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It's a good day.
Luke can feel it. He can feel it in his fingertips as he expertly plucks the chords of his Stratocaster, he can hear it in Alex's steady rhythm and Reggie's funky bassline as they near the end of their new song.
But mostly he can hear it in Julie's voice, the words they wrote together leaving her lips as she adlibs over his closing guitar solo.
By the time they song is done, Luke's face is flushed and it has little to do with how difficult the solo was and everything to do with the fact that Julie's is still looking at him, wearing a broad smile, a few stray curls framing her face and Luke barely notices that the room has fallen silent, but he does not care, not one bit.
Someone – Reggie, he later realizes – clears his throat and Luke reluctantly looks away from Julie and focuses on Alex, who has an elated smile on his face and is looking at Luke as if he’s won a Nobel prize.
“That was incredible! Julie, you were amazing as always, but Luke! That solo was so clean, I wish we had recorded this. Although I probably wouldn’t have sounded quite as good… I don’t perform well under pressure… I probably would have dropped my drumstick.”
They all laugh at that and Luke is about to tell Alex will you please own your awesomeness for once?, when Julie suddenly speaks, and he can tell her next words are directed at him without even looking at her, an invisible string tugging at his heart that brings his gaze back to hers.
“Well done today, boss.”
A lot of things happen all at once: Luke drops the pick he’s toying with from his hand, but he doesn’t notice that. His eyes are fixed on Julie, a smug smile on her face.
She looks satisfied and somewhere in the back of his mind he registers he’s gaping at her, and he’s pretty sure his face has gone crimson red but it’s as if he’s lost control of his motor functions.
Have I just floated out of my body? Can a ghost do that?
Her words, an almost exact replica of the ones he so often uses when he’s trying to get a reaction out of her, leave him breathless, speechless.
He tries to snap out of it, and takes a step towards her but apparently no, his feet are not cooperating, or maybe his mind is playing tricks on him, because he does not see the wires on the floor, and, before he knows it, a cable is tangled around his ankle and he’s losing his balance.
For a moment he thinks he’s going to smash his face on the carpet but his arms finally decide to work again, and his palms land before him, shielding him from the impact with the hard floor.
Correction: it was a good day – and now it’s not.
What the hell?
There’s no sound in the room, and Luke hopes in vain that his unceremonious fall has gone unnoticed.
But only a couple of seconds pass before he hears Reggie wheeze, and Luke whips his head towards him and Alex, who’s clutching at his chest and laughing maniacally.
He does not dare to look at Julie.
His pride is wounded, and he can’t stand looking at his friends much longer, let alone see Julie’s reaction.
He doesn’t know what he’s going to see if he looks at her, but he doesn’t want to find out.
Alex and Reggie are pissing themselves laughing, and once they’ve calmed down a little bit – Luke has stayed silent the whole time, his head low, gaze fixed on his feet – Alex manages to speak between giggles.
“Thank you Julie, from the bottom of my heart! I haven’t laughed so hard in 25 years and I will tease Luke about this for eternity. I owe you one”.
Luke is mortified.
He busies himself with tuning his guitar, his face maintaining a shade of red that resembles that of a ripe tomato for the entire time it takes his bandmates to fully recover (it’s about two minutes but it feels like hours to him).
He pretends like nothing has happened, ignores Alex’s words, grabs his acoustic, mumbles a gn'ight and poofs out.
Julie and the boys look at each other, feeling a little bit guilty.
She sighs and reassures them. “I’ll go check on him”.
After all, it was her fault… Kind of.
She finds that she doesn’t have to look that far. He’s sitting on her porch steps, his back on the railing, hugging his guitar.
He doesn’t look up.
“I know what you’re going to say. ‘You can dish it out but you can’t take it?’, Well, the answer is yes. What can I say? You got me, Julie. You won. I learned my lesson. Now please let’s just pretend this never happened and move on. I got cocky and you-”
“Luke, breathe”. She interrupts his spiral.
“For someone who couldn’t say a word until a few minutes ago, you’re being awfully chatty right now”, she chuckles. He doesn't speak, so she continues.
“That wasn’t a big deal, come on. No need to be embarrassed about it. I’m sure Reggie and Alex have seen worse.”
“They have”. He sighs dejectedly.
“Then what are you moping about? Listen… I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have called you boss if I knew you were going to react like this.”
Julie sits on the steps, leaning on the railing across from him.
He meets her eyes and inhales deeply.
“It’s not about that. Not exactly. It’s just that… I guess I liked teasing you. Seeing you… blush at my words.” He pauses, searching her eyes for a reaction to this admission, but her expression is inscrutable.
“... But I’m an idiot, and not just because I’m on the receiving end of that teasing. And… Only now I’m realizing what this must look like to you. A game.”
She’s listening intently, breathing quietly so as not to ruin this moment of sincerity. Because Luke always wears his heart on his sleeve, but he’s rarely this still, this vulnerable.
“And don’t get me wrong, it’s fun” he continues, “but it means more than that. To me, I mean. So if you’re playing along just for the sake of it, I want to know”.
Julie doesn’t know what to say. Is he… No, he can’t mean that . Unless…
“What does this mean to you?”
The words leave her mouth before she realizes what she’s saying. Because they’ve never addressed what this means. But they know exactly what they’re talking about.
It’s that line between bantering and flirting that has always seemed to be a blurred one for them.
It’s those looks they give each other on stage.
It’s the way he walks in her room late at night with his music journal in one hand, a pen in the other and a guitar pick in his mouth, and the way she reminds him of the meaning of boundaries but really, she isn’t that bothered by his intrusion.
It’s the nose scrunches, the silent conversations they have just by looking in each other’s eyes… And it’s him calling her boss, her peering over his shoulder to look at his lyrics, warm breath tickling his neck.
And it’s not a game for her. She’s known that for a while.
It would be easier, infinitely easier if it was, if there weren’t any feelings involved.
Luke holds her gaze for a long moment. How is he supposed to answer? He can’t possibly tell her how he feels, why he has been doing this.
He can’t say it.
But maybe he doesn’t need to. Luke’s not exactly an open book, but Julie has always seen through his bullshit.
There’s no way she hasn’t realized how much she means to him.
“I think you know what it means to me”.
And it’s the confidence in his voice, the way he’s so sure she already knows the answer because she knows him better than everyone else…
That’s what does it for her.
She can’t help it: her lips curve into a smile and she starts leaning forward.
“I think I do.”
A glimmer of hope flickers in his eyes. She isn’t playing a game, isn’t she? She doesn’t play with people’s feelings.
And that leaves only one option.
So…
“Julie! I didn’t hear you come back. Band rehearsal went well, I assume?”
Ray leans against the door frame, eyes soft and smiling warmly at his daughter.
She jumps a little, eyes wide and panicked, and looks back at Luke instinctively in search of that reassurance he always offers her.
He’s already looking at her, and his smile instantly calms her. But there’s something else, too.
An answer.
It’s another one of their silent conversations and it barely lasts a second.
She looks back up, and schools her features a bit in an attempt to distract her dad from the flurry of emotions that must have shown on her face moments before.
“Very well. We’re working hard. I’ll come inside in a minute, okay?”
He nods and closes the door behind him, leaving her alone.
She looks back at Luke… But the spot in front of her is now empty. Julie looks around, scanning the dimly lit driveway, but he’s not there.
She stands up and starts walking up the steps, and as she’s reaching the doorknob, she hears a familiar voice behind her.
“Wait.”
She turns and sees the brown haired boy, now without his guitar, his shield, one hand behind his neck, a nervous habit of his she’s learned to recognize.
“I haven’t said goodnight”.
Luke smiles awkwardly, the confidence from moments before replaced by a sheepish look.
She doesn't even try to fight back her smile.
“Goodnight, boss”, she speaks softly.
This time he doesn’t freeze and his shy smile turns into a full grin, brows furrowed in feigned outrage.
“Hey! That’s my line!”
Julie just shrugs unapologetically and matches his grin.
You know, maybe they’re good at this.
Has something shifted between them tonight? How can a few minutes on that porch change everything? It seems impossible, right?
Then again, what’s impossible for everyone else might not be for them.
Rules don’t apply.