The Hook-Up (Part Two)

Chapter 279

They all sat there with a mix of emotions for the next few minutes. Lauren held onto Bruno longer than she ever had. She closed her eyes pressing her chest into his trying to get him to calm down the way that he would for her. Through the seconds she could feel his heart slow down. She pulled away from him to look into his eyes. "Bruno..."

"I need to go for a walk." he said standing up letting go of her hands. She watched him take a few steps away from everyone catching one of his uncles eyes. His uncle looked at Lauren to see if she was going to go after him.

"No. Let him go." she whispered at everyone. "'Just let him go. He'll go smoke and sit and think about it. He'll be okay." she reassured them seeing that her nephews were starting to struggle with the twins as they started to pull at toys.

"Are you sure?" one of Bruno's cousins asked.

"Just let him go. I'll go find him later. I don't want to cause him to flip on anyone." she told them.

"I guess you have a point." Jamie told Lauren looking at her wrist. Lauren nodded her head knowing exactly what she was talking about.

The family sat and waited for almost another hour figuring out what as going to happen next. Feeling like she was a bit out of place, and without Bruno, Lauren excused herself and took the babies out of the hospital. She wandered down a small trail in front of the hospital with the stroller hoping to find Bruno at some point. She reached for her phone, now almost worried that he hadn't returned. "Bruno...." she whispered to the phone hearing him pick up the phone. "Where are you, Bruno?"

"I see you...." he said to her. "You're with the babies."

"Oh..." she answered turning around to see that he was sitting a bit away from her. She hung up the phone and walked toward him sitting down next to him to see him holding a tall aluminum bottle in his hand. She reached for it not getting the response from him. She put it off to the side but didn't say anything to him. "What are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking that this is bullshit. It's fucking bullshit that she's dead and that had we not had our wedding that day that a doctor would have seen that her heart was weak and would have fixed it then instead of now and the second or even first heart attack wouldn't have happened. None of this would have happened." he told her. "And I don't even know what I'm going to do, Laur. I have no idea. She was everything. No matter what she would always listen and always be there. And now she's not...." he paused knowing what Lauren was going to say. "And don't even say that she's watching or whatever that bullshit is. Because it's not true. Or if it is it's not the time for anyone to tell me that. I just can't do it." he said bending down to reach for the can she had taken away from him.

"Bruno, if you do that how is it going to affect all of us?" she asked him looking at him take a drink of the cheap beer.

"I don't care right now." he said leaning his head back swallowing the alcohol. "You can go, Laur. Don't do this to yourself. I don't know what is going to happen....." he warned her. Lauren closed her eyes taking a deep breathe trying to figure out how to react knowing that whatever he was feeling could hurt her or their sleeping children in some way but also recalling that she had told him that she wasn't going to leave his side.

"No, Bruno. I'm not leaving you. This is going to suck. It's going to be the hardest shittiest time of your life. But I'm going to be there for you. Through however many of those you get, through however many tears you're going to fight to keep away and the ones that you do cry. I am not leaving." she told him very dramatically. "I am not leaving. And I am not going to try to stop you from doing whatever you're doing. If you're going to fall I will be there to catch you." she said to him almost about to cry herself. She wiped away the tears from her eyes to see that Bruno's father was walking toward them. "I'll let you two talk." Lauren said standing up to walk away from them. "I think I see Tahiti with the boys over there." she told him pointing to a small playground. "We'll wait over there."

"Lauren?" he asked now with a bit of nervousness and fear in his voice. "Thank you." he said handing her the beer. "You can throw it away."

She took the can throwing it in the trash can that was close to her. "You're welcome." she said wrapping her arms around his neck lightly kissing him. "I love you."