A/N-I DO NOT OWN JULIE AND THE PHANTOMS! (if I did, they would've already been renewed for a season 2...)

Hey guys!

So I'm trying something a little different. This story will be told from Julie and Luke's point of view in 2 different chapters. As of the original posting of this story, I only intend for this story to have 2 chapters, but now that I'm on holiday break... who knows what'll happen?

I'm a little nervous about this story. I'm trying out a new style with the two different perspectives, and I don't know if I like how it turned out but a majority of this was written in the midst of me taking my finals because I can't stop thinking about Julie and the Phantoms, Juke and how much I'd love to see Christmas related content from them. Regardless, let me know what you think and I hope you enjoy chapter 1/2! Depending on how everyone reacts to this one, I'll either post the second chapter or I'll just delete the whole thing all together and try again (the beauty of FanFiction, isn't it?)

I hope you enjoy!

Luke used to love Christmas as a kid. It was his favorite holiday. His parents always got so excited for him to open gifts, they didn't even mind that he woke them up at the crack of dawn to run downstairs to see what Santa had left for him. Christmas was always the time that his family was the happiest, that things were so bright and cheery around the Patterson house.

Sometimes Reggie's parents would drop him off and he and Luke would spend the day playing with whatever new toys and games Luke got. Sometimes Reggie would be really sad, and it hurt Luke terribly to see his friend so sad on his favorite day of the year. But he knew his family was different.

As they got older, it became less of an issue and more of a tradition they looked forward to. Reggie and eventually Alex would come over and spend the day at the Patterson's and Emily would make "the most epic dinner of all time" according to Luke. It was a day spent with his favorite people, so how could anything go wrong?

But the last time he was "home" for Christmas was the night he and his mom got into that awful fight. Little did either of them know, it would be their last.

He remembers how the house looked so bright with all the holiday lights... but he barely remembered the details as he stormed through the house, picking up his clothes from all over the house and stuffing them in a backpack as Emily followed, screaming at him in a way that made Luke's anger rise in a way it never had before.

And despite it having been 25 years for everyone else... for him, this was the first year he'd be celebrating Christmas away from his parents since his death. Ever since Julie gave his parents Unsaid Emily, he'd felt more at peace in regards to his relationship with them, but nevertheless, with it being his first anniversary of running away, even 25 years later, it still stung as though it had just happened.

He also knew that it had to be a good holiday, as it would be the first he and the boys would be spending with Julie. They were a family, especially after everything they'd been through. He was grateful for that. But it didn't ease the pain of the memory of that night.

"Dude, are you even listening?"

Luke was brought out of his thoughts by Alex. They were in the middle of band practice, and he hadn't even realized they'd stopped playing, but each of his bandmates were looking at him curiously.

"Uh yeah, yeah I was listening."

Alex glanced at Reggie, giving him a knowing look, and then looked back at Luke. "Then what were we talking about?" he questioned.

Luke scratched the back of his head nervously. "We were talking about...how I need to pay better attention in practice?"

Julie smirked, raising an eyebrow at him. "Close, but we were talking about our gig at Eats and Beats coming up. Remember?"

"Oh yeah." Luke twisted his guitar behind him. "Right, of course."

None of them seemed convinced, but they went on talking. How could he forget? Julie and the Phantoms were set to have their first holiday performance at Eats and Beats. It was a little cheesier than Luke would've liked, but it would be wicked publicity.

"Does this mean we'll have to do...what did you call it, Julie? Samples?" Reggie asked, furrowing his brow in confusion.

Julie shook her head fondly at him. "Not exactly. We can cover songs though, you know, like play our own version of another song?"

"That doesn't sound very much like us," Alex said.

"Maybe not, but if nothing else Flynn thinks it'll help us get noticed, especially around this time of year," Julie said.

"I bet you and Luke doing a duet would definitely help us get noticed," Reggie said excitedly. "What if you guys wrote your own Christmas song?"

They all turned to Luke again, Julie looking at him hesitantly. "Uh...I don't know. Luke, are you up for that?" she asked.

"Hm? Oh uh, I don't know. Christmas songs aren't exactly rock and roll," Luke said.

A look Luke hadn't seen before flickered across Julie's face, but before he could get a read on it, it disappeared as she looked down and played random notes on her keyboard. "Yeah...I haven't been feeling very inspired lately. Maybe we could try to sit down and write sometime?"

"Sure, yeah, that's fine," Luke said, shrugging off his guitar and placing it on it's stand. "Is that it for today?"

Once again, all three of them gave him curious looks, which made Luke incredibly uneasy. "Dude, are you sure you're okay?" Reggie asked.

"Yeah I'm totally fine," Luke said, backing out of the studio, only to trip over an amp.

His bandmates all jumped, confused as to how he could've even tripped over something solid instead of passing right through it.

Luke stood up awkwardly, grinning sheepishly. "Sorry, I'll just..." Before he could finish his sentence he poofed out.

"What's his deal?" Reggie asked, as they all stared at the spot they last saw Luke.

"It probably has something to do with his parents," Alex responded, coming out from behind the drums.

"His parents? But we already gave them Unsaid Emily. Is there something else that happened?" Julie asked, looking back and forth between the boys.

"It was around this time last year - I mean, twenty five years ago that Luke left home," Alex explained.

"He ran away before Christmas?" Julie asked in disbelief. "His parents were that bad?"

Alex and Reggie exchanged a look, but it was Alex who finally spoke again. "It's not our story to tell."

Julie looked down at her lap, playing with the hem of her mom's sweater nervously.

"We're sorry, Julie. We don't mean to keep secrets, it's just that... Luke doesn't like talking about his parents," Reggie said, and Julie could tell he sounded sincere.

"Trust me, I get it," she said, looking back up at the boys. "I just wish there was something we could do to help him."

Luke stood in front of his parents house, peeking into the window, even though he knew no one could see house was barely decorated for the season, a huge contrast to his childhood memories. Luke remembered his mom going all out every year, starting to put up decorations the day after Thanksgiving. But now, his parents sat in the same arm chairs by the fire that they did the night the police came to the house. A fire was burning in the fireplace, but from what he could see through the window, there wasn't a single Christmas decoration in sight. He wondered if his parents even knew what day it was. Did they still remember all these years later the day that he left?

"Luke?"

The sound of his name made him jump, as he turned toward the sound. Alex and Reggie stood behind him, looking hesitant. It was Alex who spoke.

Luke furrowed his brow, about to tell off his friends for following him again, but as soon as he opened his mouth, Alex cut him off.

"Look, we know we shouldn't have followed you. We know how hard this is for you and we wouldn't be here if it wasn't important."

"What is it?" Luke asked looking back and forth between his friends. Reggie and Alex looked at each other, which only made Luke frustrated. "What?"

"We want to talk," Reggie said.

"About what?" Luke couldn't help the edge in his voice. Normally he wasn't one to get worked up about anything, but the one time he wanted privacy was when it came to his parents and he knew Reggie and Alex knew that.

Alex rolled his eyes. "You know about what. We know what today is. Don't you get it yet? We're your friends, your band. We want to be here for you, Luke."

"Yeah man, we just want to help," Reggie said gently. "We know how hard it is to carry a load with your parents. But keeping it bottled up won't help."

"I don't know what you guys are talking about, I'm fine -"

"Yeah okay, we know you're not fine and we've tried to be respectful and let you come to us but clearly that's not happening," Alex fired back at him. "You've been acting weird for days, you get distracted in practice, and that's not like you."

"And you always jump at the chance to do anything with Julie but today in practice it almost seemed like...you rejected her," Reggie added.

Reggie's revelation hit Luke like a slap across the face. "Rejected her? I would never... I just... Christmas is complicated, you know that."

"Yeah, we do, and even though Julie seems to be the best at figuring you out, there's no way for her to understand that unless you talk to her," Alex told him.

Luke looked back into the window of his parents' house, suddenly the lack of Christmas decorations glaringly obvious. He turned to face his friends, shoving his hands in his flannel jacket, staring at the ground. "The last memory I have of Christmas was being angry with my parents. You know how big of a deal Christmas used to be, and now they barely celebrate." He shrugged half heartedly. "I feel like it's my fault."

"But you gave them Unsaid Emily right?" Reggie reasoned. "You got to tell them how you felt."

"That also wasn't that long ago," Alex added. He had always been the best at considering others' feelings. "They could still be processing all of that. But that's not your fault, Luke. It's okay to have these feelings, but you don't have to deal with them alone."

Luke paused, seemingly to contemplate what his friends were saying. He knew they were right and although he was annoyed that they had followed him, as per usual, they only did it because they cared about him. "I know that now. Thanks guys."

"Okay now there's something else," Alex said, his expression changing from sympathetic to something Luke couldn't read. Why was everyone doing that him lately?

"What is it?"

"Okay but don't freak out," Reggie said, putting his hands up as if to prepare himself for a possible outburst.

Alex threw his head back and groaned, his tolerance for Reggie clearly wearing thin. "You realize that by telling him not to freak out, it'll make him freak out, right?"

"Guys, what is it?" Luke asked, the panic rising in his voice.

"Okay, but you actually need to calm down, because if you're freaked out, you won't be able to help Julie," Alex said. "So if you could just... take a deep breath and chill for a second?"

Luke took a deep breath, mostly for himself as his annoyance with his best friends flared up again. How could he help Julie if they kept stalling? "Okay. I'm chill."

"It's Julie," Reggie said hesitantly.

"Flynn came into the studio asking for our help," Alex explained. "I guess after practice, Julie and her family came into the studio and she had a panic attack."

"What happened? Is she okay?" Luke asked, his previous annoyance melting away.

"We weren't there when it happened, but Flynn said she locked herself in her room and won't come out, so she asked if we could try to get through to her," Reggie said.

"Boys, you really should have led with that," Luke said. Before they could stall him any further, he poofed away.

"Julie. Hey Julie? Are you awake?"

Luke tentatively stepped closer to Julie's sleeping form curled up on her bed. There was a tiny voice in the back of his head saying something about this is exactly what Julie meant about "boundaries" but he'd never listened to it before, so he figured why start now? "Jules?" he said a little louder this time.

Julie stirred slightly. Luke watched as she rolled onto her back. "Luke...boundaries..." she mumbled, putting a pillow over her head.

He couldn't help the goofy grin that spread across his face. "Julie Molina, I happen to know that you love it when I don't respect boundaries."

She moved the pillow off of her face and sat up slowly. "That is the last time I ever share anything with you." She reached over and turned on the light next to her bed. "Is everything okay?"

"Yeah, yeah, I've just been thinking..."

Julie nodded encouragingly to get him to continue.

"Earlier in practice today... I know I was acting weird, and I was distracted, and I don't want you to think I don't want to write a Christmas song with you it's just -"

"Luke, I get it," she interrupted him. "You don't have to explain it to me."

"No, but I want to," he said. He paused, watching as Julie patted the space on her bed next to her. He obliged to the silent invitation, looking directly at her now. "When I was a kid, Christmas was my favorite holiday."

"Mine too," she said, grinning slightly.

"My parents used to go all out. My mom would decorate the house, we'd get up early to open presents, Alex and Reggie would come over...it was the best day of the year," Luke explained. "But then...right when Sunset Curve was starting to take off, my parents and I didn't get along so easy anymore. And the night my mom and I got into a big fight was right before Christmas."

Julie cautiously reached out her hand to place over his own. He knew that she understood the feeling of missing someone around the holidays. It was part of the reason he wanted to talk to her about it.

"It was 25 years ago today that I ran away from home. But it feels like it only just happened to me. And when I left practice today..." He swallowed his words, not realizing how much it affected him. "I went to my parents' house again. And the house is barely decorated. Alex and Reggie say it's not my fault but I can't shake the feeling that it is."

She leaned toward him and he could swear the only time they'd ever been this close was when they sang together. "They're right, it's not. You've said everything you could, Luke. What they do with that is up to them." When he didn't respond she went on, "Someone once told me that it's always okay to miss people we love."

A small grin flickered across his face.

"Is there anything you feel like you still need to say?"

Luke pressed his lips together, looking down at Julie's blankets. He shook his head. "Not really, no."

"Then that's all you can do right now. You have every right to miss them, but not to feel guilty. Maybe your parents just need to work through the rest of that by themselves."

"Thanks Julie," he said quietly.

"Of course." She gave him a soft smile that made his not-beating heart flutter in his chest.

"Sorry to wake you up after such a heavy day," he said sheepishly, glancing around her room. He knew that it had been a long day for them both, but sometimes it was at night that he did his best thinking.

"Hey," she said, squeezing his hand to refocus his attention. He looked back at her immediately. "It's okay, Luke. I'm glad you felt like you could talk to me. You said you'll always be there for me right? Well I'm always here for you too."

Before either of them could say anything else, Reggie poofed in, making them both jump apart. "Were any of you listening when I gave you the speech about boundaries?" Julie asked, holding a hand over her heart in surprise.

"Sorry to interrupt, but your presence is requested in the studio at this time," Reggie said, shooting them both a smile before poofing out again.

Julie gave Luke an amused look. "Do you know anything about this?"

"I am just as clueless as you are," Luke said, shaking his head. A mischievous grin slowly spread across his face. "Wanna find out what they're up to together?"

A/N-So uh... let me know if you guys want another chapter? But the next chapter will be the LAST. (In this story ;))