[For all of you who are wondering, Max is tall, has deep olive skin, green eyes and semi-long black hair that he gels into waves. I couldn't find anywhere to put it. But anyways, sorry it took me so long to update, enjoy!]
Mark stopped.
"Ya know, Mo, I'm not really in the mood to do this." He got up and walked into the living room, leaving Maureen stunned for the second time that day.
"Th-wh-wa…" She flopped down onto the bed. "This is NOT a good day!"
Out in the living room, Mark ran into Mimi and Roger who had just gotten back from the hospital. They both looked like they were on their way to a funeral, which was ironic because it was actually the opposite occasion. The three of them stood silently staring at each other. Roger was the first to speak.
"Well, uh, we're having a baby…" He trailed off as Mimi started to cry and ran into their room and slammed the door. Roger started to go after her, but not knowing what to do, he stopped. Mark watched him as he ran his hands nervously through his hair: the Roger Davis sign of helplessness. "Eleven week…holy fuck…" He muttered to himself, not really remembering Mark was in the room, he only remembered he was not alone when Mark spoke up.
"Rog, I need to tell you something."
"Yeah, sure" Roger answered, not really paying any attention.
"It's about April." At this Roger's head shot up. Mark had gotten his attention, so he decided to continue. "All right, I didn't want to bring this up now, of all times, but with everything that's going on between you and Mimi and…ya know, I just figured you needed to know." Mark tried to think of any possible way he could get out of this, but he had trapped himself in a corner and there was no way out. "I slept with her."
"You what?" Roger's voice was barely above a whisper; the color drained for his face.
"I-I-it was when you broke up for those few weeks."
"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU WOULD FUCKING DO THAT, MARK!" Roger's voice did an amazing crescendo from a whisper to a scream in less than a second. Mark jumped in to finish his story.
"We were lonely. She missed you. I thought Maureen was cheating on me. It was just several nights of stupid, fucked up sex. But then she got pregnant, and she never told me about it. I didn't find out until after you found her in the bathroom, Roger! When you lost her, I lost something too!" The room went dead silent. Like the silence after a gunshot. Roger's face turned scarlet, while Mark's turned so pale, Roger could have sworn he could see through him.
Roger walked over to Mark and shoved him off his feet, onto the couch.
"No-you wouldn't have…y-you didn't!" Roger realized that he had: his alleged best friend had knocked up the love of his life…old love of his life…he couldn't think rationally anymore. He took all his pent up anger of the entire day and let it out in a punch that hit Mark square in the face. To his surprise, Mark did nothing but sit back and take it. Roger screamed, then simply left.
"Fuck" Mark got up and left too.
That night, everyone had returned to the loft for dinner-pizza. All of them had had a chance to blow off most of their steam, however, at this point no one would speak to anyone else. Roger wouldn't even look at Mark, who was sitting at the farthest possible point from Roger. Maureen felt so awkward towards Mark, and was deathly afraid of what another conversation with Joanne might lead to. Joanne wished she could take back what she had asked Maureen, but knew she couldn't. Collins and Max didn't understand what was wrong with each other, so they decided not to provoke anymore unwanted yelling. This left everyone in completely awkward silence, poking at his or her pizza, desperately wanting out of this hell.
"Where's Mimi?" Maureen couldn't stand the silence.
"Still in our room." Roger answered curtly. He looked like someone had just shot him through the heart. His face was sullen, his expression annoyed, but mostly blank, but his eyes were seemingly permanently narrowed in a combination of disbelief and fury.
"Has she been in there all day?" Joanne looked worried, but it was mostly to cover up her look of embarrassment and defeat.
"I guess" Roger was afraid that is he opened his mouth for more than a second, he would breathe fire and scorch Mark to death.
"Have you talked to her?" Roger was getting annoyed at all of the questions Joanne was asking.
"No." His fury was growing by the second
"Well, if she's pregnant, she needs to eat something." Joanne got up and went into Mimi and Roger's room.
This time, however, when someone mentioned pregnancy, no one even flinched. It seemed to be that Mimi getting pregnant had become the least bizarre thing that had happened that day.
Joanne didn't even bother to knock. She just walked into the room and found Mimi, lying on the bed in a pale yellow light. Her hair was up in a messy bun and her face was streaked with black mascara. When she saw Joanne in the doorway she rolled over, so she was facing away from the door.
"Honey, do you want something to eat?" Joanne cooed as she sat down on the corner of the bed. Mimi shook her head. "Mimi, you need to eat!" Mimi ignored her and put a pillow over her face. Joanne moved to the other side of the bed and grabbed the pillow, chucking it across the room and looked her straight in the eye. "Moping around in bed isn't going to make this any better." Mimi gave her a look that could kill. "This isn't that bad!" Joanne got frustrated and pulled Mimi up into a seated position.
"I can't do this!" She cleared her throat and wiped a trail of mascara, which only ended up smearing even more. "I'm scared, okay?" She confessed. "I'm an ex-drug addict, I'm HIV positive, I strip tease at a night club, I can't be a mother!" She began to cry again.
"I'll help you." Joanne touched Mimi's arm gently, in comfort.
"You will?"
"Of course!"
"But why would you want to burden yourself with a baby?" Mimi thought Joanne had gone crazy.
"Well, I want a baby, but Maureen…not so much." The two women paused, and the air seemed to get a little lighter.
"You asked Maureen if she wanted to have a baby?" Joanne nodded. Mimi shook her head in disbelief. "N-n-no, wait, our Maureen?" Joanne nodded again, sensing the ridiculous humor in it. Mimi cracked up laughing.
"There you go. See? Life goes on. And you won't have to do this alone, I promise." Mimi sniffled and nodded, still trying to get the smudge of mascara to go away, but to no avail-she gave up. Just then, the little light coming from the living room got blocked, and the two women looked up to see Maureen standing in the doorway, pulling at a thread coming off her shirt.
"You got me too." She began. "I mean, I'd be no good at being a mom, but every kid needs to be spoiled by a favorite aunt, right?" Mimi smiled, but then she looked oddly confused.
"But I still don't understand why." Maureen walked over and plopped herself down on the bed next to Joanne.
"Well, Meems, it's because we love you and we have no life." She giggled, but was interrupted by someone clearing their throat. The girls looked up to see Collins and Max watching them.
"You can't have aunts and no uncles." Collins said as he and Max stepped in the room and sat on the other side of Mimi, who had begun laughing full out.
"Aren't you supposed to be depressed?" Max joked with a smile.
"I just want to know where the fuck you're all coming from!" Everyone was now laughing, but their joy was cut short when someone answered her question.
"We were eating dinner." Roger's silhouette came into the room as he shoved his hands in his pockets. He seemed apprehensive, but was letting a small smile escape from his lips. "So, we're gonna do this…" Collins moved over and Roger took his seemingly rightful place next to Mimi, taking her hands in his own.
"We're going to do this."
"Together!" Maureen reminded them.
"We're having a baby, Meems!" Roger said with a half chuckle; his smile got brighter.
"Please don't say that."
"What? Why not?"
"Because saying it makes it true, and if it's true, it's really scary." She frowned, and grasped Roger's hands tighter.
"I know, trust me, I know. I know it's scary, but it's wonderful too." He kissed her forehead.
"It's wonderful too." Mimi echoed while trying to contain a stream of tears-this time from happiness. She laughed a little as Roger moved in to kiss her, but she pulled away. "MARK!" She hollered out the door. "Mark, I know you're out there. Come on, you wouldn't want to miss this disgustingly cliché moment for your documentary, would you?" Silence.
"Marky?" Maureen chimed in. Still nothing but silence. They wondered if he had left because he felt left out, or because of some other unknown reason. Thinking about this made the air settle and become heavier. Everyone got uncomfortable again.
"Pan into Mimi and Roger's room-it's gross, I know. I'll film from up here because god only knows what's on that bed." Mark faked a gag as he and his camera walked into the room. "Today we celebrate the product of make up sex, four times over." Everyone started laughing hysterically as Mark panned around the overcrowded bedroom. "Oh, this just in. Mark Cohen begs desperately for forgiveness from the father-to-be over a stupid, dumb, drunken mistake." Roger and Maureen, being the only two people who knew what was going on, looked as though they had just seen a ghost. They had no idea what to do.
"I'll deal with it." Roger said flatly, but convincingly.
"Deal with what?" Max questioned. Roger had no intention of telling anyone else, so he was grateful to look up and find Mark looking through Mimi's underwear drawer with his camera.
"Deal with the fact that Mark's filming my girlfriend's thongs." They all laughed as Roger got off the bed and tackled Mark, this time in a friendly way.
They continued to have fun. For now, everything was okay.
[Again, I just want to apologize for not updating in forever, I will be better. Anyways, I hope you liked this chapter; the next one should go up this week. REVIEW!!!!]