Title: Dreams
Disclaimer: Nothing is mine!
Category: AU, without aliens, Max/Liz
Rating: Teen
Summary: Liz reflects about her life and one decision she made ...
Author's Note: This was just an idea that came in my mind. I started writing it and this is what came out of it. Hope you like it! Thanks to my beta madroswell fan!
And thanks AmorporML for the lovely banner!
Dreams
I’d only had one dream in my whole life. At least, I thought that it was my dream.
You could say I was your typical American girl. I grew up in a small town of Roswell, New Mexico. My parents owned a dinner there, named ‘the Crashdown’. Most of my teenage years I’d spent there, being a waitress. Maria, my best friend at the time, was a waitress too. We had a lot of fun.
I went to West Roswell High School and I had some good friends there. I wasn’t the most popular girl , but I also wasn’t a girl that didn’t have friends. Like I said, I was your typical American girl.
Although I loved my life in Roswell, I just wanted to get out of that town. I’d been writing songs since the tender age of 6-7; the time I could read and write. I still have all the songs I’ve ever written.
That was my ultimate dream; to get out of Roswell and to become a songwriter. That was my ultimate goal and nothing could stop me from making it come true. At least that was what I thought.
My whole life changed the day before I turned sixteen. It was the last week of the summer and I was walking to Maria’s house.
I was walking in the park when I heard someone yell. “Rex? Rex? Rex, where are you?” The voice made me curious and I went looking for it. I saw a young man looking for something.
I laughed a little and apparently he noticed it. “What are you laughing at?” He said with a little smirk on his face.
I smiled and he smiled back. He wasn’t mad, but was just a little frustrated about something. “Can I help?”
He smiled again. “Well, maybe …I’m looking for my dog! It’s a golden retriever and he’s named Rex. I could use some help finding him!”
“Sure!” I said. “I’m Liz by the way” And I gave him my hand.
He first hesitated, but finally accepted it. “Max.”
I helped him search and we found Rex half an hour later. Maria was of course pissed, because I was late.
The next day my parents organised a surprise birthday party for me at the Crashdown. I knew nothing.
I received many surprises and all my friends were there. But my biggest surprise was when Isabel Evans entered. She was the new girl in town and got in my class half way precious year. We had become good friends.
She had brought someone with her and I think you can all guess who that was. It seems that Max was Isabel’s brother. He was a year older and just got in town earlier that week. We talked a lot that evening and he even gave me a birthday kiss. I blushed like I had never blushed before.
A week later I met him again at school. He was 17 and a junior, I was 16 and a sophomore. It didn’t take long before we had our first date and our first kiss. We officially became a couple October 5, that year.
I don’t think I’ve ever been happier than when I was with him. It was a dream to be with him.
But in the back of my head I still had the dream of becoming a songwriter and the vow I made to myself to let nothing stand in my way. I kept writing songs, but this time all my songs were about Max; my Max; my boyfriend Max.
We dated for almost two years when the time came that he graduated and he promised me something.
“Liz, these last two years have been the best of life. I never thought I would be so young when I would meet the love of my life, the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. But I found her at the tender age of 17. Liz, I’ve been so lucky to have you in my life or to even have met you. I love you and I promise you I will spent the rest of my life with you.”
But the largest surprise of them all when he told me that he wouldn’t be going to Harvard where he had a scholarship. Instead he went to Las Cruces State University. He gave up his childhood dream to be with me. He wouldn’t be home in the weeks, but in the weekends he would be; Something that couldn’t have been if he went to Harvard.
I couldn’t have been happier.
But my senior year of high school was different to the previous years. Max wasn’t there anymore and I got the opportunity to follow music lessons, given by a professional music teacher who had done it all in Hollywood. He heard me sing one of my songs one day and he encouraged me to go to a music university after high school.
I only saw Max in the weekends and all my free time went to my music and my songs. There were even weekends I wouldn’t even have the time to see Max.
My first dream came back. I was going to leave Roswell after high school to become a songwriter. My dream even expanded a little. I also wanted to become a singer.
I realised near the end of the school year that, if I ever wanted to fulfil my dreams, I had to give up Max.
I had many scenarios prepared about how to break up with Max. I tried to do it many times, but I never had the courage to do it.
When my high school graduation came, I still hadn’t done it. But I had to do it soon, because the day after graduation I was leaving for California to follow a summer course at the Los Angeles Music Academy.
The whole night, I said I would do it. But eventually I couldn’t face him in person and just wrote him a letter.
The next day I left.
That was 8 years ago. I never saw Max again after that night. I never had the courage to go back home to Roswell anymore. Weirdly, I still call it home, but it hasn’t been home for me for the last 8 years.
I now have the life which I always dreamt off. I have a beautiful house, more like a villa in Newport, California. I have more money that I ever thought I could possibly have and I am on the top of the music world. I have fulfilled my dream.
But why haven’t I been happy in the last 8 years? Why is it that I wake up every morning and the first thing I think about is Max?
I can’t help but wonder what would have happened if I never left 8 years ago?
I don’t really have the time to think about it, because in five minutes or so I’ll be a guest in Veronica Knight’s weekly show and I’ll be seen live by the whole of America.
“Miss Parker, we need you on the set. It’s almost time.” I hear someone say. After the hairdresser checks my hair for the last time, I stand up and walk over to the set.
Funny, I’ve watched this show every week, if I had the time, and I always found it amusing to hear all those stars talk about their personal life. And I swore to myself that I would never talk about my private life on television. And still I’m sitting here, about to do exactly what I just described.
“Liz, glad you could make it.” Veronica mumbles while she comes to me. “I’m so glad you’re finally on my show. I’ve been trying to get an hold on you for years now.”
The first years of my ‘success’, I’ve tried to hide my personal life from the out world, but I think it’s now finally time to come out and say what I have to say. What I need to say.
5 … 4 … 3 … 2 … 1
“Welcome to this weeks Veronica Knight Live. Tonight we have a special guest in our midst. She’s at the top of the worldwide music business, everyone knows her, but we don’t now much about her life. Well tonight that is going to change, ladies and gentlemen. Here she is, Liz Parker!”
Veronica ends her speech and now it’s my turn to enter the set. I see an audience that is going wild. They are all here for me, because they love my music and me. I really don’t care if they love my music of not. The only thing I care about is, if he likes my music, if he ever listened to it. I really hope so, because all the songs I’ve been singing for the last 5-6 six years were always about him.
“So Liz, thank you so much for coming. I’m so grateful that you could be here. And not just me, but also all your fans!” Veronica starts.
“I’m happy to be here!” I reply.
“So Liz, everybody in the world knows you name. Everybody has heard at least one of your songs. But why don’t we know anything about your personal life?”
A hard question to begin. I guess I’ll have to be honest. “Well, truth be told, My personal life is none of your business. But since there have been all kinds of rumours and stories about me, I think it’s finally time to reveal the real me.”
I could see Veronica smile. She would get the headline of my life story and she knew that there would be millions of people watching her show, Just because I’m on it. “You are not originally from here, right?”
“Right. I grew up in Roswell, New Mexico. And you could say that I was the smallest of the small town girls. I was your typical American teenager.”
“So, why did you leave Roswell then?”
“Well, although growing up there was lovely, I had the feeling I wasn’t going to make something of myself if stayed there. And it was always my dream to become a singer/songwriter. So the day after my high school graduation, I jumped on a plane and here I am!” I say with a fake smile on my face.
“You sure managed to fulfil you dream. Not many artists are blessed with that.”
“Yeah, I’ve been very lucky …” I say, but I think they can hear the disappointment in my voice.
“You write all your songs yourself. Where do you get all of that inspiration to write them? I mean something or someone has to inspire you, no?”
There’s only one thing that inspires me. Max. Just him and nobody else. But I don’t know if I should tell. It’s kind of private. I actually never told one single person about my life before California. Not even my best friend Tess of the moment. “Well, I guess it is just the little things. You know when you wake up in the morning and you hear the birds, or when you talk to your family and the people you love …” Love … Love … I realise now that I never said to Max that I loved him. What an idiot I am!
How can you not tell the man you love you love him? It can’t be that difficult. Well, for me it was … “And there was this one person …” I need to say it. If he’s watching this, and it might be possible considering of Isabel who always watches these things, I could finally tell him the truth.
“One person?” Veronica asks.
“Well yes. He’s actually the inspiration for all my songs. He’s always been the subject of my songs …” I almost start to cry. She notices this and gives me a Kleenex.
“This guy must have been very special to you. Why don’t you tell a little bit about him? It might be releasing.” She suggests.
It’s now or never.
“He was … He was my high school boyfriend. He moved to Roswell when I was 16 or so and we hit it off immediately.
“He had those eyes, you know. Hard to describe it; but if you looked at them, you could just read how he felt. That was the thing I loved the most about him. He was an open book and never hided one single thing of me. But I did, I was a closed book.
“I never got the chance to tell him ‘I love you’. I loved him with all my heart and he didn’t even know. I still love him.
“I thought my dream was to become a singer/songwriter … But it wasn’t. He was really dream. And I just let him go.
“And now I just really have one dream left. To see him one more time. Even if it was only for one split second … If I could only see his eyes for one more time, I would be happy for the rest of my life.”
My tears are really there right now. the Whole audience and everybody on the set are still. Not one sound. Are they touched by my story? I see it almost time for a commercial break. Have I talked that long?
I was only requested for the first part of tonight’s show. Someone else, I don’t know who, is invited for the second part. That means my time is almost up and Veronica is going to conclude my part any moment now.
“Liz, we are so happy you could share that emotional part of your life with us. I was very honoured to have got you here tonight!”
“It was my pleasure!” She gives me a hug and continues, while I leave the set.
“So, ladies and gentlemen, that was Liz Parker. We know have a short commercial break, but make sure you don’t miss the second part, because then we’ll have …”
I have to go home to my house right now. It’s almost an hour drive, but luckily I have a chauffeur that drives me home.
I get to my limousine and my driver Alex, opens the door for me. “Good night, Miss Parker! Would you like to go somewhere or do you just want to go home?”
“Just go home, Alex … I need some time for myself!”
“Of course Miss Parker, anything you wish.” He says, while starting the engine. We leave the building of the set and I wonder if it was really a good idea to come here today. But I can’t undo it, because it already happened.
An hour and a half later, we arrive at my mansion. Alex drives me to the door and drives off when I got out of it.
I try to open the door when I suddenly hear a dog bark.
It comes closer and don’t ask me why, but the sound of the bark is familiar to me. It still comes closer and then I see the dog and I immediately know who the dog is. “Rex?”
It’s Max’s dog, without a question. You could place a million golden retrievers next to each other and I still could pick Rex out of them. I wonder what he’s doing here. Could it be …
“Liz …” I hear someone say. I turn around and I see him standing there and I look into his eyes.
“Max?”
My dream just came true.
The End
