TELL YOUR FRIENDS !

              THE GUYS DIDN’T do everything together. — They did almost everything together, but that was because they were best friends! But not everything. Sometimes, they split for a beat for whatever reason. Luke did it usually because he needed to think about his parents, or see his parents, or talk about his parents to himself, or write about his parents... Luke usually went off by himself because of his parents. For Alex, sometimes, being with his guys wasn’t enough to make his heart stop beating too hard, and that was okay. Sometimes, you just needed to get away for a minute, right? Reggie was usually left to himself by default, when Luke and Alex needed their own alone time, and that was fine by him. He usually needed his own moments to just come back to himself, too: he was just really bad at recognizing that he needed it. 

This time, he’d recognized it. This time, he’d gone back to the beach after Luke and Alex had tried to make him feel better. It had certainly worked, and he did feel better, but he’d just... wanted to look at the bike place a little bit more. His eyes kept on rebilding his house where it used to stand, filling in the walls and the window that used to show his room, if someone walked by on the sand at just the right time. He used to have the best views of the LA sunset, whenever he was actually at his house to see it. Now, that window didn’t even exist, and he bet the bike place closed too early to see the really good sunsets. His jaw tensed for a moment, that natural happiness fading just for the ghost of a heart beat. 

After a moment, he glanced over, noticing her. HER. After he’d seen her in the garage, he’d thought that maybe he’d just been imagining or something, especially since none of the guys had noticed her. But there she was, looking every inch the guardian angel he’d seen in the garage loft that very first night. 

               HE POOFED INTO existence with a jolt, looking more surprised than he figured Alex felt. He hadn’t known if that would work, honestly. He’d just thought hey, universe, slide me over next to Alex please, and the universe had listened. Maybe he was getting a handle on these ghostly abilities after all. When his equilibrium had been restored, Reggie grinned at Alex. 

               “DUDE, D’YOU EVER think about, like, the big what ifs and shit? Like, how we’d be like almost halfway through our forties now?” The thought crept in more often than he wanted to admit. Reggie was supposed to be the ETERNAL OPTIMIST, and most days, HE WAS! — but sometimes, his thoughts didn’t want to be sunshine and good surfing. Sometimes, his thoughts wanted a couple of storms, pulling everything around like the Santa Anas. 

          It didn’t hurt him to think about it, but it did make him feel.... something.