Chapter 6 – See Through
January 1987, Mark Cohen sat in the middle of his broken down loft, staring at a list of potential roommates when the door opened. – I got a fish! I got a fish fit for a king! Whoa – Mark stared at the obviously stoned and drunken man in front of him, wondering what was going on. Random strangers that waved fish over their heads were not supposed to randomly burst into his apartment.
The stoner stared at Mark for a brief second before sitting down. – Whoa. Did you know that most great philosophers were stoned? Guess what! I'm stoned! – Mark stared at him, not saying a word, until the stoned philosopher looked at his fish again, and then at Mark before saying – I'm Collins. Want fish? – not knowing what else to do, Mark took the out stretched fish and gently laid it on the couch next to him. Introducing himself, Mark calmly asked the Collins-fellow what he was doing in Marks apartment.
- I live here now! – Mark shook his head, - no you don't. This is my apartment – it was then Collins' turn to shake his head. – Nope! I saw the flier. Here's the rent.- the stoner passed Mark a large wad of money. Mark couldn't believe it, especially since it was all twenty's.
Still not believing it, Mark got up and put the money in his camera bag, turning around he looked at Collins again, studying him. The man looked to be humerous. Seemed to be a fairly kind soul and not to over bearing. – And hey, he already paid me the rent. – Mark thought. – Alright, you can stay. Your room's over there. – Collins looked up in glee at the words and went into his room, softly closing the door. Mark shook his head and went into the bath room, making sure he took his camera case with him. It had been too long.
Mark opened the camera bag looking for his stash, when the realization that he ran out hit him. Damn. He could already feel the effects of going too long with out it, so he closed up his bag and went back out into the main room. He knocked on his new roommate's door – Hey, stoner, I'm going out. Make food – and with that, he walked out the door.
He walked down the street to where he knew the dealer would be. He wasn't worried, he knew he would be able to get some more smack no problem. After being an established customer for nearly 5 months, there was no reason why the dealer could refuse him. When he approached the dealer he stood some distance away, watching as the dealer led a young man into the alley way, and carefully explained how to use the kit. The dealer tapped the kid's unmarred arm, and the kid just stared. Mark watched on as the kid began the process. He wrapped a rubber band around his arm and inexpertly started to try and find a vain. The man was patient, not wanting to loose a potential repeat customer. The kid, who Mark was soon realizing wasn't an actual kid, but possibly a year or two older then him found the vain finally, and with a deep breath put the needle in. The man injected the drugs as and the dealer took the rubber band off his arm, helping the kid to his feet. The kid's eyes were already starting to get glassy, and he walked out of the alley, as steady as he could. The kid looked at Mark briefly, his green eye's not even seeing Mark, but seeing through him.
Shaking off the kid's gaze Mark walked into the alley way, and gave the dealer some of his cash. He received the packet of white powder and stashed it in his camera.
Walking back to his apartment Mark thought of the powder, wondering if he should bother to hide it from his new roommate. He decided to use caution and hide it, understanding that weed and smack were on two entirely different levels. He walked back to the apartment and went straight into the bathroom.
A/n: yay for getting smacked with the muse stick, still not the best, but I need to start working the other characters into it. I know where its going, I'm just trying to get to it.
Oh, I know the fish bit seems weird, but its actually an homage to the origional, and I mean origional Rent influence. As I'm sure at least some of you know, Rent was based off of Puccini's La Boheme. But Puccini didn't come up with the story line exactly either, La Boheme was based off of Bohemeians in the Latin Quarter (you can google a copy of it up, its in public domain). Its quite facinating comparing the differences between the three works. The only character to keep their name was Mimi. Mark's origional name was Marcello, with Roger being Rodolfo. Collins was actually Colline (its french) with Angel being Alexander Shunard. But I'm done babbling about that... so read and review.