Chapter 10

My face went blank when I kept over reading the words.

Bruno+Maryl= forever

‘What is this suppose to mean. Does he have a girlfriend? Is he cheating on me? Who is this girl?’

I was still staring at the necklace, when Bruno came out of the dressing corner. My head snapped to him and I let the necklace slip out of my fingers. With a soft ‘pop’ it fell to the ground.

‘’What are you doing?’’ His eyes went from me, to the floor and then to the necklace. He stepped forward and scooped it from the floor. His back was facing me, so I couldn’t see his reaction.

‘’Bruno, who’s Maryl?’’ I asked carefully. I didn’t want to ask the question, afraid of how he may have reacted, but I had to know who this girl was. He didn’t answer, but just kept looking down at the necklace in his hand.

‘Maybe I shouldn’t have asked.’

He finally turned to face me. ‘’Maryl is my long time friend. I mean was…’’ ‘’Was? What happened between you two?’’

He sighed and sat down on the couch. ‘’We were best friends since high school. I even had feelings for her, but never told her about it. We were always playing around, having fun. I let two of these made.’’ He held up the necklace. ‘’One for her and one for me. We planned to wear this our whole life and never take it off. But I don’t know I still can.’’ His voice broke off.

I sat down next to him. ‘’Why? What happened?’’ I wanted to know more.

He breathed in heavily. ‘’Two years ago she was diagnosed with cancer.’’ My eyes widened. ‘’The doctors couldn’t do anything about it, saying it was discovered too late. They only gave her one year to live. Last year she died.’’ He tried hard to fight back the tears. I placed my hand on his hands.

‘’I’m sorry.’’ I whispered. ‘’She was one hell of a fighter.’’ He looked in my eyes. ‘’ ‘Till this day, I still don’t know what to do with this. I always have it with me, but I never wear it.’’ He looked down at the necklace again.

I gently took it out of his hand and unlocked the endings. Without saying a word, I leaned closer to him and placed it around his neck. I gave him a kiss on his forehead. ‘’Wear it. Keep her spirit alive.’’ I said, with a little smile. He hugged me.

‘’Thanks. I love you. I don’t know what I would do without you.’’ he murmured in my neck. I rubbed his back. ‘’Same here.’’ I let go and brushed my hand trough his thick curls.

‘’Let’s go, before the others start wondering why we’re taking so long.’’ I said, laughing.

He stood up, packed the things that were his and winked at me. I stood up and followed him out of the dressing room.

The next two weeks were quite the same. We rehearsed and performed a lot and I became more used to it.

Here we were, in the studio again. This time in LA.

‘’What if we change this sentence.’’ Phil said, frowning.

Papers were scattered all over the floor, leaving a frustrated Bruno.

‘’We could turn it into: ‘Here we go, come with me. There’s a world out there, where we could be.’ ‘’ Phil said, almost singing.

‘’Hmmm I don’t know. I still don’t feel it.’’ Bruno said, hesitating.

‘’Yeah, me neither.’’ Phil crumpled the piece of paper and threw it with the rest of the papers on the floor.

There was a long pause.

I started humming softly. ‘’Here we go, come with me. There’s a world out there, that we should see. Take my hand...’’

‘’That’s it!’’ Bruno jumped off his chair. ‘’Sing that again.’’

Their heads snapped to me, letting me feel a little uncomfortable.

‘’Here we go, come with me. There’s a world out there, that we should see. Take my hand...’’ I repeated again.

‘’Phil write that down. I think we have a new hit.’’ he said, smiling wide. ‘’close your eyes. With you right here I’m a rocketeer.Lets fly...’’ he sang. ‘’We got it. Bre, you’re a genius!’’ He hugged me, spinning me around wildly.

Luckily he let me go before I got dizzy.

Phil wrote the last sentences down. ‘’Matt is going to be very impressed. Finally, after hours released from this prison.’’ He stretched out. He fold the piece of paper and placed it in an envelope. ‘’Now lets go.’’

We could tell Matt was very happy with the song.

‘’The Far East Movements are gonna like this. Well done, Bruno and Phil.’’ he said casually.

‘’Well, it werent really only us who came on it.’’ Bruno pushed me forward from behind.

‘’What are you talking about?’’ Matt scratched his head.

‘’The headwriter is standing right here.’’ Bruno pointed at me. ‘’She? Did she write it?’’ Matt said, like it wasn’t possible this girl could do that.

‘’She gave us the idea, inspiration, the right words.’’

Matt blinked a few times. ‘’That’s great. I didn’t know you write songs.’’ he said. ‘’You know, there’s a lot planned for you in the future. You could become a big star.’’ Matt said, looking me up and down the whole time.

The guys were thinking.

‘’A really big star. Anyways, congrats again.’’ He patted my shoulder. ‘’You are dismissed.’’ He said to us. His gaze went to the floor. ‘’Wow, you reall were sweating hard for this song.’’

‘’Yeah, sorry for the mess.’’ Phil began to pick the crumpled papers from the floor and dumped them in the little trash can.

Phil and Bruno headed for the door. Just when I was about to, Matt placed a hand on my shoulder. ‘’Bre could I speak to you, in private?’’

I looked up, with an uncertain glance. ‘’Yeah, sure.’’

‘’Good, how about tomorrow, 10 am?’’ he said.

I hesitated. ‘’Sounds good to me.’’

‘’Alright. See you then.’’ He let go of me.

I followed the rest out of the room. ‘’What was that all about?’’ Bruno said curiously. ‘’Matt wants to see me, in private. That’s all.’’ I said, walking past him. ‘’Right. Now lets get something to eat. We’ve been locked in that studio for hours.’’

The driver brought us to the finest restaurant you can find in LA. Protected by Dre, the bodyguard, we walked in a beautiful, dim lighted room and were guided to our table by a waitor.

‘’Welcome to Le Cher. Can I take your order?’’ the waitor said, with a charming smile.

We all took out the menu and ordered our food.

While we were waiting for our food to arrive we chatted a little.

‘’I wonder what Mats wants to discuss with you.’’ Bruno said, unfolding a napkin. ‘’Yeah, he never usually does it like that. He seemed very happy, though.’’ Phil agreed.

‘’I don’t know.’’ I murmered. ‘’I hope it does involve something good for me.’’ I said, smelling the flowers on the table.

‘’He was talking about you becoming a big star, though. What if he wants you to go solo, become an artist. I don’t know if we would allow that. You wouldn’t want to leave us, would you?’’ Phil joked.

I thought about that for a moment. Me, as a solo artist? Naw, I wouldn’t do that to them. I mean, i love them, they’re my family. This is where I really should be.

‘’Naw.’’ I shoke the thought away.

Our food finally arrived and we ate in silent.

After eating we quickly left, before the paparazzi would shut us in.

We spent the night in a hotel again.

‘’Today was a sick day. Tomorrow another day of stress.’’ Bruno said, stretching out. ‘’I hope we’ll have the same luck as today. But I hope this time sooner. Can’t stand staying that long in the studio again.’’ I said, shaking the pillows of my bed.

‘’We’ll be alright. As long as we have that crazy mind of yours.’’ he said, kicking off his shoes.

‘’And you goofy guys.’’ I said, leaning in for a goodnight kiss. He kissed me gently back.

I stepped in my bed and pulled the covers up.

‘’Why do we still have to sleep seperate from eachother?’’

‘’Because I said so.’’ I turned to my side, my back facing him.

‘’Because I said so.’’ I heard him imitating me with a high pitch voice.

‘’Goodnight Bruno.’’ I said out loud, turning off the lights.

‘’Goodnight.’’ He said annoyed. I could hear him murmer some things.

I grinned. I loved teasing him.

-

Trnnng, Trnnng, Trnnng. Sigh.

I reached over to the other side of the bed to pick up the phone.

‘’Goodmorning, this is your wake up call.’’ A woman spoke. ‘’Thank you.’’ I said, half a sleep.

I slammed the phone back and got up. I looked over to the other bed, but found it empty. ‘Already eating breakfast without me...’

I grabbed my clothers and headed out to the bathroom. I jumped in the shower, dressed up, brushed my teeth and combed my hair. Then I headed out the door. I walked to the hotelroom opposite ours and knocked.

Jamareo opened the door. ‘’Oh, Goodmorning Bre.’’ ‘’Morning. Have you seen Bruno?’’ I said.

He turned his head inside the room, then looked back at me. ‘’No.’’

‘’You’re a bad liar.’’ I laughed and walked in the room.

‘’How’d you know I was here?’’ I found Bruno on the bed, strumming his guitar.

‘’Oh come on. I recognize your guitarplay. You always play the same song.’’ I explained. ‘’And by the way, shouldn’t we head for the studios right now? We better get it done now, and Matt is waiting for me.’’ I said, looking at my watch.

‘’Go tell Phil, he’s the one still not ready.’’ he murmed.

‘’Phil, hurry up!’’ I yelled. ‘’I’m done, I’m done.’’ he said, just coming out of the bathroom.

We left. On our way to the studio we stopped for some donuts and coffee.

We finally arrived and huried to the recording room. Just when we arrived, Mindy entered.

‘’Bre, Matt is ready to see you.’’ she said, almost out of breath. I stood up. ‘’I’ll be right back.’’ I said to the guys and followed Mindy out.

By Matt’s office we stopped. Mindy knocked on the door, opened it and let me in and left again.

‘’Have a seat.’’ I stepped forward and said on the chair in front of his desk. He went to sit behind his desk.

‘’How’ve you been?’’ he said with sparkles in his eyes. ‘’I’ve been good. You?’’ ‘’Great. Now, I wanna talk to you about some business. Is that okay with you?’’

‘’Sure.’’ I crossed my legs.

‘’Well, you know what I have been saying to you, about your work here.’’ he said. I nodded my head.

‘’It brought me on an idea. You really are a good thing to our recordlabel. So I kept on wondering. How would you like to sign tou our recordlabel, as an individuel artist?’’

I gasped. ‘’Individuel artsist? Wow, that’s a really big offer. I don’t know.’’ I started stutter.

Oh my God. Phil was right. Was all I could think.

‘’Just take your time. Think about it. And we’ll discuss this later in the day.’’ he said gentle. ‘’Thank you. I will think about it.’’

I stood up and walked to the door. Just when I was about to get out, I turned around to him.

**************

Bruno was tapping his feet to the beat Phil created. ‘’I like it. We should keep this one.’’ nodding his head. ‘’Alright. That’s two. Next one.’’ Phil was about to turn on the next beat, when Bre walked in with a confused look.

Bruno noticed this and jumped up. ‘’So, what did he tell you?’’

She was clearly trying to put her thoughts straight, then she answered.

‘’He offered me a deal. He wants me to sign as an individuel artist.’’

Phil and Bruno looked at eachother.

‘’And, what did you say?’’ Phil asked carefully.

Pause.

‘’I said yes.’’