Months passed and the boys bond with Elara grew stronger. However, everyone, even Julie who couldn't see Elara noticed a change in Luke whenever she was around. He disappeared regularly, everyone wanted to give him his space, after all they were all struggling with something and this was how Luke dealt with his problems.

One day, after Julie and the Phantoms finished practising a new song, Luke sneaked out of the garage and disappeared. The boys sighed, and Julie packed away her song writing books and headed into her house for dinner with her dad and brother. Elara always sat and watched their practices, they'd offered her a place in the band but she didn't want to intrude, she was more than happy to sit back and watch and occasionally help with suggesting the odd lyric for a new song but that was it.

Alex and Reggie shared a sad glance at each other, before Elara got up and turned to face them, "we can't keep pretending there isn't something wrong with Luke, he may not think he needs his friends but he does. We should find him."

Reggie hesitated for a moment before nodding, "I agree, I miss him." He glanced at Alex who ran his fingers through his hair nervously before nodding.

"You're right, El. Let's go and find him, where should we start?" Alex asked, looking to Elara for the answer.

"Luke once said he always wanted to go to the top of the Hollywood sign... and I have a feeling he may be there. Somewhere we wouldn't think of trying to get to." Elara suggested.

The boys stood up, "it's worth a shot." Reggie shrugged.

He took hold of Alex's hand and reached out for Elara with his other hand who held it tightly, "alright... let's go." They all closed their eyes and pictured the Hollywood sign, in a blink of light they found themselves looking up at the huge letters on the hill.

Elara looked up when she heard the soft hum of guitar strings, she saw Luke sitting on the top of the H, strumming his guitar.

"He's up there." She pointed.

Alex and Reggie followed her gaze, before Alex spoke, "maybe you should be the one to speak to him."

"Me? You're his best friends." Elara was stunned.

Reggie smiled softly, "we may be... but we've all seen the way he looks at you, you have a connection none of us do to him."

"Go and get him back for us, El." Alex smiled at her encouragingly.

She nodded, heading to the ladder that led to the top of the letter H of the Hollywood sign, she hadn't told the boys but she was terrified of heights. She knew she could simply poof to the top but that terrified her even more, at least if she climbed it herself she was in control.

Taking a deep breath to try and relax, she stepped onto the first step and slowly made her way to the top. It felt like an hour, in reality it only took ten minutes, but Elara finally reached the top. Luke slowly stopped playing when he sensed her presence and turned to face her, Elara had never noticed before but his eyes lit up slightly when he saw her, making her heart flutter slightly.

"Hey." He said softly.

"Hi." Elara said, looking down nervously, she clung onto the rail for dear life.

Luke placed his guitar down, stood up and walked over to her, "hey, you okay?"

"I should be asking you that, Luke." She said, her voice shaking slightly.

He noticed her eyes staring down at the ground and he took hold of her chin lightly, tilting her face to look at him, "don't look down... it doesn't help."

She gulped, they were standing so close she could see the golden flecks in his warm, brown eyes.

"Is this where you've been coming the past few months?" She asked, focusing her gaze on him instead of the ground that was a long way down.

Luke nodded, "yeah... it's quiet up here and it helps me think. I was in a dark place, Elara... after I spent so much time visiting my parents I couldn't help but think how much I wanted to just speak to them and apologise... I wanted a normal life again, and I was so close to doing something I regret... I hung around outside the Hollywood Ghost Club for hours until I chickened out and found myself up here."

Alex had told Elara about the HGC and how a ghost called Caleb had powers and they'd had trouble with him before until Julie saved them.

"I couldn't tell Alex or Reggie... I didn't want them to worry about me. So I started coming up here to write out my feelings and come to terms with my life now." Luke admitted.

"Luke..." Elara began, but he stopped her.

"Elara... I know. I know I should've told them, I should've told Julie... and you," He said softly, his eyes couldn't quite meet hers as he spoke, "I didn't want to disappoint anyone."

"You'd never disappoint them... or me." She replied, his eyes finally met hers, his eyebrows knitted together slightly, as if he were thinking about something.

"There's another reason I couldn't stick around... I could feel myself becoming attached." He said quietly.

"Attached?" Elara asked, confused.

He stared at her sadly, "attached to you. I just... I know I'll always have the boys and Julie, but what if you get bored of us? What if you meet some new ghosts and decide they're more interesting than us? Than me? It sounds stupid... but I really like you, El. I can't lose anymore people and I wanted to distance myself before the inevitable."

Despite what Luke was saying, a slight smile tugged at Elara's lips. Her gaze softened, and her nerves about heights disappeared for a moment, "there are no ghosts I'd rather spend the rest of my existence with... because I like you too, Luke... and the boys are alright too." She grinned.

Luke's frown slowly flickered into a grin, "really?"

"Really." Elara smiled.

Still standing extremely close, Luke's eyes flickered to Elara's lips for a moment before he cupped her cheeks with his hands and kissed her. All of Elara's fears and worries slipped away and she kissed him back, her arms sliding around his neck as she let herself sink into him.

A moment later Reggie cleared his throat behind them, Alex pretended to gag, "are they done yet?"

Luke pulled away reluctantly, turning to face his friends.

"How long have you been standing there?" Luke asked, rubbing his neck awkwardly.

"Long enough," Alex rolled his eyes, then grinned, "so... are we good?"

"Come here," Luke said, opening his arms, pulling Elara into a hug with Alex and Reggie, "we're good."

"Did you, uh, hear everything?" Luke asked as they pulled away from the hug.

Alex glanced at Reggie, "no... but we can talk about it later. We're just glad you're okay," he glanced between Luke and Elara who was still flushed from kissing Luke, "or more than okay." He smirked.

"Can we maybe go back to the ground now?" Elara asked.

Luke took hold of her hand and squeezed it lightly, "of course," he glanced at the boys, Reggie grabbed Luke's guitar and nodded, "see you back at the garage?"

As Alex and Reggie disappeared in a poof, Luke turned to Elara, "before we go... I don't want to forget about this little... moment we had up here."

"Me neither." Elara said, her cheeks were still slightly red.

Luke stepped closer to her and kissed her cheek lightly, "you're cute when you blush."

"Oh, shut up." Elara giggled, "come on, let's go home."

Home. Elara had never described the garage as home, but Luke was glad... because the boys were his home and now Elara was part of that too. Without another word they took each other's hands and poofed back to the garage, finally home.

♡

super duper sorry about the slow updates... :(
love y'all and thanks for reading!
more coming soon xx