Till Death (A Bruno Mars Fanfiction)

Chapter 15

"I just want a drink!" Naomi yelled reaching over Leah at the restaurant's table.

"Hold on, geez." Leah groaned pouring Naomi a drink.

"I'm just celebrating. Goodness." Naomi laughed taking a sip of the drink he friend had made.

"It's a good thing it's a bottle and not just drinks..." one of Naomi's classmates, Kevin, responded.

"Why aren't you drinking?" Naomi asked Kevin.

"I am..." the short bearded future pastor said holding up his glass.

"Alright. I just want to make sure you're having fun..." Naomi responded grabbing her phone. "You know who would be fun to have here tonight?" she turned to Tamara with a mischievous smile.

"No, Mimi. Not when you're going to get shitfaced." Tamara answered.

"But, Tam! It's perfect!" she told her friend standing up to call Bruno.

"I'm not even going to approve of it..." Tamara said watching Naomi walk out of the restaurant. She carefully leaned against the wall scrolling through weeks of phone calls to call Bruno. She heard the phone ring several times before hearing Bruno's scratchy voice answer the phone.

"Hey Naomi...." he answered a bit unsure of why she was calling.

"Are you in town?" she asked. "Because we're doing that thing where you watch religious kids get drunk." she giggled.

"Oh. Umm. I'm just at home." he told her. "Maybe I can make it. Where are you?"

"I don't even know..." she turned to look at the name of the place they were at. "We've been to a couple different places."

"So where are you?" he asked.

"Oh. Right. We're at the Cross Eyed Seagull." she told him.

"Oh. I can get there." he answered. "Maybe in a few hours. Why don't you let me know if you're going to go somewhere else?"

"Yeah. That's okay. I hope to see you, Brunz." she smiled through the phone hanging up going back inside.

"Is he coming?" Leah asked her handing Naomi the drink.

"I don't know. Probably not." Naomi said a bit disappointed.

"Whatever, dude. It's not that big of a deal. Like you mean anything to him anyway." Leah responded still indifferent to their relationship. It had been a few weeks since they had seen each other. They hadn't seen each other since the incident at Panara, but had texted each other a few times just to check in. He had either started to feel a bit better about his situation or had chosen not to tell her about what was going on in his head. Naomi continued through the night checking her phone every few minutes to see if he was going to come to her celebration. Finally, at nearly 12:45 in the morning she heard a beep that a text had gotten to her phone.

I'm here. Where are you?

"I'll be right back!" Naomi announced in the middle of the conversation she was having going to the front of the bar to see Bruno throwing a cigarette butt off to the side of the street. "Hey!" she smiled touching the tips of her newly highlighted hair that had toned down her ombre.

"Hi." he smirked at her leaning in to give her a hug. "How are you?"

"I'm good." she replied. "How are you? Did you get a lot done while you were in New York?"

"Yeah. I think it went well. We have so much more left, though." he admitted. "It's not like we've hit a wall but it's all just kind of blah. And I don't want to put anything on there that I don't love."

"I know. Like you hate The Lazy Song. She said leaning against the wall she had leaned against to call him.

"God. I hate that song." he laughed. "Let me get you a drink, Naomi. I still owe you one."

"Oh...well. More like I'm going to get you one. We've got bottles." she said pointing to Daniel who was pouring another drink leaning in toward Tamara. "Please don't find my friends. They're probably as drunk, if not drunker than me right now." she said going around the circle introducing everyone to him.

"I like your friends..." Bruno leaned over to Naomi a few minutes later after the newness of his arrival had worn off.

"Yep. I do a good job of picking them." she replied taking a sip of her drink. "I want to dance!" she exclaimed pulling Bruno up from the couch he was sitting on.

"Oh, I don't think so...." he said to her.

"Brunnnoo!" she whined.

"Okay. But only because I really want to see what a girl who works at church dances like when she's drunk." he smiled at her.

"You know..." she said as she reached for his hand. "The whole working at a church thing is going to wear off after a bit. It's just a job." she said feeling his warm body against hers as he moved her to the beat of the music. She forgot all about her friends and the people she was with feeling his heart beat against her back and his hot breath against her ear. This is exactly what Tamara wants....she thought to herself.

"Look!" Tamara pushed Leah and Daniel toward the dancing. "They are playing right into my web of fanfiction..." she told them taking a sip of her drink.

"He's not even that good looking. He's short and he smokes and he's chubby." Leah told them.

"I guess that's Mimi's type." Tamara smirked. "I didn't even tell her to call hm."

"Yeah. Okay. Whatever." Kevin said to them. "I just don't want her to get hurt." they all looked toward Bruno and Naomi who were nor facing each other. They watched the two of them speak to each other very closely and softly. They were happy through the conversation.

"God! Just kiss!" Tamara yelled at them through the loud music and crowd watching them continue their conversation oblivious to the people around them. Through the voyeurism Tamara watched them step away from the group heading toward the door. "Where are they going?" she asked.

"Just leave them alone!" Daniel held onto her hand.

"I'm glad you're doing well." Naomi told Bruno sitting down on a bench outside the bar. "And I really want you to do well with everything." she said pulling at his hand playing with one of his rings.

"I don't think that I would be anywhere near where I am right now if I hadn't met you, Naomi." he told her. "I still think about her. But it's not the same way. It's like I miss her but I know that I'm not going to see her again."

"That's good, Bruno." she said feeling his hands wrap around her fingers without him saying anything.

"I know I've kind of fucked this all up, Naomi." he admitted. "Like I just wasn't ina good place. But I really do like you. Like I like talking to you and I like what you stand for and who you are. You're not like anyone else I've ever met."

"Oh. Bruno..." she told him still holding onto his hands. "I get it. I think you're an amazing person too..." she turned to him to smile.

"But..." he started.

"But nothing." she told him letting go of his hand placing her hands on his cheeks looking into his eyes. She saw some type of light that she hadn't seen in his eyes. It was a sense of happiness and joy. It was a sense of freedom that he had talked about earlier in the evening that she saw in him. She smiled at him sweetly leaning in to kiss him lightly, almost replicating the kiss at the studio adding a slight flick of her tongue against his forgetting that people were flooding outside of the bar as the night turned into day. They ignored all the people and held onto each other until Naomi felt something hit her head.

"I told you!" Tamara yelled picking up her scraf that had landed next to Naomi. "Let's go home Mims."

"I have to tell you something.." Naomi said as she and Bruno parted lips leaning into his ear. "I only had two drinks tonight."