After the girls from Dirty Candy left, Carrie pulled out the immaculately wrapped gifts (claiming they were from everyone) and everyone gave Reggie their cards. He cried when he saw what they had given him, although everyone pretended not to notice, and the girls invited Reggie and Luke to crash in the house too, since Alex was already spending the night. They had a guest bedroom with two beds in it, and then someone would have to sleep on the couch, but no one minded. Until then, they decided to watch a movie, all homework being pushed off to another day.
Unsurprisingly, Alex was the first to fall asleep around 10:30, which meant he was the one to sleep on the couch. Around midnight, everyone else decided to go to bed too, since the next morning the girls had class and Reggie had work. Secretly, Julie was a little relieved that Luke was in the guest room. She felt sure it would be difficult to focus in the morning if she knew he would be asleep on her couch while she was getting ready.
And in the morning, she was right to be glad. She didn't even see Luke before she left for class, but Reggie sent a picture of sleeping Luke to their group text while she was in class, and he was adorable.
Julie and Alex carpooled to campus early to eat lunch, had class together and then separated when Julie had Music Therapy. After that, she worked on some Music Theory homework while she waited on Alex and Willie to get out of class so they could study together. When she saw that there were fifteen minutes before she and the boys were supposed to meet, she packed up her stuff and headed to the library to pick up Alex's phone and find the study room.
She got to the study room early, knowing that Alex would probably be panicking and could use a friend to calm him down. And she was right; Alex was pacing around the room when she got there. "Hey Alex, you wanna talk about it?"
He shook his head, "Nah, I think if I do, I'll be sick."
Julie dropped her backpack and grabbed Alex by the shoulders. "Hey, it'll be okay either way. I promise." When Alex didn't even nod, she sighed. "OK, let's breathe, alright? In for four, okay? One, two, three, four. Hold, two three four. Out, two, three, four." She coached him through the exercise a couple of times and eventually he calmed down enough to sit at least.
"I'll step out early, maybe claim I need caffeine and run down to the Starbucks on the ground floor. In about ten minutes?"
Alex nodded. "That sounds great. Thanks Julie."
"And here, I'll leave your phone with you, so if it's awkward and you need to leave, you just text me and I'll rush back, grab my stuff, and we'll go home and eat ice cream and watch a sad movie and pretend none of this ever happened."
"Can we build a pillow fort?"
"Duh!"
"You're the best." Julie just gave him a big smile.
"It's gonna be fine, I promise."
And sure enough, Willie showed up about a minute later.
"Hey guys! What's up?" he asked, pulling his helmet off as he stepped into the study room.
"Hey! You know, just working on stuff," Julie said with a laugh. "I'm still working on that Hamlet essay for Stillman. I was supposed to finish it last night, but we had to throw an impromptu birthday party for Reggie because someone forgot their best friend's birthday." She laughed, and Alex colored.
"Technically, I didn't forget, I just have no party planning skills. I got him a cupcake and was going to buy him dinner. It was Luke who forgot."
Julie laughed. "Okay, okay, that's fair."
"Well hey, I'm working on that too. Which prompt did you choose? Wait, let me guess. The one about Shakespeare's portrayal of women in Hamlet, right?"
Julie shrugged. "If I know what I want to say, why bother trying to say something different?"
Willie laughed. "Fair enough. I chose the one about mental illness."
"That doesn't surprise me, Psych major."
"What are you working on, Alex?" Willie asked, turning to the drummer.
"Oh, I have to create a pitch for a marketing campaign for a fancy hair elastic. Like, I wish the professor had assigned me something I at least use."
"Dude, I can tell you all about hair bands! Have you thought about trying to market them to men? Like I know that long hair is more often associated with women in our society, but there's a growing number of men who wear their hair long and it would be cool to be able to buy hair accessories that weren't just marketed toward women. I mean, they make these plastic ones that are in the shape of a spring, and they come in all these stereotypically feminine colors, which I don't really mind, but also, olive green is my color, and it's a bummer they don't sell these hair bands in colors like that."
Alex tilted his head as Willie went on, clearly interested in the idea, and started taking notes as he talked. Julie turned her attention back to her essay. About ten minutes in, she stopped. "Guys, I'm exhausted, so I'm going to run down to Starbucks, or maybe the convenience store on the ground floor if the line is terrible, and get myself some caffeine. I'll be back in a few."
"Cool, sounds good." Willie nodded and kept working, and Julie caught Alex's eye. She smiled from where she stood behind Willie and mimed taking a deep breath before walking out of the room and closing the door behind her.
She kept her phone in her hand, just in case Alex sent her an SOS, but it stayed silent her whole trip. When she got back with her Pumpkin Spice Latte in hand, she peeked cautiously through the window before opening the door. Alex had a dopey grin on his face, and the guys were holding hands across the table.
"Oh, thank goodness," she whispered under her breath as she opened the door. Alex jumped, clearly startled, and his face turned red. "You cannot possibly have forgotten me. I was gone for like, five minutes!" She teased.
"Actually, you were gone for seven and a half," Willie responded, grinning at her. "You knew, didn't you?"
"What, that you two don't communicate clearly? Yeah. But apparently that's over?" she asked.
Alex nodded.
"Good. I'm happy for you guys. But now we all actually need to get some homework done today!"
Luke was at work when he got the call. It was Friday, almost a week after Julie and the Phantom's first gig.
"Uh, hello?" he answered, ducking into the break room and hoping that his boss wouldn't catch him taking a personal call during work hours.
"Hi, I'm Allison Grace, I'm calling for Julie Molina, Luke Patterson, or Flynn Jones?"
"Hi Ms. Grace, this is Luke speaking."
"Well hi Luke. I understand you're a member of the band Julie and the Phantoms?"
"Yeah, that's right."
"Well, I work for James C. Carter, who runs the Knoxville Fall Music Festival. We had a band fall through, and we're looking for a group that can perform a half-hour set next month."
The Best Band Ever
LUKE the puppy: GUYS GUESS WHAT! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Power Alex: Dude, is everything okay? You used capital letters.
LUKE the puppy: WE GOT SCOUTED! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Reginald: omg now hes using pucntuatin 2?
Angelic Jules: lol
Angelic Jules: And he's spelling things correctly.
Angelic Jules: But also, Luke, what happened?
LUKE the puppy: THIS WOMAN CALLED ME AND WANTS JULIE AND THE PHANTOMS TO PERFORM AT A FESTIVAL! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Power Alex: ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! !
Power Alex: Wait. Is this a real festival or like, a couple bands playing in a field somewhere?
LUKE the puppy: … probz the 1st one?
Angelic Jules: OK Luke, give us the actual information.
LUKE the puppy: band meeting wen i get off work plz
LUKE the puppy: ill tell all then
Angelic Jules: Can it be at my house? It's my turn to cook dinner, and besides, Flynn's gonna want to know everything too. She's decided that she's our manager. Also, my class ends WAY later than your shift, so it'll have to be after that.
Reginald: works for me!
Power Alex: So… Willie and I were supposed to go to dinner tonight… Can it wait until after that?
Angelic Jules: YES! Finally! Yeah, we can wait! I've got some brownies and cookies in the freezer that I made with Emily. I'll get Flynn to pull them out now so we can have them at our meeting.
LUKE the puppy: u hav my moms cookies?
Angelic Jules: Yeah, we bake together, remember? Every Sunday. And yes, they are chocolate chip, your favorite.
LUKE the puppy: jules i think i love u?
Angelic Jules: lol see you guys at 8:30
Julie's Phantoms
reg: luke, ur rlly not chill at all, r u?
LUKE: i dont kno wat u mean
Alex: We literally all know what he means. *eye roll*
Alex: "jules i think i love u?"
reg: ^^^
Alex: *eye roll*
reg: lololololololololololol
LUKE: i didnt mean it like that
Alex: Except that you definitely did.
reg: definitely
LUKE: if i ever confess my love to some1 i wont do it over txt
LUKE: im not that pathetic
Alex: And by "someone" you mean Julie
reg: and by if you mean wen
LUKE: you guys suck.
reg: ur stuck w us now dude
