Misprinted Lies (Alice in Chains/Bruno Mars)

Lift Me Up

Bruno was about to go back on tour in the beginning of February early the next year. A bit before that, I got a very important phone call. I had to talk to Bruno about it before the tour started.

After dinner one night, I brought it up.

"Bruno I need to talk to you about something...it's important."

"Sure," he said, setting his plate down. He looked unsure about what I was going to say and I was unsure about how he was going to take it.

"Well I was thinking and I...I don't want to do the sound for the next part of the tour."

"That's okay, Lil."

"I...I wanna work in the studio again. I'm...kinda bored...not because of being on tour and hanging out with you and the Hooligans and all that, but because of the work I'm doing. Like...I want to be actually in the studio again, at Patriot."

He pouted a little bit.

"Bru, I'm sorry...but there's just not enough for me on tour. I need to be doing more. I'm sorry. I know it's not great that we just got engaged and now we'll be spending less time with each other..."

His frown quickly turned into a smile. "Lily that's great...it's so great that you want to be challenged. Between you and me...there's nothing we have to worry about...okay? Don't even worry about...we're fine. I'm gonna miss you though."

I smiled out of great relief. "I'm gonna miss you too. We can face time, though, and Skype and do all that. Besides, this tour's in the U.S so you'll be playin' here in L.A and then in Vegas too. I'll come see you when I can. I think we can make it work."

"Of course we can," he said, pulling me in close.

A little while later...I told him.

"Bruno I got a phone call today."

"Oh yeah?" he asked curiously.

"Bruno," I smiled. "The Red Hot Chili Peppers want me for a new live album they're putting out...like they said they called a bunch of other people...but I'm like number one on their list."

His jaw dropped and he squeezed me tight.

"Lily that's amazing!" he said excitedly. "Oh man that's so great!"

He got up and ran to the kitchen. Geronimo almost attacked him when they crossed paths because he was so riled up.

"Where are you goin'?" I yelled a bit because he was already far down the hallway.

Bruno came back with a bottle of champagne and poured it into two glasses. "We're celebrating, duh!"

I took my glass from him. He was beaming with pride. His support was just...so great. He went over to the sound system and put a Red Hot Chili Peppers album into the record player. It was from my dad's collection.

"Now you're gonna have all the fun stories. You gotta share like, everything when I'm on the road again."

"Of course. We can Skype when I'm working with them. Plus, a live album is gonna be so cool. I've never done that before," I smiled.

"Awww...if you could look at your face...I love when you look this happy. You're gonna be so great at that, especially after doing the tour stuff with me," Bruno said winking, before pausing. "I've been thinking about doing one of those. How 'bout when the time is right you do one with me?"

"Deal," I said, mockingly winking back at him.

_____________________________________________

It was rough for the beginning part of the tour. I missed Lily. We'd never really been apart for too long. I could never tear her away from her dreams of working with the Red Hot Chili Peppers though. She'd been talking about it for years, just wishing and hoping for the chance.

A couple of days before I would see her in March, we Skyped in the middle of one of their sessions. She was having a great time, which made me so happy to see. Me and all the Hooligans watched her as she began to work on the live album.

We had sound check for my show in a couple minutes. My manager was at the bus door calling for us to come inside the venue.

"Alright, baby. I gotta go now. Love you."

"Love you too, Bruno. Have fun tonight."

I walked into the venue with Phil at my side.

"Lily's havin' a great time. It's awesome that she's workin' with the Chili Peppers. She really loves those guys. I wish she were here with us though. It seems a little empty on bus."

"You're tellin' me," I said shaking my head but smiling. "She's so excited about the live album though."

"We should do a live album. I mean we have such a great live show and all the instruments..."

I raised my eyebrows. "That's funny because I already asked her if she'd do one for us and she agreed."

"Now that'll be fun," Phil said, enthusiastically. "I can't wait."

There was silence for a bit as we got settled in the dressing room.

"When's the big day?" Phil asked. "Have you figured that out yet? Or have either of you not come down from cloud nine yet?"

"Yep. July 15th," I said, my cheeks hurting from smiling so much.

"Aw, man. That's gonna be a great day." he smiled back. "You excited?"

"So excited. You have no fuckin' idea. I'm a little nervous though...already."

"You shouldn't be. Lily's seen you do the dumbest shit and she stuck around through all of it. There's no way you could ruin it."

"Yeah, but she deserves a damn good wedding."

Even though Lily pretended to not like all that girly stuff like the dress and the invitations and all that stuff my sisters were going crazy over, I knew secretly she wanted something special. Any other girl would have dropped everything she was doing and followed me around the country. Lily had her own dreams and wishes, and always encouraged me to follow my own too. How could I not give her the wedding of the century?

I told her I'd do entertainment for the reception and I already had a couple ideas about how I could surprise her. I talked to Ryan Tedder and he already had an idea that I just had to use.