guys one,” she grinned, "and I think I can show you how to knit a pair of gloves. If all else fails, there’s always YouTube.”
Next rehearsal, Reggie wore her “Smile” sweatshirt with her fingerless gloves and scarf, while Willie watched wearing the gloves Alex made him (he was surprisingly talented at it, knitting parties would start to be a thing with them), and all of her boys wore their new beanies- complete with a small ghost patch sewn into them.
And when Reggie didn’t shiver once during rehearsal, Julie felt accomplished.