If I still have any loyal fans, I will be completely and utterly shocked. I haven't updated this story in forever and a day, but... the muses have struck me again, with the help of a friend. =)

As usual, I own nothing. It is all from the amazing mind of one Jonathon Larson, with the exception of the plot and some of the song lyrics I add in. Others, starting in this chapter I think, will be from "Single Drop of You" by Adam Pascal.

To days of inspiration...


I was surprised to discover that Roger already knew where the nearest pizza place was. I hadn't expected him to know the town so quickly, but then again, Scarsdale wasn't exactly a big town either.

He ordered a couple pieces of cheese pizza and took the plates to a table near the back of the place, one with a window right next to it. I laughed a bit when he pulled my chair out for me in a jokingly gentleman-like manner. I sat and took my plate, looking at him across the table instead of starting to eat.

He sat down and did the same for a moment before laughing. "We look like a couple of grade school kids on a date," he snorted.

I laughed. "Sorta, just a little bit."

After the ice breaker, we started talking about everything and nothing, really, while we ate. We touched on how math was for me, english for him, all the basic stuff, and then we got to Film.

"So what exactly are we gonna do in that class?" Roger asked, taking the last bite of his pizza.

I looked down at my plate, which had half left, and pushed it toward him with a laugh. "Well, how about we do a film of what we do for music? We'll go through the whole process of the song and everything else."

He nodded, picking up my half-eaten pizza, and took a bite before continuing. "Sounds good to me. Will that work, though?"

I nodded. "The teacher lets me do pretty much anything I want to, to be honest. I've been in his class since freshman year. He likes me by now, I'd hope."

Roger laughed, and we fell into a comfortable silence for a few minutes while he finished my pizza. "So, for this song we have to do..."

I cringed a little inside. "Ideas?"

He laughed. "Well, we have the one I threw out there during class. You can flip through my lyrics if you want, but... some of them, I don't think I could actually do."

"Okay, I'll look through," I said, taking a sip of the soda he'd brought over about ten minutes earlier. He handed me the notebook across the table, which I didn't realize he'd brought in with him, and started looking at page after page. I stopped on one in particular as I started reading the words.

It was only a chorus, two actually, both on one page. The first read, "Single Drop Of You" on the top, and the other had no title over it. I pointed the top one out to him.

"I really like this one. Can you sing it?"

He scanned the lyric for a moment before looking up thoughtfully. "I'd need my bass for that... but I think it's workable." He eyed the words for a moment before letting his voice start softly, fluidly. "You fill my eyes, and I'm burning for you. I cannot rest 'til I'm drowning in your love. Today I live for a single drop of you."

I smiled a bit, listening closely. His voice was rough, but the tune was catchy. When he finished, I sat quietly for a minute before picking up on his tune a bit. "There's a town across the way, pushed here by the wind. So much sky, the rebel wave carried me here. The lightning flashed..." I stopped when I saw the look on his face.

His mouth was slighly open, turning up at the corners in a mix of surprise and enjoyment. His eyes, when I looked into them, shone a bit.

I blushed furiously. "Is it that bad?"

He stayed silent for a moment more before shaking his head. "That's amazing, Mark. It works with the bass line amazingly. I just wish someone played the piano with it. That'd be amazing for it."

"Well, I play a little bit... Sort of."

His face took on a hint of surprise again. "You said you don't play," he muttered.

"I had to take classes when I was younger. My mom forced me into them. Said that spending so much time with my camera was unhealthy. She was worried I was doing weird things with it, apparently."

Roger snorted, his smile growing infectiously. "You and your camera." He shook his head, looking down at the notebook, and flipped to a new pen to jot down the lyric idea.

I felt a blush start crawling up my cheeks again when his foot touched mine under the table. Stop it, I thought to myself. It was an accident, I'm sure. He doesn't think like that. Then his foot touched mine again, and his ankle looped around behind my own.

He finished writing down the words and looked up with a sort of shy smile, different from the others I'd seen that day. I smiled back momentarily. Then the devil was unleashed.

Maureen has been my best friend since elementary school. She was in my class and clung to me since. Normally after school, she just went home to work on her protest. Today, she decided to come to the pizza place. Of all days, today.

"Aww, Marky, you guys are so CUTE! So how's the school's newest couple?" She bounced up to the table, grinning wide.

I looked down at the table, blushing worse than I had been before. Roger looked down as well, stopping redness from appearing on his own cheeks, before he looked up. "We're not a couple, chick. Just friends."

I'd slid my hands under the table to rest on my knees and pulled myself into the table, scrunching up embarrassedly. I felt his hand touch mine for a moment, and I looked up. "Yeah, Mo, nothing's going on. I don't date, remember?"

"Oh, please, Marky. Everyone knows we dated last year, until Joanne came around." Maureen pulled a chair over to the table, sitting on it backwards, and made herself comfortable. "You need to date someone, and it's so obvious that you're bi..."

"Mo!"

"What? It's true!" She giggled when I blushed a little harder, and launched into a story from our childhood. "I could tell from the time we were in first grade. There was this boy in our class, and..."

XmXrX

I got in the passenger seat of Roger's car, relieved to be away from Maureen. I let out a breath I hadn't realized I'd held when Roger closed the driver's side door and turned toward me.

"Is she always like that? So... humiliating?"

I nodded. "Endlessly." I looked down at the dashboard, hoping he wouldn't bring up the conversation as he turned the car on.

I was surprised when he stayed quiet for a bit after the car started. My house was on the other side of Scarsdale, so it took about a half hour to get there from the pizza place. We were about half way there when he spoke again. "So was she telling the truth?"

I cringed internally, but looked at him. "About what?"

"You being bi?" he asked quietly, nervously. I sighed. "You don't have to answer," he said. "I'm just curious. I mean, I'm bi, so..." he trailed off.

I looked at him, a bit surprised, and smiled. "Well, actually... Yeah. I am. I think."

He grinned when we got to a red light. "What do you mean, you think?"

"Well, I've never actually been with a guy, so I don't really know, guess." I blushed again, cursing my body for reacting that way constantly.

He nodded. "Understandable. But you've been curious?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

He nodded again, grin never leaving his face. For the rest of the car ride, we stayed quiet, his free hand drumming the beat of the songs on the radio on the armrest between us.

When we pulled up in front of my house, I slung my bag on my shoulder before moving to open the door. "Thanks for the ride, Roger," I said, turning away from him.

"Mark, hold on a sec," he said as I opened the door. I turned back, about to say what, and felt his lips press to mine.

When he pulled away a second later, I knew I was blushing profusely, and smiled. "Um... I'll see you tomorrow?" I said gently.

He chuckled. "I'll be there, on the front steps, probably playing as usual."

I nodded and closed the door, waving to him as he drove away. I turned to walk up the steps and saw my mother in the doorway, anger clear on her face.

I come from a traditional Jewish family. My mother never knew I was even curious about anything. Until that moment, I guess. I cringed and walked up the steps into the house.

As soon as the door slammed shut, she started screaming. "MARK COHEN, HOW DARE YOU...!" I stood there and took her verbal beating for a good ten minutes, not listening. I was thinking about what had just happened in the car, Mo's comments before, that whole day. It was after running over the full events of the day several times that I realized I'd left my camera in Roger's car.


There we go! I've been waiting for the muse to come back since like June. Events will sometimes cause that, I suppose. I must thank my darling friend yet again for helping me get the ideas flowing again. This one will probably start being updated more often, now that I've got an idea with it.

REVIEWS please! They make an author happy!

There's only now, there's only here...