The Hook-up

Chapter 70

"Bruno...ohhh...ewww...." She jumped up from the couch running into the bathroom. She slid into the same spot he had found her numerous times with her head down.

"Baby...." He said to her with concern sitting down next to her.

"I hate you." She looked up at him with her eyes red and watery.

"Wait! What did I do?" he asked a bit shocked and confused by her statement.

"Oh god." She moaned again feeling tears well up in her eyes. "I didn't mean it." She cried laying herself near the toilet again puking.

"Oh...." He responded understanding why she was saying what she had said. If he had a penny for every time one of his sisters called their boyfriends or husbands named when they were pregnant he would at least have 5 dollars. It still hurt his feelings but he had a better understanding of why she was so mean to him recently. She pulled herself away from where she was sitting watching him stand up to help her up. "Come on, Elle. Let's go to bed." He said to her pulling her up feeling her start to wobble toward him.

"Ahhhh..." she laughed as she struggled to gain her balance. "I feel like I have ten babies in me." She told him as he took her hand leading her toward the bed. She laid down in the bed grabbing her favorite pillow closing her eyes hoping that he would lay down behind her and rub her back.

"Lay on your stomach, boo." He directed her pushing the pillow away from her.

"Don't kill me." She joked stretching out so he couch massage her back. He alternated between hard and soft pushes against her back focusing on little spots of her shoulders and her lower back that he could feel small knots.

"Laur....you need to quit stressing out." He told her.

"I'll quit stressing when these babies turn 18." She answered turning her head to continue the conversation.

"Well shit. I can't give you a massage every day until their 18. I was thinking like until the album is done...." He said to her joking a little not hearing her respond to his joke. "Lauren?" he asked looking over to the side seeing her eyes closed and her hands up above her head clenched together. "Your arms are going to fall asleep if you stay like that." He told her moving her arms down a little.

"Brunnoooo...." She moaned still asleep.

"I'm right here, Lauren." He said to her. "Let me changed and then I'll come to bed." He told her knowing that he was reassuring someone that wouldn't remember what he had said in the morning. He looked out into the living room to see the dogs laying on the floor with toys that he had bought Geronimo. "Come on, double G....let's go for a walk." He said to them watching their eyes light up as he walked toward a cabinet taking out their leashes. As he bent down he heard his phone, placed next to a pile of sweet potatoes start to ring. He ran and grabbed the phone seeing that Damaris was calling him. "Hey, D." he said picking up the phone.

"How are you, Bruno?" she asked him.

"I'm fine. Why are you calling me?" he asked her dragging the dogs behind him out to the front of the house.

"The last time we talked you said that Lauren was stressing you out." Damaris reminded him.

"She is. But that doesn't mean that I need to talk to you about it. It's a relationship for a reason, Damaris. I love that we can still be friends, but I think we just need to chill for a little bit. I have to figure out exactly where my heart needs to be." He told her.

"You know you're just going to end up hurting yourself and her in the end, Bruno." She told him with a strong tone of anger in her voice.

"You're not my mother, Damaris. And even if you were she wouldn't be telling me what to do. She would tell me she would be there when I needed her. And right now I don't need any of your drama. So just. I'll call you when I figure it out." He said watching Geronimo sniff every tree he could find.

"Good night, Peter." Damaris snapped hanging up the phone.

"Come on, little dude." Bruno said picking up the dog. "Gigi...come inside." He called to Lauren's dog who bounced toward them. Bruno put Geronimo down watching him run into the same spot he always slept. He dropped his clothes in a pile watching Gigi jump onto Lauren not waking her at all. "Well aren't you just beautiful." He smiled at Lauren as she snored lightly near where he would be laying. He slipped into the bed laying on his back looking up at the crackled ceiling. What am I doing? He thought to himself as Lauren's body turned landing half on him and half on her pillow.