Mark turned away from his mirror, tugging at the collar to his shirt. "This one?"
Roger looked up at him and shrugged. "Ehh."
"Ohh thanks Roger, helpful." Roger went to get up, setting aside the book that was in his hands, but Mark held up a hand to stop him. "No, study, it's more important."
"Ya Mark, 'cause I study." He set the book down and stood up. "I was drawing mustaches on all the presidents."
"You know the school makes you pay for that kind of stuff."
"S'ok. I don't go to this school. It's your book." Mark turned to yell at him, but Roger clamped his hand over the smaller boy's mouth. "Don't worry, it's in pencil." He kept his hand over Marks mouth as he turned him to face the mirror again, looking at his reflection over the blondes shoulder, letting his hand fall. "You know, I think trying to make a 'Sunday's best' shirt into a 'clubbing' shirt just isn't gonna work."
"Well, I don't have anything else." He tugged at his sleeves again, willing the shirt to poof into something hotter.
Roger looked Mark up and down and took a step back and pulling off his own shirt. It was a lime and forest green, weird checkered pattern, with ice blue outlines on all the squares. "Take your shirt off Mark."
Before he had a chance to do anything for himself, Roger had pulled his shirt off and pulled the green and blue shirt over his best friends head. "There, that's a little better."
Mark looked at Roger for a moment, pointing out the fact that he was not only wearing a white tank top. "And what are you going to wear?"
Roger looked to the pile of dress shirts on the ground and dug through it, pulling out a plain black one and pulling it on, leaving it unbuttoned. "This. No offence Mark, but I can pull off way more looks than you."
"Shut up. I've never been clubbing before." Even the way he said the word made Roger snicker, and Mark hit him in the arm. "You know, this still doesn't look good."
"Don't worry. I'll fix ya up." He pushed Mark into a chair in the corner, kneeling in front of him and pulling out eyeliner.
Roger began putting eyeliner around Mark's icy blue eyes, and Mark couldn't help but laugh. "You always just carry make up around with you Rog?"
His face didn't change at all as he continued to apply the eyeliner. "I'm not afraid to jab this in your eye Cohen."
"But really…?"
"No, not all the time. Only when I think I'll need to use it to make you look more manly." Roger smirked to himself and stood up. When Mark moved to stand up, Roger hit him and pushed him back down. "Do you have hair gel?"
Mark gave him a blank look. "No."
Roger looked about the small dorm. "What about those room mates of yours. Either of them have gel?"
Mark followed his gaze around the room. "Benny's bald, and I don't think Collins would have any. He has dreads."
"What about glue? Or lube?" He looked back to Mark. "Do you think lube could be used as hair gel?" It almost hurt Mark the sincerity in Roger's voice and on his face.
"I really would know. I've never tried it."
"Is that 'cause you've never had to, or because you don't have lube?"
Mark gave his friend an odd look. "I don't know, maybe both?"
"Mark that is soooo sad."
"What?"
"That you've never had a reason to buy lube before. It's sad."
"That's not what I... I didn't… I mean, I –have-…" Mark fumbled to explain himself.
As if on cue, a tall black man with dreads walked into the dorm, his face buried up to his eyes in a large book that took two hands to hold up. Without ever looking up from his book, he plopped down onto Marks bead, crossing his legs and setting the book in front of him.
Roger pointed to him and mouthed the words 'what the heck' at Mark, who just shrugged.
"You look very green tonight Mark." They both turned to look at the man on Mark's bed, who was now looking up at them with a 'know it all' grin.
"Ya, Roger dressed me."
The mans smile grew as he looked from Mark to Roger and back. "Ohh! This is the Roger?" He slid his legs over the edge of the bed and closed his book. "Well isn't that interesting."
Roger took a step back. "Why?" He looked to Mark, who was turning a slight shade of red. "Who the heck are you?"
"Who are any of us really, if we don't try to make a difference?"
"What do they call you for short?"
"Collins, man. I'm Tom Collins. And we've heard an awful lot about you, I must say."
Roger got a semi-smug smile and Mark just blushed more. "What kinds of stuff?"
"Just shut up Collins." Mark gave him a pleading and stubborn look.
Collins just laughed and draped his arms over Marks shoulders from behind, pinching Marks cheek. "Ain't he cute?"
"Who?" Another man walked in, carrying a briefcase and setting it on the table in the center of the dorm.
"Hey Benny." Collins straightened up and pointed to the top of Marks head. "This one."
"Ya, he's precious." He walked over to the group and sat on Mark's bed, looking at Roger. "You're new."
Collins did a small excited jump and pointed to Roger. "That's Roger."
Benny stood back up and looked from Mark to Roger, then to Collins. "The Roger?"
"The one and only."
"Aww!" Benny looked to Mark with a smile similar to the one a mother gets when her son finally moves out of the house, a 'signing off' smile, if you will.
"That's cute. Real cute." Collins wrapped and arm around Benny's shoulder.
"You two suck." Mark threw the insult over his shoulder to his room mates. He grabbed a very confused Roger by the arm and started pulling him to the door. "Come on, let's just go."
Roger looked back to the two boys, who looked like they were holding in so many giggles, they may just cry. "Either of you know if you can use lube for hair gel?"
Mark stopped walking and hung his head as the two others started laughing. "Ohh god."
Collins took a step forward, taking Rogers hand and pulling him to sit at the table. "Now tell us Roger, Rock God that you are, where exactly will you be taking our dear Marky?"
Roger looked over his shoulder at Mark, who just shrugged. Roger looked back to Collins, who was now sitting across from him at the table. "Just to a club I like. Why do you two care so much?"
Benny took Mark hand and held it with both of his own. "Because Mark is very dear to us, and we would hate for him to be lead astray."
"What?"
Collins hit the table in front of Roger, causing him to look back with a jolt. "I think the point, my dear boy, is three fold. One…" He held up one finger. "Mark. Very dear to us. Two…" Another finger. "We would hate for him to be lead astray. And three…" One more. "Can we come to?"
Benny smiled. "Ya. Economics sucked and we could really use a night at the club."
Mark was shaking his head, but Roger just turned to the other two and nodded. "Whatever."
Mark hung his head as the other two jumped up and grabbed their jackets. "Lead the way!"
