3This is kind of random. I haven't actually written anything for RENT in over a year but I wanted to so I asked my friend to pick a character for me to write about and he picked Benny. So that's what this is. I think it turned out okay. I hope you like it! Please tell me what you think!
Looking back, Benny wishes he had made different choices. He wishes he had been a better person, helped more people, not ruined his relationship with his friends. His friends, who were the only people who were ever really there for him. Who he abandoned for...well, for money, really.
Benny used to be just like Mark, Roger, Collins, and Maureen. He was hopeful and wanted to follow his dreams without giving in to all big rich businesses and selling out. But after years of living in that loft in those awful conditions with no money and five other people, he started to wonder if giving in was really such a bad thing.
Then he met Alison. She was nice enough and she seemed to like him. And her father could give him so many opportunities. And so they got married. He married her for money. Something that just months before he would've been so disgusted by. But he did it anyway. He was so done with being poor.
And so he moved out of the loft and bought the building. His friends weren't happy about his decision (Roger and Maureen wouldn't even talk to him) and eventually they weren't even friends anymore.
Benny doesn't like to think of himself as the bad guy of the story. But he knows his friends did. And looking back, he knows he shouldn't have acted the way he did. He wasn't thinking about other people. He let the money and the power make him forget about what mattered. He regrets that quite a lot.
Benny was a good person. He likes to think he still is. He was just focusing on the wrong things. And when he saw what was happening to his friends, he knew he needed to do something. But he didn't know what to do.
That's why he paid for Angel's funeral. And for Mimi to go to rehab. He wanted to make things right with his friends. He knows Collins was grateful for what he did for Angel. Collins and Mark forgave Benny for the most part after that. They would meet up sometimes and hang out. It was never like it was. But it was something. Roger never forgave him. He was still hurt by everything that happened with Mimi.
It's been years since Angel's funeral. Alison left Benny not long after she found out about Mimi. He wasn't even really sad about it. They were never in love. Collins, Mimi, and Roger have all died. They've been gone for a while actually. Benny still thinks about them though. He misses them. He doesn't know what happened to Maureen and Joanne. He assumes they're still together. He talks to Mark every now and then. He's married with two kids now. He's happy.
And Benny? He's doing okay. He's working on trying to be a better person. More like the person he was when they all lived together in that loft on the corner of 11th Street and Avenue B. A lot of times he wishes he could go back. Go back and start all over again. Do all the things he should've done. But he can't. He never will. And that's just something he has to live with.