(A/N: Hello all! It's been awhile hasn't it? Well, I've recently joined SpeedRent, and so I've gotten into the one-shot thing...not to mention, I've become discouraged on Daddy Mark because of the Mary Sue accusations. So here I am with a whole new deal. Each chapter is a oneshot I've written for SpeedRent...which is awesome...check it out.)
D.C: I RENT
Chapter One:
He Would Never Know
Challenge prompt: poor
"There are times when we're dirt broke and hungry and freezing, and I ask myself, 'why the hell am I still living here?'. And then they call, and I remember." Mark said, crossing the room to join Roger at the long metal table where the coffee sat. Roger nodded and acknowledged his friend's joke with a small smirk, but inside he was screaming.
Mark had no idea what being cold and hungry was like. He had grown up with a mom and a dad who both had steady jobs. He'd had an older sister and a house with a picket fence and a cute little dog to play with. He'd had money for new clothes every school year and nice Sunday dinners every week with his whole family.
Mark had never had to watch his mother squander away his lunch money on booze and cigarettes. Mark never had to go to school year after year with the same duct-taped tennis shoes because his mother had decided she needed cocaine more than her son needed something to wear besides the paper-thin, worn out t-shirts and socks and underwear he'd had for nearly six years.
Mark's family was loving and caring. His father would have put the president on hold to hear the story of his son's homerun down at the neighborhood ball field that day. His mother had cookies and milk on the table when Cindy and Mark arrived home from school each day.
Roger's father was an abusive man who would come and go as he pleased. Whenever his father was gone, Roger's mother would replace him with stranger after stranger in order to support her habits.
Oh no, Mark would never know what it was really like to be dirt broke, hungry and freezing. And, Roger guessed as his eye caught sight of Mimi's note on the window of the loft, he probably never would.