Mikamorra // A Mika fanfiction

Chapter 12

"OUCH, WHAT THE HELL!"

With a loud scream Mika sank to the ground, clearly in a lot of pain. I had kicked him right in the balls when he tried to kiss me. Except... that's not what he wanted to do. Turns out he saw blood on my cheek, (probably from when we were climbing the barbed wire fence) and wanted to wipe it off. At least that's what I figured out while he was yelling at me. "But how was I supposed to know!" I yelled back, trying to defend myself in this awkward situation. He growled and rolled his eyes. "Have you forgotten what happened in 2012? I came out as gay, remember. And you're a teenager, what the fuck were you thinking?"

"I don't know!" I yelled. "I was panicking and didn't think. I've been through a lot today okay, excuse me for jumping to conclusions." I rolled my eyes back at him: "and besides, you could have just said there was blood and let me wipe it off myself? That there," I said, pointing at his crotch, "is just as much your fault as it is mine."

Mika sighed as if all the world's burden was on his shoulders and slowly got up. (He ignored the hand I offered to help him). He shot me an angry look and started walking again without looking back to see if I was following him. "Alright then, just go!" I yelled after him as I was still standing at the side of the road. "Just leave me here to die, or something." I kicked a rock, got myself back together and then started running towards him. Of course I didn't want to be alone here, I was just being dramatic.

We walked in silence for a while until I spoke up and asked: "how did you even end up with the mafia, if I may ask?". He looked at me and sighed. "Do you really wanna know? It's a long story."

I stood still and crossed my arms. "Of course I do! And I insist that you tell me. I have the right to know, as your decisions almost got me killed!"

Again, he sighed. (How did he even have breath left with all that he sighed out?). "It was not really a decision, you know. I just kinda rolled into it. You know when I started to become internationally famous and started touring I got into touch with Giulio. He had been present at my first ever concert in Italy and came to see me after the show. He said he had enjoyed it greatly and thought I would be perfect for the Italian market. However, if I wanted to do business in Italy I needed an Italian manager according to him, because Italian culture and the way things are organized in Italy are so different from most other European countries. And that is where he would come in. He offered to represent me in Italy and become his Italian manager. I said I would think about it, but never actually called him back, until in 2012 when I was going through this rough period where it felt as if my creativity had been limited. I struggled writing TOOL and when it got released it didn't do as well in the charts as the previous two albums had done. The only country where it had relative success was in Italy. And so I thought, maybe I should call that Italian guy that I met a couple years ago and see how I could yield this popularity. Who knows what it might bring me!

And right as I got out my phone and wanted to dial his number, HE called ME. As if he sensed it! I still don't know how that happened, but it did. He said he had an offer for me: I could become a judge on the Italian X Factor. The show was no longer doing well, it had very low audience ratings and they wanted to bring in someone new, someone famous, to get people to watch again. And somehow, Giulio had tipped them that maybe I would want to do it. I was so surprised! I didn't speak a word of Italian at the time and I had no idea if I would be good enough to be a judge, and on top of that I had, in multiple interviews, expressed my disapproval of talent shows. However, I decided to go for it anyway. I didn't want to say no anymore. I thought getting this new experience would be good for me. Plus, looking back, Giulio kind of pressured me and left me little choice. But he made me feel as if it was my own choice, so it worked.

Everything went well for a while, until the moment came that I had to decide if I wanted to sign for another season. I personally didn't really feel like it. I had enjoyed the new experience, it had been fun at times, but the long days of recording were also draining and I felt like I needed to move on and focus more on my main "job" again, namely singing and performing. I was afraid that doing another season would get in the way of working on a new album, because I had also agreed on doing The Voice in France. Now France is of course much closer to my heart, I already spoke French and I liked the format of The Voice more than that of X Factor. On The Voice it's about real talent, the judges will never make fun of contestants like on X Factor, and the contestants are all serious and not there just to embarrass themselves on TV. I had seen the success X Factor had brought me, a whole new group of fans, and wanted to try the same in France.