Chapter 5
I wake up in the morning to the sound of a toilet flushing. I look over and see Bruno laying on the floor beside the bathroom. I get up and grab a blanket and put it over him. "Hi Superman." He gives me a feeble smile. He's so pale and he has bags under his eyes. "Aww baby you look horrible! You want me to go get you some asprin?" "Please." I grab a couple of dollars and head down stairs. Our room is on the 10th floor and at one end of the hall and the elevator is at the other end. I get about half way when I hear a door open and close behind me. I look over my shoulder to see who it is and surprise surprise it's the man in black. Great, just my luck. I try not to look obviously but I pick up my dress and speed my pace up a little. I turn to press the elevator button and he’s right there! He scares me so bad I almost pee. I push the elevator button and of course this is going to be one of those times that the elevator takes YEARS to finally get there. The man just stands beside me and starts asking me questions. "Aren't you the girl who sang with Bruno Mars last night?" I nod my head. "Are you guys in a relationship?" I narrow my eyes and look at him. "What’s it to you?" He just shrugs his shoulders and pulls a note pad from his pocket and writes down his questions and my answers. "Are you from the press?" I ask. "Nope." That's it I've made up my mind. I abruptly turn and start taking the stairs. But nothing can just be fine and dandy. Nope, because here comes the man in black. I start running down the stairs and I hear him start to do the same. I open every floor door hoping that it will throw him off but it doesn’t. I get to the 6th floor and stop. Should I go down this floor or keep going? I look up and see the man in black rounding the corner I open the door and I feel his fingers just brush by my skin. I let out a yelp and start sprinting. I get to the other side of the hall and don’t even have to look over my shoulder because I can hear his heavy breathing is far away. I bolt down the rest of the stairs anad get to the lobby. I go to the front desk and pay $2 for a friggin bottle of asprin! Geez! I decide to take the stairs back up to the 4th floor and then take the elevator the rest of the way. Thankfully when I reach the 10th floor no ones there. I knock on the door and Bruno opens it, but the quickly retreats back to the bathroom. He comes back out and gladly takes the two asprin I give him. "C'mon Bru lets order room service you need to keep your strength up." We order our food and as prominsed in 20 minutes it’s sitting on the small wicker table in our room. We scarf everything down and i can tell Bruno’s looking better already. His eyes are starting to shine again and his color is returning to his face. "Why don’t you go down across the street get some freah air and juice?" "Yes doctor." He grabs his room key and walks out. I decide to hop into the shower and throw on my elmo shirt, a pair of faded demin shorts, and my flip flops. I pull my hair up on the sides and sit down with my Macbook to check my emails. Mostly it's junk but the last three are urgent ones from Marybeth. I open all three of them and part of me died inside.
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Bruno was nervous, so nervous he was shaking. He put his hand back into his pocket and felt the velvety square again. He had to be sure he didn’t loose it. Bruno stepped into the elevator and pressed 10. He was the only one in the elevator so he decided to pray. "Please dont let me mess this up! I love her so much and I would die if I lost her." As if on cue the elevator buzzed and he stepped out and started walking to the room.
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You idiot you knew it was too good to be true! You did this to yourself! He was just using you like all the rest! I was crying so hard I didnt hear Bruno walk in. "Hey......Baby what’s wrong?" I wanted to punch him, slap him, kick him. But nothing would messure to the pain I was feeling. I just wanted to die. I thought he really loved me! "Baby? What’s wrong?" Bruno walks closer and I just need to get out. I stand up and grab my Macbook and the room key. "Baby.....?" "Don’t touch me!" He fliches. "What’s wrong?" I turn around and get right up into his face. Good sounding idea. But terrible idea. Those eyes, so confused and hurt. "Don’t you ever touch me or talk to me again Hernandez!" I turned and run out of the room. I run all the way down to the 7th floor and pound on Phil's door. All the guys are probably in there but I dont care. I need to talk to somebody I can trust. Phil opens the door with a smile that quickly fades when he sees me. "What happened?" He asks sounding genuienly concerned. I walk in and put my macbook on the desk so everyone can see. Then they understand. All three of the pictures are of Bruno and Chanel at a jewlery store. There smiling and laughing and seeming to have a really good time-behind my back. I sit on the bed and the guys all try to comfort me, but nothing’s seeming to work. "Listen why don’t you go pack your things and meet us down in the lobby so we can go to the verizon theater and rehearse. Alright doll face?" I nod my head and he wipes the tears that are running down my cheeks. I grab my macbook and room key and walk out. "Thanks guys." I take the elevator back to the 10th floor and I’m releaved to see that Bruno's not there. I quickly pack my stuff and head down to the lobby. There’s a couch empty so I wheel my stuff over to it and wait for the guys.
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Bruno stood in the corner with his stuff. Waiting. He finally saw her come out of the elevator. Face filled with hurt. He watched her sit down and sighed. He put his hand in his pocket and felt the velvety box. He'd never done this before but he wanted the whole world to know. He sighed. Now or never. He wheeled his stuff out of the corner and walked over to the person he wanted to be with the rest of his life.
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I looked over and saw bruno walking over towards me and the guys stepping out of the elevator. "Hi." "Mr Hernandez you have a lot of explaining to do but I’m pretty sure I don’t want to hear any of it." "No.....wait just let me explain." I start to walk off and he grabs me by the shoulders and kissed me. I melted into his arms I tried to get my legs to walk but they wouldn’t cooperate. "Now please just listen to me." I cross my arms over my chest. "Go on." He looks around and puts his hands in his pockets. "I've never done this before and I’m not sure what to say but there’s one thing I’m positive of, I love you.." He pulls out a velvety black box and gets on a knee. "...will you marry me?" I feel tears start to stream down my cheeks and I drop to the floor beside him and kiss him. "Yes!" He slides the simple yet gorgeous wide gold band and simple diamond ring onto my finger. "Forever and always." He whispers. "Forever and always." I whisper back. As we get into the limo I feel someone slip something into my pocket. We get into the limo and I pull it out. "What’s that?" Bruno asks as soon as he asks I’m filled with dread. "I think I should tell you guys something." I start with what Drake said to me with his dying breath up until what happened at the hotel. "Why didn’t you tell me about this creeper! How could you hide this from me!" Brunos enraged and I don’t blame him. "I...I didn’t want you to worry.....and I thought that it was just paparazzi..." He sighs and points at the manilla envolope in my hands. "What’s it say?" I pull the letter out and read it out loud. "It's coming. We’re here. Don’t bother to get protection. Because we’re anyones worst nightmare. Be scared. Because it’s here. -The Men In Black." My voice catches in my throat as I read the last part and my hands start to shake. We pull up to the theather and we all pile out. "We need to stay together alright?" Everyone nods and we head on stage to rehearse. Everyone’s in a terrified mood and rehearsals are pointless. Everyone just decides to head off to the dressing rooms and try again later. Bruno walks with me to my dressing room. "I love you Emily Hernandez.... Forever and always." I look at my soon to be your husband and wonder how I got so lucky. "I love you too Bruno Hernandez....forever and always." I walk into my dressing room and close the door. I turn around and feel someone out a bag over my head and squeeze my pressure point. I start screaming but it doesn’t seem to work. A blinding white light starts to over take me. I keep fighting thought. Kicking doing what ever I can. But my struggles are pointless. I watch in horror as the blinding white light fades into blackness.
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"Help me!" What the heck? That sounded like....oh god please no! Bruno runs back to Emily's dressing room. As he rounds the corner he feels a horrible exploding pain in the back of his neck and a blinding white light blinds him. He feels someone put something over his head and they start taking his clothes off. First his yellow and black plaid shirt, then his black chaps, then his converse and his hat and raybans. "Please don’t hurt her!" He shouts. But all it gets his is a swift kick to the head that leads to him drifting into unconciousness
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"Ohhh...." I wake up and look around. Where am I ? Oh right the dressing room. What happened to me? Oh shit! I get up and race to the guys dressing room only to find all of them regaining consiousness. "Where’s Bruno!" I screech. I scan the room and on one of the couches lay his clothes that he was in when he walked me to my dressing room. A top his clothes lay an envolope. I open it and read it out loud. "It's here. The trap is set. Will you take the bait? -The Men In Black." Those simple words felt like a million knifes to my heart.
But that was 6 months ago.
We searched everywhere but nothing turned up. I was flown back to Georgia to my home, dog, and sister, only to fall into a depression. I kept Brunos clothes and just the feel and smell of them comforted me somewhat. But not knowing what happened to him was the worse part. Where was he? Was he hurt? Alone? What if he was........dead? I wouldn’t even think about it. I didn’t want to. I went out to our spot on the beach almost everyday and night. I was always at that spot. It held the beginning and promises or something big that happened. I fiddled with my wedding band and took it off my finger. I looked at the band and that’s when I saw it. The engraving read Forever and always. Stupid little words that ment so much. I started crying and decided to just lay on the couch. I closed my eyes and then the door bell rang. "Son of a bitch....who the hell...." I opened the door and started at the person standing in my door way in disbelief.