Till Death (A Bruno Mars Fanfiction)

Chapter 78

Early in the afternoon the next day Naomi walked backstage of the festival she was playing feeling more refreshed than she had in months.

After talking to Joseph she went back to her hotel, found a church to attend that was close by in the morning. She slipped into the familiar seat turning off her phone, sitting quietly saying hello to the regulars who were part of the "new member committee." After explaining for the fifth time she was just visiting, several of the teenage girls that were in attendance stopped to see if Naomi was who they thought she was. She smiled at nodded at them trying not to draw any attention to herself closing her eyes through the traditional service moving her body to the music. She participated in the ritualistic prayer and routine. She listened to the pastor talk to his congregation about service and summer freedom. She smiled through the sermon independently praying to find time to do what the randomly selected pastor had spoken about."Hi, Jules!" Naomi smiled as she neared their gear.

"Hey there, girl. How was church?" she asked.

"It was good. It was exactly what I needed." Naomi smiled. "I'm ready to get this thing going." she turned to see someone pointing to a small area set up as a green room. "It looks like they're ready for me!" she bounced off to the side introduced to a bright summery blonde DJ named Lily.

"So, Mimi, you have a pretty interesting background about how you got here. Tell us about it." Lily asked.

"Well..." Naomi replayed Bruno telling her to say the same thing every interview followed by Joseph telling her to do something different. Different. Make this yours.She heard an unknown voice directing her. "Well, I met someone who pushed me to do this. He encouraged me to do music and said that this is what I should be doing. And here I am." she smiled.

"You worked with the Smeezingtons, A Great Big World and some other newer producers for your album. How were those experiences?" Lily asked.

"They were amazing. Bruno is on one of my tracks and I think I'll be performing that today. I think everyone will be able to feel his influence on Be Okay. It's one of my favorites. And Say Something just, it blew up for all three of us. It was amazing and I'm so glad that I was able to work with them as well."

"I have a few questions from your fans in the audience, Mimi. Would you mind answering a few of their questions?"

"Sure." Naomi answered with a smile watching a mic being past to a teenager.

"Are you dating Bruno Mars?" the girl asked skipping all the soft stuff going right to the gossip.

"We're very close friends." Naomi answered with a slight smile still unsure about where their relationship stood after their argument.

She continued to field questions from all the girls in the audience answering questions about her favorite foods, her family, her musical influence and of course her love life again. She somehow felt at ease with the questions, mixing up canned answers and original answers. She felt like she was doing this her way for the first time in a long time, maybe since the day she met Bruno. Maybe I just need to do this my way. She thought to herself.

Naomi finished her show feeling better about herself than she had in a long time. She looked down at her phone after finishing her small five song set in the green room to see what time it was. Nine....he's just now going on stage....gah. I really wanted to talk to him....She thought to herself as the phone rang. "Hey, I know you're just about to start....but....Bruno, I love you. You're amazing. Have a good show." she hung up the phone taking a sip of water from her water bottle. She gathered her things, along with Trey, Mike and Jules and started back toward the small van with all their equipment. "That was a good set, Mimi. I don't know what you did....I mean..not that everything else has or was bad...but you were on fire tonight." Mike told her.

"Thanks, Mike. I thought like it was really good too." Naomi responded.

By eleven in the evening Naomi and her band were on her tour bus driving west toward Minnesota. She laid her head on the back of her cushy chair feeling herself falling asleep when suddenly her phone rang."Oh god!" she exclaimed answering it. "Hello?"

"Mims..." she heard Bruno's voice.

"Hey." she yawned. "I was asleep...."

"Then go back to sleep..." he said sweetly. "I didn't mean to wake you up."

"No,I wanted to talk to you. How was your show?" she asked.

"It was really good. I think we've finally found it." he said to her.

"I think I found it too." she answered.

"You did?" he asked surprised. "Tell me all about it..."

"Well." she yawned again. "I went to church this morning. And it was just like it was what I needed. Maybe I just need to do the church thing while I'm on tour."

"Maybe you do, Mims. I knew you'd find it." he told her. "I knew you'd find it and I knew you'd kill it."

"Thank you, Bruno. I'm sorry I just rambled yesterday. You sounded like you were stressed out. Are you better now? What's going on?" she asked.

"I was just thinking of my mom. That's it." he shrugged standing up putting her on speaker so he could dry his mass of curls from the quick shower he had taken before he called her.

"Did you talk to Eric?" she wondered.

"Yeah. I always talk to Eric. I called Tahiti too. It helped." he told her.

"Well, good. I'm sorry I wasn't there. Will you call me if you need to talk?" she asked.

"Yes, Mims. I will." he said starting to talk to her about his show talking like everything was back to normal. She laughed at him and closed her eyes again walking to the small bed that was in the back of the tour bus. "Nay?" he asked a few minutes later. "Naomi, you fell asleep." he told her as he got on his own bus. "Maybe we'll see each other on the road one day..." he said to himself ending the call.