the moment i saw you cry ☾ michael jackson

☾Chapter 21

"And it'll be great near the water, or maybe if you're into something more indoors, perhaps you'd prefer to get married inside the church?" Daddy and Lisa's wedding planner suggests.

Daddy and Lisa decided that now they'd try to get ideas for the location that they'd want to have their wedding in. Things are moving pretty quickly and I can't keep up – I honestly don't know how in the world they're going to get everything ready in less than two weeks. For anybody else it'd take like around ten months tops. Oh but wait, I keep forgetting, my daddy and Lisa aren't like everybody else.

"I like the church idea," says Daddy, turning to Lisa to confirm.

"Michael, you know I'm a," Lisa lowers her voice, "a...scientologist."

Daddy rubs his forehead. "Seriously, Lisa? I thought we've talked about this." He holds her hand.

Lisa huffs. "Yeah and I'm not buying it," she says, snatching her hand away.

The woman looks away and waits patiently for my daddy and Lisa to decide on what they want, although it may take a while since they've been picky about literally everything – well, Lisa has, anyway.

Daddy sighs. "Listen, I just want to have a nice wedding with you. I wanted to make this special," he says. "I can't wait any longer, I need to make you my wife. I thought that's why we agreed on doing this early. We have the money, we may have the time-"

"I know, okay? I know," Lisa interrupts, sighing. "I just want to have something that's fit for the both of us."

Daddy throws his hands up in the air. "Well, me too!"

Lisa rolls her eyes. "Forget it. No church, nope."

Daddy looks awkwardly between me and the wedding planner lady sitting on the couch, waiting patiently for them to sort their situation out.

"Uh," says Daddy.

"Figure it out later?" the woman suggests.

"Yeah," he says, scratching the back of his neck.

She smiles. "That's alright," she says, closing her clipboard. "Call me when you've decided." She hands them a couple of sheets of paper and then shows herself out of the house.

"What is it?" I ask.

"Wedding locations," Daddy says without looking up from the papers.

Lisa walks away and stares outside the window.

"Lisa, we need to work this out," Daddy says, walking up from behind her. "What's the situation behind you and scientology? Why don't you like to talk about it with me?" He places a hand on her shoulder.

Lisa doesn't respond.

"Lisa, please..."

No response.

He begins getting frustrated. "Lisa, answer me-" he demands, turning her around so she'd look at him. Her head hangs down in disappointment and she slowly looks up at him, tears about to spill from her eyes.

"Just fucking forget it!" she yells and shoves his hand away from her shoulder, running out of the house.

"Lisa, Lisa!" he calls, chasing after her.

He stops at the front door and watches her, sighing.

Now I feel kind of bad for disliking her. Daddy was always pretty spiritual, and wanting to marry someone who doesn't connect with you on that level must be hard to compromise with in that way.

"But Daddy...didn't she pray with us on the dinner table at Havenhurst?" I ask.

"Yes, baby, she did. But she was only doing it to make me happy. I don't know if I can do this anymore. Over the years it's just become more difficult," he says, sitting back down.

I take a seat next to him. "How did you meet anyway?" I ask.

"Well we've known each other for a long time. Of course we didn't get serious until adulthood, but that's it's own story. When we first met she was seven years old and I was seventeen. This was in Las Vegas, she used to come and see my show all the time. And we were the only family show on the strip – it was The Jackson 5 – and she used to come as a little girl and sit right up front, she came quite often, she came with a lot of bodyguards. And so she'd come backstage and I'd talk to her, say hi and then she'd come again, and I thought she was sweet and loving and I'd always hoped I'd see her again."

Lisa is ten years younger than him? It's no wonder they're having complications.

"So what happened when you started..."

"Dating?" he asks, smiling.

I giggle. "Yeah, dating."

"Well we didn't stay in touch, it wasn't until many years afterwards when I saw a picture on a magazine cover where she's married, which really tore me to pieces. Because I felt that that was supposed to be me, I really did," he says with a sigh.

Well, this is news to me. Lisa was married before?

As if reading my mind, he continues by saying, "Yeah, she was married before, but it didn't work out. After her divorce, I consoled her like the friend that I was to her at the time, and then we became closer and closer, and soon we stated dating for four months before I proposed, recently."

My eyes widen. "Four months?" I ask in disbelief. "Daddy forgive me, but don't you think you're taking things a little bit too fast? I mean, your engagement isn't even that-"

"Long?" he cuts off, "yeah, I know it isn't. But you wouldn't understand it sweetheart, it's complicated to explain."

"Okay..." I say, not bothering to push the situation further.

"I'll umm...I need to see if Lisa's alright," he says, getting up and walking away.

It's a broken relationship that needs to be fixed. But right now, we'll just have to wait and see how this all turns out...

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