Chapter 5

At four o'clock Reggie's apartment was completely unpacked and everything was in place. Roger had come over to help with the heavy stuff and Maureen helped with the decorating. Then Roger heard Mark going into their loft across the hall.

"Mark's back." he announced. "You'd better hurry and get ready Reg." he said. "One thing about Mark is that he's always punctual."

Reggie nodded and went into her bathroom to freshen up a bit. Roger and Maureen went back over to Roger's place to greet Mark. He was putting away the food he'd brought home when they came in.

"Hey you guys." he said. "Where have you been?"

"Over at Reggie's helping her get her stuff settled." Maureen said giving Mark a kiss on the cheek. "She's very excited about going out with you today."

Mark blushed. "Me too." he said softly. "So how did the guitar lessons go?" he asked Roger.

"Really well." he replied. "She had a pretty good grasp of it already so I just taught her what she didn't know."

"Sounds good." Mark said. "Well I'd better go and get ready. Would one of you please tell me when Reg gets here? I don't want to come walking out in my underwear like I did the first time Joanne came over here." he went into the bathroom.

"Oh but that was so funny." Roger said under his breath. Then he dodged as Mark hurled a wet towel at his head.

Half an hour later Mark emerged from his room wearing his good jeans and a nice shirt.

"Aww look at Marky." Maureen said when he came out. "You look so nice." Mark blushed and mumbled a thank you. Then the front door opened and Reggie walked in. Mark turned an even deeper shade of red then. She still had on the same outfit but she had let her hair down from the ponytail she had earlier and it fell half way down her back.

"Hey Mark, you look great." she said softly.

"Thanks. You look- wow." he said.

Reggie giggled. "I take it that's a good thing." she said with a smile.

"Coming from Mark, it's very good. He's not a master of articulation when it comes to pretty girls." Roger interjected.

"Roger do you spend your time here reading the dictionary or something? Cause lately you've been coming up with these big words I didn't even know you knew." Maureen said poking Roger.

"Why don't you just shut up Maureen?" he retorted.

Mark rolled his eyes and walked over to Reggie. "We should probably get going, they're going to be at it for a while." he whispered to her.

She nodded. "Bye you guys." she called as she and Mark made their way out the door.

Once they were out of the building Mark turned to her. "So where do you want to go first?" he asked.

Reggie considered it. "Could we get something to eat? All that unpacking made me hungry."

"You got it." Mark said. "We can go to the Life." Reggie looked at him in confusion. "You'll see." he told her. Then he timidly took her hand and led her across the street and down the block to the Life Café.

When they walked in the door, the maitre d looked up. "Oh it's you again, I hope you have money. Who's this? She looks new and too young to be hanging around with you crazy people. Speaking of which where are the rest of them?" he said haughtily.

Mark just rolled his eyes. "This is Reggie Parker. She is new here, and the rest of my friends are minding their own business. Why don't you?" he retorted. Then he led Reg over to his usual table.

"So I take it you guys come here a lot." she commented once they were seated.

"Yeah we do. But that guy doesn't like us because of this one time when we all felt the need to dance on the tables." Mark replied.

"You danced on the tables? How exactly did that work?" Reg wanted to know.

"Well, we pushed about three of them together end to end, and we danced on them while singing a tribute to Bohemia." Mark told her blushing a bit.

Reggie laughed. "That sound like fun." she said. "Any chance of that happening now?"

"Uh I think not." Mark said quickly. "But who knows, if you come here with all of us, it might happen."

Just then, the waiter came over to take their orders. "Cohen!" he exclaimed. "Good to see you man. How's everybody doing?"

Mark grinned at him. "Everybody's fine. This is Reggie Parker by the way, the newest addition to our ranks."

"Hi Reggie." the waiter said back. "I'm Sam; you could call me the official waiter for the Bohemians at the Life Café." Then he turned back to Mark. "Haven't seen Roger around lately. How's he doing?"

Mark sighed. "Roger's better. He just needs some time, you know? It's hard to get over something like that. And this is kinda the second time."

Sam nodded. "Well tell him I said hi. Anyway what can I get you?"

Mark ordered a hamburger and fries with a coke and Reg got the same with a sprite. While they were waiting for the food Mark asked Reg to tell him about herself.

"Well, I'm eighteen, originally from Boston, but I came here to get away from all the stuffy old people my parents wanted me to be around. Plus I've always loved New York, and it just turned out the only place I could afford was our building."

Mark smiled. "I can understand all that. I came here when I dropped out of college and decided to live with Roger. I was pretty much broke because my parents cut me off for a while and then I decided I didn't want their money."

"Yeah that's me too. My mom is like if I don't go to college then she's not sending me any money. But my dad is all for giving me some, probably just to spite my mother. And I just want to be free to do what I want, broke or not." Reg said.

"And what do you want to do Miss Reggie?" Mark asked her.

"I want to write books and play music. I want to meet nice people and maybe find someone to go out with."

Mark blushed yet again. "Well I think between me, Roger and our other three friends we can help you out with all that."

"So tell me about these friends of yours Mark. From the sound of it you guys are really close." Reg said.

Mark nodded. "We are. So, you know Roger and Maureen already. Roger's my best friend and Maureen is my ex girlfriend. She's a lesbian now so." he trailed off there. "There's also Joanne Jefferson, Maureen's lover and Collins, who used to be Roger's and my roommate."

Reg tilted her head to the side. "I was under the impression that there were more of you guys." she remarked.

"Well there used to be more of us. But," he stopped there not really knowing how to proceed. Then he felt Reg's hand on his. So he took a deep breath and plowed on. "We had three other friends. Benny became the landlord of our building and we decided we didn't like him that much anymore. Then there was Angel and Mimi. They were girlfriends of Collins and Roger respectively and they both had AIDS. Angel went first; he uh she got really sick and then just died. Mimi died about eight months ago. It really tore Roger up, so don't mention this to him."

Reg nodded understandingly. "That's really sad that you lost them like that. But I can really understand. I've lost my share of friends and family too." She gave Mark's hand a squeeze and then let go as Sam came over with their food. They stopped talking for a while and just ate.

Then Reg decided to go to another subject. "So what else is there to see around here?"

"Well I thought I would show you all the places that we usually frequent." Mark answered. And he did. After they had eaten and paid, Mark led her to the lot and explained about Maureen's performances. Across the street was the Cat Scratch Club, he told her about how Mimi used to work there. Then they took the subway to Life Support and Mark told her about all the meetings he had been to and about the year that changed their lives."

Reg had a question about that. "So if Roger's girlfriend had AIDS, does that mean he does too? Did he go to these meetings with you?"

"Actually I don't have AIDS. I just went to the meetings to support my friends." Mark clarified first. "And yes Roger has AIDS but it didn't come from Mimi. I can't really get into that because it's his story."

"I understand." Reg said. "So Collins teaches, Maureen performs, Roger's a musician, Joanne's a lawyer, and Benny's the landlord. What is it that you do? I know it has to be more than produce boy extraordinaire."

Mark laughed. "Well I am pretty good at that too, but I am a filmmaker. I make documentaries about the homeless and AIDS and my friends." he said.

"You any good?" Reggie asked.

"I like to think so. When we get back to the loft I'll show you one of my films." Mark said.

"That sounds good." Mark wrapped up the tour by introducing her to Blanket Person and then they headed home.