I punched in the numbers to Roger's phone, waiting impatiently for him to pick up.

"Hello?"

"Hi…is…Roger there?"

"Yeah, he's here. Who's calling?"

"Mark."

"Oh. Yeah, um, Roger is kinda… he's like, fucked up right now or something. Can you call back later?"

In the background:

"Who's on the phone?"

"Mark."

"Oh my God. Let me talk to him."

The first voice came back on the phone. "Okay, I guess he wants to talk to you. But be careful what you say though. I don't know what's wrong with him, but he's been acting like a fucking recluse. Here Roger, take the phone."

The were muffled sounds of the phone being transferred, and then Roger's voice.

"Mark?" He sounded congested.

"Roger! Hi! Are you- are you okay?"

"Mark-" He fell silent.

I stared at the receiver for a second.

"Roger…are you still there?"

"Mark, when are you coming?"

"When- what? Coming where? To New York?"

"Yeah." He sighed.

"Well Roger- I can't just-…Christmas break, I promise. That's as soon as I can. Why? Are you okay?"

"Mark, I…need you here."

"Roger, what is wrong? You don't sound good at all. Are you sick?"

"Mark, I'm not sick. There's no way you can come any sooner?"

"No- I can't- I have classes with only two day weekends until the middle of December. ...Is this an emergency?"

There was silence again, and my heart sped up a little. "Roger, where did you go? Can you hear me?"

"Mark, I just- I can't- I don't know. I really don't know. I- just…I miss you Mark."

"Roger you're scaring me. What is wrong? Look, I'd live there if I could. But I need you to hang in there, okay? You never call! I mean- I'm not accusing you, but I'm left in the dark all this time and all the sudden you're like this? What's the matter? If there's something wrong you can tell me, you know that!

Listen...I'm not going to class today. June and I- Oh Roger! You don't even know about June! There's so much we need to talk about. I want to tell you- you needto- do you need to talk?Here- I'll tell you what. Hang up and call back collect, okay? That'll be easier for the both of us. Do you wanna do that?"

"Listen, I didn't mean to scare you. You don't have to worry about me."

"It's okay Roger. Now here- I'm gonna hang up, but then you call right back collect, okay?"

"Yeah."

I hung up the phone and waited.

It never rang.

I tried the apartment and no one answered.