Maureen and Roger had never really gotten along. From the minute Mark brought her home to the loft, Roger decided she was trouble. He looked her up and down and didn't say a word.
"Roger, this is my girlfriend Maureen," Mark was beaming as he introduced them. "Maureen, this is my roommate Roger."
"Hi!" Maureen shoved her hand in Roger's direction.
He hesitantly took it, and shook it, his eyes narrowed in her direction.
Maureen nodded and smiled at Mark. "Pookie, now that I've met your friend, want to go back to my place?"
"Well, don't you want to meet Collins and Benny?" Mark asked, a little hurt. When he heard Roger snort at the term "Pookie", he decided she was right. "Sure, we can go to your place."
"Good," she leaned in to kiss his nose before prancing out the door with Mark at her heels like a lost puppy.
--
As the years went by, the hostility between Maureen and Roger intensified. She was so easily distracted, so tempted. Roger knew, but he never slipped to Mark.
"Where are you going?" he asked one night.
"Just meeting this guy I…" Maureen stopped., her eyes widening at her slip up. "I'm catching up with my friend Cheryl from high school."
"Uh huh," Roger replied. "I'm happy to see how deeply you care about my best friend."
"And April would be where?" Maureen shot back.
"Don't say shit about my April, you bitch," Roger jumped up, advancing towards her. "You don't know anything," the tears were forming in his eyes and his voice started shaking, "just fuck off and mind your own fucking business."
"Roger, I…" she reached up to touch his face.
"Just go," he smacked her hand away and turned around, angrily stomping off to his room.
--
Roger stood in the doorway of his bedroom the day Maureen left, watching her walk out of the loft with her bags in hand.
"I knew you were trouble from the minute he introduced us," Roger spat. "I knew you'd fuck everything up."
"Just remember who it was rubbing your back while Mark held your barf bucket every night," Maureen replied coldly. "The one who fought you for the knife when you tried to go the same way April went. Mark still doesn't know about that."
Roger hung his head. "I don't want to think about those nights."
"I never meant to hurt him."
"I never meant to hate you." But the door closed before he got that last line out.