Chapter 8
At about 5:15, the six friends all made their way to the Life Café coming from different directions. They had all gone back to their prospective homes to change and whatnot. Mimi had told Sara not to come to the Café because they had some deep friend stuff to work out.
Joanne, Maureen, and Jaylah were the first ones to have arrived. Maureen had been silent since Joanne told her what had happened with Mark. So instead Jaylah was chattering about having met Roger Davis.
Mimi arrived next. Darren had tried to tell her not to go because he didn't like Roger, but of course she went anyway. Roger and Collins came at the same time, and last to arrive was Mark. He exchanged hugs with Joanne and Collins and smiles with Mimi and Maureen. After every one was settled down at the table, they all fell silent.
Jaylah broke the silence by asking, "Roger, will you sing for me now? Then you can prove to Mark how good of a singer you are."
Roger rolled his eyes, "I don't have to prove anything to Mark. He knows it all anyway." he said bitterly.
"I know you're a self absorbed jerk." Mark retorted. "I know that you only care about yourself and getting rich and famous while your friends suffer."
"Nobody's suffering!" Mimi jumped in. "I was fine."
"That's not the point." Mark said back.
"Then what is the point Mark? It's about you isn't it? It's always about you." Roger yelled back.
"Oh you're one to talk!"
"SHUT UP!" Maureen yelled suddenly, cutting them off. "You are both self absorbed jerks. Don't you get it? Mark, Roger had to leave Alphabet City. We all did. It was crazy living there and we all jumped at the chance to get out. Roger, Mark's right, you shouldn't have left him with the responsibility of caring for Mimi. She was your girlfriend. And Mimi, you were suffering. We all saw it. Our friendship was supposed to be strong enough to last these ten years apart. But instead, the things we were afraid to tell each other and the things we were afraid to do, hurt us, and they are still hurting us. So before anyone leaves tonight we are going to get this out and either stay friends or not, but I refuse to allow us to go on like this."
Everyone stared at Maureen with wide eyes. She was always the loud one, but she had never said anything like that to them before.
"Sorry Mo" Roger, Mark, and Mimi murmured.
"It's okay, and stop calling me Mo. My name is Maureen." she said with a small smile. "So who wants to go first?"
Mimi cleared her throat. "I will." she volunteered. "Roger, when you said you wanted to leave and go make it big, I was scared. I didn't think I had long to live and I wanted to spend my last days with you. Then I realized that it wasn't about me. You had had the same dream for years and you finally had the chance to pursue it. So I acted like I was fine, like I was perfectly healthy. I know it was stupid to deceive you like that, but I figured that Mark could take care of me if any thing happened, I just wanted you to be happy. I guess in the end, I really ended up deceiving myself."
Roger looked at Mimi's tearstained face and felt his heart breaking. "I was to blame as well Meems." he said. "When you told me you would be fine, I could clearly see you were sick. But I convinced myself that you were going to be okay, and that Mark would be there for you if you weren't. I had to. It was the only way I let myself leave that day. I always tried to fall back on Mark. All I knew was that I wanted to leave, I guess I didn't really realize I was restricting Mark from leaving by pushing you off on him." Then he turned to Mark. "I'm sorry Mark." he said. "You were always there to help, I didn't think twice about dumping Mimi off on you. I guess because you had always taken care of me. It was just second nature. But it wasn't right."
Everyone turned to Mark to see what he had to say. "I was mad." he said simply. "I hated you for leaving. I thought you were running away again. Running away from everyone you claimed to love. I could see Mimi was sick, and then you said you were leaving and that you were leaving her in my care. All I could think was 'it's always me who has to pick up Roger's pieces and clean up his messes. Me, good old dependable Mark.' I wanted the freedom of running off for once, and I didn't think it was fair that it was always you who got to run away." he stopped and then said softly. "I didn't want you to leave me. I loved you and I didn't want you to leave."
Roger just stared at Mark. He had always cared about the filmmaker, but now his heart felt a swell of love for him. And not platonic roommate love either. It was a familiar feeling that had always been in the pit of his stomach. He had never been able to identify it, and years away from Mark had dulled it. But now that he saw those lovely sea blue eyes again, he knew the feeling for what it was. It was the reason he hadn't had a girlfriend since Mimi. It was the reason every time he saw Mark his heart leapt. It was the reason Mark's earlier words had hurt so much. The feeling was love, and it was directed towards one Mark Cohen.