Summary: Me plus RENT times boredom equals MoJo high school fluff. Oneshot.

Disclaimer: I own nothing. I mean, come on, do you think if I owned RENT I'd be sitting here writing these? Didn't think so.

"You love me, right Joanne?" My hand stilled in a mass of brown curls. My breath caught in my throat. I looked down at my best friend, Maureen Johnson.

Did I love her? Of course I loved her. She was my Maureen. She was my best friend. I could tell her anything. Accept for the fact that I was head over heels in love with her.

I've always been a lesbian. I've never felt the need to deny it. It's a part of who I am, and I don't like hiding who I am. I like girls. But I love Maureen.

She and I have known each other for years. She's in all the big school drama and music things. She's a natural on stage and she can sing her ass off. I've always had a bit of a crush on her.

We became friends about half way through our junior year. She needed a math tutor, and because I was sailing my way happily through my pre calculus class, our math teacher instantly volunteered me.

I had always thought that she was a complete drama queen. Whenever I would see her in the hall she would be hanging all over her newest boyfriend and doing anything and everything she could to keep his attention on him.

She was actually a pretty cool person. Sure she can be loud and crude and down right strange, but that's not all there was to her.

She was sweet and funny and so damn adorable.

And she was really smart, she just didn't like people to know that. She would tell me that she was going to be an actress, so she didn't need to be smart and the rest of the world didn't need to know that she was smart.

I would just laugh and tell her that she did need to pass math to graduate. She would just laugh and roll her eyes and then continue to ignore all of my attempts to teach her math.

I spent the summer in Europe with my parents, even though I protested the entire time. I didn't want to leave Maureen.

The first day of our Senior year I was devastated to find out that not only was Maureen not taking a math class, but she had a new boyfriend.

Despite the fact that we had nothing in common she and I became the best of friends. My parents loved her, knowing that she was straight and hoping that maybe she would be a good influence on me. Her parents loved me, hoping that I could convince Maureen that school was important.

I wondered for a moment how I ended up here, sprawled out on my bed, with Maureen's head on my stomach, reading me my horoscope at three o'clock in the morning.

'Ah, yes, the talent show.' I thought with a small smile.

I went to the talent show to watch Maureen sing. She had asked me to go the week before, when she and her boyfriend Mark had broken up.

He had been spending all of his time with the camera his parents had bought him for his seventeenth birthday and ignoring Maureen. And so, she dumped him.

All of these thoughts ran through my mind in the thirty seconds since Maureen had spoken.

"Well, there are times when I wonder why, but yeah, I guess I do." I said with a laugh.

"Come on Joanne, be serious." She pleaded, now sitting up and looking at me.

I sat up too, leaning my back against the wall. She looked confused.

"What's wrong?" I asked, leaning my head to one side. She dropped the magazine on the floor next to my bed and stared down at her hands in her lap. Her hair fell down in a curtain of chestnut curls, hiding her face.

I reached out slowly and pushed it out of her face. She looked up at me through her eyelashes. My heart fluttered.

"Mark told me that nobody would ever love me because I'm a stuck up drama queen bitch." She said softly. She seemed so vulnerable right then. I'd never seen her like this. Maureen never cared about what her ex boyfriends said.

"Mark's an idiot. He spent all of his time with that stupid camera instead of his beautiful girlfriend." She blushed slowly.

Maureen was used to me talking about girls. That was one of the things that was so great about her. She wasn't creeped out when I would watch a girl walk by at the mall and she would always encourage me to go after the girl. But she wasn't used to me complimenting her.

I mentally kicked myself in the face. Maureen was my only real friend and here I was hitting on her.

"Why are guys so dumb?" Maureen asked sadly. She was sliding across the bed to rest her head on my shoulder.

"I wouldn't know." I said with a small laugh, wrapping my arm around her. Her hair smelled like strawberries. My heart leapt into my throat. She laughed softly and closed her eyes.

"Boys are dumb. You're lucky you're a lesbian. You don't have to worry about dumb boys." I fought to keep from laughing as I ran my fingers through her hair.

"Oh yeah, definitely lucky. Having your parents look at you strangely every time you meet a new girl, not being able to have a meaningful relationship because you don't know who's into you and who isn't, being in love with your best friend. Being a lesbian's a friggin picnic."

I was babbling so quickly that I didn't realize what I had said about being in love until I felt Maureen tense beside me.

'Oh shit.' I thought, closing my eyes. I took my hand from her hair as she lifted her head off of my shoulder.

I was waiting for her to jump off the bed, tell me I was disgusting and walk out of my life. Instead, I felt her lips against mine.

My heart stopped for a full thirty seconds. I swear, I died the second her lips touched mine. I couldn't breath, couldn't move, couldn't anything while her lips were pressed against mine.

Before it could go any farther I pulled way and looked her in the eye, searching silently for an explanation. She just leaned in for another kiss.

"Wait..." My voice came out a gentle whisper. She tilted her head to one side, giving me a confused grin.

"This isn't you, Maureen. You're straight. Very very straight. Did you forget that?" I immediately regretted the words. I could feel her pull way from me.

'Way to fucking go, moron.' I thought, closing my eyes. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. I didn't want to cry in front of her. I swallowed slowly and opened my eyes.

Her face was centimeters from mine.

"I like this. I like you." My eyes must have popped out of my head because she giggled softly and put her head back on my shoulder.

"Why?" I asked, confusion filling my voice. She laughed again, taking my hand in her own. I couldn't believe how soft her skin was.

"Because you're my Joanne." I smiled. I liked the sound of that.

Mustering up all the courage I had I cupped her cheek, rubbing it softly with my thumb. She leaned into my palm.

"Can I kiss you again?" It was barely a whisper.

"Well duh." She said, pressing her lips to mine again.