We stay in the present today and we will get an M&M meeting. I am really curious what ya will say about this one!
Novy: Michael’s family is nice in this one and they love Maria.
That is so true…. Time just rans off, lol. The next encounter will be… yep, today!
mary mary: Hm well…. MAYBE. Lol
And maybe ya will find some hints in the next part. shhhh
Sundae: Very interesting point of view! Yeah, maybe Michael’s mom should hear him out first, before making a decision. Problem is just that Michael is Mr. Silent about this subject here.
We got a M&M present talk in this uppy.
PART 11
P-R-E-S-E-N-T
“My mom just called me,” Tess says happily as she joins Liz and me at the wooden table out in front of the school building during lunch break. “I got an acceptance from New York! Me and Kyle will go to the same college.”
I smile sadly. “Congrats, Tess.”
“I’m sorry, Maria,” she apologizes when her happy news make me sad.
“Don’t be! You deserve it and I’m happy for ya. Just can’t really show it right now.”
“Did ya get any answers yet?” Liz asks.
I snort. “Got one yesterday.”
“Wasn’t a positive one?” Tess guesses.
“It was an acceptance as well…” I avoid looking at them, “from California.”
“Oh,” is all they can say at first.
“Great timing, huh?” I mutter.
“Definitely. Hell, they told you that chances were very very tiny,” Liz shakes her head, hugging one arm around me.
“Yeah, unfortunately, I had luck for once in my life.”
“Will you tell Michael?” Tess asks curiously.
I shrug. “He probably already knows. I packed his stuff this weekend and took the carton to his house. He wasn’t home, so I just left it on his coffee table. The letter was in it as well.”
“You gave him the necklace back,” Liz notices, gesturing to the now empty spot on my neck.
“Yeah, I don’t want it anymore. Without him it doesn’t mean anything.”
“I still can’t believe it’s over. I mean, you were such a great couple. You never really fought, he was always… attentive to you, ya know?”
“Liz,” I complain, “telling me what a great boyfriend Michael Guerin was isn’t really helping. Please let’s change the subject, ok? Everyone is talking about us anyway, so can we please not?”
“Sure,” Liz nods, but doesn’t know any other theme to talk about.
“What happened to Billy’s face?” I ask when he passes us a few feet away, his nose and eyes bruised.
Tess and Liz exchange a glance. “Ya don’t know?”
I roll my eyes at them. “Why would I ask if I knew?”
“He had a fight with Michael last week, when they were at football camp. Seems like they knocked each other around. That’s why they weren’t in math class today. They had to go to the principal’s office,” Liz explains.
My eyes widen. “But they’re friends, why would they fight and hit each other?”
Tess slides closer to me on the bench. “Kyle said that rumours are, Billy said something about you and that’s when Michael started the fight.”
“Nah, that’s a stupid rumour and someone probably just came up with it because of our break up,” I deny.
“What if it’s not?” Liz asks.
“What if…” I echo. “Well, I guess it doesn’t matter. He cheated, we broke up. He doesn’t have to defend me anymore and if he did about what ever Billy MIGHT have said, it’s his own fault that he made a fight out of it.”
Tess snorts. “Come on, it’s not keeping you cold like this.”
“Whatever,” I mutter.
“He definitely got his punishment,” someone says from behind. It’s Mary Porter, not really someone we’re friends with.
“Huh?” Tess turns to look at her.
“Billy and Michael got suspended from the team for two weeks.”
“The cheater deserves it!” Tess tells her, defending me.
Mary shrugs. “Well, I myself think it’s a shame to keep Guerin’s and Darden’s hot asses off the field, don’t ya think?”
“Do us a favour and get lost, Porter,” Courtney Banks says and sits down on the opposite of me and the girls.
Mary makes a face and starts to leave. “You’re always so nice, Courtney.”
“Yeah, fuck you,” the new girl at the table mutters and starts to eat her apple.
“Oh my God, what if it was her?” I suddenly ask, alarmed.
“Huh?” Tess looks at me, puzzled.
“The one he slept with.”
“Oh!!!” Tess says, thinking about it.
“Nah, it’s not her,” Courtney shakes her head.
“How do you know?” Liz wants to know.
“I heard her gossiping about Michael and Maria this morning with some of her friends and she said something like: ‘I wish I had been the one in his bed that night.’”
I make a face.
“What about you, Banks?” Tess says, suddenly excited. “We all know there was a time you were all over Guerin’s ass whenever he was around.”
I tense up at Tess’ suggestion. Could that be?
Courtney lays a hand on my arm, which rests on the table. “Hey, girl, I know we’re not best friends or anything and I was pretty pissed when ya got together with him, but I wouldn’t do that to you, ok? I’m over Guerin.”
I nod. “Okay.”
“I bet it’s someone we don’t know. Not from high school at least. Maybe a college girl or whatever,” Courtney suggests.
“We thought about that too,” Tess admits.
“Yeah, I mean seriously. If it had been someone from here, then we would know by now. There is no way any girl would keep it all to herself.”
I rub my hands over my face. “Girls, I think I need a break from all this,” I get to my feet, grabbing my books from the table. “I’ll see you in class.”
“Maria,” Liz calls me. “Stay! We’ll talk about something else.”
I shake my head. “No, it’s ok. I… just need a few minutes alone.”
****
I’m sitting alone at one of the wooden benches outside the school building, where we use to hang out during the breaks. It’s after 6th period, my teacher called in sick today, so I got the last class off, while Liz and Tess are both in their biology class. I’ve decided to wait for them, since we wanna hang out after school.
“God, I hate this shit,” I mutter to myself, when the math homework becomes all confusing again.
“Let me guess. Math?”
I freeze when someone speaks up to me. I know without looking up that it’s Michael. My heart starts to beat faster immediately and it’s hard to hold the pencil in my now shaking hand. I hate that he can still do something like this to me. Relax! I force myself, before glancing up at him. “Wow, I’ve heard rumours ‘bout your face,” I say surprised, my tone cool – to my own shock. His face looks as bad as Billy’s. Swollen bruised cheek and a small cut on the right side of his bottom lip.
He shrugs and avoids eye contact, his hands buried deep in his pants pockets. All pretty obvious signs that he is uncomfortable and nervous. Poor him, I think sarcastically. “Can we talk for a moment?” he asks hoarsely, still not looking at me.
Suddenly, I realize that I have the upper hand here. Sure, I am nervous and my hands are sweaty, but he already broke my heart, there’s nothing he could do to me anymore. I shrug. “I don’t know, Michael, can you?”
He shifts from one leg to the other, unable to say anything. He probably hadn’t expected this ‘answer’.
I roll my eyes but bite back another comment, knowing that he isn’t a man of a lot of words and he would just let it go and leave instead of dealing with me. “So? Talk away, Michael!” I try to pretend to be uninterested of what he has to say, but of course I am not.
He finally manages to turn his head and our eyes meet. Stay strong! I remind myself. Don’t get lost in his brown eyes.
“Why did you lie to me?” he asks quietly. It makes it hard to even understand what he says.
I frown. “Lie to you? About what?”
He pulls something out of his back pocket and lays it on front of me on the table. I don’t have to look at it to know that it is the acceptance letter from the college. “You told me you weren’t accepted.”
I just shrug. “Why is that important anymore?”
“I just…” he starts but starts to stutter again. “I just wanna know.”
It hadn’t been a lie at this moment. I had been sure I wasn’t gonna be accepted there. He doesn’t know that I had the very tiny small chance to get the acceptance and obviously, it was bugging him. He thinks I told him a real lie on purpose. Good! Let him think what he wants. Shall he think that I lied to him, because I didn’t want to go there with him or something!
“Ya know, I wanna know a lot of things as well, Michael. Who did ya sleep with for example.”
He shakes his head. “Maria, I can’t tell you that.”
I shrug coldly. “Well, sorry then! I can’t tell you why I lied either.”
“But this makes no sense!” he bursts out.
I snort. “Ya know what makes no sense? YOU! Your whole behaviour!” I push myself up and grab the book on the table. “You were the one who wanted to get rid of me! You were the one who pulled away and slept with someone else. Any yet here you are, beaten up by one of your best friends and asking me about something that doesn’t have the slightest bit of a meaning anymore. THAT is what makes no sense, Michael.”
I haven’t even realized that I had started to yell at him. Thank God, nobody is around to listen. I pull my books close against my body as I finally cool down again. “You turned away from me,” I bite my cheek painfully when I can fell my throat tighten – a pretty good sign, that it would only take seconds before tears would start to fall. “You cheated on me. I don’t know what went wrong between us that made you do what ya did. But we are not together anymore, Michael. You don’t have to care about me anymore. You can do whatever you want.” I look at him directly. His face isn’t showing any emotions, which tells me more than he probably knows. He is definitely trying to hide his feelings, whatever they are. “That’s what ya wanted, right?”
He isn’t giving me an answer and I decide that it is better to go before my last bit of strength leaves me. I start to walk away, but stop after several steps and turn around again. He hadn’t moved an inch. “There is one thought that I can’t get out of my head since the day we broke up. Can I ask you one last question and you promise me to answer it honestly?” I shrug. “You kinda owe me this little bit.”
He nods. “Try anyway.”
I take a deep breath. “Did you... at some point during the last month… love me? I mean, did ya have feelings beside the… ya know… sex and all?”
He looks at me stunned, struggling for words. Suddenly there is noise coming from the building. The last lesson is over and students are walking out of the school. I smile sadly, knowing the he wouldn’t answer now. “Well, I guess it’s not important anymore either, huh?”
, nice to see one of the few German roswellians here! 
Ya never know…