A/N: So, this is a little weird, but I had to write it. I hope you like it...please review!
"SSSPPPEAAAAKK!"
"Maureen, honey, I heard that you're in the hospital, honey, when you get this message please call me..."
---
Maureen lay in her hospital bed, despising the vile, sanitary scent of the hospital and the harsh fluorescent lights. Benny knocked on the hospital door before cracking it open and sticking his head through. Maureen giggled as his eyes moved from side to side before he entered the room.
"Hey Mo. How're ya feelin'?" She propped herself up against the pillows and shrugged.
"Okay, I guess. I wanna fuckin' be let outta this place!" She whines.
"Well, maybe you should have thought of that before you landed yourself in here." He retorted coolly.
"Don't be an ass, Benjamin. Why are you here?"
"Aww, come on Mo, don't be mad at me!" She rolls her eyes.
"I'm not, now why are you here? I know it isn't because you couldn't live without me."
"Oh, right. Your mom called. She seemed really upset—she heard that you were in here. I think you should call her."
"What do you care?"
"Well, first I feel bad for your mom. Second, she won't stop calling and it is really irritating." She rolled her eyes.
"I knew there was an ulterior motive in there. And, out of the kindness of my heart, I will call her." Benny grinned as Maureen picked up the phone and dialed.
"Hey Mom."
"Maureen! Baby! How are you?" Maureen rolled her eyes again.
"I'm fine. How'd you--"
"Oh darling, why would you try to kill yourself? Are things really that bad?"
"MOM! I'm fine."
"Oh don't be silly."
"No, I'm serious, I'm fine. How did you know I was in here?"
"Your aunt told me."
"How did she know?"
"Um...she has a friend."
"A friend? Wow. She must be moving up in the world."
"Maureen, do not be facetious."
"So her friend?"
"Mrs...um...something with a C."
"Cohen?" She offered.
"No, no that wasn't it."
"Are you sure?" she asked, puzzled, before looking at Benny. Then it dawned on her.
"Wait, which aunt were you talking to?"
"Cassidy."
"Ma, she's my cousin."
"Isn't that what I said?" Maureen sighs.
"Allison Grey."
"Huh?"
"The name of her friend?"
"Yes, dear, that was it."
"That doesn't start with a C."
"But her fiance's name..."
"Coffin does start with a C. Bye Mom." Maureen hung up.
"Benny, you're girlfriend--"
"Fiancee. Allison?" Benny corrected.
"There's more than one?" She asked obnoxiously.
"Shut it, Johnson. What about her?" He growled, irritated.
"She told my mom that I tried to commit suicide!" She screamed.
"Well, you did." He pointed out nonchalantly.
"How did she know?!"
"Oh, I told her." He stated plainly
"Why?" She inquired angrily. He stared at her.
"Maureen, like it or not, she is my girlfr—fiancee—and she is going to become a part of this family."
"Nobody is to tell my mother anything!" She growled.
"I thought it was your cousin?"
"Shut up Benny."
"Maureen, shouldn't you tell your cousin not to rat you out?"
"Nobody tells anyone in my family anything except me, got it? You better make sure Muffy has that down, or else you're not telling her anything, got it?" Benny put his hands up.
"Alright, fine, I got it!"
"Leave!" She screamed, pointing to the door. He left quickly, running into a doctor who was coming in to discharge Maureen.
--
Maureen walked back towards the loft alone in the October chill, relieved that they had let—well, kicked—her out of the hospital without a psych evaluation of whatever. So what if she wanted to kill herself? Would anyone really care? She entered the cold loft, finding that the power to the loft had been cut again.
"Anyone home?" She was answered by silence. She flopped down on the couch dejectedly. A few moments later, there was a jangling of keys and Benny entered the loft. "Um...Benny, what are you doing here?"
"What are you doing here?" He asked, startled by her presence.
"Uh, I live here."
"Well so do I."
"Actually, you live with Muffy."
"Au contraire. I just spend most of my time there, but I do, in fact, live here."
"Fine," she sighed. "So what brings you here on this fine evening?"
"Shouldn't you still be at the hospital?"
"Probably. But I have no cash, so they don't profit by helping me." She shrugged. "It's not like I care or anything. I hate that place."
"So you're free to kill yourself if you want?"
"Apparently. Would you stop me?" He shrugs and notes that the bandages have been removed from her wrists and the wounds are exposed. "What the hell kind of answer is that?" she shouts. He shrugs again. Maureen pulls a razor from her pocket and holds it up to her wrist, pushing it in. Benny knocks the blade from her hand.
"MAUREEN! What the fuck are you doing?" He picks up the blade from the floor and throws it out one of the broken windows, then gets a towel and presses it to her bleeding wrist. "Answer me." She slaps his hand away.
"I can do this by myself, asshole."
"Two seconds ago you were threatening to kill yourself. I don't trust you."
"You never trusted me anyway." She growls, narrowing her eyes at him.
"And why should I have?" She glares at him but says nothing. "Maureen!"
"What?!" She roars.
"Why did you do that?"
"What?" He glares at her. "I wanted to see if you cared enough to stop me."
"Why does it matter to you?"
"It doesn't really, but if you hadn't saved me, I would be dead, no loss."
"And when I did?"
"Apparently you care about me even without knowing..." her eyes grow wide as she realizes what she is saying and she claps a hand over her mouth. He looks at her, confused.
"Without knowing what?"
--
It was the first of August. A hot day, to say the least More appropriate words were along the lines of "smothering" and "oppressive". Maureen lay sprawled across the couch in a state of dress—or undress, rather—that left nothing to the imagination. When worn correctly, her skirt barely covered her ass, and her tank top's low cut barely covered her nipples, and as these pieces were askew and she rarely wore undergarments...Even so, Mark kissed her chastely and went out filming, and god only knew when he would be back.
The heat did nothing to help diminish Maureen's naturally overactive sex drive. Even not having done anything, she was wet. She unconciously dropped a hand down and touched herself lazily and her breathing became slightly labored when the door swung open. Benny. She groaned.
"What are you doing here?" He approached the coach when addressed.
"Thinking that I don't wanna know what else goes on on that couch." She sat up to glare at him, her legs open, tits spilling out of her tank top, a stray curl stuck to her defined cheekbone with sweat. While a more distinguished society would have defined this as "vulgar" or "obscene", Benjamin Coffin's penis decided it was erotic and rather pleasing. She raised an eyebrow.
"My face is up here." He sighed and looked her in the eye. She looked him over.
"Nice boner, Coffin."
"You wanna see what it can do?" She laughed and rolled her eyes, then stopped when he wasn't laughing. "Wait, are you...serious?"
"Why not? It must be awfully lonely getting yourself off every day."
"I do have a boyfriend, you know."
"And he would be where right now?" She looked away. "That's what I thought. Besides, it's not like you never cheat on him."
"Not with his friends."
"Look, I havea girlfriend, remember? You and I are the same, you know."
"You have a point." She paused. "Fine, now get over here before I change my mind." He pushed up against her and kissed her. "No. No kissing—that's how this stays impersonal. Jesus, you need to know these things." He rolled his eyes and took his pants off, put on a condom, then mounted her and began thrusting roughly. She pushed his head down onto her breast, and he sucked it. She flipped them over, taking control.
--
A few weeks after this incident, Maureen began to feel odd. Her breasts were sore and she was moodier than usual. She had a harder time masking her emotions. She went to a clinic.
"You're pregnant."
She didn't want that diagnosis. She didn't want to be tied down to Mark forever.
"You're only a couple of weeks along."
Wait...she hadn't had sex with Mark in probably a couple of months. So that was out. Her fuck buddy was a woman, so that was out. Which left...Benny. Her breathing became labored. She passed out.
--
Maureen found herself back at the loft, she could tell by the smell. She opened her eyes to find April staring at her.
"What...?" Maureen didn't know what to say.
"I found you at the clinic. They said you passed out, so I brought you home."
"Why...?"
"Eh, I needed birth control, you know?" She said, grinning. Maureen nodded. "So, Reen, what were you doing there?" She cleared her throat.
"I...uh..." April glared.
"Reen, you know I'm gonna get it outta ya one way or another." Maureen sighed.
"I'm pregnant."
"Oh shit! You gotta be kidding! I thought you guys were having a dry spell!" Maureen began to cry. April held her awkwardly. "You okay, Reen? What'd I say?"
"Well, Mark and I...are having a dry spell."
"So some random dickwad got you knocked up? I thought you were screwing that chick?"
"Well, you see..."
"Yo, do I know the guy?" Maureen nodded.
"That's exactly the problem!"
"So who was it?" April asked, as though digging for some juicy gossip.
"APRIL! Do you not understand how bad this is?"
"Well I won't until you tell me who it was!"
"Benny."
"BENNY!? Like...handsome chocolate manwhore Benny?" Maureen rolled her eyes and nodded. "Mo, you've been jonesin' for that guy since he moved in! How could you not tell me that you tapped that?" Maureen shrugged.
"You were out somewhere or other. I haven't talked to you in forever!" She whined.
"Aw, sorry man, but you know how it is."
"Oh, because Roger and smack are more important than me?" She asked, giving April puppy dog eyes.
"I'm sorry baby..." April cooed, wrapping her arms around Maureen, who was still lying down. Maureen adjusted to April could lay beside her and curled up, her ear against April's chest, listening to her heart, fighting back tears. April stroked Maureen's hair, and Maureen slid up so she could look April in the eye. April sensed Maureen's feeling of rejection and kissed her lips gently. "Maureen, you know you're the most important thing in the world to me, right?" Maureen nodded, unconvinced, and nuzzled April's neck, looking for comfort. April slid something into Maureen's hand. "Take this. It'll make you feel better."
"What is it?"
"LSD." Maureen nodded. They both took it at the same time, and let the buzz come over them. Maureen straddled April...
--
Maureen awoke alone on the couch, which was normal. April was the one who could function best on drugs. April was also a light sleeper. When one of the boys came home, she would hear the keys and go off to the room she shared with Roger. Maureen smiled groggily, then frowned, remembering the bigger issue. Although Maureen was opposed to abortions, she was pretty desperate. She didn't want to have a baby, much less Benny's. She knew that she should tell him, but she really didn't want to. She had to get rid of it. She was positive that on top of ruining her own life and plans, having this child would certainly kill Mark. And he didn't deserve that, no matter how much she resented the fact that he was never around. He would more than likely kill himself if he found out.
For the next two months, she saw Benny very infrequently, which was normal as well. She would have sex with April and her fuck buddy Joanne when she got too lonely, and everything seemed okay, other than her literally growing burden. She was tortured by it every day, and although she wanted to abort, she couldn't bring herself to do it. Especially without telling Benny first, even though she was convinced that there was nothing he could say to change her mind, even if he wanted to, but she was desperately hoping that somebody could because she knew that she couldn't live with herself if she got an abortion.
--
"Maureen, what aren't you telling me?" Benny looked into her eyes intently as she tried to avoid his gaze to no avail.
"You remember that day?"
"You're going to have to be a little more specific."
"When we had sex, Benny!" She screamed at him.
"Oh, that day. That was a while ago. Why?" She glared at him angrily.
"Think about it, Benny, why would I be bringing it up?"
"Um...a venereal disease?" She smacked him upside the head.
"I've never had one, have you?"
"Well this one time..." She smacked him again. "I don't care!"
"OW! That hurt! Would you stop hitting me and just tell me already!"
"I'm pregnant, asshole!" Benny visibly paled.
"How do you know it's mine?"
"Because I hadn't had sex with Mark for months before I had sex with you. Otherwise I wouldn't have consented!" Benny rolled his eyes.
"I wouldn't be so sure. Face it, Maureen, you are a whore!" She recoiled as if she had been slapped, then continued in a deep, angry voice.
"I may be a whore, but Mark is the only man that I fucked before you. I only do women for recreation. Too bad you're a woman with a dick, otherwise we wouldn't be here." He slapped her, and she continued. "Yeah, go ahead, kill me! I'm serious, Coffin, fucking kill me!" He grabbed her throat and she didn't protest. He started to choke her, then backed off.
"I'm not a murderer, Maureen. Besides, you want it. I won't be put in jail for giving a piece of shit like you exactly what she wanted."
"Then I'll jump!" She said, storming out onto the fire escape.
"Maureen, stop this, this is ridiculous!" She stood up on the railing, grabbing the one above to balance.
"Oops, too late!" She said, letting go of the upper rail and beginning to fall forwards. Benny grabbed her before she fell and carried her back into the loft. She slapped him. "Let go of me fuckface!" She screeched.
"Not until you promise that you won't do that again!"
"Only if you tell me what the fuck I can do about the baby!"
"I don't know, Maureen, get an abortion!"
"Oh, so I can't kill myself, I can only kill the unborn baby!"
"Maureen, if you commit suicide, you kill yourself and the baby." She starts crying.
"I don't know what to do!" He puts her down and sighs.
"I don't know what to tell you. I know you are opposed to abortion, and it is one of your huge causes and all, but I know you can't have this baby. It would not be good for either of us, considering where we both are. I would do whatever it took if you wanted to have this child, but that would mean leaving all of this behind."
"You would do that, if I just gave the word?" he shrugged.
"Yeah. I wouldn't object to being with you...if that was what you wanted."
"That's so...sweet and unexpected. But...I don't really...wait." He looked at her inquisitively. She smiled and looked at him. "Okay, here's the deal. It's only seven more months. What if...this is crazy, but...what if we told everyone that we had emergencies and needed to go away for a while? Like...not the same emergency, obviously, and you could come home every now and then, but I can't because I would balloon, but...if I said I had to find myself, or something, and you said your uncle was dying or whatever and then we could like...put the baby up for adoption." He shook his head and smiled.
"You know, you are completely insane, but I think it could work."
"Excellent!" She squealed excitedly. "When do we leave?" Benny sat, pensively.
"Well, we need to find a place to stay...and...that's about it, so...tomorrow?"
"Are you serious?"
"Dead."