AN: This might be a little choppy. Sorry about that. I did my best. The chapter's purpose is filling in the passage of time, and setting the stage for the story's main plot.
"Roger, come on!" Mimi cried, as a grinning Roger tightened his hold on her waist, pulling her back onto the couch. "I need to go!"
"No, you don't," Roger insisted, nuzzling Mimi's neck, prompting a fresh wave of giggles from her.
"Yes, I do!" Mimi managed to say between giggles. "I have to go to work now!"
"Why?" Roger whined, kissing Mimi's ear this time.
"I'll be late if I don't leave now, Roger."
"So?"
"So, if I'm late, I'll get fired."
"Good. That means you'll get to spend more time here, with me."
"As tempting as that sounds, babe," Mimi laughed, trying to squirm away as Roger tried to kiss her neck as well. "I need to keep this job. It helps pay for our AZT, remember?"
"Aw, but Meems," Roger cooed, massaging her shoulders gently. "I wanna celebrate my first official meeting with the record company tomorrow with my girl."
"Guys!" Mark interrupted from across the room, finding he couldn't take the display any longer. "Can't you take that somewhere else?"
"Hey, it's our Loft too, Mark," Roger growled. "You could leave if it really bothers you." Mark scowled, but went back to his attempt at fixing the VCR they had found the other day, getting it ready for their unveiling of the Angel Dedication movie on Halloween night. The movie had been completed a few days ago, and now resided in the cashbox which stood locked on the old cabinets on one side of the Loft, next to the camera Mark was borrowing from his old Buzzline friend. The camera's true owner was out of town until November, so Mark hadn't had a chance to return it yet.
As Mark went back to working on the VCR, Roger went back to his attempt at getting Mimi to stay. At that moment, they heard a soft cough, like someone was trying to get their attention. Looking up, they noticed Penny smiling up at them. The little girl was dressed in a flowery skirt, and milky white blouse with a vibrant purple vest.
"Hi, Penny," Roger forced a smile, mildly annoyed by the interruption as Mimi cheerfully waved to Emily, who also had entered the Loft with Penny. "What brings you up here?"
"I wanted to show you my Halloween costume for trick-or-treating next week," Penny announced. "I'm going as a gypsy."
"Aw, Emily, you're taking her trick-or-treating?" Mimi smiled. "Bet that brings back memories of your trick-or-treating days."
"Actually, Mimi, I never went trick-or-treating," Emily confessed.
"Never?" Mark looked up in surprise.
"Well, Mark," Emily explained. "It's kind of hard to participate in an activity that involves the distribution of candy, when consuming said candy could end up killing you."
"Oh, right. Your diabetes," Mark nodded in understanding.
"Mimi!" Penny grinned. "Do you, Mr. Roger, and Mark wanna come take me trick-or-treating, too?" On hearing Penny giving out the invite, Emily glanced over slightly, as if waiting to hear the response.
"Sorry, Penny," Mimi answered. "But we have plans. Our old friend, Angel, loved Halloween, too. So we made a special video to honor her. We're keeping it in that cashbox over there, and we're going to watch it on Halloween, as a tribute to her memory." As Mimi spoke, no one noticed Emily lower her head sadly. Mimi glanced up at the clock. "Now I really have to get going. I need to get to work."
"Hold up!" Roger cried. "At least let me walk you there." Almost immediately after Roger and Mimi left, Mark decided to go out for some extra footage.
"See you later, Penny, Emily," Mark called, as he hurried out of the Loft, leaving the two watching him leave.
"Oh, too bad," Penny frowned. "I kinda really wanted them to join us."
"It's okay, Penny," Emily sighed. "You go down and change back into your normal clothes, okay? I still have a few hours before I have to go into work today, so we could go out for lunch. How's that sound?"
"Great!" Penny raced downstairs to change. As soon as she was out of sight, Emily's forced smile vanished, and she sadly watched out the window as Mark pedaled his bike down the street.
Halloween had finally arrived. Mark dashed around the Loft, getting his things together. He was meeting his friends at Marble Cemetery to visit Angel, and then they were all coming back to the Loft to watch the movie. However, he was running slightly late. Finally, pulling his scarf around his neck, he was out the door. On the way down the stairs, he nearly ran into Emily and Penny.
"Oh, hi, guys," Mark greeted, noticing Penny was in her gypsy costume. "Heading out for trick-or-treating?"
"Yeah!" Penny nodded. "You sure you don't want to join us?"
"I'm sorry Penny, but we already have plans."
"Then you better hurry and take care of them," Emily suggested curtly. Mark looked over at Emily in surprise.
"Emily? Is that a dress?" Mark blinked, taking in the sight of Emily in a black dress and matching beret, her frizzy mousy-brown hair pulled back in a ponytail.
"It was… my mother's," Emily confessed with a slight blush appearing in her cheeks. "She wore this to her poetry recitals. Why? Is something wrong with it?"
"No. It's just that I've never seen you wear anything like a dress before. You look different, that's all." Mark looked down at his watch. "Oh, sorry guys. I gotta run. Have fun trick-or-treating." Emily sighed heavily, watching Mark race down the stairs and out the door.
Hours later, the Bohemians returned to the Loft, everyone chatting away about looking forward to watching the Angel Dedication movie.
"Hey, wait a second," Roger suddenly spoke up, looking over at the cabinet. "The cashbox! It's already open!" Sure enough, the cashbox that held Angel's Dedication movie had been unlocked, and was opened slightly.
"But… who opened it?" Collins wondered.
"Oh, sh-t, Maureen," Roger accused. "You really couldn't wait a few more hours, could you?"
"What? Why do you automatically assume it was me?"
"Because you were the one who was dying to know what everyone else said, and you were the one I found listening outside the door when I was finished with my segment."
"Oh yeah?" Maureen snapped. "Well, Sherlock, how do we know you weren't the one who did it, and are just accusing me to throw everyone off the scent?"
"Calm down, Maureen," Collins reasoned. "If it was Roger, would he have pointed out the cashbox was opened?"
"Oh," Maureen frowned. "Good point. But that still doesn't tell us who did open it."
"Well, let's handle this logically," Joanne suggested. "Who had access to the cashbox?"
"Well, we all had equal chance of being alone with it today," Mark pointed out. "Wait. Mimi, didn't you have the key?"
"Don't look at me!" Mimi cried when everyone turned to her. "Why would I break the agreement we made about that movie?"
"Well, it was your cashbox, Mimi," Maureen pointed out.
"Guys, it wasn't me!" Mimi insisted. "Roger, you believe me, don't you?" Roger paused for a moment.
"Listen guys," Roger finally replied. "We all remember the time with Benny, when Mimi tried to tell me that she didn't cheat on me with him. I didn't truly believe her then, and I will always regret that now, because it resulted in us loosing a great deal of time that could have been spent together. Since then, I promised that I wouldn't be so quick to doubt Mimi. So, unless we have absolute proof, I can't stand by and allow you to send off unfounded accusations towards her."
"Well, one of us must have opened it," Mark mused.
"Okay, that's it," Joanne sighed in exasperation. "Roger has a point. Random accusations are getting us nowhere. We know one of us watched it beforehand, so we no longer have anything to loose by just watching it together now. After all, we planned on it now, anyway. And maybe by doing that, we can figure out who the culprit is."
"How?" Mimi wondered.
"Well, I don't think anyone here would break our agreement to just view it ahead of time." Joanne replied. "We all knew we'd watch it soon enough. So, the only logical reason left would be if they wanted to do their segment over again, to add or correct something."
"Oh, yeah," Mark nodded. "If you film over something, there sometimes can be faint images of the original piece that can be seen in the background."
"You seem to know a bit about motives behind the culprit," Maureen charged. Joanne gave her a stern look.
"I'm a lawyer, Maureen. It's my job to think like that."
"Enough," Collins barked, starting to loose his patience. "Let's just sit down and watch it, okay? There will be no more accusations, until we're absolutely sure who did it." Slowly, the Bohemians took up their places around the television, while Mark inserted the tape into the VCR. Together, they started to watch.
AN: And this is where the mystery component begins, sort of like a 'whodunit?' The following chapters will each be dedicated to the individual segments of each Bohemian. (This is the hard part, so bear with me.) Until next time...