Come Together

Chapter 38: Living separate lives With a Mean twist

January 1994
Roberta's POV
It's been four years since that intense day. Since then I guess you can say I have been doing good. In the sense of my career and life I've been doing good. Nothing much has changed. I'm a choreographer. I've added that to my career two years ago when Malissa called me and had told me that Pebbles Reid was putting a girl group together and they already was working on their first hit off their first album and they had a wardrobe team and stylists all they needed was a choreographer and Malissa once again threw my name out and pebbles had asked to meet with me and see what I was capable of so I literally spent the next three days rehearsing a number I was going to do audition for her. By the end of the week I had my dance down pack and I was more than ready to audition. When auditions came I went into the office of LA Reid and did my thing to the song 2 much booty in those pants. When I was finish he was literally clapping as if he saw James Brown dancing in his office. I thought I was happy he was ecstatic. I immediately got the job. Since that day I work with the girls (TLC) . Oh how I met them you asked? Well after I audition for LA , pebbles had wanted me to go to the studio with her because they were there already with the producer named Dallas. We were in the studio and I was introduced to three beautiful girls. The slightly tall, light skinned, and has a short hair cut was T-Boz. The other one was dark skinned and has pretty black long hair and was tiny is Rozonda but she adopted the "C" of TLC her name is Chilli. Then it was one with big baby doe eyes , she had a bang and her hair was in a bun, she was light skinned, and medium size height she is Left-Eye. We immediately begin getting to know each other. I had told pebbles that we would get to work the next day and she didn't seemed to like that but in this studio I'm the boss... Sorry...
T-Boz : so you must be our choreographer.
Me: yes I am
Chilli : why do you look so familiar?
Me: how do I look familiar
Chilli: because I seen you somewhere many times before in the 80's.
Me: guess
Chilli: OK you're a model. I always idolize you when I was a teenager because you are soo pretty and you have pretty hair as well. But I know I saw you somewhere else before
Me: well yes I am a model. Thank you for that and I give you a hint : I was on a video that happens to be from the biggest selling album and was the first video to premiere on MTV from a African American artist.
Chilli : YOURE ROBERTA STRAWDER, THE MODEL, DANCER, AND YOU WAS MICHAEL JACKSON'S THRILLER VIDEO!!!!!!!
me: yes and I am pretty sure we all are now deaf.
Chilli: I'm sorry it's just girl I always loved you and I always wanted to meet you. Weren't you engaged to Michael
Left-Eye : she wasn't engaged ain't no ring on her finger
Me: that's another story for a later date.

Ever since that day we've became the best of friends. I'm more like the big sister than the choreographer. I like that the most about my job.

Michael's POV
Four years have went by and I'm doing just fine. I'm now on my fourth solo album and I've already shot the video for one of the songs. This song is titled Remember The Time. I wrote this song after I was finish recording BAD the album. Basically this sing is about Roberta. Speaking of Roberta she really meant it when she said we are best friends. She comes over a lot and I go to her house a lot as well. We have lunch watch movies get on the rides play games or just chill and catch each other up on stuff. But lately we haven't been doing that and it's not because of her it's because in a few months I'm getting married. I've known my fiance since I was 13 and she was 6 . She came to see us perform because she was a huge fan of the Jackson 5 . When I first saw she was beautiful to me. As we got older I kept in contact with her. We have been really good friends since 1990 and I am happy with Lisa Marie Presley. I asked her to marry me in the way most people wouldn't do it. I called her and asked but I was speaking hypothetical and she said yes. So we have two months until our big day. I didn't tell anybody because as you know I can't tell most people because they'll ruin the day or event. It's just how it is. Now let me get back to finishing this album...

Roberta's POV
Right now I'm in the publishing office for Fit Me magazine. We are scheduling a day for me to do a shoot for their spring collection. I've been working with these people for about two years now. I get my workout clothes from them and they always wanted me to do a shoot for them and talk about how I keep my figure the way it is. So I am working with them on that. Tonight I am going to see the most talked about movie , The Bodyguard. Whitney and I have been friends since the mid 80's. I ran into her going to the bathroom backstage of a building during a tribute concert Whitney and Michael was doing but Whitney had to go first she was walking towards the stage and I was rushing to get to the bathroom and we literally ran into each other and we ended up talking and becoming friends with her. After that day I've seen her a lot. She would come over to Hayvenhurst or she would come to Neverland. Sometimes she would pop up to my house and we would spend the day shopping or just relaxing. She told me the other day about the movie she had been working in with Kevin Costner and I was one of the many to tell her that I was most definitely going to see that movie. So that's what I'm going to do when I leave here. Go support my friend. About a hour in a half later we figures out a day we can do the shoot . I am now on my way home so I can get ready for tonight. I decided to call Michael on my way home.
Mike : hello
Me: hey what you doing
Mike: finishing up my album before they drive me insane
Me: oh I understand.
Mike: yeah. What you doing
Me: on my way home from Fit Me studios. They want me to do a shoot with them .
Mike: oh really. That's super cool.
Me: yeah I'm excited. Are you going to the premiere
Mike: yeah when I leave here in about thirty minutes I'm going to be heading home to get ready. That's what you're doing now ?
Me: yeah so I'll call you when I get home
Mike: OK bye
Me: bye
It's really a risk driving in LA during the winter because just like New York it snows really bad. I'm really trying to get home. These cars are making me antsy but I'm focus and looking forward to seeing the new movie. My focus is being tooken off track when....
BEEEPPPPP........ HONKKK...... BOOOMMM.....
I am on the other side of the road and being put right side up after my car has been flipped over four times. I'm totally shaken and don't know what to I want to move but my door is jammed shut..... Then everything goes black...

Michael's POV
I just got home and decided to call Roberta like I said I would. I get ready to dial her number when Frank rushes into the living room like a mad man.
Frank: Mike, kid, when's the last time you talk to Roberta?
Me: talked to her before I left the studio. I told her I would call her when I got home why what's the problem?!
Frank : let's go she got Into a car accident a really bad one let's go.
I didn't hesitate to put my coat and my hat back on and ran out the door to the car. Lord let her be OK please.
We get to the hospital and they take me to where she is and I walked into her room and it's filled with her mother, Maleigha, mother, and some of my siblings and TLC. I'm glad they love their mentor. I walk in and her mother walks over to me and hugs me tight.
Karen: when did you talk to her
Me: when I was finishing up in the studio. She was asking me if I was going to see the Whitney Houston movie tonight. I told her yes because I was going to take Lisa Marie with me.
Karen: oh my. So where was she going
Me: home she told me she would stop by my house later on.
Karen: oh my... Look at her. It's a good thing they got her out of the car before it blew up in flames.
Me: well what did the doctors say
Karen: they ran test on her and she is now in a serious coma. We don't know when She'll wake up. I am just so glad that we heard the news first.
I am in all types of disbelief as I look at my best friend, ex fiance, my first love lay in this bed she is sleeping but I am hurt by what I see. She has a tube in her mouth a cast in her right arm and a brace on her ankle. A bandage on her left side of her face. She has I.V'S everywhere. I am in tears because I had a feeling something was going to happen. I still love this girl. Yes I'm married and happily married at that but I will always have love for my first love. Therefore I will help her in anyway I can. I'm not leaving her side for nothing. I just hope Lisa can understand....