Chapter 8
Mimi awoke that morning to find herself lying in her bed beside Benny. She groaned and tried to recall the events of the night before. She remembered going to the club with Benny and his friends and being so completely drunk and blown away by how hot Roger had looked on stage, even if his band sucked. Then Benny had pulled her into a corner and they had kissed for a while before Mimi had led him back to her apartment.
"Shit." she muttered her head was pounding from all the alcohol she had consumed that night. Plus she had to work a double shift at the diner and go to work at the Cat Scratch Club after that.
Still cursing her stupidity, she dragged herself out of the bed being careful not to disturb the sleeping Benny. Her first stop was to the bathroom. She groaned as she looked at herself in the mirror. Her skin was pale and waxen and her hair was a wild curly mess. There was only one person who could help her at a time like this and Mimi didn't want her to see Benny in her bed.
So she popped two aspirin, called Angel, and walked back into her bedroom. "Benny." she said and shook him. "Benny you've got to get up."
He cracked open an eyelid and looked at her. "Huh?"
"You don't have to go home, but you can't stay here." Mimi urged.
Benny looked around and finally realized where he was. "Good morning." he said with a smug smile.
Mimi smirked back. "Um yeah Buenos Dias and all that. You've got to get up and out. Like right now."
"Why?" he asked confused. "I mean we had a great time last night, right?"
"Oh yeah. It's just that my sister is getting ready to come over and she cannot see you here. She would so totally flip out. So if you could just get dressed and go upstairs, I'd be so grateful and I'll call you later." Mimi explained, only partially lying.
"Alright." Benny agreed. In less than fifteen minutes Mimi had hurried him out the door and up the stairs. Then she made up the bed and took a shower. When she came out, wrapped in a towel, Angel was sitting on the bed with a smirk on her face.
"Did you have a nice night?" she said sweetly. Too sweetly.
"Uh it was okay. Roger's band sucked, but he looked really hot on stage." Mimi replied nervously.
"So what did you do after the show? Because it wasn't call your best friend to dish about what had happened." Angel prodded.
Mimi opened her mouth to lie, but she knew that Angel would see right through it. So she told the truth about getting drunk and sleeping with Benny. "And to top it all off, I have to work a double shift at the diner and then go to the Cat Scratch Club, and my hair looks a mess." she finished.
Angel took pity on her friend. "Lead the way to the hair products." she said with a smile.
Mark woke up to find a large blond head in his face. "Aggh!" he screamed. "What Roger?"
"You need to get up because your father is on the phone and he wants to talk to you." Roger said.
"Already?" Mark groaned. "I'm going to be murdered over the phone."
"I can tell him you're not here if you're not ready to deal with this." Roger offered.
"No. I have to get it over with. I know what I have to do." Mark got up and picked up the phone. "Hello?" he said softly.
"Marcus it is about time. We called you last night and you didn't answer. Where were you?"
Mark sighed. "Does it really matter Dad? We both know what you really called about. So why not just get to the point?"
He heard his father suck in a breath, surprised at Mark's boldness. "Fine then." the elder Mr. Cohen said. "Your grades. They are absolutely unacceptable. You made a C in Calculus and Social Issues. Not to mention your B in English. I'm to mad to even continue."
"Good, so am I." Mark replied. "I'm tired of nothing I want to do ever being good enough for you. So I'm done."
"What do you mean done?" Mr. Cohen demanded. "I've invested far too much time and money into your education for you to quit now. You don't see Cindy trying to quit Stanford do you?"
"I'm done Dad." Mark repeated. "I don't care what Cindy does or doesn't do. The only reason you care is because she's going pre-med and following in your footsteps. But you don't support my filming and you probably never will. So I quit. As of two weeks from now, I'm officially dropping out of Brown." His dad spluttered angrily but Mark had heard enough and he hung up the phone.
He stood there breathing heavily as Roger stared at him. "Holy shit Mark." he said. "In all the years I've known you, you've never stood up to your dad like that. That was incredible."
Mark grinned weakly. "Yeah, but I feel like I'm going to throw up." he replied. "But I'm free now. Free to do whatever the hell I want."
"Are you sure?" Roger wanted to know. "Your father won't like call the campus security and have you arrested when you go to get your stuff?"
"No, because he'll be hoping that I was just saying all that stuff because I was upset and that I'll get over it and go back to school." Mark answered. Then the phone rang again and he picked it up.
"Hello?"
"Mark sweetie why did you set your father off like that?" came Mrs. Cohen's worried voice. "He's yelling about you saying you were dropping out of school."
"I am Mom." Mark said. "Really, I'm tired of Brown and trying to live up to Dad's expectations."
"He just wants you to be happy honey."
"He wants me to be him Mom. And that's not what I want." Mark said back.
"But honey," his mother reasoned. "Where will you go? What will you do?"
"First I'm going back to Brown to get my stuff; and then I'm moving in with Roger." He heard his mother take in a sharp breath. "It's already been decided Mom. I'll call you later okay? I've got some stuff to work out."
