AN: I'm going to be straight-up here. I suck. I know it. But I do have reasons! I do! And here they are: I was in a show for two weekends, meaning three hell weeks with no time to write. After this, my computer died. And I don't mean just died, I mean really died. In fact, after a week of banging on the monitor (this is my version of fixing computers, which may be why they break so much), my dad got a guy to come fix it. Turns out one guy wasn't enough. It took an entire team of guys to fix the damn thing. This turned into spring break, at which point I did a bad thing. See, without my computer, I started writing this story on notebook paper, about this girl whose world is turned upside down when her best friend starts dating the most popular girl in school, her mom wants to become involved in her life again, and her worst enemy trades places with one of her closest friends. All in two months! Yup, I know. So I got caught up in working on that, and I forgot to write this! I know! Bad! So then I remembered a couple days after break. Unfortunately, at this point I was in Disney World on a band trip. By the way, they almost LEFT me there! I KNOW! Anyway, I got back, and BAM! AP Exam time! And SAT II! It was as I got home today that I realized that, minus some Psych study, I had a little free time, and I immediately rushed off to write this story. And when I say little, I mean little. I have a five hour rehearsal tomorrow. And I need to write more in HP very, very soon. But now I have barely any homework, as soon as Psych AP is done, and I have time to write for you lovely people, and without all the breaks in between, because yay! Schools almost out.

What do I have to say? WATCH VERONICA MARS! That is all I have to recommend after all this time. Why? VM is THE best show on the TV EVA! I mean, I nearly stopped watching because of VD, but the Sway dance happened, and I'm all obsessed all over again! Yay for VM!

Now you know reviewers rock my world, so here's the love for the anons:

EAmphetamine: Aw, thanks! I'm glad that people seemed to not hate my song, because I've seen it burn quite few fanfic writers. He is, isn't he? Hee. LoVe is in the Air ... sorry, anyway. I will be mentioning Angel soon, I hope. I've had this Dave/Collins scene in my head for a while, and I really hope I find a place to stick it in soon.

BohoGirl – Well, she did:D Thank ya very much! That's what I was thinking. I'm glad you liked that, pre-Mimi Roger. He was an uptight little emo rocker, wasn't he? I'm really sorry you had to wait this long, but it will never, ever, ever be this long again, I swear!

Caitlin – Aw! Well, you can be my favorite person too after the cast of Veronica Mars! Oh, and Oprah. But don't feel bad. VM is my life and Oprah is my God. You totally rank over Johnny Depp, and if you knew me, you'd know that is HUGE. I'm glad stuff is going good. The theatre totally rocks. Yesterday, I went to rehearsal totally drained, and going there was like getting ten cups of coffee all at once! Thanks very much! I absolutely can't stand those meek girls who wait around for their guys, so I couldn't do that to Abby. I mean, it's one thing to not know where he stands and waiting for him to make up his mind – not for too long, but yeah – but just standing around, doing nothing? Ugh. What does that accomplish? I'll tell you. Nothing. Sorry, rant over. I'm happy you liked that line. Thanks so much on all the counts! And doesn't she? Love her. Though I can't afford her CD.

Disclaimer: If I owned Rent, I could afford Anna Nalick's CD. Hell, I could afford Anna Nalick. She'd follow me around, singing like crazy at all the appropriate times. I'd have my own personal soundtrack for my life! But I digress.

A Meeting of the Musicians

Benny bent over to pack up his saxophone. He was playing every other day now. He had been at so many weddings it was spinning his head. If he had to play "Celebration" on his sax one more time, he was shoving up someone's ass. He didn't care if they were eighty and constipated. It was going up there.

"Hey, man!" Todd swaggered up to him with all the confidence of a man thoroughly smashed. "Or should I say Eugene?"

Benny looked him over with cynical amusement. "How is it," he asked, putting his extra reed into his case and snapping it shut, "that every damn one of these things you manage to get drunk off your ass?"

Todd grinned up at him cheekily. Then his face fell. "You're not leaving me here, are ya Ben?"

Benny grinned at him. "I am. I have other things to do. And I don't need to get drunk off of free wine every night."

Todd's face darkened into a scowl. "I'm going to be very angry with you in the morning for abandoning me," he warned Benny, shaking his finger warningly at the stand a couple inches to Benny's left.

Benny laughed. "Todd, you won't remember this in the morning. You never do." He waved good-bye to the incapacitated musician and headed for the door. He wanted to get home in time to get some of whatever it was Mimi was making for dinner. After Roger had teased her about not being able to cook, Mimi had spent the whole day throwing around pots and pans and ingredients, and cursing in Spanish under her breath. If he hurried, he could get home before someone wanted a midnight snack and ate whatever Mimi had managed to save for him.

He was almost out when he heard someone call his name. He turned to see a girl a couple years younger than him striding after him. He recognized her as the violin player who he'd been seeing every few performances for the past two months. She was striding to him purposefully, which confused him. How did she know his name? He stopped next the door and waited for her.

"Benny?" The girl stopped and breathed in deeply. He nodded. She smirked. "Your friend Bob or something told me who you were."

"Todd," he corrected automatically, still wondering what this had to do with anything.

Her smirk deepened. "I saw you looking at me earlier."

Benny's jaw dropped. He had no idea how to respond to that. Besides the fact that it was so forward, he was fairly sure he hadn't been staring. Tonight, anyway. He knew in the past he would've said something witty and pig-like. But spending time with so many unavailable women had softened his tongue.

And as much as he didn't want to admit, this girl, with one fell swoop, had just knocked him on his ass.

She didn't seem to notice this, however. She grabbed his hand and pulled him after her, out of the door and onto the street. "God, it's good to get out of there," she exclaimed, fanning her face empathetically. She smiled at him as he gaped at her. She released his hand, then stuck hers back out. "I'm Ren," she told him decidedly as he took her hand in his in a bewildered sort of way. Before he could shake it, she pulled him along the street again. "My favorite place is just a little ways from here. It's lucky that this wasn't that fancy of a wedding, or we'd have to go the subway. The Life Cafe rocks so much. Have you been there? Well, it has the best fucking food anywhere. Plus it's got the best people there, all the bohos and everything. No major suits. Not usually anyway."

She took a deep breath and Benny's mouth opened a little more. Was this girl for real? If he hadn't witnessed Mimi high a hundred times, he would've thought she was hopped up. But no. She was stone-cold sober and talking faster than he thought was possible. And what did she want with him?

Before any of these things could actually make it to his mouth, he was pulled through the doors of the Life and sat down in a booth. Ren looked at him seriously over their table. "Do you know you rock at playing the sax?"

Benny stared at her for a moment. Then he burst out laughing, the fullest laugh he'd had in what seemed like years. Since before money got in the way of him and Roger and Mark. He didn't think he'd laughed like this, honestly, since he'd met Alison. And in five minutes, this girl had him laughing like he was dying. And he couldn't stop.

They ordered food, and they talked. Benny told her about jazz, and Ren countered with classical. He chatted casually about Alison and she made a few jokes about her AIDS. He noticed how her green dress brought out eyes, and he caught her gaze lingering on him longer than necessary. Their knees bumped under the table like high school freshmen on a first date, and they debated whether performance protests were politically useful or not. Benny realized he'd left his sax at the hall, and he didn't even care. One of his band mates would find it. They didn't leave until they were kicked out two hours later, by a hysterical waiter, and they left with their fingers entwined.

After a minute or two of actually silent walking, Ren stopped. Benny looked at her and she smiled at him sadly. "We passed my street," she informed him, obviously trying not to look hopeful.

He wanted to make a move. He really did. But he'd just got out of the most disastrous relationship he could've imagined, and he wasn't sure if he could get into what looked like it was going to be a whirlwind romance. Anyway, they'd known each other for what, three hours? The Old Benny would've had her in his apartment by now, but this New Benny that he'd been noticing lately, which was a lot like the Benny before the money, didn't want that for her. Still, the disappointment was evident in his voice as he replied, "Ok. See at the next meeting of the underpaid musicians." Seeing the confusion in her face, he grinned. "Crappy wedding," he clarified.

"Oh," she nodded. She'd been talking nonstop all night, and he felt horrible for making her speechless like this. "See you then." She hesitated a moment, then turned and headed down the street.

Benny had just begun to berate himself (which went something like, "Stupid Benny! Dumbass Benny! Stupid dumbass Benny!") when he heard Ren call his name. He turned to see her looking at him. "Are you going to be at the Mackenzie wedding next week?" she shouted to him.

"Yeah," he called back. "I'll show you some real jazz, and you'll forget all about classical."

She grinned. There was a long pause while Benny tried to figure out what to say. Then Ren strode across the snow-covered sidewalk and attacked his mouth with hers.

When they broke apart five minutes later, Ren's back was pressed to the brick wall of the nearest store, and Benny's hands were resting on her waist possessively, even though he had no idea how they got there. Ren didn't seem to mind, though. She grinned up at him. "It's been a while since I've done that," she informed him cheerfully.

Benny drew her closer to him. "We shouldn't do this, you know."

She nodded at him, chewing her bottom lip. "We both have relationship issues, you with Alison, and me with AIDS."

He nodded back vigorously as her hands snaked around his neck. "And we've known each other for a couple of hours."

"We have baggage," she added as his fingers played with a strand of her hair.

"We have no idea if this will work out. Relationships aren't supposed to start this fast," he reminded her as she rubbed her hands on the back of his neck and the top of his back.

"This is very wrong," she said, smirking.

"A horrible idea," he concurred.

He pressed his lips to hers, and captured her mouth quickly so they couldn't say anything else. It was insane, and he didn't care.

When he got home that night, Roger was on the couch. The sound of the door jerked him awake, and he sat up rubbing his eyes. He looked Benny over blearily. "Where've you been?"

Benny shook his head. "You wouldn't believe me if I told you," he laughed. Roger's eyebrows quirked at the sound, and Benny thought of something. "Why are you on the couch, Rog?"

Roger grinned sheepishly. "Well, Mimi was so smug about her cooking, and I ..."

Benny laughed again. "Enough said. I'll see you in the morning ... if Meems hasn't killed you by then." He chuckled as he closed the door, leaving a very confused Roger on the masking-taped couch.

AN: I know this isn't amazing. Honestly, I'm so dead tired, I'm quite amazed that I got this far. But here it is in all its glory. Or not glory. I don't know. Too tired. I had two SAT II's this morning plus an SAT class. A three-hour SAT class. Plus I had Psych studying. So wiped. Anyway, watch Veronica Mars, which rocks, and listen to "The Future Freaks Me Out" by Motion City Soundtrack, because it's awesome, and I found a free download that I've been listening to for the past hour. Lovely.

As for the last chapter being the longest chapter of my wonderful fic? Well, I don't think it is any longer. Oh, well. I guess a long update is needed to make up for the fic drought. And it's by, like, ten words. Anyway. Just thought you'd like to know.

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