Chapter 14 |
Michael's pov
When I wake up, Kyela is still fast asleep, so I maneuver out of bed without waking her. I follow the smell of bacon and eggs downstairs into the kitchen where Rebbie is cooking, and La Toya and Janet are sitting at the table having a conversation.
"Well, good morning," La Toya says when she sees me walking towards the table.
I sigh, "Is it a good morning?"
"Is she not speaking to you?" Janet asks.
"She is, but she's still sleeping right now," I say quietly.
"No I'm not," her voice calls from behind me, and we all look up at her in the archway that leads in from the kitchen. She walks in and takes the seat next to La Toya, which is right next to me also. She refuses to look directly at me, but I understand why. She's still mad at me from last night. I'm still mad at myself to be completely honest, but we still need to talk about it sometime.
"Did you sleep well?" La Toya asks her, and she nods with a small smile. She barely even went to sleep. She was up all night, tossing and turning and occasionally crying. I just wanted to pull her close to me and apologize, but all she would do was push me away whenever I tried, so I couldn't.
"Is breakfast ready yet?" Jermaine asked while stumbling into the kitchen half asleep.
"Almost, Jermaine," Rebbie says, irritated.
"Where's Tito?" Kyela suddenly says.
Everyone looks around the kitchen like he'll suddenly show up somewhere, and he doesn't. I suddenly remember that I haven't seen Tito in a couple of days, but I hadn't thought much about it because I was too busy either sulking over Kyela or trying to get her back. Either way, I hadn't realized that he was gone.
"I haven't seen him in a while," I say.
"Neither have I," La Toya says.
"He went to the Bahamas with Deedee," Janet says.
"The Bahamas?!" everyone, but Kyela yells.
"Yea, he said he needed to get away," Janet shrugs.
"He needs to get away?" Jermaine asks sarcastically.
Kyela just sits at the table totally clueless to what's going on right now. It probably wouldn't do much to explain to her who Deedee is anyway. She probably won't even listen.
"When was this, Janet?" Rebbie asks while she sets a plate of food in front of Kyela and Jermaine.
"Wednesday," Janet answered, "I would've told you, but..." she trails off because we already know what she's implying. It's no secret.
"How long is he going to be there?" La Toya asks.
"Till next week," Janet answers.
"Um... No, he needs to bring his ass back before then because we have shit to do," I say.
"Like what?" La Toya asks.
"Can we not talk about it right now?" Rebbie says.
"Right," Jermaine adds.
"Janet, can you call Whitney?" I ask.
"Fine," she says, "But why?"
I sigh, "Janet..."
"Okay," she groans before standing to her feet and walking out of the kitchen. The whole kitchen is silent other than the scraping of forks across plates.
↭
"You can't avoid me forever, you know?" I say while following Kyela into my bedroom.
"I'm not avoiding you, Michael. I'm just giving myself space," she sighs.
"Space? Why?" I ask her, walking behind her to the bathroom.
"Michael, I--" she stops when she notices how close we are, "I just think we need it."
"We?" I ask clueless.
She rolls her eyes at me before turning to face the mirror. She examines the bruises on her cheek that are covered by her hair, and she sighs. I don't like seeing her pain even though, for these last two weeks, I've been the cause of it.
I softly kiss her cheek, and I can feel her give in to me, but it doesn't last long. She shakes her head back and forth, and I can tell that she's holding back tears.
"We can't keep doing this. It's just going to end up with one of us hurt, Michael."
"No. No, it won't. It doesn't have to end," I tell her.
"We aren't even--" she doesn't finish because I cut her off.
"Be mine then."
"What?"
"Be mine, and we can make this work," I say desperately.
She stays silent, and her eyes never leave the floor. This probably wasn't the right time to say that, and quite frankly, I don't even think that I did it right. The more we stay in silence, the more nervous I get, and I just want her to say yes. Even if she's skeptical about everything, saying yes would make me happy.
"Before you say anything, just think about, okay?" I give her one last kiss on the cheek before leaving her alone in the bathroom. I close the door behind me, and that's when it starts again. She begins to cry.
Kyela's pov
I'm so tired of crying that I don't know what to do anymore. I don't even know how to give Michael an answer. I want to say yes, but I don't want to get my heart broken by him more than I have already. It's not fair to me. Just when I thought I had hit rock bottom, something worse happens and, and here I am.
I can't be alone anymore. I can't think for myself anymore. I need someone. I need him.
↭
He paces back and forth across the room with his hands covering his face. He doesn't see me when I approach him, nor does he sense my presence in the room with him. I can tell he's trapped in his own thoughts, beating himself up for what he thought was wrong, yet it was so right.
He stops in place, leaving his face covered, and I step closer. I reach up to push his hand away, and his eyes pop open as if I startled him, which I probably did. That's when I could see the hurt in his eyes. For once, they gave me a hint of emotion, and I could tell what he was feeling. He wasn't hiding from me anymore, he wasn't scared to show me what he wanted, and that's how I knew that we could do this. He wanted this just as much as I did, and I couldn't turn this down anymore.
I leaned up towards him, softly pressing my lips against his. At first, he was hesitant, probably thinking that I wasn't serious, then he kissed back, making it more passionate than before. His hands cupped my bruised face, and I slowly pulled away from him to catch my breath. A glint of happiness shined in his eyes.
"I'll be yours," I whispered.
His eyes lit up, and a wide smile spread across his face. My eyes widened, for that was the first time I'd ever seen him smile. Then, it vanished.
"What's wrong?" he asked with much worry in his voice.
"I-I've never seen you smile before," I admitted, "You have a beautiful smile," I said.
He opened his mouth to say something, but instead, his cheeks began to go red, and I let out a giggle.
"Now you're bushing," I said jokingly.
He chuckles, "Oh my God, what have you done to me?"
He crashes his lips down onto mine once again, and wrap my arms around his neck as he gently nudges me backwards towards the bed. As our bodies are pressed together even more, I feel Michael smile into the kiss, and I'm laid back onto the bed. His lips find their way to my neck, and I take my bottom lip between my teeth to stifle the moans that he's causing. He nibbles on the delicate skin underneath my chin while his hands roam over my body.
"Michael..." I moan.
He continues until...
"MICHAEL!" La Toya screams from downstairs. She sounds angry.
"Shit," Michael groans.
"COME DOWNSTAIRS NOW!"
I sit up from my position on the bed, Michael has a mad expression on his face.
"Maybe you should go," I say softly.
"Come on," he says while pulling me up from the bed by my hand quickly.
We go down the stairs and into the basement where Michael's office is. Everyone except for La Toya is seated on a couch or chair, and she looks livid.
"You killed Joe," she says, "I cannot believe you killed Joe, Michael." Her voice is a lot calmer than a few seconds ago.
"It wasn't my fault! The damn chandelier fell on top of him," Michael says.
"But you don't fucking understand, little brother. No matter if it was your fault or not, Celeste is going to fucking kill us!" La Toya screams.
Michael sighs before shouting, "SHE CAN'T KILL US! WE'RE BETTER THAN HER ALL TOGETHER," he pauses, "She can't do anything without Joe or James there to help her."
"Oh, you killed him too?" Janet snaps.
"Yea, he did," Jermaine says.
Michael folds his arms across his chest out of anger and murmurs something under his chest before storming back up the stairs. I stand there frozen because I don't know what to do.
"Well, aren't you going up go with him?" Janet asks me.
I decide against saying anything back, and I dash up the stairs. When I reach the basement door, I can hear Michael slam his door shut, and I flinch at the loudness of it. I take the stairs two at a time to reach the room, but when I get there, the door is locked. I knock on the door a couple of times, but it doesn't open, yet I didn't expect it too. He must not want to be bothered right now.
I turn on my heels to go back down the stairs, but someone moving towards me catches my eye. I back away slowly until I stupidly walk into a wall. The person moves closer, but the hallway is dark, so I can't see exactly who it is. They scan the wall and soon, the lights flicker on. I stare at Marlon with relief when he gives me a sympathetic smile.
"You okay?" he asks.
"Uh, y-yeah," I say while moving away from the wall.
"He locked the door?"
"Yes," I nod.
"Come on. I'll get you away from this madness," he chuckles.
Marlon takes me downstairs into a living room that I hadn't realized they had. Although it seemed like a room they would just hang out in, it looked untouched. A flat screen TV was positioned on the wall above the marble fireplace. Two clean white couches were on either side of the marble coffee table, and a crystal chandelier hovered over the room. It was beautiful, and I was surprised that they didn't use it often.
Suddenly, the TV was turned on, and I turned to see Marlon sitting on the couch with the remote in his hand.
"You like the place, huh?"
I smiled, "It's really nice."
"Thanks. I decorated it myself," he said.
"I have a hard time believing you," I giggled.
He laughs along with me, then pats the spot on the couch next to him, telling me to sit down. His eyes followed every move I made, suddenly making me feel self-conscious about myself.
"So, are you and Mike, like a thing now?" he asked when I got comfortable.
"Like a couple? Um," I cleared my throat, "Yea."
He chuckles again, "You don't have to be nervous around me. We're just talking..."
"I know, I'm just... frazzled right now," I told him.
"I can understand that," he says, "Now, I know there's something you want to ask me."
I think of all the possible things that I might want to ask him.
"Why did Joe, um, take me?" I ask him, and he looks at me like I lost my mind.
"No one told you?"
"No? Were they supposed to?"
"I don't know," he says, "But it's a long story," he says lowly.
I look up towards the stairs to make sure Michael hasn't come of the room yet, and sure enough, he hasn't. I look back to Marlon, "I have time."
∅
Hey readers.
I don't ever say this enough, but thank you for all the amazing comments and lots and lots of votes on this book. I didn't ever think I would get so many reads, yet I did, and I'd like to thank all my followers for sticking with it and not abandoning it.
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-Mickeythemoonwalker