Disclaimer- I don't own RENT. Jonathan Larson's family does. I think. Hmmmmmm.

Anyway

Avenue A: A story of RENT

Helena Erickson walked up into the dreary apartment building, on Avenue A. She got her suitcases into her new apartment, which apparently was owned buy some girl who moved one story up. Helena needed to come to New York City to try and get her book published.

Helena opened the door to her apartment and sighed. It was small and old, but it was clean. There were no furniture, except for the bed she got shipped over earlier, and that was sitting looking lonely in the corner. At least there was a nice big window. Helena stepped onto the fire escape, to get some fresh air. She just became aware of how smoky her new home really was.

A creaking sound shook Helena out of her daydreams. She looked up and saw a blonde standing on his fire escape too. He was wearing a blue and white scarf and glasses. Helena's fire escape creaked and the blonde looked down. Helena smiled, and he smiled back.

Helena stepped back in and planned on going furniture shopping. Once she stepped outside in the murky Alphabet City air, Helena saw a yellow Labrador puppy. She quickly put the dog inside the lobby of the apartment, figuring nobody would care.

……………………………………

Helena came back with a new beanbag chair and a new kitchen set. She saw the landlord, Benny, literally throwing the yellow lab out of the building. The dog looked helpless. It tried to get back into the building, but Benny kicked it back to the sidewalk curb where a car ran by and scared the pour think half to death.

Helena threw her bags down on the ground, and ran towards the dog. "Baby." She said. "Let's get ya in the building."

Helena got her bags and the dog walked next to her.

"No dogs in the building!" Benny yelled.

Mark looked out the window, and saw the blonde girl he had seen earlier, near tears. He ran downstairs and saw Benny yelling at her.

"Too bad!" Helena said. She pushed Benny out of the way.

"Here, let's bring her up here." Mark said, taking the small dog out of Helena's arms.

They went back up to the loft, and put the dog on some blankets. The dog's ear and side were bleeding from where Benny kicked it. The poor thing was scared and shivering.

After wrapping its cuts in some ripped up blankets, the two of them sat on the couch, with the puppy sitting on both of their laps.

"Thank you so much." Helena said. "Benny just kicked her and threw her out of the building like he would to a trash bag-"

"It's fine." Mark said. He looked around. "I'm Mark."

"Helena."

"Helena?"

Helena looked at Mark. "What?"

"Its just a strange name is all." Mark said.

"Well," Helena looked at Mark. "Between you and me, my real name is Helen."

"Helen?"

Helena sighed. "And that is why people call me Helena."

"Helen?" Mark asked again.

"My mom is a rich bitch living in Beverly Hills right now." Helena said. "I think she'd die if she found out I was living in Alphabet City."

Roger opened the door. He saw Mark and Helena sitting on the couch with the puppy on their laps. "Um, am I interrupting something?"

"No." Mark said. "You get the rock?"

"Yep." Roger told him.

"The rock?" Helena asked.

"Roger, this is Helena." Mark told him. "And he SAYS he's gonna propose to his girlfriend. She used to live in your apartment."

"Really?" Helena asked.

"Yeah, but then she got really sick and we made her move up here." Mark said. "And now she had a part time job as a waitress, and she's there now. Her name is Mimi. You'll like her."

"I'm just gonna go into my room because I am clearly being ignored." Roger said.

Mark and Helena laughed.

"I'm gonna go too." Helena said. "I'll probably see ya later."

…………………………………..

It was midnight and Helena was in her room, scared to death. She thought she had heard a gunshot, and as faintly she heard it, Helena was still scared. Weird looking people were walking down the street, smoking and doing drugs. Every so often people would walk up the staircase and they would be completely drunk and saying disgusting things.

Helena grabbed her blanket, and went up to Mark's apartment. She pounded on the door until Mark opened the door.

"Can I help you?" He said nonchalantly. He vaguely wondered why the hell Helena was in her pajama's, and at his door.

"You don't get scared at night?" Helena breathed.

Marked looked at Helena. "Come on." He opened the door wider, and let Helena in. "Trust me, there haven't been any deaths except for suicides for a while."

"But, I thought I heard a gun or something-"

"It was probably nothing." Mark said quickly.

Mark had out all of his film stuff and was trying to put together a movie. Helena was just relived that she didn't wake him up. "You film?" She asked.

"Yeah." He said. He looked sad though.

"And what happened with it?" Helena asked.

"I sold my soul for three grand." Mark told her.

"What happened?" Helena said.

"It started with Maureen, she broke up with me."

"For another guy?" Helena asked innocently. "Who?"

"Joanne." He said. Mark waited for the laugh. It never came. Helena looked at Mark with sympathy. "You are the first person that has not laughed when I told them that."

"I had a boyfriend that left my once for another guy." Helena said. "I know it's not funny."

They looked at each other. Then Mark and Helena broke into laugher.

"Okay." Helena said, wiping a tear from her face. "Maybe it is funny."

"Maybe." Mark said. And the next thing he knew, Mark was telling Helena the whole entire story. Of Mimi the Cat Scratchy Club dancer, meeting Roger. How she got him out of the house. Then about Collins, and how me met Angel. Then even a little about Maureen and Joanne, and their rocky relationship. Then he got to the hard part, when Angel died. And how the whole thing started to fall apart.

Helena was fascinated by the story. She didn't know that people lived such exciting lives. When Mark showed her the film that he put together after Angel's death, Helena lost it. She didn't even know Angel. Yet, when she saw his picture, she cried. Hard.

Helena didn't know this type of pain. She could only imagine that pain that Collins felt when Angel died. She could only image what Roger was feeling when Mimi was practically dieing right in front of everybody.

Helena eventually fell asleep in the loft, in Marks arms.

……………………

"Have fun last night?" Roger said, as he threw a pillow at Mark.

Helena and Mark were shaken awake.

"Hola everybody." Mimi said. "Have fun last night?"

"The question was did you?" Mark asked.

Helena was bright red. She wasn't that easy to get. "I got scared last night." She said. "I have to go to my job."

"What do you do?" Mimi asked.

Helena looked at her. "I'm a writer." She said. "I need to go to some publishers."

"Bye." Mark said, as Helena went out of the loft.

Roger looked at Mark. "I got scared last night!" He said in a high pitched voice.

"Shut up." Mark said, throwing the pillow at Roger's back.

………………………………………

Helena went back to her room, and gave her new dog some bread from her sandwich. Helena looked at the ratty collar that was around the dog. It had a name scrawled on in it.

The dog's name was Angel.

(Review please!)