Balloons [A Michael Jackson Fan Fiction]

Chapter 18: The Reading

"Just wanted to visit.. the girl I like," he replied with a wink. Autumn shuddered and cringed inwardly. Then both adults heard murmurs and whispers around the room.

"Autumn, what happened to Michael? You two were perfect together."

"I thought you and Michael were together."

"Who is he, and why is he here?"

   The kids bombarded Autumn with questions involving her "relationship" with Michael. She chuckled inside; these kids were just so cute. She looked towards Josh again, and he was fuming. He looked beyond pissed that he was being replaced by "Michael Jackson" even if he wasn't around anymore. And with that, he walked out of the room, leaving Autumn laughing at his desperation.

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   The night came by quickly. Autumn was too tired to make her own food, so she just decided to watch a movie on TV to kill the night. When she sat down on the couch, she accidentally knock a light object down from the table. She looked down to see an open notebook.

   She knew she shouldn't take advantage of this moment. She knew she shouldn't look, but she was extremely curious already. She grabbed the notebook and held it in front of her, and her jaw dropped. What she saw was amazing. It was a drawing of the guest room Michael stayed in 15 years ago. All the features of the room were so exact and detailed.

   She reminisced a while about the guest room. The day she first saw it was also the day Michael left them to continue touring for the Jackson 5. She couldn't believe it went by so quickly. It only seemed like yesterday that they were fooling around in the carnival, riding the roller coasters her mom didn't allow her to ride when she was with her.

   Autumn carefully placed the notebook on the table and went up towards the guest room. She opened the door quickly to reveal the sight of the dusty room filled with multiple ripped pieces of popped balloons. To be honest, she never did remove the balloons from this room. She had literally pleaded to her mom to let the room stay that way, for the memories.

   She missed Michael already, and it's only been a month. This was exactly how she felt before, when they were younger. She missed him whenever they were apart, and she wasn't sure if it was because of her friendship with him, her fanaticism, or her little crush.

   She went back down and spotted the notebook once again on the table. She can practically hear it calling her name, begging for it to be read. She knew she shouldn't, she really did, but her curiosity couldn't take it much longer. Whispering a quiet "sorry" towards Michael, she flipped the notebook to the very first page and she started to read.

   "I did not actually plan on writing this because it is extremely creepy to write about your best friend without her knowledge or consent, but I'm doing this just for you, Maria. Okay?" She smiled slightly at this. Oh, Michael, always a gentleman. She flipped towards the next page, only to be surprised to see a bullet-formed list filled with adjectives. On the top of the page, "Thoughts on Autumn"  was written.

   She read every single word carefully, and she must've blushed at least 10 times. Maybe she should just stop reading; this is invading his privacy. She wouldn't want Michael to read her notebook, so why should she read his?