A/N: Ok, so they still don't belong to me. Thank you Jonathan Larson for giving me these characters to think about way too much. This chapter is a little more uplifting than the last. Don't forget to review!!!

I stand behind my friends, off to the side. I watch them watch the building the being destroyed. The construction crew called it quits around six o'clock. Only half the building was gone, and the rest of it stood surrounded in its rumble. We all stood there and watched, well most of us watched. Mimi hid her eyes in Roger's chest, while he stared straight ahead, never taking his eyes off of it, and Maureen sobbed into Joanne's shoulder.

"Why don't we go get some food?" Joanne's voice breaks the silence. "It has been a long day."

"Yeah, good idea," Mimi concurs, breaking away from Roger. "I want to get out of here." She reaches out for Roger's hand, pulling him with her, but he remains still.

"Where do you want to go?" Maureen picks her head off of Joanne's shoulder, and takes Mimi's hand.

"I don't care… The Life Café? For old times sake?"

"Sure, sweetie, good idea." The three of them start walking away, leaving Roger and I frozen in our spots. "You guys coming?" I nod, Roger remains still, and Joanne puts her hand on my shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "You will catch up?" I nod again.

I step up closer to Roger. We stand in silence for a few minutes, I search for something to say, but there are no words for this. We just watched our home be destroyed. I turn towards him and look at him. He face is tear stained, and there is a few more dropping. "Roger?" I grasp his arm lightly.

He nods, still staring straight-ahead, "What are we going to do?"

"I don't know… I wish I knew…" The reality of the situation is still foreign to me.

"It's over, this whole part of lives, it is just… over."

His words and tears hit me. "No, no it's not, that building… that was just four walls." Even as I say it, I know it isn't true. The loft was more than just four walls, it was our foundation, and it was our life. For years, our lives were spent there, together.

"It is never going to be same, Mark." He turns to me; "We won't be the same."

"What are you talking about? We will always be friends," I know what he meant though. We won't live together anymore; we will no longer be roommates. Even though he technically was living with Mimi, half of his things were in the loft. He spent a lot of time up there with me, and he always had a place to go when they were fighting.

"You are the best friend I ever had, you know that right?" Now it is my turn to tear up.

"Yeah, I know. You too."

He smiles at me, "Not too many other people would put up with all my bullshit. I have always appreciated it, even if I never thanked you." I nod silently, the tears falling down my face. "Christ, Mark, what am I going to do without you?"
"I'm not going anywhere." I laugh through my tears, "I have no where to go."

He pulls me in for an embrace, "I love you, Mark, don't forget that."

"I love you too, Roger." We remain like that for a few minutes, both of us trying to stop the tears from falling.

Finally, Roger lets go and quickly looks over at the building. "Let's get out of here." I nod and we gather our belongings and start to leave the corner of 11th Street and Avenue B. "No, wait a second."

I stop, dropping a bag and the projector because they are both really heavy. "What?"

"Those cops are gone," Roger looks at me with raised eyebrows.

"Yeah, so."

"Why don't we go look for your camera?"

A smile spreads across my face; "Do you think it may still be there?"

"One way to find out, come on." He grabs the projector and my bag because I am already across the street heading to the lot. A part of the barbed wire fence is open at the bottom and I am able to shimmy underneath. Roger comes to the edge and looks at it, "Uh, no way." He drops the stuff and starts climbing the fence. "So where do you think it may be?

"Well, over here is where we were setting up, maybe…" I walk over to the spot where we were. There is no sign of my camera or Maureen's equipment. In its place a large dumpster now stands, filled with building debris and trash.

"Keep looking, maybe it got pushed aside or something." Roger yells from the other side of the lot. "Besides, worse comes to worse, we dig through the dumpster."

I sink to the ground, "If worse comes to worse? Haven't we hit worse already? Christ Roger, look at our home?" I bury my face in my hands.

"Hey, get your ass off the ground and look? This is your camera, remember?" I nod, but remain still. "Besides you are the one who is supposed to be optimistic, not me."

"What's the sense? I mean really, why bother looking?"

"Mark, if I have to tell you that, than we have worse problems on our hands." He comes over to me and squats down. "Look, it is getting dark, we need to finish looking soon or we're not going to see anything. It has to be here somewhere, I'm thinking that no construction worker would even know how to use the thing."

I laugh and smile, "Yeah, ok." I let him help me up and I walk towards the dumpster. "This isn't going to be pretty."

"MARK! WAIT!" I turn to Roger and he is bending over picking something up. "I found it… "

I rush towards him, and sure enough he found my camera. It looked as if someone had stepped on it, a few pieces had fallen off, but it was my camera. "Roger! Oh my God! Thank you!" I take it from him, jumping up and down. "I can't believe it! This is amazing!" My mind is racing, I didn't think this day could possibly end up ok. I'm still jumping up and down, and trying to inspect my camera at the same time.

Roger is laughing at me. "No problem, cripes, you would think it was Christmas morning."

I grin up at him; "It is better than Christmas morning. Thank you so much for coming back to look." I go over to him and hug him and he hugs me back and as I'm pulling, his lips brush my cheek and I turn slightly and our lips touch, for a split second. It was over so fast, I almost wonder if it actually happened.

We both let go of each other and back away. I rub the back of my neck and look down, and Roger stands up straight looking past me. "Uh, maybe we should go meet the girls."

"Yeah, good idea."

What the hell was that? Did he do that on purpose? I clutch my camera and gather the rest of my belongings, taking sideways glances at him. He is purposely not looking at me.

We walk in silence most of the way. When we get close by I reach out to stop him but he pulls away from quickly.

"Roger, hold on, look… what happened back there…"
"Let's not talk about it."

"Yeah, I was just going to say it was no big deal, I mean… there is no reason for us to feel weird." I look at him, "Right?"

"Right." He looks at the ground.
"I mean, we both know that it was an accident and that it didn't mean anything."

"Why would it have meant something? What are you saying, Mark?"
"Nothing! That's my point. Look, you are my best friend, let's just drop it and move on, ok?"

He nods, "Yeah, ok." He smiles at me, "Sorry, I just freaked out for a little bit."

"Hey, no problem, it was kind of random…"

"Yeah, random," he looks almost sad when he says it.

"You sure we are ok?" I stand before him.

"We are fine, no worries."

We arrive at The Life Café and the girls already are seated with their desired drink in front of them. For Mimi, some sort of Microbrew, Maureen has a Cosmopolitan, and Joanne is sipping a glass of red wine. I stop short when we walk inside, my feelings for Maureen forgotten until I see her again.

I turn to Roger, "You know what, maybe I should go figure out a place to stay."
"Bullshit, I know you haven't eaten anything today, and we need you here." He smiles at me, and goes to pat my shoulder, but at the last second pulls his hand away.

"Fine, I'm not going to talk to her though." We arrive at the table and sit down. Roger orders a beer and I just want water. "Uh, how are we going to pay for this?"

"It's on me tonight, no worries." Joanne reaches across the table and squeezes my hand. Maureen scowls and turns away from us.

"You guys ok?" Mimi wraps her arms around Roger.

We look at each other, "We're ok." We say in unison. Mimi and Joanne smile at us.

Maureen and I remain silent throughout the dinner, while the others talk about any topic beside the one that is all on our minds. It has been decided that at least for the time being, Mimi and Roger will be staying with Joanne and Maureen, and the three of them start in on me staying there as well.

"Come on Mark, at least for tonight, where else are you going to go?" Mimi pleads with me.

"Yeah, Mark, you should really stay." Roger still won't exactly look at me, but things are beginning to relax.

"You sure?" I ask Roger, but Joanne answers, thinking I'm asking her.

"Yeah, we're sure, sweetie, right Maureen?"

Maureen puts down her glass, "Yeah, Mark, stay with us, please?" I look to Roger and he nods in agreement.

"Fine, I'll stay, just for tonight though."

Mimi starts clapping, "Yay! Slumber party!"

"Greeeaat… can't wait." I drop my head on the table and Joanne rubs my back lightly.

So, now, go scroll down and review my story! It is the only way for me to know people are reading it. If I don't think people are reading it, I won't continue to update. And if you want to know what is going to happen at the "slumber" party, I think you should review.