Sixteen year old Cindy was brooding in the front seat.
Eleven year old Danny was asleep next to fourteen year old Mark who kept his focus out the car window.
Their father had given up attempting to talk to them a few miles after they had left their mom's house, the home their father had decided to uproot them from so they could live with him, his new wife of seven months, and step sons.
Mark hands began to fiddle with the camera sitting in his lap.
Six years of mere birthday cards, the occasional phone call, check and now they had to live with him.
And the worst part, to Mark, was their mother had let it all happen.
She'd even called it 'a good opportunity for them to get to know each other'.
Could she really be that numb?
Mark shrugged to him self, well, it's been working for her, hasn't it?
"We're almost there." His father announces.
Thank God, the past hour felt like forever.
"Now, Cindy you'll get your own room..."
"Oh, goody."
Mr. Cohen merely ignored the sarcasm.
"And Danny'll share with Lee..."
Mark panicked a little, "Why can't Danny and I just share a room?"
"This way you will be some one roughly your own age...you guys can get to be friends."
Yeah, right, Mark thought bitterly.
They pulled up to the slightly large blue house. Mark shook Danny awake.
"Come on, we're here."
They grabbed their bags from the trunk and progressed inside the house.
"We're home." Mr. Cohen yelled up the stairs.
A woman in her late thirties came out from the living room wearing a broad, and overly sweet smile.
"Hey, kids. Welcome home."
Cindy scoffed at her step-mother, who pretended not to hear it.
"Why don't we get your stuff to your rooms, then we'll all have dinner."
Mr. Cohen walked over to her, "Sounds good hun."
And he kissed her.
Mark cringed. Disgusting.
His step-mother, Sarah, pulled away, and once again smiled brightly at the three kids again.
"Cindy, I thought you might want some room away from all the boys, so we've set you up downstairs"
She turns, "Jerry, why don't you show her, I'll take the boys upstairs."
Mark and Danny slowly follow Sarah up stairs.
They get to the first door and she pokes her head in.
"Danny this is yours and Lee's room. Lee, sweetie, they're here."
A thin ten year old brown haired kid lays on the farthest bed over, lost in a comic book. Danny recognizes the comic and brightens as he enters. She seems pleased that no one's head has been ripped off...yet.
She leads Mark down the hallway..."Here's the bathroom and your dad and I are on the other side of the younger boys."
Rock music was blaring from the room at the end of the hallway.
Sarah tried the door, but it was locked.
"Honey, open the door."
But the music was too loud.
Mark smiled to himself, I'm not the only one who doesn't want me here. But, eventually the boy inside answers the pounding at the door.
"Roger, honey, I told you to take the posters off Mark's side of the room."
He ignores her and she looks sympatetically at Mark before making her way down stairs.
Mark quietly shuffles into the room and drops his bags next to the bed before plopping on to the bed.
"Hey, that's my bed."
Mark face reddens as he moves to the other bed.
"That's mine, too."
Mark looks at the other boy who break out with a grin.
"I'm just messing with you, man. Mine's the one with green cover."
Mark nervously chuckled and moved back to the first one. Silence began to creep awkwardly back. Roger turned the music back to full pounding. Mark just stared at the ceiling...
Great, Mark thought, the step-brother from hell...
Author's Notes:
Okay so I know this is pretty far-fetched, but it was a random thought...and a friend of mine (countrybutterfly...she writes here too...check out her stuff) convinced me that I should write and post it.
This is my first RENT fic...
I own absolutely nothing...not RENT, or anything that already has been claim and/or copyrighted...
Hope y'all enjoy...
out.