More Than Just A Friend (A Bruno Mars Fan Fic)

Chapter 30

Sat

5 days later

2 weeks since Luke's attack

He knows what he's going to do might not go down well with Leila and Bruno bites his bottom lip as he waits for her to come out of her closet feeling nervous and unsure of how she'll react and he stands up from sitting on their bed as she opens the door to her closet and walks over to him and Bruno smiles at her and she smiles back at him and he asks her, do you trust me Leila and she tells him, other than my family there is nobody I trust more than you Bruno and he sighs in relief at her answer that she gave him without any hesitation and tells her, good and he holds his right hand out to her and asks her, come with me and Leila takes his hand and he leads her to the home gym where Lonnie is standing by the punching bag and Leila stops and looks at both of them and she turns and faces him and asks him, what's going on and Bruno hopes Leila will give this a chance and he tells her, I thought it would be a good idea for you to learn self defence and I thought you'd be more comfortable doing that with Lonnie rather than a stranger, plus he use to teach women self defence so he knows what he's doing and Bruno feels more nervous as he waits for Leila to tell him what she thinks of his idea.

She can tell that Bruno is nervous and Leila blows out a breath and tells him, it's a good idea and she looks at Lonnie and tells him, thanks for agreeing to do this and he tells her, no problem and she watches Bruno as he walks over to the weight bench and picks up a white box that's sitting on it and he walks back to her and holds the box out to her and tells her, you'll need these and she takes the box from him and opens it to find a pair of pink boxing gloves and Leila smiles and strokes 1 of them and she looks at Bruno and tells him, these are cute and he tells her, i'm glad you like them because the first thing Lonnie is going to teach you to do is how to throw punches and Leila stops smiling and asks Bruno, what if I hurt him and Bruno and Lonnie laugh and Lonnie walks over to them and he tells her, i'm a big guy, I can take a hit so don't worry about it and you won't be hitting me yet, that comes after you've done some work with the punching bag and then i'll go through a few scenarios with you and teach you what to do if someone attacks you from the front or from behind and what to do if you can't get away from them and Leila steps back feeling scared and Bruno takes hold of her wrists gently and tells her, relax baby, Lonnie won't do anything to hurt you and if you feel uncomfortable at anytime then all you have to do is tell him and he'll stop and Lonnie tells her, Bruno's right Leila and she looks at Lonnie and tells him, i'm sorry, but even though I know you and trust you... the thought of you or anyone coming at me from behind scares the shit out of me and Lonnie tells her, I understand that and we can work up to that, but today we'll just work on your punching and kicking and Leila closes her eyes feeling relieved and she opens her eyes and tells Lonnie, ok, lets do it and Bruno smiles and tells her, that's my girl, now lets get those boxing gloves on you and he takes the box from her and puts it down on the floor beside him and he opens the box, takes the boxing gloves out and puts them on her hands and asks her, how do they feel and she tells him, strange and stiff and Bruno tells her, you'll get use to them and break them in and Lonnie walks over to the punching bag and looks at her and asks her, are you ready and Bruno kisses her softly and tells her, you can do this baby and Leila smiles a little and tells him, I hope so and she walks over to Lonnie.

He watches Leila punch the punching bag half heartedly like she has been for the last 20 minutes despite Lonnie & himself telling her to punch as hard as she can and Bruno listens as Lonnie tells her again to punch harder as the punches she's throwing wouldn't knock out a fly and he stops and looks at Bruno and he looks back at Leila and tells her, imagine it's Luke when you look at the punching bag and Bruno can't believe Lonnie has said that to Leila and says son of a bitch as Leila starts punching the punch bag hard and Bruno hears her gasping for breath and Lonnie tells her, ok, that's good, you can stop now, but Leila ignores him and keeps on punching and she starts to cry as she keeps punching and Bruno gets up from the weight bench and walks over to her and tells her, you can stop now Leila but it's like she can't hear him and her focus stays on the punching bag as she continues to punch it and her breath hitches and her tears flow and Bruno steps in between Leila and the punching bag and takes the punches she hits him with and he wraps his arms around her and tells her, you did good baby, but that's enough for now and Lonnie tells him, i'm sorry and he leaves the gym and Bruno rubs Leila's back and after a few minutes he feels her relax and he tells her, that's it baby, just relax and Bruno wishes Lonnie hadn't mentioned Luke's name to Leila, he'll definitely be talking to Lonnie later about that and he'll make sure he knows not to do that again.

She feels drained after all the rage and anger she had felt when she had seen Luke instead of the punching bag like Lonnie had said leaves her and Leila leans heavily into Bruno and puts her arms around his waist and tells him, thanks and he kisses her head and asks her, for what and she tells him, for bringing me back to reality from whatever the fuck that was and Bruno tells her, i'll always be here for you baby and she tells him, I know, i'm sorry I hit you, I hope I didn't hurt you Bruno and he tells her, i'm fine and he asks her, do you want to talk about what happened and Leila closes her eyes and tells him, I did what Lonnie told me to do and I felt this... rage and anger, so much anger overcome me at seeing Luke instead of the punching bag and I couldn't stop punching.

He understands that Lonnie used Luke to provoke Leila to get her to punch harder, but where it had taken her and affected her wasn't worth it and Bruno tells Leila, i'm sorry, i'll talk to Lonnie and tell him not to mention Luke again and Leila tells him, good...I just can't handle that and Bruno pulls back from Leila a little and she looks at him and he tells her, it's ok and he asks her, how about we go have a bowl of ice cream and Leila looks away from him and tells him, that sounds good... but after i've had a shower and Bruno curses Luke silently as she's had a shower already this morning and he kisses Leila's forehead and tells her, ok, lets get your boxing gloves off then you can go shower baby and Leila looks at him, smiles a little and tells him, ok and she drops her arms from around his waist and holds her hands up and Bruno takes her boxing gloves off and Leila tells him, thanks and she leans up, kisses him and walks out of the gym.

She looks at her body in the mirror in her closet after her shower and although the bruises Luke had given her are gone now, the damage he's done to her mentally and to the physical side of her relationship with Bruno pisses her off and makes her feel so damn weary and Leila sighs and turns away from the mirror and gets dressed.

She takes a deep breath before she walks into the kitchen and Leila sees Bruno sitting at the breakfast bar talking on his phone and he mouths Eric to her and she tells him quietly, tell him I said hi and she goes and gets out 2 bowls, 2 spoons and the ice cream scoop then she goes and gets rocky road ice cream out of the freezer for herself and coffee ice cream for Bruno and she puts 3 scoops of each ice cream into the bowls and she puts the ice cream back into the freezer and carries the bowls of ice cream and spoons over to the breakfast bar as Bruno gets off the phone and she puts a bowl of coffee ice cream and spoon down on top of the breakfast bar in front of Bruno and sits down with her own bowl of ice cream beside him and he tells her, thanks, Eric & Cindia say hi and he starts to eat his ice cream and Leila tells him, we should invite them over for dinner and Bruno pauses with a spoonful of ice cream to his mouth and looks at her and tells her, that'd be good and Leila can see that she's surprised him and she tells Bruno, I can't avoid everyone forever and we can't get back to normal if we don't do the things we use to do... at least socially for now and Bruno grins at her and tells her, you're right, i'll text Eric when i've finished my ice cream and ask him and Cindia over for dinner and he asks her, how about Monday and she smiles and tells him, sounds good and Leila feels relieved and happy at arranging to have Bruno's brother and sister in law over for dinner which they haven't done since before she was attacked and it feels good to be going to do something that they use to do and she knows it's not going to get them all the way back to how she and Bruno use to be, but it's a start and she's good with that for now.