"Important encounters are planned by the souls long before the bodies see each other" - Paulo Coelho

I slide down the doorway until I am sitting on the ground. I take a moment to calm down, twirling around the rings on my fingers. After a moment, I take a deep breath, before standing and walking out of my room. I walk out the door, bumping into Julie causing me to jump.

Silence remains between the two of us as we make our way back to the studio. Julie grips a cross in her hands tightly as we make our way inside.

I look around to find the studio completely empty, "Are we seeing things? That's it, I've officially lost my mind. We're actually crazy."

"We're all a little crazy," I hear a smooth voice say. I turn around to see the three same guys. Julie begins to scream again, causing the three to wince. The one in the jean jacket puts a hand out in front of him, "Oh my God, please stop screaming."

Her screaming stops, but she continues to hold the cross out in front of us. I peer at the three in confusion, "Who are you, and what are you doing in her mom's studio."

The attractive middle one steps forward, a grin stretching across his lips to show his perfect, white teeth, "Your mom's studio? This is our studio. Trust me, my..." He jumps up to slide across the piano to avoid Julie's cross. "The grand piano is new, and... and." His eyes shoot wide open as he dives onto the couch, "My couch!" That goofy smile falls from his lips as he looks over to the guitar next to him, "That is definitely not my six-string."

I roll my eyes at his behavior, "No it's not yours because that's my six-string."

His gaze roams around the studio before moving to look me in the eyes, "Can you give me just one second?" He makes his way around Julie and I and back to his friends, jumping away from the cross, "Just one second. Thank you."

The fear is still there, but it seems to wash away when to my amusement, I hear the three guys not so subtly whisper about how they think we're witches. I shoot Julie a smirk, but she is too busy staring in fear to notice. Clearly these guys are harmless... despite being ghosts.

They seem to be done with their little meeting as the blonde one turns to us and shoots us a grimace of a smile, "Why are you in our studio?" he snaps causing my eyes to widen slightly.

My eyes dart over to Julie, who does not respond to the blonde's question, instead she pushes the cross into his chest, literally. Her hand holding the cross appears on the other side of him, causing my eyes to shook open in shock.

She snatches her hand right back out, "Oh my gosh! How did you do that?"
"Clearly you're not understanding," the blonde states, rolling his eyes. He turns back to his group, "They don't get it."

"I get it, you're ghosts." I reply, bringing the three's attention to me. "Can I try that whole going right through you thing."

The one in the plaid jacket steps forward, his jaw clenches as he fights off a smile, "Go ahead, you can walk right through me."

I nod, taking small steps closer to him until he's right in front of me. I look up at him warily, noticing each part of his perfect face. I bite the inside of my cheek and take two steps forward. Instead of going right through him, I bump right into his firm chest, nearly falling back from the force.

"Ouch!"

"What the hell?"

Two hands reach out to grip my side preventing my from slipping backwards. I look slowly into his eyes to see him already staring back at me, shock filling his features.

He opens his mouth to say something, when he's interrupted by his blonde friend, "Well that was weird... But we're just three ghosts, and we're happy to be home. So, thank you for the flowers. They really brighten up the place."

The one holding me realizes his arms are still wrapped around me and releases me, both of us taking a few steps back. "We're in a band called Sunset Curve."

The one in the leather jacket flashes us a goofy smile, "Tell your friends."

"Last night was supposed to be a really big night for us. It was gonna change our lives

I frown in confusion, pulling my phone from my back pocket to open up Google. The one I bumped into earlier frowns in confusion, reaching for my phone, "What is that? What are you doing?"

Julie rolls her eyes, "She's looking up Sunset Swerve."

The three boys roll their eyes, "Sunset Curve."

I let out a small laugh, "Should we even be talking to them? There's no such thing as cute ghosts."

The one in the leather jacket smirks, "Oh, think we're cute.

I shoot them a glare and focus on my phone, my grip slackens in shock as I look back up to them, "Luke, Alex, Reggie, all part of a band called Sunset Curve. You guys did die, but not last night. Twenty-five years ago?"

The one I believe to be Reggie frowns in confusion, "What? No. No. No. That's not possible. After we floated out of the ambulance all we did was go to that dark weird room where Alex cried."

Alex's face scrunches up in embarrassment as he lets out a high pitched whine, "Well... I think we were all pretty upset."

Luke looks over to the two of us, his pale face painted with confusion, "But that was only for an hour. We just showed up here."

"Look, her phone doesn't lie. See? You died in 1995, when you were seventeen. It's now 2020." Julie replies, pulling the phone out of my hand to show them.

Reggie's eyes are glued to my phone in awe, "So this is the future."

I nod my head, letting a laugh escape my lips, "So that means that Alex, you cried for like 25 years."

His face visibly pales as he gets all choked up, "I have been crying for twenty five years? How is that even possible."

Reggie shrugs shaking his head, "Well, you're a very emotional person!"

"I, Am. Not!" Alex cries out and clearly I can tell he really is.

"Thought you were afraid to come out here," A voice calls out, causing us all to jump. I look over to see Carlos standing behind the three guys. "You two talking to your ghost friend? How does he look? Is he hideous?"

Julie blinks in shock, "Uh, what do you want?"
Carlos crosses his arms over his small chest, "A normal sister with normal friends, for starters. Stop being weird and come eat!"

As he walks out, Julie looks up at the three guys, "He couldn't see you."

"Yeah, I mean, that's usually how ghosts work."

Julie grabs my wrist and storms right through the guys, causing me to bump shoulders with all three of them. "Look, I am very sorry for what happened to you guys, but this isn't your studio anymore. You have to leave."

"Wait!" Luke calls out, prompting us to turn back to face them. "We didn't get your names."

Julie huffs and crosses her arms over her chest, "Julie."

I tilt my head lightly, flashing them a close-lipped smile, "JJ."

Boyish grin spreads on Luke's face as he steps closer to me, holding eye contact with my brown gaze, "Cool, I'm Luke, by... By the way."

Before he can get any closer, Julie reaches forward, holding out the cross. He returns his hand to his side, trying to hide his disappointed look as he motions toward the other two, "And this is..."

"Reggie. I'm Reggie."

"And Alex, hows it going?"

Luke bits down on his plump bottom lip, "Ba-da."

"Ok?" Julie states with a glare, before walking away.

I turn to them, shooting them a small, tired smile, "It was nice meeting you guys."

I spin around on my heels and follow Julie inside, where Carlos and her dad are already waiting at the table.

****

I twirl around the spaghetti on my fork as my mind is filled with thoughts. Why are Julie and I the only ones that can see them and why am I able to touch them? I pinch myself under the table, receiving only pain... okay I'm definitely not dreaming. I'm pulled from the depths of my own mind when I hear the loud voice of Julie's aunt walking in the room. The four of us exchange looks of fear before hiding the stuff that we put in place of their mom at the table.

The woman walks in clad in matching workout clothes with a grimace painted on her lips, "Spaghetti, again? That's too bad. I brought you my pasteles and arroz con pollo."

I shoot her a fake, wide smile, "Oh yum!"

"Thanks, Tia. It smells great," Julie calls out, her mouth full of food.

Tia lets out a sigh opening the fridge, "You can have it tomorrow. I can't let you have leftover every night, my sister would kill me... may she rest in peace." She moves to look down at the empty spot at the table we had just cleared, "Oh, I see things here are going better."

Ray nods his head, setting down his fork, "Actually, Julie and JJ have been cleaning out Mom's studio. Hopefully we can get the house on the market and get some offers soon."

A grin grows on the woman's face as she rubs Julie's shoulders, "Well, I like the sound of that. Moving from here is only gonna help you move on. You've got to ript that band-aid off and get the pain over with."

My gaze moves to the stairway, where suddenly the Luke, Reggie, and Alex appear. I jump in my seat and let out a yelp, causing everyone in the room, including the ghosts to look at me in shock. An awkward smile forms on my lips, "That's Julie. Ripping off the band-aid... you know?"

Tia reaches over and squeezes my cheeks in her hand, "Aren't you just so funny. I knew it was a good idea for them to keep you around."

"Hey JJ, Julie." I jump slightly in my seat to see look leaning next to my face. "I really like what you guys did with the place.

"You shouldn't be here!" Julie snaps at him, causing the non-ghost seeing people in the room to look at her in schock.

Tia lets a gasp escape her lips, "Oh, I'm just here to help, Mija."

Alex frowns, grabbing Luke by the shoulders, "I think that's our cue to leave."

Julie lets out a nervous laugh, wrapping her arms around her aunt's waist, "I mean, you should be at Pilates. Thanks for bringing us food!"
Reggie winces dramatically, backing into his friends, "We should have called first." I roll my eyes at the boy and something inside tells me it's the first time of many eye rolls towards Reggie.

Her aunt rubs Julie's shoulders, letting out a sigh, "And now that you're no longer in the music program, you can concentrate on classes that matter... You got the email from the school, right?"

Ray looks over at his daughter, who wears a guilty look on her face, "Yeah, we're still discussing it."

Tia seems to be satisfied with this answer as she makes her way towards the door, "Bueno. I'm off to Pilates."

As she walks away, Carlos looks at the three of us at the table, "So Julie, JJ, wanna hear how I slid to base and was almost safe."

My eyebrows raise as I can tell exactly what he's doing, "Oh yes of course! Your game today. Did you guys win?"

Ray lets out a sigh and turns to the two of us, "That was very nice of you two, but that's not gonna work."

I let out a sigh as the two of us rise from our places, "I tried."

I shoot Julie and apologetic look as I make my way outside, heading back to the studio. I'm sure those boys have gotten themselves into some kind of trouble while I'm gone. As I make my way down the steps, loud rock music floods from the studio.