Chapter 6

Bruno opened his eyes slowly. He then realized what just happened and smiled. He turned to his other side to look at Bre.

But right where she should supposed to lay was now laying a note.

He leaned on his elbow, took the note from the pillow and started to read.

‘Had to go back home to take care of some stuff. Don’t worry, I’ll be back in time for rehearsals. Love you.’

He grinned and laid on his back, staring at the ceiling.

‘So I guess I don’t mess up everything.’

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I was on my way home, daydreaming about Bruno. One of the bodyguards was so kind to let one of the drivers take me home.

As I got home I unlocked the door and entered. ‘Man, it feels like I haven’t been here for weeks…What a mess.’

I walked to the kitchen, threw my bag and keys on the counter and walked straight up to the refrigerator to get a drink. I decided to be more healthy and took the milk out. I poured it in my favorite cup and let the milk box stand on the counter. I took a sip and went to sit at the table, when I saw lots of mail on it.

‘Thanks, Lea.’ I smiled at the thought.

Lea has been the only one who knew where I hided my reserve house key. Since we’ve been best friends for three years I trusted her.

I quickly went through the mail.

Bills. Bills. Bills. Tags. Bills. Bills. Elektra Records. ‘Huh, Elektra Records? Isn’t that Bruno’s record label?’ 

I took a sip and quickly opened the envelope and froze when I saw the check coming out. 2000 dollars. I spit out the milk. ‘’What?!’’ My eyes  kept resting on the four numbers that were scrabbled on the piece of paper.

‘’No way!’’

I threw my arms up in the air and tossed my cup over, spilling the milk on the table.

The rest of the mail got wet, but I didn’t care, ‘cause the only thing I was thinking of was the check, which I was holding in my hands.

One day and I already earned 2000 dollars?! That’s like six times more then I earned with my ex-job (300 bucks for a week!).

Just at that time someone knocked on the door and I went silent.

‘Oh no, was I screaming so loud that the neighbors heard me?’

I quickly hide the check in one of the kitchen drawers and ran to the door.

I opened and was relieved when I saw it was Lea.

‘’Girl, finally home!’’ She hugged me. ‘’Yeah, I really had to come back to take care of here.’’ I pushed her inside and closed the door excited. We walked to the kitchen.

‘’Girl, what happened in here. Little earthquake?’’ She saw the mess on the table. I smiled so hard that my cheeks hurt.

‘’And why are you so excited?’’ she said, looking weird at me.

I  hopped my way to the kitchen drawer and took out the check, holding it up in front of her.

She narrowed her eyes, leaning forward to read it and her eyes widened in shock.

‘’Oh my sweet chocolate muffins. How did you get that?!’’

‘’This is my paycheck for singing with the hooligans.’’ I said excited and we jumped up and down.

‘’You know what that means?!’’ I yelled.

 ‘’SHOPPING!!!’’ we both screamed. We kept jumping up and down for a moment and then we went back to normal again.

‘’So what did the boss say at office, about me quitting my job.’’ I asked insecure. ‘’He told me that you have to come and talk to him in person, about why you’re leaving. Probably he is upset about it.’’ She said, shaking her head.

‘’Explaining will be hard.’’ I looked at my watch. ‘’Rehearsal starts at six, so if I go to office now I’ll be there right on time. Let’s go.’’ We stood up from the table, took our bags and walked out the door. We took her car and drove of to office.

On the way there I kept thinking about what happened with Bruno and hesitated if I should tell Lea. I decided to wait with it.

We arrived and entered the building.

We said ‘hi’ to Rhonda, the secretary, and walked to the boss's office..

‘’Alright then, we’re here. I have to work now. So good luck and come to me when you’re done.’’ Lea said, flashed a smile and walked to her desk.

I took a deep breath and knocked on the door.

‘’Come in’’ a deep low voice said. I opened the door and closed it behind me. The boss was sitting in his chair, faced to the window. He didn’t turn around.

“Ehm, sir..It’s me Bre. I heard that you wanted to talk to me about my acquittal?’’ I asked polite.

He still didn’t turn around.

‘’Have a seat.’’

I quickly stepped forward and sat down in front of his desk. Finally he turned around to face me.

‘’So Bre, how are you?’’ he asked, folding his hands and placing them on his desk.

‘’I’m fine.’’ I cleared my throat. ‘’Good. So, why are you quitting?’’ he looked serious. ‘’I’ve been very busy now. And I don’t think I can handle it if I continue working here.’’ I confessed.

‘’I understand. It is a lot of pressure.’’ He sighed. ‘’You know, you were special. Are you sure you wanna quit?’’

‘’Absolutely.’’ I nodded.

He scratched his head. ‘’Oke. But if you want to come back, my door is always open.’’ He said with a smile.

‘’Thank you, sir.’’                                                             

We stood up, gave each other a hand and said goodbye. 

I walked out of the room and walked to Lea’s desk. She was on the computer and looked up at me when I stood in front of her desk.

‘’And?’’ she asked carefully.

‘’He said that he’s oke with it and I always can come back to work if I want to.’’ I looked at my watch. 5 pm.

‘’Lea, can you drive me?’’ I asked her. ‘’Sure. I’ll check out first.’’ She stood up and walked to Rhonda to check out. ‘’Come on.’’

I followed her out the building to the car and we drove to the hotel. ‘I hope their still there and didn’t leave without me.’

We stopped in front of the hotel. I stepped out of the car, but Lea didn’t.

‘’Aren’t you coming?’’ I raised one eyebrow.

‘’No, I can’t.’’ she said, with her hands still on the wheel.

‘’Don’t you wanna meet the band?’’

‘’Yes. But I can’t right now. I’ve got a hot date.’’ She looked up with a big smile.

‘’Oeh, I wanna know everything. You really should come one of these days.’’ I said.

‘’Yeah. I bet their very nice. But I’ll see you around. Have fun at rehearsals.’’ She pulled of.

‘’Have fun at your date!’’ I yelled after her.

I watched her get out of the street, then turned around and walked into the hotel.

I went upstairs to Bruno’s room and knocked. No answer.

‘He still isn’t a sleep, is he?’

Still no answer. I opened the door and walked in. The room was empty. ‘Oh no, they didn’t leave without me, right?’

I closed the door and walked forward. And then someone tackled me on the ground. I screamed.

‘’Get off of me, freak!’’ and pushed the person off of my back, with my elbow.

‘’Auw!’’

I recognized that voice. I turned around and saw it was Bruno. He had his hand on his eye. ‘’Dang, you’re strong!’’ he said surprised.

‘’I’m so sorry.’’ I walked up to him and placed my hand on his shoulders.

‘’What were you doing behind the door anyway.’’ I asked amused.

‘’I tried to surprise you.’’ He said, still holding his hand on his eye.

‘’So you just jump on me?’’ I glared at him.

He laughed. ‘’I didn’t know you knew kung fu.’’

I couldn’t resist it and just laughed with him. ‘’I’ll get some ice.’’ I walked to the bathroom to get a towel, filled it with ice (from the bucket with champagne) and came back to him.

‘’Let me see.’’ I took his hand from his eye. I widened my eyes. His eye looked dark and bruised.

‘’How bad is it?’’ he asked scared. I was afraid to answer.

He stood up and walked to the mirror to look at himself. ‘’Oh man, I’ve been beaten up by a woman.’’ I couldn’t help but laughed when he said that. ‘’I’m in big trouble.’’

‘’Come here.’’ I said.

He turned to me and I held the towel on his head.

‘’So, where were you. You left early.’’ He looked at me with his other eye. ‘’Had to deal with office. I quit my job.’’

‘’Really?’’

‘’Yeah. I can’t handle to jobs. I’m already here 24/7.’’

‘’I understand. You’re too busy with me. You haven’t even kissed me ‘hello’, by the way.’’ He said sad.

‘’If you didn’t jump on me like that you would have gotten one.’’ I glared at him.

‘’Can I still have one?’’ he asked with a soft, sweet voice.

‘’No.’’ I said, still mad.                                 

‘’Aw come on. Please? I’ll promise I’ll be a good boy.’’ He said naughty.

I looked at him and couldn’t say no to that.

‘’Alright.’’ I came closer to him and kissed him…on his forehead. Then I bursed out in laughing.

He looked at me, confused.

I looked surprised back.

‘’What? You said a kiss, but didn’t told me where.’’ I laughed.

‘’That’s not fair. You know what I meant.’’ And he crossed his arms, pouting.

Then we heard a loud knock. Phil opened the door and came in. ‘’Woawa. What happened to you?’’ He looked at the towel, then at Bruno. ‘’Bre, beat me up.’’ He acted emotional.

‘’Did you guys got into a fight?!’’ Phil said shocked.

‘’Yes. And it hurts so much. I can’t take it anymore.’’ he fake cried.

‘’Ha Ha. That eye better be good tomorrow, or else we have a big problem.’’ Phil looked serious. ‘’We’re leaving in a couple of minutes, so be ready.’’ He said and walked out the door.

I took the towel of his eye to take a look at the bruise. It looked worse than before.

‘’How does it look now?’’ Bruno asked concerned.

‘’Oh. Better.’’ I lied.

‘’So, I still didn’t get that kiss…’’ he said after seconds. I threw the towel at his head and stood up.      

He rubbed his head and stood up too.

‘’Maybe you will, maybe you won’t.’’ I said.

‘’Playing hard to get, huh.’’ He got to the bathroom to look at his eye. He looked disappointed and put his shades on.

He took his stuff, so did I, and opened the hotel door for me. I walked out and he followed, holding my hand from behind.

‘’Should we tell the band?’’ I asked as we walked downstairs.

He hesitated. ‘’Let’s wait.’’ He said and we walked to the lobby.

We saw the band, so we let go of our hands and walked towards them. We checked out  and walked to the car.

The whole way Bruno and I kept silence, but when none of the guys were watching, we fast threw some hand kisses at each other and stuff…

Back at State Of shock again. We played songs for like 20 minutes. Then Bruno decided to take his shades of to take a look at his eye. Kenji noticed.

‘’What happened to your eye?!’’ The rest turned to Bruno too.

‘’Beaten up by Bre.’’ Phil laughed.

‘’Good job, Bre. He really needed it. He’s so annoying.’’ Eric winked at me.

‘’But seriously, Bruno. It looks bad. How are you going to perform tomorrow with a black eye. You can’t go like this. You look like a beaten up prisoner.’’ Jamareo said.

‘’Thanks for the compliment.’’ Bruno said sarcastic.

‘’He can put his shades on. No one will notice.’’ I grabbed his shades from his shirt and put it back on him. ‘’See?’’ The guys pretty looked impressed and nodded. Bruno smiled thankfully at me and I winked at him.

We continued rehearsing for like two more hours, until we felt like going home.

Phred, Kenji, Eric and Jamareo left first. I was helping Bruno packing his stuff when Phil came up to us.

‘’So, what’s going on between you two?’’ I dropped a bag on the ground and pick it up quickly.

‘’What are you talking about? There’s nothing going on. We’re just friends.’’ Bruno lied.

‘’Oh come on. I know that you two are dating. I’m not stupid.’’ Phil said.

Bruno sighed and looked at me. ‘’Alright. We’re dating.’’ he finally said.

Phil smirked. ‘’I knew it. You two do look cute together.’’ And then he pulled Bruno closer and whispered something. The only words that I could understand were: ‘’don’t let Matt find out.’’ He then let go of Bruno and we continued packing.

After this we jumped in Phil’s car and he drove to my house. ‘’We’re here.’’ He murmured. 

I got out the car, but surprisingly Bruno too. ‘’Phil, I think I’m staying here a while. I’ll be back soon. I’ll call you.’’ He said.

Phil looked up at him, then at me and then smiled as if he knew what Bruno was up to. ‘’Have a good night. You too Bruno.’’ He laughed.

We waved at him and then went to my door. ‘’Why aren’t you going to the hotel?’’ I asked as we walked.

‘’I just wanted to see how your house looks like  on the inside.’’ He smiled. ‘’And you still haven’t kissed me yet.’’ He laughed.

‘’Oh, this is where it’s all about, huh? Alright then.’’ I looked around us, looking if there was no one around and kissed him quickly on the lips. Bruno smiled and we walked inside the house.

But what they didn’t know, was that there was someone, behind the bushes, taking photos of them…