Disclaimer: Don't own RENT. Nothing to do with it.
Summary: You look familiar, your smile reminded me of… I always remind people of…
Not quite the Cat Scratch Club. How Mimi and Roger really first met.
Melpomene
Chapter Two
"Why does your girlfriend not want you around, really?"
He shrugged. "Why not?"
Mimi said nothing and waited. He shook his head.
"Why have a girlfriend at all?" She finally asked him.
He blew out a heavy stream of smoke and coughed again. "Nowhere else to live." He shrugged again. "And it's not like I really enjoy this. Not anymore."
"No one makes you do it." Mimi told him, watching him.
"It's all empty. Anyway you look at it. So you might as well, you know?"
"Really?"
He frowned. "When it's gone, you know, like… When you're not on it. All you remember is the rush. You forget shit. You forget puking your fucking guts out in the bathroom at 3 am. And you forget overused veins that bleed when you're desperate. You forget everyone hating you. You forget shit like that, you know? It's everything, it's… Nothing? I don't, everything, maybe."
He trailed off completely, Mimi noticed his train of thought had led to nowhere and he had gotten off long before then.
"So it's an escape all over again." He mumbled, tossing his cigarette and lighting a new one.
Mimi pulled her hand out of her pocket and slipped it into his hand not holding the cigarette.
"What are you living for then?"
He shook his head. "I'm not living for anything. I'm just living." He looked down at her. "What do you think you're living for?"
Mimi gave him a small smile. The world was starting to look real again. Her mood had completely crashed, and normalcy set in. Life off smack wasn't really life at all. She lost the words she was searching for and could only smile and shake her head. The walked through the park in silence for a few minutes until he decided to talk again.
"You know all those people out there? On the street? No real anything to them. No… substance. Nothing to the way they move through life. They just sort of you know, exist."
"Like you." She said softly. And me.
He sort of smiled and looked away.