The Good Life

Chapter 72

Marla laid down in their bed stretching her arms out where he usually slept tossing and turning eventually falling asleep to the sound of the air conditioner. Her restless sleep was interrupted by a text message. It’s just them telling me I need to set-up my phone. She closed her eyes again trying to go back to sleep hearing the text notification go off several more times. Fuck. God. Just let me sleep. I have to work tomorrow. She moved herself to the phone trying to turn it off recognizing the phone number as Brandon’s.

Bruno’s in the hospital. Call me.

Call me. I know it’s late. He won’t talk to anyone.

What happened?

I’m not even going to bother. She turned off the phone going back to sleep.

”Mommmm….mommmmaaaa….mommmmm….” she heard Rosalia calling her name later in the morning. ”Mommmm….Kay-Kay and Pres are here….mommmm…..” she heard her daughter whine.

”Marla?” Jamie came in the room. ”Thank you, Rosie..go hang out with your aunt for a bit, please?”

”Okay..okay…” Rosalia answered running out of the room.

”Why are y’all here?” Marla asked sitting up in the bed.

”You didn’t answer anyone’s messages….we didn’t know if you were okay or what…” Jamie told Marla.

”I’m fine. Tired..but I’m fine.” Marla answered.

”Mar…Bruno is like straight up Charlie Sheen right now. Please tell me what is going on. He’s not talking to anyone…he’s like just sitting there….” Jamie told her.

”And I should fix it?” Marla asked.

”What is going on? Marla….he broke his hand from hitting a mirror and Phil punched him in the face and isn’t talking to him…” Jamie told her.

”Oh. That’s really too bad.” Marla answered. ”It really is. I’ll call him later.” she said standing up to go to the bathroom.

Jamie grabbed Marla’s arm dragging her back to the bed. ”Marla! Tell me what is going on!”

”He…slept..with…some…girl…” she said in the same way that Bruno had told Phil.

”Wait….what?” Jamie answered confused.

”Yeah…some girl named Madison. I don’t know who she is, but I should know who she is. And….” Marla was interrupted by Jamie.

”No! He did not do that!” Jamie exclaimed.

”It’s not like I’m hearing it from other people. He told me last night.” Marla told her sister in law.

”He’s a mess, Mar. You need to talk to him.” she answered.

”And you don’t think I’m a mess? Like really…” Marla yelled back. ”I can’t even think straight.”

”I know…I don’t even know what to say…but Marla…please…you’re the only person he’ll talk to.” she told her sister in law.

”He’ll just have to wait.” she answered standing up again.

”So you’re just gonna leave him like that? After everything he has done for you? Do you really think that he would leave you like that?” Jamie asked.

”Well, after yesterday there are a lot of things I don’t know about.” Marla replied thinking about how immature she was being. But I can. I can do this if he’s going to do that. She looked out into the living room seeing Rosie dancing in circles with her aunt trying to catch up with her. No. I can’t be immature.I can’t. For her. She grabbed the turned off phone scrolling through the text messages calling Bruno. She listened to the rings waiting for him to answer. Come on Bruno. Answer your damn phone.

”Mar?” she heard his broken voice answering the phone. She stood up from the bed grabbing a sweater to go outside. Shit. My feet are cold. She thought to herself grabbing flip-flops as she went outside. ”Marla…I just want it all to go away. I don’t even want to live this way. I just want to take it all back. I don’t even want to think about it anymore.”

”Bruno…did you do all this because you felt guilty?” she asked him forgetting about his state of crisis.

”Marla! No baby. Nononononononononono.” he replied still in a hoarse broken tone.

”Bruno….had I not had that seizure…would you have done it again? Would you have told me? What if I didn’t get sick? What if I actually could remember this girl? Bruno Hernandez…fucking answer me those questions right now or I’ll hang up the phone and let you bleed to death. I don’t even care right now.” she yelled at him. ”Answer me!”

”Marla…I love you more than anything in the world. More than…oh my god. I can’t live without you. I can’t live with knowing how upset I made you. I’m sorry.”

”You’re not answering my questions!” she yelled at him.

”You always tell me not to answer what if because the past can’t be changed, Marla.” he answered her.

”I want to know!” she yelled at him again.

”Mar….all that saved us. It made me see that I couldn’t live without you. I just can’t. It was the worst feeling in the world. It was so heavy. It’s like carrying all the pianos in the world on my back. ” he told her.

”Shut the fuck up! Don’t be metaphorical Bruno Mars.” she snapped at him.

”I don’t know what to do Marla. I don’t know. I just want you to know that I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything that I’ve done to you, even if you can’t remember them.” he answered her.

”Bruno…” she started to calm down still crying but not yelling. ”I can’t even remember her. I can’t remember when you were in New York or the girl…or the fight we got in. I know I’m mad at you for doing this…but I’m more hurt that you didn’t tell me. I’m just confused. I always thought you were the one person I could trust to be honest with me. To tell me everything. To tell me the good, the bad….everything. What else are you not telling me? Should I trust in the things you’ve told me? Are you feeding me unrealistic memories? Do I even really love you? Or do I love the person you told me you are?” she poured her heart out to him.

”Everything has been for you, baby. Every single thing in the world. I do it all for you. And even the thought of losing you makes me want to…”

”Break a mirror with your hand?” she asked him. ”That was stupid.”

”You make me do stupid things.” he told her.

”You have to get your shit together, Bruno. It happened. We’ll figure it out. But you can’t go breaking your hands and not letting people talk to you. People will start talking. And I know you hate people knowing your shit. And this…I don’t want anyone to know about.” she told him.

”You’re not going to leave me, Marla? You’re not?” he asked her.

”Bruno…I don’t know.” she answered honestly waiting for him to answer.

”I need you Marla. You can’t do that.” Bruno said returning to his broken tone.

”I’m really hurt right now, B. You know that.” she told him.

”I know.” he replied flatly.

”Please get up and go to the studio, Bruno. Get your shit together. I’ll talk to you later.” she told him.

”Okay.” he responded hearing her call end.

She ran her fingers along the phone hearing okay repeat over and over in her head.

”Mommy….I love you.” she heard her daughter come up behind her wrapping her arms around her kissing her cheek with her curly brown hair falling in front of her face. ”Don’t cry. Daddy will make it better. He makes it better all the time.”