AN: First fic in forever. I hope it doesn't suck. Reviews would be nice. :D

I shivered as I stepped through the rotting door frame of my apartment building. I shook my umbrella a couple times, but it was worthless. The thing was soaked. I sighed and peered through the small slot in my mailbox. Nothing. I never got much of anything in the mail, what was I expecting now?

I checked my phone as I walked through the dim hallway. It was better to look at a bright, empty screen than see the cracked tiles, peeling paint and abandoned baby strollers. Some of those strollers had been there for years, the babies grown up and already in school. I hit the button on the elevator, still staring at my phone. I was playing scrabble and I had nowhere to put a word. It was frustrating because the guy I was playing against - screen name racer227 - had won the last several games, but I wasn't about to give up.

After a few minutes, I finally looked up to a large out of order sign taped to the elevator. I sighed and headed for the stairs. I put away my phone without making a move. I stared down at my feet on the stairs, one bright red boot after another. The rubber on the boots was almost completely worn down and there was a hole near my big toe from when I'd kicked a brick wall last year out of frustration. I couldn't afford a new pair.

Some of the tiles on the stairs were loose or missing. The ledges were worn smooth from thousands of feet marching up and down. My mind suddenly wandered to the one person that I'd known who couldn't climb stairs. I hadn't seen him for years and now the image that came to my mind was the smooth red metal frame of his wheelchair. I honestly couldn't remember the last time I'd heard from him. When we were friends, the wheelchair almost seemed like a moot point and now I was thinking about how he wouldn't be able to get home if his elevator went out. I'm sure he wouldn't live in a building like this one... I'm not sure why I live here.

I rounded several flights of stairs and finally pulled open the heavy doors to my floor. The hall was as dark and unwelcoming as ever, each apartment nearly indistingishable from the others. I smiled as I spotted our small welcome mat. It had almost gotten us evicted, but I needed some personality, even in this monstrous high rise building.

I made my way into the apartment and went straight towards my room. As usual, it had been a long day and I was seriously considering looking for a new job. It was just that, I wasn't qualified for very much. I sighed and pulled out my phone. It was still my turn at scrabble.

Much to my surprise, I had a notification from racer227. He'd sent me a message: "do you live in NYC?"

I almost logged off without responding. We'd been playing for weeks now and he'd never messaged me before. There had been a few times I wanted to tell him good game, but I didn't. I just couldn't get up the courage to actually talk to some random stranger. I stared at the message for a few minutes. Why did he even ask? My screen name was greenguacamole, just because I really like dips. There were 8 million people in NYC... why did it matter if I replied yes? So that's what I did.

After a few minutes, he said, "cool. I'm doing this opening tonight and I need a lot of people to come."

I just stared at that for a while, not really sure how to respond.

"Sorry if that was kind of awkward," he added.

I had to admit I was curious. "What kind of opening?"

"I directed a movie actually."

"Cool!" I didn't know anything about him besides the words he played on an electronic scrabble board, but I felt oddly proud of him. Somehow this cool director guy was connected to me. At least someone had good luck.

"So you should come. :) There will be a lot of people, but I need more."

I chuckled a little at that. I knew this was probably a bad idea, but looking around my empty apartment, I couldn't imagine what I had to do that was more important. My roommate Jess wouldn't be back for hours. If nothing else, a movie might be a nice change. "Sure. Where is it?"

He sent me an address, which checked out to be a small movie theater in the west village.

I changed and realized now I had a lot more energy as I went back out into the rain.

The movie theater was packed by the time I got there. As I approached, I could see the crowded lobby through the giant plate glass windows. There were a few people smoking cigarettes outside underneath the awning, but I stopped for a long moment to try to collect myself. I'd come a long way since high school, but I still got nervous when I was around a lot of people. Well, it was stupid to come all the way here and stand in the rain breathing in second-hand smoke. I stepped into the crowded lobby.

I weaved my way through the crowd, not really looking up at any particular faces. I didn't know what I was looking for and come to think of it, how would I even recognize my scrabble partner? How did I even know if it was a guy? If he was the director, I'm sure he would be surrounded by people. I looked around desperately, but everyone seemed to be socializing with someone. There must have been a lot of actors and crew involved, because a lot of people were dressed up and looked important.

Finally, I saw an empty chair near the refreshments table. I grabbed a plate with a few pieces of fruit and sat down. It would look weird if I just sat there doing nothing, so I picked at the fruit and stared into the crowd. Why had I come? What had I been expecting?

"Tina?" The familiar voice scared me half out of my wits. I raised my eyes to meet his face, but he was taller than I ever remembered. He stood in front of me, balanced on forearm crutches. I instantly got to my feet and smiled softly. "You look good."

His whole appearance looked different. He was wearing a nicely tailored suit jacket and pants and his face was framed by a small pair of metal glasses. His hair looked different too; shorter than he used to wear it in high school.

His smile was warm and familiar. "You too." He looked me up and down and I was glad I'd changed into a dress I'd gotten from H&M. It wasn't the kind of thing I usually wore, but I'd wanted to look nice. "What are you doing here?"

I laughed, but I stopped as soon as I remembered why I was here. I shook my head and decided not to answer. "I could ask you the same thing."

He opened his mouth, but he looked around, seeming to notice some cue that I missed. "I think it's about to start. Let's talk later, OK?" He looked more earnest in that moment than I ever remembered seeing him before.

I nodded. He started to move away, but I called after him, "Wait, how will I find you in this crowd?"

Leaning on one crutch, he pulled a business card from his pocket. "Here. Call me, OK?"

I just stared at him for a long moment until he turned and disappeared into the crowd. I finally glanced down at the card, which read: Arthur Abrams, director.

I gave him an hour after the movie ended. As soon as the credits rolled, I ducked out of the theater and headed towards a cafe down the street. The place seemed to be open 24/7, so I grabbed a table and waited. It only took Artie a few minutes to come after I called and I couldn't help watching as he lowered himself into the chair across from me. "You got the surgery," I finally stated boldly.

He nodded, looking up at me after he carefully placed his crutches next to him. "It was a completely different procedure than what they were talking about 10 years ago, but it worked. I can't believe it myself sometimes."

I had to smile, but I couldn't get my brain around any of this yet. "Has it really been 10 years?"

He laughed, "No, I saw you six years ago, Tina, if that's what you mean."

"No," I shook my head. "Never mind, it's been a long day."

"What are you doing now, anyway?"

I sighed, knowing I could never lie to Artie. "I'm a waitress. It's really not so bad because it's a fancy place and we always get amazing tips. You do what you have to, you know?"

"I guess," he looked down into his lap, clearly uncomfortable. "What happened to you? You could do anything you want to."

I shrugged again. "I don't want to talk about it. What about you, Mr. Director? How did that happen? The movie was really good, by the way."

"Thanks. It took a lot of hard work, but everything kind of worked out in the end. I had a lot of help." He kind of trailed off after that, his proud smile fading. He shook his head. "Come on, what happened? The Tina I knew in high school never would have settled for being a waitress. It's kind of like you just disappeared after graduation. I thought about you sometimes."

I had nothing to say to that. "Life isn't always easy."

My words hung in the air for a long moment until a strange voice asked, "Can I take your order?" I glared at the waitress, who seemed oblivious to our conversation.

Usually I try to be nice to waitresses now that I am one, but I couldn't stop myself from coldly replying, "give us a minute."

She just shrugged and moved onto the next table.

"Look, Tina," Artie got my attention again. "I always wondered what happened to you. You kind of just took off."

"I wanted to get out of Lima," I shrugged a little. I glanced up into his cool blue eyes and sighed, knowing I would tell him the story. "After graduation, I didn't know what I wanted to do with my life. College seemed great, but I wanted to take a break. I had some money saved up, so I took a road trip. Things happened. Basically, I ended up in Brooklyn, completely broke, and I'm still there, six years later. It's not exactly something I'm proud of."

"So you never even went to college," he stated softly, a question obvious in his voice.

"By the time I settled down, I didn't really have a choice. I had to pay the rent."

"But you could have gone to night school. Heck, you still can."

"You got a full ride to the University of New York, how could you understand?" I glared at him.

"Life hasn't exactly been a walk in the park for me either," he rolled his eyes. "Literally! I worked hard to get where I am," he added.

I started to say something, but I just sighed and looked down into my lap. "This is ridiculous. You used to be my best friend, Artie. What happened to us?"

"I guess you were right. Life happened."

I nodded and finally looked up into his eyes. He really looked the same, underneath it all. "Whatever happened, can we at least be friends again?"

He nodded, his eyes sincere. "I'm sorry. I think people look at me now and see a success story. I'm not used to it!" He laughed trying to break the tension. "Speaking of which, how did you hear about the premiere anyway?"

"You invited me," I smiled slyly. "I believe we play scrabble together."

We laughed and for the first time in years, I finally felt happy. I glanced out the window and saw that the clouds had parted, giving way to a clear night sky. We spent the rest of the night catching up on our seperate lives. All along, we had been closer than we'd thought.