The Hook-up

Chapter 36

Bruno turned over in his bed clearing his sore throat hearing someone banging things in his house. "What the fuck! Stop it Pres!" he yelled at his youngest sister who had arrived, along with his other sisters earlier the night before. He told them he had been in the studio all night, not sitting in front of Lauren's apartment waiting for her.

"I was just making you breakfast, Brunito." She told him walking in with eggs and bacon on a plate.

"I don't want it." He said flipping over in the bed. She sat down next to him leaning the food in his face.

"Come onnn...you know you want itttt..." she teased him.

"No! Just back the fuck off, Jesus Christ!" he yelled at her catching her shocked look on her face. "Oh god. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I just...I don't know.." he told his sister.

"Whatever, Bruno." She told him turning around ignoring his attempt to apologize. He got out of the bed looking at himself in the mirror. I need a drink. He thought to himself as he struggled to get out of the bed.

"She's not coming over today, is she?" Tiara asked him.

"No. I fucked up, again." He admitted.

"Oh." Tahiti responded a bit shocked.

"I don't want to talk about it, anymore. That's all you need to know. " he replied taking the plate of food that Presley had brought in for him earlier.

**

"Lauren! I made you breakfast!" Justin yelled from the front of his house.

"Ughhhh. Whaaatttt." She moaned walking into the kitchen without make-up on and her glasses covering up her bad vision. She took a bite of the food smiling at her ex. "It's really not that bad. Bruno can't cook."

"Then dump him. I can cook." He smiled.

"That is not why I came here, J. I came because you said I could help you with what you're doing. Not to date you again. You're amazing and fabulous...." She started to tell him.

"Wait...wait right there...." He told her jumping up from the kitchen getting his computer bringing it to her.

"What is this?" she asked about a website he showed her.

"That's the project. I want you to write every single thing on there. And do the PR. You'd kill it." He told her.

"What is it though?" she was still confused.

"It's like Gilt. But it's only for the home. It's very specific." He explained the sample sale website for the home.

"Oh. I like it. It's all so clean and put together." She told him.

"Get dressed. We have a meeting in an hour." He told her.

"A what?" she asked shocked.

"A meeting. You said you'd do it, right?" Justin asked her.

"Yeah...well...I don't know..." she looked over at her blinking phone that was distracting her.

"Ignore him. He hurts you." Justin told her looking down at her blue arm.

"You're right. He does hurt me. But that doesn't mean I don't still care for him. I care about everything....I just....what is he going to do without me?" she asked him.

"He's going to stumble around the house for a few days and then find another girl who will put up with him. Laur...you were just the latest girl to put up with him. You know that. I'm not asking you to come back to me....that's the last thing I'm asking you to do. You know we're better friends. But I want the best for you and he is not the best for you."

"I....I.....I don't know...." She answered him getting up to take a shower taking her phone. "Just let me listen to the one message...."

"Whatever." Justin answered getting up walking away from her. She took the phone in the bathroom contemplating pressing the call button instead of just listening to the voicemail. She looked up at the big mirror seeing her red eyes realizing that she had cried almost the entire flight to New York. "Oh god. I have to stop." She wiped her eyes taking off her shirt to take a shower throwing her phone near a towel. Before she could get in the warm shower she picked up the phone dialing her voicemail listening to the recorded message saying she had one voicemail. Before she could delete the message she heard music playing that was hypnotizing and addictive. She wrapped her arms around herself forgetting what she was doing listening to his voice. She finished listening repeating the haunting lyrics in her head as she got in the shower. She washed her hair and used the soap her ex-boyfriend had left for her crying even harder than she had been on the way home from Las Vegas. At one point she couldn't tell what was water and what were tears coming down her chest. She got out of the shower putting on jeans and a t-shirt with a towel around her hair, just like she would when they were dating. Instead of coming out of the room with a smile on her face she walked out with her hands covering her face. "I can't do this" she cried in her hands sliding on the ground. Justin slid down to the ground wrapping his arm around her holding onto her tightly.

"Yes you can." He leaned his head on hers trying to decide exactly what to do. He loved her like a sister now. It wasn't anything more for him. They both knew that. This was confirmation that they weren't meant to be together. He let her sit on the ground to cry out all her emotions.

"Cry me a river." She laughed after a few minutes making him laugh.

"Right?" he said lifting her hands up from her face helping her off the ground.

**

Bruno put on a happy face for his family even though all his siblings knew exactly what was wrong with him. They had long decided not to fight with him when he was feeling this way. He had never hurt any of them, but he had put holes in walls and hurt other friends in the past. It all started after his parents got a divorce. He could never decide if he was okay with the divorce or not. He never was able to talk about it. It was one of the many things he was never able to talk about. He just stopped talking about the things he was feeling. Those things bottled up until they exploded. He had exploded again. They all knew he had exploded and that he would come back to Earth soon, but until then they ignored everything he did; until he picked up that bottle of Vodka again.