A/N I don't know where this came from. For some reason I just kept
picturing this as a possible scene between Roger and Mark in high school.
It just pestered me until I had to write it down. I'm not overly happy
with it, but it will have to do. I've spent so much time typing up my
other story Another Second Chance (which is already written), and my time
is so limited with the baby, that I missed writing. So as I said, this
will have to do. It's just a short little thing that needed to escape my
brain.
I guess it's a short little story about friendship, loyalty and maybe a little foreshadowing of the future.
Just Another Saturday Night
Roger stood in the kitchen, trying to blend in with the wallpaper. He had his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his leather jacket as he waited for the usual barrage of questions to end.
"Well where are you going?"
"Just to Megan's to hang out."
"What time are you going to be home?"
"I don't know, later."
"I'm still not sure you should even be going out Mark. You're still sick."
"I'm not sick. I feel fine."
"Well you may not be sick, but you're not fine."
"I'm not sick. Can we just go Mom?"
"Fine. Go. But I don't want you out all night Mark. Do you hear me? I still think you're sick."
"I'm not sick." He pulled on his coat.
"Fine. But I want you home early. And stay out of the hot tub."
"What?" Mark asked with his hand on the doorknob.
Oh so close Roger though. We were almost out of there.
"Just stay out of the hot tub. It's February and this is New York, not Boca Raton."
"Mom, it's a hot tub, it's hot."
"Mark you're still sick. Stay out of the hot tub."
"Fine, fine. I'm not sick, but fine. Can we go now?"
"All right. Have fun. Bye Roger."
"Bye Mrs. Cohen." He told her as they walked out the door and headed for Mark's car. It was cold out. Really cold out. It was a good thing it was only about fifteen feet from Megan's back door to the hot tub. He shifted his backpack on his shoulder. In it he had his bathing suit and two six packs of beer.
"Here." Mark said as he tossed him the keys as he climbed in the passenger side of his own car. "You drive. And I don't want to be out all night either. I'm sick."
Roger had to laugh at Mark. "But I thought you weren't sick Marky?"
"Oh shut up." He coughed. "I mean it. Not all night. I feel like crap."
"You'll feel better when we get there."
"No I won't and you know it. She's got that stupid cat."
"Emma said she'd make sure Megan locked it downstairs in the laundry room. Just relax. I got us two six packs of beer."
"Where did you get them?"
"My brother, where else?" Roger answered him. They drove the rest of the way in silence before pulling up in front of Megan's house. There were already a few people there when they walked in. One of which was Emma, Roger's current girlfriend of the moment.
"Hey baby." She said walking over to Roger and giving him a kiss.
"Hey."
"Marky you don't look so good." She told him.
"Great, thanks." Mark dropped into a chair at the dining room table where a few people were already sitting. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it as Roger came over and took one out of his pack.
"Who wants to play poker?" Vinnie asked as he lit a cigar.
"Vinnie put that stinky thing out. You can't smoke that in the house, my parents will smell it." Megan yelled at him.
"Okay, okay, I'll smoke it outside. Later." He started dealing the cards to Mark, Roger and a few other guys at the table.
"Oh great. Don't tell me you guys are just going to sit around smoking, drinking my dad's beer, and play cards all night." Megan pouted. "What are we supposed to do?"
"You wanna play cards too?" Roger teased her, opening a beer.
"Roger behave!" Emma told him. "Come on, let's go watch a movie." She said to Megan and the other girls as they went downstairs into the den.
Roger and Mark sat in the dining room with a number of other guys playing cards for awhile. One of the guys dropped his beer, and when he opened it, foam shot onto Mark.
"Shit!" Mark jumped up.
Roger started cracking up.
"Great! Now I smell like a brewery."
"Relax Mark." Vinnie told him. "It'll wash off in the hot tub. I turned the temperature up. It should be great by now." He stood up. "Hey Megan? You guys want to go in the hot tub?"
The girls came up and a number of them, Roger and Emma included, changed to go in the hot tub. Mark and a few others went into the den to watch a movie.
Mark sat down in the armchair and lit another cigarette. He fast forwarded through the previews on the video and set the remote control in his lap. He remembered thinking this was a stupid movie. So stupid it made his head hurt. And his chest hurt. Not hurt, but tight. Yes tightness. Like something was squeezing him. He tried to cough, but nothing really came out. That was when he woke up.
He woke up and realized he was alone in the den with the exception of Kimberly and Jason who were making out on the far couch. He also realized the cat had climbed up on the back of his chair. It's tail swooshed again, hitting him in the side of the head. He tried to breathe again and realized he could barely get any air. He needed his inhaler. Where was his inhaler? In his car. In the glove compartment. He had one in there. An extra one. Just in case he ever needed it. Well this was that time he needed it.
Keys. He needed his keys to get his inhaler. As Mark started to climb the steps he was starting to get a little freaked out. He was really struggling to breathe. "Roger." He tried calling out, but it came out as a wheezy whisper. He struggled up the stairs. The tighter his chest got, the more freaked out he got. The more freaked out he got the tighter his chest would get.
Mark made it to the back door. He could see Roger in the hot tub. He was making out with Emma. There were a few other people in there as well. Most of them huddled in little groups, in water up to their chins, staying warm. He reached for the sliding door, as he went to push it, he saw he still had the remote control for the VCR still in his hand.
Mark got the door open, but was getting very light headed at this point. Every breath was a struggle. He leaned against the doorframe. "Roger.." Again a low wheezy whisper. He suddenly didn't have the energy to walk all the way to the hot tub. Roger didn't see him. He had his back to Mark and his tongue down Emma's throat. Damn you Roger. I told you I didn't want to go out tonight. Mark remembered the remote in his hand. He reached back and chucked. Hard.
"OW! What the fuck!" Roger yelled as the remote hit him square in the side of his face. He spun around and saw Mark. Sliding down to sit on the ground and struggling to breathe. The look of panic that had set in on Mark's face was mirrored by Roger's when he saw his friend. "Shit Mark!" He hopped out of the hot tub.
"Keys. Inhaler." Mark wheezed.
"Oh Christ!" Roger ran past Mark to get the car keys from the pocket of his jeans in the other room.
"Oh my god Mark are you okay?" Emma asked climbing out of the tub. She watched him shake his head. As no sound came out, he read his lips as he silently said the words "fucking cat." She helped move him back into the house as she and a few other dripping wet people came into the back hallway.
"What's the matter?" Megan asked, panic in her voice.
"It's his asthma. Something about the cat." Emma told her as Roger came running back in.
"Here." He tossed Mark the inhaler from the glove compartment of his car.
Mark brought it to his mouth and squeezed it. He eyes got wide when nothing happened. He shook it and tried again. Still nothing.
"Oh shit!" Roger yelled. He was trying to pull on his sneakers that he had left by the back door when they went into the hot tub earlier. He almost fell over as he stood on one foot and struggled with his shoes that were still tied. The fact that he feet were wet and cold feet from running barefoot through the slush in the front drive didn't help. "Go get my wallet, and my jacket!" He yelled at Emma. "Fuck! We gotta go to the hospital!"
Vinnie helped Mark to his feet and almost dragged the wheezing Mark to his car. Roger, who had finally managed to get his shoes on as well as his leather coat hopped in the driver's seat. He popped the car in gear, realized he was almost blocked in by Jason's car and pulled off over the lawn.
He looked over at Mark who had turned a ghostly shade of pale white, even for the fair skinned Mark. "Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit." He kept mumbling as he slammed the car from one gear to the next. "How the hell can your inhaler be empty?" Whatever buzz he had been feeling before had completely disappeared now. "Okay, don't worry, we're almost there." He told him as he cruised through the red light.
Roger lurched the car to a stop a few minutes later as he pulled up in front of the emergency entrance of the hospital. He ran around and yanked Mark out of the passenger seat, dragging him in through the doors.
"Whoa, where you going? You can't park that car there!" The security guard called out as Roger almost ran past him to the front desk.
"He's having an asthma attack!" He yelled at the receptionist.
"Okay, sit down we'll take him in a second."
Roger watched Mark grip the edge of the counter as he struggled to breathe. He looked up from Mark and down the hall as he saw a familiar looking nurse walk out of a room. "Mom!" He yelled. "Mom it's Mark. He can't breathe."
Joanie Davis looked up as she heard her son's voice. "Oh crap!" She ran up to the two boys. Briefly taking in Roger in his dripping bathing suit, shirtless with his leather jacket on and hanging open.
"Mom he can't breathe! His inhaler was empty! And something about the cat! He can't breathe Mom!"
"Okay, okay. How you doing Mark?" Joanie asked, steering him towards an exam room. "Roger stay here." She and Mark disappeared behind a curtain.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about ten minutes, Joanie came back out to the chair area they had made Roger wait in. "Mom?" He hopped up. "Is he okay?"
"Yes he's fine now. It was just a bad asthma attack. Apparently Megan's cat decided to sit on him when he fell asleep I guess."
"But he's been over there before. And the cat didn't bother him anything like this!"
"Well, if that was all, he probably would have been okay, but he's got a pretty bad case of bronchitis. That with being allergic to cats did it. But he shouldn't even have been out tonight. Much less sitting doing what ever it was you were both doing. He stinks of cigarette smoke, which neither of you should be smoking, especially him. Plus his shirt reeks of beer. And do I even want to know about you?" She asked taking in the bathing suit, no shirt and leather jacket.
"I was in the hot tub."
"What happened to your face?" She touched the side of his face where the bruise on his cheek had started to form.
"Oh. Mark threw the remote control at me to get my attention."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I've had way worse." He grinned at her. "Can I see Mark now?"
"In a few minutes. The doctor's listening to his lungs again. I have to go call his mom. Come on, let's find you some clothes, before you end up in here too." She led him down the hall.
Mark was sitting in the bed with a nebulizer in his mouth, breathing in the vapors. He looked up to see the door open and a scrubs clad Roger walk in.
Roger grinned at him. "Hey buddy, how you doing?"
"Better. Of course any form of breathing is better than no breathing at all."
"Good. Now I can yell at you. What the hell are you doing running around with an empty inhaler!"
"Me? I told you I was sick! But no, you dragged me out anyway."
"I saved your sorry butt!"
"You told me the cat was gonna get locked in the other room! It came over and sat on me!"
"It knows you don't like it?" Roger shrugged.
"Not funny."
"Well. you threw a remote at me!" Roger pointed at his face.
"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to. wait a minute, I almost died, how did this turn into something about you?"
"I'm just that kind of guy I guess." Roger grinned. "Seriously though, you're okay?"
"Yeah, I feel much better."
"Good, because you scared the crap out of me!"
Mark smiled through the nebulizer vapors. Hey, thanks. For everything."
"No problem. What are friends for? Besides, you would have done the same thing for me."
The End
I guess it's a short little story about friendship, loyalty and maybe a little foreshadowing of the future.
Just Another Saturday Night
Roger stood in the kitchen, trying to blend in with the wallpaper. He had his hands shoved deep in the pockets of his leather jacket as he waited for the usual barrage of questions to end.
"Well where are you going?"
"Just to Megan's to hang out."
"What time are you going to be home?"
"I don't know, later."
"I'm still not sure you should even be going out Mark. You're still sick."
"I'm not sick. I feel fine."
"Well you may not be sick, but you're not fine."
"I'm not sick. Can we just go Mom?"
"Fine. Go. But I don't want you out all night Mark. Do you hear me? I still think you're sick."
"I'm not sick." He pulled on his coat.
"Fine. But I want you home early. And stay out of the hot tub."
"What?" Mark asked with his hand on the doorknob.
Oh so close Roger though. We were almost out of there.
"Just stay out of the hot tub. It's February and this is New York, not Boca Raton."
"Mom, it's a hot tub, it's hot."
"Mark you're still sick. Stay out of the hot tub."
"Fine, fine. I'm not sick, but fine. Can we go now?"
"All right. Have fun. Bye Roger."
"Bye Mrs. Cohen." He told her as they walked out the door and headed for Mark's car. It was cold out. Really cold out. It was a good thing it was only about fifteen feet from Megan's back door to the hot tub. He shifted his backpack on his shoulder. In it he had his bathing suit and two six packs of beer.
"Here." Mark said as he tossed him the keys as he climbed in the passenger side of his own car. "You drive. And I don't want to be out all night either. I'm sick."
Roger had to laugh at Mark. "But I thought you weren't sick Marky?"
"Oh shut up." He coughed. "I mean it. Not all night. I feel like crap."
"You'll feel better when we get there."
"No I won't and you know it. She's got that stupid cat."
"Emma said she'd make sure Megan locked it downstairs in the laundry room. Just relax. I got us two six packs of beer."
"Where did you get them?"
"My brother, where else?" Roger answered him. They drove the rest of the way in silence before pulling up in front of Megan's house. There were already a few people there when they walked in. One of which was Emma, Roger's current girlfriend of the moment.
"Hey baby." She said walking over to Roger and giving him a kiss.
"Hey."
"Marky you don't look so good." She told him.
"Great, thanks." Mark dropped into a chair at the dining room table where a few people were already sitting. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it as Roger came over and took one out of his pack.
"Who wants to play poker?" Vinnie asked as he lit a cigar.
"Vinnie put that stinky thing out. You can't smoke that in the house, my parents will smell it." Megan yelled at him.
"Okay, okay, I'll smoke it outside. Later." He started dealing the cards to Mark, Roger and a few other guys at the table.
"Oh great. Don't tell me you guys are just going to sit around smoking, drinking my dad's beer, and play cards all night." Megan pouted. "What are we supposed to do?"
"You wanna play cards too?" Roger teased her, opening a beer.
"Roger behave!" Emma told him. "Come on, let's go watch a movie." She said to Megan and the other girls as they went downstairs into the den.
Roger and Mark sat in the dining room with a number of other guys playing cards for awhile. One of the guys dropped his beer, and when he opened it, foam shot onto Mark.
"Shit!" Mark jumped up.
Roger started cracking up.
"Great! Now I smell like a brewery."
"Relax Mark." Vinnie told him. "It'll wash off in the hot tub. I turned the temperature up. It should be great by now." He stood up. "Hey Megan? You guys want to go in the hot tub?"
The girls came up and a number of them, Roger and Emma included, changed to go in the hot tub. Mark and a few others went into the den to watch a movie.
Mark sat down in the armchair and lit another cigarette. He fast forwarded through the previews on the video and set the remote control in his lap. He remembered thinking this was a stupid movie. So stupid it made his head hurt. And his chest hurt. Not hurt, but tight. Yes tightness. Like something was squeezing him. He tried to cough, but nothing really came out. That was when he woke up.
He woke up and realized he was alone in the den with the exception of Kimberly and Jason who were making out on the far couch. He also realized the cat had climbed up on the back of his chair. It's tail swooshed again, hitting him in the side of the head. He tried to breathe again and realized he could barely get any air. He needed his inhaler. Where was his inhaler? In his car. In the glove compartment. He had one in there. An extra one. Just in case he ever needed it. Well this was that time he needed it.
Keys. He needed his keys to get his inhaler. As Mark started to climb the steps he was starting to get a little freaked out. He was really struggling to breathe. "Roger." He tried calling out, but it came out as a wheezy whisper. He struggled up the stairs. The tighter his chest got, the more freaked out he got. The more freaked out he got the tighter his chest would get.
Mark made it to the back door. He could see Roger in the hot tub. He was making out with Emma. There were a few other people in there as well. Most of them huddled in little groups, in water up to their chins, staying warm. He reached for the sliding door, as he went to push it, he saw he still had the remote control for the VCR still in his hand.
Mark got the door open, but was getting very light headed at this point. Every breath was a struggle. He leaned against the doorframe. "Roger.." Again a low wheezy whisper. He suddenly didn't have the energy to walk all the way to the hot tub. Roger didn't see him. He had his back to Mark and his tongue down Emma's throat. Damn you Roger. I told you I didn't want to go out tonight. Mark remembered the remote in his hand. He reached back and chucked. Hard.
"OW! What the fuck!" Roger yelled as the remote hit him square in the side of his face. He spun around and saw Mark. Sliding down to sit on the ground and struggling to breathe. The look of panic that had set in on Mark's face was mirrored by Roger's when he saw his friend. "Shit Mark!" He hopped out of the hot tub.
"Keys. Inhaler." Mark wheezed.
"Oh Christ!" Roger ran past Mark to get the car keys from the pocket of his jeans in the other room.
"Oh my god Mark are you okay?" Emma asked climbing out of the tub. She watched him shake his head. As no sound came out, he read his lips as he silently said the words "fucking cat." She helped move him back into the house as she and a few other dripping wet people came into the back hallway.
"What's the matter?" Megan asked, panic in her voice.
"It's his asthma. Something about the cat." Emma told her as Roger came running back in.
"Here." He tossed Mark the inhaler from the glove compartment of his car.
Mark brought it to his mouth and squeezed it. He eyes got wide when nothing happened. He shook it and tried again. Still nothing.
"Oh shit!" Roger yelled. He was trying to pull on his sneakers that he had left by the back door when they went into the hot tub earlier. He almost fell over as he stood on one foot and struggled with his shoes that were still tied. The fact that he feet were wet and cold feet from running barefoot through the slush in the front drive didn't help. "Go get my wallet, and my jacket!" He yelled at Emma. "Fuck! We gotta go to the hospital!"
Vinnie helped Mark to his feet and almost dragged the wheezing Mark to his car. Roger, who had finally managed to get his shoes on as well as his leather coat hopped in the driver's seat. He popped the car in gear, realized he was almost blocked in by Jason's car and pulled off over the lawn.
He looked over at Mark who had turned a ghostly shade of pale white, even for the fair skinned Mark. "Oh shit. Oh shit. Oh shit." He kept mumbling as he slammed the car from one gear to the next. "How the hell can your inhaler be empty?" Whatever buzz he had been feeling before had completely disappeared now. "Okay, don't worry, we're almost there." He told him as he cruised through the red light.
Roger lurched the car to a stop a few minutes later as he pulled up in front of the emergency entrance of the hospital. He ran around and yanked Mark out of the passenger seat, dragging him in through the doors.
"Whoa, where you going? You can't park that car there!" The security guard called out as Roger almost ran past him to the front desk.
"He's having an asthma attack!" He yelled at the receptionist.
"Okay, sit down we'll take him in a second."
Roger watched Mark grip the edge of the counter as he struggled to breathe. He looked up from Mark and down the hall as he saw a familiar looking nurse walk out of a room. "Mom!" He yelled. "Mom it's Mark. He can't breathe."
Joanie Davis looked up as she heard her son's voice. "Oh crap!" She ran up to the two boys. Briefly taking in Roger in his dripping bathing suit, shirtless with his leather jacket on and hanging open.
"Mom he can't breathe! His inhaler was empty! And something about the cat! He can't breathe Mom!"
"Okay, okay. How you doing Mark?" Joanie asked, steering him towards an exam room. "Roger stay here." She and Mark disappeared behind a curtain.
After what seemed like an eternity, but was really only about ten minutes, Joanie came back out to the chair area they had made Roger wait in. "Mom?" He hopped up. "Is he okay?"
"Yes he's fine now. It was just a bad asthma attack. Apparently Megan's cat decided to sit on him when he fell asleep I guess."
"But he's been over there before. And the cat didn't bother him anything like this!"
"Well, if that was all, he probably would have been okay, but he's got a pretty bad case of bronchitis. That with being allergic to cats did it. But he shouldn't even have been out tonight. Much less sitting doing what ever it was you were both doing. He stinks of cigarette smoke, which neither of you should be smoking, especially him. Plus his shirt reeks of beer. And do I even want to know about you?" She asked taking in the bathing suit, no shirt and leather jacket.
"I was in the hot tub."
"What happened to your face?" She touched the side of his face where the bruise on his cheek had started to form.
"Oh. Mark threw the remote control at me to get my attention."
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. I've had way worse." He grinned at her. "Can I see Mark now?"
"In a few minutes. The doctor's listening to his lungs again. I have to go call his mom. Come on, let's find you some clothes, before you end up in here too." She led him down the hall.
Mark was sitting in the bed with a nebulizer in his mouth, breathing in the vapors. He looked up to see the door open and a scrubs clad Roger walk in.
Roger grinned at him. "Hey buddy, how you doing?"
"Better. Of course any form of breathing is better than no breathing at all."
"Good. Now I can yell at you. What the hell are you doing running around with an empty inhaler!"
"Me? I told you I was sick! But no, you dragged me out anyway."
"I saved your sorry butt!"
"You told me the cat was gonna get locked in the other room! It came over and sat on me!"
"It knows you don't like it?" Roger shrugged.
"Not funny."
"Well. you threw a remote at me!" Roger pointed at his face.
"Oh, sorry I didn't mean to. wait a minute, I almost died, how did this turn into something about you?"
"I'm just that kind of guy I guess." Roger grinned. "Seriously though, you're okay?"
"Yeah, I feel much better."
"Good, because you scared the crap out of me!"
Mark smiled through the nebulizer vapors. Hey, thanks. For everything."
"No problem. What are friends for? Besides, you would have done the same thing for me."
The End