"MICHAEL JACKSON SENT YOU ROSES! MICHAEL JACKSON IS GOING TO CALL YOU....TONIGHT?!"
Yeah, Teyonna's clearly shocked.
"JAZMYNE! MICHAEL--"
"Teyonna, lower your voice," I quietly hiss at her. "I don't want everybody and their mama in my business."
She finally realizes how loud she's being and covers her mouth.
When she uncovers it she begins in a softer voice.
"Michael Jackson is going to call you tonight? How does Michael Jackson even have your number, Jazz?"
"If the note says that he's going to call me tonight, Tey..then I guess he's going to call me tonight." I reply, nonchalantly.
Trying to avoid her questions I walk over to the couch.
"Uh huh, miss thing." Teyonna shakes her index finger and head at me. "You are not getting off that easy."
I sit on the couch as she rushes over to seat herself next to me.
She's preparing herself for the juicy details.
"Soooooo." She pokes with the biggest smile on her face.
"Soooooooo what?" I giggle, acting completely clueless.
I'm loving this.
"Jazz! Don't play! How does Michael Jackson have your number?" She asks again.
"What?"
She gives me a dirty look, so I can tell she's growing impatient.
I guess it's time to tell her.
"Well he came over last night--"
"HE CAME OVER HERE?!" Teyonna exclaims, raising her voice again and in obvious excitement.
"Tey, calm down." I say then she quickly slaps her hand over her mouth again. "If you raise your voice again, I'm not going to tell you."
She takes three deep calming breaths, but keeps her hand over her mouth, just in case she can't control her excitement, yet again.
"Okay." I start again. "Well, he came over to bring me some glitter that I had "forgotten" at the club last night. Even though it wasn't actually mine. Oh! and I almost killed him in the process."
I giggle as I think about how I was going to use my Louisville slugger on Michael.
He almost got it for real.
"How did you almost kill him?" Teyonna questions curiously.
I guess she's finally in control of her excitement now.
"Oh, girl, I was here alone last night, and I didn't know it was Michael at the door. So I grabbed the bat." I turn and point at the baseball bat positioned behind the door as I continue. "Because if the person behind the door was planning to hurt me, I was gonna fuck him up on spot!"
We laugh hysterically, for what feels like eternity, then Teyonna asks her next question.
"So, how did he get your number?"
"I have his, too." I smile, coyly, as I cross my legs.
Teyonna's jaw drops.
"Oh my goshhh..you have Michael Jackson's number, and you haven't called him yet?!"
"Well, Tey, I really haven't had the time." I smile at the face she just made.
"You have time now."
"But I haven't told you how we got each others numbers yet." I quickly state, trying to avoid her gesture for me to call Michael.
I'm definitely not going to do that.
If Michael wants to talk to me..he can call me and that's that.
"Okay. Okay. Tell me."
Teyonna's beyond eager to hear what I have to say, and she seems genuinely interested, which make me happy.
I love to tell a good story.
"Well, he gave me the glitter or whatever and then he heard 'Anytime, Anyplace' playing on the stereo." Teyonna's all ears as I continue with my story. "And as he was leaving he asked me if I had ever heard this song called 'The Knowledge' from Janet's previous album. I said no and he told me that he had a copy of the CD in his limo, and that I could borrow it if I would like. I told him yes and he brought it to me."
"Thheeeeeennn?" Teyonna drawls, ever impatiently.
"Then I asked him how would he know if I was finished listening to the CD."
"And that's when you gave him your number?" Teyonna blurts with a smile.
"No."
"What?"
I laugh at the face she makes when she realizes she's wrong.
"That's when he said that he could call me or I could call him. Then I said we could do both."
Teyonna squeals, holding tightly onto a pillow, as I continue.
"So, I grabbed two pens and that pad." I point to the pad on the coffee table. "I wrote down my number for him, while he wrote down his number for me, and when we were done we exchanged papers."
"Oh my gosh, Jazz!" Teyonna squeals again. "I can't believe that, I am so happy for you."
She reaches out to hug me and I hug her in return.
"Do you still have the paper he wrote on?" She smiles..
"Yeah, I taped it to my journal."
"You taped it to your journal? Ahhh, I see somebody likes somebody." Teyonna teases.
Teyonna knows me all too well, and she knows that only important thing go into my journal, and if something is taped to my journal, it means a lot to me.
I try to blow off her comment.
"Naw, I'm just being nice."
Of course it didn't work.
"Tell that lie to somebody who doesn't know you. I know you, Jazz," She smacks her lips as she picks up a rose to smell it. "and I can tell you like him. And, judging from these roses and that note, it's quite obvious he likes you too."
"You think so?" I question genuinely with a smile.
"Uhhh, hello? The man sent you flowers and candy, Jazz!"
She forces a dumb look on her face and I sigh.
"Devonte sent me to the clinic and he supposedly liked me too."
"Jazz, Michael isn't Devonte." Teyonna comforts, rubbing a hand up and down my arm. "Don't push Michael away just because of Devonte. Michael isn't Devonte."
Teyonna knows, all too well, just what I went through during my relationship with Devonte, and she's instantly empathetic when she notices the change in my demeanor.
"How do I know that, Tey? How do I know that he's not just another man who's only trying to have sex with me? How do I know that he's not that hit it and quit it type of guy?"
I'm fighting tears at this point.
Thinking about how Devonte treated me always gets me this way.
"You won't know until you give him a chance, honey. A chance to prove that he's not that man." Teyonna replies with big caring eyes. "I'm a big MJ fan, you know this, and if I felt that he was that type of man. I would've immediately told you to throw away his number after I read the note from the roses. Michael Jackson is a genuinely sweet guy, and I think that you should give him a chance to change your mind. He deserves that much, babe. Come on, give him a chance."
She nudges me as I sat still, soaking in her previous words.
Teyonna always knows exactly what to say to me, to anyone for that matter.
She's a great friend and she's right.
Michael has shown a genuine interest in me, and I should at least get to know him, before I write him off or label him as something bad or other.
My heart is still fragile from my break up with Devonte, but I should, at least, give someone a chance at trying to heal it.
And who knows, maybe Michael's the man who can heal it...and me.
Teyonna's pulling me into another hug when the front door of my apartment swings open.
"The party can officially start now, because DIONNE's IN THE HOUSE!" Dionne sings her usual entrance into my apartment.
Well, so much for that moment.
"What's wrong with y'all?" She frowns, adjusting her dance bag on her shoulder.
"Nothing, we were just talking about life." Teyonna averts as she winks at me.
Which is her little way of telling me that what we just discussed was our little secret.
Good thing, because she and I both know that if Dionne knew about me and Michael.
She would absolutely have a fit, and I didn't feel like going through that again.
I'll tell her later, just not now.
"Okay, are ya'll ready to head to the studio?"
"Yeah, who's driving?" Teyonna grunts as she picks up her dance bag.
"I am 'cause neither one of y'all heffa's is driving me anywhere." Dionne jokes as we all gathered our dance gear and head towards the door.
It's time for dance rehearsal, and I'm more than ready for it, dancing is a form of escape for me.
It also allows me to clear my mind for a while, and boy am I ready to clear it at this point.
I wonder what Devonte wanted to talk to me about?
No, it doesn't matter, Jazmyne, because I don't care.
The only man I am willingly allowing to be on my mind today is Michael....and I don't even know why.
I haven't even had a full blown conversation with the man, and I am already fine with him being on my mind?
What is with this mystery man and this hold he has on me?