Remember the Time

THREE
Modeling
In January 1985 my dad said we had to do a Little trip I didn’t want to go to school so agreed with him, packing for that trip was the hardest thing I’ve done so far, I had so many clothes and all were beautiful so pick my favorites—which was harder since I loved them all. Seemed impossible it took me a whole day to decide which clothes would stay, and after that I started with the shoes which was just as difficult, because I had a pair of shoes per outfit and I had at least seventy outfits if not more daddy loved buying me clothes, he was not like those fathers that only want to buy whatever their daughters want. He would sit and see me try the clothes on he would say if he liked it or not and when he didn’t like it and I did we would start an argument. I remember one in particular of me trying a polka dots mini dress.
“Well I like it a lot” I said looking at me with the dress, I didn’t have much of a curvaceous body but with this dress I didn’t look so thin and plain.
“I don’t know Abbey” he said studying me “It doesn’t suit you”
Even today I cannot believe he dared to say that to me, he said that even a napkin around my body would look like the most fashionable dress in the world, but yet he said to me the dress didn’t suit me, I was officially upset. The argument or should I say fight ended up in me calling him fat, afterwards we were laughing about our silly fight, and he said that I looked too young in the dress, more of a kid I believed him but now I have my doubts. However I never apologized for calling him fat so I guess we are in good terms.
In the plane to L.A we were chatting until I was drowned by a fashion magazine, I started to look at the models to the people they were beautiful if not perfect and I wanted to be one of them at any cost, daddy was afraid of me leaving him too soon, so when I told him about me modeling he laughed and ruffled my hair I took this very offensive, I truly wanted to be a model the idea of me in the cover of Vogue was exhilarating, every man in the world would say I was beautiful and perfect. But my real mother—at the time I didn’t know if I looked like her or not. She would definitely see me, and she would regret leaving me, not that I would change the life I had with my daddy but I’d love to have a mother so the people could say “You look so much like your mother” instead of “Oh Quincy, is this the girl you adopted in Scotland?” how I detested to be the adopted child years later this gave some trouble to me and daddy.
The hotel we were staying at was amazing, its pool was the size of our apartment and I met pretty boys while daddy was working, we only stayed two days this made me sad, because I was having such a great time. So the second day of us staying I took a shower and decided to stay in my underwear since it was only me and dad—he never had a problem with me being in my underwear. He left to get a drink at the bar of the hotel while I stayed watching television, someone knocked on our door, and I remember perfectly that day. I thought it was daddy so that’s why I didn’t cover myself up.
Biggest mistake ever people should never open the door like that in their underwear, so standing in the doorway was Michael Jackson himself my face burnt as his eyes went widen at the sight of my outfit, I shut the door in his face but he obviously had seen my tomato face and my thin body, as I mentioned before I wasn’t a beauty I was very thin but still, after I put on a robe I opened—my face was still burning.
But he was gone, he was no longer there I looked at the corridor but nothing what I thought was ‘Oh boy daddy lost a client’
Since daddy was working with Michael I saw him very often at our apartment, but it was only for a few minutes, he once asked me what I thought of his music I gave a shrug and said “It’s good” from the corner of my eyes I saw him smiling.
In March of the same year daddy told me to listen a song, it was ‘We are the world’ the lyrics were beautiful, and the variety of artists was so rich and well picked I was thrilled, I heard that song at least one hundred times, and when daddy said that Michael wrote it with Lionel Richie I found out I had a crush on Michael Jackson, just like any other American girl only that I happened to know him and from that day every time I saw him I blushed how I hated that blush it blew up any lie and because of that blush daddy realized—before Michael himself. My feelings for him.
The day of my sixteenth birthday daddy said I had an appointment the next day with a photographer named John Howard, he was again making my dream come true by making the appointment, but he couldn’t protect me from what John said to me.
Dressed in a mini skirt and with a tank top I went, and from behind his desk John Howard snorted and said “Come back when you’ve got the body of a teenager, kid” this lowered my self teem so much that when I went back home I locked myself in my room and looked at the reflection in the mirror, he was right I looked like a skull that happened to have skin, hair, eyes and lips, the tears started to fall down my cheeks.
I felt so normal dad had always said I was pretty but he was my dad someone who loved me, when he got home and knocked on my door I told him to “sod off” I just wanted to be alone, I just wanted to understand why I was not pretty. I never did, even in those three days of being alone crying all day and all night I never understood why John Howard thought I was a kid, I was more of a woman than he could ever be that was true and it was all I needed to know.
I decided to go back dressed in that polka dot dress this time I spoke up “I am a woman not a teenager will you hire me or not?” he liked my courage, he loved the way I took control so he did and till now he says to the media that he only work with models like Abbey Jones.
Yes modeling was a huge step in my life, but it wasn’t as huge like when getting drunk in the party of my eighteenth birthday I grabbed Michael from his collar shirt and told him the words that started our story, the words that linked us in the same path until these days.
“You know that you are very cute don’t you?” I said slurring my words my breath at his face.
“Abbey you are drunk” said Michael with a giggle that I followed with an insane laughter, when I think of this memory I feel so embarrassed by my drunk self.
“But I am happy! And enjoying my party so now that I’m an adult I need to tell you that you are the love I longed for and the friend I always desired” I gasped for breath and whispered “I love you” the music was loud so he couldn’t hear me, and I should’ve shut my mouth or just fell asleep but if I did I wouldn’t have known what true love is.
“I didn’t hear the last” he said coming closer to listen.
“I FUCKING LOVE YOU!” I yelled inside knowing that from now I had to deal with the consequences of my words.