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Julie had her eyes down as she walked into the studio, tossing her backpack against the door with a deep breath. She startled as she looked up, letting a small yell of surprise.
From their positions at the piano, couch, and loft respectively, Luke, Reggie, and Alex all froze, staring at their youngest band member with silent questions. Julie was holding a hand to her chest, taking unnecessary deep breaths.
“I swear, do you guys just live here now?” she asked with exasperation. The boys glanced at each other before shrugging and nodding a little.
“Yeah, kinda,” Reggie answered with a smile, causing Julie to roll her eyes. It wasn’t official yet, but for the past month, all four of them and Julie’s father had worked relentlessly to get Reggie emancipated from his parents. The judge’s ruling was almost definitely in their favor; they were just waiting to hear the official verdict. Reggie had already moved most of his things into what had once been the guest room, and he hadn’t had to see his parents in weeks.
“You guys didn’t tell me you were coming over today. You scared me,” she offered in explanation for her surprise.
“Julie, we have practice today,” Alex said slowly, frowning a little as he watched Julie. “You literally told us to come over.”
Realization flashed across Julie’s face, and she smiled with embarrassment. “Right. Sorry. Brain’s just kind of. . . scattered, I guess.”
She moved over to the couch, plopping down next to Reggie, who immediately threw an arm over her shoulders. It didn’t matter where they were or what they were doing, it seemed like if the band was together, at least one of them was touching one of the others.
“Are you all good, Jules?” Luke asked from where he was sitting on the grand piano bench, writing some notes and lyrics down in his notebook. Both Alex and Reggie took note of how Luke, who hadn’t paid either of them much attention at all once he’d pulled his notebook out, had his eyes fixed on Julie, his guitar pick and pen abandoned on the piano.
Julie looked stressed, tired, and tense. She ran a hand over her face as she let out a sigh, rubbing at her eyes.
Where to even start?
Objectively, the week had been fine.
Well, there was that awkward incident on Monday when she’d run directly into Carrie. Then there was that calculus test she hadn’t studied for and probably failed, which her tía Victoria was bound to find out about. Oh, and Flynn teasingly her mercilessly about eye contact and perfect smiles. Also, news had been floating around the school that Nick and Carrie had broken up, which shocked everyone . And speaking of Nick- he and his lacrosse team were now a part of her dance class! And she was paired up with him! For dancing! Because that was definitely going to go well.
The week had just been built up of little things to drive her crazy. Really, the only solace she’d had this week was the boys. When Reggie passed her notes in music class with little caricature stick figures of Luke and Alex or Flynn or Carrie or whatever Reggie thought was funny, when Alex walked from class to class with her with his arm around her shoulders and random kind words or blush-filled stories about dates with his new boyfriend- because after two months of agonizing conversations that “ yes, Alex, he clearly like you” and “dude, he was literally the one to call them dates first”, Alex and Willie were officially sickeningly infatuated boyfriends- or when Luke pressed their arms together at the lunch table, excitedly showing her some new song he’d heard on Spotify or lyrics he’d scribbled out. . . she could just ignore the rest of the week. As much as she loved Flynn, she didn’t need her best friend constantly pointing out what Julie was so blatantly attempting to ignore. If she didn’t think about writing sessions with just the two of them, or sharing microphones, or floppy hair, or flashing smiles then it wasn’t real, right? It would totally pass. Definitely pass.
The boys were all watching her with sympathetic looks, a silent support system carrying itself throughout the room. She gave them a small smile of thanks.
“I’m fine. Just stressed out from the week.”
Reggie tightened his arm around her, pulling Julie into his chest a little bit. She leaned into the embrace, breathing in the smell of leather and Old Spice that always seemed to follow the bassist around. In the months they’d known each other, Reggie had become the big brother she and Carlos had never had. She loved watching him interact with Carlos, and she knew how much he loved spending time with Ray, especially now that his parents were getting divorced and he was almost free from them. Julie and Reggie had gotten so much closer since he’d started staying with the Molinas, and she loved it. He’d moved in with them barely a week before Christmas, and both Julie and her family had practically had a heart attack when they found out he’d never been able to properly celebrate it. They’d thrown perhaps the most festive Christmas day they’d ever had- including inviting the Patterson’s over for dinner and Alex for dessert since he couldn’t get away from his parents- and it was the best holiday they’d had since they lost Julie’s mom. The religious aspect hadn’t even mattered- Reggie wasn’t Christian- but it was the feeling of family. In their minds, Reggie had become just as much of a Molina as the rest of them.
“Wanna practice?” Alex asked with a half shrug, looking at her with sympathy over her rough week. “Get your mind off things?”
She would love to say yes. Letting out a sigh, she looked at all of them apologetically. “I can’t. Since I forgot we had practice, I made plans with Nick.”
“Wait, what?” Luke piped up. “Since when do you and Nick hang out?”
Julie shot him a weird look. “We don’t. It’s for class. They decided to pair his lacrosse team with my dance class starting today, and we all had to pair up. I don’t know any of the other boys on the lacrosse team, and Nick doesn’t know the dancers, so, you know. . . partners. We’re getting together tonight to go over a routine due next week.”
Luke seemed to contemplate this for a moment before giving a short nod of his head, turning back to his music. Alex and Reggie glanced at each other with tight smiles and eyes widened to express their mutual exasperation. Julie didn’t notice, too busy giving the lead guitarist the look all three of them had come to know as “you’re being weird”, but Luke didn’t look up to see it.
“Well, how long do you guys have to be partners?” Reggie asked, silently hoping the answer might placate Luke.
“At least a few weeks,” Julie sighed out, sliding down so she was further cuddled against Reggie’s chest.
Well, that wasn’t the answer he’d been looking for. Luke was acting like he didn’t hear her answer, eyes trained on his notebook. If Julie noticed his change in mood all of the sudden, Reggie and Alex were grateful she didn’t mention it. For the amount of time the two spent together, it was impressive how clueless they could really be.
In all honesty, Julie didn’t think being Nick’s dance partner was going to be all that bad. It was just. . . weird, to say the least. She’d first met Nick in 8th grade, and to say she’d gotten a crush on him would be an understatement. For what felt like forever, she caught herself staring at him, listened to Flynn singing “Jules and Nick sitting in a tree”, and frankly, avoided any and all actual conversations with him. If she didn’t talk to him, she couldn’t make a fool of herself. Once high school started, she had had the bare minimum interactions with him, limited to music class or Carrie incidents. She’d just stood back, crushing from afar. And now? Now Julie wasn’t even sure what she felt.
One day she’d been staring at Nick from the other side of the hallway as he wrapped an arm around Carrie’s waist, and the next had a whirlwind of drums and guitars, bright happy music, and stupidly messy cute hair mixed with perfect smiles over song writing sessions crashing into her world. During dance class, when Nick had fallen over after a spin and looked up at her with laughter and kindness in his eyes, Julie knew she’d been blushing, heart skipping a beat.
Yet just sitting here in the studio, watching Luke hunch over his precious notebook with a pick in his mouth as he hummed new lyrics, Julie felt her insides go all funny. Mushy. Like she could watch him writing new songs for hours and not get bored.
Julie didn’t even want to think about what that meant.
Instead, she glanced at her phone for the time. She had just under half an hour before she had to leave again, meeting Nick at his house to go over the parts of the dance routine he didn’t know yet. Julie sighed, letting herself be engulfed by Reggie’s embrace. Alex had now joined Luke at the piano, tapping out a beat with his fingers to pair with the melody Luke was working out. Reggie called out his input every once in a while, but kept his arm around Julie’s shoulders, free hand playing idly with the litany of bracelets lining her arm. It had been an annoyingly long week, and Julie knew she was going to have to deal with it all, but she wasn’t sure her brain could even process it all right now. But this? Being with the band, listening to the wonder that was new music entering the world?
For now, this she could do.
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Julie had been at Nick’s for dance practice for an hour or so, and Alex and Reggie were just about driven nuts by Luke. He’d barely spoken a word since she left and was just sitting there on the couch, sulking. He’d write down a few lyrics, hum a light tune, and then he’d scribble out what he’d written with a ferocity that made them both think he was going to rip a whole in the notebook paper. Luke hadn’t even noticed when Reggie and Alex had gotten up from next to him on the couch and moved up into the loft. They’d tried to get him to pay attention, loudly mentioned that they were gonna go raid the Molinas’ kitchen, but Luke had just shrugged nonchalantly and kept his eyes trained on his paper. Reggie and Alex had let out deep sighs, shaking their heads at their best friend and moving up to the loft.
They stood at the railing now, leaning against it and watching Luke. Alex had his elbows resting on the top railing, chin in his hands, and Reggie was sitting on the floor, legs dangling over the edge of the loft.
“This is painful,” Alex remarked, just loud enough that Reggie would hear him but Luke wouldn’t.
“Tell me about it,” Reggie sighed.
Luke was always at least a little bit unbearable when he had a crush, but this- this was next level. Julie was barely gone for a few hours with a different guy and all Luke could seem to do was mope and be annoying. The ridiculous part was that Luke was never like this normally. He got blushy and awkward and shy and completely hopeless when he had a crush, but jealousy was something new. They were both sure the only reason Luke was really acting like this was because it was Nick.
It was no secret to any of them that Julie had a crush on Nick. Emphasis on had , although Luke didn’t seem to quite realize that part yet. Reggie and Alex had gotten a front row seat to watch both of them dancing around the other, shooting shy looks across the room when they thought the other wasn’t looking, and exchanging unnecessary touches that seemed casual and meaningless but were really just an excuse to touch each other. They’d also caught the careful look Ray gave his daughter and their best friend when he’d come into the studio to find the two of them sharing the piano bench or how they always sat next to each other when they stayed for lunch or dinner. When Alex had introduced them all to Willie, the skater had even pulled Alex aside to ask what the hell was going on with the two of them.
It seemed that everyone had figured it out except for them. So now they had Julie, their wonderful, beautiful, talented friend whom they loved with their entire beings, inevitably making herself awkward and acting like a fool in front of Nick as she danced with the guy she’d had a crush on for years. And they also had Luke, so in his head and unwilling to admit that he had a crush on Julie that he was forgetting how to function. However, as they sat here just as useless as their love-stricken friend, Reggie realized that maybe they could do something about one of those things.
He looked up at Alex from his position on the loft floor. “Alex, my dude, I’m sick of this- are you?”
Alex frowned down at him, “Um, yeah- you know I am. Why are you-”
He should have been able to read that smirk on Reggie’s face faster. He’d known him for far too long.
“Hey, Luke!” Reggie shouted at a volume far louder than it really needed to be. It finally got the guitarist’s attention, though, and Luke startled on the couch, practically throwing his notebook in shock as he glared up at Reggie.
“Dude! What the hell was that?” Luke’s voice sounded far too exasperated considering they were the ones who’d spent the entire evening being ignored.
Reggie didn’t pay much attention to Luke’s feigned anger at him as the guitarist scrambled to pick up the paper’s he’d accidentally scattered across the coffee table, “So when are you gonna ask out Julie?”
Alex’s jaw dropped with the bluntness of Reggie’s question, and Luke was shocked all over again, tensing in surprise so much that all the paper’s he’d just picked dropped out of his arms and floated straight back into a mess on the ground. Alex kicked Reggie gently, glaring at him a little.
“Reggie!” he hissed quietly while Luke was distracted just enough as he began stumbling over his words and making more sounds than he was sentences. “We’re supposed to ease him into this , come on! If we don’t very nicely bring Luke’s crushes up to him, he gets overwhelmed, remember? We’ve been through this.”
Reggie just widened his eyes and shrugged, silently asking “What do you want from me?”
“You said you were sick of it, too! So I did something about it! Besides, we both know this thing with Julie is new. Time for different tactics.”
Alex was loath to admit that his best friend made sense.
Luke was still down on the couch, his brain finally seeming to regain its functions. In a quiet, meek voice as he finally got his notebook back together, Luke didn’t look up at them as he said, “I don’t, uh- I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
At that, Alex scoffed with a roll of his eyes. He reached down, dragging Reggie to his feet and then pulling them both back to the main floor. Luke looked smaller than standing in front of the couch, clutching his notebook like it would protect him from the embarrassment and shyness Reggie had just unleashed. Alex approached him with a sigh.
“Yeah, no, Reggie’s right. New tactics.”
Alex stood in front of Luke, placing his hands on his shoulders and gently pushing the guitarist into a sitting position on the couch. As Luke sat, Alex did, too, taking a spot directly in front of Luke on the coffee table. Reggie soon joined him so they were both facing Luke.
“Luke,” Alex started, voice slow and dragging words out as if he was talking to a toddler. “You. . . have a crush . . . on Julie.”
Luke just sat there on the couch, looking small as he flicked his eyes between the two of them. He looked embarrassed, and surprised, and nervous. After a minute or so of silence, Luke just looking at them, the guitarist’s shoulders slumped and he put his head in his hands.
His voice was muffled by his hands, but it sounded vaguely like he mumbled, “You’re right.”
Alex and Reggie looked at each other.
“We’re what?” Alex asked, turning his head so his ear was facing Luke. Reggie snickered under his breath at Alex’s teacher-like position. They heard Luke release a loud sigh, and he rubbed his hands down his face until he could look at them again.
“You’re right,” Luke repeated, still looking reluctant. Alex shook his head.
“We’re right about. . ?” Alex continued prompting. When Luke got a crush, it was a process. It started with him not realizing that he had a crush, then trying to deny said crush, then came the being awkward and nervous and staring, then came Luke having to face the music when Alex and Reggie finally got Luke to admit to the crush. The first step was getting him to just say it.
Luke knew what Alex was getting at clearly, rolling his eyes at the drummer. He looked to Reggie, clearly trying to get some support, but the bassist just stared at him, waiting. Luke sighed, looking defeated.
“You guys know exactly what I’m talking about. You were right.”
Reggie and Alex exchanged a look.
“Oh, come on, man,” Reggie let out, “You know what they say, Luke! The first step in solving a problem is admitting that you have one.”
Luke scoffed, turning to Reggie with his mouth open in offense. “Problem? Me having a crush on Julie isn’t a problem!”
Alex and Reggie both exclaimed in victory, exchanging a high five without looking at each other. Luke shrunk in on himself with a blush as he realized what he’d just admitted to.
“Whatever,” Luke mumbled. “It’s still not a problem.”
“It’s a problem when instead of just asking her out, you mope around for hours because she’s doing homework with a guy that isn’t you.”
Reggie just nodded, pointing at Alex with a click of his tongue. With every second, Luke seemed to grow more and more read with every second. It would almost be amusing for the other two if they weren’t so fed up with Luke’s avoidance of his Julie crush for this long already. It took almost five minutes before any of them spoke again. With a deep sigh, Luke ran a hand over his face.
“It’s a problem,” he let out quietly.
Alex and Reggie looked at each other, then back to Luke.
“So what are you gonna do about it?”