Rainy Days

2

I buzzed at the gate of Encino, waiting for Michael to emerge. What lie was I going to tell him when trying to explain my sudden disappearance? I knew he had questions but I certainly didn't have answers. Before I could come up with any possible lies that were good enough for him to believe them, I spotted Michael running full force towards the gates. The slowly opened, barely able to catch up with his speed. When he reached the gate he squeezed through the space, seeing that the gates weren't fast enough for him, and ran towards me.

He held out his arms while running over to me and before I could lift my arms from my sides he had already embraced me with a bear hug. "I can't breathe." I squealed, barely able to get that out. "I don't care I've missed you! What sickness did you have? Let me know so that I can find a cure and you'll never leave my side again." His words made me laugh. But that was barely the main focus at the time. I needed to come up with a lie and quick. "I uh, I had an um, stomach virus." I explained, hoping that my statement was believable. "Aw, poor kid." Michael replied, pinching my cheeks. I quickly slapped his hands away and backed up.

"We're going to have so much fun!" He exclaimed, suddenly picking me up. "No! Michael put me down!" I yelled, still in shock at the fact that he did such a thing. My abdomen secretly hurt from being beaten but there was no way I was going to show it. He carried me onto the property and the gates closed back up. After tickling his sides he sat me down and we began to walk towards the entrance of the house. "So I here that Michael Jackson is taking Brooke Shields to the award show." Honestly I didn't understand why I would bring that up but I secretly wanted to know. "Really?! He must be one lucky guy!" Michael exclaimed sarcastically. The green bug had bitten me and I began to feel a bit jealous.

"Yeah he must be!" I replied, forcing a smile. "Well, I heard that he wanted to take someone else, but they disappeared off of the face of the earth for a while. Apparently their sickness prevented them from using a phone." He looked over at me expectedly and I remained silent. There was no real explanation I could give him for not calling other than embarrassment. He suddenly stopped, just when we walked up to the front door. "Why didn't you call me?" He suddenly asked, catching me off guard. ‘Shit! Come up with a really good excuse!' I thought to myself, trying to weigh my options. "I didn't want to bother you, being sick and all. I know that you're really busy and I didn't want to get in the way of that." I knew that I wouldn't hear the end of it but it was better than him finding out my secret.

"Rayne, are you serious right now?" He asked as if I was stupid. I sighed and opened the front door, not wanting to hear another lecture about how I should never be intimidated by his fame. It wasn't the first three hour long lecture I had to hear about and it wouldn't be the last. "You should never think that way. I value our friendship and I'd like to know how you are doing. You really had me worried sick. Which is also something we need to talk about. Why do you always suddenly disappear? What secrets are you hiding from me? I thought that we weren't going to keep anything from one another I tell you everything." The image of me pulling out my hair played in my mind numerous times.

"Okay Michael I get it." I finally spoke up, giggling at his sudden rant. "I'm not hiding anything, there's really no need for another talk." I replied making him giggle as well. "It's all out of love." He spoke with a bright smile. I couldn't help but smile back because his smiles were truly contagious. "Are you hungry?" He asked, walking towards the kitchen. "Uh-." "I could eat." He finished my sentence in a mocking tone. "Oh you're so very funny Mr. Jackson!" I sarcastically exclaimed. He laughed at this and continued to walk down the hallway. When we reached the kitchen he wasted no time to raid the fridge. Still, I wondered why he was taking Brooke. ‘Why not? She's pretty and bubbly and pretty and also very pretty.' I thought in my head as Michael pulled out different snacks. ‘Who was I kidding I had no chance with Michael. Even though he has told me that my age didn't bother him before, but there will always be a six year age difference. I needed to stop thinking about this.

"Smores?" Michael asked snapping me out of my thoughts. "Huh?" I asked dumbly, not hearing a word h had said. "What are you thinking about?" He asked, making me nervous. "Nothing." I quickly replied, sounding a bit too anxious. He gave me the side eye for a while, but dropped it soon enough. I set up the smores while Michael got the fire started. Once he was finished we snuggled up close to the fire and began to roast the marsh mellows. It was silent for a while which was strange because Michael and I usually couldn't keep our mouths shut, but in this moment we were both deep in thought.

"You know, I still think about Diana even after all of the crap she put me through." My head has probably never whipped around to look at a person that quick before. I turned so quickly that I felt a horrible pain in my neck and quickly identified it. "Ah whiplash!" I exclaimed, holding onto my neck. Michael laughed at this and began to rub my neck which felt better than I wanted it to. "Sorry about that, I probably shouldn't just bring her up like that." He spoke, squishing his marsh mellow between the two gram crackers and the chocolate. "No you shouldn't" I quickly agreed, still feeling slight pain. He stopped rubbing my neck and turned his attention back onto his smore.

He took a huge bite out of it and shook his head as if it was the best thing in the world. "Oh my goodness smores are happiness!" he exclaimed in a muffled tone. I laughed at this, taking a bite of my own. "Boo!" Someone suddenly yelled making me jump. I quickly looked back to see Marlin wearing a sneaky smile.

Michael's Point of view

I rolled my eyes at this. All of my brothers hovered around Rayne as if she was their prey. All waiting for the right time to pounce even though half if not all were taken. "Oh my goodness you scared me!" She exclaimed standing to her feet. She stepped closer to him and gave him a big hug. I looked away mumbling threats under my breath. "I haven't seen you in so long!" Marlin exclaimed, looking her up and down and then pulling her into another hug. "I rarely see you to begin with, seeing that Michael keeps you all to himself." ‘Damn strait' and it was going to stay that way. "Yea well we haven't seen each other for a while so it's only natural that we spend as much time together as possible." She replied, looking over at me and flashing a smile.

I smiled back without hesitation. Her smiles were very contagious. "Well I've been meaning to talk to you about something. Uh what are you doing tomorrow?" He asked making all of my alarms in my head go off. He better not be asking her on a date. He knows how I feel about her; he knows that she's off limits. "Uh well." She slowly replied looking back at me for an answer. I shook my head no immediately. "She has to help me out with something for a song I've been working on." I spoke as if I wasn't happy to have an excuse. 

Marlin gave me a side look, catching on to me easily. "Then we can hang out after." He quickly retaliated. "That'll be fine." "Actually we're going somewhere afterwards." I nearly cut her off. "Okay then the next day." Marlin retaliated even quicker. "I should be free-." "You know what? This weekend is all booked up. I've planned something for each day, you know how it is." Marlin gave me the ‘This is not over' look and I felt satisfied, as if I had won.