Chapter Two: You'll See

Disclaimer: I still do not own Rent, and probably for the best, because if I did, I would have renamed it "Roger and Roger's Issues."

"Benny, that attitude toward the homeless is exactly what Maureen is protesting," I call down.

"Maureen is protesting losing her performance space, not my attitude," Benny pointed out, slamming his car door shut. Hm, Maureen, god bless her, does tend to be a bit…um…self-focused sometimes. Or all the time. But still, if she's protesting losing her performance space because Benny wants to build a cyber-studio, then doesn't that mean that she is technically protesting his attitude? Just maybe not his attitude about the homeless?

As Roger and I head off towards our epic confrontation, he informs me that he's fairly certain that a fangirl moved in downstairs. Hm…must research this potential fangirl. Not, of course, like I'm a stalker who must know everything about everyone I know or anything.

"Close up: Benjamin Coffin the third, our ex-roommate who married Alison Grey, of the Westport Greys," I narrate, training my camera on him. I hope this doesn't turn into a dramatic confrontation, because with the way Roger has decided that Benny is pure evil, he'll probably steal my film and rip every frame with Benny in it into little tiny pieces and then burn them and flush the ashes down the toilet.

"His father-in-law bought several building on the block and a nearby vacant lot, home to Tent City." I almost said Muffy there, curse Roger's influence. "Benny hopes to evict all of the homeless from Tent City and build a cyber-studio." That has a much lamer name than Tent City. I know, I didn't think it was possible, but apparently it is.

"Roger," Benny turns his attention away from me, the semi-biased cameraman, and towards Roger, who looks like he's about three seconds away from grabbing Benny's switchblade and attacking him with it. "You're looking good for a guy coming off of a year of withdrawal." Well, no duh, Benny. After a year, it's pretty much all out of your system, and seeing as how, to the best of my knowledge, That Man doesn't make house calls, then Roger has no possibly way of getting any drugs even if his resolve had weakened, because I think he forgot how to use the stairs. He totally made me go first to get down here, so he was probably just mimicking my mad-stair-descending skills. God knows how he'll get back up…

"What do you want, Benny?" Roger snapped, looking all emo again. Great, I've gotta find an excuse to ditch him when this is over because I still don't know what to film and so am TOTALLY not in the mood to listen to him angst all night. Maybe that mysterious fangirl of his can help. They're supposed to be really good at that.

"Well, my investor-"

"You mean your father-in-law?" Roger corrected.

"Right," Benny said shortly. Roger wouldn't know this because whenever anybody mentions Benny, he starts making another voodoo doll, but Benny and his father-in-law aren't exactly on speaking terms at the moment. Something about Benny calling his wife 'Muffy' on their anniversary, so he is convinced that Benny is cheating on her. Which he is, of course, but not with anyone named Muffy as far as I know. And I WOULD know. Because I care. And that's not weird. I blame the 'Muffy' thing on Roger and his inability to remember the name Alison. Or any name that starts with an A ever since April died. The minute he leaves the apartment, I am getting him a shrink. I would have gotten him one long before now, but none will come to the flat because apparently it's a "Death Trap" or whatever.

"Read about Maureen's performance in the Village Voice." Why in the world was he even reading that in the first place? You'd think it would offend his delicate sellout sensibilities. "Got pissed and sent me down here to collect the rent." Although why in the world he's blaming us for this is beyond me. I read that article and it TOTALLY mentioned her ditching me for Joanne. Hell, come to think of it, reading that article was how I found out that Maureen was ditching me for Joanne. You know, that actually might be part of why we broke up: an unbelievable lack of communication.

"What rent?" I asked quickly, hoping that he'd magically forget that he'd put up (or hired people to put up, he's kind of been scared of the Alphabet City ever since he sold out. Man, and they say it's hard to get out of GANGS…) about our imminent eviction.

"The past year's rent, which I let slide." Yeah, but clearly he didn't let it slide all that far, or else his father-in-law wouldn't know that we hadn't paid for an entire year. Well, that we hadn't paid because of Benny for a year.

"You said we were golden." Yeah, and I even had it on film until Roger decided to burn the film and flush the ashes down the toilet. "When you bought the building. When we were roommates. Remember, you lived here?" He's now down to two seconds before Roger kills him and buries him here.

"How could I forget? You me, Collins, and Maureen." And Roger. Is he hoping that by pretending Roger's not there he won't kill him? That hasn't worked since Roger stopped using. "How is the drama queen?" He didn't read the notorious article?

"She's getting ready for a performance," I said noncommittally.

"I know." So he DID read it! Why must people ask me questions to which they already know the answer? Stupid Benny. I'm TOTALLY going to edit my film to make him look stupid.

"Still her production manager?" He just said he read the article, which clearly states that I wasn't! Honestly, he really needs to break that skimming habit of his, badly.

"Not exactly…" Well, technically not at all, but I wouldn't put it past Benny to hire some guys to mess with Maureen's equipment and I don't believe they teach engineering at law school.

"Still dating her?" Oh, he is SO enjoying this. And he's about one second away before I beat Roger to the punch and stab Benny once for every stupid question he should already know the answer to since he's gotten here.

"I was dumped." And I don't want to talk about it. He wants any more info, he can go read that damn article. Or ask Roger; he's got it memorized. Man, if his non-stop laughing at my expense wasn't doing wonders for his emo-ness I would totally be pissed at him.

"She got a new man?" Well, I've never met this mysterious "Joanne", so I suppose technically she could have gotten a sex change operation as I don't think lawyers normally dress in drag. That just isn't considered very prestigious for some reason.

"Well…No." I'm pretty sure that Joanne is, in fact, a girl. Or, at least would like to be referred to as a girl. And real men don't break up perfectly happy long-term relationships anyway!

"What's his name?" I JUST TOLD HIM THAT SHE DIDN'T HAVE A NEW MAN SO WHY ASK ME FOR THE NONEXISTANT OTHER MAN'S NAME? DIE BENNY, DIE!

Oh great, now I'm turning into Roger. It's a good thing Collins is back or else the two of us would probably sink into a bottomless pit of despair and just outright die of emo-ness. Speaking of Collins, I really should think about looking for him when we make Benny go away. But that could be awhile…Benny likes to hear himself talk and he can't talk to himself because while it is much less annoying, it is also a symptom of mental illness so instead Benny has to bother us while we pretend that we care. Or, scratch that, while I pretend that I care and Roger stands around looking cool and attracting fangirls.

"Joanne," Mark and I say together and I am so proud of myself: I totally managed to keep a straight face. Despite the fact that Mark turned Maureen into a lesbian. I mean, I suppose technically it's a biological thing or whatever, but it's so much funnier thinking about it my way.

'Jo-' Benny, Spawn of Satan, mouths before bursting out laughing and taking more posters down. Uh, duh, dude. You totally lose laughing at your friend's misery privileges when you start charging us to hang out with you. Or live in your building, whatever. The point is: We are not friendship whores!

"Thanks for being so understanding," Mark says, sounding hurt. I'm surprised by this. It's almost as if he doesn't realize the evilly evilness of the evildoer standing in our presence. But then, he does leave the flat a bit more than I do, so I'd hate to think of what he might see that makes Benny seem like only a minor Judas.

See, THIS is why I don't leave the house. The stairs thing was just…um, because I was so thrown off that a fangirl had moved in downstairs that ordinary, easy, everyday things like stairs and how to use them just suddenly flew from my mind!

"You expect sympathy from the guy who shut off our power on Christmas Eve?" I ask. Hm, maybe I should start calling Benny 'The Guy' to compare his dastardly dastardliness with that of 'The Man' who sells drugs in a park full of schoolchildren.

"Got your attention, didn't it?" Well, yes, but so does the phone. That's what Collins used. Or, at least it got Mark's attention, but I SO wouldn't have even come down here to keep the fact that we technically know Benny as low-key as possible if it weren't for Mark anyway, so he really could have just called. And besides, I don't get what the whole 'charging rent' thing is about anyway. Anyone who can afford rent would live somewhere that is not voted the third most dangerous place to live in all of New York and I'm sure Muffy's father is far too cheap to bother tearing the building down, so why bother, really?

Now I am both confused and annoyed and somehow it is warmer out here than in our apartment and that is even more annoying, so now I'm going to start singing and hope by the end of the song Benny will magically be gone.

I walk up to Benny (shudder, shudder) and push him back slightly. "What happened to Benny? What happened to his heart? And the ideals he once pursued?" But then, come to think of it, those ideals pretty much just consisted of making money and buying expensive things and showing off how much better he was than everyone around him. Perhaps I've got it all wrong: He hasn't abandoned his ideals after all, he's merely achieved them.

"Any owner of that lot next door has the right to do with it as he pleases," Benny replied snootily. Yeah, great Benny, but we don't care about your stupid cyber-studio. Or, at least, I don't. Maureen's protesting it and I know she and Mark just broke up so who knows what he even thinks about it. But anyway, the point is that we just don't want to pay rent and if we are forced to actually come up with our own way to avoid it, a little more advanced notice would be nice.

"Happy birthday, Jesus!" I mutter, heading over to sit on Benny's truck. Hah! And he totally can't even yell at me until the song is over, by which point either he will be gone or I really will have to confiscate that switchblade. It really isn't very respectable, being illegal and all, and while that's not a problem for an ex-junkie rocker, it could prove embarrassing for a respectable businessman like Benny.

"The rent-" Benny began.

"You're wasting your time," Mark informed him. I mean, honestly, when has he EVER known us to pay rent? Ever? Seriously, it's no wonder all our ex-landlords hate us and I suppose that it's only natural that Benny hates us now, too. But he is still evil!

"We're broke," I pointed out. So we actually have a legitimate reason for not paying. Although, come to think of it, we're probably be able to pay if we would simply get jobs and not spend all of our money on designer clothes…

"And you broke your word—this is absurd." Apparently Mark can't get past Benny's blatant iniquity either. Good to know. Or perhaps he was just referring to the tenant three windows over from ours and two floors under who just pointed to us and made a slashing motion across his neck. Honestly, it's not our fault he's been brainwashed by corporate America. I was off being Emo about April, Mark was probably filming it, and Collins was wondering exactly how you can teach a class about anarchy at the time.

"There is one way you won't have to pay," Benny announced. Ah, so he DOES have some diabolical reason for coming to pester us.

"I knew it!"

Benny chose to ignore that. "Next doors the home of CyberArts, you see, and now that the block is rezoned, our dream can become a reality!" Um, YOUR dream, Benny. Your dream. You're the one who has always been obsessed with making lots of money and having a shiny new studio. Personally, I just want to know why I can't stop playing Musetta's waltz and why it's taken Mark five years and he's STILL not done with his documentary. Come to think of it, he probably is, too. Hm, maybe it's the fact I keep looting and sporadically destroying his footage? Nah. But I do know he was almost finished when April died and he decided to cut out anything that had to do with her, and then the rest of it didn't make sense, so…

"You'll see, boys." I twitched. He's, what, three years older than us, tops. That does NOT make us 'boys.' He noticed this and, because he's apparently suicidal, he smirked and dragged out his next line. "You'll see, boys. A state-of-the-art, digital, virtual interactive studio." He does realize that that went right over my head, right? Basically I heard, 'Blah, blah, blah, I'm a sellout and if you become sellouts too then you don't have to pay your rent and Roger can join a boy band and Mark can work for Buzzline."

"I'll forgo your rent-" AGAIN? And wouldn't his father-in-law have a problem with that as he was sent here specifically to forcibly collect it? And he must have been pretty serious, or there's no way that Benny would actually be here. "And on paper guarantee that you can stay here for free…" Hey, wait, didn't we get it on paper last time? No, wait, we got it on film. Whatever happened to that, anyway? I seem to remember being drunk and seeing it just lying around in Mark's camera in his room locked in his closet and…Oh God…Stupid alcohol. I'm going to have to drink SO much more in order to forget that this whole mess is technically partially my fault. But really! Mark should be more careful of his things and not leave them out where anyone with locking picking skills could find them.

"If you do me one small favor." Please, if it were a small favor, he really would have just called. That would be SO much cheaper than the gas for his Range Rover.

"What?" Mark asked, seeing that I was about to flip Benny off and apparently not hating Benny nearly as much as I do.

"Convince Maureen to cancel her protest." Ha, right, like we have any control over what that girl does. And getting her EX-BOYFRIEND to try and convince her…God, being a sellout really DOES kill brain cells. Typical.

"Why not just get an injunction or call the cops?" Perhaps I ought to have been concerned when Maureen randomly started using all that legal jargon…Ah well, it's too late now.

"Yeah I did, but my investors-"coughfather-in-lawcough "would rather I handle this quietly…" You know, the entire time he's been here, he's been ripping posters down. I don't know why, I mean, Maureen made me put up about fifteen hundred in the Alphabet City alone and everyone already knows about the protest anyway, thanks to the Village Voice

"You can't quietly wipe out an entire tent city then watch it's a wonderful life on TV!" Roger gets off the car and gets into Benny's personal space.

Benny retaliates by pushing Roger, who, for his part, looks like Benny's mere touch is agony, back a bit and attacking me with my scarf. Which is slightly odd. And a bit embarrassing. It's like:

'Oh, so what'd you do today Mark?'

'Oh, nothing much, just sang a bunch of songs, found out we had candles, lit a trashcan on fire…Oh, and I got attacked by a scarf.'

'…Right.'

"You wanna produce films and write songs?" Um…yes. Haven't you learned that in all the years you lived with us? My God, you're an even worse friend that I thought if you felt the need to phrase that in question form. "You need somewhere to do it!" Good point. Except, of course, that you can really write songs anyway and you can't very well shoot documentary inside a cyber-studio. Unless, of course, it happened to be ABOUT a cyber-studio. Unless, of course, the cyber-studio was secretly homeless and had AIDS.

"It's what we used to dream about, think twice before you pooh-pooh it." Oh God…POOH-POOH it?!?! Poor Benny, he's even farther gone that I had though. He must've gotten that phrase from Alison, because I'm almost positive he would have gotten shut for saying something like that here. Multiple times. Come to think of it, I can see t here people loading guns. Benny better get out of here, quickly.

And honestly, just because he married wealth is no reason to start using the royal we on us! 'What we used to dream about'? Honestly? He's the one who dreamt about it and he's not royalty and so he really should stop acting like it. Or do his part to end homelessness by hiring a chauffer.

"You'll see boys, you'll see boys," he echoed, enjoying pissing Roger off and clearly having no idea just how much his life was in danger right now. "You'll see the beauty of a studio-"Yeah, that's not weird at ALL. "That let's us do our work and get paid." Please, what do we need money for besides rent? Roger's fangirls are usually more than willing to pay for everything else we need.

"With condos on the top, whose rent keeps open our shop-" We might have considered it, we really might have, until he used the R word. "Just stop the protest and you'll have it made." Um, yeah. We wouldn't have to pay rent and all, but we'd still live in a deathtrap and that's not exactly what I'd consider 'having it made.' And I honestly don't think that there's anything in this world that can stop Maureen's quest for constant media exposure.

"You'll see," he declared confidently. "Or you'll pack." Then he just up and left without even saying goodbye! Or Merry Christmas! Ah well, maybe he saw Roger about to lunge for that switchblade finally.

Now that that's over with, it's time for the true test: Seeing if Roger can get up the stairs in under ten minutes.

A/N: Review, please!