Chapter Twenty-Six: Nevers and Maybes
A witch's hat, a Wizard's showbiz display, a cleric's stole, a scholar's gown, a soldier's dress sartorials. A hundred ways to dodge the question: how will I live with myself now that I know what I know?—Son of a Witch, Gregory Maguire

"Mark! Mark, Mark, Mark, wake up!"

"What the…" Mark woke up to find Maureen sitting on his bed, all but sitting on him, leaning down so her face was about an inch from his. He blinked in alarm. Not that Maureen's face wasn't a pleasant thing to wake up to, but he certainly hadn't been expecting it. Especially with her almost straddling his chest. "Um. Maur, could you… maybe get off me? And tell me why you're sitting on me in the first place? God, the sun's barely up."

"It's Christmas morning, Marky!" she said as she bounced off the bed. "Get up, get up! Come on!"

With a groan, Mark sat up. "You gonna do this every holiday?"

Benny sat on his own bed, grinning in amusement. "If it helps, she did the same thing to me."

Mark tried to hide the fact that his cheeks were flushed by preoccupying himself hunting through his dresser for a shirt and quickly pulling it on. "Did she sit on you?"

"'Course I did," Maureen said with a bright smile, as if that were only to be expected. Mark blushed even brighter, not entirely comfortable with Maureen watching him the way she was with him only wearing a thin T-shirt and boxers.

"Right… so… uh… You gonna wake up the others too?" He ran a hand through his hair awkwardly, and after a minute located his glasses on the bedside table and put them on.

Maureen walked to the doorway before turning to grin at him. "I'm going to go get Collins up—you get April and Roger."

"What?" Mark's voice squeaked a little as he said that. He cleared his throat before he spoke again. "I mean… why me?"

The way she arched her eyebrow at him should not have been half as seductive as it was. "What, you think I'm going in there? What if they're not decent?"

"Maureen," Mark said slowly, as if talking to a small child, "you've seen Roger naked before, remember? If I remember correctly, the two of you stole my room for a week so you could—"

"Oh, like you haven't seen him naked before. Don't even try to tell me… And just because I've seen it once doesn't mean I want to see it again."

Mark stared at her for a minute, then sighed. "Point taken. I'll go get them."

"Thank you, Marky-poo!" she caroled as she glided off to Collins' room.

He turned to Benny with a questioning look. "Marky-poo?"

Benny suppressed a laugh. "Well, I think it's a… charming nickname."

"Shut up," Mark said as he walked out of the bedroom, heading to Roger and April's room. Honestly… Marky-poo? What the hell had gotten into that woman? Best not to ask, with Maureen, he decided.

He pushed open the door of Roger and April's room cautiously, leaning in and calling softly, "Roger? April? You two should probably wake up or Maureen might come sit on you too."

Neither of them moved at all, both of them remaining exactly where they were when he opened the door, curled up on the bed, Roger's arm thrown over April. Mark sighed and stepped into the room cautiously. "Roger, wake up, man. I'm not kidding about Maureen sitting on you. Or… well, since it's you she might just hit you or something, but seriously. She wants you up, and if you don't—"

He stopped abruptly as he got close enough to see April clearly. She wore a sweatshirt, but only underwear besides that. Something drew his attention to her thighs—probably the cuts on her legs, vivid against her fair skin, straight and parallel and even… "Oh my God…" Mark whispered softly, staring open-mouthed at her. His baby sister, she… "Oh God."

"Mark!" Maureen called from the other room. "What are you doing? Hurry up and get them out here."

Mark jumped, finally able to look away from the cuts on April's legs. "I'm coming, Maureen!" He sighed, and said in a quieter voice, "Coming." He forced himself over to the bedside and shook Roger's shoulder. "Hey Rog, get up. It's Christmas." Even if it didn't really feel like it. Even if Mark could only think of those damn lines of red on his April Shower's legs.

April shivered as she stepped out of her room, silently cursing the lack of heat in the loft. Even in mid-May, it was still freezing in the morning. Or maybe she was just shivering because she needed a hit… hard to tell, lately. She'd given up on not using some months ago—too hard not to, with Roger using, and the drugs right there for her… Never mind how goddamn easy it was to get drugs of her own, how the dealers were never more than a block or two away if she cared to look. And Collins had stopped taking away her razors a while ago. Mistake. And the more she used, or cut, the more she thought of how disappointed Jessi would be… the more she needed to forget…

She wrapped her arms around herself and went to put a pot of coffee on. That would help with the cold, if the shivers were because she was cold. If not... maybe she still had some smack in her room. She couldn't remember, and as much as she was tempted to go see, she managed to keep from going back in the room to look.

The loft felt… empty. Benny, out for the night with Alison—or at least they had all assumed it was with Alison, though it very well could have been someone else… Collins, God knew where, and he just hadn't come home last night at all. Roger still asleep in their bedroom, Mark presumably in his own bedroom, and Maureen… Where the hell was Maur?

April turned to look at the futon, suddenly realizing that Maureen wasn't there. And she hadn't gone out last night, so where the hell was she?

The door to Mark's bedroom swung open abruptly, as if in answer to her question, and Maureen stepped out. April stared at her for a second as Maureen froze. "April, this isn't what you think…"

"Did you sleep with Mark?"

"…Or maybe it is." She closed the door behind her and quickly walked across the room to the kitchen. "It's not like I—God, it's cold in here."

"Oh, good," April muttered. "It's not just me, then."

"Huh?"

"Nothing." April jumped up on the counter, hugging herself tightly once more and trying to suppress her shivers. She watched Maureen for a minute, and finally said softly, "You slept with Mark."

"We've established that," Maureen answered calmly. "Will you stop looking at me like that?"

"Maureen, Mark's like… a brother."

"He's like your brother," Maureen corrected. "Not mine. There's no rule saying I can't sleep with your brother."

"Oh God, I did not need that image in my head, Maur! I really didn't. The image of you sleeping with Mark is bad enough, but… God. You have absolutely no shame, do you?"

Maureen smirked a little. "Shame is overrated, 'Ril. You ought to know that."

For a second or two, April frowned at her. "What is that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing at all," Maureen said innocently.

April sighed. "Why Mark? You could have gone out to a bar or something, got any random guy you wanted… You have to sleep with Mark?"

"Why not?" she asked, her arms crossed over her chest.

"Because you're going to hurt him," April snapped. "And I care about him. He's going to get attached, and then when you move on to the next guy, you're going to break his heart. I don't want you doing that to my little brother. I'm not gonna let you hurt him."

Maureen laughed disbelievingly. "Are you threatening me?"

"No. I just wanted to make my point clear."

"Which is…?"

"If you're upset about something, don't distract yourself with Mark. There are other ways."

The other woman raised an eyebrow at her. "Upset? About what? I'm not upset."

"Hell if I know," April said. "Maybe about the fact that Benny's spending so much time with that Alison girl, maybe something else, doesn't matter. What matters is that you're not dealing with it in the right way. You shouldn't hurt other people with your own issues, and I know you don't mean to, but—"

"Oh, and you're one to talk," Maureen said scornfully.

"What?"

Maureen's eyes flickered to April's arms, covered by her ever-present sweatshirt, but the way they lingered there made it clear that she knew exactly what was underneath the sleeves. "You deal with your problems your way, and I'll deal with them mine, okay? I don't need lectures, least of all from you. You don't seem to be handling your own problems that well yourself."

April couldn't come up with a response for some time, and finally remarked simply, "You know."

"Everyone knows, April," Maureen said with a slightly disgusted tone. "You think you're that good at keeping secrets, but… you're not. And you haven't worn short sleeves since fall. We notice. All of us notice."

April closed her eyes and rubbed at her temples, fighting off a rapidly developing headache. God, maybe she should see if she had any smack left in her room after all. This was all getting to be too much. "Damn it," she whispered to herself.

After a second, she looked up at Maureen and said quietly, "Try not to hurt Mark, please. I don't want to see him getting hurt, not even by you." She bit her lower lip. "Especially not by you."

Maureen watched her for a moment before nodding. "You think I'd mean to hurt him? He's my friend too, 'Ril. I care about him as much as you do."

"If you say so," April murmured unable to meet her friend's eyes. It didn't matter that Maureen didn't mean to hurt him. She would, sooner or later, and poor Mark probably didn't have a clue. She wasn't sure she could make herself warn him.