Balloons [A Michael Jackson Fan Fiction]

Chapter 3: The Punishment

Chapter 3: The Punishment

     Their routine was continuous. They went to the hospital to donate anything that could possibly help the patients. Sometimes, Michael himself would perform, just to see the smiling faces.

     Surrounded by kids as he was singing, he was cut off by a whisper. Autumn's whisper.

"Michael, what's Tito doing here?"

"What?" He whisper-shouted. "Excuse me, kids, I'll be back," he said as he dragged Autumn to an empty hallway. "What are you talking about?"

"Look!" She said as she pointed north. Michael peeped through the window, and across that room, it was very obvious that Tito is there.

"Oh my God."

"What do we do?"

"I-- I don't know."

"Well, we can't stay here forever!"

"Let's try going the other way, come on," he anxiously said. He himself was not sure of what he was doing, yet they had no choice.

     As they were walking, rather fast, they heard footsteps approaching. The stomps were getting louder and louder every second. They hoped it was just one of the hospital staff. They were afraid that if Tito saw them, he would them. A shallow thing to worry about, but not to them. But suddenly the stomps disappeared. Gone. Vanished. They both sighed in relief that no one was going near them.

"Gotcha!" A deep voice shouted behind them. They both jumped and stared at the person who they didn't want to see. It was Tito. Terrified expressions flashed in both Michael and Autumn's faces. "Thought I didn't know what you're doing, huh?"

"You can't tell on us, man!" Michael tugged the collar of his brother's shirt. Autumn opened her mouth to say something, but closed it right away.

"Cool it! No need to get aggressive!" Tito replied as he gently pushed his little brother away. "I knew what you were doing since day one, but the others don't know about it, do they?" He chuckled lightly.

"You knew since.." Autumn finally spoke.

"Yeah, duh."

"How?"

--FLASHBACK--

"I've had enough bump cars, Marlon," Tito said as he hugged his stomach, having the feeling to puke.

"Aw, alright. Meet you later," Marlon said before walking away.

     Tito headed for one of the concession stands. As he was about to order, he spotted two familiar faces with an a beggar. He kept his head low and observed the three people.

"We can go to the hospital now, you know, if you want?" He heard his little brother say. The man weakly nodded, as a smile creeped upon Autumn's face.

--

"They can't know. If they did know, they wouldn't allow us to go back," Michael said simply. What are they talking about, Tito wondered as he listened more to the conversation.

"What do you mean?"

"They'd say that we're wasting too much of my, or our, money. Or maybe they'd even say that their diseases are contagious." Diseases?, he mentally asked.

"You have a point there..."

"Tell you what, why don't we do this like twice or thrice a week? Just the both of us. We'll go visit the hospital, spend time with the patients, then come back quickly."

"You got a deal," he heard her say, before going into his room.

--END OF FLASHBACK--

"You snooped up on us?" Autumn asked confusedly.

"Yeah. Well, not deliberately."

"What are you doing here then?"

"Was bored so I just thought I might check up on you guys." He said as he turned his back to leave. "Don't worry, your secret's safe with me."

~

"What is the meaning of this?!" Joseph bellowed at Michael and Autumn. The two just looked at each other and shrugged; neither knew what he was talking about. They just stared at him blankly, until he threw a newspaper at Michael.

"Michael Jackson, the lead singer of the Jackson 5, spotted in a local hospital with a mysterious woman," Michael read the headline as Autumn just stared in shock. "So what?" He answered.

"So what? So what? Are you fucking kidding me?! You messed up big time, boy, you're going to get it," Joseph said as he stood up from his chair, finding something to hit Michael with. Michael just sighed, he knew that in time the secret was going to be publicized anyway. He can't do anything about it.

     While he was just standing by the staircase, waiting for the punisment to come, Autumn just grabbed Michael's hand and bolted off to her room, dragging the older boy along. She quickly locked the door, and sighed in relief.

"Why did you do that?" Michael asked, stunned of what she just did. No one dared to escape Joseph's wrath before, until now.

"You think I want to see you get beaten up by your own father in my house? Like, who deserves that kind of punishment? Getting beat up by your own dad? It's sick."

"No, but you should've just ran up by yourself," he looked down on the floor.

"I can't. Not when I know you're down there being hit by your dad for doing nothing wrong."

"Aren't you at least a bit scared of him?"

"He's not that intimidating," she laughed. "When will he stop getting angry though?"

"In about a couple of hours. You up for staying with me for that long?"

"Uhm, duh?"

"So what about them posters of us? May I look at them?" He smirked.

"No," she said firmly.

"Please?"

"No."

"I'm going back down then to face Joseph," he said in a pitiful voice.

"You can't go down!"

"I won't, if you show my your posters."

"This is blackmail," she pouted.

"It's not that bad," he smiled as he walked over to her closet again. She just sighed, knowing he won't win the argument.

"Hmm, interesting," he chuckled.

"What?"

"You got our limited edition poster. The rare one too. There were only 15 copies printed all over the world, and you got one of them," she blushed at that.

"This is why you have to stop looking at my stuff, get out of my closet."

"The posters are amazing, wow. They're in really neat condition." He laughed as he closed her closet, now sitting on her bed. "And I thought you were just a girl who didn't care for celebrities because you didn't freak out the first time we met. Guess I was wrong."