All I Didn't Say ✧ Michael Jackson

Chapter 1 | Sidewalk Friends

@mjmoonwalkerawards

For Michael Joseph Jackson, this was just another ordinary day. He woke up, waited what felt like hours to go to the bathroom and ate a nice breakfast with his brothers and sisters.

"Michael," Josehp, his father, raised his voice while walking in Michael's direction. "Where are my new shoes? MY sunday shoes?"

Michael felt his heart sinking out of fear. He did know where his father's shoes were, in fact yesterday Michael accidentally spilled juice on top of them so he hid the shoes under the bed.

"I'm talking to you, boy!" Joseph grabs Michael by the neck and his mother, Katherine, stood up.

"Joseph, did you even search well? Let your son go!" She demands as she finds the dirty shoes under the bed. Katherine's heart started racing because she knew what was coming. Her little boy was going to be beaten up again. Hesitating, Katherine gave the pair of shoes to her furious husband.

"WHAT IS THIS, MICHAEL?" He screamed and slapped the boy.

"Joseph," Jackie, Michael's older brother, fastly stood up and lowered his head. - "I did it, I'm sorry."  Joseph stepped away from Michael who stood there with tears in his eyes. He looked at his brother and managed to murmur a thank you. Jackie gave Mike an half smile, before being punched in the stomach by his father.

Jackie's face was already swollen when Joseph stopped hitting him.

"Get ready," Joseph said while adjusting his pants and contracting his hands. "We are going to the studio. If you're not outside in ten minutes, you will regret being born." Michael's body was filled with shivers after he heard that so he ran to his room, changed his t-shirt and sprayed a little bit of Tito's new perfume.

Ten minutes passed and Michael was waiting outside, near the car. His brothers came running so they wouldn't arrive late and got in. The studio awaited.

For Joseph, Michael was a treasure. That's why he felt the need to show hard discipline, however Katherine would still tell him that it doesn't justify beating his children up with extreme brutality. Joseph didin't care, the ten year old Michael was growing up to be a money machine.

A few blocks away from The Jackson's property, there was the music studio. In front of it there was a neighbourhood.

In the brown house near the studio, lived a girl with dark glowing skin. Aria was a simple ten year old black girl from the hood. Her hair was long and full of braids. Her dad, Brandon was an alcoholic and worked on a steel factory. Naya, her mother, was depressed. Taking care of a house, a daughter and a drunk abusive husband is not easy. The world around Aria wasn't pretty and happy. However, since a young age, she learned how to love the little things. Aria loved words, writting; she loved to open her window and feel the morning breeze at 10 am. She liked to sing along with the birds.

She had no friends, mostly because she didn't go to school like normal kids did. Aria was told to stay home and help her mother and so she did. But the absence of school education didn't stop her from being an intelligent girl. She liked math and books.

"Aria, baby, go outside and water the flowers please." Naya asked while cleaning the kitchen. Aria loved flowers, but what she loved the most was writing near them. So she ran to her room, grabbed her old and half ripped notebook and a pen.

After watering the flowers, she sat down and started writing. She just liked to write whatever came to her mind and let the words take its own place between the lines. Everytime she would write a letter, Aria would hide it behind some broken bricks on her bedroom wall. So, she ripped the paper from the notebook and at the same time the wind blew strongly and took the page away, to the front sidewalk.