Luke's PoV

It was Saturday morning, around seven and I had the itch, the itch to get up and play music. So far since we came back I didn't really have that since I had mostly been focused on Julie's well being but things were rather stable now. She was away from her sadistic father, eating three meals a day, doing better in school but most importantly she was happy.

She was currently snuggled into my chest with my arms tightly wrapped around her, sleeping soundly with her mouth slightly ajar. I couldn't believe I had her in my arms after everything she had been through. I was still a ghost so we really shouldn't be having a relationship more than this, I was just a good friend offering her support and holding her to chase away her nightmares. Or at least that's what I told myself every night before falling asleep. I had seen Reggie and Alex staring at us when they thought we weren't looking with smirks on their faces. I knew I should distance myself more, let her fall for a person who's actually alive, but I wasn't sure if I could watch that happen.

I gazed upon her sleeping body and found it hard to convince myself to leave. She was such a good person who was dealt such a shitty hand that she didn't deserve and every time I thought about that I wanted to hold her tighter. The moment I met her all I wanted to do was protect her and over time those feelings turned from brotherly love to something more that shouldn't exist. Maybe I'm the sadistic one that should be poofing off to live out his existence somewhere else, after all she's been through, I shouldn't be taking advantage of her trust by falling for her.

I began spiraling down a dark path and decided I needed to get up and go jam on some music. I wanted Julie, I wanted to hold and kiss her and love her but who gave me the right not only to be that selfish but to even be in the same bed as her after what she's been through. Sure she invited me or climbed into my bed but was I not taking advantage of her confusion as she adjusts to a normal healthy life?

I carefully unwrapped my arms from her body and gently got out of bed after planting a kiss on her forehead before leaving. I went to the top level of the house and began jamming on my acoustic. I shouldn't have kissed her on the forehead, isn't that like borderline sexual abuse with out her consent if she's asleep? Nothing I was playing was good enough and I nearly threw my guitar out the window in frustration. I decided to go find her cell phone and mega boom to play some of her music that I had heard, a lot of it fitted what I wanted to hear right now and I quickly found a song that I liked the sound of, Stick Stickly by Attack Attack. I started jamming quietly to it after I heard the first few chords on my electric guitar. I had heard it before so I roughly knew when the bridge was and when the song would slow down or speed up. The lyrics though, 'You never said this would be simple, kept repeating and I couldn't help but spiral more.

Eventually Julie came upstairs rubbing her eyes and wearing one of my hoodies over her pajamas.
"Hey sorry if I woke you, I just needed to come up here for a bit" I said as I turned the music down.
"That's fine, are you alright?" she asked as she sat down next to me on the floor against the wall.
"Yeah I'm okay, I guess" I said while staring at my guitar.
"You don't seem alright Luke, do you want to talk about it" Julie said tilting my face gently to hers so that I was forced to look her in the eyes.
I took a deep breath and got up to start pacing while I worked out what and how I wanted to say this. Eventually I decided to just be honest and upfront, I sat down in front of her, grabbed her hands gently and faced her head on.
"I really like you Julie, more than a friend and I know I shouldn't, it's wrong and selfish. You should be with someone that is alive, not dead and it's wrong because after everything you have been through I feel like I'm taking advantage of your body when you were in a very vulnerable place when we met. I should just poof off to Africa and wait till I cross over in the dessert or something"
"Luke" she whispered as she withdrew one of her hands from mine to place it gently on my cheek. I couldn't help but lean into it and close my eyes for a moment.
"Luke I like you too, I agree it's weird but you have been there for me every time since I met you, you saved my life, you pulled me out of the dirt, you took me to a doctor, you held me when I was scared and even before you could touch me, you stayed with me, you never left. Without you I never would have left that hell and probably would be dead by now. Maybe it's wrong, maybe we should be taking a step back but I honestly don't want to, I fell for you the first night I met you. You sat there while I cried and tried fruitlessly to comfort me, you swore to never leave my side and you didn't. If you poof to Africa I'll figure out how to fly there and find you Luke, I don't care how crazy that sounds or how wrong that makes us but that's the honest truth, I like you too" Julie finished before launching herself into my arms to hold me tightly. I was stunned for a moment before I wrapped my arms tightly around her and kissed her hair. I hadn't realized that I had been crying till we let go and she wiped away the tears that were streaming down my face.

We made our way downstairs to start breakfast after some time of just talking while sitting under a blanket. I still had an itch to play music but I felt a lot better and was running the song Bright through my head. I had written it but never recorded it before and was contemplating changing it a bit. Julie was amazing at singing and I wondered if she wanted to join our band and we could start playing again. I knew no one could see us but they could hear us, we just didn't have Bobby any more.

Eventually Reggie and Alex emerged from their rooms and I passed them coffees as we sat down around the table to dig into waffles with a side plate of fruit.
"Hey Reggie, do we know what happened to Bobby?" I asked before shoving a mouthful of waffle with syrup and whipped cream into my mouth.
"Well that's a loaded question, don't be mad but yes I know where he is, he helped us move into this house. He made it in life after we passed and has a lot of money" said Reggie.
Julie had reached over to hold my hand below the table and I wondered why I would be mad.
"He recorded our songs, he recorded 'My name is Luke' however before you go Hulk, he gave a lot of the money he made to our families. He dedicated his first CD to us and said it was all your original work so your parents knew you passed doing the one thing you wanted. It's why our parents moved away into nicer places. Your parents I think decided to splurge on a few holidays but stay in the house that had memories of you growing up in" finished Reggie.

The penny dropped on why I would be mad, my name was Luke but at least our families knew. I took a deep breath and squeezed Julie's hand back before shrugging.
"Well at least our families knew and he did give us this mansion, I was just asking because I was thinking of writing music again. We've been so busy but now that we have more free time I was contemplating forming a band with you Julie as our lead singer if you are interested?" I asked.
"Oh, that's huge, what if they don't like my singing? Maybe we should just try doing a karaoke night and see how it goes first?" Julie said nervously.
"Oh they would like you Julie, your voice is better than Luke's!" said Reggie proudly.
"Hey! That's not nice! But he is right, your voice is amazing and it should be let out if you want it to be? I know it's been years but you're really good at singing and I already have a song in mind that we should try practicing if we want to do a performance?" I asked hopefully.

We finished up breakfast and took Julie upstairs to show her Bright, and it was like watching Julie eat a s'more for the first time. She fell in love with the song and quickly picked up her parts. As we sang I could see the lyrics fitting close to what we had talked about before and about her life. 'Life is a risk but we will take it' hitting home to the fact that we wanted to try a relationship despite how screwed up our friendship started off as. Then 'And rise through the night, you and I We will fight to shine together, bright forever' linking to all of us escaping our hellholes, hers obviously a lot worse than ours. As we ran through the song I couldn't stop but making small connections to what was or had happened to Julie and the song that I never intended when I wrote the song originally for Sunset Curve. I could see on her face making the same connections and falling more and more in love with it.

"Alright to hell with karaoke, let's find somewhere to sing this tonight!" said Julie after the fifth run through.
"On it" I said as I poofed off to explore nearby clubs. I found one that was only a ten minute drive from our address, it was at a place called Club Contour. I found where to write band names down to perform tonight, there were a few since it was a Saturday but we would rock it anyways.

I poofed back and informed everyone we would be on tonight. We weren't sure how we were going to get our instruments there and as we sat contemplating what floating drums would look like, Reggie suddenly poofed his guitar into his lap.
"Wow, how did you do that!" I asked standing up.
"I don't know, I wished I had my guitar and it poofed in?"
I tried and sure enough my guitar was in my hands. Then Alex tried and nearly broke the coffee table as his drum set poofed in half on the table, half on the ground.
"Well I guess that answers that, I just have to carry in my keyboard and mic, easy, where is that keyboard by the way Reggie?"
"Oh here I'll grab it, it was in the storage downstairs" he said as he poofed downstairs coming back a minute later.

Later that evening we ate a chicken salad before heading out, all of us on edge with nerves and excitement. Alex and Julie had gone through her wooden chest of her mothers stuff and Alex had found a cute black studded vest with a hippy vibe of strings hanging at the back with a nice blue studded dress and silver shorts. It was an epic out fit and Julie fitted perfectly into it. We all commented on the adorable pin of a dahlia flower which was her mothers favorite flower. Her mother would be proud of her crawling out of that hell, picking herself up and getting out there in front of people despite what had been done to her. I had braided her hair to the side and tied the rest up in a ponytail.

The venue was packed with people but I pulled Julie gently off to the side to put her instrument down behind security. We then sat back and watched the other bands perform, they were good but we thought we would be better. After forty five minutes, we were called up, Julie's keyboard was already set up by the backstage crew and her wireless mic was already connected and sound checked.

She walked up on stage with us following and began playing her keyboard while singing with her eyes closed. The crowd was swaying side to side till the chorus came in and we started playing our instruments with her. We noticed immediately the crowd could see us though, we weren't ghosts or maybe we could only be seen while we were playing. Somehow I had poofed in a mic in front of me so I made to sing my part of the chorus while looking around. Alex and Reggie had one also and were singing with us. Julie came over to me with a look of horror as she finished the chorus. I whispered in her ear to just go with it and turned to sing the second verse soaking up the feeling of being on stage again. It was the best feeling in the world. The crowd went crazy and loved our song, then gasped when we disappeared confirming our thoughts, we were only visible when we were singing or playing our instruments. Julie bowed and made her way into the crowd to grab a soda. A few people had asked her how she did it and Alex whispered in her ear that it was a hologram of us and we lived in Sweden. Others asked what our band name was since all I had written down was Julie, we didn't want to go by Sunset Curve in case anyone remembered the name. Julie just shrugged and said it was still being discussed and we were a very new band that had only performed once tonight.

We made our way home all on edge with excitement of how well that had gone. Alex and Reggie retreated to the office to think of a name for us while we wandered off to Julie's room to shower then cuddle while watching a movie in bed. After Julie had her shower I quickly dashed in and started thinking of lyrics for a new song as the water cascaded down my back. It would definitely resonate with all of us, singing about freedom, free of our box we had been stuck in for the last twenty five years, freedom from hell. I quickly dried off and found my notebook and a pen before settling down on the bed with Julie.
"What movie do you wanna watch?" asked Julie, looking over my shoulder at my scribbles.
"Um anything you want, I wanna write this down before I forget it. I have an idea for a new song, not sure what it should be called but this is what I have so far.'I got a spark in me. Hands up if you can see. And you're a part of me. Hands up if you're with me. Now 'til eternity. Hands up if you believe. Been so long, and now we're finally free'. What do you think?" I asked nervously.
"I love it! It hints at us breaking free and hints at everyone being able to see you without them realising the hidden message. How can I help?" she said excitedly. "Um I guess go grab my guitar, maybe we can hash out how we want it to sound?"
"Sure" Julie said, bouncing into my room to grab it as I started working on some verses.

So in case anyone is wondering, the house is still on sale so you can still see it at WA/Seattle/2005-Broadway-E-98102/home/136031, just click the top link, the address is 2005 Broadway E, Seattle, WA 98102, USA which is why I can work out exactly how long it takes to get to destinations :p gotta love that google maps. It asks you for your email and a few miscellaneous questions but that's it, no one bothered me after that about buying the house although i soooo want to lol.