40 Fandoms: RENT
Crossposted to
teis_stories
Title: Up Above
Fandom: RENT
Word Count: 567
Rating: PG-13 for drug use, implied death and cussin's
Timeline: Between Halloween and Christmas of 1990, while Roger is in Santa Fe.
Summary: Collins is lost without Angel; he and Mark don't know where to go next.
---
Mark watched as Collins took a drag off his blunt, sitting in the faded, blue lawn chair Roger usually occupied. But Roger was gone, off in Santa Fe, making a new life for himself, leaving Mark and Collins to shiver in the ever-chillier autumn air. Night had long since fallen on the two men, leaving them alone with the distant sounds of New York below them, sitting on the rooftop of their apartment building.
"So, what now...?" Collins asked, exhaling a cloud of smoke and fixing Mark with a somber gaze.
"What do you mean?"
"Angel is gone. Roger is gone. Mimi is missing, and Benny wants nothing to do with us." Collins pulled a quarter from his orange vest and held it up, light from the apartment next door reflecting off its surface. He flipped it around on his fingers, and Mark had to admire the dexterity of his friend. "Do we simply stay here, or do we follow Roger to Santa Fe?"
"Open up a restaraunt," Mark murmured, nodding. The quarter had become a flicker of light between Collins' chocolate-colored digits, flipping back and forth from the pointer finger to the pinky. "I...don't know. I really don't, and it's kind of scary."
"Life, right now, has come to a standstill for me. It's still Halloween in my mind." Collins' voice took on the philosophical tone Mark was familiar with hearing, but on a deeper level, he could also hear sorrow--the kind of sadness that only came from experiencing the same loss Collins had. "I've never felt this stuck before. With Angel, things just kept flowing, like water through a creek; now the water's become something more akin to rubber cement and I don't know how to change back."
"Collins, this isn't like you." Mark stood up from his own lawn chair and wrapped his scarf around his neck. "But I think I know what you mean. Part of me wants to stay here and sleep in the bed I've made, with Maureen and Joanne--"
"--but you know they wouldn't reciprocate." Collins chuckled, drawing a grin from Mark.
"But the rest of me thinks, maybe Santa Fe wouldn't be a lost cause, either."
"A conundrum if ever I've heard one." The quarter moved so fast that it looked more like a quicksilver sphere, glistening with a liquid quality against the night sky. "Stay and follow this broken path we know so well...or risk it all to find something new? If Angel were here, I'd know what to do."
"If Angel were here, neither of us would be in this situation." Mark held a hand out to his friend; the quarter stopped its movement, resting in the crook between Collins' thumb and forefinger. He brought his hand in close, examined the quarter, and shrugged, stuffing it away in his pocket. He accepted Mark's hand and got up to his feet, and the two old friends turned away from their lawn chairs, heading for the entrance back inside.
"Come on," Mark said, patting Collins on the shoulder. "Let's go to the Life Cafe and drown our sorrows. The answer'll come to us in time. It's my treat."
"You and your paying jobs. I used to have one of those." Collins offered him the half-burned blunt. "Mark, my man...are you sure you don't want to try a little hit off this shit?"
"Thanks, but I'll pass."
teis_stories
Title: Up Above
Fandom: RENT
Word Count: 567
Rating: PG-13 for drug use, implied death and cussin's
Timeline: Between Halloween and Christmas of 1990, while Roger is in Santa Fe.
Summary: Collins is lost without Angel; he and Mark don't know where to go next.
---
Mark watched as Collins took a drag off his blunt, sitting in the faded, blue lawn chair Roger usually occupied. But Roger was gone, off in Santa Fe, making a new life for himself, leaving Mark and Collins to shiver in the ever-chillier autumn air. Night had long since fallen on the two men, leaving them alone with the distant sounds of New York below them, sitting on the rooftop of their apartment building.
"So, what now...?" Collins asked, exhaling a cloud of smoke and fixing Mark with a somber gaze.
"What do you mean?"
"Angel is gone. Roger is gone. Mimi is missing, and Benny wants nothing to do with us." Collins pulled a quarter from his orange vest and held it up, light from the apartment next door reflecting off its surface. He flipped it around on his fingers, and Mark had to admire the dexterity of his friend. "Do we simply stay here, or do we follow Roger to Santa Fe?"
"Open up a restaraunt," Mark murmured, nodding. The quarter had become a flicker of light between Collins' chocolate-colored digits, flipping back and forth from the pointer finger to the pinky. "I...don't know. I really don't, and it's kind of scary."
"Life, right now, has come to a standstill for me. It's still Halloween in my mind." Collins' voice took on the philosophical tone Mark was familiar with hearing, but on a deeper level, he could also hear sorrow--the kind of sadness that only came from experiencing the same loss Collins had. "I've never felt this stuck before. With Angel, things just kept flowing, like water through a creek; now the water's become something more akin to rubber cement and I don't know how to change back."
"Collins, this isn't like you." Mark stood up from his own lawn chair and wrapped his scarf around his neck. "But I think I know what you mean. Part of me wants to stay here and sleep in the bed I've made, with Maureen and Joanne--"
"--but you know they wouldn't reciprocate." Collins chuckled, drawing a grin from Mark.
"But the rest of me thinks, maybe Santa Fe wouldn't be a lost cause, either."
"A conundrum if ever I've heard one." The quarter moved so fast that it looked more like a quicksilver sphere, glistening with a liquid quality against the night sky. "Stay and follow this broken path we know so well...or risk it all to find something new? If Angel were here, I'd know what to do."
"If Angel were here, neither of us would be in this situation." Mark held a hand out to his friend; the quarter stopped its movement, resting in the crook between Collins' thumb and forefinger. He brought his hand in close, examined the quarter, and shrugged, stuffing it away in his pocket. He accepted Mark's hand and got up to his feet, and the two old friends turned away from their lawn chairs, heading for the entrance back inside.
"Come on," Mark said, patting Collins on the shoulder. "Let's go to the Life Cafe and drown our sorrows. The answer'll come to us in time. It's my treat."
"You and your paying jobs. I used to have one of those." Collins offered him the half-burned blunt. "Mark, my man...are you sure you don't want to try a little hit off this shit?"
"Thanks, but I'll pass."