Neighbors (A Michael Jackson Fanfiction)

Neighbors..4..

After showering and getting ready for work (I have the afternoon til close shift at the restaurant tonight), I feed Ossie and Ruby their lunch.

I pour their individual food into their individual bowls and they bark and meow their appreciation at me.

When I finish pouring their food, they immediately start chowing down and I smile at them.

My fur babies control me and I'm positive they know it.

As Ossie and Ruby are eating, and after I put their food bags back in the pantry, I walk out of my kitchen then into my living room to sit on my couch.

With the remote, I power on the tv and watch "The Bad Girls Club" reruns for nearly two hours.

When the second episode is near its end, I decide it's time I start heading to work.

Mr. Meraux, my boss, does not tolerate tardiness and, even though I'm his favorite employee, he will still gut me for being late.

It would actually behoove me to leave now, because, since I don't own a car, I have to walk to my job at "Meraux's".

(Original name for a restaurant, huh?)

Splendidly, though, "Meraux's" is not very far from where I live, and I don't mind the walk or the fresh air.

And, today, the fresh air and the walk are needed.

I desperately need them both.

You know, to free my brain of that amateur porn scene I walked in on earlier in the hallway.

Fucking tosser.

Before I leave, and as always, I tell my fur babies goodbye with hugs and kisses.

Also, I place kitty and doggy treats all around the apartment, in random places, to keep them satisfied until I return home.

They're both Greedy Guses and I'm such a pushover.

Ossie jumps up on the couch and Ruby the windowsill, as I grab my handbag from the table then amble to the front door.

"Bye, babies." I coo, opening the front door. "I'll see you later."

I smile, backpedaling into the hallway, before closing and locking my apartment door.

As I pull my key from the lock, I sigh. Damn, I knew it.

Michael is standing behind me.

I can feel his presence.

Stuffing my keys and phone into my handbag, I turn around and just as I thought... there stands Michael.

I roll my eyes so hard it hurts.

He's leaning against the wall, opposite my apartment door, with his hands tucked into his pockets.

"What an awesome surprise?" I drawl, sarcastically. "Taking a break from the harem hos?"

"Northampton," Michael begins, sighing, as he moves from the wall. "can we talk?"

"Seems you're already doing that, Nashville." I shrug, walking away from my door, and him, towards the stairwell. "What do you want to talk about?"

I adjust my handbag on my shoulder as he follows me into the stairwell, asking. "Are you mad at me?" I don't answer and we walk the three flights downstairs in silence. "Are you mad at me, Lyric?"

"Ha!" I guffaw as we walk out of the stairwell into the atrium of our apartment building. "Why would I be mad at you, Michael?"

"Because of what you walked in on earlier." He answers, softly, as we take a revolving door together. I actually didn't want to be enclosed in the same door as him, but he caught me. "You seemed mad. You didn't answer when I called your name. And you didn't answer when I knocked on your front door. Even when I knocked on our room wall you didn't answer. Are you mad at me?"