Luke was having a hard time gauging Julie's reaction to his song for just one gasp. He was expecting her to say something, or as a question, or something.

He was not expecting her to run out of the studio.

He ran out after her, calling, "Julie! Julie, wait!" But, to no avail. Once he put down the guitar and ran out of the studio, Julie was gone.

As he walked back into the studio, he decided that giving her space was probably the best idea right now. He kinda dropped a bomb on her and she probably needed a minute.

He pulled out his phone.

Luke: Hey, jules, if u wanna talk let me know

He sent the text, then instantly wondered if he shouldn't have. He sat there waiting for her to say something, anything, but no text came. Even an 'I don't like you like that leave me alone' would have been better than this.

There was only one word to describe how Julie was feeling right now - shocked. Luke liked her back? It wasn't possible.

She picked up her phone and stared at the text Luke sent, her brain unable to comprehend what he even sang in that song, let alone draft a text to him.

She thought back to the song. We say we're friends, we play pretend? I've never known a love so real? Did he really write those lyrics about her?

Eventually, Luke gave up staring at his phone and moved on to doing other things, mostly because he had band practice with the guys in five minutes and he didn't want to be thinking about Julie the entire time. He was gonna have a hard time with that, though.

Bobby and Alex got there on time, and Reggie was late, per usual. Luke always said his perpetual lateness would get better with age, but it just got worse, especially since he and his wife had kids. He just couldn't keep track of time.

Luke laid out a few new songs on the piano. "Here's some new stuff I wrote. Which ones do you guys wanna do?"

The boys looked over the songs, but it didn't take Reggie long to mock, "Ooh, what's this?" and pick up a song. Luke looked over his shoulder and saw that it was Perfect Harmony, the song he wrote for Julie.

"That's nothing," Luke said, trying to grab it from Reggie's hand, but he lifted it above his head where Luke couldn't get it.

Alex took it from Reggie's hand, and Bobby and Reggie looked over Alex's shoulder as they all read it.

"Oooh, our Lukie's in looooooove." Alex singsonged.

"Yeah, yeah," Luke said, grabbing again at the paper again, and failing from taking it from Alex's grasp.

"Who's it about?" Bobby smirked.

"None of your business," Luke replied, trying to grab the paper and failing for the third time.

"C'mon, tell us." Reggie tried. "We always told you about the girls we liked."

Alex cleared his throat.

"And guys." Reggie revised.

"Yeah, not this time," Luke said, finally succeeding at grabbing the paper back.

"Luke, we never hide things from each other." Alex pointed out. "That's why this works."

"Yeah, I know," Luke said. "I'll tell you at some point, but not right now."

"C'mon dude, just tell us. What's the big deal?" Bobby asked.

"Fine, but you can't tell anyone," Luke emphasized.

"We won't, we promise," Alex said.

"Well, he promises." Reggie joked, and Luke shot him a dirty look. "Fine, I promise."

Luke took a deep breath. "It's Julie."

"Julie?" They all asked at the same time.

"Like, Julie Molina? Lives in that house right behind us Julie?" Reggie asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Luke sighed.

"Please tell me you didn't sing this to her," Alex begged.

"I did." Luke sighed, rubbing his hands over his face. "I did, and she didn't say anything after. She just ran out."

"Dude, she's twenty-two." Bobby pointed out.

"I know that, don't you think I know that?" Luke snapped, then immediately said, "Sorry."

All three of them looked at him sympathetically.

"You can't pursue this, Luke," Alex said.

"Too late," Luke said, sitting down on the couch. Bobby, Alex, and Reggie all started whispering, and he knew they were talking about him, but he couldn't bring himself to care at the time.

"What am I gonna do?" He asked, standing up.

None of them said anything, just stared, but not at him, at the door. Luke turned around.

"Julie." He said as his eyes fell on her face, and he couldn't keep himself from smiling. She turned to leave, but Luke said, "Please don't leave, I want to talk."

She nodded, and they both walked outside to the driveway, and Luke turned to his bandmates before walking out the door and said, "Please don't listen in. I need this to be private." Alex nodded, and Alex knew he would make sure Bobby and Reggie obeyed his wishes.

He closed the door behind him as he left the studio. They stood about five feet apart. He smiled as his eyes fell on Julie, and she saw a small smile cross her face as their eyes met for a moment, then she dropped her gaze to the ground. Luke wanted to take that smile as a good sign, but he didn't know if she should or not.

She took a deep breath, then said, "I just... don't know what to do."

"What do you mean?" Luke asked, trying to keep his emotions in check.

"I've had a crush on you since as long as I can remember." Just explained, and Luke's heart soared. "But it was a childhood crush. And, Luke, you're twenty-five years older than me. That's a lot of time. That song was amazing, but, I don't think we can really ever act on this."

Luke took a step closer to Julie, and said, "Julie, age is just a number. I'm crazy about you. I really wanna try this and see where it goes."

"I understand, Luke, but I'm twenty-two years old. I'm still in college. There's so much I want to do with my life! And you're almost fifty! You and I... as much as I'm crazy about you, too, I just don't see it working."

"First of all, I'm only forty-seven. We're not bringing up fifty until I actually am fifty." Luke insisted, and Julie giggled half-heartedly. He took another step towards her. "And, Julie, everything you want to do, I want to do it with you. I can't picture my life without you."

Julie smiled a little bit and closed the distance between them by grabbing his hand. "Ok, we can try this, just so long as you promise to sing me that song again."

"I promise." He smiled.