AN: These next two chapters will contain some drama. Cause it's RENT, and you can't have RENT without at least some drama, can you?
"Roger, you can stop pacing," Mimi advised, sitting on the bench outside the bus station. "It's not going to make this any easier."
"Sorry, Meems," Roger sighed. "I'm just a little edgy about this. It's been years since I last saw them."
"I haven't seen my parents in years, either," Mimi pointed out. "And at least with you, they still have some way to know what you're up to. Your parents live near Mark's parents, don't they? You can't make me believe Mark's mother doesn't pass on all the information she gets about you from Mark to your mother. My parents, on the other hand, don't have that luxury."
"Okay, you got me there." A small smile appeared on Roger's face.
"And you better remember that," Mimi smirked in response. Roger smiled tenderly at Mimi before glancing at the clock. Both his and Mimi's parents had accepted the wedding invitations, and would be arriving at any moment to meet with their child and future in-law. "Come on, Roger, baby. Sit down. They'll get here when they get here."
"Yeah, okay," Roger gave in and plopped down on the bench next to Mimi. Once Roger was sitting, Mimi entwined her fingers with Roger's and rested her head on his shoulder. They sat for a while until a pair of voices was heard.
"Hannah, stop fussing with your hair. It looks fine. We're in a bus station, not the Ritz."
"Well, excuse me for wanting to look my best when I see my baby boy!" Roger's head snapped up immediately. Mimi followed his gaze to a couple who was walking up. The man had Roger's green eyes, as well as his nose and chin. As for the woman, her hair and complexion was the same as Roger's.
"'Ey, Mom, Dad," Roger greeted hesitantly as he got up off the bench. Within an instant, Hannah had pulled her son into a large hug.
"Oh, Roger!" she cried. "I can't believe my little boy is getting married!" Hannah stepped back to get a good look at Roger. "Hmm. And what's with the necklace? And your hair? Are you a boy or a girl?"
"Mom, come on. A lotta guys are growing their hair long."
"Forget his hair," Kyle sighed, glancing at Mimi. "So, Roger. Is this the girl?"
"Yeah, Mom, Dad, this is Mimi."
"It's nice to meet you," Mimi smiled, trying to make a good first impression. "Was the trip from Scarsdale nice?"
"Well, apart from this one family," Kyle replied. "We were sitting right in front of this family with this son who kept kicking the back of my seat, and the daughter kept reciting the first four letters of the alphabet repetitively. And their parents didn't even try to get them to stop."
"Kyle, it doesn't really matter now, does it?" Hannah pointed out. "The trip's over, after all. That other family has gone off somewhere else."
"I guess you have a point," Kyle ran his hand through his hair. Mimi suppressed a giggle, remembering all the times she'd seen Roger do the exact same thing. Now, she finally knew where he picked up that habit from.
"Well, how about we get your suitcases in the van?" Roger suggested.
"When did you get a car?" Hannah sounded surprised. "We were always under the impression that most of your money went to things like food, rent, and…. your medicine."
"It does," Roger glanced at his feet awkwardly, picking up on his mother's hesitant reference to his HIV status. "It's actually our friend's van. We're just borrowing it to pick you and Mimi's parents up." Nodding in understanding, Kyle took hold of his luggage, while Roger carried Hannah's.
"I'll be along in a moment," Mimi waved. "My parents should be along soon, and I'll need to meet them." Once Roger had gone with his parents to load the suitcases in Emily's van, Mimi sat back down on the bench to wait for her parents. She hadn't been waiting for more then ten seconds when she heard a familiar voice ringing out.
"I'm hungry! When are we gonna eat!"
"We'll eat after we meet up with your sister and her fiancé. Now stop complaining." Mimi stood back up, half smiling and half wincing. She should have known her parents, Carlos and Tierra, would be bringing along her brother and sister too; the vocal Rio, and little Gracia, who had only been a baby when Mimi had left home.
"Mom, Dad!" Mimi waved, hurrying up to greet them with a hug.
"Maria! My little hija!" Tierra shrieked in excitement, returning the hug fervently. "Oh, look at you! You've become a beautiful young lady! But look how thin you are! Are you really eating enough?"
"I'm fine, Madre!" Mimi insisted before hugging her mother again. "I missed you."
"Oh, we missed you too, hija!"
"What about me?" Carlos joked.
"I missed all of you, Dad." Mimi laughed as she hugged her siblings and father in turn.
"Okay, we've seen her," Rio whined. "Now can we eat? I'm so hungry!"
"Yes, we're going to eat now!" Carlos groaned. "You can stop complaining, you bottomless pit. Now, then. Where is this boy that has my daughter so smitten?"
"He's taking his parents' suitcases to the van we borrowed from a friend." Mimi explained as she led her family to the parking lot. "How was the bus ride?"
"Overall, it was fine," Carlos stated. "But there was this rather rude couple who kept giving us dirty looks when Rio's leg fell asleep and he had to stretch it." The smile on Mimi's face quickly started to disappear in her worry. Did that mean what she was afraid it meant? Before Mimi could say anything, she found that they had arrived at the van.
"Hey, Meems. These are your parents, and siblings?" Roger smiled, heading over to shake Carlos' hand. As he did so, he smiled slightly, remembering Mimi's words to him on the night they had met. 'Big. Like my father's.'
"Hi. Roger Davis," Roger introduced himself. Mimi suddenly flinched, noticing that Kyle had looked up and, judging by the look on his face, recognized her family from the bus.
"I don't believe it!" Kyle hissed. "They followed us!?" Carlos and Tierra both looked over, and also recognized Kyle and Hannah.
"Why would we follow you?" Carlos demanded. "Like we didn't have enough of you glaring at us on the bus ride."
"Well, maybe you should do a better job of keeping your children in line!"
"You've got some nerve, telling us how to raise our children," Tierra stepped into the argument.
"If you could call sitting back while they act up 'raising' them," Hannah commented.
"Wait a moment. What's going…?" Roger was about to speak up, but Mimi stopped him by placing a hand on his arm.
"You know those people who were sitting behind your parents on the bus?" she whispered.
"Yeah, but what's that got to do with….?" Roger cringed, instantly realizing what Mimi was talking about. "Oh, sh-t."
Lunch had been anything but pleasant. Kyle and Hannah & Carlos and Tierra had kept shooting angry glares at one another throughout the whole meal, and all of Roger and Mimi's attempts at keeping things friendly failed miserably. Things hadn't improved when they had returned to the Loft, either. Both sets of parents were seated rather stiffly on the couch, showing their disapproval at being so close to the other, while Roger and Mimi sat nearby on the chair..
"Anyway," Kyle began, making an effort. "How exactly do you two make enough money to live here?
"I play the lead guitar in a band, and we get a decent amount of money from our gigs," Roger explained. "And Mimi works at NYU, teaching dance."
"Ah, so you're still dancing, then," Carlos eyed Mimi.
"Yes, Dad. I can't stop doing something that I love so much. I told you that before I left, remember?" For a few moments, there was silence from both sets of parents, which was broken when Gracia lightly tugged on Tierra's sleeve.
"Mama, can I have some 'uice?"
"There's some in my bag. Just be careful not to spill." Gracia took a small juice box from her mother's bag and started wandering around the Loft, drinking up the juice silently.
"When you say you're in a band," Carlos glanced over at Roger. "What sort of music do you play?"
"Mainly rock, but…"
"Oh, don't tell me he's one of those," Carlos mumbled.
"Sorry, one of what?" Roger held back the retort he really wanted to give out. No sense making an even bigger mess.
"Dad, don't," Mimi begged, but to no avail. Carlos had already started up.
"I've seen a great deal of those rocker punks," Carlos frowned. "Self-proclaimed bad boys, only interested in drugs, sex, and alcohol."
"Dad, he's not like that," Mimi insisted.
"Is that right? How do you he won't go… gallivanting around and start chatting up the next…."
"We've been together for over two years, excluding a rather rocky point in the first year," Mimi pointed out. "If he was like that, do you really think he'd have stuck around this long?" Carlos instantly gave in, unable to counter Mimi's argument.
"Sir, believe me, I love your daughter," Roger built up the courage to speak up. "I wouldn't do anything to hurt her. I made that mistake once, during that rocky point Mimi mentioned, and I swore I'd never do that again." Carlos nodded once, but it seemed that Roger had passed that test.
"So, over two years," Hannah smiled. "Not to pry, but that seems like a long time. I don't suppose there's been any talk about, I don't know, a grandchild?"
"I… I'm sorry, Mrs. Davis," Mimi looked away, unable to meet Hannah's eyes. "But… it'll be too risky."
"Mom," Roger continued for Mimi, lightly squeezing her hand in reassurance. "What Mimi means is, the chances that we'd pass on HIV to a child, when we both have it….."
"He has it too!?" Tierra cried out suddenly. "Maria, you never told us you both had it!"
"Tierra, calm down," Carlos instructed.
"Well, what am I supposed to do?" Tierra asked before gesturing to Mimi. "First with this one being a Cat Dancer, …."
"Mom, first of all, I quit that job ages ago." Mimi groaned. "And I wasn't a Cat Dancer, I was a dancer at the Cat Scratch."
"Cat Scratch?" Kyle's eyebrows shot up instantly. "Isn't that a strip club? Don't tell me that's how you met, Roger."
"Dad, it wasn't like that," Roger tried to explain.
"Did she or did she not dance around in front of men, removing her clothes?" Kyle fired back. Roger winced in response. He always hated being reminded that Mimi used to do that.
"You know what they say." Kyle continued. "If you look like a duck, and act like a duck…" Roger was seized by a sudden anger. But before he could retort, Carlos beat him to it."
"Don't you dare call my daughter a slut, or a whore!"
"Oh, bit rich coming from the man who implied my son would turn out to be a cad!" The fighting quickly began to escalate, until Karl ended up accidentally knocking over some empty beer bottles, which shattered on the floor. As the sound of shattering glass filled the room, Gracia suddenly began crying from Roger and Mimi's bedroom, where she'd wandered into earlier. Tierra quickly left the room to tend to her youngest daughter, but froze at the doorway.
"Oh no!" Tierra cried. Worried by the tone in her mother's voice, Mimi went to see what had happened. The instant Mimi looked in, she realized what happened from the scene she was greeted with. When the beer bottles had smashed, Gracia had gotten scared and spilled her juice onto the box the wedding dress had been stored in. When the box was opened, it was discovered that the purple liquid had quickly leaked through the cardboard, completely staining the dress.
"Oh, dear," Hannah had followed them into the room with Roger, and had immediately seen the state of the dress. "I hope they'll be able to get this out at the dry cleaners."
"That's right, hija," Tierra consoled. "They have special procedures for cleaning wedding dresses."
"Get out," Mimi whispered. When no one moved, she spun around, glaring at everyone. "All of you! Just get out! I can't take any of you anymore! We're supposed to be getting married in a few days, and all of you are just… JUST GET OUT!" After only hesitating a moment longer, the two families left the Loft for the hotel they were staying at. The stain on the wedding dress seemed to do one good thing, however. Kyle and Carlos were both looking abashed. It was as if Mimi's mention of the words 'getting married' had reminded them of why they were in New York to begin with, and all their fighting had stopped.
Once everyone had gone, Roger crossed the room and sat down on the bed next to Mimi, who was holding the stained dress as a few tears of frustration spilled down her cheek.
"It's okay, Meems," Roger whispered, pulling her close. "They're just being parents, you know? Parents wanna know if their son or daughter made the right choice. And our moms are right. I'm sure they can fix the dress."
"It's not about the dress," Mimi choked. "I just wanted to get on your parents good side."
"Yeah, I wanted to do the same with yours."
"But they're all at each other's throats now. And that was only after about an hour. What if they get into an even bigger fight at the wedding, and…" Mimi couldn't continue, but Roger knew what she was trying to say. Breathing deeply, he took Mimi's face in his hands and forced her to look at him.
"Meems, please listen to me for a moment. This isn't about them. It's about you, and what you want. Why did you leave home when you did? It was because you weren't about to let your parents decide your life for you, wasn't it? So why let them make your choices for you now? I know I'm not letting my parents influence me.
"Look at it this way. With Romeo and Juliet, their families were even more fu-ked up then ours. That didn't stop them, did it."
"And where are they now?" Mimi gave him a look.
"True," Roger chuckled, noticing that the corners of Mimi's mouth was slightly curved upward, a sign that she was starting to feel better. "But at least they were happy." A second later, Mimi was laughing, her arms thrown around Roger's neck.
"Come on," Mimi jumped up off the bed few seconds later, pulling on Roger's arm. "We have a wedding dress to bring to the dry cleaners." Roger smiled, seeing the sparkle had returned to Mimi's face and eyes.
"That's my girl," he grinned, gently tucking the stained wedding dress back in its box and following Mimi out of the Loft.