28 | SHE

                                    

                                          
     WHEN JULIE ARRIVED home, she wasn't exactly expecting to see Hayden sat on her bed humming some words with her guitar and an open note book.
"Hey." Julie spoke, making the ghost spin around.
"Hey, Princess." She smiled. "How was school?"
Julie shrugged and put her bag down, joining the ghost on the bed. "It was fine, Flynn gave me a great idea to repay Luke and you for all your help. Speaking of which, could you help me with Luke's?"
Hayden nodded. "What do you need?"
"That song, about his mom, I want to take it to her."
"And you want me to get it for you?"
Julie nodded. "If you don't mind."
"Of course, I don't." Hayden stood, her guitar disappearing. "But I still want to show you my improved song."
"I know." Julie smiled. "You can show me when I get home."
Hayden nodded and left for a brief moment, poofing back into the room with the paper that held Luke's song. Julie went over to the Patterson home to give it to Luke's mom but she wasn't exactly expecting Luke to be there at the same time. She gave them the song, hearing Luke sing it brought everyone in the home to tears.
When Julie came home, Luke thanked her. This was what he wanted to do with his mom before he died but it never happened and would have never happened if it wasn't for Julie. The Molina girl wiped her eyes and went up to her room, once again seeing Hayden on her bed.
Before Hayden could say anything, Julie sat on her bed and tucked one of her pillows into her arms. "Okay, I wanna hear the song."
A little shocked she was just put on the spot, Hayden fumbled slightly, trying to flick to the right page. When she did, she took a deep breath and began to play.
"Am I allowed to look at her like that?
Could it be wrong
When she's just so nice to look at?
And she smells like lemongrass and sleep
She tastes like apple juice and peach
Oh, you would find her in a Polaroid picture
And she...
Means everything to me
Oh, oh
I'd never tell
No, I'd never say a word
And oh, it aches
But it feels oddly good to hurt."
Hayden looked at Julie, she was staring right at the girl, love in her eyes as she sang. Julie couldn't help but think of the dream she had of dancing with Hayden, but now imagining this song instead of Perfect Harmony, that song currently sat in her dream box.
"And she smells like lemongrass and sleep
She tastes like apple juice and peach
Oh, you would find her in a Polaroid picture
And she...
Means everything to me
Oh-oh (ooh, ooh), ooh-oh
Oh-oh (ooh, ooh), ooh-oh
And I'll be okay
Admiring from afar
'Cause even when she's next to me
We could not be more far apart
And she tastes like birthday cake and story time and fall
But to her
I taste of nothing at all."
Hayden noticed that Julie had moved slightly closer to her during the song, the two had yet to break eye contact.
"And she smells like lemongrass and sleep
She tastes like apple juice and peach
Oh, you would find her in a Polaroid picture
And she...
Means everything to me
Yes, she means everything to me
She means everything to me."
As the song came to a close, Julie smiled at Hayden. "I loved it."
"Really?"
She nodded. "Its really beautiful, Hayden. Is-Is it about me?"
Hayden blushed. "Uh, yeah. Julie, I really like you."
Julie went to grab Hayden's hand but her smile fell when her hand slipped straight through the ghost girl's hand. The two sighed and sat in a few moments of silence.
"This is an interesting little relationship you and I have." Hayden joked.
Julie chuckled lightly. "Oh my gosh, I almost forgot to tell you. Flynn said that the video my dad made is trending on YouTube. People love our music. We'll definitely be getting calls from managers now."
Hayden sighed softly, her own smile disappearing. "There's something I have to tell you."
"Oh, okay."
"We figured out that we have unfinished business. That's why we came back as ghosts."
Julie nodded. "Oh. What is it?"
"We have to play the show we never got to play."
"At the Orpheum? That makes sense."
Julie jumped when Hayden let out a loud hiss of pain when another jolt hit her, making her fall off the bed and land on her hands and knees. Hayden held her stomach, as if she had a stomach ache and groaned. Julie quickly kneeled beside her as she sat up.
"We don't have a lot of time." Hayden sighed.
"What was that?" Julie asked. "Are you okay?"
"We did something we shouldn't have, Julie. The night we missed the dance, we met this ghost, and he put this curse on us. And if we don't do what he says, then those jolts will destroy us."
"Well then you gotta do what he says." Julie said. "What does he want?"
Hayden looked down. "He wants us to be in his house band for eternity. But if we can play the Orpheum soon, then we can avoid all that and actually cross over."
"Cross over?" Julie questioned. "As in, like what? Like go to heaven?"
"That's what we're banking on."
"So, it's either you cross over, be in his house band for eternity, or be destroyed by these jolts?"
Hayden nodded slowly. "Yeah."
Julie sighed, her eyes tearing up. "That's just great. Please leave."
"Julie."
"Please." She said, her voice breaking slightly.
Hayden nodded and poofed out of the room, joining her band mates in the studio. Luke saw how his best friend was, her eyes red, and hugged her tightly. She didn't want to cry but the way Julie looked when she found out, broke her heart. Hayden told the boys that Julie now knew, they understood what that meant and that Julie would probably be acting slightly different towards them as she knew their last days were coming up.
The band stayed in the studio until Julie herself walked in. "Snap out of it!"
Alex, who had been trying to balance his drum stick on his face, jumped and fell from the couch, almost crushing Hayden in the process.
"Jeez." Reggie said. "I think you broke Alex.
"Do you guys want to cross over or what?" She watched as Luke and Hayden helped Alex back into the couch. "Get it together!"
"They're never gonna let us play the Orpheum." Luke sighed.
"We're nobody." Alex agreed.
"We're less than nobody." Reggie added. "We have no bodies."
"Someone once told me that you don't ask for permission. You book gigs by doing." Julie spoke, looking at Hayden, who smiled.
"That was me."
Hayden looked at Reggie and shook her head. "No, it wasn't."
"Yes, it was."
Julie continued. "This isn't over. We were brought together for a reason: to help each other."
Alex sighed. "But like Luke said, people don't just play the Orpheum because they want to."
"People don't." Julie said. "But ghosts do."