Disclaimers- I do not own any of the characters that are in the musical RENT! They all belong to the late but fucking amazing- Jonathan Larson

Chapter One:

Mark Cohen

"So this is it?!" asked Cindy as she looked at the empty dump that was the loft. She dropped the box she was carrying and began to walk toward the wall of windows that showed the street below. "If you ask me, this is a fucking waist of money." She shook her head as the man sold to his usual customers. "I mean father offered to pay for a place in Scarsdale, why East Village?"

Mark entered the loft, carrying two boxes and put them down in the corner. He whipped his forehead and laid his hands on his hips. "Because this is where the story is."

"What story?" Cindy sat on the windowsill then stood up when she noticed the dust.

"Not sure yet." Mark walked back down to the street and came back a few moments later carrying several milk crates. "Still looking for it." He dropped the crates by the boxes in the middle of the loft.

She looked at him again and shook her head. "You know I would have thought that you would have grown out of this script thing when you graduated college, but you are still the same." She cocked her hip to one side and placed her hand on her hips. "You do know that you are not going to make much money off. You do know that not many writers/directors make it as far as to actually have one of their works in the theatre."

"That's the thing Cindy; I'm not looking for that. I just want to do what I love and that's it. That is what I'm going to do. I have to be here." He looked around the spacious loft and smiled. "I am meant to be here."

Cindy studied him for a moment then shook her head. "You are going to fail. I know it."

"Thanks for having faith."

She gave a small smile then shrugged her shoulders. "Just saying." She looked down at her watch and sighed. "Aaron and I are meeting at noon, so I better get going." Cindy gave Mark a small and extremely brief hug then left the loft with a smile playing on her face, mentally counting down the days until Mark comes home.

Mark watched as Cindy left the loft and shut the door behind her and began to look around the loft. He knew that this was a good thing. He knew that he was meant to be here, the only thing being if he could figure out what the reason was. He picked up the two boxes and began to slide the other with his foot to one of the rooms…or holes in the walls. The only furniture in the industrial loft was three cots, which were all piled in his room. Soon after he got settled, he planned on finding a roommate, maybe two, since the place was big enough and start looking for a job. But now he just wanted to get used to the place and start making it more homie.

A/N- First attempt on writing a pre-rent story….I need Reviews! HELP!!