Jasper hasn't talked with the three ghosts since the night of the dance and he's not even for sure if he wants to. He's still mad at them for ditching him and Julie and making them look like a fool in front of the school. He was currently in his bedroom after school one day, writing in his journal and playing on his acoustic guitar that was sat on his lap. 

He was working on a song that he hoped he could sing to Julie. The song was basically a way for him to tell Julie how he really feels about her. He underlined the title with the pencil he held-the title of the song being named 'Being Around You'. He wasn't for sure if he would ever get the courage to decide to tell Julie about his feelings for her, but if he does then he will be prepared. He's sometimes much better with writing his feelings through a song than saying them.

"Jasper!"

Jasper lets out a surprised yelp, almost dropping his guitar. He turns in the direction he heard the familiar voice, a sigh escaping his lips as he rolls his eyes upon seeing Reggie standing in his room. "Don't scare me like that." Jasper muttered, closing his journal.

"Sorry." Reggie apologizes with a sheepish smile on his face. He puts his hands in the pockets of his leather jacket. "It's just...I wanted to check on you." Jasper glances at him with raised eyebrows, curious as to what he would say next. "I mean, you haven't talked to me or the guys since the night of the dance and you would ignore us when we would try to talk to you this morning before you went to school. You seemed really upset." He frowns, walking over to where Jasper sat at his desk, stopping when he stands a few inches away from him. "I'm really sorry that we bailed on you and Julie. We had no intentions to do that. None of us wanted to disappoint you and Julie."

Jasper's lips tugs upward into a small smile. He did feel a bit better knowing that and he thought it was sweet of Reggie to check on him. "So, uh, how are you feeling now?" Reggie asked him, looking at him with a bit of concern.

"I was really tempted to skip today 'cause of last night." Jasper admits. "But I went anyway, and it actually wasn't that bad of a day."

"Good." Reggie smiled. 

Jasper smiles and nods. He tilts his head to the side, remembering Alex and Luke aren't with Reggie. "So where are Alex and Luke?"

"Oh! Um, in hopes of you and Julie rejoining the band, Luke booked us a mega-life changing gig." Reggie replies, rubbing the back of his neck. "Julie and Luke kind of got into an argument. Julie said something to Luke that made him upset. Julie left and then Luke poofed away. I told Alex I was going to talk to you about what happened, and he was going to talk to Julie." 

"Oh." Jasper nods, taking it all in that Reggie told him. A look of concern forms on his face. "Is Julie okay?"

"I think so." Reggie shrugs. He sighs sadly. "She's mad at Alex, Luke and I. Luke isn't that selfish. He has his reasons. Alex and I were planning on showing you guys who the song 'Emily' is about. You know, if you want to know."

"Yeah, of course I do." Jasper responded.

****

So that's why Jasper and Julie were now hiding behind some bushes in front of an unfamiliar house. Luke is seen inside the house, sitting on top of the counter, watching an older couple bake a cake with a sad look on his face. Jasper and Julie were confused as to why Luke was there, but then they realized those people must be his parents.

"So, Emily's his mom?" Julie asked.

Reggie nods. "Yeah."

"Yeah, Luke comes here a lot." Alex added.

"He thinks we don't know, but...We've been following him." Reggie explained.

Jasper frowned upon seeing Luke so upset while he watched his parents live life without him. He couldn't imagine what Luke must be feeling. "All he does is just hang out like this and watch them." Reggie continues. "They never really do anything though."

"That can't be true." Jasper chimes in, feeling bad for Luke's parents. Tears began to form in his eyes the longer he watched this. "I-I mean, it looks like they're eating cake."

"Yeah," Julie nods. "That's something."

"Wait..." Jasper's voice trails off as he realizes something. Normally people only have cake for special events, like someone's birthday. "Please don't tell me their celebrating Luke's birthday without him. I don't think my heart can take that."

"Sorry to break it to you, bro, but it's...It's a birthday cake." Reggie stammers, sharing a sympathetic look with his brother. "For Luke." Jasper felt like his heart was breaking knowing more and more about this sad information.

Jasper and Julie exchange a look. "We never knew Luke was hurting this much." Julie said and Jasper nodded in agreement as they both looked back at Luke and his parents.

"Yeah." Alex nods. "It's even worse because when he died, he...He left on bad terms. You know, his parents didn't want their seventeen-year-old in a rock band, so...He just left. He never got the chance to make it up to them."

"Okay," Jasper sniffles, watching with a frown while Luke gets off the counter and walks over to the table his parents sat at. "When I agreed to go with you guys I didn't expect to cry."

Luke's dad lights the candle on the chocolate cake and Luke blows out the candle. His parents look around with confusion and they looked at the window. Jasper assumed they thought the wind blew it out and Luke's dad then lit the candle again. "That's why Luke was so angry." Reggie said while Luke sits down, looking at his parents with teary eyes. "If Trevor had given Luke credit for writing all the songs, then..." He sighs. "Then his parents would've known his dream was worth chasing."

Julie shakes her head, smiling sadly. "They would've been so proud." 

The four teens watched with sadness as Luke's parents held hands and blew out the candle together without knowing Luke joined them. Watching this made Jasper realize how lucky he is to have people in his life that care about him. Especially Julie, he doesn't know what he would do without her. Since he's standing beside Julie, Jasper wraps his arm around her shoulder for comfort. She wrapped her arm around his waist, leaning into him, and glanced at him with a sad smile. 

"We know how bad it hurts whenever someone that should've had your back..." Jasper and Julie glance at Alex when he speaks up. "Completely lets you down." Alex looks at them with an apologetic expression. "We never meant to make you guys feel that way."

"Jasper, Julie, we love our band." Reggie gains their attention and they both look at him. "And Luke does too. Please give us another chance." Jasper and Julie shared a look, silently having a conversation with each other on what they should do. How could they possible walk away from them now? Jasper and Julie were connected to them. Even though Alex, Luke, and Reggie are dead they're still there for Jasper and Julie.

****

Jasper and Julie decided on giving the ghost boys another chance. It seemed like they really were apologetic about what happened and now that they know why Luke may seem selfish at times, that helped them understand Luke more.

Jasper had his acoustic guitar on, playing the main chords on it since Luke wasn't there. The plan was for him that he would play acoustic guitar at the beginning and when Julie would stand up and walk to center of the stage to play the tambourine while singing Jasper would play keyboard for the rest of the song. 

Alex counts them off and then Jasper, Julie, and Reggie joined him on playing their new song 'Finally Free'. "Marching on proud. Turn it up loud." Jasper harmonizes his voice with Julie's for the second part of the second verse. "'Cause know we know what we're worth." Everyone stopped playing and they stopped singing when all of a sudden Luke appeared, sitting, on the chair that was directly in front of where Julie had her keyboard set up.

"Woah," Luke's eyes widen and he immediately stands up. "Julie." He glances to his right, surprised to see Jasper as well. "Jasper."

Jasper and Julie smiles at him. "What are you waiting for?" Jasper asks, raising his eyebrows at Luke. "An invitation?" He chuckles, pointing at Luke's electric blue guitar on its stand near where he was standing. "Get your guitar already. We're gotta practice if we wanna be ready to play at that place you signed us up to play."

Luke looks at him with surprise and an excited smile tugs on his lips. He glances at Julie for confirmation, and she grins at him. "You heard him. We got work to do."

Luke glances at Alex and Reggie, who both shrug and smile at him. He chuckles, walking over to his guitar stand, and picks up his guitar. He looks at Jasper and Julie with furrowed eyebrows. "What made you guys come back?"

"We realized how important music is to all of us." Julie answers. "And we've lost so much already. We can't lose this too."

Luke smiles at her and Jasper. "Thanks." He glances at Julie, putting the strap of his guitar over his shoulder, and smirks. "Alright, boss. Where we at?" He chuckled along with Julie.

"Oh, so she's the boss and I'm not, birthday boy?" Jasper pretended to be upset and chuckled with everyone. 

"Wait..." Luke's eyes widened when he realized Jasper somehow knew his birthday is today. He glanced at Julie with furrowed eyebrows.

"Oh, yeah, you don't know that we knew today is your birthday." Jasper sheepishly smiles at Luke. "Happy birthday."

Luke smiles widely at him. "Thanks."

A/N not for sure if i like this chapter, i'll probably edit it sometime soon. but i do like the brother moment between jasper & reggie & the cute lil moment between jasper & julie