Leah got to the city around 12am. Mark wasn't there. She had no idea where to go. The last time she was at Mark's house was when she turned 13, her mother kicked her out of the house for a month then called the cops and told them Mark had kidnapped her.
She looked around and no one else was there, except some guy sitting on a bench, with a guitar and long hair. She went and sat on an opposite bench. He was starring at her. When she sat, he got up and walked toward her. She got scared. The Last time this happened… she got sick, very sick.
"Leah?"
"…who are you?" She started to get very nervous.
"Hey, it's me, Roger."
"Roger?"
"Yeah, remember me?"
"Where's Mark?"
"I don't know, he hadn't come home yet and I thought I'd come and walk you to the house, I guess."
"Oh… okay… thanks."
She stood up and they started walked. She was still a little weary of Roger.
It wasn't a very long walk, they were at the apartment within a half an hour. When they got there, Mark was home. Leah was a little bit more comfortable with Roger by then.
"Boo!" Leah screamed when she saw Mark.
"Oh my God! Leah? What are you doing here?"
She ran over to him and threw her arms around him.
"Mom…"
"She didn't kick you out again, did she?"
"No… I left. Please don't make me go back… please." She almost started to cry.
"Hey… no, why would I do that?" He smirked, "Come on, it's late… um… you can sleep on the couch. Let me go get you one of my--"
"No, she can sleep in my bed, I'll sleep on the couch," Roger said, spooking the both of them because they had forgotten he was there, since he was being eerily quiet.
"That's okay, really, I like sleeping on couches." It was apparent that Leah was still frightened by Roger.
Mark left to get the pillows and covers, when he returned Roger wasn't in the room.
"Where'd he go?"
"I don't know…. He just took his guitar and left. Is he okay?"
"Yeah… Do you remember Mimi?" Leah shrugged in an "I-don't-know" way. "Well, she was his 'significant other', she died a couple of weeks ago."
"Oh… wow… um…"
"He hasn't been the same, and I can't really blame him, ya know?"
"Yeah… is he going to be okay, like, alone?"
"I guess, he does it all the time, he goes out to the roof to just sit there and play his guitar. He doesn't make that much noise… so, you know what? You should go to sleep, it's late."
"Okay, mom."
"Shut up. Do you want to go back home?" When he said this, he was going for a joking way, but Leah didn't take it like that.
"Please don't… I'll do anything… I hate it there, you don't know what it's like, you got out…" She sat down on the couch. "She's insane, all she cares about is Cindy and her 'beautiful' grandchildren, it's like I'm not even alive… and when she does recognize mean, it's to criticize me… or hurt me." She was crying.
"Hey, it's okay… I wouldn't do that to you, I'm sorry. You don't have to cry, hey, it's okay." He held her as she cried, which seemed to never stop. "What happened that's making you this way? I've never seen you like this before…"
At this point Roger had come back inside.
"Nothing, I don't want to talk about it." Leah wiped her eyes and sat up straight, noticing that he had come back in. Mark turned around and saw that Roger was there.
"Okay, you get some sleep." He stood up. "I'll see you both in the morning."
Roger said nothing and just walked to his bed.
