GHOSTING

HOLLYWOOD
circa 1995

THE WIND howled on that night, it was dark and cool, the streets were crowded with civilians as cars passed by, voices of many people tackled over each other, but on sunset boulevard stood the orpheum. Any person knew that your career starts there, that's where your dreams could come true, the sign buzzed as the blue letters lit up the night.

"One, two, three!"

"Take off, last stop, countdown till we blast open the top. Face first, full charge, electric hammer to the heart, clocks move faster cause it's all we're after now." The loud voices of sunset curve blasted through the building as the 5 members grinned widely, "Won't stop climbing, cause this is our time, yeah. When all the days get black and white, those we're the best shades of my life!" Together the group was unstoppable "Don't look down!"

"Cause we're still rising!"

"Up right now"

"And even if we hit the ground!"

"We'll still fly, keep dreaming like we'll live forever. But live it like it's now or never!"

"We ain't searching for tomorrow, (tomorrow), cause we got all we need today, (today)!"

"Living live on a feeling that's been running through our veins, we're the revolution that's been singing in the rain! Don't look down, cause we're still rising, up right now!"

"And even if we hit the ground we'll still fly, keep dreaming like we'll live forever, but living like it's now or never! It's now or never!" The last strum of the guitar echoed as 4 people of the building faintly cheered.

"Whoo, excellent!"

"Sounds great guys!"

Roxy jokingly bowed as she moved her long brown her out her sweaty face, her chest rose up and down as her breath grew heavy. She looked over at her band mate, Reggie, who walked up to the microphone. "Thank you, we're sunset curve." He said and winked as Roxy walked over to him.

"You were amazing Reg, truly." Roxy laughed "Your a bit sweaty, but still looking good." She clicked her tongue with a smirk as Reggie smiled at her.

"Why thank you, I'm that I can still pull off my amazing looks even if I'm sweaty."

"Too bad we wasted that on the sound check, that's the tightest we've played." Bobby laughed as Roxy put her hair up into a ponytail, Luke placed his guitar down and looked at Bobby with a smile.

"Wait until tonight, man, when this place gets packed with record exces."

"Alex you were smoking!" Reggie complimented the blonde boy who lightly blushed as a bashful smile played on his lips.

"Oh no, I was just warming up, you guys were the one fire." Alex said as Roxy rolled her eyes and leaned onto Reggie.

"Lexie, can't you just own your awesomeness for once." The brunette girl scoffed as the rest of the team nodded in agreement, Alex grinned widely and sighed.

"Alright I was killing it."

"That's the sprit." Roxy winked and patted Alex's back.

"Okay well, i'm thinking we fuel up before the show, I'm thinking street dogs." Luke suggested as Roxy fake gagged at the mention of the food. "Oh c'mon Rox, you've never even tried them!"

"The name itself is disgusting, Luke, I'm not eating some hotdogs from the back of a car." She replied as Luke shrugged, Bobby suddenly jumped off the stage without a warning, the rest for the band followed after him with confused looks and furrowed brows. Reggie jumped down and turned around to help Roxy, "I'm going to jump, you better catch me."

"Don't worry, I don't have these muscles for nothing."

"Yeah, right." Roxy chuckled jumping off the stage as Roxy was quick to catching but nearly tripped in the process. "I said to catch me dumbass." Roxy scowled hitting head.

"Sorry you were heavier then expected."

"Oh, wow." The girl scoffed crossing her arms as she walked away, Reggie's widened, he stuttered out words an apology though he words were completely incoherent.

"No, no, no, I didn't mean it like that!"

"Hey Bobby, where are you going?" Roxy asked catching up to the rest of the boys, but soon Roxy found out when she saw the boys approaching the young woman cleaning the bar, all of them had been eyeing her all night.

"I'm good." He said to his friends then turned back to the woman. "Vegetarian, I could never hurt an animal." He lied.

"Roxy, I'm sorry I didn't mean it like that." Reggie panicked as Roxy lightly laughed beside him. "Please forgive me I didn't mean it, I'm sorry and-"

"It's fine." A sigh of relief came out of his lips as Roxy turned her attention back to the lady in front of her.

"Oh thank god." He mumbled wrapping an arm around her shoulder, "I knew you would forgive me." He whispered into her ear.

"Is that why you were panicking?" She raised a brow as he rolled his eyes at her comment before looking back in front of him.

"You guys are really good." The woman in the Spanish accent told them as they all mumbled quick 'thank you' "I see a lot of bands, been in a couple myself, I was really feeling it." Her gaze was particularly set on Reggie.

"That's what we were doing this for, I'm Luke by the way." Luke stepped up with a smirk.

"Reggie."

"Alex."

"Bobby."

"Roxanne."

"Nice meeting you guys." The curly hair woman smiled "I'm Rose."

Reggie quickly reached into his leather jacket and pulled out a CD case. "Oh, here's our demo." He handed the woman the small case and also handed her a shirt. "And a T-shirt, size beautiful." He said attempting to flirt but the band all knew it was horrible.

Rose grabbed the t-shirt and grinned as she placed it on her shoulder. "Thanks, I'll make sure not to wipe the tables down with this one." She laughed.

"Oh, good call, whenever they get wet they kind of just fall apart in your hands." Alex explained as Roxy lightly chuckled beside him.

"Don't you guys gotta get hotdogs." Bobby interrupted in an annoyed tone.

"I don't, I hate them." Roxy spoke up as Reggie grabbed her wrist. "Hey!"

"You are coming with us, Rox, you can't escape."

"By the way, he had a hamburger for lunch." Roxy told the woman patting Bobby's shoulder before Reggie dragged her away, the 4 got their things and left the building with excitement.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Luke cheered as they walked out, Reggie spotted people and quickly pulled out more shirts from his backpack.

"The smell of sunset boulevard?" Alex questioned as Luke laughed.

"No." He replied "It's what the girl said in there tonight, about our music, it's like an energy it connects us with people. They can feel us when we play." He explained as they walked down the alley and towards the street, he pulled his friends together. "I want that connection with everybody."

Reggie looked down at the white shirt in his hand. "Then we're gonna need more t-shirts."

"Let's go boys." Luke laughed and turned to Roxy who stood there waiting, he rolled his eyes as and turned to her. "And girl." He added as Roxy smiled and followed after them, Luke pulled his hoodie over his head, Alex looked away making sure the fans in line would not see them.

But Reggie approached and handed them a t-shirt without a care in the world. "Ladies." He smirked as the girls took the shirts but soon realized and looked at him with wide eyes. Reggie quickly walked back to his friends as the girls called out for him in desperation, though Roxy felt a pinch of jealousy poke at her but she shrugged it of with humor and sarcasm.

"You need to start flirting better Reggie." Roxy laughed "It's seriously horrible, and I don't know how much I can stand, it's starting to physically hurt when I see you trying to flirt."

"Well, want me to practice on you." He asked wrapping an arm around her shoulder, Roxy immediately removed his arm.

"No." She giggled shoving him as she ran beside Alex. "I'm staying with Lexie from now on."

"Oh, come on!" He complained as Alex chuckled and wrapped a arm around his shoulder, they reached the strange alleyway with a car parked and 2 people stood making hotdogs on an old grill.

"3 Hotdogs with everything." Luke ordered as the man nodded and handed them the food, they each grabbed different condiments from the car as Alex picked up some pickles but it drip onto the car cables.

"Man... I can't wait until we eat someplace, where the condiments aren't served out of the back of an Oldsmobile." The blonde said as he turned to the man. "Hey...sorry, I got some pickle juice on your battery cables."

"No problem, it'll help with rust." The older man chuckled as Alex furrowed his brows.

"That can't....okay, what?" He mumbled as the 4 sat down on an old couch that was completely falling apart, inside of comfortable cushions there was a cardboard box with roaches crawling all over them, Roxy sat on the arm of the couch since she couldn't fit and was a bit disgusted.

"This is awesome guys, we're playing The Orpheum! I can't even count how many bands have played here and then ended up being huge." Luke ranted as the band chuckled "We're gonna be legends!" He held up the hot as smiled "Eat up boys, cause after tonight, everything changes."

"Here try, I promise it's good." Reggie offered to the girl beside him as she stared at it with a disgusted look. "It's not as bad as it looks Rox."

"Fine." She muttered and took a small bite of hotdog but immediately tasted something disgusting yet she still swallowed and groaned. "Does it usually taste this disgusting."

"Chill Rox, street dogs haven't killed us yet."

But the next thing they knew they we'd being carried away by an ambulance.