Chapter 7
The concert ended at about midnight and Mark was wiped out from all the crazy screaming that had come not only from the band's groupies, but from the band itself.
"That's definitely not my kind of music." a voice said in Mark's ear.
He turned around and found himself face to face with Collins. "Mine either." Mark replied. "Roger's gotten louder since we graduated and it looks like his appeal to women has grown as well." he jerked his head in the direction of the fifty or so women who were clustered around the stage watching Roger wipe his face with a towel.
Collins smirked. "Yeah well, that's Roger for you. He wipes his face, girls swoon. He sings a note, girls swoon. He takes a shit, girls swoon."
"I get the picture thanks." Mark said with a smile. "Can we please get out of here now?"
"Yeah." Collins replied. He looked around. "I don't think Benny will be joining us anytime soon, and Roger definitely won't, so we should just go."
The two of them walked toward the exit. Maureen caught Mark's eye as they left, she waved at him and pointed behind her. Mark turned around and saw Roger tangled in April's arms, kissing her furiously. Maureen rolled her eyes and Mark smiled and shrugged. Then he and Collins walked out into the mild spring air.
When they arrived at the loft, Collins saw that the message light on the answering machine was blinking. "Hit that red button, would you Mark?"
Mark hit the button and then groaned as his mother's voice filled the room. "Mark honey it's mom. Honey, your grades came in the mail today and we were rather disappointed to see that you didn't make all A's this quarter. Your father wants to schedule a conference with your teachers and counselor to see what's going on with you. I know it's late now, and you're probably asleep, but I'm worried about you Marky. You know if something's wrong you can always talk to me about it."
"Oh God." Mark groaned. "My dad is going to murder me. He's going to yell at me and then he's going to kill me."
"Over a couple of B's?" Collins asked.
"Actually it was one A, three B's, and two C's over the course of this quarter." Mark corrected and flopped on the couch. "I'm so dead."
"I still don't think it's that bad really. I wish my students made grades like that." Collins replied with a yawn. "I'm going to bed."
"Early class tomorrow?" Mark asked him.
"Something like that." he sad in response and walked into his room. "I suggest you go to bed before Roger gets home. If he brings that girl back here then seeing you asleep on the couch on the couch might inspire him to move his activities to the bedroom."
"Hopefully." Mark called back. "I know from experience that not much deters Roger from his 'activities'."
Collins chuckled. "Good point."
Mark sighed and put his head in his hands. He had to tell his parents something about what had happened with hid grades this quarter. His father would be especially upset with him. The truth was that Mark had gotten tired of being at Brown. He gotten tired of college period, and was starting to envy Roger's carefree lifestyle. "Now I want to be like Roger, I must be losing my mind." Mark said out loud.
"First sign of insanity is talking to yourself." Roger said as he entered the loft.
"Why are you here?" Mark wanted to know. "I thought you'd stuck like glue to April now that she likes you."
"Nah." his best friend replied and sat on the couch beside him. "I decided to call it a night and come home and talk to my best friend."
"Oh I feel so loved." Mark said sarcastically.
"You should. So what's got you wishing you were me all of a sudden? Life not so grand in Marky land?" Roger asked.
"I'm not so sure right now. My grades got mailed to my house yesterday and my parents are not pleased."
"What, did you get a ninety-nine amongst your slew of usual hundreds?" Roger joked.
"More like three B's and two C's amongst the one low A, and the hundred I got." Mark told him. "And it's not like I can say that I deserve higher grades. Lately I just haven't been feeling the whole college experience."
"So drop out." Roger said with a laugh.
"I'm thinking about it." Mark replied seriously.
"Mark I was kidding. You can't drop out of school. You worked way too hard to get where you are."
"Brown was never my dream Roger, and lately it takes so much just for me to get out of the bed and go to class in the morning. The only class I got a hundred in was my Advanced Photography and Film class. My father is going to be livid." Mark said sadly.
"Do you think he's going to be pleased with you dropping out then?" Roger wanted to know.
"No, but if I decide to he can't stop me. All he can do is disown me, or cut me off."
"Then what will you do?"
"Maybe come live with you." Mark answered. "Would you let me?"
"Are you kidding? Of course you can live with me. The guys were jus t saying the other day that I should ask you to move in with us." Roger said. "Look man as much as I would love you to come and stay here, you seriously need to think before you make any major decisions. Sleep on it a while and then come back to it."
"My mom wants me to call her tomorrow and tell her what's wrong. Because since my grades went down, there's got to be something wrong with me." Mark told Roger.
"Good old Mrs. Cohen." he replied.
"Yeah well I'm going to tell her whatever I decide tomorrow. And if they get mad then let them be mad."
"Okay then. As long as you know what you're doing." Roger said and got up. "I'm in serious need of sleep right now, so I'll see you in the morning." he walked toward his bedroom, then turned around. "Hey what did you think about the show?"
"Oh it was great." Mark lied. "You've really gotten a lot better since high school."
"Liar." Roger said with a laugh. "I know we suck. You'd better work on your lying skills before you talk to your dad. Or else he'll eat you alive."
Mark rolled his eyes. "Good night Rog." He sighed as his friend closed his bedroom door. Roger was definitely right about one thing. He had some serious thinking to do.
