A/N: Thanks for all the reviews! They really help me to continue with this, even when I think it's bad! THANK YOU !
Disclaimer: the only character I own is Rae, the rest are Jonathan Larsons.
Part 3
We all met Rae that day she took the picture in the park. It was an extremely hot day in August. We were in the park because it was about twenty degrees hotter inside our apartment then it was outside. Since none of us had a job we didn't have much to do.
I had just been dating Maureen for a couple of weeks; those were probably the only weeks in our relationship that she wasn't cheating on me. Roger and April had been dating for a few months, she was practically living at the apartment Roger and I shared before we lived in the loft.
We were just sitting there in the park, Roger and Maureen arguing about something as usual and April and I were just watching the people around the park. I spotted Rae, she was taking pictures of children playing on the play ground, and the children playing in the water from a fire hydrant someone opened. She walked around looking at people, taking a picture here and there of people going about their business in the park. When she came closer I stopped watching her and went on the listen to Maureen and Roger. When I looked up again she was packing up her camera, she looked over at us and April called her over. Rae didn't hesitate and came over right away.
"I'm sorry I hope you don't mind that I took that picture" she told April.
"No not at all I was just wondering if I could get a copy of it."
"If you want one, sure no problem"
"I don't have any money though"
"I don't want money, its fine I can print you a copy today. I was just heading there now"
"Ok"
"Are you going to be around here long? It won't take long to print probably an hour or so."
"Do you develop and print them your self" I asked her
"Yeah, I go to NYU so I can use their darkroom whenever"
I nodded "I'm Mark"
"I'm April"
"Nice to meet you both. I'm Rae"
Maureen and Roger were back to arguing so they didn't pay any attention to what we were doing.
"I'll go print them now and get it back to you"
"Ok thanks Rae" April said and Rae headed back downtown toward the school.
"What was that about" Roger asked April
"Nothing I saw her take a picture of us I thought I would be cute and I want to get a copy of it, do you have a problem with that?"
"No but do you really think she'll bring it back? This is New York after all."
"Yeah she seemed pretty egger to show it to me."
"Why wouldn't she? I'd take any opportunity to show off my work to someone especially pictures" I told him, Roger just shrugged and didn't say anything else.
It wasn't long before Roger and Maureen got restless and left, Roger went to practice with his band and Maureen went back to her apartment. I stayed and waited with April, I wanted to see Rae's pictures. It was film after all. When Rae came back and showed us the picture I was blown away. The only thing I could say about it was that it was perfect, everything was perfect. The lighting, the camera angles everything it was just amazing. Rae had her other pictures as well and we looked through those too. They just kept getting better as looked through them.
"Are you photography major?" I asked her
"No photography's really just a passion that I have. I'm a law major actually"
"Really?" April asked "I know I don't know you at all but you don't seem like the lawyer type"
"I'm not, but NYU was always the school I wanted to go to, strictly because the art programs and my parents would only pay for it if I went for law."
I smiled "sounds like something I would do. What year are you in?"
"Third, I hate it I really don't think I'm going to last much longer."
"Drop out." April said
"I've thought about it believe me, but the way my parents are they'll probably disown me. Not that that's a bad thing, but I'm just kind of riding it out waiting for the right time."
April nodded "its' better to wait until the right time then you can really screw them." she said.
Rae laughed "exactly what I was thinking."
April and I hung out with Rae the rest of the day, Rae had said she'd come to mine and Rogers apartment the next day with more pictures she had taken. After that Rae and April had become super close friends they were practically attached at the hip. Rae did drop out of school and ended up getting an apartment with April. She met Benny, and Collins, and they instantly liked her. Rae was the kind of person you could talk to for five minutes and it would feel like you've known her your entire life. There was just something about her. Even Roger felt it, he was pretty stubborn and defensive around people he didn't really know, but he liked her and they became close as well.
When April and Roger started using, they would spent most of their time either out, or in Rae and Aprils apartment. So Rae spent most of her time at the loft. She stayed there weeks at a time. Rae was the first person into the loft when April had killed her self; she was the one that went into the bath room to find April in the shower, and the note on the bathroom mirror. She had stayed to help me with Roger when he was going through withdrawal and wouldn't go to rehab. She sat up nights making sure he didn't leave, she sat stayed with me so I didn't have to be the only one to deal with him. Rae was always there when, we needed her. She had some sort of ability to just show up when something was wrong. She was there through everything; the night angel died, and Roger left, and Mimi disappeared. She went out looking for Mimi everyday. It was after Mimi had her near death experience (or whatever you would call it) that she realized it was time to move on, and to grow up. She got a job working at a photography store and moved out of that apartment. She had become a successful photographer, and once again she was there when someone needed her. This time it was Collins.
I woke up to Collins coughing in the other room, with the picture still in my hand I went in to see if he was alright. I seemed that he was just coughing in his sleep; he had moved and was now facing the opposite direction.
"I see you were going through my stuff." Rae said from the couch pointing at the picture in my hand
"Yeah I'm sorry."
She just shrugged "that's ok it was on the wall. I was going through a giant box of pictures the other day and found them. I thought the needed to be framed they mean too much to be sitting in a box."
"The one in the park, is still the best picture I've ever seen you do"
"Nah it's grainy"
"No it's not, your just too anal about that shit"
"I am not"
I sat next to her on the couch. "Do you have any more?"
"Of those?"
"No just any more of us."
"Yeah I think I never really managed to go through them all" she got up and went to the hall closet. She pulled out a large box and a couple of shoeboxes.
"These are all your pictures?"
"All of the one's I've printed I still have more of one's I've had someone else print."
I opened a box and starting sifting through all the pictures. "This could take hours"
"I don't have anywhere to go?"
So Rae and I spent most of the morning going through her pictures. There were a lot of the ones from the loft; there were even more of Rogers shows. For those few hours Rae and I were lost in her pictures, each one had its own story behind it. It's almost like we were transported back in time. It was a good morning; maybe that morning was preparing us for what was to come that afternoon.
A/N: Please review. Please!
