Chapter 1: Warmer than most nights.
Tonight was warmer than most nights. Not exactly mid-summer in the state of Arizona kind of warm, but in the still of an autumn New York night it was warmer than usual. On a night like this, Roger Davis felt the need to watch the world on the balcony of his loft. On a night like this, Roger Davis took time to reflect on what had happened over the past year. There had been the rent fight with Benny that was still so freshly in his mind because the night that they resolved it was the night that would change everything between him and Mimi Marquez, the last person in his life to make him appreciate happiness. It's considered odd if in New York you ever experience the smell of something natural, something that doesn't make you want to cough up your lungs. Tonight, although he had no idea where the scent might be coming from, he smelled flowers. Not the kind that some old lady keeps on the windowsill of her 3rd floor walk up but the kind that grows naturally in a park. Central Park was nowhere near Avenue A.
Through the lens of his camera, Mark could notice little details covering the face of his friends. When he watched old reels he could see the dimples that formed whenever Angel laughed at one of Collins jokes. The sad attempt to look happy whenever Mimi wasn't around that Roger used so many times. The way you could just tell that Joanne was silently pissed off at the way Maureen had stared at another girl. It was all present when his eyes were pressed so tightly to the camera. His camera wasn't on tonight. Any other night he might want to catch the raw emotion of a scene like this but tonight, it was too close to his heart to ruin with film.
"Should we try to get him to come back inside?" Maureen's voice almost sounded like an echo. The loft apartment was so quiet that any voice might resonate in it, no matter the volume. Most people might think that Maureen Johnson was insensitive, self-absorbed and lacking to find a better adjective, crazy. At times Maureen could exude the latter two qualities but Maureen was anything but insensitive. In fact, she tended to be overly sensitive. It seemed to her sometimes that the only person who ever really noticed that was Joanne and even she sometimes couldn't understand the deep hurt she felt every day seeing the people she loves around her fall out of her life. These were the first words she had spoken all night.
"I think he needs a little time, whatever we plan on doing, I think it can wait." Collins whispered, trying not to get the same amount echo as Maureen a few moments before.
"But…" started Maureen, but soon backed away after a disappointed look from Collins shot her way. After all, Tom Collins knew what he was talking about. Collins had experienced this much earlier in the year and still somehow struggled through. Some people might think that this would be the breaking point for anybody, but Collins was strong, and he wasn't worried about himself. It was Roger who really had everybody concerned. Benny silently cried in the corner. Benjamin Coffin the 3rd who hadn't shed a tear in many years had been silently sobbing in the apartment he tried to take away from his ex-roommates. Tonight was the kind of fall night that they all had been dreading for the past couples of months.
Tonight, Mimi Marquez, age 20, died in her apartment from a heroin overdose.