Disclaimer - Jonathan Larson owns everything!!
Rated – T because, well, it's Rent and a tad language.
Genre – Drama/humor.
Pairings – Maureen/Joanne, Angel (late)/Collins, Roger/Mimi, Mark/uhhhh... camera I guess??
Summary - the bohemians are in the loft (post Rent) telling their stories of how they met. Angel is dead. This is my version on what happened before Rent. I tried to keep everything mostly to the facts.
POV – Angel, except for flash backs, where POV's will switch. It always goes back to Angel for the rest of the story.
"Ok!! guys calm down!!" Roger yelled. Funny, this was usually Mark's line. "Come on, the movie's starting!!"
Everyone sat around the table at the loft eating pizza and watching a movie. Maureen was sitting on the couch on top of a pile of stuff with Joanne making out and laughing at something Collins was saying. Collins was sitting on the floor with Roger and Mimi, who were the only one who were really trying to watch the movie. Benny was at the table with Mark strange enough, Benny had become nice after Mimi's almost death.
"Hey guys!" Mark said from his post at the table. He had been fiddling with his camera and looking at old videos "Do you remember how we met? Me and Roger have been best friends since we were like 2, but what about the rest of us? Does anyone remember?" Everyone was silent for a minute. So much had happened between them it was hard to go so far back. But finally...
"I do!!!" yelled Maureen.
"Well," Roger said, "I guess the movie's over." Maureen gave him a look but then continued with her story.
"I remember when I met Mark and Roger! Roger was in Chorus with me in high school and he said he wanted to introduce me to his friend Mark. I remember..."
-----Flash Back!---- Maureen's POV
"Hey!" Yelled this kid. He was in my chorus class, but I didn't really know him. "Maureen, right?"
"yea, you're Roger. What's up?"
"O, It was just, well, you have a great voice."
"Thanks!" Ok, he was pretty cool.
"Well it's just, I've wanted to ask you something..."
"Roger, are you trying to ask me out?" At this he just burst into laughter, "I guess not?!" I thought.
"Sorry!" He said through laughter "I didn't mean to give you that impression, actually it's my friend. He doesn't have a girlfriend and I think he would like you. You wanna meet him?"
"Well, I've never been a fan of blind dates, but sure, why not!?!"
"Cool, why dont you sit with us at lunch tomorrow?"
"Great, see ya there!"
-----End Flash Back!--- Mark's POV-
"That's when I started dating Mark." Mark cringed at the thought and Joanne gave Maureen a jealous glare. Maureen kissed her and they were okay again. "And then along came Collins. I remember! A rumor started that Collins was gay and Mark, Roger and I were walking out of school when we saw some kids harassing him."
"Yea! I remember!" yelled Roger, now taking over the story. "I remember..."
-----Flash Back! ----Collins's POV
"What's wrong with you faggot?!?" yelled two big thud over me. I was actually very short at the time.
I stayed silent.
"I said what's wrong?!? you are so fucked up!! Girls are hot, guys aren't!!"
The parking lot was almost empty. I had stayed late for a mathathon meeting and this is what I got on the way out. I saw three kids, two boys and one girl, walking out of the building. They were talking when the girl pointed toward me and started walking over.
"Hey!" She said, "Who the fuck do you think you are?!" (A/N hmmm, recognize anything?)
"Hey girly," The thud said, "See!" He said to Collins "This is what you're supposed to like!"
"Dont talk about me like that!" By this time the two boys had made their way over and were standing behind the girl. "If you wanna keep harassing him then you can just SHUT THE FUCK UP!!!" I don't know what it was but the two thuds got scared of the girl! They gave me one last death glare and walked away.
"hey! Go Maureen!" yelled the almost albino guy. The girl, whose name was apparently Maureen turned to me. "Hi! I'm Maureen. This is Mark and Roger."
"Hi, I'm Collins," I said. "Hey, thanks for that."
"No problem. You wanna hang out with us?" Maureen, Mark and Roger were already considered the kind of "odd ones out" in the school. They were just, different. I guess she must have thought, what's one more?
"Sure, sounds great!" I said, and we walked home together.
-----End Flash Back!--- Mark's POV-
Roger continued, "... And we've been friends ever since!"
"And then along came Benny." Said Collins.
"He was nice back then!" Said Maureen, nudging Benny. They laughed.
"I remember." Said Benny, "I had my girlfriend Allison. She was best friends with April," Roger shifter and Mimi put her arm around him, "So I started hanging with you guys! Allison and April were those kinda friends that had known each other since they were little and no matter how different they grew over the years neither of them wanted to end it. But when Allison found out that April had started doing it was just too much for her and she said she didn't want to be friends anymore. I remember..."
-----Flash Back! ----Allison's POV
"April! I need to talk to you!" I said, I didn't know how this was gonna go.
"Ally, I'm busy right now!" Right, she was talking to her friends on the sports teams. Very different from my friends in the business club, but that was exactly why I was there.
"No, April, now."
"Ok, ok, what's the hurry?"
"April, I've got to talk to you. I dont think we can really be friends anymore..."
"What? But, Ally, we've been friends forever, we were going to be friends forever..."
"I know, but we're just so different now... I mean you have your sports and I have business, and you have... drugs... and I have, well, I dont. I just dont think we should be friends anymore."
"Well," she said strongly, but I could tell it hurt her even more than it hurt me. She was trying to hold in tears, and April never cried. "Okay, if that's how you want it, then fine. I'll see you around Allison. Bye"
"Bye..."
-----End Flash Back!--- Mark's POV-
"That was just a few weeks before April and Roger found out they had HIV and April... well... you know." The conversation had gone from happy to, well, not happy. This was the part of their lives they regretted. But they tried to forget regrets. (A/N or life is yours to miss. No other road... and so on) "But then Roger found Mimi and everything was all better!" Said Collins, trying desperately to cheer up the conversation.
"And then," Said Maureen, leaning closer into Joanne, "Came my baby." Joanne smiled at this.
"I remember the first time I saw you," Said Joanne. "My parents weren't exactly very accepting of gay people, so I didn't really know anything about it. All I knew was from the moment I saw you I loved you. I remember..."
-----Flash Back! ----Joanne's POV
"This can't be. What's going on?!?" I thought. "But Maureen is amazing... ughh, but she's taken, by that boy Mark."
She started walking over to me. "Hey!" She said. "I'm Maureen!"
"Hi," I said, "I'm Joanne. You're cute." I couldn't believe those words had just come out of my mouth! What was I going to say?!? "I mean, I'm sorry, I..."
"That's ok, I get that a lot. You're cute too." And then she walked away. I saw her in the chorus room that afternoon with Mark. I decided I was going to ask her out, which I knew was stupid because she was in there with her boyfriend but I couldn't help it. I had never been in love before, but I was pretty sure this was it.
"Maureen!!!" Whined Mark, hmm, maybe this would work.
"Mark, I can't do this anymore! You have to go! Oh, hi Joanne!" Mark wandered out of the room, he looked upset. I felt bad for what I was doing, but I had to do this.
"Maureen, I wanted to-"
"Hey, Jo, you wanna go out to the movies with me tomorrow?"
"Like... a date?!?" I coughed up the words.
"Yea!"
"But what about Mark? I mean you... and him...?"
"I'm bi, so it's cool, I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Yea..."I couldn't help smiling the biggest smile ever.
-----End Flash Back! --- Mark's POV-
"And we've been in love every since." Joanne and Maureen kissed.
"That was only a few years before Benny here married Allison!" Said Roger.
"Yea!" Said Mark, "You wanted me to be your best man, and Collins and Roger were groomsmen!"
"Why didn't you approve of me getting married?" Asked Benny.
"Well... lots of reasons," said Mark, "We told you that one night. I remember..."
-----Flash Back! ----Mark's POV
"Benny! Why do you have to get married?!?!?" Roger whined.
"I thought you guys liked Allison! Why dont you want me to get married?!?"
"Well," I said, "For one thing, you're barely out of high school!"
Benny replied, "But I'm going to go to work for her dad, we have it all planned out!"
"I guess..." Said Collins, because he always knew the right thing to say, and never had a problem speaking his mind, "We're just worried that once you have money, you wont want to hang out with us anymore. I mean, we had a plan! We were going to move into NYC, and start a studio and live our dreams. I guess we're just afraid of loosing you."
"Oh! You dont have to worry about that! I will always be your friend, you dont have to worry."
-----End Flash Back! --- Mark's POV-
"I guess I should have listened to you then. You were right." Said Benny.
"Yea... but then we wouldn't have had any of that fun!!!" Yelled Maureen "I mean, come on!! Throwing fire out the windows!!! MOOOOOOO!!!!" Everyone laughed. This was something only Maureen would say.
"Hey Mimi!" Said Maureen, "What's your story? We didn't meet you until much later, what happened?"
"Oh, well, I guess I'll tell you. I had known Angel since we were little, but life really started in high school, until then it was just avoiding the other kids. We kinda stuck out it our town. We lived in a very small, very stereotyped town in New Jersey. I remember..."
-----Flash Back! ----Mimi's POV
"Hey! You faggot!! Wear mans cloths for once!" Yelled some kid in the cafeteria. This was when Angel and I just ignored him, but he didn't give up this time.
"Hey baby, wanna come over here to me and leave that freak?"
"That 'freak' is my friend!" I screamed, now everyone was staring. "And dont call me baby! You can leave us alone, or I will make you!"
"Oooo, the girl's sticking up for her girlier friend. You're not supposed to stick up to me!" He yelled at me, "That is!" With that, Angel just turned around and left, so I followed. I could here that asshole in the cafeteria laughing and yelling as we walked out. "You are so fucked up! Be a man!!"
"Angel, are you okay?" I asked once we were out in the hall.
"Yea, I'm fine," She said and walked away.
-----End Flash Back!--- Mark's POV-
"Angel was always tough, but I worried about her. That was pretty much how everyday went. Both our families were poor so neither of us went to college. Then we moved in over here together." Said Mimi.
"I remember the first time Mimi saw Roger, both of you on your balconies..." Mark said.
A big "Awwwwwww!!!" came out of Maureen and Joanne now as Collins pushed Mimi and Roger closer together.
"Balconies. Ha, you could also call the fire escapes." Said Roger.
"Benny left, then came back, and everything's come full circle." Mark said.
"Boy, how things have changed." Benny replied
"Maybe... maybe not," Said Mark, "It's been a long road to get here, but we're pretty much back where we started. I mean, switch an April with a Mimi, add a Joanne, and switch the couples around a bit," Mark looked at Maureen and Maureen kissed Joanne, "And here we are, everything's back to the way it used to be."
They continued talking and laughing and crying and loving about old times, I wished I could have been there. Mark was right, everything had come back around. Everything happens for a reason, and it's when we go back and look at things like how best friends met that we realize that everything that happened must have happened just so that we could sit here today and remember them. I sat there up in heaven, drumming on my ten gallon plastic pickle tub, in my favorite outfit, watching my friends make the best of the rest of their lives, and I wished I could see them again, just once more, be with them...
"Hey! Did it just get warmer in here?" said Collins.
"Yea, I think it's warmer too," said Mimi.
"Oh well," Said Roger, "That can never be a bad thing now that Benny can't pay our heating anymore!!"
"Yea," they all agreed, remembering again that one magical winter night, when Benny and turned off their power, Roger met Mimi, everyone met Joanne, Maureen had her protest, Angel came in, and everything changed for the better, but now things were back to the way they used to be, and there was no going back, as much as they wanted it too. So they sat there, the 8 of them, and continued, laughing and having a good time, remembering.