RENT (Lynnexa AU)

Tango: Sarah

Lynn

I made a pot of coffee for Brendon and I, maybe Steven too if he ever showed up. Brendon didn't find him last night, so we were just going to wait and see if he turned up or not.

I sat down with two mugs of coffee, the second mug for Brendon, and started reading the newspaper. Then our phone started to ring.

"Hey, we have power."

"Huh, Merry Christmas."

We let the phone ring until our answering machine said our voicemail message, "speak." It was Brendon and I saying it in unison.

"Brendo-o-on. Are you there? Are you screening your calls? It's Mom. Just wanted to call and say we love you. We miss you today. Cindy and the kids are here and they send their love. Oh, I hope you like the hot plate, just don't leave it on when you leave the house."

There was a voice in the background, a man's, he kept asking Brendon's mom for the phone.

"Gimme, let me have the phone! Hey, Brendon, listen, I'm sorry to hear that Sarah dumped you. I say, c'est la vie, let her be a lesbian! She doesn't know what she's missing. Happy Holidays."

The message ended, I started to break out laughing. Brendon sat down across from me and looked at our table and sighed heavily.

"You know, there are times when we're dirt-broke, hungry, and freezing. And I ask myself, 'why the hell am I still living here?' And then they call. And I remember."

I smiled at him, and he grabbed his cup of coffee and sat back down in the living room in his beaten down leather recliner.

I looked over to our window, and it was frosted over. Except there was writing on the window. It read, "Xmas brunch just us?" And a little arrow pointing down and the name, "Alexa."

"What's that?"

"The girl downstairs. Alexa."

"Oh, the dancer from the Cat Scratch club?"

"Yeah."

"Well, you're going right?"

"No."

"Oh, come on, Lynn-"

"Merry Christmas, bitches!" yelled a voice we knew. It was Steven, he finally turned up.

"Steven! You're only fourteen hours late, what the hell happened to you?"

Steven tossed the key to Brendon, and gave Steven a hug.

"Ow, ow, ow."

"Are you alright, Steven?"

"Never been better. Here."

He handed Brendon a white stained bucket, it's contents unknown to me. Steven hung up his coat on a hanger.

"Oh, hi."

"'Hi?' After seven months I only get a hi? Come here, Lynn."

"Sorry."

"You know what you need? This girl, needs some Stoli!"

He pulled out the bottle of vodka with some plastic red cups out of his bucket. There was also food inside that Brendon set on the table.

"Wow, this is a complete Christmas feast, thank you!"

"You struck gold at MIT."

Steven is a anarchist professor with AIDS. He taught at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT for short. He used to live with Me, Brendon, and Sarah when she was dating Brendon. Now it's just Brendon and me.