AN: I just realized that I tend to switch between past and present tense in the middle of a chapter… I'm sorry if that screws anyone up, but I'm not gonna bother trying to fix it… Sorry, but I'm too set in my ways…

AVAVAVA

Collins and I were lying in bed facing each other. His eyes were closed, and I was seriously debating about whether I wanted to wake him up or not. He always looked so peaceful afterwards, and I smiled at the thought that I caused that smile on his face, even as he was sleeping, or so I thought. In one swift motion he reached out and pulled me up against him, resting his head on my shoulder. "Morning."

I looked over his shoulder at the alarm clock on the night stand, and giggled softly. "It's seven o'clock at night honey."

He opened his eyes and smiled at me. "It's almost bed time."

I roll my eyes playfully and kiss him before sitting up and holding my hands over my head, stretching out my back. "Not really. We have five night owls staying over." I turned back to look at him. "And anyway, tomorrow's Friday. That means they're leaving in only three days. We need to make the most of having them here."

Collins sat up with a sigh as I slid out of bed and pulled my skirt back up over my legs and waist. Collins whistled behind me and I turned to shoot him a look. He held up his hands in mock surrender. "Can I help it if you're gorgeous?"

I lifted my hand and pushed my hair behind my ears. "No, I guess you can't." I laughed and went over to his side of the bed kissing him again. He looked over my face and to my hair, and I took a step back, trying to figure out what he was looking at. "What?"

"You're hairs getting kind of longish." I lifted my hand to my hair again, and turned to the mirror. My hair had always grown pretty fast, but I normally kept it short. It made wearing wigs easier. It was about two inched long now, since I hadn't gotten it cut since we moved to Boston. I made a face and wrinkled my nose as I looked at my reflection. "What's wrong?"

I turned back to him with the odd look still on my face. "I don't like my hair this length is all. I hate that stage of growing out your hair where it's not long enough to be long, but it's long enough that you can't call it short, you know?"

Collins just looked at me blankly. He chose to ignore what I said all together. "I think it's good, that you're growing your hair out."

"Yeah, well, if I can't wear wigs, this is next best I guess. I'm gonna miss not being able to change it all the time though, like when the mood just hits me."

"Well, can't you still tie it up or something and put a wig on?"

"Yeah, it's just harder with long hair." I gave him a small shrug. "Hey, you've never seen me with long hair!" I pulled my underwear up under my skirt and chose to step into my slippers rather than my platforms.

Collins laughed and shook his head. "Can't say that I have. When was it long?" He crossed his legs on the bed and watched as I went to my dresser and pulled out a pink box. "I thought you kept all your pictures in a green box…?"

I took the bow with me to the bed and sat beside him. "I do, but those are pictures of my New York life. These are pictures from before then." He nodded as I began looking for the picture my sister had taken all those years ago. "When I was thirteen, and my sister was sixteen, back when we were still living in Puerto Rico, I had my hair grown out past my shoulders. It wasn't as odd for boys to have long hair where I was at the time, and since I couldn't wear wigs, it was the next best thing."

I continued to rummage through the box for a moment before pulling out a picture and handing it to Collins. Even though I was the only person in the picture, I pointed to myself. "That's me." I was sitting under a tree in spring, with the orange blossoms just starting to bloom. My legs were crossed with my knees drawn up to my chest, my arms folded over them. My lips were spread in a wide smile, I had been laughing when my sister snapped the picture with her new camera. She had been begging for one for years, and she had been doing extra chores any chance she could to be able to afford it. But the point of pulling out the picture, my back was to the camera, but I had my neck craned to look into the camera, and you could see my long dark hair falling halfway down my back, soft curls tucked behind my ear.

Collins was silent for a moment. "Wow. So you've always been this beautiful? It was never something you worked on?"

I smiled and shook my head. "Nope, s'all natural!" I giggled softy and reached to take the picture back from him, but he held up his hand, taking the picture out of reach. "What are you doing with it?"

"Probably making copies so I can put one in my wallet, one on my desk at the school, hang one on the will with all those pictures of our friends you hung up, and still have one for that photo album you keep talking about making one day."

I dropped my hand to my sides and looked at him for a moment, before kissing him, and standing back up, grabbing my shirt from its spot on the ground. "Do with it what you will. It's just been sitting in that box for four years. You know, I haven't even looked through it since my sister packed it up for me when I left home. She handed it to me as I was walking out the door." I went to pick up the box, but Collins grabbed that away too. "What now?"

"Well, I wanna see what other pictures you've been hiding from me." He began rummaging through the box as I pulled my shirt over my head.

"Can't you do it another time? We have company."

"Sorry, no. I'm too interested at the moment." He looked from the pictures and up to me, flashing me a gorgeous grin. "I'll be out in a few, don't worry."

"Alright, see you in a few." I blew him a kiss and went back out into the living room, closing the door behind me. Marks camera instantly turned to me, and I blew another kiss in his direction. "Hey Marky." I walked over and sat crossed legged in the chair across from him. It used to be a bit nerve wracking to have his camera on me when we talked, but I'd long since gotten used to it. He didn't want to miss anything, and I understood that. "What's up?"

"Mimi and I made rice." Even with the camera in front of his face, I could see the smile on his lips. "And I only got hurt twice! I cook, and it was good, and I didn't have to go the emergency room with third degree burns!"

I laughed despite myself. "That's great Mark."

He let out a heavy sigh. "Ya, it was great. There's still some left if you want." He lowered his camera. "I was about to put some new film in my camera anyway. You're brilliant smile just finished up this roll."

I stood back up and flashed my smile again. "Glad to be of help." I walked past him and into the kitchen, where the rest of them were sitting around with bowls of rice in front of them.

Without a word, Roger reached out and grabbed a bowl off the table, holding it out to me. "You must be hungry." He winked at me as I took the bowl.

"Thanks Roger. Mark was just ranting about the experience of making good rice."

Mimi smiled up at me. "Ya well, I let him do most of it… With a lot of back seat cooking on my part." She handed me a spoon. "Try it. He really did a good job."

I took the spoon and took a bite. "Wow. I didn't think anything Mark made would taste good. But yum."

Mimi threw Maureen a glare. "I actually made some too, to show Mark how, but someone went and accidentally knocked it off the stove."

Maureen just shrugged her shoulders and cuddled against Joanne, who didn't seem to protest the oddly silent drama queen beside her. When Mimi had away, Maureen's eyes went just a bit wide in my direction and she shook her head, mouthing 'not an accident' when no one was looking.

I couldn't help but smile as I nodded my head toward the kitchen, letting only her see. "Be right back guys. I'm gonna go get a drink."

Maureen nodded and stood up. "Me too."

We walked together to the kitchen and I turned to Maureen with my arms crossed over my chest. "What did you do Maureen?"

"Well, Mimi and Mark left the room when it was cooling, and I was alone in the kitchen, so I tried a bite of Mimi's and it was wicked good and all that. So then I tried a bite of Marks, and it was just…." She made a face. "Not good. And Mark was so proud of making it, and I didn't want him to get crushed! So I switched the pots, and then when they came back in, I made a big show of 'accidentally' knocking over Mimi's rice. She got mad, and she made me clean it up!"

I pretended to find it as shocking as her. "No! Not you? The mess maker?"

She didn't catch on to my tone. "Ya! And they hadn't tasted it yet, so they could only taste Marks batch, so of course it was good! And that was all my doing, and look how happy I made my Marky!"

I would have said something about the 'my Marky' comment, but Roger came into the kitchen and grabbed a few beers from the fridge. "Come on you guys, we're in the living room drinking. You in?"

Maureen followed his suit and grabbed the remaining beer from the fridge and winked at me. "Don't you know it." I put my bowl of Mimi's rice in the fridge and followed them into the living room, where everyone was now sitting around. Roger and Maureen handed out the beers, taking a seat next to their counter parts.

With no Collins out yet, I decided to sit next to Mark, snuggling up against him. He blushed softly as he took the cap off his beer and took a small sip. We all knew he couldn't handle his alcohol, so he had to make this beer last how ever long it took the rest of us to drink four. I laughed and kissed him softly on the cheek. "You're such a cutie Mark!"

He blushed deeper and rolled his eyes. "Gee thanks."

"See Mark?" Maureen perked up. "Whenever I told him that, he always changed the subject. But Ange, if you think he looks good now, you should see him naked." Mark was turning a deep shade of red, and attempting to fall into the couch. "I swear, if I were still into guys, I'd…"

"So then…" Joanne cut her off, and looked around the group. "So, what are we drinking to tonight?" She took a sip of her beer and glared at Maureen, who didn't even flinch.

Roger gave her an odd look as he cocked his head. "What do you mean, 'drinking to'? There's beer, so we're drinking." He finished off half his bottle in one gulp.

Joanne just rolled her eyes. "How nice. Weren't you just complaining of a hang over an hour ago?"

He held up his bottle in a 'cheers' kind of way. "That was an hour ago Jo. Get with it." And in one more gulp, his first beer was gone, and he was reaching for another.

"You know Roger…" I watched him open his second beer. " If you were anyone else, I'd think you have a problem."

He flashed me that rock star smile. "If… I was anyone else."

I nodded. "If."

Collins came into the living room at that moment, holding out an envelope of pictures to me and nearly knocking the bottle that I had yet to open out of my hand as he plopped down beside me one the couch. "How come you're so sad in these ones?"

I took the envelope from him and looked at it for a moment, not opening it. "I don't know. I told you, my sister gave me the box when I left home, and it was a bit too depressing for me to ever look through." I didn't really like thinking of my past all that much. Most of the bad memories out weighed the good ones.

"Well, look at um. I wanna know what made you so sad." I gave him an odd look. Why did he wanna know what depressed me as a child so much? But he gave me a small pout. "And anyways, there's a guy in a bunch of them."

I laughed shortly. "Ohh, so this is an 'I wanna know if I'm better than all your ex's' kind of thing?"

He shrugged with a simple smile. "Maybe a little."

"Okay fine, I'll look at them, but if I tell you they were better, remember, you brought it on yourself." I opened the envelope and held them in my hands for a moment, still looking at Collins.

He kissed me softly and pulled away. "I'll take my chances."

I looked down at the pictures in my hand for the first time and took a sharp breath. I quickly turned to the next one, and the next and the next, my breathing growing shallow. Sure, I looked happy in most of them, though Collins made it sound like I was depressed and crying in all of them. My hands started to shake as I held the pictures, not wanting to look, but not being able to take my eyes away.