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myloveforhergoeson · 10 months

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That's All She Wrote - Chapter 25

Chapter Index

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Chapter 25: Living Dead Girl (2.5) ~ 12k

It wasn’t often Roxy came home from a long day so tired she had fallen asleep in the middle of a task. However, between her date with James and her hour-long FaceTalk with Jo to decide on a Halloween costume for her and Kendall’s party tomorrow night, the writer had been beyond exhausted, accidentally going to bed clutching the piece she had been working so hard on.

After finally finding the time to have a dish session about her newfound relationship with James, and having enough information to exchange to hear all about Jo’s last date with Kendall, the FaceTalk was just what she needed. Roxy hardly cared anymore about what Camille might think, considering the two were still on the outs, so she decided not to let that be a determining factor in her relationship with Jo either. Camille would hear about all of it sooner or later - Once she felt confident enough to march to her friend’s door and issue a great big apology for breaking the unspoken girl code.

They’d stayed on the phone far past Jo’s assigned curfew, whispering ever so quietly to keep her dad from hearing her as the pair pulled items from their closets to try and put together a makeshift Halloween costume for the party the boys were putting on for Roxy and Kendall.

While Jo hadn’t found anything to her liking, much preferring to hear all the juicy details about why her best friend had been kicked out of Griffith Observatory, Roxy had discovered an old, white, forgotten dress she had picked up at one of her favorite thrift stores a few hours over from Duluth in Anoka, Minnesota after a small day trip with her dad.

The floral lace designs across the portrait neckline bodice had called her name, though the skirt was far too long for her liking, extending almost down beyond her ankles. When she purchased it, at the low price point of five whole dollars thanks to a wine stain by the left shoulder, she had full intentions to alter it to fit her height better to wear to a school dance eventually, but never got around to it. All she could manage at the time was an impressive stain removal thanks to some bleach and detergent.

Roxy hadn’t remembered packing it to take with her to California, but she was glad she did; As she told Jo about the beautiful charms James had gifted her, she took a pair of kitchen scissors to the fabric, cutting the intricately designed skirt up to look frighteningly tattered and damaged.

Maybe I’ll drag the bottom through Palm Woods Park in the morning to dirty it up, she had told herself as she finally tried on her creation to show off to Jo. That’ll make me look even more like a ghost girl.

With her friend’s seal of approval on her alterations, the pair finally hung up the phone after the blonde mentioned speaking to Camille about her immense costume wardrobe. Just the thought of those two interacting, plus Roxy’s long day, had tired the girl out enough to sleep like the dead.

***

Glancing over at her bedside clock as her eyes slowly fluttered open, Roxy learned it was well past noon, so it would probably be a good idea to go check in with the boys to see if they needed any help setting up for the party. Getting out of bed was easy thanks to her excitement, though the writer was dismayed to find out she had fallen asleep in her dress.

Hopefully, I didn’t wrinkle the train… She thought, absentmindedly puffing the fabric up with both of her hands. No use in changing now if I’m just going to change later. Besides, so many actors live here anyway, it’s not like I’ll look out of place.

As she passed by her mirror, she noticed the state of disarray her hair was in from rolling over her covers all night and gently smoothed it out with her fingers as best she could, taking in the sight of the rest of her features. Forgetting to wash her face had done a number on her makeup, but the dark, black circles around her eyes from the crumbling mascara and leftover eyeshadow mixing actually added to her spooky costume.

I can always redo it later…

As her eyes fanned out to the rest of her costume, it had turned out beautifully; The length of the dress and the way the strips of fabric curled around the floor almost gave off the illusion she was really a floating ghost.

There was just one small issue - well, honestly, a rather large one - as her gaze popped back up to her neckline. Almost as fresh as the day she had bought the dress, the stain dripping down the shoulder was back, though, instead of the deep crimson color she remembered extensively scrubbing away at, this new stain was tinted a much darker brown.

That can’t be…blood? Inching closer to the mirror, she pulled her hair off her shoulder, examining her skin around the site of the dress’ discoloration to find it perfectly smooth. I’d be…

Roxy couldn’t stand to finish the thoughts she had about a potential blood stain that considerable dried up on the side of her clothing. I must have spilled my soda while I was working.

It was at this time, that she caught note of something else as she looked back at her reflection in the mirror. The necklace her father had bought her was tightly clasped around her neck, proudly displaying the heart pendant, but the three charms her boyfriend had given her last night weren’t dangling beside it.

Instantly, her hand flew to her chest, too terrified to even feel her heart skip a beat.

“No, no, no…” She muttered, trying to keep herself from falling into a full-blown panic attack. For a moment, she felt like she didn’t even need to breathe as she moved back to her bed, searching over the covers to see if they had accidentally broken off. “I knew I shouldn’t have slept in this…”

When she couldn’t find any of the charms on her covers, or the surrounding floor, she reached for her red duvet to pull it back…. And her hand went straight through.

She stopped.

She stared at her completely vanished fingers.

She almost cried at the tingling sensation running up to her wrist, like her entire hand had lost circulation and fell asleep.

So, Roxy did what any rational person would have done - Pulled her hand up, wiggled her fingers around for a moment to wake them up, and reached for the covers again.

Same result; Her hand sailed right through the comforter as if it wasn’t even there.

Once again, it felt like her fingers were growing numb, but this time, she couldn’t pull away. Mind completely blank as she blinked a few times, the only thing she could focus on was the sound of someone screaming.

It wasn’t until a few moments later, when she heard the door connecting her apartment to 2-J open, then her bedroom door as Kendall, Logan, Carlos, and James came barreling into her room, did Roxy realize she was the one who was screaming.

“Roxy! What’s-” James, dressed in one of the most ornate gothic costumes the writer had ever seen, looked concerningly toward her, then to the hand she had lost to her bed before breathing out a sigh of relief. “Don’t scare us like that! You had us thinking that the spider was back…”

“Scare you?! Spider?!” The girl spat back, utterly confused, as she slowly realized Logan and Carlos were in their costumes too. “My bed is… a hologram or something! And- and I lost-”

Helplessly, she wiggled her arm around to show off her new vanishing ability, emphasizing the point she was trying to make about her strange situation. As if the covers weren’t even there, her hand easily cut through the space in which her mattress was, despite it looking as solid as it had the day she arrived in Los Angeles.

“Ooh! Hologram is a new one!” Laughed Kendall, bundled up in as many layers of clothing as he could comfortably fit in, as though they were back in their hometown - freezing cold Anoka, Minnesota. “I think you said illusion the last few times.”

Anoka… We’re from Anoka?

Roxy didn’t know what was worse: This prank or her inability to believe her own intuitive memory and recall information as basic as her hometown.

With a nod, Logan, made up as though he were a zombie, agreed, “It was ‘smoke and mirrors’ at one point I think…”

“For the love of God,” Roxy pleaded, earning a hiss from James on her last word. That little move allowed her to notice two large, porcelain fangs hanging where his canines should be. Had she not been so presently terrified, she probably would’ve been all over him by now if he planned to continue wearing his vampire attire. “Will the four of you tell me what’s going on, please? I don’t mind when you play tricks on Gustavo or Bitters but on me? That’s just cruel!”

Unexpectedly, it was Carlos who spoke next, though his vocalizations were a garbled mess of grunts and groans that complimented his Frankenstein’s Monster costume well.

It took Roxy a moment, but eventually, as she processed the noises coming out of his mouth, she was slowly able to understand what he meant. It was almost like being stuck in French class back at Mountain Aire; She had to concentrate very hard in order to translate.

“Yes, Carlos, I know I’m a ghost. Not even one of you thought to compliment my outfit by the way…” She trailed off before she moved over to where her boyfriend was standing by the doorway, practically pleading with him to put an end to this stupid prank. “James, seriously, this isn’t funny just tell me what you did to my stuff-”

When she reached out to place her hand on his cheek, Roxy was expecting the heat that normally radiated off of him - she always loved how warm he felt - but instead, she watched her hand dematerialize through his entire face.

At her touch, he let out a little, “Woo!” and that mostly covered up the second small scream the girl let out as she abruptly pulled her hand away, grasping at her wrist with her other hand as though she were holding some sort of dangerous weapon.

“If my heart was still beating that would’ve made it skip… I only feel the cold when you touch me you know,” He murmured, though his hands didn’t move up to her waist like they normally would with his flirty comments. Instead, one traveled up to the left side of his chest and thumped against his skin a few times to imitate a heartbeat. “I always hate how bad ghost memory is - trust me, we re-explain this to you every few months - but I feel better every time because you always remember we’re together.”

“Months? We’ve been together for less than three weeks.”

“Yes…” Kendall jumped in, sliding his palms into the sleeves of his flannel as though he were trying to hastily cover something up. “You’d been together for three weeks before you… died. But it’s been a little over a year now, right guys?”

“One year and one day exactly,” Logan informed her.

“But don’t worry, boo!” With a wicked flash of his fangs, James waggled his eyebrows. “I made sure our anniversary was super special.”

Carlos also added his own chaotic, “Every time you forget your memory, we get through it together - So don’t worry!” she understood him a bit quicker than she had before.

Did the bolts sticking out of his neck just… spark?

About a million questions running through her mind, all Roxy could do was stand there and stare at her friends, mouth slightly agape. However the more she took in her surroundings, doing her best to understand what they were telling her, she was beginning to believe the illusion she thought her dress gave of her floating wasn’t actually an illusion.

This is far too complex a prank… Even for them, She thought, reaching out to try and poke James in the arm. He let out another involuntary, “Brr!” as she watched her finger disappear into his paled skin. The James she knew would never allow himself to be such a pasty color, especially with the abundance of sweet sun at the Palm Woodsylvania. Not unless he can’t go out in the sun…. Wait, Palm Woodsylvania…?

There she went again, unable to trust her own fuzzy memory.

Nodding in agreement, Logan sighed, “It’ll all come back in time… But man, you couldn’t have picked a worse day for a reset! We’re performing at Griffin’s big Halloween party later and Doc Rocque is breathing down our necks about a perfect performance!”

Inspecting closer, Roxy’s eyes raked up and down his beaten and discolored form, noticing a small shard of creamy ebony connecting one of his fingers to his hand and an even larger one connecting his arm to his shoulder socket. I know Camille’s a good SFX artist, but she’s not that good.

Something certainly wasn’t adding up, but she knew that her friends would never joke about a topic as serious as her own death. Roxy had known she could trust them since the moment they had met in their audition back in Anoka when she had forcibly inserted herself into their conversation and handed Logan back his arm after it had fallen off.

That’s what happened?

By now, the boys just stood around her room, cautiously eyeing each other before looking back at their assistant. It unnerved her greatly, but she did her best to ignore the way their gaze bore into her as she recalled more and more things that had happened to them after moving across the country to their spooky residence.

The first full moon she had spent with Kendall after learning he was a werewolf, her short-lived fling with vampire Dak Zevon, keeping her favorite candles out of sight whenever Carlos came over, and of course, the very first time she had James had kissed backstage at the first ever Big Time Rush concert. Her memories were so vivid, replaying in her mind as though she was experiencing them for the very first time except… She was alive.

Roxy could feel it too, the fear she had experienced when she accidentally tore Logan’s foot off at one of BTR’s dance practices, the cool plastic of her favorite guitar picks in her hand, and the marble-like feel of James’ fingertips tracing the outline of her face that made her heart completely stop. Things she would never be able to experience again; A fact she knew to be true, solely based on the completeness she remembered feeling in her past and the vast emptiness she felt inside of her now.

That seemed like everything - Everything up until the night she supposedly shed her mortal coil and crossed over into the land of the dead. After that, everything was completely blank. An entire year of her life, gone.

Those were her memories, the essence of who she was, and there was no way the boys could plant such ideas in her head.

“So… We’re caught in some fucked up supernatural version of 50 First Stakes?” She finally asked, glancing at herself in her full-length mirror, trying to memorize every feature that made her so ghost-like in the first place. For a moment, she swore that wasn’t the name of the movie about the playboy vet trying to woo the artsy, vampiric amnesiac, but what else would it be called?

Eyes casting downward momentarily, James cleared his throat, “It’s a pretty similar situation to ours, yeah.”

“And we’ll get through this together, because we always do?”

At the emphatic yes the boys shared, Roxy grew a bit more relieved at the situation she was facing, figuring that if she had been through this many times before, this time would be no different.

If they told her everything was going to be okay, she knew everything was going to be okay.

It wasn’t long after that, Kendall, Logan, and Carlos muttered different things they had to do in order to prepare for the party that night, quickly heading out of apartment 2-H, leaving the not-so-newfound ghost alone with her vampire.

There was certainly a lot to process, but like most things related to Big Time Rush, there wasn’t any time to make heads or tales of her situation before moving on to the next issue to solve.

Not quite sure how to move forward, Roxy sighed, longingly glancing toward her bed. Maybe if I just go back to sleep this will all be over…

Eventually, her gaze shifted back to James, who was leaning on her dresser. Trying not to make it obvious she was jealous he was able to even touch it, she attempted to lighten the mood. “Well, they sure got out of here pretty quickly.”

“Mhm,” The vampire responded, taking a step closer to his assistant. A small smirk formed on his lips, one fang sticking out just a tiny bit. “That’s because they know you always ask me the same question when your memory resets.”

“If this happens to me so much, don’t you ever get tired of it?”

That sure wiped the smirk right off his face.

With a hesitant hand reaching out to run through his slicked-back hair, James faltered, “O-okay, that’s a new one. New question, new question…”

Roxy would feel bad for catching him off guard if she could remember what the question he was referring to actually was.

“Um, no, boo, not at all. Not if it’s for you. We wouldn’t even be Hollywood’s first monster boyband if not for your support, so, we’ll always put in the work to help you out.”

Had she been able to conjure up some tears, they’d probably be welling in her eyes right about now. It felt a bit tragic all she wanted to do was seek comfort in the arms of a boyfriend who wouldn’t even be able to hold her.

“Are you mad I lost the charms you gave me?”

“Oh, wow, another new one,” He breathed, glancing toward the mirror on her dresser like he was expecting to see his own image in the reflection. If she didn’t know any better, she’d say he was even a little panicked. “The charms? No, of course not. They’ve… They’ve been gone for a while, but it’s alright! Don’t even worry about it.”

So forgiving, Roxy thought, though she vowed to keep searching as hard as she could to find them again. How the ghost necklace situation would end up was as mysterious as the state she had found herself in, but they’d be able to find a solution.

Nervously wringing her hands together, the ghost did realize she had one more question for her boyfriend, though it was quite an awkward ask.

When he noticed the tension in her mannerisms, James’ eyes lit up before he took another step forward. Gently he held his hand up, palm to the ceiling, and Roxy took this as her cue to hover her fingers over his. Not quite touching, but still able to connect in some manner.

“Since we’re together… Are we able to…?”

If Roxy had a stomach it probably would’ve dropped when James shook his head.

“Not like we used to.” His tone was solemn, but there was a hint of something else twinging his words as if not all hope was lost. “So, we make do with second best.”

When James leaned in slowly, Roxy actually found herself wanting to pull away - a feeling she had never experienced around him before. Though he was more the ghost expert in this situation, she had already determined she wasn’t able to touch things without phasing through them, so just what exactly was he trying to prove?

So, she floated there, petrified with wide-open eyes as his lips reached the space where hers were.

Jumping a bit at the frigid cold feeling on his end, James knew this to be the right place to stop so he didn’t end up any farther in her form.

By her standards, this kiss - if she could even call it that - didn’t feel like anything they’d shared before, the same tingling sensation she had felt in her hand as it passed through her comforter now rushing through her entire body.

It made her gasp, accidentally filling James with an even more freezing sensation before he laughed and pulled away with a shiver.

“Not too shabby, first timer…” He joked, causing his girlfriend to playfully shove at his shoulder, only for her hand to go clear through his body and make him cackle even harder.

***

One lap around the hotel with Logan, Carlos, and James, and Roxy’s memories of the grounds began returning to her. She had lived there for almost nine months before she had her accident, so many of the halls and places on the property were still just as familiar to her.

While the pool wasn’t as enticing as it used to be - who knows what might happen to a stray, floating ghost if they got sucked into the drainage system - the cemetery was just as beautiful as it always had been. The neat headstones were well maintained by the maintenance people and the whispering willows were still doing their fair share of gossiping. Few things had changed, except for the addition of a few new undead residents.

Roxy had half expected to see her own grave out there, but she wasn’t looking all that hard. Since the boys had brought it up earlier, she hadn’t had time to process what being dead meant to her and she certainly preferred to keep avoiding such thoughts. To her credit, she tried to bring it up again and ask what had happened, the three of them simply whisked her away to their apartment and changed the subject entirely.

I’m sure I’ll remember eventually.

Still getting used to her ghostly transparency, Roxy reached for the door handle to 2-J without thinking, only to have her hand wave clear through.

“Ugh!” She vocalized, resigning to float through the wood as James opened it for the rest of them, “This is going to take forever to get used to.”

“I know what’ll make you feel better! Watching me go talk to the new hot guy down by the pool.”

Rolling her eyes as she spied Kendall aggressively trying to shave off all the fur forming on the back of his hands with a handheld razor while his mother and sister worked on their witch’s brew in the kitchen. Roxy sarcastically punched, “Wow, you always know how to cheer me up, James. Besides, you were the only one who saw him, so we don’t even know if he’s real.”

“You’re right! I mean - I saw him first, I’m a hot vampire… and I will bite you!”

Glancing back over her shoulder, she learned that the comment was meant more for his other friends, but she didn’t find the joke to be all that funny. Though her memory was still very hazy, from her time as a human she remembered having to be very careful around her vampire boyfriend; He wasn’t very good at exhibiting control once blood was involved in a situation.

Though… Do Carlos and Logan even have blood? She wondered before Logan ended up changing the subject entirely.

“Hey, Teenage Lycanthrope, want to practice our dance moves for tonight?”

Mrs. Knight and Katie’s worried glances over to Kendall confirmed the answer Kendall’s friends knew was coming. “Can’t! Gotta shave my arms and meet up with Jo.”

The wolf’s words confused Roxy, who slightly narrowed her eyes before looking over to her other friends to gauge their reactions. She was pretty sure Jo knew that Kendall was a werewolf. Back before, or so Roxy believed, she, Jo, and Camille had their own little “Supernatural Boyfriends” club as some of the few non-supernatural humans to live in the Palm Woodsylvania.

“Alright, but you’re going to look like a real idiot when you can’t do this!” James scoffed, whispering a small countdown from three.

He, Carlos, and Logan all demonstrated the moves they had been learning for Griffin’s big party perfectly in sync until Logan went a bit too hard and his right arm popped clean off.

The five of them watched as his detached limb soared across the room before landing smack dab in the middle of the Knight’s brew.

“Ooh, that’ll add some flavor!” Katie giddy cried, grabbing onto the arm and stirring the contents of their large cauldron with it. Whatever liquid was inside bubbled a bit, popping on the surface to release a bit of spooky fog on the top of the mixture.

Since there weren’t any other witches at the Palm Woodsylvania Katie’s age, she and her mother were very close - Even going so far as to match their gigantic, black witches hats and adorable pumpkin aprons.

As fast as his hobbling legs could carry him, Logan made his way over to the two of them in protest, before pulling his arm back out from the young witch’s hand. “You can’t use Righty for one of your smelly witch potions!”

“For your information, we are making a cake!” Mrs. Knight bit back, right before dumping a bucket of eyeballs into the cauldron.

Sniffing at the air a bit as Logan reattached his arm, Roxy realized she couldn’t smell anything - disgusting or not. Time to cross smell off the list of potential ghost senses.

A bit of indistinct grunting to her left startled her a bit, but it was just Carlos trying to come up with a practice plan for all four of them.

“That’s a great idea!” Roxy beamed once she finally translated what he had suggested, “One of the conference rooms downstairs could totally be converted into a practice room.”

While that didn’t convince Kendall, it was enough for her to get the other three boys out of the room before anyone else became an ingredient in the Knight’s cake.

As they traveled down the dark hallowed halls of the second floor to the screeching stairwell, the band’s assistant tried to learn more about Griffin’s event, though James, Carlos, and Logan were all too distracted with their own thoughts to consider hers.

Roxy’s “Which song are you even singing tonight?” was overshadowed not only by the screams of the living staircase but by a multitude of text tones going off from Carlos’ phone as they reached the lobby.

Like before, the boy grumbled something about Dr. Rocquenstien and Kelly wanting to see him before their performance began in about four hours.

“Well, I’m coming too!” Chimed Logan, “Maybe Doc Rocque can keep me from falling apart.”

As if on cue, Logan’s right arm fell off again, eliciting a small gasp from James and Roxy. Hers at the sight of her friend’s literal arm falling off and his at the cold jolting through his body as Roxy reached for his hand without thinking.

“See?” Logan went on, ignoring the couple. “You okay, Righty?”

From the floor, the disembodied arm shot his owner a thumbs up.

Barely even giving the zombie any time to pick his arm back up, James quickly pointed someone out as they walked through the lobby. “Hey! There he is!”

Cutting across from the vending machine to the pool was a taller, incredibly handsome teen, waving at each Palm Woodsylvania resident he passed by. It was hard not to notice how perfectly his black tank top and camo cargo pants went together, complimenting his olive-toned skin and long, black hair. The only thing about him that seemed out of place was the large orange pool bag he had slung over one shoulder and the dark green duffel he took with him out to the pool.

Yeah… Now I get it.

Putting his phone back in his pocket, Carlos mumbled about going to make a new friend and moved to head to the pool, but James’ hand quickly shot out to grab his shoulder and hold him back. “No, no, Flathead. You’ll just scare him off.”

“Don’t call him that!” Roxy hissed, sending one of her fingers through James’ cheek for a bit of temperature therapy before her boyfriend shot off after the newcomer. “Well, I guess that just leaves-”

Arf! Arf!

Making his presence clearly known as he raced through the lobby, Lightning the TV Wonder-Hellhound shot under the bottom of Roxy’s floating dress. While she remembered him to be a bit of a troublemaker, it appeared scaring her wasn’t his only plan - Lightning did a circle around Logan as well, catching the zombie off guard before he picked up Righty in his teeth and darted away.

The exasperated gasp Logan let out would’ve hurt Roxy’s eardrums if she could still feel them. “Lightning, drop it! That’s my bone, not yours!”

As quickly as he could, the singer limped off after the hellhound while Carlos headed to the front doors to catch a car to Rocquenstein Records, leaving their assistant all alone in the lobby of the Palm Woodsylvania.

So much for doing this together.

It certainly felt strange to be floating by herself in a space that felt so foreign and so familiar at the same time. Roxy remembered the first time she had walked through the lobby doors with her band, how their first few months in town had been exceptionally rough as they proved their place alongside the human boy bands, and all the chaos they had caused in the hotel in their wake… She wanted to see James again, alone, and ask him a few more questions about the gaps in her memory and her ghostly abilities, but as she looked out the glass panes to the darkened pool exterior, she noticed he was sitting by the new resident as close as vampirically possible.

Roxy didn’t have a stomach, but she felt something in her unpleasantly turn, getting gnarled up and knotted at the sight of her boyfriend speaking to someone so human. There were many things about James she couldn’t get enough of, one being his penchant for physical touch. When they were alive, he could hardly keep his hands off of her, but in her present state, the two of them know that to be an impossibility.

Could he be looking for another avenue?

The second the thought entered her mind, she shook her head as though she were physically trying to shake away her doubt. It wasn’t fair for her to doubt him, not after he had spent a year taking care of her.

Watching on, Roxy saw the new resident laugh at something James had said, bringing a satisfied smile to the boy’s face as a little bit of fang made an appearance.

It reminded the ghost of the first time she had ever met James, at the Paramount Theater in Anoka.

“Excuse me, but are you from Tennessee? Because you’re the only 10 I see.” and his other lame pick-up lines hadn’t charmed her the first time, especially since her father had kept her sheltered from the supernatural almost all her life despite choosing to settle in the Halloween capitol of the world. It was only after she moved to the Palm Woodsylvania and grew closer with the band did she realize what a caring vampire he could be. Eventually, she finally allowed herself to be taken “For a bite” and one thing led to another…

Am I insane for thinking that’s what he’s saying to the new guy right now?

Someone grumbling her name pulled her out of her thoughts, whipping her head from her view of the pool back around to the monster in front of her.

With a sad smile, she cocked her head to the side, “Hey, Carlos, what’s up?”

Through an assortment of groans and rigid hand gestures, Roxy was able to gather that he was upset because the taxi driver he had flagged down didn’t speak his language and he needed someone to translate for him to get to Rocquenstein Records.

“Oh, no problem, bud! I can help… I just… Don’t think I know how to sit in a car… or otherwise.”

After he reassured her it was easy, and a lot like hovering over the floor, he laughed a garbled little laugh that made her feel much better after sharing such a vulnerable feeling. It brought a smile to her face too, a real one this time as she reached out to pat his shoulder and guide him back toward the front of the hotel.

At the contact, a few sparks shot out of the bolts on his neck, and he made a noise as though it tickled him a bit.

“Whoops… Sorry.”

The garbled laugh came again, before a bit of clearer speech, “It’s okay, Roxy, I don’t mind!”

***

Long before arriving in the studio, Roxy and Carlos could hear Doc Rocque’s tell-tale evil laugh echoing down the long hallways of Rocquenstein Records.

Like most days, the building was filled with an eerie fog emanating from whatever experiment their boss had been putting together. Normally, it was just a harmless potion or useless contraption made to appease his boss, the literal devil, Arthur Griffin, but something about the air told Roxy whatever he had been cooking up today was far different than usual. The bolts on Carlos’ neck sparked with each stiff step he took, suggesting the presence of more electricity in the space they typically used to record their songs or learn their new choreography.

The short ride over to their place of employment had given Roxy a bit of time to further reflect on the memories she and Carlos had shared over the years as she watched him grow from a younger, playful simulacrum just tagging along to a pop star audition with his best friends to a dedicated, talented performer. It was almost like he was a brand new person on stage, trading in his rigid movements for smooth dance moves and rumbling words for perfectly pronounced lyrics.

From their time hanging out in the cemetery together, she had learned so much about him, his creation story, and his three older monstrous sisters, but those were all memories she had from her time among the living. She had no idea how Ghost Roxy got along with him or the experiences they had been through together - Beginning with his challenge with doors and her inability to open them.

Roxy had been so caught up in her own thoughts she hadn’t even realized they’d made it to the studio doors until Carlos walked straight into the glass; She was equally just as helpless to open the solid object.

Thankfully, Kelly had heard the clatter from across the room where she stood with Dr. Rocquestein in front of a large machine and made her way over to assist. Beautiful hair in an updo today, Roxy admired just how big and poofy her curls were as two electric white streaks shot up the side.

Does she know how perfectly those match her lab coat?

Neither she nor Doc Rocque spared them any greetings before the mad scientist lied about whatever scheme he had cooked up in order to get the boys to participate.

“Okay, Frankencarlos, time to play in the pretty funhouse!”

Normally, Roxy would’ve objected to this, but the contracts the boys had signed on their first day of work granted them recording rights and permissions under Rocquenstein Records as long as they acted as willing participants in his mad science experiments. As long as Carlos voluntarily walked into the machine their boss had built, there wasn’t much she could do for him.

The contraption itself looked to be some kind of large, silver chamber with plenty of colorful lights, long pipes and wires, and fog emanating in the small room behind the sealed door. What it did was anyone’s guess, but Roxy was sure she was about to find out.

Hesitantly, Carlos shuffled toward it, and Doc Rocque hit a large button on the side of the aluminum chamber to open the glass door for him. The sound it emitted was high-pitched, scratching at the ghost’s ears, meaning it was even more disorienting to her sensitive friend, who startled and began to slink back toward the door.

Kelly’s quick thinking kept him in the room, pulling out two fresh corn dogs from the pockets of her lab coat and throwing them into the machine, “Get the corn dogs, Frankencarlos! Get ‘em!”

Even he wasn’t immune to bribery, especially at the promise of one of his favorite treats, so once the food sailed over his head and into the machine Carlos was quick to 180 and step into the foggy chamber.

Once he was fully inside, the lab assistant screamed “Now!” prompting Gustavo to close the door, sealing Carlos inside.

This was always the worst part of Doctor Rocquenstein’s experiments; The moment the boys realized they had fallen into his clutches and were helpless to stop whatever was coming next.

Covering her ears as Carlos began to scream in terror, banging loudly on the glass door to the chamber, Roxy winced, keeping one eye open just to survey the situation and find out what her boss was about to do next.

“I give you…” Dramatically flipping a large switch from a control panel next to the machine, the room dimmed as a handful of the lights around them let off blinding flashes. “Hot singing normal boy!”

Normal boy?

After a few seconds of electrical flare-ups thanks to copious amounts of harvested lightning from the storm outside and a few ear-splitting mechanical noises, Doc Rocque threw the switch again and everything went back to normal.

Not even bothering to check the state of his frazzled lab assistant or his band’s assistant, he hit the button to open the door once more and waited to see what emerged from the fog.

That is… What didn’t emerge from the fog: A hot singing normal boy.

As the chamber cleared, Kelly waved her hand around inside to see if she could drag Carlos out, but her hand never made contact with anything.

When the three of them looked around, they spotted a black bunny rabbit on the floor, lazily munching on one of the corndogs Kelly had thrown into the machine.

“Well… He’s cute,” Roxy commented, trying to figure out how Gustavo was going to get himself out of this mess. With their performance in less than three hours, Big Time Rush was now down a band member.

Picking up where the assistant left off, Kelly rolled her eyes before looking over to her boss “But not a boy.”

“I know that!” The mad scientist yelled back, beginning to understand just what he had done to Carlos on one of the biggest nights of his life.

Unexpectedly, a fourth voice jumped into the conversation, a high-pitched, “You wanna be famous!” coming from the rabbit at their feet.

The ghost sighed, wishing she could crouch down and cradle her little friend, “At least he can still sing.”

“Not like that he won’t,” Gustavo interrupted before calling to no one in particular. “Try again!”

Once more, the door to the chamber was thrown and the switch beside it flipped but this time, Roxy didn’t find her concern to be focused on Carlos anymore.

How many buttons off from ‘hot singing normal boy’ is ‘hot guitar playing normal girl?’

Of all her thoughts today, that one was almost as profoundly crazy as the situation she had found herself in. Waking up as a ghost, having a year of memories stolen from her, worrying about her boyfriend sneaking off to talk to some other guy… If she were normal again, certainly she wouldn’t have such things to worry about.

And now she was thinking about James, wishing to run her hands over the soft velvet reds and blacks of his favorite cape, wanting to feel the marble-like coolness of his touch. Roxy could only hope he went off to help Logan or Kendall after talking to the new guy - Not taking him to any fancy restaurant to talk about their embarrassing allergies or the dumbest pasta shapes.

Ugh… He’s gorgeous, but certainly not the best conversationalist…

As she fondly began to recall one of their first fancy dates together, she was thoroughly interrupted by the sound of one of the panels blowing off the side of the transformation machine, paired with two sets of footsteps filing into the room behind her.

“Doc Rocque, you gotta help me!” The familiar sound of Kendall’s voice let her know he had arrived, and she turned to find Logan hot on his heels.

No James. Of course. She thought, not bothering to hide her scowl as the pair made their way over to the machine.

About halfway to Wolfman, it was clear the frontman was having a bit of a meltdown. “I need to be turned into a normal for the concert. No more werewolf!”

“And I need a new foot!” Logan added, pointing down to the one he had lost somewhere along the way.

Their assistant even managed to float over to Gustavo and Kelly, throwing her hat in the ring, despite watching what the machine had done to Carlos, “And I need a corporeal body!”

Typically, when the band began to demand things of their producer, he didn’t take it well, but today, he just let out a maniacal laugh, “I gotcha covered because, with my new hot boy band machine, you will no longer be monsters for Griffin’s Big Night of Fright!”

While she didn’t like the emphasis Gustavo had put on “boy band,” Roxy wasn’t ready to give up hope just yet.

“Observe!” He continued, pointing to the glass door. “New normal Carlos!.. I hope.”

Throwing the switch again, a wave of force blasted through the room as the lights dimmed, causing Roxy to throw her hands up in defense; A byproduct of still believing she inhabited a human body.

When Doc Rocque had enough of his fun, he turned it back and the door slid open, but there were no noises from inside. Anxiously, the five awaited a human Carlos to walk out of the smoking chamber.

Instead, a beautiful teenage pageant queen stepped out, a large poofy dress, a rose bouquet, crown, and all, took a few hesitant steps from the fog.

Of course, it didn’t take long for Logan and Kendall to turn to each other, waggling their eyebrows before facing the girl once more.

“Ooh,” The two of them chorused. “Who’s that?”

With a roll of her eyes, Roxy coughed, “Pigs!” before poking the both of them. Much to her surprise, it made Kendall’s hair - normal and wolf - stand straight up on end while Logan’s left arm fell clear off.

“It’s Carlos!” Kelly cried angrily, driving a hand into Gustavo’s side.

While the boys cringed, the supermodel spoke out in a series of grunts and groans as if to say, “Hey guys, it’s me!” before the lab assistant shoved her back into the machine.

“Okay, too much pageant queen…” Doc Rocque thought aloud, typing something into the keyboard of the computer unit attached to the machine. “Alright, now we just press the red button and add more ‘y’ chromosome… Yowza!”

Again, the switch was thrown, and again the five waited to see the outcome.

Half expecting a fuzzy green monster to pop out, Roxy watched in anticipation as the door opened up and her simulacrum friend came stomping out. If they couldn’t tell from his violent screams, his reckless, destructive motions toward Doc Rocque’s machine told those remaining all they needed to know about how it felt to be the test subject of this experiment.

Carlos was going berzerk, crying, “No more machine!” over and over as he violently unplugged the keyboard Doc had been taking his notes on before turning to face his three friends.

“Carlos smash!”

Roxy, Logan, and Kendall were quick to get out of his way as he upturned another table in the lab, sending a smattering of medical tools across the floor of the studio - Making a mess the assistant instincticly felt she needed to clean up before realizing she wouldn’t even be able to grab the equipment off of the hardwood.

On his way out of the studio, he was sure to knock one of the white, leather couches on its side, completely shatter the glass coffee table in the lounge, and throw the posters off the walls for good measure before escaping down the hall onto destinations unknown - Agitated and aggravated beyond belief.

“Okay… Who’s next?” Doc Rocque tried to ease the tension, but none of his other three subjects were exactly willing.

“I think I’m gonna pass,” Kendall replied, with his assistant nodding in agreement.

Logan held up a decaying finger, pointing over to his rampaging friend, “Yeah, big pass here.”

***

The ride back to the Palm Woods was completely silent, Roxy, Logan, and Kendall all worrying about their own separate issues while Kelly and Gustavo tried to work out a plan to get Carlos under control. All the while, still trying to figure out a way to get them seemingly normal before their big appearance at Griffin’s party tonight.

Why would he even fund a monster band if he wanted a normal band anyway? Roxy thought to herself, but she knew her four friends had more talent squeezed into their monstrous bodies than any normal boy she had ever met. Though, she supposed it was just fortunate timing Doc Rocque had conveniently made this machine the day she had determined she wanted to be normal again too - If it was even at all possible.

There were still many lingering questions she had about her situation and unfortunately, none of her memories from her death or her year as a ghost had ended up occurring to her throughout the day. All she got were flitters from the past, things about her band, things about her dad, things about her exceptionally ordinary life before she was whisked out of Anoka and out to the Palm Woodsylvania - Nothing that helped her at all.

Once they arrived back at the hotel, everyone went their separate ways, leaving the ghost in the lobby once again. I hate it when they do that.

However, it didn’t take long for her to spot James, running through the pool area as he was being chased by the handsome boy from earlier.

Oh, he better be a vampire slayer or I’m going to be so upset.

One perk of her ghost abilities, she discovered, had been the ease at which she was able to travel thanks to her floating, transparent form. While she hadn’t bothered to wiggle the fabric of her dress around and discover if she had legs or just a gaseous cloud under there, she was thankful regardless for the time walking through walls saved her as she shot off after the two, ready to give her boyfriend a piece of her mind.

When she finally caught up with them in one of the hallways to the first floor guest rooms, she noticed the other boy had James pinned to the wall, wooden stake nearly driven into his unbeating heart before the vampire smirked a bit.

“A vampire and a vampire slayer walk into a bar-”

His superhuman strength managed to give him the upperhand as he reached out to grip the hunter by the arms and easily flipped their position. As the slayer hit their head on the back of the wall with an unpleasant thud Roxy was able to catch some sort of glint in his dark, smoked out eyes as he gazed over at James.

Ugh! Just his type, tall, dark, and broody.

“The bartender says, ‘What can I get you two?’” The boy replied, before flipping the script once more.

With James up against the wall again, Roxy had about enough of watching this all play out. She didn’t like how much he looked like he was enjoying being hunted.

“And the vampire says-”

“‘I have a girlfriend!’” Roxy interrupted from the end of the hall, crossing one arm over the other as she cleared her throat. “‘And she’s just about tired of watching whatever the hell this is.’”

The two boys snapped their heads in her direction at the sound of her voice, seemingly forgetting all about their tasks at hand.

“Oh, man, time out!” James cried, flipping the slayer onto his back once again - this time holding him down from an arms length away - before addressing his ghost girl angrily floating toward him. “Hey, um, boo, now’s not really the best time. Kinda fighting for my life here.”

“I can see that, asshole. Having a good time?”

“Aw, don’t be like that, Roxy. I’ve gotta have a little fun with it! This is like the sixth hunter your dad’s sent after me this month.”

From his position on the wall, the hunter watched the vampire and ghost argue in front of him, brown eyes darting back and forth like he was following a tennis match. “Wait… Roxy? As in Somerset? Declan’s daughter?”

“What’s it to you?” The girl spat back, a bit creeped out the hunter knew her dad’s name, but her eyes still remained trained on James. “And why’s my dad sending slayers after you anyway?”

At that, her boyfriend nervous-chuckled like he usually did when he was anxious or didn’t want to answer one of her questions, still holding down his adversary as best he could. “Oh, I don’t know, maybe because I’m the reason his daughter moved far, far away from home and also maybe…” His eyes shifted back and forth between the two people facing off against him before sighing, “And maybe I’m also kind of the reason she died? Time in!”

With that, he took off running for the pool again and Roxy had half a mind to grab one of the stakes from the slayer beside her and hurl it through his back.

I would if I could at his stupid cliffhanger, she angrily told herself before crying out in frustration. Without thinking, she found herself reaching out, placing her palm directly over the slayer’s face. Based on the reactions she got from her monstrous friends at her touch, she figured the consequences were probably a bit worse for a human.

Even back in freezing-cold Minnesota, Roxy had never seen someone’s skin turn so blue at the cold temperatures. It scared her a little bit, the small but mighty power under her fingertips, before she pulled her hand away in shock, letting the slayer groan out a cry of pain before she shot off to the pool after James.

The reason I…?

Suddenly, the blood stain dripping down her dress from her neckline began to make a little more sense. There were a few fuzzy bits of a memory fighting the way to the forefront of her brain as she brought her hand to her now-tender neck, one of the only physical sensations she felt all day, only to pull it away and find her fingers covered with a vicsus, green-black substance.

“Oh my, God,” She managed, passing into the open space as she continued after her boyfriend, trying to keep herself together at the disgusting sight. There was a faint hiss from ahead, meaning James had heard her words, that told her she was rapidly gaining on him. “Ew!”

Maybe she was lucky he stopped to talk to a decapitated and dismembered Logan on one of the pool’s many outdoor couches or maybe James was just tired from all the running he had been doing that day. However, she overheard Logan mention the Hot Singing Boy band machine and watched as James scooped up as many pieces of his friend as he could carry.

As the band’s assistant, she was still inclined to help, but once again couldn’t manage to carry anything herself before she finally managed to catch her boyfriend’s attention by sticking a few fingers in his back.

“Agh!” James startled with an intense shiver, dropping Logan’s head back down onto the couch. His friend let out a high pitched whine once he made contact with the cushion again

“James! Explanation! Now!”

When he spun around to face her, his already pale face paled even more, eyes flickering down to her neck and dress, as he shot her a weak smile. The little flash of his fangs almost made her forget why she was so mad in the first place - That was, until he opened his big mouth. “I really hate ectoplasm… Boo, did you get any on my clothes just now?”

“You’re going to have a lot more than ectoplasm to worry about in a second-” She threatened, before the head on the couch beside them cleared his throat.

“Um… Why is there some guy with two wooden stakes sprinting in our direction right now?”

Logan’s nervous laugh was honestly a tad adorable, but he brought up a very important point: They needed to get out of the Palm Woodsylvania fast if they wanted any chance at getting back to normal. A hunter stopping them dead in their tracks would certainly throw quite the wrench into their plans.

“I’ll explain later, boo. Promise,” James managed as he reached down to grab Logan by the hair.

Though she could tell he meant it by the sincere tone in his voice, she still wasn’t happy to wait. “Fine, I guess we can head out.”

“Not funny, Roxy!” The zombie reprimanded as he was being carried away through the lobby of the hotel. “Not funny at all.”

Well, she was certainly laughing when James turned into a bat, almost dropping Logan’s head to the carpet before clutching his black hair with his tiny little claws. The image of the zombie’s head flying down the sidewalks of Los Angeles, being carried by a bat and followed by a hovering ghost was one Roxy hoped she would end up remembering.

***

By the time Roxy, James, and Logan’s head barreled into Doc Rocque’s laboratory most of the smoke from the experiments earlier had cleared and it appeared as though someone had made an effort to clean up after the mess Carlos had made.

Based on the groan of annoyance their boss let out upon seeing his three employees, Doc wasn’t all that happy to see them, but it looked like he had finally managed to put his machine back together again.

“Doc, you’ve got to make me normal!” James cried, mirroring the statements his friends had made earlier. “A vampire slayer is chasing me and Roxy is really upset with me-”

“Oh, boo-hoo, okay?” Logan’s head interrupted from his space tucked under James’ arm. “A hot guy is chasing you and your ghost girlfriend got some ecto on your cape… I’m just a head!”

The vampire’s eyes widened, turning to face Roxy, “I thought you didn’t get any on me!”

She stuck her hand into his side, fully covered with as much goo as she could slather on as Doc Rocque pointed to the inside chamber of the machine, “Get in!” “May I?” Roxy asked in ernest as she watched her thoroughly-chillded boyfriend and best friend enter the machine. “I’d like to be… normal again, too.”

Doc shrugged, typing a new command into his computer, “Only one way to find out if it works.”

In a flash she soared through the aluminum paneling to land herself inside, praying that this would reverse her undead curse and solve all of her problems.

As James placed Logan’s head at his feet, he managed to scoot back a bit to stand by his girlfriend, shooting her an extremely apologetic look as Carlos and Kelly entered the room, dragging a sleeping, fully-wolfed out Kendall behind them.

“You remember now, right?” James whispered to her. “You normally do after I mention it, just tell me now if you’re going to break up with me.”

Blinking a few times at his words, Roxy felt the fuzzy memories she had been focusing on so hard before finally unlock, the complete feeling she had sensed before rushing through her and telling her everything she needed to know about the night she had died.

Clear as day, she saw herself spending her seventeenth birthday with her vampire boyfriend - a trip to the beach, window-shopping downtown, the observatory, and their time spent laying on the hood of her car as they watched the sun set over Los Angeles.

As they talked about this and that, James had reached into the pocket of the cloak he had loaned her to keep her warm and handed her a small, wrapped gift.

Almost as if she were watching a movie scene play itself out, not knowing what was coming next, she watched as she pushed it back into his hands, whispering into his ear that wasn’t the present she wanted this year as she pressed a trail of kisses down his neck.

He had tried to tell her it was a bad idea, that he had never done anything like that before, but she wasn’t listening to a word he said, insisting over and over that she wasn’t interested in growing any older or wasting any more of her time as a human.

We can be young and free and together forever.

In the chamber, Roxy nodded as she remembered the promise she had made to him, ghostly hand desperately trying to clutch onto his only to pass right through.

“It wasn’t your fault,” She told him, watching blankly as Carlos dropped Kendall to the floor of the machine. “I completely coerced you, and you tried to warn me-”

“I just need you to know it was an accident, boo. I really did want to be…. together forever.”

“Well,” Roxy trailed off a bit as she watched Carlos step into the chamber and Kelly and Gustavo make their final touches to their code. “Regardless of how this experiment turns out, I think we’ve still got a shot. Forever just might look a bit different than we planned.”

From the corner of her eye, she saw him nod and the faint smirk that allowed a bit of his fang to pop out returned. “The charms are in your dresser drawer by the way, still wrapped up in that cute little box. I won’t ask how you know what was inside, though.”

Roxy just knew but she wasn’t able to explain how. “I’m sorry about all the ectoplasm on your cape.”

“I’m sorry about the whole being dead thing,” James echoed.

Doing her best to float just a few inches higher off the ground, she pressed a ghostly kiss to his cheek as the chamber door slid closed, “It’s not all that bad. I’ve still got a lot to live for.”

The light dimmed through the opaque glass, though Roxy didn’t remember the floor rumbling quite so much during the first few trials as Doc Rocque flipped the switch.

It was hard to describe the effects the machine had on her and her friends, feeling as though she was being completely torn apart while simultaneously being put back together. None of her time spent in the land of the living or the dead had prepared her for any such sensation and though she felt the need to scream, she had no way of doing so as the chamber worked its magic.

After what felt like ages, there was a blinding flash of light before…

***

Roxy’s eyes flew open, flinging the comforter off her shivering body before letting out a few gasps for air, hands clutching tightly at the fabric of her costume in her hands.

Eyes darting around her room, she noticed the sunlight peeking its way though her closed blinds, illuminating small spots on the collection of band posters she had up on her walls.

She was there, in the present, entirely whole, and most important of all, not dead.

Just to make sure, she patted at her mattress a few times, entirely ecstatic when her hand didn’t go straight through and she could feel the soothing silk of her red sheets under her palm.

What a weird dream… I can’t stay up that late to make a costume ever again.

When she glanced into her hands, the dress she had fashioned for her and Kendall’s party was right where she had left it after her FaceTalk with Jo. The fabric wasn’t stained, the strips at the bottom didn’t curl, and she still needed to run the bottom through the park to get it all dingy and gross to complete the look.

Maybe her dream had just been wishful thinking to have the best costume at the party. It certainly had been odd, however, she couldn’t remember a time she had ever had one so vivid and detailed.

On the nightstand beside her bed, she grabbed her journal and pen before scribbling out everything she could possibly remember so she could relay the message to her friends later while Big Time Rush’s newest demo “Big Night” ran through her head.

I wonder if Jo will tell me to lay off the vampire romance novels for a while.

As she wrote down the key parts of her dream - the epic ghost look she would certainly do her best to replicate with make up tonight, the way her dad hired literal assassins to take out a guy who had hurt her, and the significance of the charms James had given her for her birthday - Roxy felt a bit childish when she reached up to her necklace to make sure they were still there.

Feeling out all three, right next to the pendant where they should be, she felt an odd sense of relief before getting out of bed and walking into her living room. For a moment, she stared at the door connecting 2-H and 2-J, realizing just how early she had woken up.

Roxy wanted to tell James every single thing she could remember of her imaginative monster world but knew him well enough that he would be sound asleep at this time… That boy always bragged about his strict “beauty slumber” routine to keep his skin looking as refreshed and young as possible.

Just like a vampire.

Besides, since they’d started dating, Mrs. Knight made a rule they couldn’t be alone in each others bedrooms - If they wanted to be in the apartments, they could only hang out in the common, open spaces where anyone could see them at any point in time.

Ugh. Stupid adult rules.

Though she heavily respected Mrs. Knight and the boundaries she had set for her defacto son, Roxy figured that she remembered what it was like to be a teenager. She probably had weird dreams she wanted to tell her boyfriend about too, and for now, that required the writer to go inside James’ bedroom.

I’m sure she’d understand.

So, she quietly pulled open the door to 2-J and walked down the hallway as sofly as she could, poking her head into the living room to see if anyone was awake.

Much to her surprise, all of the Knights were up and eating breakfast. The smell of fresh pancakes, delicious fruit, and bacon wafted through the room as the three of them entertained a pleasant conversation about the party being held later.

It was just her luck Katie and Mrs. Knight were sat with their backs toward the hall, so Roxy was tucked just out of sight, but as Kendall got up to grab some more orange juice from the fridge, she caught his eye.

Silently, she tilted her head in the direction of the room he shared with James and held up all ten of her fingers. In response, he subtly nodded, before glancing at the digital clock on the oven and back with a wink.

Both of them had understood the other perfectly.

I need to talk to James, can you give me ten minutes?

Of course, take all the time you need.

As quickly as she had come, she ducked down the hall and made a right at the door to 2-H and then an immediate left to open up the door to the room the two boys shared.

Since coming back from tour, she hadn’t been in James and Kendall’s room at all, but the boys had returned it to its former glory after the brief period Big Time Rush had spent broken up. Though Roxy shivered at the thought, she was pleased to see all the hockey posters and pictures with Jo on the walls and sports trading card binders littering Kendall’s desk and nightstand, along with a few clothing items on the floor the frontman probably definitely didn’t want her to see.

I’ll make fun of his Minnesota Wild boxers later.

On James side, there he was, tucked perfectly between his pillow and his duvet snoozing away without a care in the world. This was a rare time in which his girlfriend got to see him, completely unaware and perfectly content. He’d probably freak out if he knew his hair was messy, sticking up in a few places from the way he was laying, not that she’d ever tell him.

He had managed to get all his posters back up too, a few with sports people, but mostly those of hot, young movie stars to look at before he fell asleep, almost similar to the arrangement of his assistant’s posters in her room. Just to the right of his head, she noticed a few pages of sheet music tacked up, and she inched a bit closer to figure out what song it was for at the risk of waking him.

Just as she read out the title “Boyfriend” a lock of her hair fell over her shoulder and tickled his face, causing him to shift in his sleep and lift a hand to scratch at his nose.

Roxy held her breath, wanting to watch him sleep for just a little bit longer before she woke him up, and waited.

Smacking his lips a few times, James shuffled again but didn’t open his eyes, giving her a bit more time to snoop.

Beside the sheet music, she also spotted his ticket to American Idiot, their ticket to the planetarium, and when she dared to peek at the place his mattress met the wall, she noticed the small stuffed animal she had won for him at the carnival.

It filled her heart with so much love she thought she just might burst.

Young and free and together forever… She thought, reaching out to lift up the solid blue comforter before she crawled under to lay beside him.

Her movements, of course, woke him slightly, and he popped one eye open to make sure none of the guys were playing a prank on him while he tried to get his beauty rest. When he noticed it was his girlfriend, he let out a relieved sigh and simply scooted toward the wall to give her some more room to lay.

“Morning,” He drawled as his eye popped back closed, voice still so full of sleep Roxy had to really concentrate on the sound as she wrapped her arms around his waist, hands finding the hem of his shirt to slip under.

Letting her hands splay out across his back as she squeezed him tighter, she settled into his side, she shared her own, “Morning. I had the craziest dream last night and I wanted to come in here and tell you all about it because I think this dress I bought in Anoka cursed me… but I’m suddenly really sleepy again.”

A few waves of laughter rolled out of him at how ridiculous her statement was, which she could feel coming straight from his chest. One of his arms caught her waist to pull her a bit closer while the other began to run through her hair as he told her, “That’s because you didn’t get a proper eight hours, babe.”

The assistant let his words settle, ringing in her ears as she focused on the boy beside her, trying to take in every little ounce of touch he could give her. Even though it was just a dream, she hated not being able to be close to him, so she did her best to compensate for now.

“I had to finish my costume!” Roxy defended, though she felt her eyelids growing heavier with every stroke of his hand through her hair. “If we were having a best dressed contest I’d certainly win.”

“That title just comes with being the birthday girl…” He joked, though his words were starting to blur a bit. “And also… Just being you in general.”

Burying herself deeper into his chest, Roxy smelled a faint hint of tropical fruit and lime as she poked him in the side. “Well, just you wait and see! I’ll have earned the title through hard work, jerk.”

“D’ya…” Roxy felt James’ hand flex at her waist, trailing a bit down to her hip. He was trying very, very hard to stay awake. “D’ya know what you’re gonna wish for when Mrs. Knight brings out the cake?”

“Of course I do, but if I tell you it won’t come true.”

“Whatever you… Say… Babe…” And with that she knew she had lost him, shallow breaths turning even shallower as he dozed back off.

Relishing the warm feeling under her fingertips, Roxy resigned to shutting her eyes as well, focusing on the rhythm of her boyfriend’s heartbeat.

Young and free and together forever.

thanks for reading <3 likes, comments, reblogs etc are always appreciated. i love to know that you think!

i'll be switching up the order of some of the episodes and taking a few out of the second season from here on out! just to help make a more time cohesive story :)

#thats all she wrote fic #big time rush #btr #james diamond #james maslow #kendall knight #kendall schmidt #logan mitchell #logan henderson #carlos garcia #carlos penavega

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