A Think Like Life – Chapter Five

Roger just keeps crying into my shoulder, continually saying Mimi's name over and over. I sigh, hugging him, telling him that Mimi loves him no matter what.

I haven't even noticed the time fly by. I hear a soft knock on the door, and Mimi knocks, seeing Roger immediately and rushing to him. I stand up, letting Mimi take my place. She holds him, kissing him on the neck, then on the cheek, then the lips. They kiss each other, and for some reason it makes my heart writhe.

Am I jealous? All this film has just proved that I can't seem to get my hand on the love I've seen around me. Roger and Mimi love each other so much, they over look all the stupid stuff they've done to each other and embrace without a care. Maureen and Joanne...their love is debatable, but it's still there. And Collins...he loves Angel so much, not even death has parted him from her...

I want that love...

Mimi lifts Roger up, whispering softly into his ear. She turns to me, smiling. "I'm taking him downstairs to my place."

I smile back. "You sure you're feeling better, Mimi?"

She smiles back, and I see the clarity in her eyes as she nods. "I just need to take care of Rog for a minute."

I nod, holding the door open for her as the two of them stagger out, Roger's arm over Mimi's shoulder. I shut the door behind them and stand at the door, listening as they make their way out of the loft and down the stairs to Mimi's place.

I sigh, collapsing on my bed, looking at the clock. It's not even nine yet (8:54), and yet I am exhausted. I bend down, taking my shoes off and my shirt, and collapse on the bed. I hear it creak underneath my weight, but for some reason the sounds of the springs are whispers when compared to my own thoughts...

.-.-.

"Hey, Mark, come on. Get up."

My eyes open, and I blink a few times. I see Roger over me, and I close my eyes, rolling over in bed. "I'm too tired."

"Get up, you lazy ass." Roger is determined to wake me up. I sigh, reaching over to the table to grab my glasses, but to my astonishment I cannot find them. Only then do I feel the glasses shoved against my face. I sit up, slowly, pushing my glasses up a bit to rub the sleep from my eyes.

"And put a shirt on. Nobody wants to see a skinny Jew body like yours unclothed." Roger throws a shirt at me, and I sleepily catch it, giving him a sleepy glare as I pull it over my head. I'm slowly waking up, and I turn to look at Roger to see him laughing. I blink, confused.

"What the hell is so funny?"

Roger only laughs more when he looks up at me. "You have the worst case of bed head I've ever seen." My hand goes to the top of my head, confirming the truth. I roll my eyes as Roger laughs some more. I hear him over by the projector, messing with the film.

I am now more awake than ever as I rush over to the projector, swatting him away! "Hey! Don't mess with that! We don't have the money to replace it!"

"Woah, sorry!" He back away, hands raised, mocking. "Don't want to make the amazing Picasso of the film angry, now, do we?"

I grumble, muttering Hebrew expletives under my breath (At least Sunday school was good for something) as I take the film out myself, rolling it back up and putting it in the box under the table. I begin looking for the next film to watch as Roger sits on the bed, still laughing at me. "You're feeling better, I see."

Roger falls silent. "Err...yeah. Sure." He obviously is just as angry at himself for breaking down last night as I was yesterday afternoon. He returns to his usual rough self as I pull out the next roll of film, labeled 4/1/90.

I turn to look at him as I begin putting the film into the projector. "You ready this time?"

"When's this one from?"

"April Fools." I grumble, turning back to the projector. Everybody knows how much I hate April Fools Day, since I'm almost always the butt of all the pranks. Roger laughs the second I say it, making me mutter a bit more. (Thank God Roger never really bothered with any kind of church. He'd be swearing back at me if he understood what I was saying.) I switch on the projector, settling myself on the bed a few feet away from Roger as he begins to calm down.

"Oho...I can't wait..."

.-.-.

"April First, 1:00 AM. Eastern Standard Time. I have just been woken by my stupid roommate."

"SHUT UP!" Roger is laughing very loud now, almost too loud for me to hear my own groggy voice.

Roger laughed at me, dancing in front of the camera. "Oh, come on, Mark! I didn't want you to miss a SECOND of your favorite day of the year!"

"Yeah, yeah. You realize I have stuff on here that would make your head spin!" I glared at Roger through the camera, hating him. I kept swaying slightly, since I was still very tired.

"Oh, stop being such a spoil sport!" Roger punched me lightly on the shoulder. "Everybody loves April Fools!"

"Yeah, everyone," I grumble, turning away from Roger. "Pan to the window, where the sky is completely dark. Men are not meant to be woken up this early." I kept the camera facing the window, turning to face Roger. "Why the hell did you decide to wake me up this early anyway!"

"Like I said! Don't want you to miss a second of this wonderful day!" Roger was still laughing at me.

"You know, the look on your face that morning was absolutely priceless-"

"Shut up."

I sighed, turning back to filming out of the window, watching an airplane flying overhead. "Why aren't you up with Mimi, anyways? Hmm?" I wasn't usually this harsh about him and Mimi, but I was always in a bad mood when I was tired.

That shut up Roger. "We had a fight last night."

I froze, knowing I had gone into very uncomfortable territory. "I...I'm sorry..." I didn't want to turn to face him, and simply kept staring out the window through my camera.

"Yeah, forget it." I heard Roger walking away and heard the door out of the loft open as he stormed away, slamming it shut. I sighed, long and loud, and shut off the camera.

Silence as we watch the screen. It's too uncomfortable of a moment for either of us to turn and say something to each other. Neither of us know what to say. So we just wait for the film to start up again.

"April First, 5:00 PM. On the Subway with Collins, on our way to Central Park to meet the others for a 'picnic'." I kept my camera on Collins. He didn't look like he was hiding any big secret, so I had agreed to come along. I didn't trust him completely.

Roger's reaction was completely different this time the film started him. There was a loud intake of breath as if somebody had just punched him in the stomach. I remained silent, knowing what was going to happen eventually.

"Yeah, as much of a picnic as we can handle." Collins shrugged, smiling. He looked so odd, without Angel. Angel had caught a little cold, so she had insisted he go on without her. I could see easily the pain in his eyes that for the first time I could remember since Christmas he wasn't accompanied by the one he loved...

"Why are we having a picnic today of all days?" I watched Collins through the camera, eager to change the subject.

Collins shifted uneasily. "It was Angel's idea. She thought we were getting a bit...unsettled, and suggested we get together to have some...togetherness."

I sighed. Angel was exactly right. Maureen andJoanne were apart again, and I strongly suspected that Roger had just left Mimi...for whatever reason. "Yeah." We remained silent the rest of the way up there, as I filmed random people as they got off and on the subway. I was in the middle of filming a particular bum who hadn't moved since we had gotten on when I heard our exit called out on the jumbled intercom. I gathered up my stuff, the camera still rolling, and got off with Collins after both of us had made sure we had everything.

It was only a short walk to Central Park from the subway. Collins seemed to be feeling a little better at the prospect of bringing everybody together for a picnic. I saw a glimmer of the skip in his step I was used to as I filmed him. Occasionally I would turn away from Collins as we walked down the sidewalk and film homeless bums on the street corners. All looking just as bad as he usually felt...

We reached the park and were greeted at the entrance by the sullen group of friends. Mimi and Roger were not looking at each other at all, and Maureen and Joanne were about ten feet away from each other, doing anything to avoid contact. Maureen had been talking to Mimi when I shyly piped up. "Hey, guys."

Roger looked up, happy for an excuse to not have to even remotely think of Mimi. "Hey. Sorry 'bout this morning."

I shrugged. "It's OK." I suddenly had to deal with an atypically (not) hyper Maureen as she began to complain about how I had my camera with me and could not confront Roger and forgive him properly.

Meanwhile, Mimi went right up to Collins, giving him a great big hug, Joanne following suit. It was only until I heard Mimi that Maureen stopped. "Hey, how is Angel doing anyways?"

Collins fell silent. The rest of us turned to look at him, expectantly. Collins croaked out uneasily. "I may be taking her to the hospital soon. She's not looking good." His eyes were glued to the cement of the pathway, solemn and depressed. Mimi left the topic alone, and the rest of us followed suit. We began walking through the park as I filmed everyone in turn. It felt odd not having Angel with us, and it seemed to be having an effect on everyone. Friends that would have been talking seemed to be standing around, awkwardly avoiding each other. I remained silent, watching the lukewarm interactions. Collins was left to make idle conversation with Mimi, who had rushed right up to him and begun talking about something random to keep away from Roger.

I found myself walking next to Roger, and tried to initiate a conversation. "OK, what's up?"

He looked up, as if expecting me to ask that question all along, as he answered very quickly. "Up? Nothing's up. Why would you think that?"

I blinked, and made a quick motion with my head towards Mimi, who was still talking idly to Collins as we walked. Roger's face grew cold immediately. "Don't get me started."

I should have never brought it up. Mimi musts have sensed my reference to her, and said very loudly to Collins, "SO, how is work going for you?" She was obviously trying to make it obvious to Roger she was not paying attention and didn't care, but it obviously came across the entirely opposite way.

Roger glared over at her. "What's up, you ask, Mark? Hmm? Maybe you should ask Mimi. Plenty has been up with her, no doubt..."

Mimi's eyes grew cold, but she refused to face him. "Collins, do tell me about that time..."

"Yeah, LOTS has been up with her. Like she's been visiting a few friends..." I backed away, as if heat between them was making it unbearable to stand in their way.

"THAT TIME...you were at M.I.T...you know what I'm talking about, don't you?" Mimi was doing a very bad job of acting uninterested for somebody of her profession.

"Has she told you anything, MARK?" I flinched, backing away a bit more as Roger began to yell. "Maybe a bit about her friend Benny..."

Mimi snapped, rounding on him. "YOU are being SO immature! Why do you think I would do that!"

Maureen jumped up suddenly. "Hey, guys, come on." She was trying to calm things down.

Unfortunately, that didn't work. Joanne suddenly stood up, rounding on Maureen. "Maureen, I don't think this is your place to quarrel...it's kinda the pot calling the kettle black?"

"ME? Immature? You're the one who's CHEATING on me!"

"What! Pot calling the ke- Pookie, I love you! Isn't that enough?"

"CHEATING! Why the HELL would I do that!"

"Maureen, I question THAT fact sometimes!"

I began backing away even further, wanting to run away from this entire situation. Collins was sitting down on a bench, his face in his hands. "Please...please..."

"How the hell should I know, you whore!"

"Well, it's not that easy, loving such a BITCH!"

I couldn't stand it much longer. Their yells were pounding down on me like a hammer...

"THAT'S IT!" Mimi stormed past Roger, passing me. She paused in front of me, tears falling from her eyes. "You must be a saint, Mark. How the HELL can you LIVE with such a BASTARD!" I couldn't say anything, only watching her as she left. Roger watched her go, too, fuming.

Joanne lost it, too. "I give up! I GIVE UP!" She stormed away as well, in the opposite direction, deeper into the park, towards her office in the city. Maureen gave her a horrible look as she went, then stomped away, towards her apartment. There wasn't even a moments pause before Roger let out a furious yell and rushed off in the direction of the subway station that would take him to the loft.

I could do nothing but collapse on the nearest bench. I could faintly hear Collins sobbing. Bleakly, wearily, I called out, "Is nobody going to come back and say 'April Fools' or something?" I turned off my camera, defeated.

Silence between us. I got up again and turned off the projector, beginning to re-wind the film into it's canister. Roger finally got the guts to speak up. "I'm sorry. Not just for that time...but all those times me and Mimi fought. You had to watch us do it, and...it wasn't fair...I'm sorry, Mark..."

I put the canister back into the box, sitting down onto the bed (I had to constrain myself from collapsing entirely) and exhaling loudly. "I know" was all I could say. We sat there, not knowing what else to say. What else was there to say?

.-.-.

A/N: Woo hoo! Had another long chapter. Only because of all the extra stuff I had to put in before the actual film stuff started. Hope you liked the spare bits of humor in this chapter, and all the humor last chapter for that matter. I don't write funny stuff that often, but when two brotherly figures like Mark and Roger get together (that should answer one question I have been asked), you can't help but add some humor. Nice, though, isn't it? Some humor here and there. ...RAMBLE! I swear, I am the WORST at rambling now... .