"You look like hell..."
Raoul de Chagny scowled at his roommate.
"Kiss my-"
"Well, it isn't my fault..." The man laughed, taking the milk out of the refrigerator to get a glass. "Claire dumped you, didn't she?" He asked, reaching for the paper. Raoul nodded, his head in his hands.
"She said she didn't want a serious relationship. We were together for two years...what did she expect to get out of that?" He sighed and the man looked up at him. He moved to the answering machine to play the message for him.
"Raoul look...I'm sorry...I just need space...this isn't working for me. I want to see other people...please understand. I hope we can be friends."

"So I guess you're staying in tonight?" He asked and Raoul nodded.
"Yeah...that would be the obvious observation, and you're supposed to be a genius..." At this the man laughed and sipped his milk as he read the entertainment part of the paper. Suddenly, his playful expression turned somber.

"Raoul...didn't you say your parents were good friends with Greg Daae?" He asked, and Raoul looked up with renewed interest.
"Yeah, why?" He asked, craning his neck to look over his shoulder.
Musician Killed in Drunk Driving Accident.
"Oh my God...Christine!" Raoul cried, thinking of his old friend. His roommate looked at him.
"Who's that?" He asked and Raoul pointed to her name in the article. "His daughter. She's about three years younger than me, so...that would make her...twenty-one."
"Oh." The man said, reading the article. "That's too bad. Poor kid." He stood from the table and began to clean up a bit when he noticed a framed photo that had been placed on one of the side tables in the living room.

"Raoul...what the hell?" He asked, it was a picture of himself and his mother when he had just been a baby. The day he'd recieved his first mask...
"Oh...I found that on the ground in the basement, so I brought it back up for you." The man scowled, setting it down, so no one could see it. He would try to be patient with the boy, they were still getting used to each other. Raoul had moved in with him when his parents had decided to move across the country. He'd gone to college with George and Rebecca de Chagny and when their children were born, he'd become somewhat of an uncle to them. Katherine was Raoul's little sister, who was now twenty. She was backpacking through Europe with her boyfriend Cary. Cute kid, dumb as a box of rocks.

The phone rang, but neither of them ran to grab it, they liked to screen their calls. The machine picked up.
"Hi, you've reached Raoul de Chagny and Erik Destler. Leave a message and we'll get back to you...maybe." Erik rolled his eyes at the message Raoul had recorded for them.
"Nice." He said, shaking his head.
"Hey Raoul and Uncle Erik...it's Katie!" The bubbly voice came from the machine, both men rolled their eyes. "Just wanted to tell you two that Cary and I went to the Paris opera tonight. It was cool, a little long and in another language...but fun...we got T-Shirts. That's all...I'm using the minutes on my phone card. Bye!" The machine clicked off.

Erik cleared his throat and Raoul snorted.
"She's from the shallow end of the gene pool." He muttered and began to rummage through the hall closet, pulling out a grocery bag, filled to the brim with snapshots.
"What's that?" He asked and Raoul pulled the bag onto the kitchen table.
"Pictures, I want to show you a picture of Christine..." He said, scanning through the pictures until he found one and held it up victoriously. Erik uncomfortably looked at the picture of the little girl.
"She was ten...she won the talent show for the city...that was back when you were traveling around alot."
Again, Erik looked at the photo of a little girl with long brown curls and a huge smile holding a trophy up victoriously.

"That's nice...you like her or something?" Erik asked Raoul who shrugged.
"I haven't even seen her in years. I should call her..." As if by a twist of fate the phone rang again as Raoul's voice was on the answering machine.
"Hey you've reached Raoul de Chagny and Erik Destler. Leave a message and we'll get back to you...maybe." Again, Erik rolled his eyes, but a small lovely female voice came on the phone.

"Um...Raoul? It's Christine Daae. I got your number from your mom. I don't know if you heard but...but..." Her voice broke and Erik's heart broke for her. She managed to compose herself a bit.
"My Dad died...he was in an accident..." She fell apart again and they heard her muffled sobbing for a few moments before she said, "Anyway the funeral is Saturday. I hope to see you there...bye." The machine clicked off and both men looked at each other.