Art and Soul

Chapter 2 part 2

"I cant help but see you....."

Alem's P.O.V. cont

Meeting Famous people normally had no effect on her but as soon as she looked at him a mass of butterflies swarmed into her belly up to her throat. She kept it together though. She was definitely not a crazy fan girl , to each his own but she loved his music and creative dance style. He was already a music legend of mega proportions and he was not even 30 years old yet. Michael Jackson seemed to be a hard worker and he put his all into his art. Alem respected him for that. She wasn't expecting to be caught so off guard by him but he was striking to look at in person. He was not as dark as he used to be but that did not take away from how handsome he actually was all that and she had not even seen his eyes. She had to get away from him as fast as possible before her body decided to betray her. His hands were so warm and firm and to say the image of them roaming her body had not crossed her mind however briefly would be an out and out lie.

"Back to reality however he is just a man." Alem told herself.

"AArrgg shut the hell up brain you have work to do."

Reaching the front she retrieved her walkman from where she had tucked it away earlier and began to put her headphones on before Sandy bounded up to her all giddy and squealing like a fool.

"Guess who's here?" She sing songed in a high pitched voice bouncing up and down.

"Michael Jackson." I tried to sound as non committal as possible.

"Yeah ……What ……Wait how did you know." She stared at Alem wryly with her hands on her hips. Alem stifled a giggle at the confused girl in front of her.

"Because I just bumped into him in the hallway….well not him but this chubby guy he was with."

"Oh yeah that's Frank Dileo his manager, they're going to be recording here for a while for his next album."

" Oh thats who uncle Q was talking about hmmmm interesting." Alem thought a small smile appearing on her face.

"Girl that is one fine piece of man. I would devour him if he ever gave me the chance." Sandy stated giggling like a crazy school girl on acid.

"Girl you better be quiet and keep it in you pants." Alem joked.

"What? You want a go at him for yourself girl?" Sandy eyed Alem waggling her eyebrows.

She was grinning from ear to ear.

"Quit playin and get your ass back to work. You do know what work is right?" Both girls laughed hard as they parted ways.

"You up for a late lunch girl?" Sandy spun on her heels and faced Alem.

"Yeah get me my usual."

"I got you girl , I'll come get you when the food arrives." Sandy spun back around to head to the front desk.

" Sure thing sweets." Alem slipped her headphones back on and soon found herself emerged in her own world.

It had only taken 20 minutes for the food to arrive. Alem and Sandy sat in the lounge quietly devouring their food. Alem had not eaten since the morning and it was well into the afternoon so she was starving. Sandy had ordered from Alem's favorite restaurant Vegetarian Paradise. She had her usual which consisted of wanton soup and vegetarian buffalo wings. She glanced at her friend who was biting feverishly into her large slice of cheese pizza and bobbing her head to music only she could hear. She was not surprised she had become so close with the young girl. They where around the same age give or take a year and they had quickly meshed. Alem's personality attracted people to her very easily. She was an easy person to be around. She never judge anyone before actually talking to them. Her intuition had always allowed her to weed out the good from the bad except when it came to men she was attracted to for some reason. However Sandy was a good egg. She chucked to herself. Sandy noticed that Alem was staring at her.

"What you laughing at crazy?"

"You, your tearing that pizza to shreds like a damn wolverine." She laughed out loud.

"Oh be quiet I'm hungry." She reached for her second slice of New York style pizza.

"What y'all laughing at up in here?" A voice called from the lounge doorway.

Alem looked over her shoulder at the young man standing there in a fitted Addidas tracksuit and a Kangol hat.

"Hey LL." Sandy waved.

"Hey whats up James?" Alem greeted him.

"Hey how many times do I have to tell you to call me LL girl?" Licking his lips like he always does he regarded Alem with a raised eyebrow and a cheesy grin.

"Whatever James, I see your recording today."

"Yeah if you can call it that my engineers keep fucking up my shit." He joked.

"By the way do Y'all know who's recording in Studio A? Michael Jackson, I just met him." LL stated

"Yeah we know." Alem and Sandy said at the exact same time.

They both looked at each other and yelled

"Jinks!" Sending them laughing again.

" Y'all always laughing at something, so Alem when you going to go out with me girl." He winked at her and licked his lips.

" Boy you got something in your eye?" Sandy joked.

"Oh be quite girl, you always trying to squash my game." He flashed her a smile.

"Well?" He turned his gaze back to Alem.

"Well what James? I already told you no 7 times and I've only known you 2 weeks boy." She laughed.

"Why do you insist on asking and getting shut down huh?"

"I'm wearing you down girl, anyway what you eaten." He said grabbing one of her vegetarian buffalo wings and dashing out the door.

"Yeah you better run punk." Alem screamed getting up to give chase.

He ran down the hall way ducking into Studio B. She got to the studio door pulling it open just as the wing disappeared in to his mouth. He hid lamely behind one of his engineers snickering wildly.

" You can hide behind Todd all you want boy but rest assured I will trot my ass right on over to Hollis Queens and find you where you sleep." The whole room started laughing.

"What ever girl." LL stated between breaths.

Turning around to leave She heard the click of the door for Studio A open down the hall. She looked over her shoulder swallowing her laugh. Standing at he door was the man himself. Michael Jackson.

Michael's P.O.V.

Entering the Studio door Michael was greeted with Quincy and Bruce looking over the recording schedule.

"Hey Q good to see you man." Mike greeted the older man with a hug.

"Hey Smelly good to see you too man." He hugged him and patted him on the back.

Michael smiled at the nickname Quincy had coined for him back when they were doing" Off The Wall"

"Bruce good to see you too." He greeted him with another hug.

"Hey MJ hows it haning."

" A little to the left Bruce it can be very liberal, pun intended." Michael joked eliciting chuckles all around.

The men settled into their seats.

"Hey Q." Michael pulled him to the side.

" Who was that girl that just left out of here?"

" What girl?….. Oh yeah Alem, she's a family friend. I used to be very close with her parents but hey passed away few years ago."

"Oh wow I'm so sad to hear that. It must be hard to loose you family like that."

"Well yeah it was , she was only 18 at the time too, but Alem is a strong girl." Quincy stated matter-of -factly.

" So she came by to visit you?"

" No she's actually doing some work here."

" So she's in the biz?" Michael knew he was prying but he didn't care.

" No she's working on the mural you saw out front , she's the artist. Your asking an awful lot of questions Smelly what gives.?" Quincy joked.

"Just curious is all." Michael answered with a smirk.

"Yeah right whatever you say Smelly." Quincy added with a wry smile.

" Well fellas." Michael clapped his hands and rubbed them together.

"Lets get to work."

It did not take long for his mind to drift back to the girl they had literally bumped into minutes ago. He had completely forgotten to ask Mr Stork about the artist of the mural. He was even more fascinated now that he knew it was her. Her eyes had almost bored a hole into his soul they were so piercing. The contact was short but that did not stop the gaggle of geese flapping around in his stomach. They had felt way too big to be butterflies. He wished he had at least open his mouth to say something but his mind had drawn a blank. At least he would see her again now that he knew she was working in the building. That thought put his mind at ease. Those legs went on for miles and he thought of how they would feel wrapped tightly around his waist.

"Mmmmmm, What he would give." He thought.

Frank cleared his throat pulling him out of his daydream.

"You ok kid, you seem awfully quiet?"

"Im fine Frank just going over some lyrics in my head." He lied.

"Well I'm going to head out and leave the genius to work." Frank announced.

He knew Frank was working double hard he was picking up the slack from his personal assistant who was on leave for the past month or so.

"Alright Rubber I'll call you later." Never had Frank earned the nickname 'Rubber' till today when Alem literally bounced off of his belly.

The thought had Mike inwardly chuckle.

"See ya Frank." The guys all yelled back.

As the afternoon progressed he had slipped into a groove. He glanced at the wall clock it was 4pm and nature was calling.

"Excuse me fellas I'll be right back." Michael got up to head out the door.

Quincy and Bruce were engrossed in a deep conversation about beat placement and chords and they both waved him off as he left. He stepped out the door hearing laughter that sounded like music drift towards him from the neighboring studio and there she was standing in the hall way talking to someone. He could not see who it was but he assumed it was LL Cool J, he had introduced himself earlier and mentioned recording next door in Studio B. She turned around to face him as she excused herself from her hidden companion and he decided to take the initiative to introduce himself. He was never so presumptuous to think everyone automatically knew who he was he was humble that way. She began to approach him first however and it had threw him a little.

"Hey I wanted to thank you again for helping me earlier. My name is Alem, Alem Kamau." She stuck out her hand for him to shake .

" Hi I'm Michael, Michael Jackson and your welcome it was no problem, my pleasure in fact." Her hazel eyes had captured him again and he was hooked.

"Ahem." She cleared her throat.

" I guess I'll be going." She finally said slipping her hand out of his.

He had hardly noticed he was still gripping her small hand.

"Oh I'm sorry." He felt the blood rushing to his ears ushering in a blush.

"So Alem , thats an interesting name." They were walking side by side now both their hands stuffed into their pockets.

"Yeah its Amharic , it means World, My Mom gave me the name she was from Ethiopia."

Before they had known it they had made it to the waiting area where Alem was working.

" Thats fascinating actually, I would love to hear more about that sometime." He remarked.

" Sure I'll be around."

"Ok Ahhmmm By the way where's the bathroom? I completely forgot thats why I'm out here to begin with." He chuckled.

"Its back that way to the right you can't miss it." She pointed to the direction they had just came from.

"Thanks, I love your work by the way." He says turning to face the mural.

"Thank you so much. I real admire your work as well. "

"Thats always good to hear but you don't have to thank me , your work is impeccable. Maybe you can do some work for me in the future." He added winking at her.

Doing a double take she notice what he had done and smiled.

"Well we'll see I have to finish up here anyway so you'll see me around and we can discuss that." She added.

With that he spun on his heels to head to the bathroom.

"See Ya girl." He added.

He looked back at her . She was standing examining her masterpiece with her head tilted to the side and her hands on her hips. She slowly turned to regard him and smiled and just as quickly she was refocused on her work.

Michael made his way to the bathroom then headed back to the studio not before looking see if he could catch a glimpse of her but she was out of sight.

"What took you so long Smelly?" Quincy asked

"Nothing Q just checking things out in the hallway for a minute."

It was not a lie even though he was not referring to the many photographs that lined the walls, He had so much he wanted to find out about Alem but that would come at a different time. It was going to be a long night.

"I have to focus." He admonished himself and slipped back into work mode.

The music was about to take over when his belly growled. Miko and Big Bob had long since returned with his KFC. The bucket sat on a table by the couch. He strolled over to it grabbing a leg, he bit into it with fervor. He loved him some KFC. Even though he had adopted a vegetarian diet a few years back. KFC was his kriptonite and he would sometime give in the the calling of the Colonel. He chuckled to himself at his skewed logic when it came to his KFC. Besides his doctor told him he needed to get some protein and what better way . His food was a much welcomed distraction but the siren that was his music was calling out to him again and he had a few good hours left in him to succumb to it.