Okay, so I lied. This is a four shot. The first chapter was the prologue, now this is right before the party. I'll be writing the party tomorrow, and I'll update as soon as I'm done. This took way too long to get out, so I apologize. If any of you were wondering why in the world this story was in the M section, here's why. This chapter slightly and especially the next one get a bit…raunchy. Not too bad, but I didn't want to risk some 11 year-old reading it.
Disclaimer: All Jonathan Larson's.
"May 30, 6 PM, Eastern Standard Time. The day of Maureen's so-called 'surprise party'. Not much of a surprise, but we didn't let Collins, Angel, and Mimi know that she already knew about it…"
"You recording that isn't exactly going to keep it a secret, 'Marky'", an off-camera voice called. Mark sighed and turned the camera to Roger, who was cleaning the loft. Or at least, Roger's version of cleaning the loft. That meant wiping off the tables by hand, picking up random pieces of clothing, and discarding empty bottles of beer and vodka.
"Thank you, Roger, for that lovely insight. Why in the world didn't you clean this earlier? We had five days, then 1 hour before the party starts, you start cleaning."
"Because, if I had cleaned five days ago, we would have just gotten it dirty again. Then I would have had to clean twice!"
Mark didn't admit it, but there was actual sense in that logic. Of course, Mark didn't mention the fact that they could have just KEPT the loft clean in those five days, but he didn't push it. He just continued filming, as he always did.
"Mark, would you put that stupid thing down and come help me?" Roger sounded slightly irritated, so Mark obliged. He turned the camera off and gently set it down. If it weren't for the fact that they really did have to hurry up, Mark would have ignored him. Every time he put the camera down, he felt like he sort of lost an appendage.
"Thank you, now get your ass over here." Mark walked over and starting picking up some stray candy bar wrappers.
"Where's Collins, Rog?"
"He went out to get more booze. He decided that for Maureen's party, our limited supply of beer just wasn't enough."
"And how is he getting this booze?"
"It's Collins. Don't ask."
"Right."
Fifteen minutes later, Collins came back with Stoli and Captain Morgan in tow. Angel was there, too, which slightly surprised Mark and Roger. Angel had been getting a lot sicker recently, but they were glad to see her there. They knew that the drag queen wouldn't miss Maureen's birthday. No one would. For all of Maureen's craziness, she was a true, loving friend through thick and thin, and everyone in the group loved her to death, even though everyone at some point in time could get slightly annoyed by her. But that didn't matter.
"Wow, guys, this place looks…just as shitty as before." Collins remarked.
Angel hushed him and gave Mark and Roger a gentle smile.
"I think it looks great."
"Really? Because I agreed with Collins," Mark replied. Roger punched him in the arm.
"It may have looked better if you had helped a little more!"
Mark opened his mouth to reply, but there was a knock at the door. Collins opened it and Mimi was standing there, present and a large bottle of tequila in hand.
"Meems! You brought more booze!" Mark cheered.
"Man, my girlfriend isn't your tequila service," Roger retorted, slinging an arm around Mimi and giving her a fierce kiss, "although that does make her slightly more intriguing than she already is."
Mimi stuck her tongue out at Roger and handed the tequila to Mark.
"I wasn't sure what Maureen liked, so I brought my favorite, so that at least one person was happy." Mimi walked over to the (slightly) clean table and set down her present.
"What time are Maureen and Joanne getting here?"
"Not until seven," Mark replied.
"Ooh, lots of time," she said seductively, looking at Roger.
Roger smiled big and was about to walk over to her, but Collins stopped him.
"Let's not have you two having sex quite yet. We've still got a couple of things to do."
Roger pouted. "But if we get it over with, then we can spend more time paying attention to Maureen."
"No chance, Davis."
"Fine." Roger walked over to Mimi and whispered, "We'll see about that," while Mimi giggled. Mark rolled his eyes and got to work putting all of the lovely new drinks in a more central spot for easy access. Mark had a feeling he was going to need all the hard liquor he could get. It was Maureen's first birthday since they had broken up, and he wasn't quite sure that he liked the fact that Maureen would be having birthday sex without him. Birthday sex had always been really fun.
"Hey, Mark, where's the cake?" Angel asked. Mark looked dumbfounded for a second, then smacked himself in the face.
"Oh, shit, I forgot to make a cake!"
Before Mark started freaking out, Mimi jumped in.
"It's okay, Mark. Angel and I will go to a store down the street and get a cake."
"That's gonna be expensive."
"It's alright, I got paid last night."
"You already got Maureen a present."
"That's okay, it's sort of a shitty present." Roger and Collins snorted back laughter as Mark shook his head in disbelief.
Mimi and Angel left for the store, leaving Mark, Roger, and Collins alone. They quickly realized that there was nothing left to do. The sparse decorations were up, all the presents were out and it was thirty minutes until seven, when the guest of honor was to arrive.
"What do we do now?" Mark asked. His eyes wandered to the newly bought liquor.
"You know," Collins started, "it would probably be a good idea to check this Stoli, to make sure it isn't expired or poisoned or anything."
"That's a good idea, Collins. We don't want Maureen or anyone else to get alcohol poisoning during the party," Roger continued.
"I don't think that's how you get alcohol pois-oh!" Mark realized, as Roger looked pointedly at him. "Yes, we should definitely check. If someone got hurt in some way, I wouldn't be able to live with myself."
"There's a good boy," Roger replied, and he and Collins nearly dashed to the table to open up one of the two bottles of Stoli. The three shared a good twenty minutes of vodka happiness, but then Mimi and Angel got back.
"What are you three doing?" Angel asked suspiciously. The three merry drinkers had hastily disposed of any incriminating evidence before Mimi and Angel had a chance to see it. Mimi had left her key in her apartment, so Mark had to drop their key down to them. That had given Roger and Collins time to hide their cups.
"Absolutely nothing, baby." Collins replied. He hugged Angel and kissed her.
"Nothing, huh? Then why do I taste vodka?"
"You must be going slightly crazy."
"Mmhhmm. That's it." Collins grinned and Angel had to smile. How could she get mad at that face?
"Hey Meems, what kind of cake did you two buy?" Mark asked, out of curiosity and out of want to distract Roger and Mimi out of their sudden make-out session. Roger always got a little…frisky when he started drinking.
"We got chocolate. Just plain yummy chocolate," Mimi gasped out before going back to Roger's lips.
"Right." Mark said.
Suddenly the phone rang.
"SPEAK!" The answering machine went off. Roger could barely remember recording it, but Mark knew that was because the two had been slightly inebriated. Only slightly, but the recording lived on because the two found it funny drunk or sober. Suddenly Joanne's voice cut Mark out of his daze.
"Hey, Maureen and I here. Throw down the key, please." Joanne was so polite. When Collins asked it was usually "Throw down the key, my bitches", or in Angel and Mimi's case it had been "We're holding the cake hostage unless a small, shiny, silver object used for unlocking doors is thrown out of the window towards us."
Roger walked to the window and threw the key down.
"Hey, what did Joanne tell Maureen to get her to come here?" Mimi asked. Mark and Roger looked at each other. They forgot that the Mimi, Collins, and Angel didn't know that it wasn't actually a surprise party.
"Uhhh…"
"She said that I wanted to show her some footage of some of things I had shot," Mark pulled out of thin air. Roger gave him a thumbs up, then there was a knock on the door.
The five Bohemians scrambled to their selective hiding places, then Roger shouted, "Come on in, it's open!"
The door to the loft slid open.
There, the second part of the story! I will put up the third part, the party itself, tomorrow. Thanks to everyone who reviewed! Now, do it again and those who didn't, here's a tutorial. See the pretty purple button to the left? Click it! Hope you're enjoying!