I have returned! And with a new story too. Isn't this exciting? I'm sorry this took so long, I was REALLY paranoid about this chapter (still am) I am horridly afraid that I wrote Roger ooc. Please let me know if you think I did, I tried to write him as just having a bad day, but I think I failed and just wrote him as a jackass... I apologize in advance if it seems horrible.
Major tanks to Jonathan and Kim for putting up with me asking them incessant questions as I wrote this chapter. And extras to Kim, who wrote the DC book rant.
Speaking of the DC books. I know. Totally off the timeline, but I needed something and it was funny. I apologize for throwing something in that shouldn't exist.
And, an advanced warning: This story is going to be DEPRESSING and I might have to up the rating to an M, I'm not sure. Let me know if you think I should do that or not.
Also, let me know if I ever wrote "Edward" instead of "Roger" or "Bella" instead of "Mimi". Writing in two fandoms is messing me up, I keep doing that. And then when I write the Twilight one, I keep writing "Roger" instead of "Edward". I don't know how some of you people do this "writing in more than one fandom thing"... :p
Enjoy. :)
Roger was having a bad day. There wasn't even a real reason for it. Well, ok, there was. Sort of. But not like a day where everything went wrong kind of bad day. It was just one of those days where he woke up in a bad mood and everything and everyone around him irritated him. All he wanted to do was shut himself in his room all day and be alone.
"Daddy!"
The problem was, no one would leave him alone. The door opened and his three-year-old son ran into the room climbing onto the bed.
"Daddy, come pway wif me!"
"I don't feel like it right now, Nathan. Why don't you go ask Mimi?"
"I wanna pway wif you!"
"I don't feel well right now, so go play with Mimi."
"Pwease?"
"Nathan, I don't want to play with you right now! Go ask Mimi!" he snapped. Nathan stood there for several seconds, wide eyed, before fleeing the room. Roger groaned and threw his arm over his eyes. He felt bad for snapping at Nathan-he was only three- but he just wanted to be alone for now.
So, of course, that would be when Mimi intervened. He heard the door open and then quietly shut, but decided to just ignore her. She sat on the bed for about ten minutes in silence before deciding Roger was never going to acknowledge her. In reality, he was seething and trying not to snap at her to get the hell out; it was, after all, her room too.
"So, what's your problem?" she asked.
"What problem?"
She tsked. So he was going to be like that.
"Ok, then. Why did you randomly snap at your son?"
"I didn't randomly snap at him. He wouldn't leave me alone about playing a game with him."
"He's your son. Playing games with him is sort of in the job description. And look at me when I'm talking to you." She knocked his arm down and he glared at her.
"No. Making sure he doesn't lock himself in the oven is in my job description. Nowhere does it say I have to play games with him every second of every day."
Mimi stared at him incredulously.
"You've been locked in your room all day! What do you mean 'every second of every day'?"
"You do know you're not supposed to start nagging until after we get married, right?"
"That's it!" she exclaimed, throwing her arms into the air and grabbing his arm, "You are going outside with me and you are going to stop being such an asshole."
"What does going out there have to do with me being an asshole?"
"Maybe if you're around normal human beings, you'll start acting like one."
She dragged him into the living area and he flopped down onto the couch, ignoring the cautious glance he got from Mark and how Nathan slightly flinched. Collins sat in an armchair, reading the newspaper and acting as if he were oblivious to what was going on around him.
"Roger, why don't you come join us in playing Farm Families?" she gestured toward the floor, where Mark and Nathan sat already beside the game board with the animals and haystacks on top of it. Mimi's mother had bought the game for him-along with several other new ones- and that one happened to be his favorite.
"I don't feel like it," he muttered, trying not to snap at her again. He could almost hear her eyes rolling.
"Come on."
"Mimi…" Mark cautioned quietly, "Just leave him alone…"
"I am not going to just 'leave him alone'. He needs to stop acting like such a jerk."
"He's just having a bad day."
Mimi looked back and forth between Mark's pleading gaze and Roger glaring at nothing and gave up with a sigh before sinking to the ground next to Nathan. She was about five and a half months along by now and really starting to show, so it was tougher than usual for her to actually sit down without falling over. If Roger wasn't so miserable, he would've had to work hard not to laugh.
The door slid open and everyone turned to see Benny walking in.
"Hey, everybody," he said, walking over to the couch to sit down.
"Benny, just because your father-in-law owns the building, that doesn't mean you can just walk right in whenever you want," Roger huffed before anyone else could respond. Mimi rolled her eyes.
"No, but the key we gave him does," she said before turning to Benny, "Ignore him, he's having a bad day."
"What's wrong?-Oh…." He got a thoughtful look on his face before turning to Collins with a questioning look. Collins nodded and Benny got a worried look on his face. The door opened again and Rebecca waltzed in with her boyfriend, Danny, behind her.
"Hey, do you guys have any condoms we can borrow? We're all out." Everyone turned to gape at the teens, even Roger showed some genuine emotion. She immediately broke out in a laughing smile. "I'm kidding. We just felt like saying 'hi'."
"I told you not to enter with that," Danny said, "Now they'll hate me."
"Danny, if we haven't started to hate you by now, you're good," Mimi countered from her spot on the floor, smiling at him.
"Why the hell are you sitting on the floor?" Rebecca asked, "Isn't that, like, bad for your condition?" She turned to Roger. "Why the hell are you letting her sit on the floor?"
"If she wants to sit on the floor, Becca, she can sit on the floor. Now, is there a real reason you came over here, or did you just feel like bugging us?"
"I just felt like bugging you guys."
"Well, go bug Tricia."
"That was the initial plan. She and the fam have gone elsewhere for the evening, however. So we came to visit you lovely people. Can I play?" She immediately turned to the floor gang and Mimi nodded. Rebecca sat down next between Mimi and Nathan, shooting a quick, confused glance at Roger. Danny sat down behind her, wrapping his arms around her and she leaned against his chest before talking to Mimi about how her Summer had been going.
"You know what's an outrage!?" Maureen exclaimed as she stormed into the loft.
"The destruction of homeless people's rights?" Mark asked.
"The complete disregard for people's privacy in their homes?" Roger grumbled.
"No! All those stupid Dawson's Creek books!"
Everyone looked at her blankly.
"The books? The show! Dawson's Creek." She started singing. "'I don't wanna wait...for our lives to be over. I want to know, right now, what will it be?' Do-do-do-do-do."
When the blank stares didn't change, she sighed.
"Anyway, Dawson and Joey were a couple. Twice. Then, they put her with Pacey. And, let me tell you, if I didn't have such an amazing girlfriend, I'd hit that." She shot a smile at Joanne and blew her a kiss. Joanne just smiled and shook her head. "Anyhoot, all the books focus on is the Dawson/Joey relationship. They're over! They are so over it's sad! And, they totally don't care about Pacey/Joey. It's never mentioned! Even when they're in the timeline! Pacey's either with Andie, who cheated on him or some random Mary-Sue who's perfect for him! Joey and Pacey are the best! Those books, suck!"
Everyone continued to just stare in silence at her in silence while she walked over to the fridge, opened it, and started munching on a slice of cold pizza from the left-overs box they had left in there the night before.
"Interesting as that was, Maureen, why the hell can't you eat your own food at your own house?" Roger shot at her, "And, doesn't anyone knock anymore?"
"Jeez, Roger, what the hell is your problem today?" Rebecca finally asked.
"Nothing! Why the hell does everyone keep thinking I have a problem?"
Collins tossed his newspaper onto the coffee table.
"Well, I'm going out for a drink. Would anybody like to come?"
Benny bounced off the couch so fast it was as if it had been lit on fire. Maureen and Joanne followed, but Mark declined the invitation, deciding it wasn't fair to leave Mimi and the younger ones alone with Roger when he was in one of his moods. It was silent then, except for the animal sounds of Nathan's game and the occasional comment made by one of its players.
"That is a really annoying game…" Roger muttered after ten minutes.
"God, Roger! Why do you have to bring your misery down on the rest of us?" Mimi finally snapped at him. The atmosphere instantly became tense as everyone stared at the two.
"You're the one who made me come out here!" he yelled back.
"Well, I guess if you're going to be a total jackass, then it would be better for you to just go somewhere else!"
"Fine!" He jumped up off the couch and stormed out the door, slamming it behind him.
Everyone sat in silence, staring at the door.
Roger went down one flight of stairs and sat on the landing outside the Abromviches' apartment, thinking. He wasn't sure whom he was pissed at more- himself or everybody else. He just kept snapping at everyone for pretty much no reason. He got like this last year, too, but that didn't make the misery any less this year when the day rolled around.
"Hey," a voice said behind him and he turned to see Tricia standing there, "What's with you?"
"Nothing, Tricia, go away."
She didn't go away. She walked over and sat down next to him.
"So, were you the one screaming up there just now?"
"I don't want to talk about it, Tricia."
She got an odd look on her face before continuing.
"It might make you feel better. Go ahead, tell me what's wrong. You can even scream at me if you like. I won't get mad."
He glared at her, hoping she would go away. She didn't. Finally he sighed and started talking. Tricia always seemed to have that effect on him.
"I've just been really pissed off today."
"Because…?"
"Today is the two year anniversary of when my ex-girlfriend killed herself."
She flinched.
"Ouch. And you didn't tell anyone this is why you were upset because…?"
"Why bother them with it?"
"Yes. You snapping at them incessantly is the much better path to take." She rolled her eyes and he had to work hard not to snap at her as well.
"It's just a constant reminder of how completely fucked up my life has gotten."
"It doesn't loom that fucked up to me…"
"What are you talking about/ Of course it is! Tricia, I'm twenty-three years old and I'll be lucky if I ever manage to make it to thirty. I have a fiancée who's not much better off and a kid on the way who will probably also die before it even hits double digits! How is that not fucked up?" She just stared at him, not answering. "I just wish my life had turned out differently than this."
"Like how?"
He scoffed.
"Tons of ways. Mostly, though, I just wish we had never gotten that damn HIV."
She thought that over.
"You think that would've helped things?"
He looked at her incredulously.
"Yeah. Without HIV, I could probably be at least semi-normal right now. April wouldn't have killed herself. We wouldn't have to constantly worry about paying for that damn medicine. I wouldn't have to constantly wonder whether I'm going to make it to the end of the year, or even the end of the week. You're lucky you're young and smart, Tricia. You have the ability to think things over and not make shitty mistakes like I did. I could get sick any day and die and leave all the people I care about behind. I would have to leave Mimi alone to take care of Nathan. Nathan wouldn't have any parents. My baby wouldn't even get to know its father. Nothing is worse than this. So, yeah, I think that would've helped things."
She got another odd look on her face.
"Ok, then. If that's how you really feel…"
He gave her a weird look, wondering what the hells he was saying.
"Hey, weren't you out with your family."
"What? No, of course not. What would make you think that?"
"Becca said you were."
She glanced back up toward where the loft was.
"No, she didn't."
"Yes, she did."
"No, I'm pretty sure she didn't."
"How the hell do you know what she said, Tricia?"
"Because I was listening. And stop calling me Tricia, it's getting annoying. She's out with her family."
Roger stared at her, debating between whether he should yell at her or leave. He decided to leave.
"Ok, Tricia, if you feel like being an annoying little pest right now, then fine. I'll go."
"If you're sure," she called after him, "And stop calling me 'Tricia'."
He turned around to yell at her, but slipped on the step and tumbled down the flight of stairs he was on. He felt his head crack against the landing and made a feeble attempt to get up before everything went black.
And there's chapter one. I apologize for the cliffhanger, that just looked like a good place to leave off. I'll try to get two up as soon as possible, since I know you all are shaking in your little seats with anticipation. :p