-1-Sorry that this is a little later than usual. I've had a hectic weekend (opening weekend for a show) and a yoga class kicked my ass today, so I'm not feeling so hot, but I still wanted to get this in for you! Hope you like it. Oooh! And see if you can catch the reference to Anthony's real life that I slipped into the chapter. Whoever guesses it first gets… to write a line of the next chapter. Oooh. That could turn out interesting….-

My respects to Mr. Larson, who created this world and owns the people. Much thanks for letting me borrow them for a while to play in mine.

Do You Think I Can Tell People About Your Eyes?

(Roger's Perspective)

"I am sorry-" Amy said, coming out of the bathroom, her hands dancing lightly through the air, "- I have tried to ignore it and I promised myself that I wouldn't ask, but I'm afraid I must." Pause. Mark and I looked at her expectantly. "Why the hell is that shower curtain in the bathroom?"

"You mean you don't like it?" Mark asked jokingly.

"I do not need to have Maureen staring at me while I'm in the bathroom." Amy said and Mark laughed.

"That's what I said!" I said from the kitchen, where I was making coffee.

"Her eyes follow me wherever I go. It's creepy." Amy said, sinking down onto the couch where Mark was. He wrapped an arm around her. "I have to admit, though, for all it's Creepy factors, it's damn funny." Mark and I agreed, and the three of us mutually decided to leave it where it was.

"Ok. I'm out of here." I said after I'd had my coffee. I grabbed my jacket and headed for the door.

"Where are you off to?" Mark asked me.

"I'm going on a job hunt." I told him, somewhat embarrassed.

"What? Why?" Amy and Mark chorused.

"Because you quit your job, we still need to buy groceries, and it's about time I did something helpful around here." I said quickly.

"What're you talking about? You… uh…" Mark began, but then groped for words. "Uh… music..." He finished.

"Yeah! And… coffee…" Amy trailed off.

"Yeah…" I said slowly, entertained by the expressions on their faces. They looked like they desperately didn't want to let me down, but couldn't for the life of them come up with anything of consequence that I do around here. "So, I'm gonna go look for a job." I restated.

"You sure?" Mark asked.

"Yup. See you guys later." And I left. I scanned the classifieds I'd circled as I trotted down the stairs, mapping out a circuit that would cut down on my footing it around town. This won't be so bad.

(Mark's Perspective)

I dove for Amy as soon as Roger left, pinning her down on the couch. She laughed at my display of machismo and said,

"Aw, they finally dropped, huh?" My mouth fell open half in outrage and half in amusement. The long-standing joke about my… boys dropping once I hit puberty managed to both embarrass me and make me laugh in one foul swoop.

"I am both hurt and offended." I told her, turning up my nose and getting off of the couch.

"Aw, Marky, don't be mad." Amy said, giggling.

"Please never refer to me as 'Marky' ever again." I said, flopping into our recently re-positioned chair.

"But, Marky," Amy began, scooting towards me on the couch, "it's-"

"No! Stay away from me, woman!" She inched closer. "Away! Or I'll start calling you Amy Insultsalot. There! Ha!" I cried out, jumping off of the chair and standing behind it as she stood up as well.

"If you're calling me 'Amy Insultsalot' then I get to call you something better than 'Marky'." She said, her hands on her hips, taking a step towards me as I countered her. "I'm thinking 'The Albino Kid'. How's that for new nicknames?"

"What? No! I refuse to respond to that." I said as she took off around the chair and I fled in the opposite direction.

"Too bad!" She cried, thinking she had cornered me in the kitchen.

"I'm using a Veto if I have to. I know we've only agreed to three apiece, but-"

"You can't use your Veto right now!" Amy called out as she raced around the table, but I beat her to it and raced the other way, flying to our bedroom door, slamming it closed, and locking it quickly.

"Too late." I called through the door. Then, knowing that Amy is ridiculously proficient at making locked doors fly open at inopportune times (for example, one of the first times we hung out together she managed to unlock the bathroom door and walk in right as I zipped up my fly. Talk about a close call. Two seconds earlier and I might have ended up a eunuch), I jumped away from the door and onto the bed. When the door flew open I was casually perusing a magazine, which made Amy laugh heartily as she jumped onto the bed with me.

"You're crazy." She told me, kissing me once on the lips. God, I'm so glad she's here again. My stomach feels like it's got butterflies in it every time she's near me. I love her so much.

"Likewise." I told her, tossing the magazine off the side of the bed. Amy smiled at me. "So, what would you like to do today?"

"Well, for my last official day off, I believe I'd like to go see a movie." Amy said. Tomorrow she's supposed to return to work at Buzzline.

"Seriously?" I asked, surprised.

"Sure."

"Ok. What movie?"

"Doesn't matter. I plan on acting like I'm in high school the whole time."

"Huh?" I asked, confused. She rolled her eyes and pulled me off of the bed.

"Let's go."

"It's too early for a movie." I said. It was only ten in the morning.

"Who cares? The weather's gorgeous, we've got the whole day, let's just go out. Anywhere. Everywhere. Together." She said, her expression happy.

"Deal." I smiled at her and we kissed. "Oh!" I said, realizing what she meant. "You want to make out during the movie."

"Wow. Way to kill the mood on that one." She laughed and pulled me all the way out of the building and into the autumn that was enveloping the city. Halloween's coming up, and still, no word from Collins. I tried to shake off that thought as Amy and I laced our fingers together. 'There's only us, there's only this' echoed in my head, but I've begun to think that sometimes a mantra like that falls short.

I mean, if there's only us and only this, how can anything else exist? Does that mean that Roger doesn't exist anymore? That until he's physically here with me he's nothing but a glitch in my brain? And what about Angel, or Mimi? They may not exist physically anymore, but they still exist in my thoughts, in my memories. Where does the world go when I close my eyes? Existentialism is a bitch.

I smiled as Amy poked me in the ribs. She exists. That's all I need to know for now.

(Roger's Perspective)

Well, this sucks. Who'd have thought it'd be this hard to find a job in this damn city? I tossed the newspaper into a garbage can and stopped at the Kennedy Bar for a soda. It was nearly four in the afternoon and my job search had dwindled down to a big, fat nothing for the day. I'd been to nine different places and hadn't even been given a semblance of hope for any of them.

"Roger Davis, how you been? The Disappearing Man." Adam, a bartender who I knew greeted me. We shook hands as I sat down at the bar.

"I'm doin' ok, and you?" I asked.

"Pretty good, pretty good. What'll you have?" he asked, throwing a rag onto his shoulder. I remembered my days as a bartender and shook my head.

"Just a coke."

"Sure thing. So, you gonna play here again sometime? Mike keeps talking about getting you back to play." Adam said, setting a glass down in front of me.

"Uh, I don't know. Maybe."

"Well, talk to him about it sometime, he's been bugging me every two minutes if I've seen you." Adam told me, and I laughed.

"Sounds like Mike." I took a drink. "I think something's off with your dispenser. There's not enough water in this." I told him.

"Oh, really?" He said, turning to the valve. He sprayed some more coke into a glass and tasted it. "Yeah, you're right." He kicked the door to the kitchen open and called out "Hey, Terry, come fix the soda valve, will ya?"

"Terry's not here yet!" A voice called back.

"Aw, crap." Adam said, walking back over to the machine.

"Just adjust the crank in the back." I said, remembering all the times I'd had to tinker with stuff like that when I was a bartender. I was surprised he didn't know how to do it.

"Huh?"

"The crank, in the back. It probably just got bumped, it happens all the time." I said. He looked at me blankly. "I can do it, if you want." He said sure, so I went around the end of the bar and reached back behind the machine to find the right crank. Once I readjusted it, Adam tasted it again and said it was just right.

"And you knew that how?" He asked, getting me a fresh coke.

"I was a bartender for a while." I told him.

"Oh, yeah? I wish you were still a bartender, we're so shorthanded around here." He said, gesturing around the bar.

"Hey, if you're hiring, I'm interested. I've been all over looking for a job."

"Consider yourself hired." Adam said, brightening considerably.

"Yeah? Doesn't Mike have to hire me?"

"He won't have a problem with it. Come back tomorrow and you can fill out the paperwork." Adam told me.

"Yeah?" I asked, surprised.

"Yeah."

"All right, sure." I drank the rest of my soda, paid, and left, glad that I'd found a job, and one that I actually liked, at that. I started for the loft, but then changed my mind and headed across town. I wanted to tell Mimi my news.

I stopped at Roger's grave on the way, and said a few words to him, noticing a fresh bundle of flowers in front of the gravestone. Looking around, none of the others had fresh flowers. 'That's weird.' I thought. I told him goodbye, and started for Mimi's grave.

As I approached, a familiar figure was walking quickly in the opposite direction.

"Hey!" I called, surprised, happy. I saw fresh flowers on Angel's grave, and then Mimi's as I jogged past them, trying to catch up to my old friend. Of course he'd bring them all flowers. "Collins! It's me!" I called and he finally stopped walking and turned to look at me. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you were someone else." I said, nearing the person and realizing it wasn't him.

I walked slowly back to Mimi's grave, embarrassed that I'd made that mistake and kind of sad that it wasn't Collins. I saw the fresh flowers and wondered who had put them there.

I told Mimi my news, then wandered back home, lost in thought.

(Amy's Perspective)

"Mark Cohen, you had better put me down!" I cried, getting dizzy. It was about seven o'clock and we'd come up to the roof to look at the city and eat our Chinese food. What I hadn't bargained for was Mark sneaking up behind me and picking me up, spinning around and around.

"Oooh, first and last name, you must mean business." He laughed.

"Why are we spinning around on a roof?" I cried out, closing my eyes. He stopped abruptly and set me on my feet, holding on to me.

"So that we could feel like this." He said, and I opened my eyes. We stared into each other's eyes as the world swirled and dipped around us.

"Wow." I said, impressed with how amazing that felt. Like we were grounding each other in a world of chaos. It was really strange, but wonderful. Everything was spinning out of control, but not us. Or maybe we were spinning out of control and nothing else was. I didn't care. Either way, we were together in it. He leaned closer to me, and we kissed.

"I love you." He whispered quietly.

"I love you." I said back. He picked me back up and I laughed. "Round two!"