A/N: This chapter will be easier to read; there are fewer POVs flying around. Here we are; enjoy.

Chapter Two

"Maybe that cute waitress we had last time will be there again." This came from Maureen, as the three walked toward the Life Café.

"Cute waitress?" Mark said. He new there was a tension between his two companions, but he was going to pretend it wasn't there. "Every time I go there we end up sitting with Steve--that gay waiter who's in love with me."

Joanne laughed. "Yes, well, at least he's in love with someone," she said curtly.

Maureen scoffed. "I don't believe in love. There's only people you want to sleep with and people you really want to sleep with." But she wondered if she really had meant that. She had only said it to get a rise out of Joanne but if she really believed it on some level...well, it would explain a lot of things.

Mark actually laughed. "Oh no, sweetie. I believe in love." Because I loved you, he thought but did not say.

Joanne looked taken-aback. "You want to talk about sleeping with whoever you want to, pookie?" She asked bitterly. "You, who have cheated on everyone you've ever dated with half the city of New York---"

"Ladies!" Mark said. He was not getting in the middle of this. "Please, easy. Kill each other later, for the moment let's eat. Truce?" he said to the both of them.

Benny looked up from his table as he saw a group of people approaching the Life through the big windows in front of him. Please don't be... Benny began to think, but then stopped because honestly, who else would it be? He wasn't in the mood to hear Maureen's mouth anymore, and he had business to take care of. He wondered why he decided to come to the Life to try to take care of business when he had known that they would be coming... because that's ALL they ever do.

Joanne just watched Maureen, who had changed her train of thought, disturbed. It's then that she saw Benny, who had put his hand up along the side of his face in an attempt for them not to notice him.
"BENNY! Would you care to join us?" called Joanne. Anything to get in between the inevitable fight she and Maureen would have. Shit, Benny thought, slowly taking his hand down and looking at Joanne.
"Truce first!" Mark tried. He was hesitant to have Benny join them, but that was something out of a movie.

"I don't want to intrude or anything. Actually, I was just leaving," Benny said, as a waitress came over and set a plate with a chicken sandwich and French fries on it down in front of him.

"Aw, c'mon! You can join us over here! Unless you're too GOOD for us." Mark said, knowing it would get Benny's attention.

Benny cringed a little. He sighed and picked up his plate as he got up. "Alright, where we sitting?"

"At this table." Mark said, trying not to sound sarcastic.

"You can sit here," Joanne said, moving so she was sitting next to Mark, leaving the seat next to Maureen open.

Benny eyed the seat, then Maureen, then the seat again. He reluctantly sat down next to her, giving her a mock smile before picking at his fries.

"So...we were saying?" Mark said, by way of trying to pick the conversation up again. "Oh yeah! Truce! C'mon you two, we have a guest!" He said, indicating to Benny.

Joanne, again getting that set-in-stone attitude, looked at Maureen, letting her make the first move.

Maureen pouted, crossing her arms across her chest and leaning back in her chair. She glanced around the table, giving Benny an icy glare when her eyes reached him. "Fine, truce. Because we have a guest." Her tone had a hint of sarcasm in it, but she did mean what she said. She would stop...for now. "So Benny, why are you slumming it with us tonight?" While her tone was a little harsh, Maureen was extremely curious about why Benny would choose to eat at the Life when he could certainly afford to eat at just about every restaurant on the island of Manhattan.

Benny pushed his fries around on his plate as the two girls were trying to figure out the status of their relationship for the night. He then let his eyes travel to the side to barely look at Maureen after she addressed him. He sighed a little.

"Is it so hard to believe that I'm sick of midtown and the big apartment and the white furniture? Allison seems fine and happy with everything... then again, that's how she was brought up, but I don't know. I'm sick of it. It probably won't make you guys think any better of me, hell it might even make you think a lot less, but I think once I get Cyberland off the ground and make Mr. Gray's money back, I'm thinking about getting a divorce. This... this just isn't working for me anymore," Benny said, not really believing that those words had come out of his mouth.
Truth was, he had been evaluating his life lately and realized how much of a jerk he really had been being. He'd gotten so caught up in the cell phones and fancy clothes that he forgot his roots. He'd thought back to when he'd been rooming with Mark at Brown and how much fun they'd had, and then it seemed like so shortly after he had moved in with them in the loft, that he was out again and owning the building because someone else let him have it. He had always sworn to himself that if he was going to make any money, he'd do it on his own, and here he was just letting Mr. Grey walk all over him. It almost made him sick.

Mark was taken-aback by Benny's sudden honesty. Benny hadn't been "chummy" with him since way back in Brown. What brought this on?

"What? What's with the sudden change of heart?" he asked. His fingers itched to pick up his camera and he had to consciously keep it lowered. Here was drama! That stuff makes for great film. Then again, the drama between the two girls was wonderful for film, but he had enough shots of them--he needs something new, something---fresh.

"I know your humble roots begin with the rest of us, but what does that have to do with Alison?"

"She's just so... fake man, ya know? She's just used to living on Daddy's money. She doesn't do anything except complain to me about how someone messed up her nails at some salon or about how one of her friends husbands is being an asshole. She's not real. She's...a product of society. It was cool for a while, but it's getting on my last nerve, man," Benny seemed to be getting a little angrier than annoyed as he went on. "It's all just a bunch of bullshit. And I can't stand what I've let myself become. You know how I was back in Brown. I was self-sufficient, made my own money. Now here I am taking some other dude's money and it suddenly became okay? It was just too damn good to be true, and now the reality's hitting me."

Mimi came in after a few minutes outside with Roger, making up for what they didn't get a chance to do at the loft. When she walked in and saw Benny sitting at the table, her face fell and her guard went up. She wasn't a big fan of being around Benny, no matter how "nice" he was trying to be.
"Um, can we leave?" she asked Roger sarcastically, eyeing Benny. "Why the hell is he sitting with us? And what's his deal lately. Whenever he acts this nice, he always turns right around and does something stupid."
"Hey, oh, 'ey!" Mark said, trying to get attention. "I just managed to keep these two from killing each other, lets not start another fight. Right now it's truce time. Let's all play nice for right now, while we're eating, and then we can kill each other, okay?" he said. He was really tired of every-other-day being a new day to fight and moan about how miserable everyone else is and how so-and-so did such-and-such. Enough was enough.
Mimi sighed as she slowly walked over to the table and stood behind Benny.
"Benny, I'm surprised. A bright and charming boy like you hangs out with these slackers, who don't adhere to deals!" Mimi said mockingly before pulling up a chair and waiting for Roger to sit down so she could take a seat on his lap.
Benny rolled his eyes and followed Mimi with his gaze. "You're a riot, Mimi. Really," he said sarcastically.

"While we're all not the best of friends, right now is the time to at least act like some-what civilized people." Mark sighed and held his camera a little more tightly, ready to flip it up on the first sign of needing to. "Anyway, Mims and Roger, I'm glad you guys finally decided to come out."

"Had I known what company we'd be having, I would've stayed in the loft," Mimi mumbled under her breath while glaring at Benny before shooting Mark a smile. "Yeah, we thought we might as well. We haven't come out in a while with you guys."

Benny sunk into his seat.
Just leave Benny. Get up and leave, he thought. But he decided against it. He figured he might as well let the "old Benny" make a home once again.

Touché Mimi, Roger thought holding back a smirk. He made his way over and pulled out a chair, sitting down so that Mimi could sit on his lap if she wished.
He looked to Benny as well. Roger had only gotten to know Benny through Mark. He still didn't understand him most times.

"So, has anyone heard from Collins? I can't wait for him to get back from Santa Fe, things haven't been the same around here without him." Maureen spoke up, mostly to dispel the almost awkward silence that had fallen on the table but also because she really did miss Collins. He had been the first member of their group she had met and it had been weird not having him around while he went on his sabbatical to Santa Fe. For Angel, he had told them. He just hadn't known when he'd be coming back.

"I miss Collins, too," Mimi said as she made herself comfortable on Roger's lap. "We have to let him be, though. He'll come back when he's ready. Maybe his 'Actual Reality' finally went over with somebody down there."

Benny silently nodded, feeling it would be best to simply keep his mouth shut on this topic. It wasn't that he didn't like Collins, or Angel for that matter; he just didn't see the point for Collins' excursion to Santa Fe. It didn't solve much in his eyes. Then again, Benny had never shared the love that Collins and Angel did and never had to lose someone that close to him, save April, but they weren't nearly close enough for it to have affected him on a life-shattering level.

"He called and left a message on our machine a few days ago, actually," Mark said, glad that they were all back on somewhat of a common ground. "He said he's doing good. He still doesn't know when (or if) he's coming back." Mark turned to look at Roger. "Do you remember a year or so ago? On Christmas Eve? When we were all talking about opening a restaurant in Santa Fe? Well, Collins said he was looking at some prospect future homes for that dream."
And more luck to him, Mark thought. He deserves it.

"He's going to leave us?" Mimi asked with a pout, a slight edge of selfishness in her voice. "He can't leave us. Maybe we should all move down to Santa Fe. It'd probably be better than here," she added, almost bitterly.

The words hit Maureen like a slap in the face. Collins not coming back? She had never thought of the possibility. In fact, she had never thought about any of them ever leaving New York for good- even when Roger had taken off to Santa Fe after Angel's funeral. Their ragtag family was still trying to get over the loss of Angel, she wasn't sure if they could take losing Collins too- even if he was just moving away. Silently she agreed with Mimi. He couldn't just leave them. He wouldn't...right? "Do you think he's really going to stay in Santa Fe?" Her voice was quiet, for Maureen anyway, and betrayed more real emotion than she would have liked.

"I don't know," Mark admitted. "He said he MIGHT, but personally I don't think he will. And even IF he does, he'll come back and visit us...he has too." Mark added the last as a way to complete his train of thought. Suddenly, he smiled.
"Hey everyone! Brighten up, will ya? It's not like he--" He was going to say "died," but figured that was a bad choice of words, so he changed them. "He's gone forever or anything. He'll still come up and visit us and do crazy stuff with us and everything. Collins is still Collins. I say let the guy have a break---it's been hard up here for him, you know? I think he could use a vacation." A nice LONG vacation.

"Yeah, I guess so," Mimi said, her voice barely above a whisper. To her, Collins hadn't only been a friend, but her last connection to one of her BEST friends. They'd always share the dreams they'd had about Angel, seeing as how she was constantly visiting them both. Mimi sighed a little and rested her head on Roger's shoulder as floods of memories came rushing back. She hated having to face up to reality sometimes...
After a few moments, she stood up.
"I'm going to run to the bathroom," she said before quickly walking away.
Roger had fallen silent as the group started talking about Collins. He was glad their friend had gone down to Santa Fe to try and make his dream come true. However, he too wished deep down that it wouldn't be forever. He went to say something as Mimi got up but she was halfway there already. A worried look crossed his face. "Excuse me," he told the others before he too stood up.

Benny watched after Mimi, almost worried, and wondering why she made such a quick departure. But he let the thoughts leave his mind. He didn't care about her and her addictions or her conditions anymore anyway.

"Me and my STUPID big mouth!" Mark thought bitterly. "I just had to say something, didn't I?" He looked from Maureen to Joanne to Benny, realizing that they were right back where they started.
"So..." He said, trying to think of something, ANYTHING, that would bring the topic back onto lighter ground. The talk of Collins didn't bother him, but it did change the mood pretty quickly. He absentmindedly started at the table. "Hey, I think this is the same table we jumped on!" He said. "Remember that? That was what, a year ago? Two?" A mischeivious grin crossed his face. "Do you think we'd get kicked out for good if we jumped on the tables again?" He asked, but then he looked at Benny and remembered WHY they had jumped on tables in the first place. It had been because of Benny--and Maureen's performance. And Bohemia. LA VIE BOHEME!

Benny looked at Mark and laughed ever so lightly.
"It's worth a try, isn't it?"

Time to bury the hatchet, Benny. What's the worst that can happen? Getting banned from the Life isn't exactly earth shattering, Benny thought as he stood up. He climbed on top of his chair and stepped up onto the table.
"Viva la vie boheme," he said, giving the other three a smile.