DISCLAIMER: Any characters from the TV show "Fame" belong to MGM Studios.
Bruno stayed up late that night, long after Danny had gone to bed. He stared at the pictures of him and Nicole, remembering when they were all taken, things they'd said, things they'd done...the plans that they had made.
How he'd felt that terrible day he'd read Danny's letter.
He still thought about her every day, still missed her. He had meant everything he said to her - he hadn't known what love was until he met her. And from the minute he met her, he knew that they were going to be very important to each other. He knew they were made to be together. He'd even imagined making those vows to her - till death us do part. He'd never dreamed that it could happen so suddenly.
Without a chance to do any of the things they'd dreamed about.
Without a chance even to say goodbye.
He thought back to one of the last times he'd been to the School of the Arts, a couple of years ago. They'd had a big reunion for all the alumni, and Danny had badgered him to come. He'd tried to avoid it, but Danny had dragged in the big guns, and gotten Doris to convince him that he should go. Bruno was many things, but when Danny and Doris ganged up on him, he knew that he should just go along with it.
So that's what he had done.
Gone to the reunion, met up with old friends, made some new ones - he'd even met up with Jesse.
But he always associated that reunion with finally saying goodbye to Nicole.
Bruno stood in front of the gravestone unsure of what to do. For the first time, it was dawning on him that Nicole was really dead. It had been easy in Los Angeles to believe that she was just in New York, somewhere out of his sight. Now, he had to accept the reality. She wasn't just out of town, missing him as much as he was missing her. She was really gone. And she wasn't coming back.
"I finally came to see you," he said after a while. "I thought about not coming to the reunion. But Danny and Doris are no match for any one person. You knew that right? They weren't going to take any excuse off me. But it's hard Nicole. I can't stop thinking about the way things might have been. We might have been there together, telling people about us, finally. Maybe we'd even have been announcing our engagement. I know, we're both young. But I thought we'd be together forever. Forever Love, y'know? But I'm here, and you're not. And it's like everywhere I go, I'm reminded you're not here. I remember things we did, things I wanted to do, things I wanted to tell you...things I never will. And a little piece of me dies with you every time that happens."
He imagined what Nicole would have made of that speech. "You'd be telling me not to be so dramatic right about now. But I'm not good about talking about how I feel. This is the best I can do." He paused and then sighed. "I met Jesse you know. I even got introduced to him. He seems nice Nicole. It was him who told me where to find you. Indirectly of course. He was late to the reunion party, and I heard someone ask him where he was. He told them he was here, visiting you. Funny - I didn't know it until now, but you're only a couple of rows aways from my mom and pop. The three people I love the most so close to each other."
"But Jesse - I can see why you loved him. I just felt so jealous every time I saw him. He can miss you. He can talk about you. He can love you openly. I can't. Not even among my closest friends. When they look at me, I can tell that they can see something is wrong. And I can't tell them what it is. Sometimes I want to share it, to let it out. Then I think, I have so little to remember you by. Why share that with anyone else? So I just keep it to myself. And write songs about it. I remember what Shorofsky told me the night my pop died.
For the rest of your life, he'll be the first one to hear every song you write. Do you hear them Nicole? Do you hear how much I miss you?"A wind blew through the graveyard, and Bruno looked around, half expecting to see someone there. "No-one. Just you and me. The way it always was."
"You know what's funny? Even with all this...loving you, losing you, missing you....I wouldn't change anything we had Nicole. Not a bit of it. I thought, when it first happened, how much better it would've been if we'd never met, if I'd never loved you. I don't think like that any more. Losing you was the most painful thing I've ever been through. But loving you was the most wonderful. We were lucky, you know that? In the time we were together, you made me so happy. I think....I hope I did the same for you."
Another wind blew, and with it the first hints of rain. "I'd better go," Bruno said as he pulled his coat tighter around him and began to walk away. In a funny way, he felt better now. He turned around and looked at her name one last time.
"Goodbye Nicole."