A/N: *sigh* I am so grateful for your reviews! I know I say this every chapter, but seriously, they mean so much! Thanks FeathersAndInkwells for your review of that last chapter! You're so sweet! I love writing, but it doesn't always feel like I'm very good at it, so it's especially sweet to be told that other people like my work! I hope you like this chapter! There's somecute Juke (which was not originally in this story, but then I realized that an iconic line wasn't in my story, and I was NOT okay with it) and mentions of Willex. I tend to mention them more than actually showing them, I'm noticing. Anyway, happy reading!
Alex opened the PDF with the sheet music Julie wrote for their comp class. "Dang, this is beautiful!"
"What is it?" Luke asked from the kitchen.
"Oh, uh, nothing. Julie asked me to perform with her for midterms in our comp class."
"So you have one of her songs?" Luke asked, appearing in the doorway.
"Yeah, but don't you dare ask me to see it. You know how she is about her music. It's private until she decides it's not."
Luke pouted. "Fine. But tell her that I wanna hear the big performance of it. See if she'll agree to record it or something!"
Alex rolled his eyes. "Whatever, dude."
Forty-five minutes later, Alex got another email from Julie, this one had a couple of audio files. He plugged in his headphones and played the first one. It was the piano accompaniment, and it sounded beautiful. The second was the piano playing Alex's part while Julie sang her part. "Just so you can practice!" the email said. He shot back a quick response.
"Thanks, Julie! This is incredible! I'll be ready!"
Fall break was that Thursday and Friday, and Julie was ready for it. She needed a little extra time to just breathe. She planned on spending Thursday at home with her dad and Carlos, and Friday working with Alex on 'Perfect Harmony.' She sort of suspected he knew how she felt about Luke, (according to Flynn it's all over her face, all the time), but she refused to let herself feel weird about performing a romantic duet with the gay best friend of the object of her affections. OK. When she put it like that, she had to feel a little weird about it. But she would get over it. And then Saturday would be spent on homework and Sunday would be normal. She felt like she had a solid plan.
But on Thursday morning when she got home, her dad had decided to work on some home projects. "The door to the guest room needs a new doorknob, and I wanted to replace the shower head and towel racks in the studio bathroom. Do you mind running to the hardware store for me?"
"Sure, papi, just give me a very specific list and I'll take care of it!" Julie agreed.
"Thank you, mija! The list and my credit card are sitting on the kitchen counter!"
So Julie hopped back in her car and drove to the only hardware store she knew. It was closer to Brentwood than Franklin, but that was okay-it wasn't so far that it mattered. When she walked into the store, she immediately sought out an employee; she had no idea what she was looking for. And the first person she saw was- "Luke!" Her attractive band mate had been stacking paint cans near the front of the store, and when he heard his name, he turned quickly around, knocking over a paint can in the process.
"Julie? What are you doing here?"
She grinned. "Dad decided to do some home projects and sent me to pick up everything he needs. But I need help with this list. I was hoping I could get some help from my friendly neighborhood hardware store associate?"
"Definitely. Let's see that list!" Julie handed over the piece of paper. "Cool, so he's replacing a doorknob and installing a couple towel bars?"
"And replacing a shower head, apparently."
"I see. But he already has the shower head?"
"I assume so, since it's not on the list."
"Cool. That explains the pipe sealant. Well, we carry every one of these items, so let's go grab them!"
"Lead the way, Rockstar!"
Luke started walking deeper into the store, and Julie followed behind him. "So, who knew you owned shirts with sleeves?" Julie teased, pulling at the sleeve of the grey polo he wore to work.
Luke rolled his eyes. "Sleeves stifle my energy, but are required in professional and semi-professional environments, apparently." Julie giggled as they stopped near the middle of the aisle. "Okay, so here's the doorknob Ray wrote down." Luke grabbed a doorknob from a collection hanging on the wall. "Next, let's grab those towel bars for ya."
As they walked, Julie decided to change the subject. "Hey, are you feeling better? On Tuesday you looked pretty off. Everything okay?"
"Oh, uh, yeah. Just needed a little sleep, you know." Luke rubbed his neck and wouldn't make eye contact.
"I'm glad you're feeling better. I was pretty worried."
"You know me, nothing can keep me down!" Luke said with mock bravado. "Here we are! Towel bars! This is the one Ray has listed, and it says he wants two of them?"
Julie shrugged. "If that's what it says, that's what he wants."
"So, he doesn't have it listed, but he may want some wall anchors, just in case. If there aren't studs where he wants to hang them, he'll need the anchors to keep the racks securely on the wall."
Julie nodded. "Okay, Luke the Tool Man Taylor! Who knew you're so knowledgeable about home projects?" she joked as he led her to a different section of the store.
"Was that a 90s reference?" Luke responded. "And for the record, I actually am pretty handy. Our landlady is about 80 and can't really take care of the house, so I do all the maintenance in exchange for a discount in rent." He grabbed a small box of wall anchors that should work with the towel racks Ray was installing.
"It was a 90s reference, I'm glad you got it. And that's actually kind of impressive. Trevor has someone he pays to do all of our maintenance. Which is great for us, because none of us knows much about plumbing or basic construction."
Luke laughed. "I've always liked working with my hands. Hence the guitar-playing, I guess. But I like that I can do something that has tangible, practical results. Replace the chain in a toilet, unclog a drain, fix a hinge. There's something satisfying about how concrete the results are."
Julie nodded. "I understand that. It's different, but I feel that way about writing. The physicality of writing the words on a page, not typing them, feels more real than just saying them sometimes."
Luke grinned. "You're a great writer, Jules." She blushed. "Hey, uh, I know I can be difficult to work with sometimes, but I wanted to tell you that I think you make me a better writer. I tried writing on my own the other day, and I couldn't come up with anything more than a couple of lines and a C major chord."
Julie caught his eye and smiled so brightly Luke felt like he might catch fire. "We make each other better," she said confidently, and Luke thought he might melt at the thought, but he managed to nod, too.
After a moment of just staring at each other, Luke blushed, flustered. "Uh, we should probably go grab that pipe sealant now."
"Uh yeah, let's do it." He didn't want to get his hopes up unnecessarily, but it seemed like Julie might have been just as flustered as he was.
On Friday, Alex was back from his day trip with Willie to Chattanooga and had agreed to meet Julie at her house to practice her song. He didn't even knock before walking into the studio-garage where he knew Julie would be waiting.
"Hey Jules!"
"Alex! How was Chattanooga?" Alex blushed.
"It was great. We had a lot of fun. Willie and I went to one part of the Aquarium, then we had lunch downtown at this local restaurant, Big River. Then we went to the other half of the Aquarium and Willie bought me this little stuffed otter. Then we grabbed ice cream at Ben & Jerry's and headed home."
"Oooh, that sounds like a great date!" Julie agreed.
Alex sighed. "It was perfect."
Julie let him enjoy that feeling and his reminiscences for a moment before clearing her throat. "So, are you ready to run through 'Perfect Harmony' for the first time?"
Alex turned to her and grinned. "Yeah. It's a great song. I was really impressed with the depth of emotion you conveyed. It's clear you're very passionate about whatever inspired it."
Julie blushed. "It's a love song. It has to be passionate." It was clear that her attempt at casual indifference was failing.
"Write it about anyone in particular?" Alex asked with a smirk, one eyebrow raised.
Julie groaned. "Have you been talking to Carrie and Flynn?"
Alex laughed. "No, but I'm not blind." Julie leaned her head against the piano. "I do think Reggie has been discussing it with them though."
"Ugh. I'll murder them!" she hissed.
"Julie, you need to tell him! Get everything out in the open!"
"No! Then it'll be weird. We're in a band together! And music means too much to me for me to lose it again."
"More than love?" Alex asked pointedly.
"What?" Julie's face went bright red. "I don't love him! I've known you guys for like two months! Don't be insane!"
Alex laughed at how flustered she was. "I didn't mean that you're in love with him, just that you could be eventually. Once you get past the questionable fashion sense and his apparent inability to wash a dish, Luke is great. Any girl would be lucky to date him." Alex paused and noticed Julie's top. "Although apparently you don't seem to have a problem with his fashion sense."
Julie rolled her eyes when she noticed his pointed glance at the Kings of Leon hoodie she was wearing. "I was cold," she commented with a shrug. "This was available."
"Just tell me you haven't been sleeping with it," Alex teased, and Julie turned pink again. "No! Julie! I was kidding!"
"I don't sleep with it, I sleep in it! It's so cozy!" she replied defensively.
"And it smells like Luke," Alex said drily.
"That's just a bonus," Julie sassed back immediately.
Alex laughed. "You're ridiculous. Just tell him. He's going crazy, but he'll never do it. He thinks you want to be with Nick. Who, by the way, is your ex? What in the world possessed you to date him?"
Julie grinned. "We were sixteen. He was cute and we were assigned as dance partners. And he played guitar, which was super attractive to me."
"Luke plays guitar," Alex pointed out, and Julie rolled her eyes.
"Thanks, I've noticed," she deadpanned, before continuing. "Nick and I dated for about two months, but it was just casual and when the lacrosse team stopped practicing with the dance team, we didn't really have all that much time to spend together anymore. I think we lasted a week after that, and we decided it was easier to just be friends. And then Mom got sick and I didn't really have the emotional energy to date anyway." She looked back at Alex. "Can we just practice now?"
"Sure. Scoot over."
Julie decided to wear a simple black dress for her performance on Tuesday, and Alex had agreed to wear khaki pants and a button down, even though it totally didn't fit the vibe of his song. But of course, she had agreed to accompany him for his song, "This Band is Back," after getting their teacher's consent, so at least they'd be overdressed together.
She showed up to class fifteen minutes early, but of course the classroom was still being used by the class before. So she stood in the hall and paced until someone came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder. She jumped.
"Hey, you okay?" Alex asked, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. "I don't think I've ever seen you this nervous."
Julie took a deep breath in and grabbed Alex's hands. It was a grounding thing. "Yeah, I'm good. This just feels… I'm about to be very vulnerable on that stage."
"And I'll be right beside you, probably tapping out a beat for the drums for when we play this as Julie and the Phantoms."
"'Perfect Harmony' doesn't fit our vibe!" Julie said with a chuckle.
"Yeah, but as soon as Luke hears it, he's gonna want to play it. Speaking of, he asked if I would record our performances for him. You know, 'Perfect Harmony' and 'This Band is Back?' Do you mind?"
Julie sighed. "I'm surprised he didn't sneak into one of our practices and just listen in for it."
Alex laughed. "Is that a yes?"
She nodded. "But you can't play it for him until I give you the okay. I think… I should probably figure out a way to make it seem like it's just a friends thing or something. Or ya know, not about anyone in particular."
"Jules, you literally wrote 'we say we're friends/we play pretend' in the lyrics. I don't think you'll get away with a 'just friends,' line."
Julie laughed. "Okay, you might be right. But, give me some time? I'm not ready for Luke to hear it yet."
"Of course Julie. It's your song."
Their performance went over incredibly well with their classmates. They sat at the piano together, and Julie looked over at him a few times throughout the song and gave him a small smile of gratitude. And when they finished singing and stepped off stage, Alex handed Julie a bag with a slouchy purple cardigan in it, and he pulled a pink hoodie over his head. "So we look more casual for 'This Band is Back.'"
"Dude, you're a genius!" She pulled on her cardigan and grabbed her guitar as Alex pulled his cajón from the backstage-like area. There was another performance between the two songs, so they had a few minutes to mentally change gears. "It's really a shame we couldn't bring the boys in for this song. It would be incredible with more vocal harmonies. You really wrote an incredible song."
"Thanks, Jules."
"Seriously, we should talk about performing it at this Knoxville Festival in a couple weeks."
Alex grinned. "Let's talk about it after we get graded on it."
Julie had invited Luke to come over to discuss their set list for the Knoxville Fall Music Festival, which was in two and a half weeks. When Luke pulled up to their house, he saw an unfamiliar car there-a really nice car. It was a new-looking shiny black Volkswagen SUV, and suddenly Luke was very self conscious of his old Jeep Grand Cherokee from the 90s.
He walked up to the house and knocked on the front door even as he opened it. "Hey! It's Luke!" he called, walking into the house.
"Hey Luke! We're in the living room!" Julie called, and Luke paused just a moment to wonder who 'we' was made up of.
When he got to the living room, he saw Carrie, Julie, and Nick, her goofus-y blond ex-boyfriend, all sitting together on the couch. "Luke, you remember Nick, right?"
Luke nodded and swallowed the lump in his throat. "Uh, yeah. Good to see you again."
"Yeah, you too!" Nick said enthusiastically. Luke low-key wanted to punch him, but refrained.
"So, Luke and I have some band business to discuss, do you guys mind if-" Julie said to her companions in an apologetic tone. But before she could even finish her statement, Nick interrupted her.
"Yeah, no, I actually need to head out anyway. My roommate made me promise to come help him with his calculus homework tonight," he said, grabbing the backpack sitting next to him on the floor.
"Oh, okay," Julie said, and Luke thought he detected a hint of a frown.
Does she want him to wait on us to finish up? he wondered to himself.
"Luke, do you mind if we sit on the porch? Since we're not actually playing anything today? I thought it might be a nice change."
"Yeah, Jules, whatever you want is great." He felt a sinking in his stomach. Why did everything feel so weird?
"Perfect! Let's go!" Julie grabbed his arm and pulled him through the house to the porch where she had sat with Emily a few months before. There were blankets laying out, and Luke thought it looked very cozy. They each settled in beneath their own blanket, and Luke couldn't help but wish they were sharing one instead. But he ignored that thought and pulled his songbook out of his bag.
"So what were you thinking for the festival? I know you mentioned doing something different in the middle, just to show our versatility." He was hoping she would finally show him that duet she and Alex had performed the day before.
"Yeah, actually… I had a thought…" Julie trailed off, and Luke was suddenly very worried about what she was going to say next. "You remember when you showed me that song you wrote for your mom?"
This was not where Luke had expected this to go, and he knew that it showed on his face.
In one of their first writing sessions, Luke had handed Julie his song book. "Check out the songs I dogeared. I think we could incorporate the piano into these perfectly! And your voice would be killer, obviously!"
Julie opened to 'Bright.' "Ooh, I love it!" Then she flipped to the immediate next page.
"Wait, that one's not marked!" Luke exclaimed, reaching for his book.
"Luke, this is great! It's a sad love song, and I'm here for it!"
"It's for my mom," Luke admitted softly, not looking at Julie. "Things are so… tense and weird between us. They have been for years."
"I know," Julie responded, grabbing his hand. "We're sort of friends, your mom and me. She's teaching me how to bake."
"What? When did that happen?"
Julie shrugged. "Before I realized you two were related. We have an agreement that we don't talk about you unless she starts the conversation. But we have talked about you a little."
"So you know. That I walked out on her and have barely spoken to her in two years?" Julie nodded. "And you don't think I'm horrible?"
"Relationships are complicated. Relationships with parents especially so, at times." She shrugged again. "I hope you two can make up. And if I can help with that, I will. But it's not my business, and I'll stay out of it as long as you guys want me to."
"And you'll leave the song alone?"
"Of course, Luke. It's your song. Yours and hers."
Luke remembered feeling relieved that Julie understood, and that she didn't hate him for willingly avoiding his mom when she would do anything to have hers back, so he was confused that she was bringing it up now.
"I was just thinking that it's a gorgeous song, and yes it's personal, but it's about not being able to communicate with someone you love, and that's a theme that resonates with people."
"I don't know, Julie. I don't think I can share it with anyone else until I've shared it with her."
"So, that's the other thing, Luke. I see you flip back to it all the time. I can tell you're itching to share it with your parents. Have you thought about inviting them to a gig and playing it there?"
"Julie, that's an intense thing to do to a person."
"So what if you invite them over here and play it for them privately first? I think it would be good for all of you. And I know I said I would stay out of it, and I will, I just thought I might prod you a little and see how you handle it. But seriously, no pressure."
"What if… what about sound check? Then they could hear it first, but it wouldn't be so intimate that it's intimidating as hell."
Julie smiled brightly at him. "I think that would work! You should text them right now and invite them to our Knoxville performance! And if they say yes, invite them to sound check! They can even come early if they want and hang out with Dad and Tia and Trevor!"
"Trevor's gonna be there?" Luke asked, immediately distracted by the potential presence of one of his childhood music idols.
Julie rolled her eyes. "Yeah, Dirty Candy got booked to perform at the Knoxville Fall Music Festival ages ago! I know I told you this before!"
"Well you didn't mention that Trevor Wilson would be coming!"
"Okay, can we get back on track? You were going to text your folks and invite them to the festival, and also tell them there will be other parents for them to meet and hang out with."
"Yeah, yeah, okay. What other songs should we perform?"
"Well, I was actually thinking we should write a song specifically for this gig. Songwriting session sometime this week?"
"Dude, you know I'm always up to write a song with you!" He felt like an idiot as the words fell from his mouth, but he couldn't get them back, and anyway, they were true.
"Yeah, same," Julie said with a blush. But then her phone rang. "Crap, I need to take this, do you mind?"
Luke shook his head, and Julie sent him a grateful smile as she picked up. "Carlos, is everything okay? Yeah? And Danny can't drive? Right, his sister's accident, she's got his car now. Yeah, I can come get you guys. Percy Warner Park? Yeah, I'll be there in fifteen or so. Okay, bye!" She turned back to Luke. "I'm so sorry. Carlos has cross country practice at the park where State happens, and Dad and Tia are both busy, so he needs me to drive him. Do you mind if we finish this later?"
"Yeah, definitely! When is the State meet?" Luke asked.
"Next weekend, a week before our gig," Julie said with a smile. "I haven't been to one of his races yet, so I'm excited to go to this one," she admitted.
"Dude, we should all come! Carlos is great!" Luke said excitedly.
Julie nodded. "He would love the extra spectators, but apparently Cross Country meets are pretty boring. I'm not sure if you'd actually want to go," she said as she folded up her blanket messily.
"I'll talk to the guys, see if we're all free. At the very least, I wanna come."
"Okay, yeah, that sounds great," Julie agreed. "Well, I've gotta go. See you later?"
"Definitely!"
