No Day But Today
DISCLAIMER: I do not own RENT or anything affiliated with it.
Mark hung up the phone and rested his head against the wall. He felt bad lying to Maureen… he was anything but fine. He looked like hell warmed over, and he felt like it too. He'd lost his mom. The only person in his family he could actually tolerate once in a while. Cindy and Jeff were always ragging him about being single, telling him he should settle down, find a nice Jewish girl, get married and have the requisite 2.3 children. His father was too saturated with alcohol to even notice that he'd come home.
"Mark, Cindy wants you to go with her to the funeral home to pick out a casket," Jeff said, coming in. Mark just nodded.
"Tell her I'll be there in a sec." Jeff just nodded and left him alone to stew in his own misery.
"What do you think about this one?" Cindy asked. Mark sighed.
"It's fine. Just like the last fifty we looked at," he replied. He hated shopping in general, but this was just about enough to make him think Roger's ex, April, had the right idea in committing suicide.
"Mark, take this seriously, please. This is for Mom," Cindy said. Mark just shook his head.
"I don't want to do this now, Cindy. I can't do this now," he replied, walking out of the showroom and into the hall. Cindy followed him.
"Mark, I can't do this without you. Mom would have wanted you to help," Cindy said.
"Mom would have left me at home with Dad, because at least she understood that I hate to shop for anything. She was the only person in this whole damn family who ever understood me. Now she's gone, you've got Jeff, Dad's got his liquor cabinet and his secretary, and I'm left with nothing," Mark replied. Cindy just shook her head. "Yeah, Cin. Dad's been dating his secretary. Since I was fourteen… the drinking isn't because of Mom, it's him drowning his guilt about all these years."
"You're lying. You've always been set on destroying this family, ever since your bar mitzvah. You got pissed because I got all the attention because I was sick," Cindy accused. "Why don't you stop being so damn selfish and grow up. Act like an adult for once in your pitiful life."
"I don't know why I even bother with this family any more," Mark said, walking out of the funeral home. He hailed a cab and went back to the house, throwing his things back in his bag and then walking to the bus stop. He bought a one way ticket to New York and didn't look back.
Roger got up and grabbed his baseball bat at the sound of the loft door opening. He slowly walked into the main room, before dropping the bat at the sight of Mark. "God, man, you scared the shit out of me." Something wasn't right. Roger could tell from the way Mark just stood there, staring. Without saying a word, Mark's knees buckled and he fell to the floor. "Mark?" Roger ran over to where his friend was slumped against the ragged old couch. He fell to his knees and tried to help his friend up. "C'mon, Mark, let's get you up on the couch," he said. Mark attempted to help, but he was barely capable of holding his head up. Finally, Roger managed to drag Mark onto the couch.
"I'm sorry," Mark said. Roger could tell from his voice that something was wrong. "God, it hurts."
"What hurts?" Roger asked. He was growing more concerned the longer he listened to his friend's breathing. Roger recognized that he was having a fair amount of difficulty with the task.
"Breathe," Mark mumbled. Roger just nodded. "Help."
"Okay, man. Help's coming," Roger said. He went over to the phone and dialed 911 as Collins emerged from his room.
"What's going on?" he asked. Roger shoved the phone into his hands.
"Mark's sick." Roger rushed back to the smaller man's side. "Collins is getting help, okay man? Just hang on."
Maureen jumped at the sound of the ringing phone. She looked at the clock and groaned, before picking it up. "Hello?" she asked.
"Maureen, it's Roger," a voice replied.
"Roger, why are you calling here at this ungodly hour?" she asked.
"Mark showed up a few hours ago. He's really sick," Roger said. She sat up and began running around, trying to get dressed as she talked.
"What's wrong?"
"They haven't told us anything yet. We're at the emergency room… I think he's had a falling out with his family. We're all he's got now."
"We'll be there as soon as we can," Maureen said. She hung up the phone before attempting to wake Joanne.
A/n: Well aren't y'all lucky. Two in one night.