The Hook-Up (Part Two)

EPILOGUE

"Hey, Mani...." a 25 year old guy wearing a pair of skinny jeans, long t-shirt and Timberland boots sitting on a bright brown couch turned to talk to his girlfriend.

"Yeah, Isaiah?" Bruno and Lauren's 23 year old daughter Emanuelle sat across from the boy wearing a bright red cropped sweater with a bright yellow shirt underneath and flared jeans with a pair of Chuck Taylors answered her boyfriend.

"What was your childhood like? Like I know your mom and dad and your stepparents but like...what was it like? Was it hard sometimes?" he asked her.

They had been together for a few months, still trying to figure each other out, but completely comfortable with each other. "Umm. I don't know. It was weird sometimes." she shrugged hoping it would satisfy his curiosity.

"But like how? Your parents got divorced when you were little, right?" he questioned.

"Do you want to tell me what you know? I know you like have a major in my dad's career..." she joked with him about her father's long lasting career.

"Hmm...." he thought pretending to think. "Well...you're his third daughter. And I know he's been married a couple times and you have a bunch of brothers and sisters but that's about it about his personal life. I can tell you all about the albums and like all that...and that he was part of molding me as an artist..." he told her. "Like Come on...we didn't use the tracks from that fifth album but we listened to it a lot before finishing up." Isaiah explained his musicality to his girlfriend. Bruno's third daughter had become a successful DJ in Los Angeles and started dating a newly signed artist who mixed his love for the past with the newer age of electronic backing.

"So...." she sighed laying her head back on the couch closing her eyes trying to wrap her head around her childhood. "Let's start with that album you love so much." she paused opening her eyes to look at him with an almost lost look on her face. Isaiah reached over and took her hand sensing that this would be a very tough story for her to tell him. "When that album came out we hadn't seen him for like 3...no..." she paused. "It was four. He missed all my recitals that year." she said with little emotion. "That was 2021. They got a divorce when I was 6. I just remember going to my uncle Eric's house all the time. I think my aunt Cindia took me to school more than my parents did in 1st grade. I got in trouble for something first graders do like not paying attention or talking or whatever and instead of either my mom or dad coming my aunt and uncle came because....well I don't know what they were doing. They were either in the middle of a massive blow out fight or having ridiculous amounts of make-up sex that afternoon. I don't know. There was no in between with them. Nothing." she said almost angry at her parents. "There was never an in between with them. We were either together a big happy family or I was with Eric and Cindia and my brother and sister went with Larissa and Nick. There was never a time where we could just be a family. Like we never went to the park or to the movies or shopping or camping or whatever. It was always a show when we were doing okay. All the pictures and videos and everything that we have when I was little were all like they were so staged." she told him readjusting her body to watch his reaction to her story. "And then one day my mom sat the three of us down....and...wait. So there was this second house that they had. It was smaller. Like just a regular house. Like a suburban house. Whatever. Like it was on the edge of the school we were going to. It was nice. It was four bedrooms and 3 bathrooms and had a pool. And we went there after they got in a fight. There were times when we would be there for like weeks. I think we even had a Christmas there without my dad. I think that was when I was 4...yeah...I was 4 and Ez and Evee were 5 because they got 5 of everything that year. I don't know where he was or what he was doing. I don't care. But yeah. Anyway..." she paused again seeing him listening intently. "And then there was a day in 1st grade. Like it was just a normal day. And all the sudden we got home from school...after my cousin Marley dropped us off. He's this amazing guy. He's in his 30s and he's just living his life now. But he was in college and he took care of us too. He dropped us off and he had boxes in his car and we helped him carry them in the house. The light ones. In one of them I saw one of my stuffed animals. And that's when I knew we weren't going back to my dad's house. That was the one stuffed animal I left there, on purpose. It was like the only thing, aside from my brother and sister that kept me safe from their fighting." she felt herself about to cry. Through the small tears that fell down her cheek she felt Isaiah's finger touch her cheek to wipe away the tears. "They always went outside to fight and they never knew that where they fought I could hear everything. I could hear all the horrible things they said about each other and the things they tried to fix when they fought. I would go get Ez and Everlee and ask them to come sleep with me sometimes. So after we brought those boxes into the house my mom said that we weren't going to go back to my dad's house. And Ezra asked when we were going back because we always did. She always said that. She always said that we weren't going to go back. But we would. I don't know what happened that time that just made her stop, but we never did go back. At least not with her after that day."