.:*The One Who Protects His Magic*:. || A Bruno Mars Fanfiction

:: 45 ::

BRUNO

In one of the large rooms in the Palau Sant Jordi, the Hooligans had a fierce game of Poker going with Phil raking in most of the wins. Since we didn't have anything else to do for the rest of the day, the Hooligans figured they would have a little fun before their performance the next day. Me, on the other hand, was not up for the recreation that could ease my stress from the encounter I had from Elise earlier.

After the conversation that I had with her, I couldn't focus on anything else right now. I knew that telling her what went down with Larissa would cause us to drift further apart, but I couldn't keep it to myself anymore. I've been trying to reach out to her via text message, but she hadn't respond or made any attempt to talk to me. She was probably busy with preparations for the show, but I highly doubt that. Elise was right about everything, and the one I needed to talk to was Larissa.

She was the one who was genuinely hurting, and I needed to put this to rest with her. Elise straight called me out on my bullshit, and I couldn't believe that I pulled that crazy stunt with her earlier that day. Larissa had always been precious to me, and even she didn't deserve that from me. Don't get me wrong, I don't condone her verbally harassing Elise behind my back, but that didn't give me the right to do the same thing. But between the stress of the tour and Mya dropping that baby bombshell on me, my anger boiled over.

I'll talk with Larissa tomorrow about all this because I couldn't let this go on any longer. There was a knock on the door, and before I could give my consent for the person to come in, an African-American man in his late 20s traipsed inside the room with an extra spring in his step.

"There's my flawless, shining star!" Nathanial Salinas, my fashion designer for the tour with his design tote on his arm. "What's up, Bruno?"

"What's up, Nathan?" I honestly didn't have the strength to deal with him right now, but he's feeling extra jolly today, so he must have come here with some good news.

Nathan hurried over to Bruno and embraced him, which was a bit on the friendly side for him. "Oh, just fabulous! Thanks for asking, soul player!"

Bruno visibly cringed when Nathanial was overly affectionate with him and the height difference between was not helping that aspect. "Those are not the lyrics and what I told about calling me that?"

"About forty-five times, but we're not gonna talk about that right now," Nathanial ignored how upset I was and we moved aside to another area of the room where we could continue our conversation.

I've met Nathanial in 2016 when Atlantic Records wanted me to have more of a urban appeal for my fanbase since 24K Magic was more R&B than the last two albums. Now, I didn't have a problem with it since the urban look had always been my dress style since I was a kid growing up, but they did not tell me that this man would have this high level of energy that even I wouldn't be able to handle at times.

"This damn nigga here," Kameron said under his breath while watching the exchange take place. He had always been wary of Nathanial because of his personality and the fact that he did a little too much in his presence. Out of respect for Bruno and their business relationship, he never addressed it because of how well Bruno handled himself around him. "I can't deal with him."

"And there you go, straight hating on the man," Jamareo said, taking a swig of his bottled water. "Kam, you don't like no damn body."

"I bet there's not one person outside of us, your family, and friends that you truly care about for in here," Phil mentioned, shuffling the cards.

"Just because I don't show it doesn't mean that I don't care," Kameron said. "Dude's extra for no reason. That's what I got a problem with, and the same thing applies with Larissa, too."