1Ties that Bind
By Donna
"It's not funny, Mimi!" Angel cried, throwing his arms dramatically, "I need help! Help me!"
Mimi shook her head, staring at the sight of the rather panicked boy in front of her. She grabbed one end of the tie and tried to tie it properly. "Why are you doing this again?"
"Because I'm going to see my dad today."
Mimi cringed. She was well-aware of her friend's rather rocky relationship with the man who helped conceive him. Hell, she knew quite a bit about Angel. He screamed Lifetime special. Born into a rather normal New York suburbia family, Angel had a need to think out of the rather straight-laced, four-walled house and Mommy-Daddy-Baby family structure. And it ended up backfiring on him for the most part, becoming caught in the "three D's" Disease, Drugs, and Drag. Not necessarily in that order, of course. His parents dropped him on his ass and he decided to go to Alphabet City, where he found Mimi. After getting clean from his addictions (which weren't anything that bad... cigarettes and various "club drugs"). But from what she could tell, the out, drumming, drag queen, clean, but HIV positive Angel was a great friend and person to have and look after at times.
Most of the time it was the other way around, but when it came to these "trying to fit in" issues, she had to help him out because, quite frankly, he was screwed. Dress clothes were literally a dress and fun things to do were manicures and sing showtunes really loudly into the night. Not son material. Not daughter material at times, either. But we digress.
Mimi straightened out Angel's tie and patted it against his chest. "There."
Angel looked at it, slightly saddened.
"Hey, I know you really hate doing this... but you know you have to patch up your shit with your dad."
"I know, I know, I just really hate doing this. This wouldn't be happening if..."
"...If you were a girl?"
"Yeah."
Mimi tried to be maternal and put her hand against his cheek. "Angel, if you were a girl we wouldn't have met. So to be perfectly honest, I don't ever want to hear you say that again. You are who you are and as we are financially, you can't change much about it. And why would you?"
Angel smiled. "I guess you're right, Mimi..." He put his hands on his hips and tried to strike a pose.
Mimi smiled. It was times like these of utter vulnerability that she deep down wished she could be what he wanted to ease his pain, if only a little bit.
But that wasn't going to happy, because as far as she could tell, she was a girl with hidden addictions and all she could possibly do for him was bring him down.
She patted the tie once more and said, "Well... you better get going." She kissed his cheek. "Good luck, Angie."
END