AN: YAY! Thank you for all the reviews! (And I miss you too, Li-nee :-( Only ten more days!)
Alison: Warning: This is yet another songfic chap!
Me: Oh, shut up. Tis a good song.
Alison: Uh-huh. I thought you were done until school starts up again.
Me: Well, I finished a chapter, okay? God.
Songs lyrics property of Patti Sciafla
Forty bucks, huh? Bel smiled as she scooped up her little puppy. That would be easy enough to bum off Meems. Well, okay, Mimi wasn't too fond of Paul anyway, but Bel could always say it was for a friend (which technically, it was). "I'm home!" No answer. Unless her sister and Roger were...you know...(of course, wasn't that impossible at one point?)
"Bel. Get over here." Roger growled from the bedroom.
"God Rog, what's your problem?" She came in and flinched as he tossed a bag at him. "What the hell?"
"What's the deal here?"
Roger's eyes narrowed. "You tell me. I found one of these on the floor."
"You thinking I'm using? God, I knew you were thick, but to think that I'm using? How stupid do you think I am here?"
"Maybe not as stupid as your sister!"
"MY SISTER-" Bel's breath rose heavily. "I love my sister, Roger, but I am not as stupid as she was to even think of shooting up! Which apparently, I hear, you did too!"
"IT AIN'T MINE!" Roger kicked the bed frame. "God. Do you know why I quit? HUH?"
"No, I do not. But you know what, Rog? You have no fucking right to accuse either me or Mimi! God!" She grabbed her bag and stormed out the door, with Sandy yapping at her heels.
"Why is it I always end up with you following a hangover?" Maureen groaned, playing with a cup of orange juice.
"Fate, maybe?" Benny shrugged.
"Fate doesn't happen." Mo shook her head. "You could just leave me alone. I'm fine by myself, you know."
"Riiight." Benny rested his head in his hand. "Like you could be trusted alone."
"What exactly is that supposed to mean, buddy!"
"Meems, nina, how can you STAND HIM?" Bel flopped down on Tara's couch. "He accused me of using smack!"
"Well, he had his suspicions..."
"I'M NOT LIKE YOU, MIMI!" Bel got up from her seat. "You would think that I would've learned something when you left me and Mami with Curtis-"
"Do you think I wanted to leave you with him? I was gonna come back! You were only nine, goddamnit!"
"YOU LEFT ME THERE! I GOT ALL THAT SHIT YOU WERE CARRYING! IT'S A WONDER I DIDN'T TRY TO RUN OFF SOONER!"
"DON'T FUCKIN' BLAME ME FOR ALL THIS! YEAH, I DID SMACK!" Mimi started crying, hard. "I'm sorry that Rog jumped to conclusions- but he had his fuckin' reasons, all right?"
"Do you wanna head out there?" Collins said, looking nervously towards the bedroom door, while taking off his clothes.
Dave shook his head. "Not without a death wish. My God, is Roger really-"
"He's short-tempered." Collins reached for Dave's hand. "There's only so much you get from hearing something."
"But still...Meems hasn't used lately, hasn't she?"
"Since Christmas? Not that I know of, which leans more towards no. I don't know about Bel, either." He threw his white shirt on the floor. "Look, it's their problem, got that?"
"Oh God, Tom..." Dave climbed over the bed and kissed Collins.
"Benny, come on, 'fess up." Maureen stared at him with her hard hazel eyes. "Why did you come? Joanne was there, she could've-"
"I thought you two couldn't take each other anymore."
"That is...well, we-"
"That's what I thought." Benny leaned over the kitchen table. "Look, I was concerned about you getting back here, all right? Can't I be concerned about you?"
"I have very little reasons for you to be."
"How about the fact that we're still friends?"
"Oh, when did that happen?"
"Jesus, I thought I had been forgiven weeks ago."
Love...you're the one
The well known pleasure
Under my tongue
My holy water...My gypsy rain
Come and find me...once again
Because you are
Everything I wanted
I need your faith...
I need your love
To take my place...
To rise above
to stand up
Bel stormed out of the apartment. I can't believe this. Roger hated her, her sister (at the moment) wanted nothing to do with her, and everything was going to hell and back.
"Sweetheart!" The Man started waving his arms at her.
"Oh, what do you want?" she snapped.
"Do somethin' 'bout your boyfriend, that's what. Where does he come off threatening me?"
Bel looked up four or five floors (mistakenly, thinking that the Man was referring to Roger). "Well, I think he's got his reasons."
"I ain't talkin' about Lover Boy here! I mean Tough Guy!"
As if on cue, Paul stepped out. "Hey! She's not your customer, all right?"
"Where's that stash?" Paul looked over at Bel, as if she knew what was going on here.
"Stash? What fuckin' stash, Paul?"
Love, be my cure
be my medicine...
Simple and pure
Take my sorrow...
Take my pain
and come and find me...once again
because you are
everything I wanted
So give me your faith
Give me your love
And I'll take my place
and I'll rise above
And I'll stand up
Dave turned over on his side and dug his head underneath the sheets. "Oh God...Tom..."
Collins seemed to be ignoring him, until an attack of hacking coughs interrupted the uncomfortable silence. Dave just put his hand on his love's bare back and rubbed it. "You'll be fine...don't be sick, Tom..." Collins rolled over and kissed Dave again. "I'm fine," he whispered.
Give me hope and give me strength
and give me your soul understanding
Give me faith and give me truth
and give me your soul understanding
Give me strength
and give me truth...
And give me love
"But I can't even stand you!" Maureen said.
"And that makes us...what?" Benny crossed his arms and smirked.
Maureen sat there gaping for a moment (a rarity, if ever referring to her), before thinking up, "Well, definitely not friends!"
He moved in closer to her. "Admit it, Mo, if you really hated me as much as you said you did, would I still be in here?"
"I'm a gracious hostess." Maureen's voice was, God forbid, actually trembling. "And...and Angel wouldn't let me kick you out. If she where still here."
"You and I know both know damn well this ain't got nothing to do with her."
The next thing Maureen knew, her body was pressed up against Benny's, making out along every wall in her apartment.
Love...you're the one
all of my medicine...
Under my tongue
Because you are
everything I wanted
And I need your faith
and I need your love
to take my place
to rise above
to take my place
I need your trust
So hear me now
and I'll rise above...
And I'll stand up
Roger sat cross-legged on the loft floor, tuning his Fender. God, Mimi... how could that have happened? She had to have given smack up for the baby, for him.
Mark's puppy (more like Bel's since she was the only one who bothered to take care of it) was playing with some balled-up newspaper in the corner. God knew what Collins and Dave were doing. Mark was on his honeymoon.
"Why?" He got his second fucking chance. So why had everyone else in his life who didn't ever get that possibility be so fucking happy, and yet his and Mimi's lives seemed to be crashing down like a flaming building.
Besides...that smack wasn't necessarily Mimi's, was it? Because she wouldn't have hid it that well...
Oh shit. Roger just realized that he had committed one major fuck-up, and if he didn't get his ass in gear, that fuck-up was gonna stay fucked-up. He put away his Fender, and headed downstairs.
However, Mimi was one thing. Bel, on the other hand, was a completely different story for Rog.
Stand up...stand up
Stand up...stand up
And give me hope
and give me faith
and give me your
soul understanding...
PS:
Alison: Your Springsteen obsession has gone too far.
Me: This has nothing to do with teh Bruce.
Alison: Right, so you just wrote a songfic chap coincidentally using his wife's music.
Me: Why can't I?
Alison: Argh...