tabloid junkie (Michael Jackson)

May 6ᵗʰ ─ 1:20 ᵖᵐ

The dayroom was like a huge cafeteria, except it was empty now and only Nadia was there, sitting on one of the benches and eating breakfast. Not many hospitals had dayrooms. Michael slid across from her on the bench and put his hands on the table.

"Good morning, Nadia." He said to her, brushing curls from his eyes.

Nadia sighed. "You can stop with the act, Michael. You can scream, shout or hit me, I don't care."

Michael was nearly appalled. "I would never hit a woman, you know that." He picked up the salt shaker and shook some into his palm.

"But you want to hit me."

He picked up pebbles of salt with his nails and dropped them into his mouth, it was the weirdest habit he'd ever picked up from his mother who used to do it all the time.

"Of course not, Nadia." He rearched over and brushed her face with his knuckles, tilting his head, wondering how she could leave a child without a mother, and of course he'd wondered that a lot.

She pushed his hand away and sighed. "You got what you wanted, now can you please leave?"

Michael scrunched his eyebrows in confusion. "And what did I want?"

"You wanted me to feel pain, to see you and to miss you and Rue, and you have what you wanted. I believe the word is nostalgia." Nadia abruptly stood from her seat, anger and sadness on her face.

He shook his head, getting to his feet also. "That's not what I wanted, Nadia. I just wanted to know...why?"

"Why do you think?" She asked, pleading with her eyes.

He shrugged. "I-I don't know. Was it me?"

Nadia's brown eyes lit up. "No, it was fear. I was afraid."

"Afraid of what?" He asked, desperate for answers he'd been looking for for years.

Nadia sighed. "What do you think? How long till they started calling me Naughty Nadia in the tabloids, huh? Who wants their child to look at the magazines and see what the people think of me out there? It's hard."

He nodded. "I know what you mean."

Nadia sat back down, and so did he. "You're strong," she said, reaching over to place her hand over his. "You've survived this long."

Michael didn't know how to respond to this.

The dayroom sounded with a bell, making Michael jump in surprise.

Nadia smiled. "The other patients are coming for breakfast, I thought we'd have a little more time alone." She sighed, picking up her tray. "I'll see you tomorrow."

He nodded and watched her disappear out the door.