You Could Be My Lover.

"finding my baby." (pt. 2)

{Michael}

It'd been a while since I visited Mother last.

...and since I've had a lot going on in my life and in my mind, I figured that I needed some advice on how to cope with everything that's happened to me in the span of the last two to three months.

Maybe talking to her about the whole ordeal with Darryl and Alika would help me figure out a way to get over losing her to him.

Janet was quick to swing the front door wide open and practically tackle me with an 'I've missed you' family type of hug.

"Damn, Jan," I snickered with a partially raised brow as we pulled away from each other, "...you act like you haven't seen me in years."

"That's because your black ass ain't hardly ever around no more, thanks to college," she snickered, playfully rolling her eyes as she stepped aside to let me in the house.

"Where's Mother?" I asked as I tucked my shades in the front pocket of my orange button-down shirt, looking around as I headed straight into the living room, "...is she here?"

"Yeah," Janet nodded, "...she's out back, working in her garden. If you want me to, I'll let her know that you're here to see her, and—"

"I'll be happy to let her know that I'm here myself...but thanks though. I wanna surprise her."

It wasn't long before Janet went off to doing what she was doing before I arrived, leaving me to go out back to go and see Mother.

I smiled as I caught sight of her swiftly turning around as she caught my gaze.

She smiled as she set down her bucket of gardening tools and walked over to greet me with open arms, embracing me in the warmest, most loving of hugs.

"It's about time you've dropped by to see me," she teased, causing me to softly chuckle as we gradually pulled apart from our hug. "I was starting to worry that you were forgetting all about little ol' me."

"I could never forget about you, Mother," I smiled genuinely, "...you're too special to ever be forgotten about."

She smiled at me lovingly and I gently kissed her cheek as she laced her arm with mine and walked me over to the patio table, where I sat down across from her.

"Michael, honey, your demeanor seems kind of off," she calmly stated, looking at me with confusion and worry in her eyes. "What's wrong?"

I sulked in my seat, sighing heavily as I felt myself trying not to work up a cry as I thought about the immense stress I've been going through as of late.

"...Alika and I aren't together anymore. We broke up close to three months ago."

Mother gazed at me with sympathetic eyes and lightly squeezed my hand, "Oh, honey... I'm so sorry to hear that, baby. Alika was such a sweet girl," she shook her head. "What happened?"

I sighed once more, "...what didn't happen is the question," shaking my head as I rolled my eyes in annoyance and adjusted myself in my seat before speaking up once more.

"After I made things official with her, the following weekend, I surprised her with a trip to Disneyland to celebrate us being together," I sadly reminisced. "Everything was great and all fine and dandy until I made the worst mistake I could've ever made by taking her to see 'Captain EO'," I rolled my eyes at the vivid memories of what happened that day.