Chapter Text
“Amazing as always,” Flynn was saying as Julie quickly walked over to her and down the hallway back to the green room.
“Was it? Because I feel like I’m gonna throw up,” she said, still trying to shake off some of the nerves.
“I could totally not tell,” Flynn reassured her like all of this was just fine and not making Julie hyperventilate.
She should be happy. People were starting to recognize her name more and more, she was getting booked for interviews to promote her music, these were all good things. She was definitely not complaining.
But at the same time more and more people were starting to recognize her name and she was getting booked for interviews and sometimes all the good things were also overwhelming. Getting a chance to connect with fans and get her music out there was incredible, she was living the dream, there was no doubt about that, but she was also not really used to people asking questions about more than that. She was suddenly aware that every little piece of information she ever mentioned would be out there for good for everyone to know and that ‘everyone’ was not the handful of Instagram followers she used to have up until a few months ago.
It wasn’t like she’d revealed anything insane, most things were information people could find out about her just from a quick google search anyway. She was still trying to keep her personal life personal however and it’d been going well so far. Nobody was harassing her for information she didn’t want to share or running after her on the streets to get a picture. It was a nice in between state she was hoping to stay in for a while.
Flynn’s phone suddenly went off, effectively getting her attention back from her minor spiral just outside the room. Flynn looked down at the screen and smiled. “Ooh, it’s Andi! Hello!” she answered, still beaming. “She killed it, one hundred percent.”
“I’m gonna go get ready to leave, okay?” Julie said quietly before slipping through the door. She just needed a moment alone before going right back to everything.
She gathered her things, taking a second more to look at her phone. She had a good luck text from her dad she hadn’t seen before going on and too many Instagram notifications. She replied to her dad, reassuring him about the whole experience even if she wasn’t quite there herself yet. She would get used to this at some point, she knew she would.
Grabbing her bag, she went back outside to find Flynn and go get something to eat, only to nearly bump into someone right as she opened the door.
“Shit, sorry-”
“I’m sorry-” Julie started saying when she actually saw whom she was talking to and nearly choked on her words.
“You’re Julie Molina, aren’t you?” he suddenly said, not really bothered by the way she’d cut herself off.
“You know me?” Julie blurted out before she could stop herself.
“Of course! You’ve got an EP out, right? It was insanely good,” he said. “I’m Luke by the way.”
Luke Patterson. She was well aware, she just never really expected this to be a conversation she was going to have in the near future. Especially Luke complimenting her own music.
“Sunset Curve, I know,” she managed to say without embarrassing herself and honestly, good for her.
“You do?” Luke said and for a second sounded just as surprised as Julie had a second ago. Against everything she just smiled.
“You’re kind of famous,” she said. She guessed they both were. Sunset Curve hadn’t really hit the spotlight until about a year ago, a few months before Julie herself. She had however heard them live eighteen months ago, she would be able to pinpoint the exact date and time if you asked, in a gig they’d held back before many people knew who these four boys were. Julie’s relationship with their music had been complicated to say the least, but she’d been happy to see them make it. She knew they would. But she couldn’t say all that right now without sounding weird.
“Yeah, I guess so,” he said, letting his own awe shine through for a second. Like it was still hard to believe sometimes. Julie could understand the feeling. “They wouldn’t have called us for an interview if no one cared about us, right?” he added with a smirk.
“The whole band is here?” Julie asked, still trying to reconcile with the fact that she was actually talking to Luke right now like this was a normal thing that could happen. He had no idea what his music meant for her.
“Nope, just me,” he said, rocking on his heels a bit. “I mean they asked for one person and we all very unanimously agreed that I should come.”
“That sounds very real,” she said with a nod.
“Yeah, making decisions is not really what we’re good at, but I can talk about our music for hours, I’ve got this,” he said. “Alex thinks I’ll somehow reveal all our future plans and get our label to drop us, but I told him he’s an idiot before I left, so it’s fine.”
Julie couldn’t help but laugh. She didn’t know much about the guys, but she definitely knew they made good music together. And they definitely had some kind of magnetic force, pulling people in from the very first note. Julie would know, she’d seen them perform in person.
Her phone started ringing, Flynn’s name showing up on the screen. She probably had to go, she already knew she had to be in the studio later that day.
“I have to go,” she said, the regret in her voice pretty evident, she wasn’t afraid to hide as much. She actually had a lot to say, but she didn’t really know the guy, she didn’t want to come off too eager. “It was nice meeting you,” she added, a voice screaming in her head for her to say more.
“You too,” Luke told her with a smile. Luke fucking Patterson was smiling at her. She needed to go scream for a second.
Flynn had been waiting for her outside and before she could say anything more, Julie intervened, “I just met Luke Patterson.”
“What?”
Julie was not a hundred percent sure she hadn’t hallucinated the whole thing.
Luke had liked her story a couple of days later. She’d liked his post. And things had kept going like this and it had been exciting, but mostly normal. And then in a sudden surge of self confidence she’d commented on one of his stories. Luke had replied. And they'd just… started talking.
And they kept talking. And talking.
And Julie waited for the penny to drop, for her brain to actually realize what was going on and freak out, but it just… never really came. They were two people in very similar situations with very similar interests and she supposed they just kind of… clicked.
You know, I actually saw you guys live once
WHAT
WHEN?
March 2023 - Eats and Beats
Reggie nearly electrocuted himself with an amp
Oh my God…
Why didn’t you say anything?
Wait- that was before we got signed
How long have you been a superfan?
Am I just feeding your ego at this point?
I can tell you that I once listened to Wake Up in a loop for an hour if that helps balance things out
And yeah, it was things like this that kind of made Julie feel all warm inside. They’d known each other for a couple of months and yet Luke was the biggest hype man she could ask for. They would talk about music and exchange ideas and Julie was getting so used to this whole routine, it was kind of insane actually.
Alex asks if you know Carrie Wilson
How would I know Carrie Wilson?
He said you both follow her
I am not Carrie Wilson level famous
Yet
We all started from somewhere
Well, when I get to meet her I’ll make sure to mention Alex
He says you’re his favorite
We’re all trying not to be insulted
Maybe you should have just known Carrie Wilson and you wouldn’t have lost your drummer
They were both semi popular and their fanbases must have overlapped in certain places because suddenly people started noticing. Flynn was the best manager Julie could have asked for and she kept an eye out for Julie’s name popping up online. She’d been the first to spot it, how the fans were commenting on Julie and Luke knowing each other.
Julie wasn’t exactly sure why anyone would care. She came to regret those words only a couple of days later when more and more tweets started coming in about how cute the two of them would be together. She didn't engage with any of it.
And then they’d actually met again for lunch, planned this time. Their schedules were chaotic to say the least, but they’d known each other for months, they wanted to discuss a song, it was a thing they did now. Somehow a blurry picture had ended up on the Internet and people had gone wild. She was trending for three days.
They were more careful after that. They definitely weren’t dating and if Julie maybe had a crush on him long ago that was her own business and buried under a hundred other things she had to go through first, but they definitely weren’t dating.
It was a thing that happened. They were neither the first nor the last famous people who were ever going to be shipped together by the fans and Julie was just going with it because there wasn’t much else she could do. At least Luke was cool about it too.
We should do an Instagram live together or something
People will assume we’re married
I’ll make sure to buy a ring first 🫡
Julie was doing just fine.
sunsetcurves
So uhm… Does the new Sunset Curve song sound like it was written for someone? A very specific someone? It was written by Luke is all I’m saying
#sunset curve #luke patterson #bright #julie molina #juke
revolutionintherain, comeonreginald and 64 others liked your post
curved-sunset reblogged your post
#I THOUGHT I WAS THE ONLY ONE #together I think that we can make it?? please #juke
onelife-noregrets replied to your post
Not to ruin anyone’s fun, but you remember Sunset Curve is a band right? Together? As in the band?molinasdahlias replied to your post
@onelife-noregrets ‘You and I will stand together’ - he’s clearly talking about two people here, yes they are a band, there’s no reason to separate himself from them
mynameisnotluke reblogged your post
#goddd I want to believe it so bad #julie liked every post about Bright btw #juke
alexshoodies replied to your post
I thought they broke up?mynameisnotluke
@alexshoodies Allegedly! No one had seen them together again after that one time, but they still follow each other and interact in posts!horseiswheremyhomeis replied to your post
Just want to remind everyone that their relationship is also very much alleged
“Did Luke write a song about you?” Flynn said instead of greeting her as soon as Julie opened her front door.
“How many conspiracy theories did you go through?” Julie asked as she let her in, closing the door behind her.
“Yeah, whatever, I have the added context of knowing both of you. Luke is into you,” she said.
“You don’t know that,” Julie said, walking past her into the living room where she could hopefully hide from this whole situation.
“I know that, his friends know that and the fans apparently do too. If you post a photo just in the near vicinity of each other the world might explode,” she said.
“Well, I wouldn’t want to destroy the world, would I?” Julie said, the picture of nonchalance as she fell back on her couch.
“Is that what’s keeping you back? You shouldn’t put your life on hold just because people will talk about it.”
Julie sighed. She knew she wouldn’t really have a say on that and maybe it was part of it, but there was also the very real fact that she didn’t want to lose Luke. He’d become part of her life - his music had been a very significant part of her life before they’d even met, she couldn’t bear the possibility of losing everything just because they tried to go for something more and it just didn’t end up working out. Maybe it was better to preserve what they had. It was good.
"Have you talked to him about that concert?" Flynn asked as she came to sit next to her.
Julie had been meaning to. About the concert, about what followed after, she just... hadn't yet. It wasn't the best subject to ease into and she didn't really think she should do it over text. She had a lot of things she wanted to say, she just also needed the right moment to do so. All Luke knew was that she'd seen them play live once. "Not yet." She would eventually.
“What did he say about the song?” Flynn changed the subject when she didn't elaborate.
“He definitely didn’t say I wrote this about you,” Julie said, relieved that she didn't have to go any more into it. “They are putting an album out soon, this was probably written before we even met.” And it was true, they’d known each other for about six months now. Songs took time to write and if they’d chosen Bright as one of their singles it had definitely not been written within a day or something. You needed to work on it, try it out, make sure it worked for the whole band, rehearse and then choose which ones were going to be the singles long before they actually came out.
People were just reading into things.
Even if it did remind her of a conversation they’d once had.
She was just reading into things.
“I cannot believe this actually worked out,” Bobby said as he handed Reggie a twenty dollar bill.
“I should have bet more money,” Reggie said wistfully. “We broke every previous streaming record.”
“How was I supposed to know he would write a hit in one night?” Bobby said, gesturing at Luke on the couch who had a satisfied smile as he went through his phone.
Until it was suddenly ripped out of his grasp.
“Hey!” he said, looking up to find Alex holding his phone on the other side of the couch.
“This is not healthy,” Alex said, still keeping his phone away.
“Seeing people’s reaction to our song?” Luke retorted though he knew he couldn’t play dumb for long.
“You’re not looking at posts about the song, you’re looking at posts about people speculating about the song,” Alex said.
“And that’s bad because?”
“Are you really gonna make me say it?”
Listen, Luke had not started out with the intention to write Bright. And even if he had a few ideas floating here and there, they were better left for the future, they were getting ready to launch a new album in a few months, they had to focus on that.
And then he’d been talking to Julie one night and they were saying how they’d pretty much rose in fame at the same time and how it was still weird sometimes and how you constantly had to fight to shine even for a little bit and well- She probably didn't really remember it.
The guys teased him about having a crush on Julie. He had never once denied it and he was pretty sure even if he did, the fact that he was constantly talking about her would probably betray him. But also how could he not?
Luke was always on the lookout for new people in the industry. He liked to know what was going on, listen to different sounds, ideas and just new creations from people who loved and lived through music the same way he did. And then he’d come across Julie Molina.
She was good. No actually, she was incredible. Luke had been mesmerized by her voice, he’d been listening to her songs for days. He wasn’t even the only one to say so, the guys agreed she was amazing and the way she had risen to fame in only a few months spoke for itself.
He hadn’t expected to run into her, but he was definitely glad he had. They’d started talking and suddenly they were talking almost every day, about music, about how their lives had changed so drastically so soon, about what they were currently working on - well, as much as they were allowed to - and it just felt so right. Luke had gotten so used to having her in his life.
Apparently so had the fans. Because the amount of people who wanted Luke and Julie to get together or who already thought they were together or who thought they'd been together and had broken up and then gotten back together, was overwhelming. Luke didn’t really care about rumors, they came with the territory, but it was also not the worst thing anyone could say about him.
So he’d written Bright. And maybe it was a little bit about Julie, not that he would ever publicly admit as much. Definitely not before he told Julie and telling Julie was not an option right at this second. Not before he was sure there was a chance this could go somewhere. He didn’t want to risk losing her.
He’d begged the guys to put it on the nearly finished album and he’d also suggested maybe putting it out there as the final single instead of Long Weekend. Reggie had been supportive, Alex had been hesitant and Bobby had been certain putting a song they’d barely rehearsed and worked on out there so soon was going to be a disaster. Well, the song had done undeniably well and Reggie was twenty bucks richer right now, so who was the winner here?
So yeah, maybe Alex was right and going through the fans' comments and theories about how the song was about Julie was not the best thing he could do when he hadn’t even talked to Julie about it, but he sure as hell wasn’t going to admit that to him.
Your streaming numbers keep going up
Ooh have you been listening to our songs?
Well, it’s all everyone’s been talking about, how can I not?
It’s really good, Luke
And that little thing was worth more to him than every single stream and article.
Luke was doing just fine.