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After the emotional roller coaster that was the night of their Orpheum performance, it was only normal that Julie would be feeling a little under the weather. The fact that she and the boys had fallen asleep in the studio way past her bedtime probably didn’t help either.
So when she woke up a few days later with a runny nose and a tickle in her throat, it took very little convincing for her dad to let her stay home from school. Carlos was already out the door to catch the bus and her dad had left to run a few errands, and Julie was glad to have the house to herself for a moment.
A knock sounded at her bedroom door.
Well, she almost had it to herself.
Luke’s head popped through the door a moment later, brows furrowed with concern. “You okay, boss?” he asked. “We didn’t see you leave for school.”
“Oh, so you’re watching my every move now?” Julie teased as she gestured for him to fully enter her room.
Luke blushed, stammering. “Oh, no I-we weren’t-we don’t-”
“Relax,” she said, giggling. “I’m coming down with a cold, so my dad let me stay home.”
“Oh,” Luke said, looking concerned. “Well, we’ll take care of you!”
“You really don’t-” Julie tried to protest, but it was too late. Once Luke got an idea in his head, it was impossible to get him to drop it. (Kind of like the idea to convince a certain someone to join a band…)
“You don’t have to worry about a thing, Julie!” she didn’t like the look that was entering his eyes. “We’re going to do so good, you won’t know what hit you!”
“That’s what I’m worried about,” Julie muttered, watching Luke’s retreating form.
Soon left with nothing to do but wait for her bandmates to bring her the soup Luke said they would make (or blow up the kitchen), Julie migrated to the living room and idly scrolled through instagram. She soon reached the end of her feed, though, so she called out to the boys in the kitchen.
“Do you guys want to watch something with me?” she asked when Reggie poofed into the room.
“Sure!” he said brightly. “I’ll go get the others!”
It turned out that the soup needed to simmer for a while but the boys hadn’t wanted to bother Julie. She grinned when she heard this and pulled Alex to sit next to her on the couch.
“If you make me sick, I’m gonna be so mad,” Alex complained, but allowed her to pull him down with no complaint. Luke soon followed, pulling Reggie down to sit on top of him.
“We’re ghosts, genius,” Reggie told Alex, who promptly stuck his tongue out in return.
By the end of the episode they’d put on, Julie was feeling worse. Her nose was running heavily, and the tickle in her throat had turned into a gross, from-the-chest cough.
As Julie turned her head to cough into her elbow again, Alex jumped up from the couch. “I’m going to check on the soup,” he said quickly, peeling out of the living room.
“What’s his deal?” Julie asked through her stuffy nose.
“He just doesn’t like being sick,” Luke responded, scooting himself and a sleeping Reggie slightly away from her.
“How could I possibly get you sick?” she asked, throwing her hands in the air. “I can’t even touch you half the time.”
“Don’t ask me, boss,” Luke said. “He’s just like that.”
Julie sighed, but before she could say anything else Alex reentered the room holding a bowl of soup. “Smells good,” she told him, trying to look as not-sick as possible.
“Reggie made it,” Alex told her. He practically shoved the bowl at her, apparently desperate to get away from her and her non-ghost contagious cold.
Julie wasn’t offended though, she could only laugh at his antics. “How were you even sitting against me the whole episode?”
“I wasn’t-” Alex started, before the color drained from his face. “Oh, god, do you think I’ll get sick now?”
“Alex, buddy,” Luke started. “We’re already dead. We don’t have physical bodies. We couldn’t possibly-”
He spoke too soon.
Alex sneezed violently, almost knocking himself into the coffee table. They all stared at him.
“Did you just-” Julie started.
“It’s probably just dust,” Alex said quickly. “I have- had a lot of allergies.”
“Yeah, because I see tons of dust in here,” Luke said sarcastically.
“You don’t see dust, dude!” Alex said. “I mean, you can when it hits the light, but otherwise it just-just-” Alex cut himself off with another sneeze, this one so loud Reggie startled awake.
“Wuzz goin’ on?” the bassist asked drowsily.
“Alex is sick,” Julie told him.
“Alex is not sick!” Alex protested, plopping down on the couch. “He just has bad allergies!”
Suddenly Reggie was wide awake, scrambling out of Luke’s arms and off of the couch. “Hey, man, don’t spread the germs!”
“I’m not sick!”
“Okay!” Julie intervened. She already had the beginnings of a headache, and if this argument went on any longer she’d be out for the count. “You two,” she jabbed a finger at Luke and Reggie. “Go to the studio. Hang out there, just in case this is somehow contagious.”
The two didn’t look the least bit disappointed at this prospect, so she made sure to warn them, “And no funny business in my studio!”
The sure thing, boss and you got it, Julie! that came from their retreating forms did nothing to reassure her.
“Guess it’s just you and me,” Alex said.
“Yup!” Julie said brightly. “And I know just what to do!”
“Lay on the floor and wait for this suffering to end?”
“God, you’re so gloomy.” Julie said, laughing. “No, we’re going to bury ourselves alive in blankets and binge movies!”
“Oh,” Alex said, starting to brighten up. “That sounds okay.”
“Just okay?” Julie teased, leading him upstairs.
“Just okay.” Alex repeated, grinning at her.
“In here?” Alex asked as they neared Julie’s room. She understood his surprise; her room was usually off-limits to the boys. They had a habit of creating a mess and somehow getting her to be the one to clean it up.
“Yup,” Julie said, leading him inside. “Special sick-ghost privileges.”
“Don’t let Luke and Reg hear you say that, they may fake a cold just to get in he- acHOO.”
“Bless you,” she said, flopping onto her bed. “And tell me about it. Wanna watch The Iron Giant again?”
“Is that even a question?”
They didn’t make it very far into the movie before Julie’s nose seemed to stop working. There was a pounding in her head, and the only way she could breathe was through out of her mouth. She closed her eyes, not even trying to pay attention to the movie anymore.
“You okay, Jules?” Alex asked.
As she was about to respond, there was a knock on her bedroom door. Luke’s head popped through a moment later, and he looked almost as bad as Julie felt. His nose was bright red, and his voice didn’t sound any better.
“Sorry to interrupt, boss,” he said, voice nasally. “But I think Reggie and I are starting to come down with something.”
“How is that even possible?” Alex asked.
“Don’t ask me,” Luke said, coming into the room.
Reggie soon followed him. He looked just as bad as Luke did, but with twice the amount of energy. “Yeah, we were doing fine until a few minutes ago! Then my nose just clogged up like someone poured cement in it!”
“That’s weird,” Julie said. “That’s when I started to… oh.”
“What?” all three asked at the same time.
“Am I like, projecting my cold onto you guys?”
There was a moment of silence while they all thought about that.
“That would make sense,” Reggie said. “But does that mean we don’t have to stay away from you guys?”
Instead of responding, Julie held out an arm. There really wasn’t a point in keeping them distanced from her, now that she knew the boys weren’t really sick. Plus, it wasn’t like Julie could say no to three sets of pleading eyes turned full-force on her.
“Yes!” Luke cheered, diving head first onto the bed. Reggie followed with no less enthusiasm, and soon they were all squished onto her bed. Squished between the guys with the movie playing softly in the background, Julie found it hard to stay awake.
On the edge of sleep, she mumbled, “Sorry for making you all feel sick.”
“Shh,” Alex said. “It’s okay, Jules.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Reggie said.
“Just go to sleep, boss.” That was Luke.
“M’kay,” she said. “Love you guys.”
With the movie playing quietly and her family snuggled tight around her, Julie fell asleep.