Chapter XIX

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JULIE'S POV:

I looked over at Luke who just stood completely still staring at my dad in complete shock. I didn't know how to react to this either. I quickly took notice that dad was just standing there waiting for one of us to say something.

"Oh uh, dad this is Luke." I gestured over to him.

Luke broke out of his trance moving closer to my dad putting his hand out to shake his hand. I got so nervous when he did this, I didn't know if he'd even be able to touch him. I held my breath as my dad moved forward to grip Luke's hand in his own. As dad held Luke's hand and shook it up and down I let out a quiet sigh of relief.

"So Luke I never thought I'd get the privilege of meeting the mysterious hologram band." My dad spoke up after the guys separated. "Think Julie might be a little embarrassed of me." Dad laughed at his own joke.

"Maybe a bit more than a little bit," I muttered under my breath.

"I heard that," My dad called out to me jokingly. He turned back to face Luke continuing their attempted conversation. "So Luke, what are you doing here? I was told that you boys lived in Sweden and didn't want to be in the spotlight."

Luke looked like a deer caught in the headlights. "Uh...yeah...." Luke flicked his gase over to me begging for help. I gestured for him to continue. I mouthed over to him 'keep going.'

"Uh yes sir, we uh flew over to surprise Julie in person," Luke stuttered out.

"Oh that's so lovely. Wait we? Are the other boys here too?" Dad asked, genuinely interested.

"Yes they are out sight seeing at the moment," I jumped into their conversation trying to save Luke from anymore awkwardness with my dad.

Dad looked so interested in Luke from the moment he had spotted him in the garage. The silence began to become too much when all three of us hadn't spoken in about 3 minutes. I looked at my dad giving him one of my looks that was telling him to get out. My dad looked between Luke and I with a bit of skepticism and that knowing father smirk on his face.

"Uh well I'm going to head inside and work on getting dinner ready. Oh Luke you and the boys should definitely join us for dinner tonight. I won't take no for an answer. Consider it a thank you for everything you've done to help bring my daughter back to us." My dad smiled towards Luke.

I knew there was no way to get out of this dinner tonight. I was trying to think of every possible excuse I could think of but nothing I came up with could possibly get us out of tonight. I tried to see if Luke could come up with anything, but when I looked over he looked as blank as I did.

"Uh yeah dad that sounds great. I'll let the other guys know when they get back."

"Well I'll leave you guys to it, I'll see you guys soon. Dinner will be ready in about 2 hours." My dad spoke over his shoulder as he moved out of the garage, making his way up to the main house.

For a moment when the door shut I stood in silence with Luke, neither of us knowing what to say at that moment. I moved over and sat down on the couch, instantly I placed my head in my hands. I just wish I knew more about all this ghost stuff, like how does all of this work. As soon as we think we have it figured out we get completely flipped upside down.

I watched as Luke made his way over to me on the couch. He sat down beside me but still hadn't said anything since my dad left

"Luke?"

I watched him turn his head towards me waiting for what I was going to say next.

"What is going on?" I genuinely asked, so confused and concerned.

"I wish I knew." Luke spoke softly. As I moved my head from my hands Luke reached over wrapping his hand over mine in an attempt to calm me down.

As much as I wanted to focus on us at this moment too much was at stake. It wasn't anything romantic at this moment, it was complete friendship, it was comfort. It was one thing I had worried that Luke and I would lose if I gave into whatever feelings I had for him. In this moment though I knew we would never lose this. If I needed Luke to be my bandmate and friend he would always be there for me in the comforting way he has always been. This was the only thing that made me okay if whatever we had went wrong, because I knew no matter what we would always be bandmates. Even if one day the boys did cross-over we would always be a band in our hearts. For once my mind had forgotten what was going on.

"Julie?" I heard Luke's voice call, "you okay? I was calling your name for a while."

"Yeah I'm okay, as much as all of this is too crazy to even understand I am unbelievably happy." I smiled looking up at him.

"I am too Julie. I know that Sunset Curve was always a dream I had with the boys but I think this was our destiny. We were meant to be a band, even if we were born in a different time we were meant to make music together." Luke spoke with such confidence.

"I think you might be right Luke." I smiled just looking at him for a moment.

Luke shyly lifted up my hand that was still wrapped in his off of my lap bringing it closer to his face. I softly felt Luke's lips connect with the top of my hand in the sweetest gesture. We didn't have to say anything to know in that moment how even a small gesture like that meant so much. A smile creeped onto my face as Luke pulled back after he had kissed my hand, placing our hands still entwined back onto my knee. I looked over to Luke out of the corner of my eye, I noticed a small blush creeping its way across his cheeks. Part of me wanted to ask if Luke had ever had any sort of relationship like this before. Well not exactly like this, but like a romantic relationship.

I was about to open my mouth to ask. I couldn't stop it, it was almost like I couldn't control how much my body needed to know the answer. I knew he was a year or two older than me but he might have had a lot of girls around him for all I knew. As I began to ask him we both heard the garage door open loudly. Once again Luke moved far enough away from me to not look suspicious. I suspected he thought my dad had come back to check on us.

When I flicked my attention to the door I saw Alex and Reggie both making their way into the garage. When they spotted Luke and I sitting in the garage I think they were both shocked to see that we weren't having another screaming match.

Reggie spoke up first without thinking, "so you guys all good or should we come back a bit later."

Alex rolled his eyes at Reggie, turning to face him Alex spoke with a hint of laughter in his voice. "Clearly they are fine Reggie, otherwise why would they be in the same room together?"

"Well we don't know that. Maybe they both needed to be here for some reason. Hmmm Alex, did you think of that?" Reggie asked smuggly.

I couldn't help but let out a soft chuckle along with Luke at Reggies comeback to Alex.

"We're fine Reg." Luke spoke up.

"But we need to tell you something." I cut Luke off before he could continue.

Alex and Reggie gave each other a wide smile moving to sit on the couch next to me.

"What's that Julie?" Reggie asked in an excited voice.

I looked over at Luke with confusion written all across my face. Luke just shook his head connecting his palm with his forehead clearly embarrassed by his other bandmates.

"Uh... I don't know exactly how to say this. But when Luke and I came back here uh..." I kept stuttering trying to think of how to phrase this.

Reggie and Alex looked over to each other knowingly. "You can tell us anything Julie," Alex smirked at me.

"Well when we got back here...uh...and then..." I kept cutting myself off not knowing what to say to them.

Luke pushed himself off the wall he had become comfortable on. "Julie's dad came in when we got back. He could see me." Luke finished very simply.

Alex and Reggie looked as shocked as Luke and I had been when we found out.

"Oh I get it, like you and Julie were playing a song and he could see you cause you were playing with her." Reggie concluded.

"No Reg, like we were just standing in here and he could see me, he shook my hand and he spoke to me." Luke reaffirmed for the guys.

"What!" Reggie and Alex yelled at the same time standing up immediately.

"How is that possible?" Alex asked very loudly.

"So Ray can actually see us?" Reggie asked hopefully.

I couldn't help but roll my eyes knowing how important this would be to Reggie.

"Oh and you guys have to come to dinner tonight." I added needing to get it out of the way.

"WHAT!" Reggie and Alex yelled in sync again.

"Uhh yeah...we have to go up in about half an hour."

Reggie and Alex didn't say anything after that. I could see both of them trying to process all the new information that had just been forced on them.

"What does this mean?" Reggie asked.

"We don't know Reg." Luke replied walking over to where the boys and I were located near the couch.

For the next 30 minutes the boys and I just sat in the garage trying to figure out what was going on. Occasionally one of us broke the silence if we had a question or an idea. Most of the time we sat or stood in silence, all of us confused and worried about this dinner we were going to have to have. I don't think anything could prepare us for this dinner, we didn't have a backstory. I guess we never thought we would need one. In the last couple of minutes I tried to figure out what we would say if we got asked any questions tonight, knowing my family was 100% going to happen. I took a deep breath as the boys and I opened the garage doors starting to walk up to the house for a dinner that has made all of us on edge. 

HOPE YOU GUYS ENJOYED THIS CHAPTER! I HAVE BEEN SO LUCKY AND BLESSED TO BE ABLE TO WRITE THIS STORY AND SEE ALL YOUR AMAZING THOUGHTS, THEORIES AND IDEAS ABOUT WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN. I LOVE HOW MUCH YOU GUYS ARE SO INVOLVED AND CANT WAIT TO HEAR MORE OF YOUR THEORIES. 

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