Disclaimer: I don't own RENT.
A/N: I may not have made this entirely clear in the last chapter, but Bri, Camille, and Matt all go to the same church.
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Katie's Diary
6/14
Em's party was the usual madness. Her mom finally let us have a fire this year, so there was much eating of marshmallows and chocolate, etc. Matt brought booze, of course.
He called me a spoilsport for asking Bri and Camille not to drink it. Doesn't he see? Camille doesn't drink as much as she did last year, and she seems happier for it, but Bri's just getting worse. I worry about her. Some day she's going to get really drunk and do something stupid that screws up her life. And that's to say nothing of her drug habit. She really needs help, but every time I try and bring it up, either she gets pissed or Matt says something weird.
Speaking of Matt, Camille decided after half a bottle that we needed to perform RENT. I was recruited to play…Mark. How fucked up is that? Matt bribed me to do it; any hardback book of my choice. Maybe I'll replace my copy of Eldest, Eileen lost it when I let her borrow it…
I suppose that in a way, having me play Mark almost makes sense. I mean, sure, there's a resemblance: blonde hair, glasses, not exactly skinny and not exactly fat…utterly plain, actually, that's me. And of course I'm a geek. Camille may be on the academic team, but so am I, and besides, she doesn't have a book or a notepad as a permanent extension of her arm like I do, figuratively speaking.
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Bri held her cell phone in both hands, staring at the screen. Jared's number glowed there. She sighed; it was now or never, after all. She jabbed the call button and raised the phone to her ear.
One ring. Two rings.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Jared? This is Bri Anderson. Remember me, I was in your World History class last year?"
"Yeah, the one with the nose piercing, right?" he asked. She responded with a carefree laugh.
"That's me. Anyhow, Camille Franklin wants to do a performance of RENT. We have the space, we're collecting the props, and we have all the Bohemians but one. We need Roger. I remembered that you were a RENT-head, and God knows you can sing, so we decided that you would be the best one for the part," she said, then held her breath as she waited for his answer.
"You're serious?" He sounded blown away.
"Dead serious," she replied.
"I'd love to play Roger."
"Thanks!" she said excitedly.
"Who else is going to be involved? And who's playing Mimi? he asked, the excitement in his voice mirroring her own.
"Well, we've got Matt and Will as Angel and Collins," she said. She didn't need to tell him their last names. Everyone at West High School knew the couple. "And, um, Emily Wolf and Camille as Maureen and Joanne- no they're not actually lezzies, before you ask, although Camille is bi- Katie Donaldson as Mark because we were running out of guys, and me as Mimi."
"Awesome. Who's Benny?"
She paused.
"I don't know," she finally said. "Camille seems to have forgotten him. I'll call her and get it straightened out, though, don't worry."
"Okay, cool. When's rehearsal?"
"Thursday at seven, in the basement of First Presbyterian Church. See you there!" she said.
"Yeah, see you." He hung up, and she did likewise.
"Yesss!" she squealed. In a daze of happiness, she typed in Camille's cell number.
"Hey, Bri, what up my homie?" said Camille in one of her crazier voices.
"Jared agreed to play Roger hahahahaha yes!" said Bri.
"Well, that's good, but remember it's not like he asked you out. He only agreed to play your character's boyfriend," said Camille.
"He agreed to put himself in a situation that would involve kissing me. Logically, he must like me. Anywho, he also pointed out that we have no Benny."
"Shit, I knew we were forgetting something," said Camille.
"Can you think of anybody we could find to play Benny? Rehearsal's tomorrow," pointed out Bri.
There was silence. On the other end, Camille finally said,
"If worst comes to worst, we can recruit Tim as a temporary stand-in."
"Your brat brother? No way, he'd screw everything up!" protested Bri.
"Just as a temporary stand-in," Camille repeated. "Until we can find one of the boys from drama club who'd be willing to do it."
"Okay. See ya," said Bri.
"Right, catch you later,' sighed Camille. She closed the phone with a snap.
"Tim," she called. "Where are you?"
There was no answer. Swearing under her breath, Camille walked down the hall to the TV room. No Tim. She looked in the kitchen. No Tim. She climbed the stairs and looked in his room. No Tim. She walked back down the stairs, wondering miserably where he could possibly be. Then she stopped in her tracks. A faint sound was coming from her mom's room. Listening more closely, she recognized it as Simple Plan. She opened the door and stepped inside.
There was Tim, sprawled lazily on their mom's bed. His boombox had been turned down just enough that the sound of the TV could also be heard. She walked over to the TV and switched it off.
"What the fuck did you do that for?" whined Tim, acknowledging her presence for the first time since she'd entered the room.
"Apparently, you couldn't hear me," she said, walking over to switch off the boombox as she spoke. "I called for you."
"I heard," he said, turning the TV back on.
"Then why didn't you answer? And you know you're not allowed in here, this is Mom's room," she said, glaring daggers at her little brother. Sometimes the only thing preventing her from beating him about the head was the threat of motherly justice.
He didn't say anything, he just went right on watching TV.
"We need another actor for our play."
Silence.
"You'd be playing a rich black guy whose ex-girlfriend is a stripper," she tried. Any mention of anything sexual was usually enough to perk up her perverted excuse for a brother.
Nothing.
"I'll give you three dollars per rehearsal."
"I want five."
"You'll get five,' she conceded. There goes my vacation money, she thought miserably. I really need to contact the boys from drama club, I suspect Bri was right about him screwing everything up.
"You got yourself a deal," he said, his eyes never leaving the TV screen. She sighed and left the room.
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Emily was sitting at home, eating a late lunch, when her cell phone rang. She looked at the screen; it was Will. She pressed talk and raised the phone to her ear.
"Hey, Will, what's up?" she asked.
"Em? Yeah, I was just, um, calling to talk."
His voice sounded odd and his breath came in gasps, as though he had been crying.
"About Matt?" she asked quietly.
"Yeah."
Emily sighed.
"You know, the thing with Camille was before he was dating you. At least he didn't cheat."
"Yes, but- he didn't see how miserable I was when I heard that, he didn't care, and he never does. You know that we're only dating each other because there are no other fish in the sea, but I still wish he would give me a little more respect. A little more attention."
Emily felt terrible for him. It was true that they were only dating because any boyfriend is better than none at all, but what he said was true. Matt's life was endless drinking and endless fun, and he didn't always have time for Will. Maybe the problem was that they were so different, like Maureen and Joanne, thought Emily. Matt was like the bitchy diva, always living in the moment without a care for anyone else in the world, and Will was the quiet intellectual who was coming to the end of his rope.
"I don't know what to tell you," she said. For a few long moments, neither of them said anything.
"Katie said that I was the only one who hadn't kissed Camille," Will said finally in an attempt to lighten the mood of the conversation. "What about you?"
"Have I kissed Camille? Yes, through various truth-or-dare games over the past couple of years, she has managed to kiss me, Katie, and Bri. None of us were surprised when she told us she was officially bisexual, I can tell you that," she said. They both laughed.
"Wow, I don't see how you would ever agree to kiss her!" Will said.
"It was on a dare! And besides, she is really nice even if she is fat. If I were a lesbian, she'd probably be my first choice of a girlfriend,' she said, jumping to her friend's defense. "Hey, would it cheer you up if I came over and gave you a makeover? I'm not doing anything this afternoon except sitting around on my ass watching TV."
"With your makeup?" he asked, mischief replacing the sadness in his voice.
"Is there anything wrong with my makeup?" she asked, pretending to be offended.
"In all honesty, you usually look like a sleep-deprived vampire," he said. "Maybe I should give you a makeover too."
"Sleep-deprived vampire my ass!" she laughed. "All right, I'll let you give me a makeover too. I'll be right over."
"Right, see you soon," Will said.
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A/N: Sorry it was so short, and sorry it was lacking in RENT lyrics and such. But I had to set up the plot(s) somehow…anyway, please review!