· 。ﾟ☆: *.☽
▎ 𝑭 𝑨 𝑹 𝑭 𝑹 𝑶 𝑴 𝑵 𝑶 𝑹 𝑴 𝑨 𝑳 ▎
𝐓𝐖𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐘 ━━ INTENSITY.
࿔·ﾟ*ೃ࿐ ࿔* 🎸🥁🎤🎶

i really do 𝗯𝗲𝗹𝗶𝗲𝘃𝗲 that you are the
greatest thing to ever happen to me
･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.･ ｡ﾟ☆: *.☽ .* :☆ﾟ.

     "BOYS," Coach Barron addressed the dance class that was standing in front of him, but mostly focused his words on the boys in the room that belonged to his lacrosse team, "I want you to focus and leave it all out on the field."

     There was a drabble of confused mumbles across the studio.

     "You're losing em, Frank." Their dance teacher looked to him with a condescending look but he denied it as their dance teacher raised her eyebrows. "Breathe in... shake out your nerves. Surrender to the music and to your partner."

     As Ashley and Luca were relaxing their muscles - Ashley still wasn't too impressed with the fact she was dancing with Luca after everything he'd done, but there was no way of getting out of it now - the blonde saw a flash of movement in the corner. Maybe a late dancer? That sometimes happened.

     Ashley didn't pay too much mind until she heard Julie hissing at her.

     "Ash Attack, what is he doing here?" Julie was keeping her voice as low as she could, subtly pointing towards the corner of the room where Ashley had seen the movement and when she looked, she realised why Julie was so alarmed.

      Reggie. He had either come through the door or poofed his way into the studio, but he was standing there, looking across the sea of dancers until his eyes fell on Ashley and he grinned, waving at her like a madman as if him being there wasn't weird in any way. He clearly didn't think anything wrong of it, though.

     She had known he was up to something.

     "Jules, I don't even know why he does half the stuff he does anymore." They were lucky their dance teacher was taking her time putting the music CD in the stereo and neither Luca nor Nick were paying attention. "First he appears in the hallway out of the blue, looks like he wants to kill my ex-best friend and now he shows up in the middle of our dance performance? If I could kill him, I would."

     "Well, for one, he's already dead, so killing him would be impossible." Ashley looked up to Reggie again while Julie was talking to see that he had moved from the corner of the room all the way towards her - Ashley was suddenly regretting letting her teacher put her and Julie right up at the front. She watched as he sat on the floor, leaning up against the mirror with his knees up to his chest.

     "And two, I don't think he would care what you did to him at this point, kill him or hit him, as long as he gets to be near you. You know what he's like."

     "You shut up." Ashley was trying to hide a smile as he whispered to her friend.

     "I'm just saying." Julie raised her hands in surrender, smiling.

     Ashley, still confused as to why Reggie was there, shot him a sharp look.

     "You're gonna do great." He grinned at her, clearly not understanding why it was so weird for him to be sitting there. "I can't wait to watch it."

     Ashley rolled her eyes, chuckling.

     "Why do you keep looking at things that aren't there?"

     Luca's voice took Ashley by so much surprise that she jumped.

     "What are you talking about?" Ashley tried to swallow the panic in her throat.

     "First, you looked at the door when there was nobody there." Luca leaned down to whisper the words in her ear and his breath on her neck sent dimples down her spine. "And now you keeping looking at the floor like something is there. Are you seeing something I'm not? You've always had better eyes than me."

     Reggie was sitting close enough to hear everything Luca was saying and when he caught the words, his eyes widened and he looked at Ashley apologetically, worried she was going to hate him. Ashley shot him a look, stifling a smirk.

     "I've got to focus on something, haven't I?" Ashley lifted her head so she was staring at the mirror just as the music started playing softly from the stereo. "Because I don't want to have to focus on your face the whole entire time."

     Ashley wasn't looking, but she could hear Reggie laughing.

     "Ouch." Luca winced jokingly. "You think you may finally be getting through to her and then she hits you with one of those comments. That stung."

     "Who says I'm done?" Ashley turned back to look at him, just briefly, until the music fell into full swing and everyone started to dance. Ashley tried to let go of her awkward feelings that she was dancing with Luca and just surrender herself to the music as her teacher said, trying to release every tension from her body.

     It seemed to work. After a few deep breaths, Ashley and Luca were dancing the routine like they had been doing it for weeks, not just three extra classes.

     Reggie was absolutely mesmerised.

     He had never seen Ashley dance before. He wanted to say something, compliment her maybe, but he couldn't find his voice and he didn't know whether she would be able to hear him over the music, so he just continued to watch.

     He had thought for a long time that she was beautiful, but this was something else entirely. This felt different than all the other times he had admired her. Reggie felt what heart he had left, the heart he could still feel, pounding in his throat, threatening to break out. How many love songs had he ever heard with the line, "She takes my breath away"? Now that line made a lot more sense.

     Ashley caught his eye at one point and smiled at him. He could do nothing more than just smile back at her, giving her a reassuring nod. His whole body had gone numb - it felt like the aftermath of the night he had died but in the best way possible. Every nerve in his body tugged to be beside her but he knew there was no way so he rooted himself firmly to the ground, content with just watching.

     Ashley couldn't get the thought out of her head that Reggie was watching her dance. Dance had always been a private thing for her, something she only ever did in school with Julie and Flynn, something she used as creative therapy but never used anywhere outside of school. And now here Reggie was, the ghost that Ashley was falling head over heels for, watching her create a private piece of art.

     Music, she would share with anyone. Dance was a different story.

     She couldn't help but feel the want to share it with him though.

     Ashley's heart thumped so hard that she swore it was audible to the whole room as their eyes met and he smiled. It was only a small smile, but it was enough to make her go numb inside, that same feeling she had begun to develop all those weeks ago when they first met, stronger now than it had ever been.

     The blonde let herself get lost in the dance, thinking too much about Reggie to focus on anything else as she listened to the music. Even the fact she was dancing with Luca had left her mind completely. All she could think about was him.

     When the music in the dance studio ended, Ashley finished the dance holding onto Luca's hands without even realizing she was doing it. She was so shellshocked at how much Reggie had filled her mind that she kept a grip on him for longer than she would've liked - he was the one to pull away, smiling at her.

     "That was awesome." He was smiling and Ashley couldn't remember the last time she had seen him smile so big. "You were amazing. Why did you never tell me you could dance like that? I never saw you dance when we were friends."

     "Dance is kinda um-" Ashley brushed herself off, not truly believing she had spent the whole of that dance thinking about Reggie - she looked back towards the mirror to see him still sitting there, watching her as if she was some kind of prized possession in a museum. He smiled when he caught her looking- "it's always been a mostly private, at school thing. It's my creative therapy."

     "Creative therapy that you're amazing at." Luca was still beaming but Ashley's heartbeat wouldn't settle. "Seriously, Ash, you did amazing. We nailed that."

     Taking a few deep breaths to try and settle her heartbeat, she smiled at him, the first genuine smile she had given him since he had come back into her life.

     "Thank you, Luca." She pushed him by his shoulder a little as he chuckled, grinning. "You didn't do too bad yourself either. The jump has improved."

     Ashley hadn't actually seen him jump because she was too busy thinking about Reggie, but she was just assuming that it had gotten better. He seemed pleased with her response and she didn't blame him - she had been so cold to him since they came back into each other's lives, and for good reason too, but this was the first time she had shown him any kind of warmth since they met back up.

     Before either of them could say anything else, Ashley saw Julie break apart from Nick, taking off from the room in a run and though Ashley wanted to follow her, all she could do was watch as she left the dance studio.

     "Aren't you going to go after her?" Luca's voice shocked Ashley out of her surprised daze as she caught his eyes. "Isn't that what best friends do?"

     "You're actually telling me to leave you and go after her?" Ashley was shocked.

     "Ash, go to her." Luca raised his eyebrows at the blonde - it was the first time he had given her that look and she hadn't gotten butterflies. "I'll still be here if you come back. I'll even cover for you if I have to, just in case anyone asks."

     'If you come back'. Luca still remembered how Ashley had the tendency to disappear and not return for long periods of time. He remembered more about her than she did of him and it made her feel a little bit bad for him.

     Turning her head towards the mirror, Ashley caught Reggie's eyes as he was standing from the floor and he smiled at her once more - he had the most beautiful smile Ashley had ever seen - nodded once and then disappeared.

     Probably back to the boys. Hopefully back to the boys.

     Ashley took off after Julie, ducking under the radar of her dance teacher who was gushing to the students in the studio at how well everyone had danced. The blonde didn't need to search the school high and low for her best friend - she knew exactly where she would be, where she would always go.

     The music room.

     By the time Ashley had reached the music room from the dance studio, Flynn had caught up with her, breathless from chasing her at a running pace. Julie was sitting behind the piano, playing a soft, melodic tune with no lyrics.

     "I knew you would be in here." Ashley smiled at her best friend as she shuffled over to the piano to be closer to her. Julie smiled at her best friends softly.

     "Why'd you run out of dance class so fast?" Flynn was always the one to voice the questions. She had always been the straight-forward one of the three of them.

     It was one of the things that Ashley loved the most about her.

     "Sorry, I just needed some air. It was a little intense in there."

     Ashley was glad she wasn't the only one who had been feeling it.

     "Oh, I noticed." Flynn was smirking at Julie, her eyes wide. "Dancing with a guy you've had a crush on for forever will do that to a girl."

     "Yeah. But the whole time I was dancing-" Julie paused to smile sheepishly, shooting Ashley a look- "I was thinking about Luke."

     "Oh thank god." Ashley let out a relieved sigh before she even knew what she was doing, burying her head into her hands. "That makes me less ashamed of the fact that I was thinking about Reggie the whole time. That was intense."

     "Seriously? Both of you?" Flynn looked between them. "First off, called it from day dot, for both of you. Second, I know you two have the tendency to want what you can't have, but Luke and Reggie are next-level."

     "I know." Julie and Ashley said it at the same time, looking at each and giggling before Julie spoke again. "And now I think Nick likes me. Nick."

     "He totally does." Flynn grinned at Julie before she turned to Ashley. "And I think Luca has the crushies for you too, Ash. Now, that one I'm surprised by considering he basically betrayed you in sophomore year, but I won't question it."

     Ashley let out a groan, head still in hands.

     "But me and Luke just clicked, and he's so-" Julie was smiling as she started to list reasons Luke was worth fighting for but Flynn cut her off.

     "Not real." She looked at both Julie and Ashley when she said this.

     "Do I get a free pass just this once considering Reggie was actually in the room watching us?" Ashley lifted her face from her hands to say this. "You can't expect me not to think about a boy who was sitting right there."

     "He was in there?" Flynn's eyes widened. "Oh god, how embarrassing for me."

     "Don't worry Flynn, he didn't see anyone but Ashley." Julie had a smirk tugging at her lips. "He watched her the whole time. His eyes never left her."

     "Okay, no free pass then." Ashley buried her face back into her hands.

     Flynn giggled.

     "You guys can make all the music you want with these guys but they'll always be phantoms." Flynn had spoken again after she had finished giggling at Ashley's comment, still looking between them. "So, here's what we're gonna do."

     Flynn reached across to the piano to grab Julie's phone from the top of it as she started to type something out into Julie's tex messages.

     "Send Nick a nice little friendly text asking him to come to the party tonight."

     Julie leant over to see Flynn's text message. Ashley peered too.

     "Um, I don't usually send that many smiley faces." Julie grimaced.

     "If you sent me that many smiley faces, I'd be worried." Ashley chuckled.

     "You do now." Flynn grinned at Julie.

     "I'm not gonna let you get your heart broken. Either of you."

     "You can take a hike if you think I'm inviting Luca to the party." Ashley pressed her phone closer to her thigh from her jean pocket. "I don't want him there and I doubt Julie does either after what he did to me last year."

     "You will invite him if you know what's good for you." Flynn raised her eyebrows at Ashley. "Even if it's not for him to elaborate on his crushies at least let him come so you can insult him and distract yourself from Reggie.

     Ashley paused before telling Flynn she would think about it. That satisfied her.

     "Trust me, guys." She was back to grinning at them both. "Tonight, you're performing with the guys, so the key is avoiding those big, beautiful dead eyes. Julie, you won't look at Luke, Ashley, you won't look at Reggie. Simples! And it still leaves you with two band members each to jam the night away with."

     "You're very pushy today."

     Flynn was still grinning, a huge smile on her face.

     "You're welcome."

     Ashley couldn't help but cough out a chuckle. After the intense morning she had had, she had a feeling that Flynn being pushy was just what she had needed.

     BACK in the studio, Alex was having a rough time of it.

     He had seen Willie twice since the night at the Hollywood Ghost Club but hadn't been able to catch him the first time because he was always running away from him - he wished he hadn't caught him the second time, either.

     Their conversation hadn't been very long - Willie seemed fearful for some reason and seemed as if he was in a rush - and the whole conversation had ended with Willie telling Alex that they never should've met and poofing away.

     Now that had stung. Alex had really liked Willie. And of course, he disappeared from his life before he had the chance to semi-introduce his sister to him - even if Ashley wouldn't have been able to see the skater who had ran him over, Alex still wanted her to know about him, have an awareness of him.

     Now she never would.

     The miserable feelings Alex had harboured inside of him were spilling over onto rehearsals. The boys were practising in the studio for the party later that night - Julie would have their heads if she found out, but who was going to tell her? - and Alex was taking every feeling, no matter how strong, out on his drums.

     Reggie and Luke were quick to notice his distress. They slowly stopped playing, waiting for Alex to get out whatever he needed to get out before the room fell quiet and both Reggie and Luke waited for the other to speak.

     "Alex, you alright?" Luke was giving his friend a concerned look.

     "Yeah." Both of them could tell he was lying. "Yeah. Yeah, why?"

     "I know it's tough, man." Luke gave Reggie a sideways, knowing look before the bassist began to speak to the drummer. "People say you never forget your first ghost and maybe that's true. But... I'm sure there will be others."

     Reggie tried to give Alex a smile.

     "Yeah. Thanks, Reg." Alex nodded.

     "And, Alex, you're a great drummer, a great brother and a great guy, okay?" Luke leant up against the drums - he made sure to slide in that comment about being a brother, knowing anything to do with Ashley always made him happy. "I wouldn't let all that stuff get in between you and what you love."

     "I don't know man," Reggie piped up, a smirk on his face all of a sudden, "sometimes a little fire can make things better on stage. Like you and Julie."

     Reggie hoped he wouldn't regret making that comment. He had basically just given the boys a free pass to start hassling him about Ashley - he wasn't stupid, he knew they had noticed something going on between the two of them, even if they had tried to hide it. Neither of them had done the best job of it really.

     Luke's eyes widened as he cleared his throat.

     "Uh, what-" he paused, flicking his gaze between each of his bandmates, eyes suddenly quite anxious as he did- "what's that supposed to mean?"

     Reggie chuckled.

     "Come on. Everyone can see the way you look at her when you sing. You guys ooze chemistry." Reggie made a weird waving gesture with his hand.

     "You should never say ooze again-" Alex stood up, grinning at Luke- "but yeah, I agree. Though I don't see why you're throwing out accusatory words Reg when you and my sister don't see anybody but each other when we're on stage."

     Reggie felt the colour rush into his cheeks.

     "Ha, exactly." Luke pointed at Reggie, glad the spotlight was off him for a moment. "Even I've noticed that. Every time we're on stage she gravitates to you like a magnet. And you gravitate to her. You two can't get enough of one another."

     "Don't think this takes all of the attention off you, Luke." Alex pointed an accusatory finger at his bandmate. "You both have chemistry with them."

     "Okay, no- I have chemistry with everybody that I sing with."

     Alex and Reggie gave each other a look, not believing him.

     "Seriously, watch. Uh..." Luke stepped closer to Reggie as he started singing.

"𝙄 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚
𝙄 𝙗𝙚𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚'𝙧𝙚 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙙𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙢
𝘼𝙬𝙖𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝙬𝙝𝙤 𝙬𝙚'𝙧𝙚 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚
𝙏𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙬𝙚'𝙧𝙚 𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙣𝙙𝙞𝙣𝙜 𝙤𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙚𝙙𝙜𝙚 𝙤𝙛...
𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙖𝙩."

     Throughout the whole of Luke singing right to him, the bassist had become flustered again, not quite sure what to do with himself while Luke was so close - when they were on stage and the music was playing, it was easy to forget that they got this close but when it was just them in the studio with no music and nobody watching them, Reggie suddenly realised he was close, close.

     "Wow." Alex was smirking. "I see chemistry. Not as much with Reggie as when he's on stage with my sister but I see it. The chemistry is definitely still there."

     Reggie hadn't seemed to hear that comment. He swallowed.

     "That was pretty hot." The bassist was nodding rapidly.

     Luke, in a moment of wanting to prove his point to his friends and fluster Reggie up more, he kissed two fingers and placed them on Reggie's lips.

     Reggie, stunned for a moment, cleared his throat, still flushing.

     "Girls." He was trying to regain composure. "Am I right?"

     "Yeah." Luke was grinning.

     "No." Alex called from his drums, grinning too.

     There was a flustered silence between them until Reggie turned to Alex.

     "You're not mad about the whole Ashley thing?" Reggie could deny it all he wanted, and so could Ashley, but it was no use trying to hide it from his friends, they already knew too much. "I just thought maybe you would be totally against it. Isn't that like big brother custom to reject all of their crushes?"

     Alex let out a laugh, his first genuine laugh in a while.

     "If it was anybody else, I think I'd be a little more cautious about it." Alex shot him a soft smile. "But because it's you, I don't mind as much as I probably should. Besides, I see the way she looks at you like you're the only person in the room even if there are five of us in here. I know it's only been a few weeks but I haven't seen her look at anyone the way she looks at you, Reg.

     "And I see the way you look at her, too. Like you can't see anyone else but her like there's something more to her than there is to everyone else. Even throughout the years of you being a terrible flirt, I've never seen you look at another the way you look at my little sister. I know you feel something for her, Reg. I know you're falling for her and I think she's falling for you too."

     Reggie sucked in a breath, something warm spreading through his chest. He looked up to meet Luke's eyes and the boy was pouting in the way that you would do at a cute puppy. The bassist could see it in them both. They both knew.

     "If my stamp of approval means anything to you, Reggie-" Alex sat back down at his drums, still smiling at the boy- "you have it. You had it a long time ago."

     Reggie cleared his throat, the feeling still burning in his chest, but he was smiling. Every worry he had had about Alex hating him for having feelings for his sister were gone. It was nice to know he had nothing to worry about.

     "Right, rehearsals." Luke broke the silence. Alex and Reggie nodded.

     Alex tapped his drums with his sticks to keep them on rhythm.

     "Three, four..."