I have a busy, stressful life between work and school, but I'm going to try to set a goal of a chapter a week. I owe people that. I should only have 15ish chapters before this story is completed.

Disclaimer: I do not own RENT or any characters therein, I do not profit off this fiction.

The Almost Birthday Party

Roger sighed, pressing the back of frozen peas that had been in their freezer for years to his left kidney. 'That little bitch kicks hard' he thought irritably. He had looked at himself in the mirror but there was only a very slight purplish bruise on his lower back, the pain coming from the inside. He didn't know what he'd been thinking when he'd grabbed Mark like that. Honestly, he probably would have had more luck if he'd tried to talk to him. But when they had started running for the door, he had panicked. What if this was the last time he was going to see him? He never knew when he was going to come back now.

He settled back on the couch, letting the slowly warming bag of peas stay over his kidney as he leaned back against it. He never had called any of their friends. He honestly didn't know what he would tell him. He knew that there would be questions that he just didn't know how to answer. Such as, when had Mark started using, why had Roger let it go for so long, how did he not know about it sooner, and, most significantly, why had Mark started using in the first place? If he was going to be brutally honest with himself, he had a good idea about the answer of that last one, he just didn't want to say it out loud. How could he possibly admit to his friends that he was the reason that his best friend was slowly killing himself? That he was what had driven him away.

Roger sighed, throwing his head back to stare up at the ceiling. The fact was, he was too much of a coward to tell them that. So how could he possibly say anything? He would have to find a way to get Mark clean on his own. Whenever he came back, that is.

LINELINELINE

"Happy almost birthday, dear Reye, happy almost-birthday to youuuuuuuuuu"

Reye grinned and blew out the candle Marshall was holding up for her over her cupcake. Marshall had forgotten to get birthday candles so they had improvised with holding up a scented candle, but Reye still loved it. She laughed as Marshall shoved her purple frosted cupcake into her face, her giggles becoming muffled as she filled her mouth with cake.

Everyone around laughed at her, some reaching out to take cupcakes of their own but most just returning to the party. Mark snagged himself a cupcake, watching Reye and Marshall wrestle over trying to smear frosting on each other as he ate it. He noticed that cake fights seemed to be a trend with this group. He was glad that his own birthday was still a few months away and he wouldn't have to worry about that for a minute.

He felt a tug on his arm and saw Gina grinning at him as she pulled him onto the dance floor, Shauna, Tyler and Lillia already there. Shauna was doing a good impression of interpretive dance, Gina was gyrating against anyone close to her, and Tyler and Lillia spun in little circles, their arms around each other and staring into each other's eyes like no one else was in the room. Marshall and Reye's apartment was much smaller than Tank's or Canvas' so there wasn't nearly as much room to move around with everyone there, and the coolness of this May night was not enough to prevent the room from growing hot from all the people there. Mark could feel himself sweating as he bopped around to the bad pop music that Reye had insisted on playing. She had kept a handful of cassettes home for the party and they all seemed to be teenybopper tunes. He wondered, idly, if the rest of their stuff was actually going to be safe back at the loft or if Roger would toss them or destroy them once he realized whose stuff it was. Mark shrugged, trying to push that whole situation out of his mind. It was possible that Roger wouldn't even go into his room, after all.

He did hope that Reye hadn't kicked him too hard, though.

His hands suddenly felt warm and squishy and he realized that Reye had grabbed them with her frosting covered ones. She grinned at him, some purple frosting still smeared across one cheek.

"Come on, we're doing hits in my room." She leaned forward conspiratorially. "I even cleaned for the occasion."

Mark mock-gasped in shock as he let her pull him back to her room. It was true, she had cleaned, in that he could actually see most of her floor. And she had apparently pulled a couple of chairs in from somewhere. Tank, Canvas, and Joey were already in there, Tyler, Lillia, and Shauna followed right behind them.

"Whose got it tonight?" Joey asked, looking around.

Reye held up a packet triumphantly. "I do! Marshall gave me some money for my birthday, Alex said this was some good shit." She giggled.

A couple hits later and Mark found he could barely keep his chin off his chest. It was definitely "good shit". He wandered out of the room, deciding to forgo any more rounds and went in search of Marshall. He found him deep in discussion with Kara, the two of them passing a bottle of Jack back and forth as they conversed. Mark yawned, curling himself up against Marshall's side and resting his head on him as he watched the rest of the party absently. He felt so at peace.

It was about two hours later that he finally got up. Marshall had let him stay put and drank with Kara, but eventually had to get up to go to the bathroom and check on Reye. Mark still felt kind of drowsy and so gladly accepted the bump of coke from Gina, hoping that it would help him make sure that he stayed awake for Reye's whole party. It turned out that it didn't matter because when Marshall came back he was chuckling.

"What's funny?" Mark asked, stopping from where he had been dancing with Gina, Shauna and Jarrod.

"Oh, its just Reye. She threw such a fit to get this party, and she's back there passed out. I guess her, Tyler and Lillia were stupid enough to shoot up during her party instead of sticking to chasing like I told her to, and she is out cold. Don't worry though, I checked on her, she's okay, just sleeping it off now."

Mark shook his head and chuckled too. Reye should have known better than to do that, especially since she was drinking too. Oh well. He pulled Marshall to his feet, still hyped from the coke, and spun around with him on the dance floor. As they swung around, laughing and dancing, he reminded himself to ask Marshall to change the music, since Reye was out anyways.

LINE

Mark woke up to shouting. Groggy, he rubbed his face and tried to shake the fog out of his head as he got up. He was mostly naked, lying in Marshall's bed. Marshall was not in the room with him, but the still warm bed sheets and the wide open bedroom door let him know that he had very recently been there. Mark continued trying to get more alert as he climbed out of bed and headed out towards the source of the shouting, not bothering to pull clothes on over his boxer shorts.

It didn't take him long to find it, as the shouting and, now he could hear sobbing, was coming from Reye's bedroom. Suddenly, terrified, he rushed in and quickly assessed the scene.

Marshall was pacing around the room, head in his hands. Reye was on the bed, sobbing and shaking a very still body that did not respond to her. Mark rushed farther into the room and that's when he saw Tyler, crouched beside the bed, terribly white and clutching Lillia's hand to his face as he rocked back and forth on the ground. And there was Lillia, lying haphazardly on the bed, mouth ajar, eyes half-open as they stared up at the ceiling, unblinking, unseeing.

LINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINELINE

Please review. I could use some feedback since coming back to this story is such a gamble anyways. I apologize for the shortness of these chapters, by the way. I'm trying to get them out quickly and that may mean short chapters until I get back into the swing of writing again.