Remember the Time || Bruno Mars

[14] a long night

"How?" It was the only word I could spit out.

"The fuck you mean 'how?'" she retorted as if offended, her face scrunched in disgust. "They're seven, Bruno. When did you leave for Los Angeles? Eight years ago. Oh, which so happens to be the last time we had sex."

"But," I paused and looked down at the tiled floor, shaking my head in utter disbelief. I had been holding my breath for the longest time and I swore that if I didn't find the relief to all the stress building up on me to release this one breath, I would eventually pass out. "we were protected."

"They don't always work," she said through gritted teeth, probably pissed that I hadn't accepted her revelation with hugs and kisses with a cherry on top – as what she had expected. Amidst the deafening silence and the tense atmosphere, I heard her heave a sigh in defeat. "Bruno...I'm sorry I hadn't told you sooner or later."

"What if I'm not their father?" I shot my head up, trying to find a reason that these kids will definitely not be mine. I didn't mean to come off insensitive, trying to push what could possibly be my kids away, but I was building up my career at the moment and nothing could distract me – especially not something as major as my unknown children. I missed seven years of their lives for Christ's sake. "You probably had sex with someone else not too long after I left and—"

It was then when I felt a sting against my cheek. I had been too caught up at the thought of these paternal responsibilities to even notice her get to her feet from the couch and quickly move towards me to slap the jackass out of me. "How dare you," she spat venomously, "suggest something so lowly of me."

I locked my eyes with hers and watched her face redden with anger, huffing furiously and glaring daggers at me. "You were the love of my life, Bruno. And you still are," she continued, catching me off-guard with her confession. "You don't even know how tough it was to hear from you that you were leaving Hawaii, let alone knowing we had to break off something so special. We had sex a week before you left, the day we were officially over and didn't even bother saying goodbye to me? I was hurting so much I couldn't even bear seeing you. I knew I should've used the remaining days left with you. I knew I should've been there at the airport, but I swear on my father's grave that I couldn't stand seeing that plane take off with you in it."

Tears were now gushing off from her eyes like blood uncontrollably flowing out of a small lesion on a delicate skin directly on top of a vein. "I knew you promised to come back but I suffered too much as word started spreading in the family that you were dropped from that one single opportunity and you were struggling out there. Right then and there I wanted to fly out there and help you through everything. But who am I to that? An ex-girlfriend, who didn't have the money to survive a week in the mainland, then how the hell am I supposed to help you when money was your problem out there?"

I watched her bring her hands up to her face to carelessly wipe the tears that have fallen over her face and managed to muddle up her makeup. "Finding out I was pregnant made it even harder for me because I knew that you were the father. Bruno, you're the only man I ever gave my everything to. You took away my virginity for goodness' sake. And here you are suggesting that I'm a slut?"

"I never meant—"

"I couldn't even accomplish getting out of my apartment for months, knowing there was a whole in my heart with your departure, let alone fuck some guy. Bruno, I was aware you were brawling in L.A. giving me a reason not to inform you about my pregnancy because I knew right then and there that you would come back to Hawaii, and turn your back on that opportunity you've wanted for so long, just to take care of me. And carrying those two for nine months wasn't even the hard part, Bruno. It was figuring out how I could raise the both of them and eventually explaining to them of their father's absence. Anelah is practically the spitting image of you, Bruno and Aaron...His eyes, oh his eyes. It hurts looking into those eyes because they're yours. Anelah grew a fondness over your music last year, which makes everything worse because she technically loves you, Bruno. And Aaron, he begged me to dress him up as you for Halloween this year. Just when I try to move on, everything leads back to you, Bruno, and they're just so goddamn hard to deal with."