Chapter 54 |
Michael's Pov
I stayed on those stairs for a few hours. Until the Sun rose actually. I didn't feel like I could go to sleep. I didn't even want to. At this point, I didn't want to do anything anymore, not anytime soon at least. I was drained on so many different levels that I didn't even want to move.
"Hey, you can't sit here forever," I heard from beside me.
I grunted as a reply and kept my head in my hands.
"The least you could do after keeping everybody up all night with your worrying and arguing is to get your ass up off of these stairs tell us what needs to happen so that I can get my money," La Toya demanded.
I lifted my head and glared at her. The look on her face made it clear to me that she was serious, and I sighed.
"Tell everybody to get ready. I'll be down in a second."
She smiled and ran back up the stairs. I watched her until she disappeared down the hall before I got up myself.
I got dressed in a nice suit and paired it with a nice set of loafers and a fedora as usual. I checked myself in the mirror At least twenty times before finally leaving my room and going downstairs. I went into the living room where everybody was sitting around in silence. I began to talk, telling them the plan and what would be happening in the next few hours, taking my place as the leader as usual.
As I spoke, my gaze landed on Kyela who seemed to be paying no attention to me, which didn't surprise me one bit. That's probably how she always listened to me, and I never noticed, but it bothered me.
After a few minutes, I wrapped up my instructions and got everyone to load up the cars and get ready to go. I didn't want to have an issue today because I wasn't in the mood, and I knew the only two people that would even dare to cause a problem were Kyela and Simone- well mostly Simone would try to talk her into something that she'd be stupid enough to go along with it, and I wasn't having it again today.
Kyela walked out of the house before I could pull her aside, and Simone followed right behind her. I rolled my eyes at the both of them and pulled on my jacket before walking out of the house after them.
Kyela stood by the car with her arms folded, not saying a word, and I sighed. I signaled to everybody that we were about to leave, and I got into my car as well.
I couldn't even describe how tense the silence was in the car, and it was rubbing me the wrong way. I fucking hated the way that she kept looking at me out the side of her eye like she wanted to say something, but she wouldn't. She was going to apologize this time, not me. She was the one that was wrong, and I deserved an apology just as much as she used to from me, and I wasn't going to say a thing until I received that apology.
The whole two hour drive was agonizing, and I just wanted it to be over already. I wanted to get out of the car and get away from her, but the faster I drove, the slower time got, and I just didn't have the patience to bite my tongue anymore.
"Why can't you just admit that you were wrong?" I asked eventually.
"I wasn't," she answered bluntly.
I sighed and gripped the steering wheel tightly until my knuckles were turning white. "So you're just a saint, huh? You don't ever do anything wrong, do you?"
"I never said that, Michael."
"Then, what are you saying?" I asked.
She turned to me and practically spat at me with her words, "I'm saying that you are trying to make me out to be some bad person that I am not. What I did was beneficial to someone that I cared about, not for myself, and even if you didn't feel the same way, you could've respected my decision instead of being who you are!"
"Being who I am?! What the hell is that supposed to mean?" I yelled at her.
"You know what the hell I mean! The stubborn, arrogant bastard that your father wanted you to be," she declared.
"Take that shit back! Right now! Take it back!" I screamed at her.
I pressed my foot on the brake, hard, and we came to halt in the middle of the road. I turned to her sharply as her face was glowing red, and I'm sure mine matched the color.
She stared through the windshield at the open road in front of us. I looked in the backseat and Simone's face was pale, and she the most scared that I'd ever seen her, but this whole thing was really her fault, and I didn't have any sympathy for her.
"It hurts, doesn't it, Michael?" Kyela said quietly after a few seconds. "To have someone point out your flaws and hurt you... To your face. To have someone constantly remind you of the things that you just can't get right. How does it feel?"
I ignored her question and shook my head. "Why are you trying to turn this around on me? I'm not the bad guy this time!"
"Tell me how it feels!" she screamed in my face, not giving me anywhere to turn to.
I clenched my jaw tight and looked her in those bright green eyes of hers that always made me melt every time I saw them glowing the way that only hers could, and I gulped dryly.
"Tell me," she whispered.
"It doesn't feel good," I said.
She sat back down in the seat of the car and put on her seatbelt, leaving he as confused as ever. My head was spinning, my stomach was churning, my head was throbbing, and my heart had stopped for a mere second. What did this mean? Was I headed for a breakdown?
I turned the key in the ignition again, and the car roared to life before I pressed my foot on the gas and began to drive again, trying to ignore the numbness in my chest from the argument. Bad thoughts kept lingering in the back of my mind, and I found myself wildly distracted and almost missing a turn to where I was supposed to go.
Simone's Pov
I sighed as we pulled up to a familiar house and realized that we were here. I didn't want to say anything or ask any questions because I knew that I was skating on thin ice- with Michael at least.
I hated that I induced this argument on the two of them knowing that they already had one issue that they've failed to discuss yet, and I knew that they hadn't because Kyela hadn't come crying to me yet. Although, I didn't really expect her to. She probably wouldn't be able to handle it at all, and I was afraid of what the outcome might be.
Frankly, I was afraid to lose her- even as just a friend. She was the only person to ever really care about me and try to help me be something better than what I was before, and there's no way I'd be able to survive without her since I've met her. And I don't Michael would be able to either.
He takes a quick glance at her before getting out of the car, and she stays put, leaning against the door and sulking. I lean forward and grab her hand gently, holding it in mine.
"I know you're upset, but you can do this, okay? You've been telling him that you can do this and more for a long time, and you're going to show him that you can because you will, and we're gonna do it fast. He'll see that he was wrong, and this whole thing will be over, and we can go home, and be normal, alright?" I said, trying to encourage her.
Instead of responding, she opened the car door and stepped out of the car. I followed behind her as she joined him and his family in the circle as they discussed the plan.
He pointed at us two, "...you know what you're looking for."
Kyela and I both nodded as the circle diminished and everybody went towards the house. We knew it was too risky to go through the front door, so the both of us walked to the side of the house and found the door that seemed to lead to the kitchen. It was dark, and there was a flight of stairs that went up to find some type of room to look for the stuff in. As we quietly went up the stairs, frisky sex noises filled our ears, and we looked at each other in disgust as we neared the room that the noises were coming from.
"I know which room we're not searching," Kyela said sarcastically. I quietly laughed to myself, and she went across the hall to quietly open the door and peek her head in.
after a few seconds, she waved me over, and we both walked into the took together, noticing that it was an office, so it only made sense that we'd look here first.
Kyela went over to the desk and began to look through the drawers of it and shuffle through the papers. She took a Bobby pin from her hair to unlock one of them, and I started looking through the things on top of the desk since it was a mess.
The door opened slowly, and I jumped, dropping some of the papers on top of Kyela and gasping. Turns out it was only Jermaine.
"Find anything?" he asked.
I shook my head, and he looked around the hall before dashing out the door again. I heard the sound of a car outside, so I ran over to the window to see who it was, and I was very surprised.
"Who is that?" I asked, acting clueless although I knew she was the girl from those raunchy pictures that MIchael had with him that Kyela still doesn't know about.
Kyela poked her head up to where her eyes were peeking over the desk. "Who?"
I waved her over so that she could see, and her expression didn't seem to change, almost like she expected it. "That's Tatiana. I think she's, like, his ex or something. I never asked."
"And you're okay with her being around?" I asked.
She looked at me blankly and pushed her hair out of her face.
"Don't worry about it Simone," she told me.
∅
THERE'S ONLY ONE CHAPTER LEFT MY DEAR READERS. GUESS WHAT HAPPENS IN THE GRAND FINALE!!!!
mickeythemoonwalker ♡