Thank you to Tanya for the beautiful banner
Title: Falling for Mr. October
Author: Kristen
Rating: Adult
Disclaimer: I don't own the rights of anything Roswell.
Summary: Max and Liz became friends in high school then started dating, what happens when Max gets recruited to play professional baseball for the New York Mets?
A/N:I've read so many fics where Max plays basketball and football, but he never plays baseball! Since baseball is my favorite sport I came up with this story.
before I start I have to give a HUGE thank you to my wonderful beta..."Behr's other girl" haha Tanya...you're the best hun thanks so much!
Chapter 1
March 2002
Max Evans and Serena Carter were the hottest couple at West Roswell High. He was on the baseball team and she was a cheerleader. They really made a cute couple. The two of them had been dating since they were in eighth grade at Roswell Middle School. Here it was, nearing the end of their senior year and they were still together without ever breaking up. Their class even voted them “Most likely to get Married” for their senior superlatives. They really were in love and the whole school knew it. Unfortunately, Liz Parker knew it as well and hated it.
Liz Parker was also a senior at West Roswell, she wasn’t that involved with school because she was a dancer. Dance was her life, she was at her studio everyday, whether it was to dance or to work she was always there. However, dance wasn’t her only passion in life, Max Evans was. She was in love with him. Can you really call if love when it’s unrequited?
She started to like Max her sophomore year when they went on a weekend retreat together with their church where he was her small group leader. They had really gotten to know each other that weekend, and she felt special to be able to see a side of him that not many people got to see. After all, he was the hotshot baseball player at school, which meant he never showed any emotion.
After that weekend you could say she and Max became friends. They would talk online every once and a while and they would say hi in the halls and stop and talk to each other whenever they had a chance. Unfortunately that wasn’t too often since he was usually with Serena. Liz was happy with their friendship. She just wished with all her heart it could have been something more.
The only person that she had ever flat out told that she liked Max was her best friend Maria. But Liz was so obvious with her crush that pretty much the whole grade knew. Max never led on though, he didn’t want to embarrass her and he liked the friendship they had.
One day in March, Maria and Liz were walking to class when they saw a poster for Senior Prom tickets going on sale.
“So Liz, who you asking to prom this year?” Maria asked her.
“Um….well I asked Leo if he wanted to go and he said as long as he doesn’t have finals he’ll go…so keep your fingers crossed!” Liz said with a nervous laugh and held up both her hands with crossed fingers.
Leo was Liz’s friend that had graduated the year before. He was also on that retreat and they were as good of friends as her and Max. Liz always thought Leo was cute, but he was just someone that was there to take her mind off of Max.
“Good luck with that hun! I really hope it works out. What are you gonna do if he can’t go?”
“I don’t know. I guess not go since we can’t go without a date.”
“LIZ! You have to go. We’ll find you someone.”
“Maria, I’m not gonna go with some random guy. Do you know how awkward that would be? I wouldn’t even have a good time.”
“Liz, it’s our Senior Prom!”
“Don’t you think I know that Maria! God…” She pressed her palms against her eyes and rubbed them in frustration. “Look I’m gonna go to class. I’ll see ya later.”
“Liz…” Maria tried getting her attention, but Liz ignored her and continued to walk away.
*****
A few weeks later Liz got an Instant Message from Leo saying he had three finals that day and there would be no way he would be able to go to prom with her. He felt terrible and promised her that they would hang out sometime over the summer. Liz told him not to worry about it and that it was okay and then signed offline.
She ran to her bed and cried. She couldn’t believe she was going to miss her senior prom. By now everyone had dates, and it wasn’t like she was very popular with the people in her grade anyway. After she had settled down, she called Maria but got her voicemail. Remembering it was Friday night, she realized she was probably out with her boyfriend Michael somewhere, so she left her a voicemail telling her what happened and then went to bed.
That Monday at school she was at her locker when she saw Max and Serena happily walking hand in hand together down the hallway. She then saw them kiss as Serena walked into a classroom and he started heading her way.
“Hey Parker!” he said to her as he reached her side.
“Oh hey Max. What’s up?” She said trying to sound casual.
“Not too much, what about you?” He shrugged. He was holding onto his backpack strap as he was talking to her. He had one of those one-strap backpacks that crossed over your chest and she thought it couldn’t have made him look hotter.
“Not much…the usual,” she said closing her locker.
They started walking down the hall together and Max looked over at the wall and saw a prom poster. “So who you going to prom with?”
She froze. “Oh…um…I’m not actually going.”
He stopped as well. “What?! It’s senior prom, Parker. Why aren’t you going?”
“I couldn’t get a date,” she admitted sheepishly.
“I find that hard to believe,” he said with a shake of his head and she blushed.
“Well believe it buddy,” she laughed. “I was gonna go with Leo Denali but that fell through so now I’m out,” she finished trying to mask her pain.
“Man Liz…I’m sorry.”
“Yeah…it’s okay though. I’m sure I’ll have fun anyway. Maybe I’ll go on a trip instead with all the money I’ll be saving,” she joked.
“Hey that’ll be fun!” He said trying to make her feel better.
“Yeah. Look I gotta go. I have early dismissal today because I have dance, so I guess I’ll just talk to you later.” She said walking towards the parking lot.
“Ok, see ya.” He waved, and then walked to his last class of the day.
*****
A couple of weeks had gone by since then and prom was only a little more than a month away. There was a huge party at Tess Harding’s house on Saturday night and anyone who was anyone would be going. Unfortunately, Max had to work so Serena would be going to her first high school event, stag. Max felt bad but there was nothing he could do.
Liz wasn’t a party person and she also wasn’t friends with many people in her grade. Therefore she didn’t feel comfortable going, even though Tess had invited her. She knew that she would hear all about it at school on Monday anyway since everything that happened when their class was drunk, always got around fast.
Little did Liz know exactly what she would’ve been missing though….
Monday came and the gossip flew around the school like wild fire. All the guys were going through the halls patting Kyle Valenti on the back and congratulating him, which confused Liz. She was at her locker and she heard someone crying in the eraser room, and then she heard a very familiar voice yelling.
“What the fuck were you thinking?!” His voice roared.
“Max, I wasn’t…I was drunk and I missed you.”
“You were drunk?” he laughed in disbelief, “You were drunk?! That’s your fucking excuse?! Serena, you had sex with Kyle behind my back and I had to find out from a random person that I don’t even talk to. Do you know how that feels?” As she eavesdropped on the conversation, Liz didn’t think that she had ever heard Max sound that upset since she’d known him.
“Max…”
“No! Don’t you dare ‘Max’ me. Do you have any idea how it feels to find out that the person you have been in love with for five fucking years, the girl that you were planning on proposing to one day, fucks some random guy and doesn’t even have the courtesy to tell me…were you even going to tell me?”
Serena looked down as the tears streamed down her face. She simply shook her head and whispered a barely audible, “No”.
“I don’t fucking believe this…I don’t fucking believe this shit!”
“Max…please…we can get through this.”
“Ya know what Serena? I don’t think we can. You were honestly gonna keep this from me? How do I know you haven’t done anything like this before and just never told me?” He questioned trying to hide the pain from every reaching his voice.
She lifted her head with a look of guilt on her face.
“You have haven’t you?” Serena didn’t say anything, but that’s all it took to confirm Max’s suspicions. “How long?” When she didn’t answer he yelled even louder. “HOW LONG?!”
“Since November,” she mumbled out pitifully.
“You’ve been cheating on me for four fucking months?!” Serena just nodded in shame and Max shook his head in disbelief and walked past her.
Without ever looking back, he reached for the doorknob and just as he began to open it, he stopped to tell her one last thing.
“Find another date for prom…I never want to talk to you again.” And with that he stepped into the hallway, knowing full well that everyone out there had heard what had just gone on. Thankfully, he was too caught up in his thoughts to even bother acknowledging them, and quickly made his way to the parking lot.
*****
That night Liz was online and talking to Maria on the phone when she got an Instant Message from Max.
Evans267: Hey you
“Oh my God. Maria, Max just IM’d me. I have to go. I’ll call you back…Yes fine I’ll copy and paste the conversation to you. Okay…okay bye,” she said and hung up and then turned her eager attention to her computer.
DancerLHT: hey
DancerLHT: how are ya?
Evans267: not great…you?
DancerLHT: I’m ok. Do you wanna talk about it?
Evans267: not really. But talking to you is already making me feel better.
DancerLHT: Glad I could help
Evans267: I have a question for you
DancerLHT: ok…shoot
Evans267: did you happen to end up finding a date for prom?
Liz’s heartbeat started racing.
DancerLHT: no why?
Evans267: Well I know it’s really lame to ask online but I didn’t have your phone number…
Evans267: I was wondering if you’d want to go to prom with me.
DancerLHT: really?
Evans267: yeah. Look I know you know Serena and I broke up…the whole freakin school knows, but honestly, I’d really like to go with you Parker.
DancerLHT: Well I’d really like to go with you too Max
DancerLHT: Thank you.
Evans267: No need to thank me Parker, it’s my pleasure
DancerLHT: Listen I know it’s none of my business but if you ever need to talk to someone about Serena or about anything…I’m here.
Evans267: Thanks Liz…that means a lot.
DancerLHT: No prob bob!
Evans267: haha
Evans267: Hey what’s your number since we probably will be needing to call each other with prom details and stuff.
DancerLHT: 505-555-8328
DancerLHT: What about you?
Evans267: 505-555-0146
DancerLHT: ok…listen I g2g to dance, but I’ll def ttyl ok?
Evans267: ok. later Liz
DancerLHT: bye
Liz then got ready for dance and called Maria screaming with the news. She couldn’t believe it…she was going to prom with Max freakin’ Evans!
TBC…
lol)
