#Luke and Alex literally needing to be detained because hey would have gotten lost in the woods looking otherwise

[jmrothwell]

"Weirdly, the best sleep I've ever had." / Royal Purple

This day could not get any worse, and Julie really needed to stop thinking that particular sentiment. It was like every time she thought it the universe conspired to prove just how wrong she was. 

First she couldn’t get out of this stupid haunted forest night hike activity that someone thought was a good idea. Then she wasn’t allowed to go with Flynn, because the ever so brilliant activity lead also thought it’d be brilliant to completely randomize the groups. While she didn’t have Flynn’s misfortune of being stuck with Nick and Carrie during one of their ‘off’ periods Julie was still trapped with Kayla and Reggie. 

Kayla, who rarely ever spoke to her. Almost always close to Carrie, unsurprisingly since she was practically Carrie’s number one Dirty Candi girl.  And then Reggie, who Julie had even less interaction with. Only really knowing that he and the rest of his band were as close to getting dropped out of the music program as she was. Despite how new they were, though for entirely different reasons. 

The two of them seemed friendly enough. Though, it didn’t take long before she was feeling like an awkward third wheel with how quickly they got flirty. An analogy that got all sorts of confused and mixed up when Reggie turned his attention to Julie.

“So, Julie?” He spoke her name like he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to say it, like even acknowledging her very presence would shatter her like the most fragile glass. She didn’t even have the time to feel insulted at the insinuation as he plowed on, practically shattering her apart anyway. “I think I’ve missed out on any of your performances, what do you play?”

 God maybe she was more fragile than glass. She avoided glancing towards Kayla, certain she’d be pulling some face or ready to make some snarky Carrie-like comment. Julie was not ready for this kind of attention and wished to get out of it. Only for the heavens above to open and release a sudden torrential rain pour on the three of them. 

Which is how Julie now found herself in a small dusty abandoned cabin in the woods that Kayla managed to spot. The one stroke gracious stroke of luck for the night. A fact Julie tried to remind herself as she tried her best to hold off the chills running through her veins.

“Don’t worry.” Kayla stuttered loudly enough for Reggie to hear as he explored the cabin to see if there were any blankets or firewood to help warm them. “I’m sure once they notice we’re gone they’ll send out some sort of search party.”

Sure, once they notice Kayla and Reggie were gone. The odds were slim of anyone but Flynn noticing Julie was gone. She kept her mouth shut as she tentatively sat on the creaky couch that vaguely smelled of mildew. 

“You make it sound like it’s going to rain like this all night.” Reggie laughed from the other room. 

“Who knows, maybe it could.” Kayla said, sitting on the couch beside Julie, her chilled damp arm brushing against Julie’s. “If nothing else it’d be safer to stay here. Unless either of you know how far we may have ventured from the trail, because I certainly don’t.”

Julie silently shook her head before realizing it may be too dark to be seen and quietly said her “no” out loud. 

“You got a point there.” Reggie said, his outline barely more than a silhouette as he returned to where Julie and Kayla were, sitting on Julie’s other side. She pulled her arms in tighter trying to shrink into herself when his wet flannel brushed against her. It was a bit of a surprise he was still bothering to wear it. 

“Anyway,” he continued on, leaning further into her space. “All I could find was this blanket, one the one bed this place seems to have. So unless either of you wanted to use the bed–”

Julie wrinkled her nose at that idea, given the state of the couch who knew what that mattress was like. 

“Ew. God no.” Kayla echoed, and Julie’s chest twisted uncomfortably despite how she knew Kayla was also only referencing the mattress.

“Yeah, I figured you’d say that.” Reggie laughed again, weaker and more stuttering than before.

“He should probably get out of those wet clothes” Someone said, and Julie froze as the other two fell silent and she realized that someone was her. 

Reggie bumped her with his shoulder. “Is that a come on?”

“N-no.” Julie stammered out, teeth chattering from a mixture of her growing mortification and the cold, her blush doing little to warm her up. “You’re drenched, and clearly freezing. I-I’m j-just saying, you’ll g-get sick if you do-on’t get warm and dry.”

“You’re not much b-better yourself.” Kayla replied, a distinct lack of venom or malice. 

“Sounds like we’re all in a bad shape.” Reggie stuttered out again before mournfully adding, “Too bad I didn’t find any firewood.”

“Well maybe we should just get out of these wet clothes then.” 

“What?” Julie and Reggie both snapped at Kayla’s suggestion. 

“Think about it. We’re all soaked and freezing. We have one, questionably decent, dry blanket. Plus the body heat would probably help too. Besides, if we stay in our underwear it’s basically like we’re just in swimwear.”

While Kayla’s argument added a layer of mortification Julie hadn’t felt regarding swimwear in a long while, she couldn’t deny the logic behind it all. Neither could Reggie. 

None of it alleviated the awkwardness of stripping in front of each other. The three of them turned their back to each other as they did. Silently sitting back on the couch in their earlier arrangement and Julie tried to not think too hard about the state of the couch or blanket. Nor about how smooth Kayla’s legs against hers were, or about how surprisingly toned Reggie felt against her other side. Her mind instead decided to wonder what the other two were thinking about her. Not that it mattered much, right?

Reggie quickly broke through the growing silence. “Feels like we should have had dinner, or played like strip poker first or something.”

“What?” Kayla laughed incredulously, Julie’s own confused chuckle mixing in. 

The three of them soon found themselves falling into teasing conversation similar to the one from their earlier hike. Only now Julie felt less like an awkward third wheel and more like she had a surer place between the two of them. Though it probably helped she literally was between the two of them. 

And much like before it wasn’t long before Julie found herself on the receiving end of questions she was unprepared for.

“So, Julie, you never did answer my question before.” Reggie said, though now Julie could tell it was genuine curiosity that drove his inquiry.

Julie took a deep steadying breath, bracing herself. Not so much to answer Reggie, by this point she was almost numb to the words she needed to say, a mechanical practiced speech. Rather she braced for whatever pitying response she might get in return, the unpredictability of which she could never truly prepare for. 

Before she could say anything though, Kayla’s long nails brushed Julie's hair aside as she leaned closer, warm breath ghosting across the shell of her ear. “Hey, you don’t have to answer if you aren’t ready. I’m sure he would understand, or I could distract him. If you want.”

Julie grabbed ahold of Kayla’s hand, giving it a small squeeze. Hoping it came across as the thanks it was intended to be.

“You actually haven’t missed any of my performances.” Julie quietly said.

“Oh.” Reggie’s hushed tone matched hers. “But I thought–”

“You’re not wrong.” Julie cut him off not wanting the reminder and Kayla squeezed Julie's hand again. Maybe, maybe Kayla was right about this too. At least Julie hoped she was, because Julie definitely wasn’t ready to tackle this. Not tonight anyway. 

“However.” She said, trying to infuse as much flirting teasing as he and Kayla had been using all night. Even if she could tell she was doing an extremely poor job of it, her voice cracking despite her efforts. “That’s a part of my back story you have yet to unlock.”

Reggie did her the service of laughing at her poor attempt at a joke and allowing the conversation to move to new topics. She did him the service of pretending his ‘oh so random excuse’ for a hug not even a minute later was just that, ‘a random hug.’ One that Kayla also happened to get involved in.

The next morning Julie was almost certain the whole evening had been a bizarre fever dream until she realized she’d fallen asleep sitting up. Slowly she blinked her eyes open to find herself leaning against Reggie’s pale freckled shoulder, a heavy weight leaning against her own head and against her other side. Julie shifted, trying to not wake the other two but not sure hoe to remove herself from between them. 

“Morning.” Kayla whispered, her voice slightly raspy, and making no move to get off of Julie. “We must have accidentally drifted off.” 

Julie nearly squeaked in surprise to hear her voice, and definitely did when Reggie chuckled and whispered back. “Weirdly, the best sleep I've ever had."

“Same.” Kayla giggled, both of the laughing vibrating against Julie’s chest. And though she couldn’t quite bring herself to say it with her voice caught behind her smile, Julie felt the same way too. 

#jatp Royal Purple #julie and the phantoms #julie x reggie x kayla #this is longer than I expected #not pictured: #the less awkward getting dressed and return to camp #there was a search party but of course rumors quickly start flying after people learn the found a cabin #Wasn't sure how to include it but that moment where Julie's like 'well the other two will be missed' was like an all three of them thing #like Kayla thinks only Carrie would notice because she's just a background dancer and Reggie thinks only his friends would notice #somehow all three of them miss how said friends would raise a fuss about them being missing #which 100% happened #Flynn and Carrie teaming up to threaten the camp with lawyers and bad publicity and reviews #Luke and Alex literally needing to be detained because hey would have gotten lost in the woods looking otherwise