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Julie was upside down, laying with her feet over the back of the couch in the loft. In the chair next to her, Luke had his notebook open, while Reggie was plucking away at his bass, pacing back and forth a few feet away. Alex rounded out the band, sitting in front of the coffee table.
“What’s our plan for marketing the new song?” Alex asked, spinning his drumsticks with one hand, before tapping them gently against the table.
“I figured we’d just post it on Bandcamp, Spotify… maybe a few other music platforms.” Julie said. She waved her hand toward the house, “Dad said he’d take some promotional photos and call in some favors to help with a music video, if we wanted.”
“Once we have an official music video, we can send it to producers,” Luke said, nodding along with the plan, scribbling a potential lyric before he forgot it.
“And MTV!” Reggie added, playing a short jingle on his bass to emphasize his statement. “I’ve always wanted to be on MTV.”
“Uh…” Julie flipped herself upright, unsure of how carefully she should tread. It always seemed random which changes the boys took in stride (cell phones and social media), and what they had a really hard time adjusting to (Marvel had not only survived bankruptcy, but was a pop culture juggernaut), “MTV doesn’t really do music videos anymore.”
“What? But…” Reggie sputtered, stopping in place and spinning on his heel to look at her, “MTV stands for Music Television.”
“It was a bit before my time.” She shrugged, looking apologetic, “But I guess people weren’t into watching music videos on tv anymore? I’m not really sure what happened. Maybe the internet or something?”
Alex shook his head in confusion. “So, if they don’t show music videos, what do they play?”
“A lot of reality television, I think.” Julie racked her brain for show titles. “Things like Teen Mom and Jersey Shore.” She snapped her fingers, “Oh, they also experimented with some scripted television for a bit, like Teen Wolf, but they don’t really do that anymore, either.”
“You mean… like the Michael J. Fox movie?” Reggie asked. “We saw that, you know, back when we were alive.” His brow furrowed in thought, “That seems like an odd choice for a tv show.”
“I think it was a sequel or a reboot or something.” Julie frowned, shaking her head, “It ended when I was like 12 or 13, so I don’t know much about it since I never really got into it. Flynn’s older sister loved it, though.”
“Mija, dinner’s ready!” Ray called from the house, barely loud enough to be heard in the loft.
Julie looked toward the door and grabbed her phone from the table. She got up from the couch and walked toward the door, waving goodbye to the band.
Right after exiting the loft, she stuck her head back in through, remember one last detail she had forgotten, “Oh! I’m going to Flynn’s tomorrow, and I know she had some ideas for a social media campaign for our next song, so I’ll check with her, okay?”
Julie waved goodbye to Flynn and ran upstairs to place her overnight bag in her room to deal with later. Swinging by the kitchen, she said grabbed a snack from the pantry before making her way to the loft.
As she exited the front door, she realized it was oddly quiet. Even when they weren’t practicing, one of the boys was usually strumming or drumming away at an instrument. Sometimes it was a cover of a popular song, sometimes a riff or harmony they were trying to work on, and sometimes it was just a chaotic cacophony of sound, like they couldn’t function without music, but didn’t know what to play. You never knew what you were going hear, but it was never silent. Not like this.
Her steps sped up as she neared the door, and she could hear some low background noise as she got closer, but nothing she could identify. Julie placed her hand on the door handle, slowly creeping it open, bracing herself for what she might find.
The loft was dark except for the light coming in from the windows. Alex, Luke, and Reggie were strewn on the couch, halfway on top of each other. The only other source of light was the television that had been rolled into the center of the room.
“Uh…” Julie carefully treaded around the instruments and sheets of music that had been left around the loft and made her way to the television to get a better look. “How long have you been watching this?”
Alex motioned Julie to move away from in front of the television, eyes glued to the screen. “Carlos put it on after you left.”
“I left for Flynn’s house yesterday morning!” She looked between them and the screen, stepping back when she saw that Luke was trying see around her body. “Have you been watching Teen Wolf for over 30 hours straight?”
“AutoPlay really is the best invention of the future,” Reggie replied, drawing out the words, eyes wide in awe. “It’ll just keep playing and playing and playing whether your'e corporeal or not.”
“Yeah,” Luke drawled, “and it turns out that sleeping is optional when you’re a ghost. I guess we’d just been doing it out of habit.”
“This cannot be good for you,” Julie said, “even if you’re dead already.”
“Maybe we can become a Teen Wolf tribute band,” Reggie said, seemingly not having heard her. The three of them shot him a harsh look, and he put up his hands in placating manner and shook his head. “Tough crowd. It’s always good to have a back-up plan if our original music doesn’t take off.”
“Are you sure you don’t want to join?” Alex asked, scooting over on the couch to make room for her. “We’re in the middle of season 3, but we can totally catch you up!”
“Well…” Julie looked from the television screen to the boys again, seeing their faces light up in anticipation, “I guess I don’t have anything better to do.” She settled into the couch, letting the bands’ voices filter over her as the television played on. It was the exact position that Ray would find her hours later when he came to get her for dinner.