Quick note: I've been getting some questions as to why I don't use more descriptives on the main characters, like why I don't give hair or eye colors. Basically, the reason for this is that in the Broadway show and touring casts there have been many many different people playing the roles, and I know they all looked different. Especially Maureen, some have brown hair, some are blonde, you get the idea? So instead of me deciding what actor to base my characters on (or make up my own descriptions) I decided it better that you the reader could decide for yourself. For those of you who have seen the show, you could be picturing the actor who played that part, for those who haven't, you could be imagining the OBC, I don't know, but I want to let you decide. I will give small descriptions such as "Mimi's Latin skin" or "Collins's long dreadlocks" just because I love them too much to not put them in (especially the dreads, Mark Richard Ford rules!) So basically, you decide what they look like, and I'd love to hear who you imagine as each character. I'll shut up now.
Sorry for the long wait also, I've been so busy it's not even funny. Without further ado, I bring you chapter 10!
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Chapter 10: Happy New Year from Scarsdale
Mark sighed as he reached the porch steps. It had been a while since he had been to see his parents, and he preferred to keep it that way. Still, he took out his camera, aimed it at the door and turned it on.
"The parents' house. Well, actually now it's the grandparents' house." he narrated, knocking on the door.
He was greeted by a joyous squeal as his mother opened the door and enveloped her son in a hug, camera and all.
"Oh Mark! Honey I've missed you so much, why don't you ever call? And look at you, you're all dirty…"
She dabbed the corner of her apron against her tongue and rubbed it against Mark's face, tutting in that annoying motherly-way.
"Have you eaten?"
"No Mom."
"Good, come inside, Cindy's here with Jenny and little Nate." Mrs. Cohen said, taking Mark's arm and leading him inside.
Mark crinkled his nose, "Nate? She named him Nate?"
"There's nothing wrong with the name Nate, now come inside."
Reluctantly, Mark walked into his old home, breathing in the fake, air-freshener smelling drafts. The walls were filled with pictures of his parents, his sister and himself. He cringed as he looked at some pictures of him in grade school, the unruly hair and thick coke bottle glasses.
A three-year-old girl came bounding through the kitchen, his niece Jenny. She spotted Mark and ran straight at him, jumping into his arms and wrapping her legs around his waist.
"Uncle Mark!" she cried as Mark staggered backwards.
"Hey Jenny," he said after finally getting a breath. He let the young girl down and looked at her. She wore a flowered dress with mismatched shoes, her strawberry blonde hair braided down her back. She looks so much like her mother, Mark noted.
"Markie?" came a voice from the other room. Mark groaned and looked down at Jenny.
"Jenny, if your mom comes to look for me, I want you to do me a favor."
"What?"
"Tell her I fell off a cliff."
The child looked at him, confused, as she watched him slip quickly down the hall. She heard a door close just as her mother spoke again.
"Jenny? Sweetie, where's Uncle Mark? I know I heard him out here." said Cindy, who stepped out of the kitchen wiping her hands on a dishtowel.
"Mommy, Uncle Mark fell off a cliff," the three-year-old responded, looking completely serious.
"Oh did he?" Cindy responded, smiling, "Mark! Where are you?"
Mark ran into the closet of the bedroom he was hiding in.
"Mark Cohen!"
He buried himself underneath some clothes.
Cindy opened the door to the bedroom, looking around.
"Oh Markie…"
Man! No where to go…
She opened the closet, still searching. Just as she reached the back, two arms reached out and grabbed her. She screamed. Loudly. In Mark's ear.
"Ow! Cindy!"
"Mark!" she cried, dragging her younger brother out of the closet, "What was that all about?"
He grinned, "Happy to see me?"
"Not anymore."
The siblings stood there laughing at each other, and Mark was finally beginning to feel happy that he was there. He and Cindy had always been pretty good friends, even though she always had been and always would be the favorite of the family.
"Cindy! Mark! Dinner's ready," came Mrs. Cohen's voice from the other side of the house.
"Come on you idiot," Cindy said, grabbing her brother by the arm and dragging him into the dining room.
Throughout dinner Mark remained quiet, preferring to listen rather than add to the conversation. Cindy did most of the talking, telling everyone about her successful lawyer husband who was out of town on business, and how excited she was about her new baby.
"I really think it's wonderful that Jenny will have a baby brother, isn't it great Jenny?"
Jenny, who had been holding back snickers watching Mark make funny faces at her, just shrugged her shoulders and snorted into her green beans.
"Oh Mark honey, someone called for you today," Mrs. Cohen said, silently scolding her son, "An old friend of yours, she wanted to see you tomorrow."
"Really? Who?"
"Nanette Himbelfarb."
Mark paled, Oh no, not her.
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Maureen walked down the street, her eyes on the ground. She had just come back from a club, one of the many she frequently visited when Mark was gone. She wasn't sure why she did, she hated feeling as if she were unfaithful to him, because he was always nothing but faithful to her, but she needed the noise and the crowd as a way of hiding from herself. But tonight was different, for once she actually felt a connection with someone, and that scared her. She was afraid of where it could go, because she truly cared for Mark, even if she had trouble showing it.
"Anyone home?" she called as she unlocked the door to the apartment. On the table was a note, 'Out with April, be back later, Roger'.
"Collins?" she asked, then remembered he was out with his boyfriend and Benny was out with Alison. She was alone, again.
Sighing she sat down on the couch, her mind racing with the memories of that night, trying to forget them but at the same time enjoying them. She knew times were changing, and her feelings for Mark were beginning to change too. It's not that she didn't love him, she did, but she wasn't sure if she loved him the way she once thought she did.
She ran her hands through her hair, trying desperately to sort things out. She'd been feeling this way for a while, as if she wasn't meant to be with someone she cared about, but at the same time she was being held back from another someone she felt for as well.
"When did life get to be so confusing?" she asked out loud, as if by voicing the question she would somehow receive an answer. All she heard back was the faint voices of the people on the streets, living their own lives, not caring that one girl who had once been so self-confident was beginning to lose faith in who she was.
If this was what love does to you, I'd rather be alone, she thought, pulling her knees up to her chest and hugging herself like a young child trying to hide from a bad dream. She wanted nothing more than to make all the questions, all the problems go away, but she couldn't. She knew in her heart that her and Mark were going to end soon, but she couldn't bring herself to admit it.
"I love him," she whispered helplessly. But love dies, she thought, and theirs had.
Maureen clenched her eyes shut and when she opened them the tears began to flow freely. And she sat there, crying and alone. She was afraid someone would come in and find her this way, Collins, Roger, April, Benny, no one could know. She had made it this far without showing emotion, and she would work through this problem the way she did all others. She wiped her eyes and straightened up, she knew what she needed to do.
"I can't tell him. Not yet." she told herself, and with a final sniff she stood up, full of pride, and went into her room. She had made it through worse problems than this; she could make it, she had to.
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I know; this chapter wasn't even that good and it took me so long to get up! Next chapter will hopefully feature a cameo by the girl who taught Mark to tango! Review please!!!