I Will Always Love You Chapter: 84

Bina POV

His call seemed urgent. The tone in his voice told me that something was wrong. I threw the walkie talkie down on my bed, and made my way downstairs as quickly as possible. As I was putting on my shoes, Asha decided to corner me,

"So...where are ya going?"

"Just over to see Michael."

"Ooh, why? Is it a date finally?"

"Nope. He just needs to talk."

"Well I hope you'll be talking about where he's taking you. It's about time he took you somewhere for goodness sakes." She said irritably. She was kind of right because he hasn't officially "taken me out" yet, but I knew that this was about something else.

“I think this will be somewhat of a more important nature, Asha." I said.

"Alright, alright. Just give me the scoop when you're done." She chimed with a smirk, and then looked pensive. She next whispered,

"You don't think that this is about your date with Nelson...?" she sounded worried. I hadn't finished telling her about my "date" but I was going to when I returned. I shook my head no, and then she left after offering a supportive smile. I hadn't thought about that. I don't know how he would have found out. I left this morning, and I didn't see him in his room or anything. The only way was if he was on the roof... and I don't know how I'm going to explain it to him. I tried to keep this a secret for Nelson's sake, as much as my own. 

 I got up and left the house. Outside of the Jackson compound, there were a few girls just casually hanging out. One of them took notice of me, smiled and called to me,

"Hey, do you know them? I mean, you're the neighbor right?" I didn't want to lie so I said,

"The most I see of all of them is their limo." Still true... right? I only see all of them together mostly when they're in the car. She seemed to buy it, but followed me suspiciously with her eyes until I looked like I was going to another house. I got around the back of the house, and there was Michael waiting for me. He looked like himself, but he had an air of exhaustion about him. He was resting the back of his head against the gate with folded arms, and eyes closed. His afro was going to have a dent in it unless he picked it back out. At that thought, I smiled. He looked like a painting that it was my privilege to get close to. So peaceful. He looked relaxed as well. I wanted to touch him without him noticing. Just to hold his hand while he was calm. I tried to be quiet, but my footsteps on the ground were too loud, and his eyes opened. Big, brown, and searching until they found me. For a millisecond there was the faintest shadow of a smile in them, but when he became aware of his thoughts, his whole demeanor changed, and he seemed to look worried. He stepped out of the walkway of the gate, and let me pass him. 

Once we were both in, he grabbed my hands and said,

"Please tell me, am I too late?" I didn't know what he was talking about. His statement was too ambiguous. I asked,

"What do you mean?" He then said,

"I saw you with Nelson this morning..." He took a huge deep breath like he was trying to hold back tears. His voice was cracking, and I could feel his heart just churning.

It hurt me to see him looking so frantic. He looked like he was on the brim of sobs; his face was drawn and pallid, and I wanted just to hug him, and say that everything was alright. He continued,

"...and I knew that I just assumed that you--".I had to stop him before he worried himself any longer.

"Before you go any further, I need to tell you something." I said.