A/N Hey! My first ever RENT fic, slight AU in that Mimi and Roger never got together. Happy reading!
Disclaimer: I'm only renting (yes I know it's a bad joke :p)
Jenny wrapped her cardigan closer around her as the cold spread through her already numb body. She shivered. Her head ached. She knew that sitting out on the fire escape in the dead of winter in the middle of the night was probably not her best idea. But she couldn't sleep, and it was just something she had felt like doing. Now as she gazed across the snowy city she was content, the snow, which made everything pure again, which covered up the scars inflicted on city streets, like a thick feathery blanket drawn across New York was frozen hard so that the people below her slipped and slid their ways home, or maybe out to meet friends. The city was dirty, noisy, smelly, Jenny had always found some comfort in this, but tonight the fire escape leading away from her run down apartment provided a kind of release from the clamour of everyday life.
Jenny watched two men walk up to the doors of the opposite building, she twisted her ratty brown hair through her fingers and hugged her legs to her chest. It was getting colder. The men looked young, they couldn't be much older than her, she thought, she wondered why she hadn't seen then before, hell, she had come to this city when she was nineteen, chucked out college, chucked out of work, chucked out of her parents house. Some daughter. Jenny smiled as the men moved closer, their bodies seemed to fit perfectly, as if they had been designed with each other in mind. Reaching for another roll-up Jenny wondered if they were together, boyfriends or best friends it was nice that they both had some one.
The darker haired man was fiddling in his pocket, looking for keys maybe? His friend wound a blue and white striped scarf tighter around his neck in an attempt to keep out the cold. The night was quieter by now and the buzz of the city seemed to die down until she could barely here the screech of taxis and the shouts of the couple in the apartment below her. The voices of the two friends drifted up to fourth story building.
"It was nice to see you out," The blonde man smiled
Jenny fidgeted; she new she shouldn't be eavesdropping, temptation got the better of her;
"It was good to be out," the other man said softly
"Roger, me and Collins were gonna take Angel and Mimi out next week, you wanna come then?"
"Sure I won't cramp your style Cohen?" Roger grinned
"I think I'll live," the blonde man sarcastically
"Then I'd love to," Roger replied, "from now on I'm living for now, its goodbye loft and good morning world!"
Laughing, Jenny pulled another blanket around her thin frame, as she scratched the red marks on her skin the city spun slightly and she grabbed on to the metal staircase to steady herself. The men swam back into view.
"Mark," Roger began, and Jenny could almost feel the longing in his voice, "I just wanted to say thank you, for everything, even when I've been a jerk you've stuck by me, and I couldn't have done it without you."
Mark seemed to flinch backwards from Roger's hand, which reached up to stroke the side of his cheek. Jenny giggled; she had been the same with Ellie it had all been apologies, glances and messed up opportunities, months of yearning, craving the feel of her skin and the taste of her lips until one night, BAM! Electricity, sparks flying, lips teeth and tongues crashing. Suddenly a new life, a new love. She had never felt so free. It was about that time that they had had to leave home and move to the big city.
Mark was leaning into the touch now, allowing Roger's hand to caress his frozen face. Jenny gazed at them both, Roger had a guitar case slung loosely over his back, maybe he was in a band? He couldn't have been more that twenty three but his eyes betrayed a thousand years of pain and sorrow, like part of him was missing. Jenny new that look, she's seen it the night Ellie died, and known that she couldn't do anything to save her, to make her stay. Ellie hadn't been able to cope, with knowing, waiting Jenny was all she had, her parents had disowned her after they'd met, how could she go back to them with news of addiction and disease, Ellie didn't have anyone else and Jenny'd just let her slip away. Furiously she wiped away a tear. Things hadn't been right since then. She hadn't looked after herself and now everything was falling apart. As Mark pushed Roger's hand away, Jenny felt part a stab of regret,
"What are you doing?" Mark whispered
Roger stared lovingly into his best friends bright blue eyes, "sorry," he mumbled, it didn't seem like this guy to be lost for words, "its just you-"
"Me?" Mark questioned in disbelief,
Roger nodded, "It's always been you," With that he grabbed the back of Mark's neck and pulled him into a soft sweet loving kiss. Jenny watched with tears in her eyes as Mark responded, running his fingers through Roger's hair and deepening the kiss.
She smiles, not long now, she thought, trying to control the shivers that shook her body. Mark pushed Roger back against the alley wall, halfway through the kiss Roger opened his eyes to find deep brown ones staring down at him, Roger looked up at the pale, skeletal, smiling face, the messy brown curls were thin, and needed cutting but they reminded him of Mimi, "Fuck off!" he mouthed, smiling up at her, she laughed and lay back against the metal steps, closing her eyes so they were no longer in her view,
"Maybe we should continue this inside," he murmured to Mark as he broke the kiss again, "we've got company," he nodded up at the fire escape as the girl's sweaty face peered over the edge of the building again. She looked ill.
"Come on then," Mark whispered, ignoring the girl's staring eyes and following Roger back into the building, just before he closed the door, he turned and winked up at her.
Jenny's lips quirked into a small smile, she sighed and a tear escaped from under her closed eyelids, alone again, it was time to slip away, to find Ellie, to say sorry, to make up for everything she'd done, the virus had taken hold and she had nothing left. She wasn't sure what to do, reaching out a shaking hand she grasped on to one of the iron bars, was this what dying felt like? She saw Mark and Roger in the dimly lit window, bodies melting into one. She tried to smile, but it turned to a grimace as pain wracked her body, she trembled and looked up at the stars, the roar of the city raging through her head, beneath her New York seemed to pulse with to an invisible beat. With one last shuddering breath she collapsed against the stairs. Her tiny frame was silhouetted against looming skyscrapers and apartment buildings as her spirit drifted away into the night.