A/N- I don't own RENT! All characters are Jonathan Larson's.
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Mark stared into the camera. "December 23rd, 6 p.m., Eastern Standard Time. Fade in on Mark, who's…who's…" He sighed. "Who the fuck am I kidding?" Mark angrily shut off his camera. Ever since Maureen had dumped at the beginning of the month, his inspiration had vanished. Maureen was the light of his life and since she left him for Joanne, he'd been in the dark.
Mark peered over his shoulder to see his best friend lying sideways on a lounge chair, strumming angry chords on his guitar. He'd just come out of six long months of withdrawal and was still trying to get over his girlfriend, April's, suicide. Mark sat there, mesmerized by Roger's nimble fingers gliding over the guitar strings. He was jolted out of his trance when Roger started to sing.
Take a look and
you'll see that I'm lyin' to you all
'Cause this song
is all I have
Mark and Roger were so fixated on the music that they didn't see or hear Maureen barge into the loft.
"Where is it? I know I left it here somewhere." She sighed dramatically. "If I were a cowbell where would I be?"
Maureen was tearing up the loft's living room area. Mark and Roger, still oblivious to her presence, didn't even notice when Maureen paraded right into Mark's bedroom. "MARKY! GET YOUR SCRAWNY ASS IN HERE!"
Her shrill screams startled the boys. Roger abruptly ended his song with a horrible sounding chord. Mark fell off of the edge of the couch, right onto the hard floor. Their eyes shot right to the bedroom where Maureen was.
"What the fuck is she doing here, Mark? I thought you weren't speaking to her ever since she dumped you for-." Roger was cut off by Mark telling him to drop it.
"Roger…don't. Okay? I haven't even accepted the fact that she's a le…a les…"
"A lesbian? A dyke? Queer? Gay?"
"Enough, Roger." The boys were silent for a few moments.
"MARK! COME ON!" Upon hearing Maureen's voice, Mark bolted off of the floor and joined her in the bedroom. Roger shook his head and smirked as he stared down at his guitar. He strummed the strings, letting the music take him away from Maureen's incessant screaming.
"Um, hi, Maureen."
"Mark! How are you?" He was greeted with a hug.
"Um…I'm—" She cut him off.
"Great! Okay, so you need to help me find my cowbell. It's for my protest!"
"Maureen, I…I have no idea where your cowbell would be. Why don't you go buy another one?"
"Because, Mark, I know it's here somewhere. Help me look, will ya?"
"O…okay, I guess." Mark opened his closet and took a few boxes off of the top ledge. He searched the boxes while Maureen went through his dresser. She threw his clothes onto the floor while she searched. When she reached his underwear drawer, she pulled out a box with 'M & M' written on top with a red marker.
"Marky, what's this?" she asked as she started to open the box.
"No! Maureen, don't look in there!"
Too late.
Maureen looked inside the box. She found dozens of pictures documenting her and Mark's relationship. Her cowbell was resting on top of the pictures. The first photo underneath the bell was of Maureen trying to walk with a bulky cast on her leg. She laughed, remembering how she broke her leg.
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It was Christmas time. Mark and Maureen's first Christmas as a couple, to be exact. The duo had gone ice skating at Rockefeller Center for a date. It was Maureen's idea, actually. Mark wanted nothing to do with ice skating. The last time he'd skated, his sister, Cindy, wouldn't stop pushing him down. He ended up with bruises…everywhere.
Maureen had to drag Mark on the ice. They held hands as they slowly made their way around the ring. Mark gripped the side rail as if his life depended on it.
"Pookie, you're doing great!"
Slow and steady wins the race, he thought. "Really?"
Maureen nodded. Suddenly, a little girl skated right past Maureen, knocking into her arm. Maureen lost her balance and fell over, bringing Mark down with her. He landed right on top of her leg.
Her cries were loud and desperate.
She was brought to the hospital and sent home with a giant cast on her right leg. She could barely walk at all, and since there were no elevators in their building, Mark had to carry her up the stairs. He placed her in their bed and waited on her hand and foot.
Maureen had decided that she was tired of screaming for Mark whenever she needed something, so Mark went into the spare bedroom and found a cowbell for his girlfriend.
He handed it to her. "Here. So you don't have to scream."
"Where the hell did you get this?"
"Last Halloween…cows…drunken mistake…don't ask."
"Oh. Okaaaay, then."
For the next month, the only thing Mark, Roger, Benny, and April ever heard was Maureen's incessant 'ringing'.
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She looked through the rest of the pictures. The photos brought back happy memories of their relationship. As she dug deeper through the pile, she started to see pictures from Roger's withdrawal. These photographs only made her realize why she broke up with him in the first place.
She'd gotten bored of Mark staying with Roger every night, making sure that he was okay. Wasn't she supposed to be his first priority? So what if they're best friends. She was his girlfriend. Maureen was fed up with always being alone, so she decided to experiment. That's when she met Joanne. That's when her and Mark's relationship started going downhill.
She snapped back to reality. "Y-you still have these?" Mark nodded. "Why? It's over, Mark. No use in dwelling on the past, right?"
"Well…"
"Well, what?"
"Well, I'm convinced you'll get over it."
"Get over what?"
"Being a lesbian."
"What?"
"I'm convinced you'll get over being a lesbian and come crawling back to me. It's just a phase, like…like girls and horses."
"Girls and horses? You're comparing me to girls and horses?"
"What? I'm just saying...I'm just saying that in the back of my mind I know you'll run back to me when you tire of girls, that's all."
She sat down next to him on the bed. "Mark. Listen to me. I'm not going to tire of girls. I love Joanne—"
"But you love me, too!"
"Loved, Mark. I loved you. Then I realized that I was a lesbian and everything changed."
Mark looked down at the ground. "But…I know you, Maureen. You're not one to resist change. You always change your mind. In the end it's gonna be you and me. You know that."
She sighed and leapt off the bed. "Mark! Why the hell are you so blind? All my life I've known who I was meant to be."
"Then why the hell were you ever with me?"
"I..I…you just need to get laid, Mark. I bet I could set you up with someo—" She was cut off by Mark kissing her. Her eyes remained open the whole time. She didn't kiss him back. Instead, she pushed him away.
"Mark! What the hell was that for?" He shrugged. "I'm with Joanne now, Mark. You know that."
He let out an exasperated sigh. "In time you'll beg for my kiss."
"Don't bet on it." And with that, she grabbed her cowbell and stormed out of the loft.
Mark tried to shake Maureen out of his thoughts, but she was the only thing he could think about. He cleaned up the mess she had made and walked out into the living room. Roger was in the kitchen, looking in the refrigerator. "What the fuck was that all about?"
"Don't ask…" Roger handed him a beer. Mark opened his and took a sip, while Roger chugged most of the can. "No, seriously, man. How are you?"
"Without her?" Roger nodded, taking his last sip of beer. "I'm lonely, bored, and horny."
Roger stared at him, his eyes as wide as could be, and spit his beer out right in Mark's face. Roger burst out laughing. Mark's expression was a cross between anger and disgust.
"Davis, I'm gonna
kill you!" Mark said, chasing Roger throughout the loft with his
can of beer in hand.
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A/N- So, how'd you like it? Reviews are awesome, so if you read, PLEASE REVIEW!
-I don't own the lyrics to Precious Little Meltdown (by Adam Pascal)-
-See if you can find the RENT NYTW references in here! There are a lot, so let me know if you find them when you review!-