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Of course this is a bad idea. Alex and Luke told him so – no matter how he appreciates her existence, Julie just doesn’t get the ghost thing like his boys do – and that little voice in his head has literally been screaming at him to not do this. And yet, here Reggie is.
All the work it took to get here could probably be classified as ‘stalking’ but he’s a ghost and there’s not really a good way for him to get information all sneakily, so needs must. It’s just a check-up, sort of like they all had done with his parents. (Lucky for Alex and Reggie that the Pattersons had cards from their own parents hanging on the fridge, a friendship formed by a brutal and ridiculous tragedy.) Absolutely not crazy, really. Anyone else would do the same.
It was totally understandable to wonder what had happened to his girlfriend. DJ had been sugar and spice and not afraid to call him out on his nonsense, the perfect girl for him. Long-distance hadn’t been awesome but they had called, a few times they’d sent letters, and she’d even come to a few of Sunset Curve’s house party gigs a few times. They’d only dated a few months before they broke up and she went to prom with an ex, but totally didn’t matter. She’d agreed to come to the Orpheum show and he was going to try to win her back.
Learning she was still living in her childhood home? Interesting choice, but the house had fascinated him since the first time he’d visited. (Only 3 times had that happened over the course of their relationship, stupid long distance, but his parents thought she was a good influence on him). A pretty big place with more rooms than seemed possible, and a never-ending stream of people with smiles on their faces. Her sisters had been cool, one uncle unbelievably hilarious and the other a rock god, her dad nice enough to feed a teen boy with an empty stomach, and her aunt and the twins were bubbly and bright. Good vibes, great fun. Too bad his friends hadn’t gotten to meet her. Another missed Orpheum opportunity.
Okay so…he just had to walk in, right? Not really any way to knock since, y’know, he was a ghost and all. Even if he could knock – he sort of could, he’d been practicing with Julie’s door because he was at the very least a respectful ghost - it’s not like she’d be able to see him. No, that would require Julie and the boys and a lot of music. And it wasn’t like he wanted to freak her out. Imagine your dead ex-boyfriend appearing after 25 years, looking exactly the same as he did before and jamming out in your street? Yeah, she’d flip out.
Reggie takes a deep breath (and yeah, it wasn’t like he needed to breathe, but lifetime habits were hard to break) and steps through the front door. The living room is empty and of course it is; this is way too early in the morning for anyone to really be up. The clock on the mantle tells him it’s 7 AM on Saturday, which had seemed like the perfect time to sneak out, with Julie asleep and Luke writing and Alex acting like he wasn’t waiting for a respectable hour to go see Willie.
There are things everywhere. Definitely children's toys, much more advanced than what they’d had in the ‘90s. The possibility of her having children hadn’t even crossed her mind. It’s been 25 years and the world went on without him so anything could be possible with her. She could be a movie star or an astronaut or a governor or - well, she could be anything, really. They hadn’t known each other well enough for her to share her deepest career dreams, and his had been obvious. It hurts a little to know that he doesn’t know this girl at all. This woman. She’s not a teenager anymore, not like him.
Feeling a bit of a stalker, he wanders through the main floor of the house, avoiding pictures when possible because he’d like to see her in person first. But there are pictures of children with her smile, pictures of her father and uncles (their faces haven’t changed much, even with lines weathering their features), happiness all around and he’s happy for her, really. But he can’t help but wonder if he’d have fit into all of this if it hadn’t been for that hot dog accident ending him in his youthful prime. What ifs are like peppermints , he muses, free and plentiful if you care to look. It’s a bit nonsensical but isn’t that one of his key personality points?
As he’s examining papers hung on the fridge, there are footsteps on the stairs. Reggie whirls around because oh no! He’s going to be caught! But the woman coming down the stairs doesn’t acknowledge his existence, and neither does the man following her. They’re both smiling softly, pajama-clad and tiptoeing, and it’s obvious that they’re in love when he presses a kiss to the top of her head before heading through to the living room.
She turns on a radio and soft rock music drifts out as she starts to pull cookware out of the cabinets. Her blonde hair flutters around her shoulders while she bops around. Reggie has moved away to stand by the table, watching her start to cook, and there’s a sad smile sitting on his face. This is definitely DJ Tanner, older than he’d last seen her but still with a joy to her soul that’s evident even this early in the day.
The man comes back with a newspaper and sits at the kitchen bar, skimming through it and shooting smiles at DJ as she works. It takes a few minutes, but Reggie manages to place the face. It’s Steve, the ex that took DJ to prom and the man he was always sure was her first love. Even when they’d been dating, there had been pictures of Steve all around the house. The other guy had been brought up plenty of times the few times he’d been here and it had always rankled.
So she’d ended up with him after all. If it had to be anyone - well, Reggie hadn’t necessarily expected to marry her one, but he was a bit of a hopeless romantic at heart - at least it was someone she’d loved all her life. Lots of worse things could have been revealed today. He sighs, and DJ looks up at Steve. “Did you say something?” she asks him, head cocked a little.
Steve looks, for lack of a better word, startled. “No? Unless I was reading out loud again by accident.” DJ shakes her head.
“I just thought I heard you sigh. Weird.” Her head turns around the kitchen a little bit, but she doesn’t see anything, thankfully. How had she heard him? Flynn couldn’t even hear them and they’d spent tons of time together. Well, as much as a ghost and a non-Julie person could spend time together.
This was a mistake. A huge mistake. His friends had been right. All he was doing was poking a wound that had no choice but to close up. Reggie runs a hand through his hair and takes a last look. This could have been him. Maybe not this girl, maybe not this place. But he could have fallen in love and had a nice house with a nice woman that couldn’t help but smile at him no matter what she was doing. He could be reading the paper - okay, probably not - while she cooked, or she could read the paper while he ran out for food. A lot of things had been taken from him the day he died.
He takes a final look at the scene before he disappears. The tiniest pop sound fills the blank air where he’d been. The radio starts to play a new song, by ‘a real up-and-coming group!’
“Don’t blink, no I don’t want to miss it…”