Because I'm an idiot and accidentally published chapter 18 earlier today (since I pre-write a couple chapters in advance in case life gets hectic), here's chapter 16. Wattpad really needs to separate those buttons more or add a "do you want to publish?" button. Chapter 17 will be posted this Friday as well.

"We're sorry." Reggie sings as soon as Julie is in sight.

"So sorry." Alex pops out from behind Luke, singing his line.

"We're super-duper, crazy, stupid sorry." Luke sings all but the last word alone, when his two bandmates join him in a three-person version of a barbershop quartet.

"In case you missed it, we're really sorry." No way. Julie just blankly stares at them, still upset about what happened the night before. Singing an apology won't magically fix the embarrassment that is bound to follow her for the next several weeks. And with Carrie, it will be months.

"Yeah. I got that part." Julie retorts.

"We've been here for, like, three hours." Alex smiles, although Carlos' trips to the bathroom in there did not please a single one of them.

"Yep." Reggie high fives Alex while Luke is still kneeling on the ground from his performance.

Standing up, Luke blurts out, "We almost sang to your little brother."

"He comes in here a lot. Mainly to use the bathroom." Reggie continues Luke's thought and Julie is laughing just a little inside at Reggie's comment.

"Yeah, it's not our favorite part of the day." Alex shudders, before Luke continues to apologize.

"But, Julie, it wasn't cool that we flaked on the dance last night." Luke looks at the floor, still embarrassed that they did that. He checked the clock about fifteen times in the first couple hours, but the clock barely changed, and by the time it came to be midnight, that's when he noticed that the clock had changed to reflect the time change. "We know we let you down."

"None of us wanted to disappoint you." Alex continues, trying to convince Julie that they made the worst mistake they've ever made. Since they've been ghosts at least. "You're the best thing that's happened to us since we became ghosts."

"So, in hopes that you'll rejoin the band," Luke starts, Julie already thinking no, "we booked a new gig." Julie just stares at the lead guitarist, wondering why in the world she would join him for a gig when they bailed on her just the night before.

"A mega important, life-changing gig." Reggie interjects just before she gives her answer.

"Check it out. Tons of managers go here to listen to new bands." Luke points out as she reads the flyer. "All we gotta do is blow them all away and we're living the dream." Julie is internally fuming at the idea. First, they bail on her, embarrassing her in front of her whole school, and now they just magically expect her to play alongside them at this club?

"So, this means a lot to you, huh?" Julie wonders, and the boys somehow believe that she's on board with everything. Wrong again, little dudes. "Kind of how playing in front of my whole entire school meant a lot to me." Now, they realize that she was just building suspense to try to make her point crystal clear.

"Sounds like sarcasm." Julie just glares at the guy she thought she liked, wishing the last twenty-four hours didn't happen. "I'm starting to think our plan isn't working." Oh my gosh, Reggie, are you an idiot.

"Look, we know we messed up." No, really?

"But, we need you in the band."

"Yeah, because without me, no one can see you guys playing." You were asking for it.

At Brielle's house, she has been just secretly listening to music, hoping to pass the long hours of being grounded and not allowed to leave. Her songwriting book is still at Julie's, where it has always resided since she started writing in the seventh grade alongside Julie's mother.

"Brielle, you need to clean the main floor. Two hours, or punishment." Her mother says to a closed door, unaware that her daughter is listening to music, but Brielle still hears the shrill tone of her mother and obliges without a second thought. Once Brielle removes any signs that she was listening to music, she heads to play Cinderella for a couple of hours, praying that she can get her chores done on time.

"Perry, Caleb really wants to see us there tonight and we made an obligation to go at least once a month." Right. The Hollywood Ghost Club. Brielle's parents have a membership for the rest of their lives, quite literally. There's a special stamp that zaps them—not painfully, but more like a little vibration that you'd get from your phone—once every twenty-eight days to remind them to head back or the little zaps start to make them even less bearable to deal with than normal. The zaps can't kill them, although some days their youngest daughter wish it did, but it does make them irritable and act as if they're drunk, even when they're completely sober.

"Wait, has it been four weeks already?" Obviously. It's only four weeks. Pretty easy to just use a calendar and mark the dates they have to go. Even Brielle manages to know when it is, and she basically doesn't live there anymore. "Then let's find our party gear."  Perry smirks, and Brielle's dread rises. Every time they go to HGC, they end up staying for a couple of days, and come back irritated with the state of their lives because they can't visit more often. Mostly due to the cost of going every night. Caleb may own Perry's and Taylor's souls, but there's still an entrance fee.

"So, how's being your parent's slave?" Brielle looks up to see none other than Luke, but she barely remembers seeing him the last time he visited, so it comes as a complete shock to her.

"Go away. If my parents see me talking to thin air, I will be punished." If there was blood running through Luke's body, it would have drained from his face.

"If you can escape, we have a gig tonight with Julie." That implies Julie is going. "Here's a flyer, if you want to stop by." Brielle takes the paper, shoving in the one place her parents wouldn't dare look, her bra, before begging Luke to leave.

"I'll think about it, okay?" Brielle whispers, before continuing to clean up the pools of blood, vomit, and whiskey mixed with some kind of unidentifiable food.

"Hope to see you there." Luke looks at the gentle spirited girl, hoping she'll attend, but understanding that reality doesn't always conform to the wants of a single person, or ghost for that matter. Poofing away, he heads back to Julie's studio, where Alex and Reggie are poring over a ratty book that he vaguely recognizes.

"So, what's that?" Luke asks, getting closer to his two bandmates.

"Just Brielle's songbook." He furrows his brows, remembering that she said it was off-limits. To everyone. Even ghosts.

"You guys shouldn't be looking through that." Luke says, before looking at it himself. He can just imagine Julie yelling something along the lines of "boundaries!", before remembering Julie's words before he went to find Brielle. All you care about is yourself. And that's all it takes for him to remember that this is the one day of the year he misses his parents most. His birthday. Poofing away before his bandmates can say another word, Reggie and Alex are a bit confused because all Luke can think about is how much he messed up.

"Where's he going? He just got back." Reggie looks to the blond bandmate.

"Where do you think? Remember what today is?" Alex reminds Reggie, both of them hurting for their best friend. "I'll get Brielle. You get Julie."

While Reggie convinces Julie to head to Luke's parent's house, Alex tries to find Brielle, coming across a house with an odd pull to it. As soon as he walks inside, there is a couple dressed in extremely nice outfits and a little girl cleaning the floor.

"Brielle, can you come with me?" Alex asks, and Brielle just stares at him without saying a word. She can't say anything, especially while her parents are around, but she gets up, following him out the back door and her parents don't notice a thing, their heads completely in the clouds.

"You got a second?" Reggie asks Julie at her own house as Julie does her homework for calculus. "Can you not see me anymore?"

"Oh, right." Reggie says, walking over to Julie, which makes her heart start to pump just a little faster. "Julie, please."

"I already told you that I'm done with the band." Julie reminds the one person—technically spirit—about what she just told him a half hour ago.

"I know, okay? But, before you make that decision for forever, Alex and I, we just... we want you to know that Luke isn't as selfish as you think he is. You've got him all wrong." Reggie sits on the couch next to her, and she is just so frustrated with Luke. Because he was the one every time that wanted her to join the band, and he goes and ruins their reputation before their first gig. "You remember that song 'Emily'? Can I at least show you who that's really about?" Reggie offers his hand, and she reaches for it, forgetting for a moment that she can never touch him until it passes through his.

Both girls arrive at the Patterson's home, and Brielle vaguely remembers her parents coming here a few times when she was really little to play with a little boy she can't remember the name of anymore. The four of them creep as close to the house as they can, all four of them not saying a word, hiding behind a few bushes. As soon as Brielle peers through the window, she sees Luke on the counter, and her heart shatters.

"So, Emily's his mom?" Julie confirms, and Brielle realizes how much he must have been hurting, tears forming in her eyes.

"Yeah. Luke comes here a lot. He thinks we don't know, but... we've been following him. All he does is just hang out like this and watch them." Alex continues, knowing the two girls and his bandmate are the only people who can hear him.

"They never really do anything, though." Reggie adds on to Alex's explanation. More than one tear has come out of Brielle's eyes, and she wishes she could run over there and tell him everything will be okay, like he's been doing for her.

"They're having cake. That's something." Both of Luke's parents sit down at the table with a vanilla cake and chocolate frosting—Luke's favorite—and four places. Another boy sits down in the third place setting and the fourth is left open, as they have celebrated since Luke's death.

"It's a birthday cake. For Luke." Reggie says, and it all settles in for the two girls. They finally understand why this is the thing they're showing them.

"I never knew Luke was hurting this much." Julie says aloud, while Brielle thinks it internally, but choosing to say nothing. All her life has been pain, and the one person she was managing to open up to also had so much pain, and all she wanted was to make him smile. See his eyes light up. Listen to the sound of his voice when he gets excited about something.

"It's even worse because when he died, he left on bad terms." Alex says, remembering how hurt Luke was when they were in that dark, creepy room between death and ghosthood. He may not have shed any tears, but that doesn't mean he didn't regret running out on his parents and never getting to say "I'm sorry". "His parents didn't want their seventeen year old to be in a rock band, so... he just left." Luke finally leaves the counter, sitting in the empty chair in the kitchen and watching as his father lights the candles on his cake. Luke blows them out, but because his family can't see him, they assume it's the air conditioner or something and relight them.

"That's why Luke was so angry." Reggie starts. "If Trevor had given Luke credit for writing all the songs, then his parents would have known his dream was worth chasing."

"His dream was always worth chasing." Brielle mutters, just loud enough for Alex to hear but not Julie or Reggie.

Author's Note: So, very excited to finally get to this scene, and I have totally been planning on revealing that Brielle's parents are a part of Caleb's exclusive club since, like, chapter 5. I definitely was not planning on Luke having a brother, but it just kind of happened and maybe something will happen with the kid, I have no idea right now. I was actually super close to giving up this story because I have been in a weird mood lately—mostly because the place I'm working, as an intern, is making me so frustrated because they refuse to give me actual work and life just kinda sucks right now—but I'm hoping to continue this book because I forgot how much I loved it until I wrote this chapter. I had written a couple of chapters in advance, so it's actually been a couple of weeks since I've actually looked at this story—aside from the posts, so thank you for the reads and votes and comments. I hope you guys are all doing great, and Netflix seriously needs to renew JATP. Like, now, although they won't because they want it all to be like the first season—with all of the dancing, the school scenes, etc.—and Kenny's saying they might start filming in the summer, so crossing I'm everything I can in hopes they do!

Loves,

mistyrider921

~❣~