Chapter 15 |
Kyela's Pov
"Well," Marlon starts, "Joe is, well, was really jealous of Michael."
"Why?" I ask.
"Because Michael is a lot more successful than he was," Marlon says as if he just stated the obvious. Last time I checked, both Joe and Michael were successful, neither were more apparent than the other.
"How?" I sound desperate.
"Now, when we were younger, Michael was probably the most hateful towards Joe... I think. He hated Joe so much that it drove him crazy, but he could never get away from him because Joe would use him for things, and I always felt really bad about it. I mean, he was my little brother, and he didn't deserve to see the things that he saw at that age," Marlon scoffed.
"How old was he?"
"Maybe five... or six," he said, "but Joe didn't care. He pretty much didn't care about us at all. We were just like soldiers to him. By the time Mike was like eleven, he had so much hate for Joe that it would make him sick. Literally, when Joe would come home, whenever that was, Mike would be in the bathroom for hours at a time, and we thought he died once."
I gasp at the thought of Michael dying, especially at such a young age. It doesn't make any sense of why he would let someone bug him like that. That doesn't seem like Michael.
"He was in there for so long, and we hadn't heard anything for like two hours, so our mother had us kick the door in so that we could see if he was alright because he wouldn't respond to any us through the door when we called him. We rushed him to the hospital, and Mother and the girls were hysterical, but I knew that he was okay. I just knew it because he was strong, and from the things Joe had put him through, I knew he would make it through that time.
It was scary at first, but the doctor came and told us that he was fine, and he could go home that night, but something was different that day. He wasn't speaking to anybody, and it wasn't like him because he would normally talk to us about stuff even if it was about how much he hated Joe, he talked to us. Everybody had gone to sleep except for me because I was really worried about my brother. I thought he was going to do something crazy that night, but he didn't, luckily. But I found him underneath one of the bunk beds in our room, then he told me to go back to sleep, but I wouldn't. I noticed that he was writing something in a notebook, but I just ignored it because I knew he wouldn't tell me what was in it, but..." Marlon trailed off.
I wanted him to continue, but Rebbie walked into the room before he could finish. She had a frown etched onto her face, but her eyes carried a different emotion, but when she saw me, it disappeared before I could determine what it was.
"Is he okay?" she asked, gesturing to his bedroom door upstairs.
"I don't know. He locked the door," Marlon said.
Rebbie sighed before shaking her head in disappointment, and she left the room. I kept my gaze focused on the beige pillows that were perfectly arranged on the couches.
"Do you want me to finish, or..." Marlon began to ask.
"I don't think he's coming out anytime soon," I say doubtfully, "You can continue."
"Where was I?" he asks himself, "Oh yea, so while he wrote stuff down, he began telling me this massive plan that he had to get revenge on Joe, but I didn't agree with him. But I didn't disagree with him either. I didn't like the thought of trying to hurt my own father, but Joe deserved a lot of things that Michael wanted to do to him. He wanted all of us to stand up to him and tell him that we weren't going to be his slaves, then James came along.
James was just Joe's business partner at first. At least that's what he was supposed to be. There came a time when Joe owed James a little money, but Joe didn't have any just sitting around for him to have so that's when Joe started using all of us for his own good. When I was fourteen, Mike was thirteen, and that's when he killed a person for the first time, not because he wanted to either. Joe had a plan to make us into real men, but Michael was not happy about the fact that he killed someone, which you might think is crazy, but as soon as he pulled the trigger, he started running.
He ran away as far as possible, and we still don't know where he went that night, he never told us. All we know is that he came home at two o'clock in the morning, and Joe was waiting for him. Joe was livid that night because after Michael ditched us, we didn't get what we were looking for, and we knew that Joe would be in trouble with James. We were happy though. We didn't have to commit a crime with Joe. That was the good thing about it.
After a week, Michael hadn't said a word to any of us at all. He completely isolated himself from us, but we didn't know why. He was just there. One night, we heard him scream though. He started to cuss someone out, but we didn't know who, but we didn't want to move to go and see what happened because there was no telling what would happen to us.
Our mother started screaming at the top of her lungs, and she kept telling Michael to stop whatever he was doing, but none us moved. I wanted to get out of bed to help him, but then there was a gunshot, and my mother screamed one last time before someone left the house."
I could feel my heart beating faster and faster by the minute. I felt like I was actually there, experiencing this like Marlon had, but I wasn't, luckily.
"Soon, there were ambulances outside our house, and we watched the men take James on a gurney to the ambulance, then it drove off before we could ask any questions. I snuck into the living room that night, and my mother was sitting in the couch crying while she was covered in a bed sheet, and Joe was screaming at her. Before I could object, he slapped her a couple of times before dragging her down the hall into their bathroom on the opposite side of the house, and the screaming continued.
Eventually Rebbie and La Toya came out of their room, and they saw me, crying, and they asked me what was happening, and I told them. That's when I noticed that Mother's screaming stopped, and Rebbie ran into the bathroom, and she started to scream before Joe came out the bathroom, telling her to shut up before he did the same to her, but she continued to scream louder and louder, but I didn't know why. Joe started asking for Michael, but he wasn't back yet, but we didn't think he would come back, considering what he did earlIer that night, then he walked in the house.
Joe started screaming at Michael, but Michael wasn't listening, and I was really scared because he wasn't being himself anymore. Joe kept trying to get Michael to pay attention to him, but it was no use. Rebbie began screaming that Mother was dead, and that's when I saw Michael at his worst. He started flipping things in the house and yelling at Joe. He started screaming at us, and he was out of control. Eventually, he sat down and started to cry. He was so mad with himself and Joe that he didn't even have the strength to fight back anymore. I felt so bad for my brother, but that night he didn't leave. He slept in the middle of the hallway in front of the door to the bathroom. He wouldn't let any of us touch him, and Joe was even staying away from him. We were all too scared at that point.
Michael spent a good five years grieving over our mother. He spent those years being a mass murderer, and he would rob the people that he killed because he needed the money. I could say Joe was proud of him, but he wasn't because Michael was doing it for himself, not Joe. Joe hadn't been around in a long time, and Michael was putting food on the table for us, but we didn't think it was fair for him to be the only one working to feed us. That was when we became... this," he tells while gesturing towards himself and the house, "We were unstoppable all together, and if one of us had an issue, we all had an issue. Joe heard about us when we were on the news because we were wanted with the FBI. He called us, asking us if we wanted to join forces with him. Of course we said no, and he wasn't happy about it.
Then, a little while later, we got a neighbor. Uh, her name was Susanna, and she was something else..."
"Was she bad? I mean, like--"
"No, not at all," he said.
"Then what happened?"
"Um, I think Michael should tell you. It's not really my place," he says.
Michael's Pov
Every single fucking problem we have is my fault. Every time something bad happens, it's my fault. Everybody likes to blame shit on me, but I don't understand how in the hell that's fair. We're all in this together whether they like it or not, and if they don't want things to go wrong, like they do all the time, then they need to pitch in and help me like real fucking brothers and sisters are supposed to do.
I've been pacing back and forth across my room for a few minutes now, and I feel like maybe we should talk this out now. They're not going to go on being mad at me like I'm the one that made the chandelier fall. They're not going to keep acting like Celeste is strong enough to take me down singlehandedly when she doesn't have James or Joe anymore. She's nothing without them, and my plan to relocate is probably better than whatever they were thinking. They can't keep thinking that we can't handle her. We've dealt with worse.
On my way to the basement, I hear whispers coming from the living room. At first, I think I'm crazy, but the whispers get louder along with laughter. I try to quietly walk into the room, but Marlon looks up at me before I even enter. Kyela turns to look at me, and she smiles sweetly at me.
"What are you two doing?" I ask curiously.
"We were just talking," Kyela says before she gets up from her spot on the couch. She walks over to me and wraps her arms around me, and I feel my cheeks get hot once again.
"I'm going to go downstairs to see what they're talking about," Marlon excuses himself.
"Are you okay?" she asks me.
"Yea, I'm fine," I say without much enthusiasm.
"You don't sound fine," she mumbles while releasing me from her embrace. There's something about the loss of physical contact that makes me want her even more.
I pull her back, gently, by her arm, and her head lays on my chest in a loving manner.
"Don't do that," she says. She has this edge in her voice that's making me feel uneasy.
"Do what?"
"Shut me out," she said, "If I'm going to be your girlfriend, you can't hide your feelings from me."
That word, girlfriend, sounds so foreign to me. I haven't heard it in a while.
I sigh, "I'm not shutting you out."
"Okay. Well, what made you decide to come out?"
"We obviously have things to discuss, and I can't avoid it now," I sigh.
"Oh... Their probably waiting on you. Maybe we should go down there," she suggests, but I don't like the thought of her joining in on a family discussion, not this time.
"You're right," I say while kissing her, "But you should stay up here for now."
"What?"
"I just think that you should be up here. I wouldn't want to see you upset anymore than you already are."
Her face twists in confusion, and I realize just how stupid I must sound to her.
"Michael, seriously? Besides, if anything, I should be apart of this. I was the one that he kidnapped in the first place," she says while pointing to herself.
She doesn't sound angry, thankfully, but she doesn't sound calm either. At the very least, I could include her, but I really don't want to, just for her own safety.
"Kyela, I'm serious. It's best if you kept to yourself just this time," I stress while trying to keep my voice as low as possible, "Besides, have you seen your face?"
I walk over to her, pushing her hair out of the way. She winces, then rolls her eyes at me before moving my hand away from her face. She's so stubborn sometimes, but it's cute.
"Fine," she huffs. She begins to walk away from me, and I sigh. As she climbed the stairs, I couldn't help but watch the way her body moved so swiftly like she didn't put any effort into the her movements. I think that's what got me hooked on her in the first place.
"But don't take forever," she adds before she disappears into my bedroom, closing the door behind her.
↭
"So, you decided to join us again?" La Toya says irritably.
"Shut up, I'm not down here so that you can make me feel bad about something none of us should bad about," I say.
"I'm just about tired of this attitude from you. What the hell is your problem?" she asks me.
I sigh, "I don't--"
I'm interrupted when Whitney comes running down the basement stairs with a bag in her hair, and her hair is flying everywhere.
"Whitney!" Janet exclaims.
They're like best friends, but they hate each other at the same time, so I don't get their friendship at all, if that's even what it is. Whitney is apart of the crew, but sometimes she isn't around, so she's just a backup.
Whitney punches me playfully in the shoulder, and I give her a sly smirk just before she rolls her eyes.
"You didn't bring Bobby, did you?" I ask her, hoping that she would say no.
"Of course I did! Why wouldn't I? He's outside doing something with the car though," she answers, and just about everybody in the room sucks their teeth in aggravation.
She scoffs, "Y'all know you love Bobby."
"No, you love Bobby," Jermaine comments before sinking further down in his seat on the couch, "We just tolerate him..."
"Anyway," Whitney says, "So what is this that I heard about you killing your father?" she asks me.
"Can I just set something straight, please? I didn't kill Joe," I say as calmly as possible.
"This isn't about you killing Joe, Michael," Janet grumbles.
"Well, this is what it seems like you wanna talk about right now! I'm just trying to clear it up so that we can get to the good stuff," I nearly shout.
They irritate the shit out of me sometimes. They just don't listen, and I'm tired of the misinterpretations that I hear from each of them because they're each in their own little worlds. All of us together have egos that are too big to fit in the same room, so I don't understand how we've stuck together for this long.
"You don't have to get angry, Mike. We're just trying to talk, okay?" Jackie, the peacemaker, says.
"Please, getting angry is like a sport for him," Whitney comments from beside me, and I glare at her so that she will shut up.
"Seriously, people, I thought we were down here to talk about Michael's spectacular plan for us that he had in the car," Randy says sarcastically.
"Right," Marlon murmurs.
"Yeah, where did you just think we would relocate to?" La Toya questions with an attitude.
"I don't know, but we have to get out of here fast," I say while fiddling with my fingers.
"So, how did you think this was going to go? You need to know all the details before you go off telling people master plans," La Toya responds while placing her hands on her hips.
"It wasn't set in stone La Toya! It's underdeveloped because maybe I needed your help!" I yell.
"When do you ever come to us for help?!" La Toya shouts back.
"I always come to you for help! What are--"
"Only when you're distracted," she mutters.
"What?" Jackie says.
The whole room is silent. I really don't understand what's going on here, but I need to figure it out before things get out of hand.
"I think she said when I'm distracted," I recall, "What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
"Because your girlfriend is upstairs, that's what she means. She's getting in the way of things," Janet says rudely.
"Janet!" Rebbie scolds her.
"What? I'm sure that's what she was thinking," Janet says, trying her best not to laugh.
"Wait, wait, wait. I think I missed something here. Michael has a girlfriend?" Whitney asks while dramatically covering her mouth in surprise.
Everybody nods except for me because I'm not really going to feed into her shit today. It's useless.
"So, are you trying to say that you're jealous, La Toya?" I ask, and everybody stares at her for an answer.
This is some shit that I'd expect from Janet, maybe even Marlon, but La Toya? Last time I checked, she barely even gave a shit about me and what I did. She was literally only here to help me whenever I needed it, and quite frankly, she's been around a lot lately, and that's way before Kyela came into the picture. This is crazy.
"No?"
"Then what is it?" I can't fight the smirk that spreads covers my face.
"I just don't like the fact that you're taking advantage of me for your personal reasons," she snaps.
"Me? Taking advantage of you? Never in a million years would I do that. Besides, you're my sister all I have to do is ask," I shrug.
She sighs in frustration before walking away and up the stairs of the basement. She's such a drama queen when she wants to be.
"Well, I guess this discussion is over," I say while clapping my hands together loudly.
↭
I watched Kyela check herself in the mirror at least five times before she finally walked out of the bathroom. She smiled at me and asked if she looked okay, and I told her that she looked perfect just so she wouldn't spend another fifteen minutes in the bathroom. I didn't lie; she looks great, but we were just going to the store and maybe getting something to eat, so she doesn't have to be all dolled up. I just wanted- needed to get her out of the house.
Hand in hand, we go downstairs together. Rebbie comes out of the kitchen, and she smiles at us, but I ignore her to keep from blushing, which is really hard to do when I have Kyela holding my hand. As soon as we approach the door, I hear Whitney come up behind us squealing, and Kyela jumps at the noise.
"Michael, I thought you were joking!" she shrieks, and I feel Kyela move behind me like a shy little kid.
"Did it look like I was joking?" I ask her with a smirk.
"No, but I didn't think she was here," Whitney says, obviously annoyed. I enjoy bothering her.
"Well, she is."
I roll my eyes at her before turning around once again to leave the house, but Kyela doesn't move. Instead, she pulls my arm gently, and I sigh while turning back to Whitney who is standing before me with her hand on her hip.
"Whitney, this is Kyela. Kyela, this is Whitney," I subtly introduce them, and Kyela waves nicely, but Whitney pulls her in for a hug.
"It's nice to meet you. I'm glad he finally brought someone home," she says, and Kyela laughs uneasily because Whitney has no idea how the both of us interpret that.
"It's nice to meet you too," she responds, and Whitney's eyes go wide.
"Holy shit! What happened to your cheek?" she asks with shock. Kyela looks at me, begging to get her out of this situation, and Whitney looks back and forth between the both us, trying to figure out what's going on.
"Oh, Whitney, there you are," Janet says, interrupting our silence. I breathe a sigh of relief, and all of our attention turns to Janet.
"Come here," Janet says with irritation.
Whitney and Janet leave us standing in the foyer alone, and I grabbed Kyela's hand. She seems a little hesitant to leave her hand in mine, but eventually, she does, and we leave the house in peace.
Once we're both in the car, it's like something has shifted between us, but I can't tell what it is.
"Is it that bad?" she suddenly asks.
"What?"
"My face. Is it that bad?" she repeats while playing with her fingers.
"Your face is fine," I say.
She shouldn't really be worrying. I watched her put on a pound of makeup, and despite the fact that she had her hair in a ponytail, she had a piece covering that side of her face. Whitney was just looking too hard.
"I'm sorry. I just don't want to look beat up I'm public," she tells me, "Even though I am beat up," she quietly adds.
She covers the left side of her face so that I can't see her anymore, and I know that she's crying, or she's trying not to cry. I hate seeing her like this, but I don't really know what to do about it.
"It won't happen again," I murmur, "I'm sorry..."
"Stop being sorry," she sniffles.
There she is being stubborn again.
"It's not your fault. Besides, I'm overreacting anyway."
She wipes her tears away from her cheeks, then she looks to me. Her eyes are slightly red, but they're still beautiful the way they are. Overall, she's still beautiful, beat up or not.
She giggles, "Why are you looking at me like that? Drive the car."
"I'm just trying to make sure that you're okay," I shrug.
"How many times do I have to tell you that I'm fine? Stop worrying, alright?" she assures me, but the more she says that, the more I don't believe her. I know she's really fragile right now, but she doesn't want to act like it, I'm sure.
I start the car, and the engine roars to life before I drive down the long dirt road that seems like it leads to nowhere.
Kyela's Pov
After what feels like hours of driving down the road, we come across a small shopping center with five or six cars in the parking lot. Michael never told me where we were going, but I didn't expect to come to a row of small stores. I open my mouth to say something, then I realize that Michael had already gotten out of the car.
Before he closes the door, he looks over to me, "Were you about to say something?" he asks.
I shake my head and proceed to get out of the car, and he meets me on the other side. He takes my hand is his, which I really didn't expect him to do. He doesn't seem like the type to show PDA.
"You don't have to lie, you know?" he whispers when we walk into what looks like a small grocery store.
"What?" I ask.
"I knew you wanted to say something in the car. What was it?"
"I was just going to ask why we were here, that's all," I shrug.
He leads me down an aisle where chips and soda line the shelves. He grabs a bag of salt & vinegar chips before turning to face me again. The way he was looking at me was making me nervous.
"Do you you want to be with me?" he asks.
"Yes," I answer with confusion because that was a question that I was sure he knew the answer to.
"Are you scared of me?" he questions, "Still?"
I shake my head no, then I begin to tell him how I was never really scared of him, but I was scared of what he would do to me. Instead, he presses his lips to mine passionately, and our lips move in unison as he pushes me into shelf of chips, and I groan from the impact.
"Trust me," he breathes, "I want you to trust me and tell me how you feel. I'm not going to hurt you."
I could tell that he was trying hard not to sound desperate, but he failed; miserably. I couldn't blame him though. I was desperate for him too, and within two days, he's probably got me wrapped around his finger.
"Michael, I trust you," I whisper against his lips, and I could feel the corners of his mouth turn up in a smile.
It's crazy how just seeing his smile gives me butterflies that won't go away. I love it so much already.
"Good," he says before reaching up and grabbing a bag of Cheetos from the top shelf.
He takes my hand and starts to walk to the end of the aisle. He's been so gentle with me that I don't even feel like he's the same man anymore, but I feel more at ease right now than I've ever been. Maybe he feels the need to impress me, but he doesn't have to change his whole persona to impress me. I like him just the way he is; most of the time.
"Do you want something?" he asks me suddenly.
My eyes trail over the shelves of medication, and I shake my head no.
"No, but I could use these," I tell him while grabbing a box of pads from the bottom shelf. Michael stares at me with his eyebrow raised, and I can't help but smile.
"What? It's almost that time," I say while directing my eyes down, but his eyes stay on my face the entire time.
"Fuck," he groans before walking away from me, and I laugh. I follow him down the aisle onto the next aisle that was filled with candy. I run up behind him and jump onto his back, and he nearly falls to the ground despite my light weight.
"Girl, you have to warn me before you do stuff like that," he laughs.
I kiss his cheek. "It was supposed to be a surprise."
I hop down from his back, and he begins to fake a backache. I fold my arms across my chest and laugh at his dramatization.
"I didn't think that I was that heavy," I say while walking away from him down the aisle and onto another.
"You really aren't," he says as he pulls me into his chest from behind, and that instantly brings a smile to my face. I turn to see his eyes bright with happiness, and he leans down to kiss me on the lips.
∅
Haha hey.
The first half of this chapter took me a while to write because it was so much. I know Joseph was an ass in real life, but in this story, he was more than an ass. I just had to say that for myself.
Secondly, I'm sorry if you're a fan of Bobby Brown (lol), but I think he's perfect to be an annoying character in this story.
Lastly, I recently realized that I wanted to put a lot into this story, but that was a lot, so this is going to end up being the first book for at least the other ones that will go along with this one. At the least, it's going to be a trilogy, so yeaaaaaaaah. This is exciting !
vote and comment a lot.
-Mickeythemoonwalker