The Hook-up

Chapter 163

Bruno felt something against his face making him jump. "Oh shit!" he exclaimed causing Geronimo to bark at him. "Oh man." He said to himself seeing that the living room full of empty bottles, glasses and several pieces of papers that he had scrib

"bled his feeling about Lauren on. "Ugh. No/" he moaned throwing himself back on the couch glancing at the words on the floor. He saw a tear fall down his cheek falling directly onto the paper. He picked it up humming the words that he had written the night before. He stood up stumbling through the cracked glass on the floor and puddles of smelly alcohol to get to the piano. As he walked past the piano he looked into the bedroom humming more. "Same bed...same closet...same bathroom...but it don't feel the same...." He quickly ran to the piano pouring his hear out unsure as to whether he was singing about Lauren or his past. No matter who his brain was thinking about he reached for the pad of paper writing the same notes he had the night before.

"Bruno!" he heard several hours later being yelled throughout the house. "Holy shit. What happened?" he heard in the back ignoring it as he continued to play the piano. "What the fuck...you gotta clean this up before Lauren gets back...." Ari came into the room seeing Bruno sitting at the piano with his hair all over wearing the same clothes he had on the day before. "Why didn't you just come to the studio? We could have worked on it there...." Ari started to tell Bruno.

"No. I don't want to be there right now." Bruno shook his head leaning down to the piano singing as though he was completely lost.

"Where is Lauren?" Ari asked.

"I don't know." Bruno said through the piano. "I don't know. Maybe I'll never know..." he sang to himself.

"I'm going to go, dude. Rambo is out there and I don't want him to get all messed up either..." Ari told Bruno.

Bruno lifted his head to see Ari leave. "Okay." He said still completely lost.

**

"I need more clothes..." Lauren said looking at the bag she had hastily packed the night before. "And I need more diaper things....."

"Honey, we can buy more diapers....and we can get you clothes...." Her father said as he held onto Ezra trying to rock him the way Bruno did to get him to calm down.

"No. I need the liners for the diapers..." she said to her father pointing to the decorative cloth diaper on her son's bottom.

"That's a diaper?" her father asked confused.

"Yeah. They're amazing..." Lauren said showing her father how to put together the cloth diaper pulling out the cotton insert placing it back into the cover.

"What do you need? You have a pile of them there..." Richard told her.

"I need more of the liners..." she told him.

"But you wash them. Give me those icky ones. We'll wash them. And you fit in Tracey's clothes. Or we can run to Neiman's...." Richard tried his hardest to keep her away from going back to her home.

"I don't want to go anywhere right now. Plus I'm fat." Lauren said sitting down with Everlee in her hands.

"Lauren, you can't behave like this just because he's being a jerk. You could sulk all you want before you had kids, but now you have to be able to be there for them. You can't do this...." Her father said trying to sound caring but coming off more forcefully than he had intended.

"I was doing fine, dad. But that really hurt my feelings." She said looking at him dead in the eye realizing why they had not gotten along when she was a teenager. He was too direct and had a heart made of stone at times. "I think I'm going to go talk to him." She said glancing at the clock. "I don't know if I'll be back or not..." she stood up reaching for a wrap to swaddle Everlee to her chest as she prepared to leave her father's house.

"Lauren, if you leave now, you're not welcome back here with the babies. I will not let you endanger them when you know damn well that Bruno is not in the right place. And I will not hesitate to call someone about your lack of direction, especially now that you have the twins." Her father said sternly.

"That's fine." She said throwing things in a diaper bag grabbing it quickly to get away from any anger her father was causing.