yay! there's finally a julie and the phantoms option! hope you all enjoy bc i'm about to post all of my stories at once lmao

please enjoy this!

When Caleb's curse was broken, and Luke could finally touch Julie, he thought that everything would change.

It was no secret to anyone that they had a connection; it was evident in everything they did. And after their emotional embrace when they thought it was the end, he thought nothing else could go wrong. This was where he was meant to be, with Julie and his best friends by his side.

He was wrong.

Things slowly went back to normal. They continued playing local gigs, and Luke and Julie continued writing songs together. It was different now. They could touch each other, but they weren't sure how to go about it. They mostly stuck to light touches; shoulders pressing on the piano bench, fingers brushing against each other or Luke throwing an arm around her shoulders when he got super excited about something.

It was a slow going process, but he was working on it.

Well, he was trying. But every time he made some progress, a roadblock would always come up.

Julie's new assignment in her music program included writing a song; she had to write a duet with a partner.

"A duet?" Luke snorted. "Perfect. We can write one right now."

Julie shot him an awkward smile, patting his arm so he halted on the piano keys. "No," she explained. "I have to write a duet with a partner from my class."

"Oh," Alex exclaimed, wondering why she looked so nervous. "Are we finally going to hear a Double Trouble original?"

She laughed nervously. "No," she repeated again.

"I can't be the only confused one right now," Reggie replied, "how is this conversation taking so long?"

Luke looked up at her from his position on the piano bench. "Yeah Jules, what's going on?"

"My partner is Nick!" She exclaimed in one large breath.

Alex dropped one of his drumsticks, Reggie tripped over his amp cord and Luke pressed down harshly on the piano keys, resulting in a cringe from the whole band.

It was something out of a movie, honestly.

"Oh," Luke murmured. 'Oh' is something you say when you are gifted socks, but he honestly couldn't think of anything else to say. "That sounds uh — like fun. Sounds like fun."

Alex was sharing a look with Reggie, as Julie avoided Luke's eye contact.

"Uh — when are you guys doing that?" Alex asked, trying to keep the conversation alive. It was too late; it was already way past the point of awkward.

Julie busied herself with grabbing her songbook. "He should be here soon, actually. Do you think you guys could — uh, disappear?"

Luke wasn't expecting that to hurt as much as it did.

"Uh, yeah, we can do that," he replied in a clipped tone. He moved away from the piano, grabbed his acoustic and shot a pointed look to Alex and Reggie. "Come on boys, let's disappear."

He didn't wait for a reply from Julie to poof away.

Alex shot her an apologetic smile. "Sorry. We'll catch you later."

Reggie wished her the best with the song and they both poofed away.

Julie wasn't completely clueless. She could tell that Luke was a little bit put off by her news, and while she wasn't entirely sure what that meant, she knew that wasn't normal Luke behaviour. Unfortunately, her mind was a little too preoccupied with Nick and the current song they had to write.

She was honest with Nick. She told him she had feelings for someone else, and he understood that. And now she had to write a duet with him? Most likely a love song? That just made things weird. And confusing.

But to her surprise, things actually went much better than expected.

She was used to writing songs with Luke, and only Luke; so, this was a completely new experience, but it wasn't unwelcome. Nick was fun and understanding, and didn't push her. Now that their feelings were out of the way, she could really see herself becoming great friends with Nick.

But then Luke poofed into the studio unexpectedly, and she wasn't so sure.

Julie and Nick were sitting on the piano bench, and she was playing with the keys, trying to find a suitable melody. Luke was hoping Nick would be gone by now, but instead he was faced with Nick, in his place next to Julie.

It lit a fire inside of him.

"Well, isn't this cute?" Luke exclaimed, a slight tease of sarcasm in his tone. "How's the song going?"

Julie shot him a tense smile while Nick was looking down at her fingers splayed over the piano keys.

"Oh, right," he smirked, "you can't talk to me while Nicky-poo is here, or else he'll think you're a little crazy."

Julie shook him off, focusing on the notes she was playing.

"So, what kind of song is it?" Luke was suddenly right beside her, in between her and Nick. She rolled her eyes, trying to refocus once again. "Does Nick even know how to play the piano? He looks pretty clueless."

She huffed in frustration and caught Nick's attention.

"Hey, are you okay?" He asked, looking at her in concern. Luke appeared beside him, mimicking his expression.

Julie gritted her teeth together. "Yeah, sorry, I'm fine," she explained, "I just have this horrible, annoying headache that won't seem to go away."

Luke placed a hand over his heart and pulled a frown. "That hurts, Julie," he pouted, "but not as much as this. Does he really think these are good song lyrics?" He was looking over Nick's shoulder, at the lines he'd scribbled into a notebook. "Jules, you can't be serious."

Her fingers pressed extra harshly on the keys. "Is he trying to write you a love song?" Luke gasped, crowding her space now. "Is Nicky-poo trying to express his love for you in a song? Is he really trying to do that with these lyrics? Because honestly, they're worse than Reggie's country so—"

"Oh my god!" Julie exploded, smashing down on the piano keys. The constant buzzing in her ears coming from Luke caused her to snap and within seconds, she was turning to Nick apologetically. "Oh my god," she added, softer this time, "I'm so sorry. I —"

Nick shook his head, smiling politely. "No, it's alright. I think I should go. We can meet up some other time."

Julie watched him go helplessly. "Okay — I'm sorry."

"Don't sweat it Jules, see you at school."

Luke hopped onto the piano as Nick closed the door to the garage. "Finally, he's gone! Honestly Julie, I think you can do better. Also, why is he calling you Jules? That's reserved for the band only. Oh, and Flynn."

Julie trained her murderous glare onto the boy sitting obliviously on the piano. "Luke, what the hell?"

"What?" He asked her thoughtlessly, reaching for his journal and flipping to a blank page. "We should really start on this new song; we have a show on Friday and the phantoms are expecting some new material. I think Flynn —"

"No Luke, what the hell?"

He just blinked at her.

"You knew we were writing a song! Why did you come back here?"

Luke merely shrugged. "I thought you guys were done."

"And then when you realized we weren't done, why didn't you leave?" She asked angrily. He seemed so oblivious and nonchalant; it was starting to drive her crazy.

"This was just too precious to miss," he smirked. "Plus, I figured you'd need help writing that song. No one does it like us, and his lyrics sucked."

Julie stood up from the piano bench and started pacing. "Why are you being so mean? You don't even know Nick."

"I don't need to," he shrugged, "he's clearly just into you and using this as an excuse to hit on you."

She sent him a confused look. "What are you even talking about? Nick and I are just friends!"

"Sure," he snorted, refusing to make eye contact.

Julie stopped in her tracks, turning to him with an amused, yet nervous expression. "Luke, are you — are you jealous?"

Luke's head snapped up and his hazel eyes narrowed. "Jealous?"

"Yeah, jealous!" She argued. "You showed up here when you knew I was busy with him, you insulted him I don't know how many times and you basically drove me crazy until I drove him away!"

Luke pursed his lips. "That sounds like a you problem." Julie raised an eyebrow. "I learned that from Alex. You know what else I learned? He taught me what a 'simp' is but honestly, I really don't get it —"

"Why are you changing the subject?" Julie asked in a demanding tone. She moved in front of him, where he was perched on top of the piano. "You're acting like a jealous bo—"

Luke's eyebrows raised up underneath his fringe. "Like a jealous what?"

"Like a jealous boyfriend!" Julie exploded. She threw her arms up in frustration, nearly hitting his knee.

Luke rolled his eyes and slipped around her and off the piano. "Okay, Julie," he frowned, "I am not jealous. I just have a duty to save the world from terrible lyrics."

"I was writing the song too. Are you calling my lyrics terrible?"

Luke furrowed his brows, pausing in his stride. "Wait, no. That's not what I said."

"Terrible lyrics. That's what you said."

"Yes, okay. That's what I said but not what I meant," he replied, looking extremely confused. "This conversation is getting away from me."

Julie rolled her eyes, grabbing her songbook and heading for the door. "Good, because I'm finished with it."

"Wait, wait — Julie," Luke groaned, rushing to move in front of her and block her exit. "I'm sorry; I didn't mean to upset you."

Julie pursed her lips and crossed her arms over her chest.

"Okaaaay," he dragged out, the corner of his lips quirking up nervously. "That's obviously not good enough."

He waited for her to say something and sighed when she didn't.

"Okay, yes, I was jealous," he huffed, avoiding eye contact. "I just thought — I thought you were over him and I thought there was something here. You know," he mumbled, motioning between the two of them, "between us."

"Luke," Julie sighed, "Nick and I really are just friends. He asked me out and I said no, and he's okay with that. We're solely working on our assignment."

Luke nodded, meeting her eyes in an awkward glance. "Oh."

"You have no reason to be jealous," she grinned, "you're still my favourite song writing partner."

He puffed out his chest, leaning back against the door with a charming smile. "I better be."

They spent the next moment staring into each other's eyes.

"I'm sorry I acted like an idiot," Luke apologized quietly. "Is it terrible that I want you all to myself?"

Julie rolled her eyes, attempting to mask her sudden shyness. "Not when you say it like that."

"I promise I'll be on my best behaviour for your next writing session," he replied with a cheeky smile; Julie raised an eyebrow. "Right, yes. I'll be sure to be nowhere near here."

Julie shook her head, laughing and pushing against Luke's shoulder as she walked away. It was still unusual to be able to touch him, even for little things like shoulder touches. But now that she could, it happened without her even thinking about it.

"But seriously, can we write our song now? I'm feeling extra inspired."

Julie rolled her eyes, but made her way to her seat beside him on the piano bench where he was waiting expectantly. "Why is that?"

"Because I have this thing with this really beautiful girl, and I think it's about time we wrote a proper song about it."

ahhhh!

i hope i didn't make luke too mean. he's a sweetheart, but i really wanted to make his jealousy obvious hahaha!

i really enjoyed writing this & i already have another au finished & ready to go, so stay tuned for that!

stay safe everyone!