What Now?
Angel stayed at the loft. It was now very crowded, but the environment was much happier, even without Ikea furniture.
The group was sitting around in the kitchen area, delightedly gulping down large bowl-fuls of Cap'n Crunch and chatting like in the olden times. Mark was reading The Village Voice.
"Ooh, pass me the comics, would you?" asked Toronto. He handed her the section and continued to read.
"Hmm." Mimi looked up from her cereal.
"What?" Everyone else turned to look at Mark as well. He cleared his throat and laid the paper on the table, pointing to an article.
"There've been a string of burglaries in our area. Five apartments have been hit so far and there hasn't been any evidence to catch the culprit or culprits."
"Senecca Jansen told me that her upstairs neighbor's apartment was robbed. They got the place badly, too; poor guy had barely anything left." The Bohemians shook their heads sadly. Angel stood up.
"We should all put together some of the stuff we don't use and give it to him! And we could make food, too!"
"Who of us can cook?" Mimi asked sarcastically. Angel frowned and looked at all of her friends. Mimi had a point: Angel was the only one of them who could make anything that didn't have instructions on the package. She looked at Toronto.
"I don't know you that well; what can you do?" Toronto looked at the floor bashfully.
"Well… I've only taken a few cooking classes. My father is a renowned chef, so he taught me some stuff. Nothing special."
"You never told me you could cook!" Mark exclaimed.
"All you eat is that cereal," Toronto said, gesturing to the red boxes on the table. She fiddled with the lace on her white blouse which contrasted with her tattered jeans and red sneakers. Mark shrugged.
"Well, come on then, we're cooking!" Angel dragged Toronto over to the kitchen and opened a cupboard. There was nothing in it except a half-used roll of paper towels. She opened another cupboard. Nothing. She opened the fridge. There was the Stoli Collins hadn't drunk yet. "Come on then!" she said, dragging Toronto towards the door, "We're shopping!"
0-0-0-0-0
Maureen and Joanne came to visit that day. Joanne looked exhausted and it was no wonder: Maureen was in a very bad mood.
"Did you see the article in The Village Voice today?" she hissed. Afraid to contradict her, everyone nodded. "A string of burglaries! And of course you know why this is happening, don't you?" She seemed to perk up at the prospect of enlightening everyone.
"Because this is a bad neighborhood?" Roger asked.
"No," said Maureen, "It's the people who own these buildings." She glanced angrily at Benny.
"Hey," he said, "I don't own them anymore. Alison got them in the divorce." Maureen squinted her eyes, but continued.
"Anyways, the owners of the buildings don't provide their tenants with proper security measures or insurance policies."
"Well, it is only a step above a slum." Maureen glared at Mark.
"And you'll just take that lying down? No! This calls for a protest!" Everyone groaned, especially Benny and Joanne. The latter went over to Maureen and pulled on her shoulder.
"Please, no, Maureen; you're pregnant! And this is ridiculous!" Maureen sighed and turned to her partner.
"Joanne, you know that cute little pillow we put in one of the cribs that says 'Mamas' Boy?'" Joanne nodded, her eyes wide. "The Julesons were robbed but three days ago. Everything Toby and Wendell loved is gone. Do you want that to happen to the pillow? Joanne, think of the pillow!" Joanne looked as if she was about to burst into tears.
"F-for the pillow, then." She sank onto the couch, Maureen patting her back.
"As for the rest of you," the actress said, "Are you going to help?" Mark glanced at Roger, who glanced at Mimi, who glanced at Angel, who glanced at Collins, who glanced at Benny, who glanced at a poster of a tropical beach and wished he was there now.
"We'll help," Mimi said.
0-0-0-0-0
Organizing the protest wasn't as bad as they had thought. Scratch that. Toronto thought it was great fun. The rest were miserable.
"I did not get resurrected to do slave labor." Angel was dragging large sound equipment into the space. She waved at a group of homeless people who lived there.
"What's so bad? It's a good cause, right?" Tabitha, grunting, set down her end of a huge box when Mimi told her to do so.
"It's a great cause. Certainly I don't want The Loft robbed, but Maureen's protests can be…"
"Insane?" offered Roger. Mimi nodded and wiped a bit of dirt off of her boyfriend's face. Tabitha frowned. She still didn't understand why everyone was so anxious. Sure, they had to do a lot of grunt work and haul a bunch of equipment around, but they were doing it together, as friends, and working on a project with a large group of friends was something she had always dreamed of doing.
Then Maureen walked into The Space wearing a Santa Claus costume.
"Oh." Angel wrapped an arm around her slender cousin.
"Yeah." Maureen waddled over to a chair and sat down. Joanne sat alongside her.
"You! Morticia!" Tabitha stepped forward, berating herself for answering to that nickname. She wasn't even wearing black. The group hadn't even ever seen her wearing all black!
"What?"
"Fetch me and Mrs. Claus something to drink!" Tabitha turned to look at everyone else. They flitted their hands as if to say 'go on!' She left and returned with some lemonades from a cooler they had brought.
Mark looked once more at Maureen's clothes. He doubted that anyone had really taken their eyes off of her but for a few brief seconds while they set up equipment.
"Maureen… why are you wearing that?"
"Thieves are the opposite of Santa Claus: they take things with bad humor instead of giving with love, they make little children cry, um… they're not jolly…"
"And she's eight months pregnant," added Joanne. Maureen rolled her eyes.
"Ruin my concept, why don't you." Everyone laughed.
"Is that really how you're going to present your protest?" asked Roger.
"Oh, I have everything planned." She took a large swig of lemonade.
"But it's not even Halloween yet," said Mimi.
"I almost forgot about Halloween!" Everyone looked at Angel now. "It's my favorite holiday," she explained to Tabitha, who nodded excitedly.
"Mine, too." There were a lot of comments of 'I'll bet' and 'No duh' but Tabitha really didn't care. Was she about to get invited to her first Halloween party as an independent New Yorker? A party that didn't involve reading Edgar Allen Poe and drinking blood that was actually cranberry juice?
"We should have a party! You should come!" her cousin exclaimed.
Yes.
I frown, annoyed that all of my writing was short little segments. I type without much zeal, wondering how I can go on. I realize I'm writing from my perspective again. Oops.
0-0-0-0-0
It was autumn in New York City, center of the universe: cool, crisp autumn with its delicious air and pleasant aromas… if you were in the right part of the city. Still, the gang had plenty to be happy about. They had invited most of Avenue B to The Loft for their Halloween party, which would take place that night. Oh the delights of time skips in fiction.
The residents of The Loft- all seven of them- were setting everything up and decorating the main room. Tabitha would be over later because she had school that day but a free day the next day. She had been pretty good with her studies and her job. Her roommate wasn't even a problem after the incident with Angel. Tabitha had slept in her own bed every night and got all of her assignments in on time. It wasn't too difficult because she loved English and practically absorbed books.
"I don't want to jinx it, but… I'm so excited!" Mimi was dancing around the apartment in her slutty hippie costume. Roger, who had been forced into pirate togs by the aforementioned slutty hippie, was playing all of the Halloween-type songs he knew: Thriller, the monster mash, the time warp, and others.
"Well, it is our first Halloween with Angel back. Certainly better than last Halloween." Mimi smiled, walked over to Roger, and leaning over his guitar, kissed him on the lips.
"Of course it'll be better. No funeral! And no stupid arguments…" Roger kissed her this time.
"Definitely. No stupid arguments. Roger put down the Fender and pulled Mimi onto his lap.
"Hmm… maybe tonight we can make it at least fifty percent," she whispered.
"Sugars, we have to put food on that table." Angel had a firm tone, but she was smiling. Roger and Mimi grudgingly got off of the table and went to help Angel with setting out the food that wouldn't spoil. As Angel was putting out the tortilla chips, Collins walked over to her.
"It's like Hornaween in here, isn't it?" he asked, eyeing Mimi and Roger, who had begun to make out in the kitchen. Angel gave him an evil grin.
"You don't want to feel left out, do you?" Before Collins could answer, Angel was smothering him with kisses.
Mark, who had been watching this whole scene from the window at which he was hanging streamers, smiled. Toronto pulled on his tail. He was dressed like a dog.
"They're giving me ideas," she told him. Mark stepped off the ladder and grinned at his girlfriend.
"You, too?" He grabbed Toronto and attacked her mouth. She laughed and wrapped her arms around his neck.
Benny entered from the bathroom.
"Dear God." He walked back in.
0-0-0-0-0
"Maureen!" Mimi kissed her friend on the cheek, noticing that Maureen playfully tried to slide her face further to catch her lips.
"Hey, you're a slut!" Mimi laughed.
"I love your costume, too." Maureen was dressed as a witch, complete with pointy, black hat. But she looked different than the average witch. Her pregnancy made it difficult for her to wear fancy shoes, so she wore black sneakers. That wasn't all. On her large, round belly were painted the words 'Son of a Witch.'
"It's a boy, then?"
"Call it mother's intuition, even though I really can't think of myself as a mother, but I can just tell, you know?" Mimi nodded. Joanne followed her into the room. Joanne and Maureen's costumes matched… sort of. Joanne was dressed in the most feminine outfit Mimi had ever seen her wear: a pink skirt and light pink t-shirt with shoes that matched Maureen's, only in pink. She even had pink ribbons in her curly hair. On her shirt were the words 'Mama's Little Girl.'
"Does that mean-"
"Call it mother's intuition." The two went to get some food. Mimi greeted some other guests that were walking up the stairs, including neighbors and some people from Life Support. Mrs. Dunbar was probably pissed as hell right now, knowing that everything she considered sinful was occurring above her head right now. She turned and saw Toronto in her dog costume explaining to some people that she and Mark were supposed to be puppy love. She rolled her eyes and turned back to the door to see Tabitha. It was hard to recognize the college student. She was wearing an elaborate, blue princess costume and her hair was in an updo with tendrils curled around her face.
"Yeah, scary, isn't it?" Mimi smiled and pointed to the food. Tabitha got some and walked over to Angel. She and Collins had decided to be matchey-matchey again: they were a decidedly non-sober version of Romeo and Juliet.
"Is everyone here?" Benny asked, holding a bowl of candy corn that he was passing out to the guests.
"Sally isn't here yet, but that's it."
"Then come join the frickin' party." Mimi followed Benny's advice and went over to the side of the room where Roger was playing his Fender guitar.
"This won't tune," he grunted.
"So I hear."
A sort of dance floor had been formed in the center of the room and a crowd of people was waiting for Roger to start playing something or for someone to give up and turn on a radio or stereo.
"Oh, Mimi, did you film?" Mark asked. Mimi rolled her eyes.
"Yes, Mark. I got footage of everyone entering the room." Roger's guitar hit the right note and he started into the Monster Mash. Everyone began to dance and quite a lot of them were singing.
"Who's got the booze?!" someone shouted. Everyone cheered and the Stoli was served. As time passed, the party-goers got more and more boisterous. No one was really worried about Mrs. Dunbar because she really couldn't call the police and get them all thrown out of the place. What was she doing living in the center of their Bohemia if she didn't like it?
But there was no need to think about such things. Angel snuggled up to Collins, Mark did the same with Toronto, likewise with the pregnant women, and Roger even put on a CD so he could dance with Mimi.
Toronto surveyed the scene. It was so cute, almost too cute.
"It's too cute, isn't it?" someone asked from behind her. She turned to find Benny, the group's former landlord.
"Oh hi, and yes." Tabitha didn't really know Benny that well. She knew him as 'the guy who missed old Bubbles.' She really hoped he wasn't familiar with the work of new Bubbles. It was weird to think of your cousin's friend knowing what you looked like naked.
"Want to dance?" he asked. Tabitha was sure her mouth dropped open or she had gone pale (or, at least, paler).
"W-what?"
"Do you want to dance? You know?" Benny swayed his hips as if to demonstrate what dancing was. Tabitha smiled.
"Sure." Benny took her hand and led her onto the dance floor. A cute ballad called 'You Haunt Me in My Dreams' was playing. It was a pop song, but it was vaguely Halloween-themed. Tabitha made a note to ask Roger to make her a mix sometime.
Tabitha had never danced with a man before… unless Bloodius doing the highly stupid and unrealistic 'dance to awaken the dead' while she was forced to dance along counted as dancing with a man. Dancing with Benny was different. She was surrounded by people she could truly call friends and even family, good music was playing, and she actually felt that her life might go somewhere. Her hands rested on Benny's shoulders. His hands were on her waist. They rocked with the slow music.
"Did you know this song was actually about a man planning to kill his wife?" Benny asked.
"Yes. I like watching people go all mushy over it." They smiled at each other.