Chapter 18-20
Chapter 18
Isela ran down the hallway after finishing her taping.
“Where the hell are you going in such a hurry?” a co-worker asked her.
“Don’t ask me. I don’t know. All I know is Bruno is home.”
“Oh. Well, then. Don’t do anything too crazy…: she replied watching Isela almost run down the hallway to get to her car.
I’m going to the studio. I’ll see you tonight. I love you! her phone buzzed.
Really? You just got home.
I’ve got something amazing here! Just sleep in that sexy thing I like. I will see you tonight! ;)
“Oh my god. He’s so dumb. “ she commented in the car while glancing at her texts. Wait I don’t know which one he is talking about…
Isela camped out on his couch with her laptop facebooking and checking up on news stories she had missed. She was really a news geek and missed having time to listen and watch things on CNN and MSNBC. She even put on MSNBC for a bit, but Chris Matthews was just too much to handle that night. She started to yawn around 1, thinking that maybe she could catch him before she went to bed. I hate waking up with someone next to me. I want to go to bed with them. Dumb. I hate this. But he’s here. I see his clothes..all over the floor... Isela clicked off the TV, grabbed what she thought was what he was talking about from her overnight bag and started to turn on the water to take a shower before she went to bed. Eff. He’s not even going to see me. Who cares if my hair is a mess.
“Isellaaaa! Get your Mexican ass out here now. I want to kiss you!” she heard his loud voice from inside the bathroom. What the hell? He sounds like he’s drunk. She put on the hoodie she was wearing and walked out to see him. She smiled at him as he looked at her.
“God, you’re so amazing!” he screamed. She looked at him confused. His hair was all over the place and his shirt was untucked and she could smell his smoky breathe from where she was standing.
“Bruno! What is going on?” she asked him. “Where were you?”
“I was at the studio! I was making magic, baby!” he twirled around landing on the couch.
“You don’t smoke when you’re there. Tell me the truth.” she pleaded with him not wanting to take another step closer to him. This isn’t another girl. This is something bigger. Something way bigger. And I’m pretty sure he’s not drunk..this isn’t drunk Bruno.
“Can’t a boyfriend want his girlfriend?” he asked her.
“He can. But only if he’s going to be honest with her. What…what is going on?” she asked him again. He got up walking toward her. She backed away from him trying to figure out exactly what was going on. “I’ll ask you one more time, Peter…where were you?”
**
September 2010
“Oh my god! What is this?” Isela stared down at the text that woke her up in the middle of the night.
Bruno just got arrested. Drugs or something…-Christian
She called Christian to get the details. “Just go to TMZ, Sel. It’s all there. That’s where we found it…”
“But what happened?”
“You need to read it. I’m not going to tell you. Call me tomorrow, k?”
She went into her sister’s bedroom where she was sound asleep.
“Wake up Yuli! I need you…now!” she yelled holding her laptop in her hand.
“What the hell?” she opened her eyes to look at her sister.
“If you’re not dying I’m not getting out of bed.
“That’s fine. I’m coming in. Move over…” Isela walked into the bedroom to lay in her twin sister’s bed. She pushed her to get in.
“What is going on? It’s 3:30.”
“I don’t know. It’s something to do with B.”
“It can’t wait until tomorrow morn….oh my god!”
“Oh my god!” Isela gasped.
“What the hell was he thinking? That’s not him! That’s not something he would do…no….oh my god.”
“You’re going to be the person to report about it..I know it.” Yuli was still in a state of shock.
“I know…I know. I don’t know what…how I’ll hold it together. Woah. Oh my god.”
“Are you going to call him? Or..I don’t know..Eric? Phil? Jamie?”
“No. It’s too soon to do that.”
**
“Tell me! Peter Gene Hernandez. What is going on?”
“You’re not being very friendly tonight, Isela.” he said to her touching her hand.
“Don’t touch me. I don’t know what you’ve been doing tonight. Or who you’ve been with.”
“I was with Phil and Ari!”
“If I call Urbana she will tell me when Phil came home..and I have a sneaky suspicion that it was way before right now…”
“Isela! Don’t get all Inspector Gadget on me…I went out with Jason and Nick. That’s it….”
“I don’t know who they are…”
“I met them…” his eyes started to glaze over with his words jumbled all together.
“What are you on?” she asked him. He looked at her with his emotions changing from being crazy to almost in shock and saddened.
“3 lines…”
Chapter 19
Isela fell to the ground in tears. She covered her eyes pushing him away from her as he tried to tell her what happened. She looked up at him with her red eyes. “Tell me everything….”
“It was….it was…shit….come sit down.” he asked her walking back to the couch.
She sat at the opposite end of the couch as he started to talk about it all.
“You said you never had any! Ever! It was a mistake! You fucked up!” she started screaming at him.
“I lied.”
“Obviously…”
“Just let me explain it all, Isela. Let me tell you everything…”
“Do I want to know everything?” she asked.
“You need to know.” he told her. She rolled her eyes at him sniffing away the tears that he usually wiped away.
“That was the first time….I didn’t do anything that night. I didn’t. I swear.” he looked at her with his voice trembling. “But I kept the guy’s phone number. I kept it. Just because…just because…I don’t know. I just had it. And someone asked about it when we were in Amsterdam….”
“Who Peter? Who?” she yelled at him.
“Some random Dutch guy we met. He was interested. He said, sure I can get you some. You know it’ll be good….”
She rolled her eyes. “And you tried it there? Was that why you were so tired when we talked then?”
“I guess…” he shrugged his shoulder. “And it wasn’t bad. It kept me up. I was so tired. And we were going so many places. I don’t know how artists do it. And then there’s this guy in London…”
“I don’t need to know the whole story anymore. I get it. And you did it again tonight? Why? What do you have to stay up for? You’re on fucking vacation, B.”
“Jason and Nick texted me as we were finishing up tonight and told me they had some new stuff. And I haven’t had any in…like…months. I missed it.”
“But you don’t miss me or your family? What the fuck Bruno?! What the fuck?!” she stood up starting to walk away from him. “I’m going home. I don’t need you anymore. And forget that damn pinkie promise. You broke it. You broke it the second you decided not to tell me about this. “
He sat on the couch while she went to get the things she had brought over with her. He could hear her crying. It hurt him. I really did fuck this up. I fucked everything up. Every single thing in the world is just falling apart. I didn’t need to do any of this…but now… She was almost out the door without saying anything to her. He faced the TV as she opened the door. “I need help.” Bruno said to himself.
Chapter 20
Isela put down her bag and laptop that she was carrying to the door. I can’t leave him. He’ll need every single person he can get. It hurts. It hurts so bad that he lied to me. But he’s going to need me. She sat down next to him, hugged him tightly and let him cry on her. She cried with him.
“Fix it for me, Isela. Please. I can’t do it. I can’t.”
She pulled away from him wiping a tear off his cheek. “Peter, we’ll fix it. We will fix it. I promise you.”
He laid down on her shoulder. “I’m sorry. I love you more than anything…:”
“It doesn’t matter right now.” she told him. “We just need to get you better…” He fell asleep as she finished her sentence. “Bruno?” she asked. “God. Why would you fall asleep now?”
She moved his head laying it on the blanket she was using earlier in the evening. She finished taking her shower changing into one of his clean shirts and shorts. I’m not getting sexy for this shit. She laid down in his bed stretching out to take up the whole bed.
**
Isela woke up at 8 in the morning to see Bruno still on the couch. She didn’t sleep at all. It probably would have been better for her to stay on the couch with him. But, she needed to figure out what was going on. Figure it all out.
She walked into the kitchen to find something for breakfast. She opened the fridge…Nothing. How did he not get anything knowing that they would be there in the morning? He never forgets to get the Lucky Charms. Never. It’s our thing. And they aren’t there. She grabbed her phone to find someone to talk to. She needed to get him somewhere. She needed to get him help before it got worse. But she couldn’t think of who to call. She flipped through her address book settling for her sister.
“Good morning sunshine! How are you?” her sister responded picking up the phone.
“Yuli…” she whispered.
“What’s wrong, Sel?”
“I don’t know….but Bruno needs help and I don’t know who to talk to. “
“Like he needs help with what? I don’t understand you, Isela.” Yuli sounded as confused as Isela felt.
“He came home last night when I was getting ready to take a shower high.”
“What?! No. You are lying to me. Get out.”
“No, He was. And now he’s asleep on the couch. And I don’t know what to do.” she wondered out loud.
“Did you punch the shit out of him?”
“Maybe when he wakes up. Last night was too much.” Isela started to cry.
**
By mid afternoon Isela had gathered Bruno’s family and a select number of friends who she knew they could trust to talk about what to do. He had taken a shower, was dressed and looked completely normal. Why does he look so normal? Why does he have to do this? I don’t understand him – was all she could think.
“Isela..what is going on?” Eric asked, the last one to arrive with his wife and son in hand.
“We just all need to talk…”Isela led him to the last open seat. Bruno sat next to Phil watching Isela pace.
I don’t know how to say it. I don’t know what to do….Isela thought as everyone watched her. She was so comfortable in front of people, but this…was so different.
“Go ahead, Isela…” someone said. It sounded like him but her head was spinning out of control.
“He’s using cocaine.” she blurted out. She stared at him with tears starting to well up in her eyes. Everyone sat shocked. They could hear a pin drop.
“What the fuck, Bru?” Ari asked.
“Yeah. I don’t know. It just happened.”
“Dude, songs just happen, performances just happen, babies just happen, really good sushi just happens…this doesn’t just happen….”
Isela squeezed into a spot next to one of his sisters and Yuli. They both squeezed her hands as they watched what was about to happen.
“I don’t know! I don’t know! I met the wrong people. Just back the hell off. I want to fix it. Just don’t! If all y’all are going to do is yell at me every single fucking one of you can get out of my house.” he responded.
“Bruno…” Isela spoke up. “I know they’re where I was yesterday. I called every single one of these people because they will support you, not because they would judge you. You know that….wait…wait…wait.” she paused finally figuring something out. “You’ve been doing this since before we got back together. Does that mean everything is a lie? How did I not see this? How? None of what we’ve been for the last 6 months is real. Nothing. Not a fucking thing. I want to rip off your pinkie.” She pushed herself from the squeezed in seat she was in to run out the door. Yuli followed her out the door. “Figure your shit out and don’t call me until you do, Peter. “ She said as she walked out with her sister.