It's the Falling in Love || A Michael Jackson Fanfiction

ch. 3 - We're going back to Indiana [ october, 1979 ]

NOTES: I didn't say this before but I will say it now. My first language isn't English so this story may have some grammatical errors or sentences that don't make sense. I'm doing my best to translate this, and it's been a very interesting experience for me because it's helping me to improve my English. But it's still not perfect, so I apologize in advance for any mistakes I make.

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"Matt, I'm serious." Sophia insisted as she helped Matthew catalog the store's warehouse supplies. Unfortunately Matt just pretended not to have heard his friend talking as he continued writing on his clipboard.

Matthew and Sophia first met about two years ago when Matt came to apply for the job at the store shortly after his parents died. Sophia was responsible for teaching him for the first few days how the job worked, but it only took a few minutes of conversation between them for them to bond almost instantly.

Sophia was the only child of a Nevada couple. Like her parents, she was born and raised there, but at age 18 she decided to move with her fiance to California with the dream of building a new life. Unfortunately for her, the engagement didn't work out and they split about 6 months later. However, deciding to stay in California, Sophia was able to buy her own house with the help of her parents, and eventually got a job at the store where she now works with Matthew.

From the very first conversations when Sophia discovered that Matt was a former art student and saw his drawings and paintings, she made it her personal mission to make him try to follow his dreams, which of course never worked out. Matthew was always firm in his decision to "play it safe" until Julie was old enough to take care of herself.

Now alone in the back of the store, Sophia started giving Matt another one of her rants about how he should jump right in and do what he really wanted to do, but as usual he didn't want to hear it.

"I've told you before that I can't just drop everything and run away ust like that."

"Why not?"

Letting out a weary sigh, Matt turned to her about to give the same speech he'd said many times before. Sophia, however, realizing where this conversation was going, continued to speak without giving him an opportunity to respond.

"No, you listen to me now." She interrupted, crossing her arms over her chest. "Matt, you're a great artist and I'm not saying this just because I'm your friend. I'm saying it because it's the truth. Your drawings are amazing. Your paintings seem to have a life of their own. You have a gift and you shouldn't waste it by staying here."

"This isn't just about me, Sophia." He said simply, turning his attention to the shelves in front of him. "When I started college I had a dream. I wanted to be a book illustrator. Of course, I eventually fell in love with paintings and thought maybe I could juggle both. But in the end I didn't even manage to graduate."

Matt shrugged in an attempt to soften what he was saying and make it look like he didn't care about what happened anymore. "That already lowers my chances. Animation studios, publishers, agencies... all these places will prefer someone who has studied about it. Not some guy with a dream and a little sister to look after."

"You can't know until you try." Sophia insisted, placing her hand on Matthew's shoulder, tugging lightly so he stopped what he was doing and looked at her again. "Just give it a chance. There will definitely be someone who will choose you for your talent, not for the diploma that is on someone's wall. And you know that as well as I do. You just need to stop being afraid."