AN: Okay, so I'm a big fat liar. The advantage to AP testing week is that when you're not taking a test, half the people in your classes are. So you do absolutely nothing. Awsome. So I got lots of writing done in classes and tah-dah! Also, the night I posted the first chapter to this story, I was lying in bed and all of a sudden realized "Wait! That's not what Mitzvah means!" But I never bothered to correct myself because either way I looked like a dumbass so what did it really matter? lol, well someone finally called me out on it so I'm taking the opportunity to admit to my faults. Mitzvah does not mean blessing, it means good deed. And although it's not the initial meaning I wanted, I'm not changing it because I still like it and I love the way the title sounds, and it also kind of amuses me that its initials are S&M. Anyways, here's chapter 4. Enjoy and review por favor!

After Spanish, Mark went to get his lunch out of his locker. Roger normally met him there, and then they would walk out to Roger's car to eat, preferring Roger's overabundance of good music to the never-ending noisiness of the school cafeteria. He waited for Roger for a few minutes before figuring he'd gone to the car without Mark. Sometimes Roger liked a little time to himself to go over the parts he'd just learned in choir to help imprint them in his brain. Of course, Roger didn't know that Mark knew about this.

As Mark approached the car he could see Roger's outline in the window and smiled. There's my crazy choir geek. As he got closer, the smile gradually morphed into a look of confusion. The first odd thing he noticed was that Roger was sitting in the passenger's seat. The next thing he noticed was that Roger was leaned back – definitely not a singing position. Finally, when Mark reached the window, he noticed Roger's facial expression: lip bit in concentration and eyes closed in ecstasy.

Mark stared in confusion for a few seconds. He was about to tap on the window when his eyes happened to wander down and recognition began to settle in. When he looked back up, Roger was looking at him and their eyes met. Mark blushed an impossible shade of red, quickly turning his head and averting his eyes. He looked back once, mouthed "Sorry", his expression a cross between sincerity and extreme embarrassment, and ran away.

It was enough to picture Mark, but to open his eyes and see Mark standing there, staring at him; to lock eyes with Mark? That was too much for Roger. However, after he came down from the high of his release, he began to piece together what had just happened.

"Fuck."

"Yeah, I know," Cindy said, an annoyingly confident smile on her lips, "I'm good."

"No, I mean, fuck, Cindy, get off me!" He practically kicked Cindy out of the car, desperately trying to pull up his pants as he ran after Mark. But Mark was long gone. He had to find Mark; he had to explain – Fuck. How the fuck do I explain this to Mark? 'Sorry Mark, but I'm in love with you and I just wanted to use your sister to make sure I still like girls. Guess what! I don't.' Hmm…something tells me that would creep him out just a little.

Roger looked for Mark for the rest of the period, but to no avail. Mark wasn't in pre-calc, and when Roger cut English to look into Mark's history class, Mark didn't look up from his books. Roger suspected that Mark knew he was there and that's why he didn't look up, but it was a silly suspicion considering Mark couldn't have seen him if he hadn't looked up. Mark wasn't in photography so Roger sat in the darkroom alone, idly strumming his guitar and thinking over the events of the day. He'd really fucked things up. But then again, Roger and Mark were just friends. Maybe Roger was just making too much of this. Roger liked Mark, but as far as Roger was concerned, Mark was straight. Maybe Mark just didn't want to see his sister degraded in such a manner. Or maybe, he thought with a grin, Mark was just disappointed in Roger for sinking so low. Yeah, it was probably something like that, Roger thought. Mark just needs some time to cool off.

After auditions for the show, Roger was walking to the parking lot when he noticed a couple kissing on the patch of grass in the back of the school. A sick feeling gripped the pit of his stomach as he watched Mark making out with an awkward-looking female. But then – was it just his imagination, or did Mark look like he wanted to throw up? The girl was clinging to Mark, happy and giddy and passionate. Mark looked like he wanted to get away as soon as possible. The sick feeling left him, and instead Roger began to laugh. The scene really was quite comical.

After a few minutes, Mark and Awkward Girl broke apart. They exchanged a few words before she squeezed Mark's hand affectionately, game him a warm smile, and left. Roger seized the moment and ran over to Mark before Mark had a chance to realize he was there.

"So," Roger began, laughter ready to boil out of him at any moment and a cocky grin plastered on his face, "who was she?"

Mark blushed and bit his lip. "Oh, hi Roger."

"Don't 'Oh, hi Roger' me! You've been avoiding me all day. You didn't even give me a chance to explain."

"Explain? You don't have to explain anything to me. What you do with your sex life is none of my business."

"Well, you have some explaining to do. Who's the chick you were just sucking face with?"

Mark grimaced, but then he smiled. It killed Roger that Mark felt he had to put on an act for him. "Um, that was Nanette. My girlfriend."

Roger stared at Mark blankly. "Nanette? Nanette Himelfarb? The girl who's been in love with you since you were eleven? The girl you can't stand? The weird looking girl who's annoying and strange and religious to a frightening degree?"

"Hey, don't talk about her like that! That's my girlfriend!"

"Mark, those were your words." Roger was both angry and upset. "Mark, you can't go out with a girl just to get back at me for receiving head from your sister. That's warped. And you're not being fair to her."

"That's ridiculous Roger. You're so paranoid. I really like Nanette."

Roger snorted. "Mark, you looked like you were in pain kissing her."

Mark frowned. He was beat. "Fine. You're right. I don't really like Nanette. I'll, uh, I'll break up with her." Mark smiled a little, shaking his head. "I – I don't even know why I did that."

"We all do stupid things from time to time. Look at what I did this afternoon."

"Yeah, what the hell was that? But seriously, I don't know why I got so upset. I'm sorry for acting like an idiot, and for avoiding you. I mean, you're my best friend."

"Really?" Mark nodded, causing Roger to grin. "You're my best friend, too." The two smiled warmly at each other before embracing. Roger didn't want to let go, but he did, and to cover up his ache to kiss Mark, he laughed a little, stating, "We are such dorks."

"Speaking of dorkage, how'd your audition go?"

"Oh, I'm so going to kill you for that comment. But it went quite well, actually." He motioned for Mark to come with him to his car.

"Well that's good. When do you find out?"

"Callbacks are posted tomorrow."

"I'll come with you to check the callboard tomorrow if you want."

Roger's heart skipped a beat. "Yeah, that would be nice."

"Oh, that reminds me. My mom wants to invite you to our Passover Seder."

"How did play auditions remind you of Passover?"

"I have no idea. But will you come?"

"I don't know. I don't want to intrude if it's like a big family thing."

"Well a) that's silly. You're not intruding if you're invited, and b) it's not a big family thing. You'd be coming on the second night. We have a big Seder on the first night. The second night it's just my family, my grandma, and Nanette."

"Your soon-to-be ex girlfriend is coming to your Passover Seder?"

"Well, yeah. She does every year. Her family goes to her grandparent's on the second night and they have three cats. She's horribly allergic."

"Isn't that going to be weird?"

Mark shrugged. "It might not be. Nanette's dad is her hero and he'll be happy."

"Happy? That a nice Jewish boy broke up with his daughter? I would think you'd be a Rabbi's dream future son-in-law."

"Well maybe it's all the times he's seen me leave for a good portion of the service and come back with my face flushed and my hair ruffled."

"Has Marky been fooling around in the synagogue bathroom!"

Mark turned a deep shade of red. "Um…sort of."

"Whoa. This is a new development! With who?"

"Like I'd tell you."

Roger put on his best puppy dog face. "I'd tell you."

"I know. And that's why you get head from skanks in the passenger's seat of your car, and I get to fool around in the clean bathroom of the synagogue with nice Jewish girls. Sometimes the coatroom. It's…dark in there."

"Oh Mark, you are such a rebel." Roger teased as they reached his car, got in, and drove away.