Cat Scratch-The Story of Mimi Marquez
Chapter One-Eviction
I sighed as I saw the paper taped to my apartment door. Oh great, I thought, I guess Benny's sick of being nice. That's real nice of him, give me my eviction notice on Christmas Eve. My best friend, Angel, put his arm around me as he spotted the notice on my door.
"How do you write a song, when the chords sound wrong, though they once sounded right and rare? When the notes are sour? Where is the power, you once had to ignite the air?!" Hm. I don't think I've heard that voice, before. Wouldn't mind hearing it again.
"Mimi, chica?" Angel asked. I was picturing myself tying Benny's good-for-nothing-'cept-maybe-a-good-fuck-now-and-then dick to a door knob, like someone would tie a loose tooth, than slamming the door as hard as humanly possible. I smiled slightly, and looked at my best friend, trying to hide the giggles I was starting to get. "I'm going to go drum a bit, kay?" Angel briefly hugged me before he walked back out of my apartment.
"…some life that we've chosen!" There was that damn sexy voice again. Apparently camera boy does actually have a friend, he doesn't just talk to himself, like Angel and I assumed he did.
"How we gonna pay, how we gonna pay, how we gonna pay last year's rent!" I was curious now, and listening quite intently, as camera boy walked up the stairs to his loft. I knew it was camera boy, sexy voice man must never leave his house, if I've never gotten a glimpse of him leaving the upstairs apartment. Judging by the duo's tone, I could tell they were in the same predicament I'm in, no money, no power, Benny being a jerk.
I heard the fire exit open upstairs, and watched as something looking like keys soared down into the hands of a rather large black guy who I think I might have seen around here before.
I turned away from the window, craving to hear that voice again. When I heard sounds from upstairs again, I noticed something about sexy voice man, his voice was clearly full of emotion, he must have been hurt bad at one point.
"How do you start a fire, when there's nothing to burn and it feels like something's stuck in your flue?"
"How can you generate heat, when you can't feel your feet." I heard what sounded like both guys jumping now, than both of their voices.
"And they're turning blue!"
"You light up a mean blaze!" Camera boy.
"With posters!" Aw, finishing each other's sentences, that's cute.
"And screenplays!" Obviously camera boy is obsessed with film or something.
"How we gonna pay, how we gonna pay, how we gonna pay last year's rent!" The guys sounded edgy now. I walked towards the fire exit of my apartment, searching my pockets for a cigarette as I went. I heard upstair's fire escape open once more, followed by camera boy's voice, full of question and concern now.
"Where is he?"
Before I even realized what I was doing, I was standing outside my fire escape, dropping my eviction notice, which I had just lit on fire, over the edge and into the street below. Sexy voice man joined camera man, and we all thought and exclaimed the same thing next.
"How we gonna pay, how we gonna pay, how we gonna pay last year's rent!" Hm, my voice sounded good with sexy voice man.
I heard camera boy's voice move away, and assumed he was going back inside, now was my chance!
"The music ignites the night with passionate fire"
"The narration crackles and pops with incendiary wit" Damn, sexy voice man was inside too. Is it so bad to want at least a glimpse of this mysterious guy who I didn't even know existed? Incendiary wit…what the hell was that supposed to mean? Maybe sexy voice man was a geek in disguise behind a sexy voice. Maybe the reason I've never noticed him is because he studies all the time or something. I shuddered. I wasn't one for the scholarly type.
"Zoom in as they burn the past to the ground." I actually rolled my eyes this time. Couldn't camera boy go 30 seconds without mentioning film?
"And feel the heat of the future's glow." Whoa, I just can't get over that damn voice!
"How do you leave the past behind when it keep finding ways to get to your heart? It reaches way down deep and tears you inside out, 'til you're torn apart. Rent!" That's so true. It's impossible to stay away from your past. It has a way of coming to get you, no matter what you do.
I blinked and noticed fire falling from above me. These guys are insane, they could have hit me!!
"How can you connect in an age where strangers, landlords, lovers, your own blood cells betray?" Wow. That was true too, my parents betrayed me, Trix betrayed me, Benny betrayed me…Those two know what they're talking about when it comes to life, that's obvious.
"What binds the fabric together, when the raging, shifting winds of change, keep ripping away!" Ugh. I noticed Benny pulling up in his Range Rover. Judging my everyone's reactions, they were just as excited to see him as I was.
My usually calm temper nearly flared at the next voice I heard. "Draw a line in the sand, and then make a stand!" That stupid fuck! Coming to cause more problems I assumed.
Apparently, sexy voice was sick of camera boy's camera too…
"Use your camera to spar!"
"Use your guitar!" Guitar!?!? Bonus. I got myself a musician…Well, sort of. He just had to find out that I exist, that's all.
"When they act tough--you call their bluff!" Everyone hated Benny and no one was gonna bother to hide it anymore.
"We're not gonna pay,"
"We're not gonna pay," I joined in this time, quietly, trying to blend my voice with sexy voice man's.
"We're not gonna pay," I said it again, louder this time.
"Last year's rent, this year's rent, next year's rent!" Everyone was raging at out landlord now.
"Rent, rent, rent, rent, rent! We're not gonna pay rent!"
And camera boy and sexy voice man pretty much summed it up.
"'cause everything is rent!"