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𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 𝗙𝗢𝗥 𝗔 𝗠𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧

ＣＨＡＰＴＥＲ ＳＩＸＴＥＥＮ:
let them go

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LUKE WASN'T WAITING anywhere at Julie's house. Emilia and Julie had looked everywhere but couldn't find him. Instead, Emilia found him waiting in her bedroom at her house after she left Julie's. Emilia didn't notice until she walked up the stairs to it and opened her door. She immediately stopped in her tracks when she saw him sitting on the edge of her bed. He was staring intently at the floor, but once the door opened, his head raised. Emilia locked eyes with him. His were rimmed with red around the edges from crying. Emilia sighed and shut her door behind her.

"Look, Luke—" Emilia began.

She didn't have a chance to say anything else. In a split second, Luke was up from sitting and walking over to her. He immediately wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her into a tight hug. Emilia was shocked at first, but she slowly relaxed into it. She rose up on her toes leaned her head against his, which was buried into the crook of her neck. Emilia placed a hand on the back of his head and threaded her fingers through his hair. She closed her eyes, just enjoying the embrace.

"That was incredible." Luke pulled away and kept his hands on her shoulders. "You're incredible."

Emilia gave him a small smile. "I'm sorry if you think Julie and I went too far."

"No," Luke replied, shaking his head. "After everything, I just . . . I don't think I could've stayed in that house any longer. It was kind of all hitting me all at once."

"And the song . . ." Emilia trailed off. She brushed a piece of hair off of his forehead and cupped his cheek. "It was beautiful, Luke."

Luke gripped her wrist gently. "The only retreat I really had in life was running out on my parents, especially my mom. And then your amazing self comes along and does this . . . Lia, thank you."

"It was actually Julie's idea, but it was the least we could do," she told him softly. "When my parents left Apollo and I . . . I thought it was my fault. That they left because I couldn't do anything right. That's why I became so insecure. But you, Luke . . . you, Reggie, and Alex helped me get my confidence back. I wanted to do something for you in return.." Emilia gently rubbed her thumb back and forth on his cheek. "You deserved this."

They stared into each other's eyes for a couple more moments. Luke then tilted his head downwards and kissed her again. Just like the first time, butterflies and tingles erupted inside of Emilia. She rose up higher on her toes in order to get closer to him.

There were truly no words to describe how Luke made her feel. Luke Patterson had the power to make Emilia Carpenter feel like she was floating out of her body with just a single look. And as they kissed for the second time, Emilia felt her mind go haywire. There was nothing on her mind except him.

After a few seconds, the two finally pulled away. Luke reached down and snagged her waist in his arms. Emilia slung her arms around his neck loosely and looked up at him.

"This is interesting little relationship you and I have," Luke commented. "A girl and a ghost."

Emilia chuckled and nodded. "It certainly is." Her eyes then widened. "Oh, Julie and I forgot to tell you. The video that Ray took of us singing Edge of Great? Flynn said it's trending on YouTube."

Luke gave her an incredibly confused look.

"It means people love our music," Emilia explained. "Hopefully we'll be getting calls from managers soon." Luke's expression then turned completely serious, and Emilia frowned. "Hey, what's wrong?"

"There's something that the guys and I haven't been telling you or Julie," Luke admitted.

Emilia felt nerves bubble inside her. "Um, okay. What is it?"

"The only reason we came back as ghosts is because we have unfinished business," Luke answered.

Emilia raised an eyebrow. "Do you know what your unfinished business is?"

"The one show we never got to perform on the night we died."

"Oh, you mean the Orpheum. That makes a lot of sense."

Suddenly, something weird happened. A purple jolt expelled from Luke's body, making him cry out in pain. He let go of Emilia and stumbled backwards until he fell onto his back on her bed. Luke groaned and immediately clutched the place where the jolt came from. Emilia's eyes widened and she stepped towards him in concern.

"Luke, what was that?" Emilia questioned. "Are you all right?"

"We don't have a lot of time, Lia," Luke revealed, sitting up in pain. "That night of the dance, we did something that we really shouldn't have. We met a ghost and he put a curse on us. If we don't do what he says, these jolts will eventually destroy us."

"Destroy you?" Emilia inquired. "Then why are you waiting? You have to do what he says. What does this ghost want?"

"For us to be in his house band for eternity and play at his club." Luke paused for a moment. "The club that your parents belong to."

Emilia suddenly felt like ice had been injected in her veins. "HGC?"

"Yeah, the Hollywood Ghost Club." Luke stood up from the bed and placed his hands on her shoulders. "Lia, listen to me. If we can play the Orpheum soon, we can forget everything about that and cross over."

Emilia felt her heart shatter as she stared at him. "So it's losing you to a ghost's weird club, losing you to you crossing over, or losing you to those jolts." She gently took his hands off her shoulders. "I should've known that we were playing a losing game."

"Lia . . ." Luke pleaded as she took a step back from him. "Emilia, please."

"We have to tell Julie," Emilia decided. "Ghost travel me."

Luke shook his head. "Emilia, the last time—"

"I know what happened last time. But it's the fastest way to get there."

She held out her hand. Luke's eyes flickered between that and her face a couple of times. Finally, with a sigh, Luke grasped her hand. The familiar sensation of pins and needles stabbing at her body appeared, and Luke and Emilia were transported into darkness.

𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙 ♔ 𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁𐄙𐄁

EMILIA HAD NEVER experienced a broken heart before, but she did now. Luke and her had explained the situation to Julie, and upon her own sadness and the pained look on Emilia's face, she politely asked Luke to leave them alone. Julie had also invited Flynn over as well. Flynn was standing in front of Julie's bed while Julie sat on top of it, drawing a picture of an explosion that read Julie and Emilia on the bottom. Emilia, on the other hand, was laying face-down on Julie's bed, her heart feeling like it was being shattered into a million pieces.

"I'm so stupid," Emilia voiced, her voice muffled in the pillow. "Falling for a ghost. What was I thinking?"

Flynn shook her head. "I tried to tell you."

"Flynn!" Julie scolded. "She's hurt right now. And frankly, so am I."

Emilia rolled over onto her back and stared at the ceiling, her eyes rimmed with red from the tears she had cried into Julie's pillow. "Everything was just going so right, and then it all just went so wrong."

"Exactly. My life was just starting to get good, and then, BAM!" Julie held up her drawing for Flynn to see.

"I seriously don't know why all this is happening to you two, but that's gonna be a great album cover one day," Flynn said.

Emilia sighed and sat up. She crossed her legs and leaned her head against Julie's, who responded with the same. Meanwhile, Flynn was leaning down by Julie's mom's trunk on the floor and folding the vest Julie wore the other night when they sang Finally Free.

Julie shook her head. "You don't have to do that."

"I know, but I get to check out all your mom's cool stuff," Flynn replied. "Woah." She then pulled out a white t-shirt that had Sunset Curve's band logo with jewels surrounding it and held it up. "Did you know this was in here?"

Emilia's eyes widened and slowly picked her head up. "Jules . . ."

Julie scoffed in disbelief. "What the heck?"

"How do you think she got it?" Flynn asked.

"I — I don't know, but the guys said they didn't know my mom. Why would they lie?"

"Maybe they didn't." Flynn stood up, clenching the shirt in her hand. "Maybe she knew them. She could be a fan!"

"I mean, Sunset Curve was playing the Hollywood club scene around then," Julie stated.

"Oh my gosh." Flynn smiled at them. "What if you were right? What if the guys are connected to your mom? You know, through music or something?"

"Because she bought their t-shirt?"

"Think about it. They were the ones who made you wanna play music again. Maybe she knew they could help you."

"She's got a point," Emilia spoke up. "I mean, it can't be a coincidence your mom's studio used to be the garage they practiced in."

"So you mean to tell me that my mom is somewhere out there planning all this?" Julie questioned. "If she wanted me to play music again, why wouldn't she just tell me herself?"

"Maybe she can't. Maybe she has to do it another way. You know, through signs." Flynn held the t-shirt up for emphasis. "You've been through these clothes how many times and haven't found this t-shirt? Why now? This is another sign! I'm just saying. Julie, Emilia, it's not over."

Julie stared at her in disbelief. "Really? Signs?"

"You're both in a ghost band, ones that Emilia can touch," Flynn commented. "It's a crazy world. Look . . . you're gonna lose them no matter what."

Emilia sighed to herself. She tucked her knee up into her chest and rested her chin on top of it. It was the cold hard truth, but Emilia still couldn't believe it. She didn't want to lose Reggie, the sweet boy with a flirtatious attitude and a strange infatuation with country music. She didn't want to lose Alex, the sarcastic drummer who never failed to make her laugh with one of his jokes and always seemed to understand her feelings. And she definitely didn't want to lose Luke, the cute ghost who managed to steal her heart so fast and the one she liked so much it physically hurt.

"And it sucks," Flynn continued. "But they helped bring you, Julie, back to life, and helped you, Emilia, to stop doubting yourself. Now it's both your turns to help them. They have to cross over. Let them go."

Emilia didn't want to. She wanted them to stay here with her and Julie, writing and playing songs for people from their hearts. But she couldn't be selfish. As much as it pained her, Flynn was right. Her and Julie had to let them move on. And in order to do that, that had to play the Orpheum.

When Emilia and Julie walked into the studio, they found all three of the boys sulking. Reggie was sitting in a chair, absentmindedly playing a note on his bass repeatedly. Luke sat on the floor with his head leaning against the couch as he stared at the ceiling. Alex was laying on his back on the couch, trying to balance a drumstick by attempting to stick it up his nose.

"Snap out of it!" Julie exclaimed.

Alex gasped in surprise. He fell off the couch and landed on the floor, staring at Julie with a shocked expression. His drumstick clattered out of his hand onto the floor.

Reggie glanced at the fallen drumstick for a moment. "Jeez, I think you broke Alex."

Emilia rolled her eyes. She walked over to the drumstick and picked it up before hitting it on top of each of the three boys' heads gently. Each of them groaned as she did so.

"Stop sulking," Emilia told them as she stepped back, pointing the drumstick at them. "That won't get you any closer to crossing over." None of them said anything, so she let out a frustrated breath and hit them over the head with the drumstick again, much harder this time. "Come on, get it together!"

"Lia, they're never gonna let us play the Orpheum," Luke argued.

She raised an eyebrow. "Not with that attitude they're not."

"We're nobody," Alex stated.

"We're less than nobody," Reggie added. "We have no bodies."

Luke snapped his fingers and pointed at him in agreement.

Julie stared straight at him. "Someone once told me that you don't ask for permission. You book gigs by doing."

Reggie smiled triumphantly. "That was me."

"Um, no it wasn't," Emilia replied.

"No it wasn't," Luke agreed.

"Yes it was," Reggie muttered.

"This isn't over," Julie announced. "We were brought together for a reason — to help each other."

"Yeah, but like Luke said, people don't just play the Orpheum because they want to," Alex repeated.

Emilia smirked, and mischief twinkled inside her eyes as she pointed the drumstick at him. "See, that's where you're wrong. Because you're not people, you're ghosts."

The three boys exchanged glances. Julie held out her fist in Emilia's peripheral vision. Emilia bumped it with her own, confidence radiating off of the two of them. They were going to play the Orpheum, no matter what it took.

-ˋˏ ༻  ☁︎  ༺ ˎˊ-

two more chapters bye I'll be crying in the corner if you need me

whatever you do please do not listen to worldwide by big time rush while reading this chapter because I did and cried

anyways did y'all see madison sing drivers license on live??? sis where's the liv and madi collab I need it-