Chapter 2

"His what?" Maureen asked as she sat up straight.

"Wait. Roger has a daughter?" Joanne said, any sign of her former drunken state gone.

"No…" Mimi gave a little laugh. "He's kidding. Right? I mean in the four years we've been together, if he'd had a kid somewhere I think I'd have know about it." Mimi stood there looking at the group of friends, hands on hips waiting for an answer.

"Well?" Maureen demanded of Collins.

"Don't look at me!" Collins told her, still somewhat taken aback himself. "It's the first time I've ever heard that."

At that point Maureen turned her attention to Mark who had quietly picked up the shot glasses and gone into the kitchen. "Well?"

"Well what?" Mark shrugged. "Amber's his daughter." He went back to washing the glasses.

"How? And with who? And why haven't any of us ever heard this before?"

"Yeah?" Mimi, suddenly feeling somewhat betrayed, demanded as well.

"Well maybe he just never felt like talking about it! You know we did have lives before we knew any of you!" He said defensively.

"But Marky!" Maureen started but he cut her off.

"Jesus Maureen! What is your problem? You want to know how April's parents threatened to throw him in jail? Or how they ran away together? Or maybe the fact that her parents made them give up the baby so April wouldn't be 'throwing her life away' and all that crap? Because I'm sure becoming so depressed that she started shooting up in the first place and then killing herself was exactly what they had in mind for their daughter the honor student!" Mark spit the words at her before storming off to his room. "I'm going to bed!" He yelled and then slammed the door so hard the loft shook.

Collins, Maureen, Joanne and Mimi just stood there somewhat dumbstruck for a moment. None of them really knowing what to do or say. After a few moments the door to Roger and Mimi's room opened and Roger came out in his pajama pants and a tee shirt.

"Damn don't you people have homes?" He teased. "I thought you were drunk and tired?" He asked Joanne.

"Um, I, I guess I woke up some." She said quietly. They all just stared at him as he walked to the kitchen filled a glass of water and drank it down. When he finished they were all still staring at him. "Don't mind Mark. You know how he gets. How he likes to trace every event backwards. Find the cause. The screw up. His whole 'if we turned left instead of right' crap." He stared down at the glass he was filling again. "It wasn't his fault. We were stupid. Besides, she's better off."

Mimi just looked at him. "Roger why didn't you ever tell me?" She said softly.

"I don't know." He shrugged again. "We don't really talk about it. It just never came up." He told her apologetically. He sort of felt bad he never told her before. He didn't mean to keep it from her, it just wasn't something he thought or talked about anymore. It all just intertwined itself into so many bad things. Things that he'd locked away long ago. But suddenly he had an urge to let it go. To tell it all and get it out. Unlock the door to the past. Suddenly he felt like it was time. "Do you really want to know?" He asked them hesitantly.

"Yeah!" Maureen exclaimed just before getting swatted and shushed by Joanne who was nodding her head silently at Roger.

"If you want to tell us." Collins gently said.

Roger looked at Mimi who was nodding at him, urging him to continue. He walked over and sat back down on the floor pulling Mimi down with him. "Amber. That was her name. Amber Michelle Davis. At least that's what we named her. I don't know what her name is now."

"But what happened? What was Mark talking about?" Mimi asked.

"April's parents made her give up the baby. We had to put her up for adoption."

"What do you mean they made you?" Joanne asked.

"We just finished junior year of high school. I was 17. April had skipped like second grade and was only 16. She was on high honor roll all the way through school. We were going to go to college in Philadelphia. Then we were gonna get married. And when she got pregnant, we figured we'd just do it in different order." He played with his glass of water.

"We didn't tell anybody she was pregnant. Nobody knew except Mark. She was six months before anybody found out. Her parents went ballistic. Her father kept saying how no daughter of his was going to drop out of school and marry some bum or become some welfare mom."

"That's a little harsh." Collins added in.

"Yeah well, then my parents found out, and while they weren't thrilled they were way better than April's. They were more willing to help us figure out what to do, but her parents said no way. We either give up the baby or they have me thrown in jail for statutory rape because when she got pregnant it was one month before her sixteenth birthday."

"Oh my god that's awful!" Mimi said, hand going to her mouth out of shock. "What did you do?"

"What else? Took the 1500 bucks we had between us, threw our clothes, her TV and my Nintendo and guitar in my car and ran away. We crashed at the Jersey shore. My cousin Frankie has these friends, Mike and Connie, who let us live in their basement apartment. Mike gave me a job under the table working for his landscaping company mowing lawns.

"We thought we had it all planned out. God we were so stupid!" He shook his head. "Mike and Connie's basement had a bedroom that fit a bed, a dresser and a crib. The other room fit a couch, chair and had a tiny kitchen at the other end. The closet was really the utility room that had the furnace and hot water tank in it. And the bathroom had this nasty old rusty shower stall in it. The whole thing was about as big as me and Mark's rooms put together." He gave a little laugh as he shook his head.

"But man we thought we had it made. They were only gonna charge us 150 dollars a month and they said we could stay as long as we needed. Plus Connie gave us her kids' old crib, stroller, car seat and a big box of baby clothes. We thought we were all set.

"The plan was to hide out for the last six weeks. Let April have the baby. Wait a few more weeks and then call my mom. We figured April's parents would be so happy to hear from us by then it would all blow over. Then me and April and Amber would all move in with my parents and finish senior year." He stared down into his now empty glass. "It was supposed to be so simple. I kept telling April not to worry. I promised her it would all work out. I promised her."