Human Nature

Chapter 35

August 8th, 1992

"Mariah, open up we got the wine." Brenda was saying on the other side of the door.

Janet got up. "I'll get it."

Brenda and Patsy  came in with a bottle of white wine and hugged Mariah.

"I'm so conflicted." Brenda said. "I wanna be happy about the proposal, but then ya'll wanna drop bombs on me."

"I'm sorry, but I don't think you should've left." Patsy said.

Mariah rolled her eyes. "Why is that?"

"This is how I see it: either ya'll was on break and neither one of ya'll are wrong or both of ya'll are wrong. You can't have it both ways." Patsy said.

Janet poured herself a glass of wine. "It's up to you, Mariah."

"I think you two can work it out, you know he loves you." Brenda said.

Mariah sighed. The three had been in her ear since she left Michael in the UK, telling her that they should try to work it out between them. She didn't know what she wanted out of the situation.

"I wish he hadn't told me." Mariah murmured. 

Brenda offered her a glass of wine. "Yeah, well he did. Which was the right thing to do."

Patsy turned on the TV and they were broadcasting Michael's concert in Bremen and he was performing I Just Can't Stop Loving You with Siedah Garrett. 

"I'll change it." Brenda offered.

Mariah took the remote. "No, I want to see this."

As the song changed to She's Out of My Life, Michael started with his typical theatrics, and invited one of the fans up from the audience. It was once the fan left that it seemed that the lyrics Michael was singing set in. He went down on his knees and stayed there twice as long as normal, struggling to get his emotions under control. He finished the song and went back down, which wasn't apart of his normal performance. Janet seemed to notice it too and she glanced at Mariah while taking a sip of her wine.

"He's hurting." Brenda said. "He just made me mad at you for like two seconds."

"Can we just acknowledge that ya'll both screwed up?" Patsy asked.

Mariah rolled her eyes. "I didn't do anything wrong. Tommy came on to me and I kept my distance."

"After you made up with Michael. You kept Tommy on a string until Michael came over here." Brenda pointed out.

Janet threw up her hands. "Do you love my brother, honestly? He's been through enough."

"Janet you know I love Michael, the end. Nobody is ever going to fill the place I have in my heart for him. I didn't ask for Tommy to come on to me-"

"The thing is, Michael told you several times to keep your distance because he knew Tommy wanted you and you ignored him, why? That's the reason he didn't want to marry you, he didn't see your relationship being long term." Janet shrugged. 

"He did try to tell you, Mariah." Brenda agreed.

Mariah felt her throat tighten as she played with the first ring Michael gave her. "I-I don't even know. I see Tommy as a friend, nothing else. I just thought he was overreacting."

Janet took another sip of her wine. "While I'll admit Michael does overreact, there's a reason for it. He has trust issues, and you being so close to Tommy did not help. He's probably in Germany right now imagining you with Tommy."