Chapter Text
Flynn ran.
She ran from a boy for a second time that day.
And this time she did actually have her kiss.
How pathetic was she?
She didn’t really have a game plan, so when she ran straight into Julie- thankfully alone, and not with Luke, and immediately grabbed her best friend by the wrist. Julie was mid-text, a sloppy smile on her face, but Flynn didn’t care.
“Your room, now!”
Flynn couldn’t be more grateful that Ray was with Carlos at baseball practice as she dragged her friend through her own house, making her own way as she raced up the steps and then shut them in the room.
Great, she remembered, the ghost can just pop in.
Reason number 193485 why a relationship with Reggie wouldn’t work. Literally no privacy.
By now Julie had ditched her phone in her purse and wore an amused grin as she followed Flynn into her room and sat on her own bed. Flynn, meanwhile, paced madly.
“So the date went that…good? Bad?” Julie tried, guessing.
“Oh it went terrible,” Flynn replied breathlessly, rolling her eyes. Taking a deep breath, she knew she would have to come right out with the truth or this would be so much more painful. “Julie…I kissed Reggie!”
She slapped her hand over her mouth even as she blurted it out, and Julie jumped off of her bed.
“What?!” Her friend exclaimed, searching her face for an explanation. “Reggie?! What happened to…Logan? What?! Start from the beginning.”
Julie sat both of them down on the edge of her bed, though Flynn was buzzing with energy and wasn’t sure how long she could keep still. Her lips were still tingling. She wasn’t sure if it was because she kissed a damn ghost or because it was her first kiss, but god she was just bursting.
“The date went terribly,” Flynn repeated, drawing in some deep breaths. She decided to hold off on confessing the whole not sure if she was gay part yet. One step at a time. “So I came back here looking for you, and I found Reggie instead.”
“You saw…?”
Her friend looked all kinds of confused, but she thankfully gave Flynn her space to explain.
“He played piano for me, so I could see him,” she explained. "We talked, and Reggie's actually really sweet. We understood each other, a lot, and...I don't know, I just wanted to kiss him. I've never felt that way before."
“He is a ghost,” Julie offered, with a sad smile. “Flynn…”
Somehow, she had the feeling that Julie had the same fears for her falling for Reggie as she did her falling for Luke, and suddenly Flynn felt very stupid. Maybe Julie didn’t feel as strongly for Luke as she thought she did. Maybe their chemistry really was all in the music.
“He was just so nice to talk to,” Flynn confessed. “And Jules, did you know he never went on a date? He never had his first kiss. There was just so much he thought he’d do, he was so young when he died.”
Julie gave her a bit of a sad look, like was Flynn really just realizing all of this now?
“I know,” Julie said softly. “And it doesn’t help that they’re so damn charming, right?”
Flynn’s lips turned up in a smile.
“We just…connected,” Flynn confessed, “in a way I didn’t expect. It wasn’t just a pity kiss. Okay, part of me did want to give him his first kiss right then, but it just felt right. I can’t explain. But Jules…damn it, I’ve fallen for one of the ghosts.”
Tears dotted her eyes as she welcomed her friend’s hug.
“Oh Flynn,” Julie sighed. “Welcome to the club.”
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Reggie paced the studio, contemplating if he wanted to track down wherever the guys were or just keep waiting. The connection he had with the guys was insanely close, he could feel when they were together or a part. He could feel that Luke was back with Alex and now with Julie anymore. It felt like hours but it had only been a good half hour when the guys finally popped back into existence in the studio.
“Oh thank god!” Reggie exclaimed before grabbing both of the confused boys by the wrists and popped them up to the loft.
Alex and Luke landed on the futon while he resumed his pacing back and forth. They glanced at each other, both a bit confused and amused.
“Reg, you okay?” Luke asked.
He knew that it wasn’t in him to keep secrets from the guys. He was literally incapable of it. Personally, he was proud that he kept the secret about Alex and Luke all this time and…crap, he had almost forgotten that was another reason he’d be killed again today.
“I kissed Flynn!”
His hands flew to his hair, grasping at his hair as he closed his eyes shut tight, preparing for the guys’ reaction. No surprise, Luke was the first to exclaim:
“What?! Julie’s Flynn?”
“Dude, she’s going to kill you,” Alex chimed in.
Reggie dared to open his eyes and was a bit relieved to find that even as they were so shocked he would do that with Julie’s best friend they were both clearly highly invested in his newfound romantic feelings.
“I know,” Reggie sighed before flopping onto the futon between them. “She came back here after a bad first date looking for Julie. I was practicing, so she saw me. We had a bit of a heart to heart and…we kissed.”
He knew he was leaving out an awful lot in between, but one step at a time.
But there was one other thing he should probably throw out there before the guys found out otherwise.
“Also…I might have told her about you guys…”
He closed his eyes, standing back and holding up his hands, expecting them to jump at him. Alex did jump but held his fist tightly at his sides.
“What?! Dude, we swore you to secrecy! We did a pinky swear!”
“I know!” Reggie suddenly felt all kinds of stupid over every decision he had made today. “But Flynn is…going through somethings, and I just thought it might help her to know she wasn’t alone in figuring things out.”
Well, could he have been even more obvious? Now he could even add Flynn to the list of people who would kill him again. Thankfully, at least the guys still had a bit of tact. Luke didn’t look like he knew what to think. He had never officially come out when he was alive, and it just hit Reggie that he might have actually outed his friend to the first person outside the band.
“Luke, I’m so sorry. It just sort of…came out…no pun intended.”
Luke glared at him.
I should really stop talking now.
“Does Julie know?” Luke finally asked, his voice soft and uncharacteristically nervous.
“No,” Reggie shook his head. “I never told anyone about that, I’m really sorry.”
“Until Flynn tells her,” Alex cut in, throwing himself back down on the futon beside his ex. The two glanced at each other, and Reggie felt his stomach knot up with guilt. He hadn’t seen the guys look at each other like that in ages. “What do you want to do? Are you going to tell her?”
Luke just shrugged, like it was nothing. Of course.
“I don’t exactly know how to tell her my best friend, who is a guy, is my ex,” he admitted. “But it’s okay, this isn’t about me right now. What are you going to do about Flynn? She’s a sixteen year old living girl, and you’re-“
“I know, a seventeen year old ghost,” he sighed, “and for the record, she kissed me!”
His two friends raised their eyebrows, and he could understand, it wasn’t exactly like he had a lot of game back when he was alive. Girls weren’t exactly lining up to kiss him. Even to him, what happened was still a bit hard to believe, like a bizarre ghost dream.
“Okay, back up,” Alex finally said, putting his reassuring voice back on, which made Reggie actually feel a bit better. “So guys had a heart to heart, Flynn was figuring…stuff…out and she just kissed you?”
“Well…” Reggie rubbed his hand over the back of his neck. He had really not planned this very well, had he? “I did kind of tell her that I had never been kissed. Or even really dated. Or anything.”
“Ohhhhh,” his two bandmates said in unison.
Reggie felt like an idiot.
“So it was a pity kiss?” Alex suggested.
“Dude, that’s okay!” Luke chimed in, as if that was just that. “If I were a lifer and heard that sob story I’d probably kiss you too, it’s tragic.”
The bassist glared at him as his insides knotted up once more. Great, as if things weren’t confusing enough Luke just had to go there again.
“It was more than a pity kiss!” Reggie exclaimed. “At first, maybe it was, but then it was like…deep. Like, with feelings. She was holding onto me.”
Once again, the two exes glanced at each other, looking more than a bit concerned about their friend.
“Is it really that hard to believe someone would want to make out with me?” He shot. “Even after I died?!”
“No,” Alex finally sighed. “No, we just don’t want you to get hurt.”
“Yeah,” Luke agreed, jumping to his feet. He put a comforting hand on Reggie’s shoulder. “Look, I get it. Maybe…maybe it is more than just chemistry between me and Julie. But I’m trying to be so careful because she deserves so much. More than just some dead guitar player.”
Reggie was well aware that he was dead, but even after saying it and going through reality in his mind so many times, there was something about the helpless way Luke stated that that really hit home. Even his best friend, who just had so many feelings and was clearly head over heels from this girl, knew better than to act. All it took was five minutes alone with a girl and he was useless.
“You’re right,” Reggie mumbled. “I should probably just not make anything of it. I wonder if I should just apologize or leave it…”
“Talk to her,” Alex advised. “Or it’s never going to not be awkward.”
“Yeah,” Luke said, “but be careful man, she’s practically our manager and she’s really good at it.”
Reggie flashed a smile, and he couldn’t help but to think to himself Reginald’s got a crush on the band manager!
There was a tone, and Alex took the cellphone Julie bought for them. It was just what she called a “burner” phone, just a cheap way to keep in touch. Alex had been deemed the one mature enough to manage it. Reggie had thought secretly she was too nervous to have that constant communication with Luke.
“Julie says Flynn went home,” his eyes flashed up to Reggie. “She thinks you guys should talk.”
The bassist swallowed nervously; even the guys looked nervous for him. He felt like he was going on a march to his death…again. But before he turned to poof away, he offered:
“Yeah…maybe you guys should talk to her too?”
The last thing he noticed was Luke hanging his head down low and Alex’s hand on his ex’s shoulder before he drew a deep breath and concentrated on disappearing to Flynn’s house.
He didn’t exactly expect to appear directly in her bedroom. Flynn was already changed into pajamas, making Reggie instantly even more uncomfortable, and lounging on her bed and madly typing on her phone. She nearly jumped mid-air and covered her mouth to keep herself from crying out to loudly.
“Reggie!” She hissed. “You can’t just do that to a girl! I could have been changing! Also, how I can see you?”
Looking down, it just occurred to him he didn’t have any instrument with him. Until now, he had only been visible to her if he were playing, even though he was corporal. Cautiously she approached him, and reached out, gingerly taking one of his hands to make sure it was real.
“I don’t know…”
She stepped away from him, looking even more freaked out than she did earlier when they were able to kiss.
“This is too weird. What’s happening to you guys?”
He could only shrug.
“It’s like ever since we escaped Caleb’s curse we’ve been stronger. Maybe these were just the ghost bodies we were supposed to have this whole time. We’re definitely not visible to everyone though…it’s almost like it takes an emotional connection.”
An awkward silence fell over them and his eyes darted around the room to avoid her. He couldn’t help but to take a little wonder around, noting her shelf full of awards for music, sports, even math.
“Hey!” Reggie grinned, pointing at an award for excellence in algebra. “I got this award too.”
Flynn smirked as she stood up to see what he was looking at, wrapping her arms protectively around her stomach.
“You won an award in math?”
“Yeah…please don’t tell the band. They still don’t know. Wouldn’t want to hurt my street cred.”
She let out a laugh, with a genuine smile at that, and he was grateful she didn’t tease him any further about it. While Luke hated school with a passion and Alex mostly spent his last year in school dodging bullies, Reggie was, well, surprisingly pretty good at it.
“Math was the one thing that made sense to me, you know?” He explained as he moved around her room. There were pictures of her and Julie, from all ages of life. He grinned at a picture of them dressed up as witches one Halloween, likely ten years ago. Then he saw her clarinet case. “Hey! Maybe we could use a good woodwind solo in one of our songs.”
“God no!” Flynn grabbed the clarinet case and hid in a closet. “How many pop songs do you know of that feature clarinet solos?”
“Scenes from An Italian Restaurant,” he immediately quoted. She just stared at him, and somehow it wasn’t all the new technology but that that made him felt oldest in age he had since dying. “…Billy Joel?”
Flynn just continued to staring at him, giving Reggie more reasons to realize the thought of the two of them being together was a mistake. After all, he was born in 1978 and she was born in 2004.
“How old are you?” Flynn teased.
The reality of the answer made his stomach sink. Sometimes it really didn’t hit him just how long it had been since he had been alive. Even seeing all the phone and laptops didn’t do it. It was moments like this, realizations that he was just simply from a different time.
“Technically, 42,” he admitted. Flynn whistled, and a quiet moment passed as both considered just what a mess they had gotten themselves into.
“Look, Reggie,” Flynn finally said, carefully taking his hands. A shiver went up his spine; he was still getting used to actual touch again. Her touch actually felt somehow stronger than before, and he had to fight to not react. “It was really stupid of me to just get caught up in the moment like that. I’ve never done anything like that before, it’s not who I am!”
He suddenly found himself wishing that Julie was there to guide him through this. She’d know exactly what he should say. Reggie was definitely something that knew how to help everyone else, but when it came to speaking from his own heart, about himself, that was harder. Ironically, considering he was a musician.
You’re dead, no strings attached, he reminded himself. He winced as he could even hear Caleb’s voice echo in his head “You’ve got nothing to lose!”.
Maybe it was time to really be himself.
“Flynn…meeting you and Julie, it’s like the best thing that’s happened to us, I swear. You guys have really just brought out this spark in us, in our music, and you’ve definitely have made this whole transition to being ghosts thing just way easier. I can’t tell you how much I wish Alive Reggie had a friend like you.”
A genuine smile crossed Flynn’s face, and he was grateful he was talking to a teenaged girl mature enough to get it.
“Aww, thanks Reggie.”
He drew a deep breath and made himself look her in the eye as he continued. As scared as he felt, he couldn’t even begin to imagine what she was feeling as a living, breathing, teenage girl who just had her first kiss with a ghost.
“Obviously…that brings up a whole new problem. I don’t really get how we can touch, or how I feel things. I never know if it’s just in my head or if it really is real. But that kiss…it felt real. I know it was real. And I don’t know what that means, which terrifies me.”
“It…doesn’t have to mean anything,” Flynn offered casually. She was still forcing herself to smile, though Reggie could sense her disappointment, and he felt it to.
An empty silence fell between them, and he could feel they were both left wanting more. It was an awful feeling nagging, fueling an uncomfortable energy in him that he knew wouldn’t leave until he…he…
Leaned forward without thinking, without allowing himself to think, his lips found hers once again…and she didn’t seem to mind. Not even as they deepened the kiss, her breathing heavily, him feeling like he properly couldn’t breathe anymore more than any other moment in his death.
Then they broke apart, and it was like instantly he knew it was a bad idea again. The look in her eyes was a pure craze, like she didn’t have any earthly idea what she was doing.
“We really have to stop doing that,” Flynn said, holding up her hands.
“Yeah,” Reggie breathed, running a hand through his hair. “Ghost and lifer…it can’t work, right?”
“How about this?” Flynn said, pointing toward the door. Great, she’s going to throw me out…wait I’m a ghost, can I be thrown out?? “I’ll stand on this side of the room, you stand on that side, and we’ll talk this out.”
He nodded. Yes, space. Space…because even though he shouldn’t be able to smell he definitely was only taking in the coconut scented lotion she wore and the cherry of her Chapstick. He poofed to the other side of the room, and he most definitely caught her impressed grin.
Ghost Reggie’s got game!
“Have you met any ghost who have relationships with the living?” She asked.
“Not that I know of,” he admitted. “I can ask Willie but…”
“I barely know you,” Flynn finished for him. “I really just don’t run around kissing guys. Look…for the record Julie thought that I should actually get to know you a bit better. Then maybe we can figure out what this even is.”
Getting to know each actually sounded quite fun to Reggie. It wasn’t like there was a lot of opportunities to meet people as a ghost, and the few he had met were quite reserved.
“That sounds amazing,” he blurted out, “maybe we should like…just sit or something?”
Flynn looked around, as though she forgot she was in her own room, and they settled for just sitting cross legged on the floor. Seemed safer than sitting on the bed.
“So…” Reggie looked around for some kind of inspiration for where to start. “Clarinet, huh?”
She rolled her eyes.
“Please don’t start with that,” she warned. “How about…tell me about your family.”
Reggie winced.
“Can we not start with that either?”
“Oh…” Flynn fell silent, like she suddenly realized what a can of worms she was opening.
“Sorry,” he quickly offered. “Just…in a nutshell. My dad sucked, Alex’s dad sucked even more, Luke’s parents were not okay with him being in a band and...it ended up with the three of us living in the studio so...not a fun story."
“Right,” Flynn nodded, though she looked absolutely in over her head.
What was he doing? Clearly, he absolutely wasn’t anywhere close to good enough for a living teenage girl who won all these awards, had just the best personality, great, friend, totally loyal and honest…
All of a sudden Flynn smiled, as though she finally figured out where their conversation should go.
“So how much do you know about the current music scene?”
That was how, three hours later, he found himself laying on top of Flynn’s bed beside her- on top of the covers, thank you very much- with something she called an earbud in one ear while she listened in the other, singing along under her breath. He was in complete awe of her taste and knowledge of music. She might not have known about Billy Joel, but she knew not only most of the classics, so much about Prince…which started a whole conversation about the possibility of meeting celebrity ghosts…and all the latest pop hits.
“Beyoncé’s amazing,” Reggie announced, his hands tucked comfortably behind his head. “She’s officially my favorite.”
“I think you’d like Lady Gaga too,” Flynn smiled. “Man Reggie, it’s like you were made for this generation. I think you were born in the wrong decade.”
He wasn’t really sure what that said about him, but he took it as a compliment.
“If you asked me like a year ago…or, twenty-six years ago, I guess, if I’d be sitting in 2020, listening to a million pop songs on a tiny computer, I would have thought you were insane. Ohhh…who’s Coldplay?”
He pointed at one of the suggested tracks, one of the first ones that looked like were an actual band and not a solo artist.
“No!” Flynn insisted, quickly scrolling to the next group. “We are so not jumping from Beyoncé to Coldplay.”
They laughed, though he didn’t have any idea what that meant. No wonder Julie was such an incredible musician, with so much talent to pull inspiration from, so many resources literally right at the tip of her fingers, it was like she was born to be a star in the 21st century.
The album ended, and Reggie couldn’t help but to notice the time on the computer turn to midnight. He wondered if she really would have to throw her out- where were her parents, anyway? He noticed when they agreed to avoid family talk, she didn’t exactly offer any mention of hers. And there weren’t any pictures of her parents in her room.
“Reggie…about twenty-five years ago…” Flynn started slowly, carefully glancing up at him to test the waters of a clearly heavy topic. She rolled over on his side and he did the same. “You guys said you were just in a dark room, and it didn’t feel like you were in there a quarter of a century. What do you mean? What did it feel like?”
His eyes fluttered closed and he drew in a deep breath, just for comfort. He felt her warm hand wrap around his ice cold wrist, and he was able to ground himself a bit better. Truth be told, his memories of that room were something he had pushed deep down, hidden and locked away with a key. Some days he couldn’t believe he really survived that.
Finally, he opened his eyes, relieved to find more comfort in gazing into her eyes.
She’s so welcoming, he thought, like a walking, talking hug. She truly had this warmth, like he could say anything to her and it wouldn’t phase her.
“It was just…emptiness. We didn’t have an idea what was going on.” He drew in another deep breath, remembering how when they first appeared there Alex was freaking out worse than he ever had before and Luke kept muttering something about needing to call his mom. “We actively knew we were dying, in the ambulance. I died first.”
“Oh my god,” Flynn whispered. Carefully, she brought her other hand to rest against his cheek. He cherished the feeling.
“Yeah…” he breathed. “I appeared there first, I just thought maybe I blacked out or was in the hospital or something. Then the other guys appeared and Luke…Luke had watched us all die. He heard them call time of death.”
“Oh my god,” Flynn repeated, this time sounding a little more like she was going to be sick.
“I’m sorry, this is really deep stuff,” he warned. She looked so sorry for him, and so afraid to hear what was next but she nodded, as though to say I asked for this. “Then after the emptiness, after the confusion, it was just…heartache. We thought we were maybe in hell. Then just all of a sudden there was this tugging sensation, and we were back in the studio. In 2020.”
He hoped he could bring them back around to a happier memory, but Flynn was clearly too caught onto the idea of an actual hell.
“So do you think it was like purgatory?” She asked. “And now you’re here to figure out your unfinished business and decide if you get to move on?”
Shrugging, Reggie realized he had never really looked at it that way. He wondered if 2020 had any movies or TV shows about purgatory or the afterlife. That was always the best guidance for this kind of thing.
“Maybe,” he replied simply. “We really haven’t talked about that room since we escaped.”
“I guess not!” Flynn said with a sigh. “Reggie…I’m so sorry.”
“Please,” he was feeling a bit too choked up for a ghost. He settled further into the pillows and focused on the touch of her hand against his. “It just…is what it is. I mean, being a ghost does have its perks. We do the weird teleportation thing. We can hang out with basically anyone we want to without being seen. And I get to be a dashing seventeen year old for all eternity.”
He threw her a goofy grin and was relieved when she laughed.
There was suddenly the sound of a knock at the door and the two both jumped up, wide-eyed.
“Flynn?” The door pushed open, and Reggie was anxious to see who was behind it. He was a bit confused when the woman looked more like Flynn’s older sister, maybe 25 years old tops, than a parent. She wore scrubs and the tired face of a hospital worker who had just worked a twelve-hour shift.
“You okay? Who are you talking to?”
An odd sadness fell over Reggie as he realized whoever this was would have no idea who he was, even though Flynn had this new connection to him. He still couldn’t be seen. At that moment he knew, he had to stick with reason. This would never work.
“No one, I was just…praying.”
The other woman gave Flynn a funny look and her eyes darted around the room one last time, clearly looking for any unwelcomed overnight visitors. Reggie resisted the urge to turn the lamp on and off to signal his presence. She finally closed the door again, and Flynn turned to him, her eyes a bit wide with shock.
“So…that was Ciara, my sister,” she explained. “She’s basically my guardian. My parents are always traveling and working. Sometimes I think Julie's dad knows me better than either of my parents."
Oh. He was suddenly getting why it was so easy for Flynn to hang around Julie, who was mourning her mother, and three guys mourning their own lives. And why she was asking him so much about death.
Reggie’s eyes lit up, happy that someone else got that about Ray.
“Ray’s pretty amazing! I mean, from what I’ve seen. Like I said I...I know what crappy parents are like."
Her face fell, like maybe he was starting to overstep. This was getting way too deep. He was getting the feeling this was when he should go.
“Thanks so much for the music lesson, but maybe I should-"
Before he could continue, she kissed him again. For a long moment. And he felt insanely uncomfortable, in a girl’s bed, doing this, when they didn’t even know…anything…
When they broke apart, she breathed quietly for a few moments before her eyes reached up to meet his.
“I really enjoyed getting to know you,” she whispered. “I don’t exactly know why I keep kissing you but being with you is just…comforting.”
His eyes widened; that was the last way he expected anyone to describe being with a ghost.
“This might possibly be the most confusing day of my life,” Flynn confessed.
“Same!”
They both laughed; he was so grateful he was not the only one.
“I should get going,” he finally said, making to get up. He carefully stayed a few feet away from her, though he was anxious for one last kiss. “The guys, they’ll be wondering.”
“Right!” Flynn’s eyes flashed with terror, as though she didn’t even realize they would eventually have to confront the guys. “So, this leaves us…”
Reggie hesitated before answering. If he were living, he knew exactly what he’d say. Then again, if he were living, he probably never would have had the nerve to lay down in bed with her, listen to music so long with her, spill out his soul like that, kiss her like that…
“I really like you, Flynn. Really. It’s stupid we never talked much before today. I really liked getting to know you better too. But…you deserve the world. More than me, at least! You’re sixteen years old, you’ve got to live, you can’t just be afraid of death just because of us. You can’t just pity us. You should go to prom and have college boyfriends, get married, have kids…not just sneak around with some ghost.”
God she just looked so shaken. And just like that, all in one day he had fallen for a girl, won her over, and broke her heart. Somewhere, his actual body was rolling over in its grave.
“I have a grave somewhere,” he breathed. “I really want to…and I don’t get why this feels so real. But one day, it might not…we might just be gone. I don’t have any idea what’s going to happen to us.”
“I know all of that,” Flynn pointed out calmly. “I know the reality…I also know how I feel. So maybe, we can just be really good friends? Ghost Reggie deserves good friends too, you know?”
He blushed; he had really not thought about intentionally expanding his friend circle in death, but maybe she was right. Unfinished business. Time to have as much of a life as he possibly could in the afterlife.
“Kissing you just feels…right,” Flynn reiterated. “And I think after today I’m definitely putting off living people dating for awhile, I’m just not ready for that yet. So maybe…we can just be good friends, who kiss sometimes? Is that weird?”
Reggie shrugged.
“It seems like anything goes in 2020,” he teased. “Why not?”
Because you’ll get hurt, a voice echoed inside his brain, but he pushed it away. He could get hurt…he could also disappear for good tomorrow. So truly, why not, if it’s what she wanted?
“Right,” Flynn nodded. “Why not? Course, we should maybe tell Julie we’re just friends. I know she’s confused about how she feels about Luke, and this is maybe not the example I should set for her.”
“Agreed! They just ooze chemistry, don’t they?”
“Yes!”
He was ecstatic when Flynn didn’t argue- it so not just the music, no matter what Luke tried to prove to him. There was something there.
“Goodnight Reginald.”
Happiness rushed through him as she leaned forward one last time, this time her lips gracefully brushing his cheek. Instead of tensing, he already felt much more relaxed in her presence, and he dreaded having to go. But he knew he couldn’t haunt here forever. He forced himself to disappear, instantly reappearing in front of his awaiting bandmates in the studio. Alex has been drumming on the coffee table, while Luke just looked…worried. He looked worried!
Reggie was secretly pleased with himself. He wasn’t normally the one to sneak around or hang out by himself at all, for that matter. It felt nice, being the one to have something good going.
“Reginald!” Alex taunted, pointing an accusing drumstick toward him as they got to their feet. “What sort of time do you call this?!”
“We thought you were lying in a ditch somewhere!” Luke mocked, crossing his arms.
His friend’s concerned face broke into a grin as he saw the state he was in.
“Reginald!” Luke echoed. While the name sounded sweet coming from Flynn, he hated when the guys used his full name. It was always in a mocking, mean older brother, tone. “Flushed lips, hair disheveled- are you blushing?!”
He backed away as Luke brushed his hands through his hair, trying to straighten it out.
“Please tell me you didn’t…” Alex started, too bashful to even finish his own sentence.
“No!” Reggie exclaimed, horrified his friends would think he was that kind of guy. “No, Flynn and I just had another very nice heart to heart, she introduced me to some fantastic music- have you heard of Beyoncé, by the way?- and we may have shared a kiss…or two…or three…”
The guys both chuckled, impressed.
“So that leaves you guys…?” Luke asked.
For once, Reggie considered that he had actually figured something out about romance that Luke hadn’t. Luke hadn’t had the first idea what to do with his feelings about Julie, to the point where he still seemed in a bit too much denial about them.
“Just friends,” he replied firmly, then confessed: “Friends who just…kiss sometimes. But we’re not telling Julie. Flynn’s request.”
“Great, exactly how a band should behave. Keeping secrets and sneaking around with the lead’s best friend,” Alex sighed. The other two stared at him, wondering if he really didn’t see the irony. “That was different! We just met Julie! We’re haunting her studio, she’s the only person getting us through this!
“We’re going to tell Julie,” Reggie backtracked. “Just not about the kissing part, not right away. Flynn’s not ready to date anyone yet, and I promise I told her that she deserves just so much better than Ghost Reggie.”
His friends’ faces both fell, and they exchanged worried glances.
“Reggie, you deserve good things,” Luke pleaded. “Maybe this is a bit…risky…but we were given this chance of an afterlife, so we might as well make good with it. I don’t think it’s wrong if you guys…mess around. Just, be careful.”
The term mess around sent shivers up his spine; he was really not trying to think that far ahead. Could ghost even…do that?? If they could kiss, surely? But if Flynn wasn’t ready to date anyone, he certainly wasn’t going to belittle her by even daring to go there, even in his mind. He really wasn’t that kind of guy.
And also…who was Luke to talk??
“What I mean is, I told her she deserves to have an actual boyfriend, that she can go to dances with, graduate with, get married to, grow old with…I’m not stupid, I know we can’t have that. This is just all so new- she could just now see me without me playing!”
“Really?!” Luke’s eyes lit up, and Reggie’s heart ached as he knew he was thinking of the possibility of being seen by his parents. “How? What did it feel like?”
The three sat back down on the futon as he tried to even begin to collect his thoughts on how that felt.
“It’s like, we have this strong emotional connection, and that’s how,” he confessed. “That’s the best way I can describe it. Even earlier today, she could only see me when I was playing.”
“She has also mostly seen you when you’re playing,” Alex pointed out.
“True.”
“It makes sense though…” Luke started, but his voice trailed off.
They didn’t press him for more, Reggie knew Luke had been contemplating the idea of playing a song for his parents and being seen. He hadn’t explicitly talked about it, but how could that not be constantly on his mind?
“So,” Alex finally spoke up after a long moment of silence. “Who was this Beyoncé person you mentioned?”
Reggie broke out into a grin.
“You guys have no idea what we’ve been missing in music!”
“I know,” Luke chimed in. “Did you know the Stones are still touring?”
“No way!” He and Alex exclaimed at the same time.
“Yeah, and Queen has a new front man!”
Alex took out the phone Julie had given him and pulled up some music software she had told them they should check out. They had just been so caught up in making their own music again, and so mournful of this life they’d never live, that they hadn’t yet to have delved into new music.
It was one of the best nights Reggie could remember in a long time. They were still up at 7am, when Julie came in to check on them before heading to school. She walked in as they were figuring out a Coldplay cover to “Fix You”. As Luke finished out the chorus, they looked up to find Julie grinning madly at them.
“Okay, Coldplay covers are not going to become a thing for this band,” Julie announced. “Also, I was like one when that song came out.”
“Christ I’m old,” Luke mumbled as she reached up to hug him.
She turned to Reggie next.
“Don’t get too comfortable behind those keys,” she warned him.
“No worries,” he grinned at her.
She offered him a quick hug before searching his eyes, concerned, looking for any explanation about the day before.
“Are you and Flynn okay?”
He nodded, throwing a glance toward the guys, silently pleading with them to not share too much.
“Yup. Just friends. We had a great talk.”
Really good friends, he thought happily to himself.
“Good!” Julie replied, satisfied.
She seemed to subconsciously slip closer to Luke, and he could tell the two were itching to hang out a bit before she had to leave. He looked up to Alex, who nodded in understanding.
“You know…maybe you two should talk too,” Reggie suggested. He winked at Luke, who only glared back at him, horrified.
“Yeah, we’re going to go scope out some new venues to try to gig at,” Alex chimed in.
They most definitely weren’t going to be that productive at 7am, but he had a lot of hope as they disappeared away that this conversation would be good for Julie and Luke.
“Hey,” he said to Alex as they poofed onto a nearly empty boardwalk. “Can you text Flynn for me?”
“Sure. What should I say?”
“Just tell her Reggie says hi. And to have a good day at school.”
Alex rolled his eyes as he took out the phone.
“You, my friend, are absolutely screwed.”
Reggie sighed happily. Even as he stared out to the calm morning ocean, there was just a freshness about the air he was finding himself able to appreciate. It truly, really didn’t matter to him if he had a lifer girlfriend or not. Just having any new friend felt nice.
But if he dared to allow himself to be absolutely honest, he knew…
“Yeah, I know.”