Chapter 5 |
Michael's Pov
After locking Kyela in my room, again, I went to the room next to mine which was Janet's. I knew she was really upset, not with me, but just in general.
I walk into her room where she's sitting in the middle of her bed with her legs crossed. She caught sight of me, and immediately looked back down to the floor.
"Hey Janet," I said.
"What do you want?"
"I'm, uh, sorry."
"For what? It's not your fault," she says.
I look at her curiously trying to figure out what she means, but I don't understand.
"It's not Kyela either," she shakes her head.
"Oh," I say, "I, oh, I understand now."
She nods weakly, not fazed by my clueless thoughts. I sit on the edge of her bed still looking at her.
"Look, I'm going to tell you like this, you can't take your anger out on her because of what happened to him. She has nothing to do with any of this shit, so you can't treat her like you have been," I say, feeling proud of myself at the way I'm handling this situation.
"Michael, I can't believe you're taking up for her though. She still is the cause that you had to go to fucking Uzbekistan for almost a half a year! You can't forget that," she snaps.
"Yea, I know, but that's my business. That's my reason to hate her because she did that to me, not you," I calm her.
"But still, I don't want you to start liking her and end up like me."
"Dunk, shut up. You sound stupid. First of all, I won't start liking her because that's fucking crazy. Second of all, I don't think you should be telling me how not to end up. I'm still older than you," I chuckle, "Besides, I don't think she'll be around long anyway."
She shakes her head, "Really, Michael."
"Okay, okay, but that's in all honesty. It just happened to be funny," I shrug.
"No, seriously. Can you take anything seriously? I'm really-" she pauses, "I'm hurting, and I don't think you understand."
She's absolutely wrong. I do understand. I've loved someone before, and I've lost people that were special to me, so I know how to feel in this situation, but I'm not an emotional.. human. I don't show my emotions very well, and I don't plan on doing that anytime soon.
When I look back up at Janet, she has a tear rolling down her cheek. Oh my God. I always freeze up at times like these. I can't comfort people. I don't really know how.
In an attempt to comfort my youngest sibling, I put my hand on her shoulder and rub it gently.
"Michael, she needs more than that. Just move since you don't know what you're doing," La Toya says from the door.
Thank God she showed up.
↭
I open my bedroom door where Kyela is pacing back and forth talking to herself. What the hell?
"What are you doing?"
"Thinking out loud," she answers.
"About what?" I fold my arms across my chest awaiting her answer.
"Why I seem like a caged animal to you? I mean, why do you have to lock me in here? How would you feel if you were locked in the same space for four hours? I know you might hate me, but am I just a dog to you," she questions.
She had obviously been in here too long because it looks like she was about to rip her hair out.
"Stop with your whining. You can come downstairs for dinner," I say.
Her eyes brighten, and I roll my eyes. I reach for her arm, but she pulls away with a warning look.
"Don't touch me," she tells me.
I sigh as I open the door for her, and she walks out leaving me behind.
Kyela's Pov
I'm not crazy, and I'm not going to try to get away. I'm not okay with being here at all, but I'm not stupid. I'll just have to suffer for the rest of my life which probably won't be much longer, unfortunately.
I walk down the granite stairs with Michael following behind me quickly. I walk into the kitchen where everybody is doing the usual: talking.
"Oh, how nice of you to let her join us for dinner," Jermaine says.
"I'm surprised.."
"Shut up Jackie," Michael cuts him off.
I glance at him, and rolls his eyes at me. Tito walks into the kitchen followed by Marlon and La Toya.
"Mike, are you eating dinner with us tonight," Tito scoffs, obviously surprised.
"Yea, I guess," he mutters.
"Oh, goodie! Janet will be down here in a minute," La Toya exclaims.
"So, I'm guessing we're going to be eating in the dining room tonight," Rebbie says with a cheeky smile.
"This is so exciting," La Toya says.
I giggle at her excitement because she doesn't seem like the type of person to get excited over a dinner.. in a dining room. Michael comes from behind me, grabbing my arm and pulling me out of the large kitchen. I wince at the pain from his tight grip around the area that he refused to let go of yesterday.
"Can you please stop dragging me around," I hiss at him.
He sighs, "Don't talk to them. You're not eating dinner with them."
"Why not? They want me to, and they seem really happy about it."
"Oh, trust me, it's just for show," he scoffs.
"You are so mean! Why do you have to be like that? I can understand your resentment towards me, but your own family? Are you just mad that they won't listen to you," I ask.
"Oh, please, they do listen to me, just not when it comes to you."
"You're an asshole," I tell him.
"I'm a what," he asks angrily.
"You're an asshole," I repeat boldly.
It's amazing how much I've changed I'm the last 24 hours because I would never dare to act this way if I hadn't have come here.
He pulls me into a small room on the hallway and forcefully slams me against the wall. Again.
"You're going to listen to me and you're going to listen good. You don't mean anything to me, and I can easily take you out, right here, right now. Do you understand?"
I nod weakly at his death threat. For some reason, I felt really upset with the way he told me that I meant nothing to him. I know he didn't like me now, but I was hoping that one day we could become friends because he seems like he could be a really good person of he wasn't a mobster.
I have no hope left of being happy for the rest of what's left in my life.
"Michael, are you two coming to eat?" Rebbie shows up at the door.
He sighs, "Yea."
Well, I guess he lied.
↭
I felt very uncomfortable sitting at the table in the middle of Janet and Michael. Well, more like scared. They didn't seem to be saying anything to each other, or anyone else at the table, not that I expected that. They just both seemed really mad, and that's what made me really scared.
It was an awkward silence in the dining room filled with the clinking of drinking glasses, and the scraping of forks against plates.
"Kyela, how's your back?" Jermaine suddenly asks.
I nearly choke on my food at his question, and Michael seems to have the same reaction. I was really embarrassed about what happened in the first place. Everybody at the table stares at the both us like we're crazy while we break into a coughing fit.
"I-it's fine. Thanks for asking," I reply, still choking.
Did he know that there was a humongous bruise on my back? I guess he saw how Michael slammed me against the wall, and he just wanted to know. But in the middle of dinner? La Toya, Janet, Rebbie, and Jackie weren't there, so they wouldn't know why he's asking this question.
"What happened to your back," Rebbie asks.
"Nothing," Michael and I say in unison.
"Nothing? Just that he practically body slammed heragainst a brick wall," Tito answers.
Rebbie and La Toya gasp at the same time while Janet puts her head in her hands without saying a word. Michael's fork drops onto his plate, and his face turns angry. I look down at my plate of food silently because I'm embarrassed for myself and Michael.
"Well, when did this happen?" La Toya asks.
"Last night," Jermaine says.
"Michael," Rebbie starts.
"Michael nothing. Just fucking forget it because it's none your business anyway," Michael yells from beside me.
My eyes stay glued to my, now, finished plate of food. Michael slides his chair back before standing to his feet. He walks out of the dining room angrily, and I sit at the table silently.
"Kyela, come on," he demands after a few seconds.
I'm on my feet within seconds of his command, and I rush out of the dining room like he's my dad or something. He charges up the stairs, leaving me behind, so I go after him. When I reach the bedroom, he slams the door as I step in.
"See what I told you! I told you not to talk to them, and I told you not to eat with them," he yells in my face.
"It's not my fault that you finally let me go downstairs after keeping me locked up like I'm some sort of zoo animal," I shoot back.
"Well, I wouldn't have had to let you go downstairs if you weren't whining!"
"I wouldn't have had to whine if you were a little more considerate," I yell.
"I'm very considerate actually! I just don't show it towards you because you are the cause of all my problems since last year! Don't you remember?"
"Of course I remember, and I'm glad I did it because you deserve it with the way you treat everybody," I snap.
"I give everybody what they deserve including you, and I've barely even started."
Oh no. There's more. I can't deal with this anymore. I just want to lay down and die.
"You know you're just a stuck up little bitch," he hisses at me.
I gulp at his words. I am not stuck up at all. How could I be stuck up? He has pushed me to the limit, and I'm about ready to kill him.
I take my and swing towards his face, but he catches it before I make any contact with his skin. He squeezes my wrist in his large hand, and I try to pry his hand off of mine, but it's useless. Just as I'm about to start crying because of the pain, he turns around and throws me onto the bed.
"I'm sorry," he mutters with a sigh.
I push myself up by my elbows and watch as he pads out the room silently.
↭
I woke up shivering in the middle of the bed. I must've fallen asleep in this position when Michael left. I don't remember seeing him again either.
I sit up with my hands on my arms since I'm freezing. When I look near the window, I see a body sitting in the chair next to it. I jump and nearly fall off the bed when he looks over to me with no emotion in his eyes.
"It's just me," he says.
"That's what scares me," I retort.
I can tell he's rolling his eyes by the way his face tenses in the moonlight. It's a beautiful sight really. The light shines on him just right to make him look like an angel, the angel that I know he could possibly be if he gave himself the chance.
"Why are you staring at me," he asks.
"Oh, I'm sorry," I turn my head trying to hide my embarassment.
"You know I'm still pissed at you for slapping me, right?"
"I'm sure you would still be pissed at me if I hadn't done it," I reply.
"That's true."
After a few seconds of silence, I want to ask him a question.
"Do you not normally eat with.. you know, your family?"
"No," he stares at the floor.
"Why not?"
"Because we're dysfunctional, now can you go back to sleep," he tries to shut me up.
"I can't," I tell him.
He stands and walks over to the dresser, and my eyes follow his every move.
"Do you want me to help you go to sleep," he says without looking at me.
"Um, no thank you," I say, frightened.
"Are you sure? It'll definitely help, and the pain won't last long," he says sarcastically.
My eyes widen at the silver pistol he turns around with in his hand. My heart starts racing while he wipes it off with a small white rag.
"You ready?" he asks.
"No, you're just kidding right," I ask him with tears welling up in my eyes.
"Yea," he shrugs, "But I could kill you if I really wanted to."
"So, you don't want to kill me?"
"Not yet."
"Oh, okay," I say.
He sits back down in the chair by the window. I look out of it into the sky.
"I like looking out there too. It's nice," he suddenly says.
I smile, "It is."
It feels nice to have him say nice things for once. I wouldn't even be mad if this was the only time I heard him speak like this. At least I knew that he was capable of participating in a civilized conversation with society. That was all that mattered.
∅
Hey readers !
How do you feel about Michael's attitude ?
Leave your thoughts in the comments because I'd love to read them !