Work Text:
Julie let out a groan as she tugged her duvet all the way over her head. She buried her head into her pillow and let out scream after scream, each somehow making her feel worse than she already felt before.
“Julie, can we come in?” Luke’s voice called from outside the door.
Great. The last thing she wanted to see right now was the super cute boy who she totally did not have a crush on.
“Please, just talk to us!” Alex's voice pleaded.
“We do stupider stuff than this on a daily basis!” Reggie squeaked. “Promise! It’s nothing to be embarrassed about!”
“Go away!” Julie’s muffled voice cried into her pillow. “I’m never leaving my room ever again!”
There was a long pause.
“That seems a bit dramatic,” Alex’s finally remarked dryly.
“Yeah, what about when you need to eat?” Reggie asked. “Are you never going to eat pizza ever again?”
Her stomach growled at the thought of food, reminding her that she never actually ate dinner after the whole horrible incident happened. Reggie might have had a point.
“Obviously, you’ve got us for the food thing,” Luke pointed out. “We’ll bring you whatever you need. I totally get you need some time to yourself right now, but we just want to make sure you’re okay.”
“Yeah, it’s really not as bad as it seems,” Alex echoed.
She squeezed her eyes shut as replayed Carlos laughing her head off and even her dad biting back a smirk, clearly unable to help but to be amused by the incident. If that’s how her own flesh and blood was reacting, Julie couldn’t imagine what everyone at school thought. She was probably trending on TikTok by now!
“It is that bad!” Julie exclaimed. “My life is over!”
“Thaaaaattttt’s going a bit far,” Alex shot sarcastically.
“Please Julie!” Luke pleaded again. Julie knew there was only going to be so long he asked nicely before he poofed right in. “We just want to be there for you.”
“How can you not want like a billion cuddles right now, at the least?” Reggie chimed in.
These ghosts were going to be the death of her.
But they really did sound understanding and, truthfully, she did want like a billion cuddles right now. With a sigh of defeat, Julie got up and shuffled over to her door to let the ghosts in.
To her surprise, not only did they all look genuinely concerned and sympathetic, but Reggie was holding a huge teddy bear for her, Alex was proudly holding out his pink hoodie and Luke had a handful of flowers and chocolate bars.
“If it’s not really that bad why are you guys acting like you’re visiting me on my death bed?” She joked.
“Again, a biiiiittttttt too far,” Alex grumbled.
She managed to offer them all a grateful smile. Clearly, they really were trying and it was actually super sweet that they were so desperate to cheer her up. Reaching out, Julie took the dahlias from Luke and breathed in the familiar sweet scent.
“I know they remind you of your mom,” Luke told her gently, “and I know your mom would tell you that it’s going to be okay.”
Her heart skipped beats as she realized Luke really put thought into this and truly wanted to make her feel better.
“Thanks, Luke.”
He threw her a soft smile, his eyes twinkling in a way that really did make her feel safe and better.
Reggie presented her the bear next.
“I stole this from a hospital gift shop!” He announced proudly. Alex gaped at him and shook his head.
“What makes me think Willie had something to do with this?” He sighed.
“I did all the stealing all on my own,” Reggie assured him. He grimaced and confessed: “Okay, so Willie stole me the money from this jerk who goes to the Ghost Club so I could leave it at the cash register. That…kind of makes it okay, right? Cause I feel a little bad."
Alex patted his back sympathetically.
"You're just not a thief at heart Reg," Alex told him. "It's not a bad thing. Unlike my boyfriend, the heathen."
Reggie made a whimpering sound.
"I thought I could play Robin Hood with Willie," he mumbled.
Julie swooped forward, giving both the bear and Reggie a big hug.
“I think that sounds okay, and I love it!” Julie promised him. “Does the bear have a name?”
The bassist’s face scrunched up in deep contemplation, like it was the most important task ever, while the guys watched him in fascination.
“How about…Mr. Bear?” Reggie offered, beaming.
“I bet it took you all day to come up with that one,” Alex teased.
“It did, actually.”
Shaking his head now, Alex handed her his pink hoodie.
“My contribution is my favorite hoodie,” Alex told her; he explained: “It has magical healing powers.”
“It does!” Reggie confirmed, nodding feverishly. “Luke wore it for a week after Lacy Boston stood him up for our big group date night at the pier.”
Her heart skipped beats at thinking of sad, heartbroken Luke wearing this same hoodie for comfort. Also, she wanted to strangle whatever idiot girl in the 90s actually stood up someone as pure, talented, sweet and cute as Luke. Her eyes flickered up to meet the guitarist’s, who blushed.
“And you wore it after coming home from the hospital after trying to fix your amp in the rain.”
“See!” Reggie pointed at him, jumping up and down. “We do stupid stuff all the time!”
Alex just shook his head solemnly.
Sighing again, Julie led them into her room. She sat the flowers in the vase by the window, the bear on her bed and chocolate on her nightstand so she could slip Alex’s hoodie over her ‘Everything Was A Dream’ t-shirt. If only today was just a dream.
“Yeahhhhhhh, but when you guys did stupid stuff in school you didn’t get it spread on social media for the whole world to know about.”
“True,” Luke muttered. With the pink hoodie securely on, Julie climbed back into bed and pulled the bear into her lap. “The internet is a cruel and scary place. And why does it have to track you everywhere?"
“And we thought slam books were bad,” Alex sighed.
Julie frowned, not familiar with the term.
“What were slam books?” She asked.
Luke angrily crossed his arms as he kicked out at the floor and even Reggie fell quiet, paling as he looked away.
“They were basically notebooks people would share to write awful things about people they hated,” Alex explained.
“Sunset Curve had multiple slam books dedicated to them,” Luke admitted. His hand flew to his neck, rubbing it nervously.
Reggie shivered at the memory, crossing his arms, and Julie knew when he didn’t chime in that for the bassist, silence spoke volumes. Her heart sank.
“That’s horrible,” she muttered.
“Yeah, it was,” Alex mumbled, “but social media is also pretty terrifying. Anyone can make a mistake and not even ever realize it and the whole world sees it.”
“I still don’t think what happened was that bad,” Luke offered.
“I accidentally went live while I was in the bathroom!” Julie exclaimed. “How is that not that bad?!”
The drummer held out a finger, pausing thoughtfully for a moment before pointing out:
“Maybe this could be an important lesson on not using your phone while on the toilet. That seems gross.”
“And it’s not the end of the world. It's not like any one saw nothing,” Luke added.
There was that, at least. She had really just been hiding in the bathroom to get a break from the chaos that was rehearsals with the guys before the chaos that would be dinner with her family and the guys haunting along. No one saw or heard anything, the camera mostly was pointed up at the ceiling, but still.
“I WAS SINGING!” She exclaimed. “I was singing ‘Girls Just Wanna Have Fun' and went live on Instagram while in the bathroom!”
Right on cue, the guys all bit back amused grins, unable to help themselves.
“Okay, I can easily think of at least a hundred more embarrassing songs than that you could have been singing,” Luke pointed out, “for example, anything country.”
“Yeah, nothing is as embarrassing as the number of times Reggie sang ‘Achy Breaky Heart’ at karaoke,” Alex chimed in.
“Hey!” Reggie whined, cheeks reddening as he stuffed his hands into his tight jeans. “Billy Ray Cyrus was and is a songwriting genius, thank you very much!”
“’You can tell my arms go back to the farm’,” Luke sang with an exaggerated country accident, “’you can tell my feet to hit the floor’.”
“Absolute songwriting genius he was,” Alex grinned.
“Or you can tell my lips to tell my fingertips,” Luke kept singing, “they won't be reaching out for you no more!”
Still red-faced, the bassist was bouncing with excitement at his old favorite song and gave in, even though Luke was clearly making fun of him, and joined in:
“But don't tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, I just don't think he'd understand! And if you tell my heart, my achy breaky heart, he might blow up and kill this man!”
Alex hung his head, stuffing his hands into his pockets now.
“I might just blow up and kill this man,” Alex muttered.
“Jokes on you, I’m already dead,” Reggie grinned.
He spun around to Luke, and the two of them actually started line dancing as they finished singing the song...until they accidentally tripped over each other’s feet and fell to the ground.
“See!” Alex waved his hands toward them. “These two do more embarrassing stuff on a daily basis than you could in a lifetime.”
The other two guys just glared at him, but she couldn’t help but to grin, knowing Alex was right. Reggie and Luke both jumped up and stood up straighter, the bassist brushing off his flannel.
“I mean, you’re talking to the three guys that died by hotdog,” Reggie pointed out, moving along. “Now that’s embarrassment.”
Making a face, Alex blushed a bit himself as he said:
“My boyfriend, the love of my afterlife’s, nickname for me is literally Hotdog because my death was that embarrassing.”
“True...” she admitted.
Alex nodded toward the pink hoodie she was wearing. “And have I ever told you the story behind this pink hoodie?”
Julie shook her head. She always assumed maybe it was a gift from the guys and that’s why it was so special. Alex was eyeing the bed like he really wanted to sit next to her, and Julie patted the mattress, signaling that it was okay for the guys to join her. Grinning, Reggie wasted no time jumping into bed beside her and wrapping his arms around her middle, while Luke cuddled up to her and placed a kiss to her shoulder. She practically melted at the touch, more than grateful the guys were corporal now. Alex sat in front of her, holding a hand out to rest on the arm of the hoodie.
“That hoodie used to be white,” Alex finally confessed. Her eyes went wide with surprise. “I accidentally dyed my half of my wardrobe pink.”
Her eyes went wide as she bit back a laugh; she could just imagine Alex’s face when he realized what happened. No wonder he had so many pink socks.
"No you did not!" She cried.
"He absolutely did," Luke laughed as he clasped his friend's shoulders.
“It’s one of my all-time favorite stories,” Reggie teased, earning a playful slap on the leg from Alex.
“So pink isn’t just your color?” She asked.
“Nope,” he shook his head, grinning like an idiot.
“Wow,” she breathed, imagining how mortified she’d be if she did something like that. Yet, Alex wore his pink hoodie with pride- and it had its magical healing powers.
The guys all giggled and cuddled in closer to hold her.
“You know how many times I accidentally started singing the wrong song on stage?” Luke asked her. “Too many!”
Now it was her turn to giggle again.
“Yeah, you do do that a lot.”
“Bright and Great are musically similar!” He whined. She just giggled more, knowing they really weren’t that similar of songs. Luke just got…a bit exicted…when they practice them and got ahead of himself. His eyes were shining as he looked over to her, and Julie knew right then that she wasn’t alone. And she definitely wasn’t the stupidest person ever. “We all do stupid stuff. And your dad felt really bad when you raced upstairs, I promise. He wasn’t making fun of you.”
“No, he wasn’t,” Reggie agreed. “Your family is the best. They’re laughing with you, not at you.”
Julie glared at him.
“I’m literally not laughing!”
Reggie just shrugged.
“Maybe you should,” he offered. He walked over to get her laptop from her desk and handed it to her. “Watch the video with us.”
She closed her eyes tight as she accepted the laptop, knowing she was going to regret this. But she looked each of them in the eye and could see that each of them were promising her it was going to be okay. Drawing in a deep breath, Julie opened the laptop and pulled up the desktop version of Instagram; even though she immediately deleted the live from her page, it was already been shared a bunch by everyone in school.
Throwing caution to the wind, Julie dared to reach out and hit the space bar to play it.
And…it was the most ridiculous video she had ever seen of herself. She couldn't help but to laugh, and the guys all looked pleased with themselves. For starters, it was much shorter than she remembered, only a whole twenty seconds was live before she had realized it.
“You know,” Julie considered, “I kinda sound pretty damn good singing that song. It had been stuck in my head all morning.”
“Yeah you do!” Reggie cheered. “You gotta own your awesomeness, Julie.”
The guys all exchanged glances, biting back grins like they were sharing an inside joke.
“And sometimes, you just gotta laugh at yourself,” Alex smiled.
“Because we all do stupid stuff,” Luke said again, “and the most important thing is you absolutely killed that song and the whole world saw it! This could be a great break for us!”
The rest of them groaned as Luke summoned his guitar. Somehow, she wasn’t surprised at all that he was able to somehow tie this back into their music.
“Okay, so it’s already trending right?” Luke pointed out. He flashed them all a toothy grin. “So why don’t we just say we’ve been rehearsing a wicked acoustic cover all day, and that’s why you were singing it. You just took a simple bathroom break in the middle of rehearsal and accidentally went live.”
The guys both looked excited about the idea- and she knew how much Alex loved Cyndi Lauper. If this could be one of their regular covers, he’d be so excited. And the song really did show off her vocal chops.
“Go on live again!” Reggie encouraged her.
“At the least, show the world you can laugh at yourself,” Alex told her. “Something tells me that’s going to be a key skill for being famous in the 21st century.”
She thought about for a long moment. Truthfully, the last thing she wanted to do was show her face to the world right now, but Luke’s cover story and Alex’s wise words did make perfect sense.
“Okay!” She finally agreed, earning cheers from the guys. “Imma tell Flynn I’ve got damage control down. Low key concerned she's trying to find a way to bring down all of Instagram in order to take care of it. And Luke, you should sing the first verse. I’ll jump in.”
“Got it, Boss!”
Julie retrieved her phone from the closet and managed to ignore all of the texts and notifications as she set it up to film. The guys could control when they were visible better now, though playing together always helped make them stronger; she was relieved when their smiling faces showed up in the recording on her phone.
“Hey world!” Julie greeted awkwardly. “So funny story, we were actually rehearsing this amazing cover of this classic when I took a restroom break and all of that went down. Clearly…I’m an idiot.” In a leap of faith, she remembered the guys singing Achy Breaky Heart and sang the line in her own southern accent: “’You can tell your friends just what a fool I've been and laugh and joke about me on the phone’ or we can all just admit that we all make stupid mistakes sometimes. This wasn’t exactly how I pictured today going, but I thought you all might want to hear the actual version we’ve been working on.”
“Major shout out to Cyndi Lauper, musical genius and gay icon,” Alex cut in. Reggie threw fingerguns at the camera while Luke was just beaming from ear to ear as he started playing the familiar chords.
The new video went viral overnight while the old video got permanetely removed thanks to Willie's ghost technology magic. The band even earned the attention of Cyndi Lauper herself, who applauded their version of the song. Not only had Julie aced the vocals, the guys all took turns singing their own lines (with Alex singing about boys, of course) and they harmonized with her too, showing off their skills in a way they hadn’t yet as a band.
By the end of the week, everyone at school was “accidentally going live” in embarrassing situations in attempts to go viral too.