June 23 | The Station | Work-Safe (Small TW: Panic Attack)
Luke wasn’t anymore patient than he had been when Alex had arrived. Reggie was there. Reggie was on his way! There was at least no slamming into a door in his attempt to get out of the apartment but he did jump on Alex’s back in his excitement as they reached the elevator. Alex could keep messaging with Reggie on the network; Luke was a great koala when he wanted to be.
Unlike his sprint at Alex, Luke did not throw himself at Reggie when the teen entered the lobby. He did immediately clock what Reggie was wearing and it was a relief to know that they were from around the same moment in time. “Reggie!” Luke shouted, throwing an arm around him and leaving just enough room for Alex to get in on the action. The band was back. Albeit the ghost band and not Julie and the Phantoms. A side-thought distracted him because they would need a new name. And the Phantoms made no sense without the right context. He would have to think on it.
Reggie was sweating. Of all the sensations he'd experienced that day, things he hadn't felt or needed to do in literal years, that one was the worst. Or maybe it was the breathing? He couldn't seem to get the pattern down. He was breathing too much and almost hyperventilated. Then he was breathing too little and almost passed out. Then he forgot to breathe all together, and that was almost bad. But he was sweating, and he was hungry, and he had to breathe and remember what it was like to have a pulse and not be able to teleport.
All that worrying and the distraction of his brand new cell phone with the conversations with new people and his best friends kept Reggie distracted on the ride to the apartment building. It was over before he knew it, and he was pushing into the AC with relief and excitement. "Luke! Alex!" He gripped their shoulders, pulling them close. Tears unashamedly filled his eyes. "We're warm and squishy again!!"
Of all the things that could have come from Reggie's mouth, of course it was the most ridiculous. It wouldn't have been Reggie otherwise, and it was both that and having his arms around his two best friends that made Alex feel whole. He laughed, tucking his head against Reggie's shoulder. "Yeah, well, we swapped fall-ish for full summer. Warm is just going to come with the territory. It's weird how quickly you get used to being able to feel the air again, and I've only been here a couple of days. Dudes… the band is back!"
Luke grinned and gripped the arms of his friends in each of his hands and he pulled back just enough to look between them. "And everyone can see us. And hear us. No ghost magic or Julie magic required. Wanted, but she's not here yet." Luke was going to hold out hope that Julie would arrive. Maybe even on Reggie's heels.
"We need to do so much shopping. But we can hit up my room first and you can borrow some clothes from me or anyone else. All the essential stuff. Food, snacks-" Because those were different categories, "-though I think we ate all the dinosaur chicken nuggets, now that I think about it." Focus! "And shopping includes a bass. We can try pawn shops before we just go to an actual store. See what we can find."
"'K, so, I'm gonna apologize now for any hippie behavior that comes from me in the next few weeks. 'Cause Alex just broke my brain, and I'm gonna be very aware of my skin. And my teeth. And my hair." He lost focus as all of that flickered through by on his train of thought, and he suddenly itched everywhere. "Love you guys. Very excited. I need just a second." He pulled out of their hug and started removing his vest and unbuttoning his shirt. They were suddenly all too much.
"Alex is the anxious one, but I feel like I'm gonna freak out. It's like a lot. Is it a lot? It's a lot."
"Hey, hey." Alex caught Reggie's hand and stepped in close enough to get his attention. This look was familiar. He knew this look. He'd lived this look. So. Many. Times. "Eyes here, Reg. I need you to breathe with me. Just watch me and follow what I'm doing."
Alex sounded like he was talking down a wrapping paper tube, or like he was underwater. But how was he breathing under water? Breathing. Breathe. His eyes snapped to Alex's face, and he sucked down air like he'd just won holding his breath. Instantly his vision stopped tunneling and Alex's voice was closer. Reggie watched and followed and soon his heart stopped racing.
With one hand clutching Alex like an anchor and the other pressed into his chest to feel how it rose and fell with every breath, Reggie shook his head to clear the fuzziness. He was buzzing, and it was definitely adrenaline and not the sleeping foot sensation that was being a ghost. "I kinda feel like Peter Pan." He had no idea how his brain went from panic to almost passing out to a movie he'd watched as a kid and a play his grandparents took him to once. "Being alive is really hard and like a lot of work." He focused his gaze on Alex then Luke and back again. "But to live will be an awfully big adventure."
Alex was way better at this and Luke let him handle it. Luke just stayed close and then reached out to clutch Reggie's shoulder. Once Reggie seemed to have things a little more under control, Luke grinned. He couldn't help it.
"Just try and stay calm and it'll be okay. I promise. It gets way easier. Just try to remember that we can't go through doors and that'll get you pretty far," Luke said. He squeezed Reggie's shoulder. "And we're going to have the biggest adventures. Live it like it's now or never." The lyrics to that particular song had never been so true and it had been the last song they'd played as Sunset Curve. "You think you're good to walk again?"
"Doors. Right." Reggie sucked in another deep breath and his eyes lost their glassy, million-mile stare look. A grin split his face, and he laughed. Alex and Luke were right there, where they always had been when things got big or loud in his life. And death. They had him, and he had them. Everything had changed again, but nothing had changed. "I can walk. Could probably chew gum at the same time, too. I can also do this."
Shoving their shoulders lightly to clear some space, he gave a little spin and started drumming on his knees. "Can you, can you hear me," he sang backing away from his friends towards the elevators like he knew where they were going.
"Loud and clear, Peter Pan." Alex shook his head with a fond smile, not angry in the slightest that Reggie had stolen his bit. Relief wasn't a strong enough word for what he felt when Reggie came out of the other side of his spiral. If he could joke, he'd be okay for now. Alex made a mental note to watch out for something like this again, however. Sure, they all had their own diagnosable neuroses, but they also had each other. He glanced at Luke. That hadn't always been the case. One hand landed on Luke's shoulder while the other motioned Reggie like a flight attendant when he began to head down a hallway instead of their actual destination.
Alex opened his mouth and quickly shut it again with a slight face. "I… was about to start singing Flying Solo, and then it just felt weird without Julie. I really hope she doesn't know we're gone. That's how this works, right? The people we left behind are just… going on with the versions of us that… didn't leave?"
"You didn't know I was gone, right?" Luke asked before grabbing hold of Alex by the front of his shirt and pulling him along to catch up with Reggie. He didn't have his guitar but they could perform acapella just fine. This Band Is Back had been off the cuff but it was a comfort. He'd been there, alone, for too many months.
Luke launched into the harmony and nudged Alex; the three of them could sing their way down the hallway if they wanted and no one should complain. Instruments definitely needed to go high up on the list of purchases once Alex and Reggie were both better settled. Music was in their souls and had bonded them together as brothers, after all.