The Prettiest Thing (M/L, MATURE) AN 5/2 [WIP]

[DreamerLaure]

Title The Prettiest Thing

Category M/L, AU Aliens

Rating Mature

Disclaimer I don't own Roswell. The title of this is one of Norah Jones's songs on her Feels Like Home CD. Challenge courtesy of LoveIsForever, here, but it does give away a lot. I would recommend waiting

Summary The shooting never happened, and Max and Liz didn’t get close during high school. Imagine what would have happened if Liz was really single-minded during high school, and that without the healing stones, Tess, Nasedo, and the impending alien destiny, our three aliens Max, Isabel and Michael agree to move on with their lives and make life their own. What happens when a little exploration into the alien side of who they are brings the wrong person forward? The question is will Max do anything to keep Liz in his life?

*Author’s Note* I’ve been working on this for a long time. If you’re just starting this, welcome to my world, and give it a chance…it gets much, much better later.

Chapter 1
(August 2002)

Traveling across the country in the Seashell took its toll on the engine, and halfway across the state border between Missouri and Illinois, the Seashell gave out. It sputtered and chuckled, and black wisps of smoke wafted through the vents inside of the car.

Liz Parker was choking when she finally realized that funny smell wasn't emanating from skunks in the thick forest up ahead, but from the inside of her car.

"Seashell," she scolded, "Don't give out on me now."

She turned the key to the engine twelve times, and each time she was met with the sounds of a putter and a sputter before the key wouldn't turn at all.

She poked at the man beside her, and said, "Come on, wake up. Alex, wake up!"

"Uh, mm-hmm, five more minutes."

Liz groaned and she began swatting then smacking the bearlike form beside her. He turned his back to her and soon he was facing the vents.

When she saw he wasn't budging, she muttered, "Fine, stay where you are, choke to death!"

Liz began pulling at the car handle and she stepped out into the cool afternoon air of Midwest America. Instead of the familiar scraggly acacia trees and stretches of sand and rocks that had dotted the landscape they flew by, all Liz could see now were thick, menancing forests. The forests collided with corn fields, and both elements repeated themselves for as far as she could see.

It was drawing near nighttime, and Liz was relieved not to feel the chill night air. She preferred this stillness, this calm, this quiet. She had a feeling she might like the Midwest.

"What the --" she heard Alex screaming and fussing as he kicked at his door, and slammed it shut moments later.

He began blowing on his hands, and she rolled her eyes, "Whitman, you're such a wimp."

He frowned and pretended to be wounded. After feigning a side-step injury, and a fake blow to his chest, he retorted, "At least I have my girl to warm me up."

He jumped to her side, and threw his arm around her, enveloping his shrinking Liz into the familiar bear hug. She smiled, and reveled at the momentary but familiar glow being in his arms produced.

As soon as his hands released her though, she felt the feeling again. The one that had been haunting her all summer.

Alex jumped to her right and stuck out his arm. Liz followed rote and jumped in front of him and stuck out her arm, too. When they were younger and used to play together, they would always play follow the leader, and one of Liz's favorite schemes was to play the bumbling Alex.

She turned back to him, her eyes beaming back at him. Then they both turned out to look at the road.

Cars weren't passing by this route as much as on the freeway, and the few cars that did didn't stop. Liz began frowning as she realized they were instead passing even more quickly.

"Al, we're not having much luck," she whined.

"Cool it, Parker, it'll get better!"

The situation looked pretty hopeless though. Whatever cars had been trickling down the lonely Carver Route had long since passed by; now Liz couldn't even see anything - it was getting dark fairly quickly. The sky was losing its blue shimmer and taking on a dark blue cover instead. The stars were starting to come out, and seven o'clock came quickly.

Both friends had stopped sticking out their hands a while back, and it was starting to get chilly, too. Alex finally went back to the car to rummage for his cell. He produced it moments later, and Liz couldn't help smiling back at him.

When he began punching in the numbers, she began memorizing his face. His shaggy hair, his unusually large ears, and his wide-toothed grin. Then she memorized his voice, listening to his end of the conversation with AAA. It was comforting to just listen, to listen what she was going to miss.

"Thirty minutes," he admitted. "Thirty lousy minutes."

Liz adjusted her coat, yanking it down, before she held out her hand, and looked at him expectantly. Without saying a word, he lifted her onto the top of the car. He climbed up beside her seconds later, and the two friends stretched out on the roof of the car.

"We're two hours off schedule." He stated.

"I know."

"We're not going to get to do all the fun things we wanted to. There's only time now for me to drop you off at school before I head out."

Liz was quiet for a moment, contemplating the grim reality. She knew this part of the trip had been coming, but it had been fun to pretend. Alex was going to Notre Dame, and she was going to Northwestern, alone. Granted he would be alone too, and although the schools were only separated by one state borderline and the cities in between, it still hurt that she wouldn't see Alex everyday.

"I'm really doing this aren't I? We're really doing this?" she asked.

"Yep."

She turned on her side to look at him better, and she whispered, "I'm going to -"

"I know. I'm going to too."

"Hey, do you see that?"

"Where?" she asked.

He took her finger, and placed in underneath one of the stars far away in the sky. "That's Venus."

"Venus, huh?"

"Yep, Venus in the evening sky."

She contemplated that for a moment as she looked out at the shimmering stars above them. And, she looked out at the shapes they were forming in front of her, the way they resembled scattered beads.

She didn't need to look at Alex to know he was sleeping now. His silence belied everything; Alex never stopped talking.

So Liz was the only one who saw the shooting star that ripped across the tapestry above her. She saw it burn bright as it ran, running from nothing and everything all at once.

She saw it touch Venus, and she saw Venus glide away from the impact. Or, maybe it was just her eyes playing tricks on her.

But, she did remember the adage of wishing upon stars. Liz Parker wished to be loved like her best friend had once loved her.

[DreamerLaure]

Chapter 2

Liz didn’t reach her dorm room until nine o’clock the next morning. Alex rode with her to the tow truck company’s place in Illinois, but he slept through that ride too.

The driver hadn’t spoken a word, and to fill the silence in the cab, he fiddled with the radio dial until the silvery voice of Paula Cole spilled through the speakers.

Liz looked out at the green fields and the farmhouses that dotted the view before her. Each house looked the same at first, but Liz noticed some differences. She saw some that had a dish perched on the roof, and others that had dreary looking wells that probably hadn’t been used in years. She saw windows that were boarded up as well as windows that were decorated with clean white curtains that gleamed in the early morning sunshine.

When her eyes grew tired of the landscape, Liz looked around the cab. There was a hole in the top right above where Alex slept, a pair of boxing gloves signed in a hurried scrawl, envelopes wedged between the glass and the dashboard on the driver’s side, and a picture of a little girl with a toothy grin.

The driver saw her staring at the picture of the girl, and he flicked off the radio and said, “That’s my daughter Kelly there.”

Liz looked back up at the little girl in the homemade fuzzy red sweater. She looked a lot like her father, and she easily admitted, “She’s gorgeous.”

“Thank you,” he replied. “Kids are the best present in the world.” Liz looked back up to the little girl, whose eyes shone with agreement; this little girl was definitely the light in his life.

He drove the truck to the side of the AAA building, got out, and went to the back to take out her car. He slammed the door though as he left, and that effectively tore Liz’s eyes away from the little girl and stirred Alex enough to start muttering, “But I wanted an airplane.” Liz brushed away the tear that slid down her cheek, and looking out the windshield, she said softly, “I’m sure they are.”

“Huh?” Alex said.

Liz smiled and she spoke the first words that came to mind, “You wrote truck on the list, honey.”

“Santa Claus was –”

“Supposed to know,” Liz finished.

Her words pulled Alex completely out of his dream, and he smiled with his eyes closed, “That was the worst Christmas ever. I don’t think I’ll ever forgive my Mom.”

“Hey, Alex, don’t you still own that truck?”

“That’s not the point,” Alex whined, and he opened his eyes. His eyes blinked furiously at the harsh bright light as he asked, “When did the sun come up?”

Liz giggled, and she pushed him playfully, “About an hour ago. It’s five o’clock now. We drove all night.” The truck had come for them very late, and the tow place was a few towns away from them. She swung open the door and jumped the distance between the ledge and the ground. One of the mechanics came up to her to confer about the damages and the costs, and Alex spoke with another mechanic about the bus depot.

In two hours, her car was running again. Alex repositioned himself in the front seat and returned to his favorite pose – the seat reclined, his head leaning on the head rest, his legs stretched as far as possible. The head mechanic hesitated when he told her, “The engine’s pretty much shot, so I wouldn’t be surprised if the car broke down again. I’d recommend that you buy a new one as soon as possible.”

Liz asked tentatively, “And how much would that cost?”

“$1500.”

Alex whistled lowly from his side of the car and chided, “I know I told you this car was a wreck, but I never thought it would cost that much.”

Liz nodded lightly, “I’ll think about it. Thank you.”

She opened her car door, settled into the driver’s seat, and drove towards the bus depot.
There was a seven o’clock bus going to Indianapolis, and it was more than twelve hours later than the bus they had planned he would take. But, Liz was grateful for the time they had had.

Alex pulled out his three suitcases and the shoulderbag holding his laptop with ease. Liz couldn’t help but giggle, and he turned to her sharply, “What?”

“Well, it’s just, Mr. Whitman when did you get so strong?” she laughed.

Alex bent down and his whisper tickled her neck, “I think it had something to do with sparring in the winter, and sprinting in the spring.”

“You’re just an all-around guy, huh?” she asked.

“Yeah,” he said. His smile was slowly shrinking, and he adjusted the bag in his arm as he asked, “Now, do you want some of the heavy stuff?”

“Sure,” she said. She frowned though when he gave her the box labeled ‘pillows.’ “I thought I could at least carry one of the suitcases.”

“They’re really not that heavy,” he said, reassuring her.

She helped him tuck the suitcases into the bottom compartment though. It wasn’t much of a struggle to put them in because not that many people were traveling on the bus. When they were done she stood beside him and they watched some passengers board.

The bus driver was eating a donut nonchalantly and reading the newspaper from the driver’s seat; he didn’t appear ready to leave yet. Alex impishly yanked Liz’s arm and pulled her close and into his arms.

She felt her breath catch when he jerked her and she scolded, “Don’t stop doing that.”

He laughed at her tone but he looked down into her eyes equally seriously as he said, “I won’t.”

“Okay,” she agreed. Her heart started speeding up and the words were at the tip of her tongue, but she couldn’t right? She couldn’t ask him.

“Come on folks, let’s get going,” the bus driver shouted.

“I guess I should…”

“Yeah,” Liz agreed half-heartedly. Alex picked up his bag and the box, and he started walking to the door. “Hey, Alex,” she called.

He turned to her. Less than fifty feet separated them and Liz was still having trouble asking him. After a few seconds, a frown marred his features and Liz blurted out, “Why’d you come with me.”

He smiled easily, and he replied without hesitation, “It was you,” and seeing the question in her eyes, he continued, “Even after everything it was you.”

“Call me –”

“I’ll call you when I get there,” he interrupted. Alex was the first to break eye contact and he ducked his head as he climbed into the bus. Liz walked along the side of the bus at the same tempo that he walked down the aisle of the bus. She paused in front of his window, and her eyes were shining brightly. He only watched her though. He didn’t move to open the window or even offer some gesture of how he felt about her. When the bus driver started up the bus and she lifted her palm to wave goodbye, he pressed his against the window.

“Goodbye, Liz Parker. I’ll see you soon.”

[DreamerLaure]

Chapter 3

It’s December 9, I’m Liz Parker, and the first decision of my adult life has proved to be a fluke.

I thought I did almost everything I could to safeguard my future. I cared about what I was learning during high school. It wasn’t the upcoming pep rally in sixth period or the latest snatch of gossip that made its way down the hallways or the final touchdown the Roswell Comets made last weekend that filled my thoughts.

I studied hard. I spoke with my teachers about my hopes and dreams, asked for extra credit work, raised my hand during classes, took good notes, and aced my tests. Looking back, I think I definitely sacrificed some classic high school traditions to meet my goals, but I didn’t just want the traditional high school experience. I looked forward to the future. I wanted the next years of my life to be spectacular.

And my hard work paid off. It opened doors I wanted it to as well as ones that offered more than I could have ever hoped for.

Bu, there must have been a huge disconnect between what I deserved and what I wanted. I think I chose the wrong school.

Academically, Northwestern is perfect. I can’t think of many other better places to be. On top of that, I know it’s one of the best schools in the country, so it’s a privilege to not only matriculate but to also have been accepted in the first place. There are so many exciting things happening on the campus, largely due to the role research has here.

The undergrads get to do exciting work alongside some of the leading men and women in their respective fields. And the science department has seen some exciting additions. There’s a new particle accelerator that was added to the physics lab last month, and the biology department has three new visiting professors.

I started classes a week after I got here in August. I met with my professors, and got to know the lay of the school intimately. My classes turned out to be just as interesting as their profiles in the catalogue promised, and I immersed myself in Biology, History, Calculus (Isn’t it funny that after everything I did in high school to avoid taking Calculus in college I’m still taking it. I took both the Calculus AB and BC AP exams, and no bite for me because I didn’t get the credit), and Physics. The class sizes haven’t rattled me yet. In the lecture halls, I just sit in the front of the room, and it becomes easier to forget that there are 242 other heads behind me.

But what I’ve really learned since I’ve been here is that academics aren’t the only thing that makes a school. I didn’t give enough thought to the social life and what it would be like to really go here.

Liz lay stretched out on her bed, scrawling her pen across the paper hurriedly. She tucked her hair behind her ear and bit her lip in deep concentration, trying to find the right words to say everything she was thinking.

It was hard to pinpoint when she had started feeling this way. It wasn’t necessarily through any fault of the school, she mused, but maybe it was her own fault. She realized she wasn’t trying very much.

She had turned down all of the party invitations Jennifer had thrown her way to study for an upcoming test or prepare for a class. Then less than a month into the year, Jennifer had gotten the hint and stopped asking altogether. Instead, she breezed in and out of the room, always on her way to everything except class. She’d come back into the room to sleep in the wee hours of the morning, and when Liz would come back to the room to change her books for her afternoon classes, Jennifer would finally be waking up.

Whoever said that roommates could be the best of friends was obviously lying. The two girls in Room 29 were as different as night and day, and Liz of course, was like the day. She filled her days with getting things done, and moving to the next action. Jennifer on the other hand only used the day to set up her nights, and almost everyday she slept in until after two. She’d always be frustrated then when she missed breakfast, and whenever she did wake up, she would look at the perfectly neat bedspread across the room and she’d feel her hangover increase tenfold.

Then on the rare occasions that both girls had a test the following day, they would be in the room together, studying separately. Jennifer always had her earphones plugged into her ears, listening to techno music to “rev her up.” Their desks in the room were in small cubicles the wall made with the ceiling, but the four feet that separated them wasn’t always enough. Liz could always hear the scintillating beats of a dance song from her side as she reviewed the multiplicity of x and y.

Liz glanced over to her alarm clock on the night table. It was a little past seven thirty, and she wanted to get breakfast in before her class at nine. Maybe she’d even have time to catch up on her notes.

She closed the cover to her journal and moved towards her desk. She glanced over at Jennifer’s bed, and saw that her back faced Liz’s side of the room. She crouched down near the bottom of her desk and opened the small vent by the wall plug. When she unpacked in the fall she had noticed the vent was broken and didn’t discharge any heat, so she started using it to house her journal.

Liz brushed the lint off her jeans when she stood and she slung her messenger bag over her shoulder. Jennifer amazingly enough was still sleeping. Liz was sure she would have heard the soft clang of the vent as she closed it. She brushed a stray strand behind her ear and closed the door to the room gently as she left.

The snow crunched under the heels of her boots as she made her way across campus. The trees were bare from their autumn trimming, and the branches were weighted down with a light dusting of snow. There were few people walking around at this time of the morning and overall the campus was very still and quiet.

She inhaled the warm air when she reentered shelter and shivered. Her cheeks felt flushed from the brisk morning air and her jeans were cool to the touch. The student-run café where she bought breakfast opened at six, but the staff put out more food again at eight. She was just in time to see Margaret pulling out a new rack of muffins fresh from the oven.

“Good morning,” Margaret said. “What’s it like out there?”

“It’s cold,” she admitted with a smile and she pulled her fingers out of her gloves for extra show of it.

Margaret laughed, “Yeah, it does seem pretty cold out there.”

Liz nodded, “But since it’s so early, it’s also really quiet. I love when that happens.”

Margaret nodded. She was making Liz’s frappuccino on autopilot. Liz always ordered the same thing at the same time; she was one of her regulars. Then Margaret flipped the top open to the whipped cream and moved her hand in slow circles as she brought the layered cream to a new height.

Liz watched smiling, and she told her, “That’s perfect.”

“What class do you have to study for today?” Margaret gestured towards the stack of books nestled in the crook of her arm.

“Psychology,” she explained. “My freshman seminar is pairing up with a psychology seminar for this semester. I’m just reviewing the reading we had over break.”

“You’re so on top of things,” Margaret quipped. “I really admire you for that.”

Liz smiled, “Thank you.” She went towards her table near the window, sat down, and began watching the light snowfall.

She opened the Psychology textbook up to one of the passages that had been a little obscure, and took a deep breath before she dived in.

She didn’t really acknowledge the person sitting across from her in the café. He was here every morning also, but he always sat in the corner so he could watch her. He was in her line of sight, and when he had first chosen the seat, he only chose it because it was right under a great lighting scheme.

That was nine weeks ago though. And the only reason Max Evans kept coming back to this seat was because she was here every morning.

The first time Max saw her, he had only looked up because he heard the jangle of the bells over the door. There were only a few people scattered in the café, and there were a couple of professors that morning too. He had almost stuttered out loud, motioned to her or even called out her name when he saw that it was Liz Parker, the girl from Roswell he’d always wanted to know.

Max kept his eyes on her that first morning as she ordered her regular. He noticed how she shifted the weight of her books to her left arm to reach into her bag. He noticed that she would hold the cup in her hands before bringing it to her lips, maybe to have the heat of the liquid warm her palms. She always sat by the window, possibly because she liked to look outside or maybe she liked the light that came from it.

He wanted to say something to her, and he tried to work up the nerve to do so every morning. But whenever he saw her bent over her books, biting her lips in firm concentration, and moving her pen easily across the pages of her notebook, she looked so intent on studying that he would decide that it’d be best not to disturb her.

She wasn’t like this in high school. She had graduated in the top 3% of their class, but she had also made time to do other things as well. Or maybe he was misreading her…there were so many things he didn’t know about her. He knew the things a secret admirer would, but he didn’t know the things a friend would.

He noticed her though. Max sipped his coffee and skimmed the headlines in the newspaper. Every so often he would look up and watch her exchange a few words with Margaret, or walk across the room, her soft brown hair swishing back and forth with each step. He even noticed the way she bent over her book, engrossing herself completely in her material.

She was only a girl, he thought. It really shouldn’t be this hard to talk to her, remind her of who he was, exchange a brief smile with her, and ask to get to know her. Reintroducing himself would be the first step, and he felt regretful for each week he was letting slip by without doing so.

He heard her mention Cutler’s class. It was possible she was in his joint seminar with him. That was a possible in, he thought. I should go up to her.

Max tossed out his coffee cup and put down the newspaper. He stood to walk to her side of the room, but when he did, he saw the way her eyes glazed over, sad with longing for whatever she was missing.

If Max had blinked, he would have missed the expression that flashed in her eyes because as quickly as the sadness enveloped her, she pushed it aside to study more.

This is ridiculous, he thought. I should just go to her.

That realization came too late though because the polychrome of Dandy Warhol’s “We Used to Be Friends” sounded loudly from the inside of her bag. Her hands dived into the bag, and she only smiled quickly at Margaret when she pointed to the no cell-phones sign on the wall. It didn’t matter to her because she was heading out of the door to answer her caller.

Frowning, Max stuck his hands into his pocket. If only Liz Parker would be that happy to talk to him. If she ever were, he would be the happiest alien on earth. He glanced at the wall-clock, and saw that it was nearly time for class. And disappointed, he slumped out of the café through the other door so he could take the underground tunnel to class.

Margaret stared at the mysterious seven o’clock double latte buyer as she cleaned one of the coffee machines Her hands were busy rounding the rim of the cup, but her hands weren’t moving nearly as fast as her thoughts were. Max didn’t see the curiosity that marred Margaret’s features as she watched him leave. A few seconds later she wrinkled her nose in realization and smiled. Wait until I tell Liz she’s got a secret admirer, she thought triumphantly.

[DreamerLaure]

Chapter 4

Liz knew the song ring so well that she didn’t need to look down at the flashing name on the screen. She flipped it open and cried, “Alex!”

“Hey, you,” he said back. His voice washed over her smoothly, and she swore she could even imagine him smiling too. “It’s been too long,” he told her.

She nodded even though he couldn’t see her, and when he heard her silence, he said suddenly, “Parker, are you nodding?”

She laughed, “How do you know me so well, Whitman?”

“Because you’ve done this to me for years,” he said back. That was true, she mused. It was a bad habit to nod while she was on the phone because the speaker couldn’t see her, but she did it anyway. She was standing outside without her coat, and the only thing keeping her warm was the sound of his voice. “So how are classes going?” he continued.

“Oh, I have a new class that’s starting today. I was in this great philosophy freshman seminar and this trimester, it’s combining with a psychology class. I have it in ten minutes,” she told him.

“Well then, I won’t keep you,” he promised, “but I do feel like I haven’t talked to you in the longest time.”

“Yeah, we haven’t really talked in a while,” she said back, her smile fading quickly. They hadn’t talked properly for nearly a month because each time she called him, he was out. He was at the party at the frat house he wanted to join, or at a football game, or in someone else’s dorm room. After a while, his roommate had even stopped taking messages for Alex, and had just let Liz’s timid but eager voice stay inside the answering machine. Actually, she realized, this was the first time Alex had called her all year.

She wanted to tell him stuff, the things she used to be able to tell him in Roswell, but absence was making her heart soft and uncertain. She wanted to tell him that school wasn’t easy, and that she didn’t have many friends yet, and perhaps more importantly, she didn’t even have anyone to watch her back. Most of all she wanted to tell Alex that she felt alone.

It was on the tip of her tongue to spill everything when the sound of a high-pitched giggle came in clearly from his side of the phone. She swallowed hard, and brushed away the tear that was forming in the corner of her eye roughly. Had she really expected him to stay the same, and not change?

“Hey, Liz, I have to go,” Alex said, in between fits of laughter. When he was more collected, he added, “There’s something going on here.”

“Right,” Liz said, pretending to understand. If he had to go, she couldn’t really keep him from whatever he was doing. But it did feel like wherever they would have naturally talked about stuff and gotten beyond surface feelings, Alex always had to jet. It was a little unnerving, but she suspected there wasn’t much she could do to change it. He had changed since they went their separate ways. A doubt loomed in her mind, a possibility that he was no longer her Alex. She was starting to think he might be someone else now.

She held the phone away from her ear and watched the color of the display fade, as Alex was the first to hang up. Then she brushed her nose on her sleeve and shivered slightly; now she felt the real temperature. Looking down at her attire, she smiled when she saw she was only wearing her shirt and jeans. In her haste to get up for the call, she had completely abandoned her coat. Too bad it wasn’t worth it.

She took a quick breath of the cool crisp morning air to jolt her back to reality before heading back inside. Margaret was cleaning the frappuccino machine when she got back inside and making coffee. “You must have froze out there,” she said when she saw Liz was back.

“It was only two minutes,” she explained. She got back to her table and gathered up all of her belongings. She pushed her cap down over her ears and wrapped her scarf around her neck. When she looked up, Margaret was staring at her and she said, “Are you okay? You’re kind of red.”

“I’ll be fine…it’s just really cold out.” she scooped her books under her arms and began heading back to the door. Margaret bit her lip, wondering how best to cheer her up. She remembered the guy who had just left. He was definitely interested in Liz, and Liz just couldn’t see it because she for whatever reason preferred to be blindly clueless to things like this. And, Margaret mused, he was also in the Great Works Club. Margaret remembered how Cindy, one of their more persistent members, made him blush when she cornered him and convinced him to sign him up last week.

Her eyes followed Liz to the door and the bright pink paper of her flyer that was tacked on the billboard caught her eye. “Hey, there’s something I wanted to show you,” she called out. Liz paused by the door and waited for Margaret to come over.

Liz smiled, “An ice-cream social?”

“It’s not just that,” Margaret promised. “I’m secretary of the Great Works Club. We do all sorts of charity work for the greater Chicago neighborhood, and it’s really a great way to meet people and just do something back for the neighborhood. Since the holiday season is coming up, there’s so much to do, and the ice-cream social this afternoon is one of our ways to attract new members.”

“Ice cream in the winter?” Liz asked, “That’s kind of odd.”

Margaret only smiled. She watched Liz’s face for any change, any sign that she was interested, and she didn’t fail her.

“I guess I could swing by,” Liz said. It sounded like a cute event, something potentially fun. She pulled back her coat sleeve and looked at her watch. “I’ve got to go now though. Bye, Margaret.”

“Okay, bye Liz. See you later,” she replied, smiling when Liz’s smile drooped. Margaret knew that she was making it clear that she was expecting Liz to come, and she also knew that Liz wouldn’t back out.

Liz’s smile softened and she nodded as she stepped out of the door.

Margaret was smiling for an altogether different reason. Now all she had to do was introduce them.

* * * * *

Max saw Liz the instant he entered the classroom, and he decided that she looked radiant. She was sitting patiently in her chair in the second row, her fingertips cradling the edge of the textbooks stacked on her desk, and her knees were crossed. She looked eager for the class to begin, which in of itself was refreshing. A lot of the girls on campus didn’t get excited about classes. But she was really interested. She was different. He took a guarded moment to admire how she dressed casually, complementing her natural beauty perfectly. And for a few seconds it was like everyone else had faded away.

Max really didn’t expect what happened next. Her eyes lit up in recognition when they met his, and she smiled, watching him as he crossed the room. He thought, “It’s a nice change to be watched,” and he returned the smile easily.

“Max, it’s good to see you,” and she stood to give him a quick hug. She is so tiny, he noticed. And even though she was leaning up and into the hug, her fingertips were inches apart when her arms reached around his shoulders.

“I thought you were going to UCLA on a track scholarship,” she said.

“I was, and I went there for fall semester, but I ended up transferring out.” When he said this, his eyes lowered a little. “Things change,” he admitted. He settled into the chair beside her and smiled, “but it’s good to see you, too.”

Liz fell quiet and let her attention go back to her class notes. He glanced over at what she was reading and commented, “Those look like great notes.”

“Yeah, I really enjoyed the book. It was so fascinating that there are all of these theories that hold the key to who we are as people. And also, Adams is one of the leading psychologists in the field,” she added, gesturing to the kindly professor at the front.

He smiled, “I guess you looked this up, huh?”

“A little bit,” she admitted.

Their eyes met for a moment, and he kept looking at her even when Professor Adams stepped forward to begin the lecture.

* * * * *

The walk back to Harris was not as lonely as usual. She always knew Max was shy under the surface, but really she hadn’t anticipated him to be this shy. It was comforting though. It wasn’t like the tense silences with Jennifer or the understanding peaceable ones she shared with Margaret . . . this felt different. The time she spent with Alex alone hadn’t always been silent like this. When she turned to look at him, she was surprised to find his warm brown eyes looking down at her. Had he been watching her this entire time, she thought blushing. She turned away to look back out at the path ahead of them.

That was definitely different though. Alex had never watched her. And ultimately that had been the biggest problem in their relationship – he had loved her more as a friend than as something more. But, could she really open her heart up again?

She was so lost in thought that she didn’t really pay attention to how far they had walked. When she no longer heard the crunching of Max’s boots in the snow beside her, she looked up suddenly to see Max a few feet away from her. Northwestern was surrounded on three sides by a gorgeous lake and he was standing in front of it, his hands resting on the rail.

It was a simple gesture to just watch the water, and she knew that it would be a nice distraction from the thoughts that plagued her seconds ago so she walked over to join him by the rail and rested her hands on it also.

He was watching the snowflakes glide into the water, melting the instant they touched. This time she took a moment to look closer at him. He was just as attractive as she remembered him as in high school. His hair was a little longer, and he had bangs that moved gently in the light breeze. She could see his profile mostly, but she could just tell he was handsome.

So many girls in their senior class had fawned over Max Evans, eager to crack the mystery of who he was. Liz was wrapped up in her own stuff in high school, and she hadn’t taken the time to know him well then. But here he was now. Thousands of miles away from Roswell, and he was the only familiar face, and silently Liz vowed, she would at least try to do the same.

[DreamerLaure]

Chapter 5

Max’s room was over in Keller House, and he glanced down at his watch when he reached there, and did some quick counting…Eleven minutes – it was eleven minutes between his dorm and Liz’s. It dawned on him how childish it had been to not talk to her before when she was so approachable. Walking with her in the snow hadn’t been awkward, but comforting instead.

She didn’t mind that he didn’t say much and instead she looked up ahead at the view before them. He caught her smiling at things they passed a couple of times. She smiled when a robin shook off his jacket of snow, and at the pattern of a bird’s footsteps over a bench lined with snow. He usually didn’t notice everything, but she seemed to, and he even got more light-hearted as they walked on and he started looking around too.

He unwrapped his scarf from his neck and shrugged off his jacket, putting them on the hook behind the door. The heels of his boots were lined with a layer of snow too and it was drying quickly, dampening the carpet by his door, so he pulled off his shoes and placed them by the heater. He was lucky to have a single. When he transferred to Northwestern, he had been certain that he would end up having a roommate like everyone else for freshmen didn’t usually get singles, but a policy of the university left singles open to transfers. When he saw that it was a choice, he took it. If he could have more privacy, why not take it? He was supposed to keep a low profile. That had been a part of their pact.

He was about to start studying when he saw that the white glow from his computer screen wasn’t the only light pulsing. His answering machine was also, and it was flashing red quickly. He pushed the on button and listened to the automated voice as it told him, “You have two new messages.”

The first one he expected; it was his mother, calling to “check in,” because “she honestly couldn’t remember the last time she’d heard from him.” Max didn’t know what she found so interesting about college because the magic of the experience was beginning to dull for him. College had slowly become a part of his life over the past few months. It had been hard to transfer, and between settling his financial aid and catching up the work he had missed, he had been mostly overwhelmed. It was easier now though. It had become his new life. It was hard still, but it wasn’t as unfamiliar and scary. It was just the next phase in his life.

The machine beeped, cutting off his mom’s long goodbye, and then Isabel came on. She hadn’t called much over the past few months because she was settling too, but he could tell from the sound of her voice that she was happy. She was over at UC Boulder in Colorado, the great mid-west. At first when she chose to go there, he had a hard time even picturing her there. She wasn’t a mid-west kind of girl, and even still, not a southwest kind of girl either. She was really picky and she liked when things were just so. Growing up with her, he knew she always wanted things to be absolutely perfect.

She surprised him though by how happy she sounded. He turned the dial of the volume up a notch and listened closely to her voice. She was definitely happy, he decided when she finished telling him about how her classes were going and about the sorority she was signing up for. Knowing that she was happy brought a smile to Max’s face, and he felt relieved. It was great that they were all happy – that they had finally found what they were looking for and that they were doing what they had agreed to.

Michael’s face came to mind when he thought about the agreement, and he wondered where he was, if he had found what he was looking for. Max actually hadn’t heard from him in nearly four months ever since that fateful day Michael jumped onto his motorcycle and left Roswell. He wanted to hear from him though.

Though the three aliens had agreed to start over, Max thought they should at least stay in touch. They were, after all, still a family. When Isabel’s, “I’ll talk to you soon, Max,” came onto the speaker, the answering machine cut off any hopes he had of hearing from Michael when it clicked once and reported, “There are no new messages.”

He glanced at the time – four o’clock, and he reached for his psychology book to get started on the reading Professor Adams assigned at the end of class. Even though class had literally just started, he assigned fifty pages so they could finish their “introduction to” chapters before next week’s class. Max settled comfortably at his desk and dived into the reading. Parts of it were interesting, but less than an hour later, he had a headache because of how dense the material was getting. Some of the comparisons the textbook’s author drew were widespread, and it was hard to keep track of every bit of it.

He heard the knock on his door at a quarter to five, and he turned off the music on his computer before he stood and went to answer it. She was standing at the door, waving two Netflix videos and a bag of popcorn. “Hey,” he said, and she said back, “Hey,” when he widened the door and let Karen in.

* * * * *

Margaret spotted Liz over by the table with all of the ice cream and the assortments. Liz was taking out a second scoop of vanilla ice cream when Margaret came over. “Two?” she asked incredulously, her eyes smiling. “I thought you weren’t a fan of ice cream.”

Liz smiled, “I am whenever it’s good, and besides,” she continued, gesturing to the spread before them, “I couldn’t resist having some when it’s already out.” The Club had ordered six different flavors of ice cream, four types of sprinkles, and toppings like whipped cream and hot fudge, and it looked like heaven.

Liz was reaching for the sprinkles when she looked up and saw Margaret staring out ahead of her. “What,” she mumbled, her mouth full with a bite of ice cream. She brushed her sleeve on her mouth and turned to the direction Margaret was looking at, and there was Max, right by the door.

Liz took yet another chance to look at him, noticing how tall he stood and how almost every eye in the room seemed to be looking at him. Maybe it’s just wistful thinking, she thought; maybe not everyone’s looking at him. Margaret was, and Liz repeated, “What?”

“I wonder who that is?” Margaret said, and Liz followed her gaze to the brunette behind Max. She had just taken off her jacket and put it on the coat hook by the door, and she was turning to look up at Max. She smiled up at him, and held his arm loosely.
Liz felt her heart slow a little bit as Max’s eyes roamed the room. She was surprised when his eyes met hers doubtfully. He even looked a little worried when he saw her expression because for the first time in a long time, Liz was jealous and it was showing on her face. He couldn’t read her expression at first, and he just locked eye contact with her. When her eyes dropped from his to look down at the girl’s hand that held his arm, he followed where her eyes went to, and immediately shook his arm. Karen frowned and looked up at him questioningly, but he didn’t return her gaze; he only looked back at Liz.

“I have no idea,” she said, her voice trailing off. She picked up her paper bowl of ice cream and went to sit at the front of the room without looking back at Max again. Margaret noticed how his eyes softened when Liz didn’t come up to talk to him. They really hadn’t looked intimate at all, but if Liz was already getting jealous over even another girl just standing next to him, there might be more than just a crush under the surface.

[DreamerLaure]

Thanks for the feedback!

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Chapter 6

When the Great Works Club president finished speaking, she was met with enthusiastic applause. Everyone thought the meeting went really well, and Liz even found herself considering a membership with the club. Giving back to the community in small ways sounded like something she could do.

Margaret smiled when it was over. “Did you like it?”

“Yeah,” Liz said. “It was interesting. It sounds like there is a lot that can be done.”

“Exactly,” she said, nodding. “There is a lot that can be done, and it’s exciting that we have the power to better the world around us.”

“Yeah,” Liz repeated. That was it; this was a chance to make a difference.

“I’ve got to go,” Margaret explained. She stood up and pushed her arms into her jacket, and pulled on her gloves. “I have plans with the girls on my floor over at Thorton, but I’ll see you tomorrow morning, right?”

“Eight o’clock.”

“Eight? Really? I’ve always thought that you came a little bit earlier,” she said with a smile.

“Tomorrow’s lab day,” Liz explained.

“And what time does lab start?”

“Eleven,” Liz said sheepishly. “I know I’m going to be early, but I really need the study time before it starts. The lab we’re doing tomorrow is really tough. It’s so detailed that I’m worried I might not do it right. There are a lot of little pieces,” she said.

“That sounds hard. This is why I’m a history major,” Margaret joked. “Good luck with everything. Bye, Liz.”

“Bye,” Liz said and she turned around in her chair to pick up her jacket too. When all of her outerwear was on, she walked over to the small staircase leading down from the stage. A small crowd of audience members had gathered there around Amy, and Liz listened from where she stood by the fringe of the crowd. A lot of the questions that she had thought of during the speech were being asked by some of the other people so Liz decided to just wait and listen to the answers to some of her questions. When the crowd thinned, she moved forward more, and that’s when she spotted Max and the girl he was with on Amy’s other side.

She’s taller than I am, Liz noted. The other girl had dark and wavy brown hair that looked almost jet black in the lighting. Her eyes were glittering with excitement from where she stood; she seemed really passionate about the club. She either got frustrated with the pace of the questions or that her own question wasn’t answered because she began to push her way further to the front. Liz could admire how forward she was being, but even she was put of by it a little. When she tore her gaze away from the unnamed girl, she caught Max looking her way. She gave him a small smile and Max smiled back.

“Hey,” he said when he made his way over to her. He pushed himself up onto the ledge of the stage so he could sit, and Liz hesitated before she did the same too.

“Hey,” she said. “Interesting meeting, right?”

“Yeah, it was great. I didn’t know you were thinking of becoming a member.”

“I wasn’t until this morning. My friend Margaret was the one to actually convince me to come. I’m glad I did; it seems like there’s a lot that can be done. Then she told me about the ice cream,” Liz said with a smile.

“Yes, that brought me here too,” he said.

“They said we could volunteer at the park on Saturdays in March,” his friend explained when she came over. She looked over in Liz’s direction and smiled, “Hi.”

“Hi,” Liz said.

Max could see it was becoming an awkward situation so he rushed to introduce them to each other. “Liz, this is Karen, my resident advisor and a good friend of mine, and Karen, this is Liz; we went to high school together.”

“Nice to meet you, finally,” Karen said. She didn’t fail to notice that Max had introduced her to Liz instead of the other way around.

Liz’s eyes widened when Karen said finally and the thought that Max had mentioned her to Karen caught her off guard. She was surprised to learn who Karen was too. Before the meeting when she saw her, Liz had assumed that she might be Max’s girlfriend.

Seeing Karen with Max had brought up something to the surface, but Liz wasn’t sure what it was yet. She hadn’t even seen Max in months and there was so much catching up to do. She still didn’t know him as well as she would like to. No, she thought to herself, I don’t know him like I know Alex. It might not have been fair to compare the two guys, but it had been happening to Liz ever since she had run into him.

Before she said anything, she glanced Max’s way but he was conveniently looking out at the group of members who were starting to leave. “Nice to meet you, too,” Liz said.

Max said, “We should get going because I think they’re going to close up soon,” and he gestured to the room. Some of the group’s members were starting to clean up the tables and the leftover food, and the university’s maintenance crew had come in to start stacking up the chairs. Karen nodded and she walked over to get her coat from the back of the room. Max got off the stage by jumping the short distance and when he landed, he reached his hand out for Liz to get down also.

She smiled. “Thank you.”

He nodded and they started walking towards to back of the room towards the door. “Liz, what time do you have class tomorrow?”

“I have a lab that starts at eleven.”

“Lab? Oh, you’re still doing science?” he asked. She always did science in high school and it was even possible that she had been one of West Roswell’s best science students in years. She participated in so many countywide competitions and research opportunities towards the end of high school and that impressed Max. She had always seemed so focused and determined and it was a part of why he had wanted to get to know Liz. She seemed happy as she was doing all of the science and academic work.

Michael, Isabel, and Max had been cautious. They wanted normal lives, ones that included the normal high school and college experiences with their friends and family. Then it only became a matter of keeping one thing back: their true identity. Everything else about them appeared normal, and by the end of high school they had survived, they had succeeded. There was no FBI following them or keeping tabs on them, and no one from where they were from had approached them. It was like their alien heritage was only a secret that no one would ever see.

And at the end of the year, they got what they wanted; they had normal lives. Isabel was now at UC-Boulder studying Spanish and Business, and she loved it. Michael left Roswell, as predicted. He only held on until the end of high school to get his diploma, and he left the day after graduation. Over the summer he called Max a few times to say he was in Canada or New York, but the calls had lessened and Max wanted to think that he was happy too. Max went to UCLA after Roswell, but he transferred almost right away.

Liz was smiling, and she said, “Still? You remember?”

“Yeah, you were really good in high school.”

“Thanks. Well, yeah I’m still doing science. I’m thinking of majoring in biology, but the major has a lot of requirements. I really hope I can finish in time.”

“I’m sure you can,” he told her.

“Thank you,” she said.

Karen lingered by the door, waiting for the two of them to catch up to her. She knew Max was shy and that he didn’t have many friends yet, but seeing him around Liz brought a special light to his eyes. When she came over that afternoon with a video, Max had been disappointed that she chose yet another romantic comedy without him being there. She dropped by his room an hour before she went and when he wasn’t there, she figured he was still in class. So her excuse was that the burden of picking the video had fallen onto her.

* * * * *

“What class did you have?” she asked as she settled down onto the floor. She stretched her legs out in front of her and used the side of his bed as a backing. The credits were just starting and Karen was already hungry. She grabbed the popcorn bowl from Max so she could have some too.

“Psychology,” Max said. He tried to reach for the popcorn bowl but Karen was quicker than he was and she put it just out of his reach.

“How’d it go?”

Max smiled, “It was fine. Callaghan teaches a good class.”

“Oh, class? Max, whatever. That’ll come and go. Any cute girls?” she teased.

She could see Max was about to deny it, but something he remembered at that instant made him smile. “Actually, Liz is in my class.”’

“Liz?” she repeated, smiling. “Did you say hi?”

He smiled, “Yes, I did. She’s nice.”

“That’s good then,” she said. She was the resident advisor for the floor his room was on, and she was supposed to help the new students get settled. She met him when she offered to help him move in, and during the two hours that they moved some of his stuff, he didn’t say much. Whatever jokes Karen threw out about how much stuff he had, he let roll off his back, coming up with a witty response for. But it was rare for him to start up a joke. At first she had him pegged as shy, but as she got to know him more, she realized he just needed to open up. “ It’s about time actually. You’ve been talking about her for about a month now,” Karen added.

“When are you going to see her again?” she asked.

“Thursday, probably, when we have our next class with Callaghan.”

“That’s good. That’s really soon.”

“Yeah, it is.”

“That’s good,” Karen said, smiling again. “You know, there might be hope for you yet, Evans.”

* * * * *

She held the door partially open so Liz could come through it too, and Liz said softly, “Thanks.”

Karen nodded and she and Liz fell into an easy pace together. Max caught up and he walked beside Liz too. Karen’s phone started to ring as they were walking and she slowed her pace to answer the call. Soon she was laughing at whatever the caller was saying.

Liz couldn’t think of anything to say so at first she just kept walking with Max. When she finally came up with something that didn’t sound awkward or forced inside of her head, she said, “Max, did you start the reading yet?”

He smiled. “No, actually, I haven’t even touched it yet. It was a lot of reading though.”

“Yeah, I think he wants to get the introductory parts out of the way so we can start working on the more interesting theories. I think it’s good, but there’s just so much material.”

“That’s true. I think the reading assignment was seventy pages or so. He said it covered a lot of the basic theories.”

Liz sighed, “Yeah he did. I’m really not looking forward to it though.”

“What other classes do you have tomorrow?”

“I have Bio in the morning, and an English and Sociology class in the afternoon that ends at four.”

“I finish up my other American Lit class at three. Do you want to study together around five?”

Liz looked up at him surprised, and she said, “That works out perfectly.”

“Okay,” he said and he couldn’t hide the smile that broke out on his face.

Karen was finishing up her call and they heard her loudly sing out, “Bye,” into the speaker.

Max and Liz exchanged a smile; Karen had a really wacky personality. She ran the short distance to catch up with them and she explained in a rush, “I have to go, Max. My friend is driving out to Chicago for dinner with a couple people,” she turned to look at Liz and smiled. “It was really nice to meet you, Liz.”

“It was nice to meet you, too.”

Karen smiled and she waved, “Bye.” Then she turned and took one of the paths back to Keller.

Liz looked up at Max and she was trying to decide how to say good night to him too. They were only fifty feet away from Keller now, and she assumed he would go home too. But Max surprised her by answering her unasked question when he said, “I’ll walk you home, Liz.”

“Thanks,” she said. They fell into the same pace again, and they continued to walk across the campus. The snow from earlier in the morning had melted under the afternoon sunshine and there were puddles on the path that they walked down earlier. “Max, you never told me why you chose to come to Northwestern.”

“I wanted a change of pace,” he explained. “After we finished up at Roswell last year, right after we graduated, did you get the feeling that it was the right time for something new to happen?”

Liz nodded, and she admitted, “Yeah, like it was time for a new phase in our lives.”

“Exactly. Going to UCLA was that new phase for me at first, but when I got there, the school wasn’t the right fit. It was too big, and it wasn’t strong enough in all of the academics that I wanted. Last year I got accepted at Northwestern too so when I explained that I wanted to transfer in, it wasn’t hard for them to place their hands on my records. For whatever reason though, my first pick wasn’t the right school.”

Liz nodded again. She had felt that way about Northwestern for the past few months. She couldn’t pinpoint anymore what had made her feel like that but Max’s words hit something within her.

Maybe it was because she had started school completely alone without any of her friends from high school; by November Alex had been calling less and less. He had found new friends at Notre Dame and at one point she remembered he even mentioned joining a fraternity. Four months in a new school and Alex had already changed. She wasn’t sure if she herself had changed, but she wanted to. This new phase and the want for it was intense. Hearing Max’s explanation made sense to her. It was like going to a school without your heart being in it. If that was the case, how could you put your heart into it?

“I felt that way about Northwestern,” she confessed. “I thought it was the wrong place for me.”

“You said thought,” he pointed out.

“It’s becoming better,” she said smiling.

[DreamerLaure]

bigears
Natalie36
Begonia9508
Clueless
Flyawayraven
Stars in my eyes

Chapter 7

“I’m not getting this,” Liz whined, and she flung her pencil down, making it land square into the spine of her textbook. It wasn’t very far, Max noticed. It was maybe three inches, but she looked cute when she was frustrated. He smiled and cast a sympathetic glance her way, but when the frown that was on her face didn’t ease up, he scooted closer. They were on the floor in his room studying for the Psychology test they had the following morning. They had been hunched over their own textbooks for at least a good hour since her last question, but her confusion and frustration was back, and Max didn’t like her scowl that much.

“It’s not that bad,” he said, and he leaned in closer to explain. “You just have to look at it differently; your approach is too technical.”

She said, “I’m a scientist; that’s what we do. We have methods. We have steps.”

“But this is psychology, and there are no steps; it’s all about logic.”

“Okay.” She said, nodding slowly. “Logic.”

“Yeah. What do you think you’re not getting?”

“Everything,” she said dramatically, and she smiled when she heard him laughing.

She picked up her pencil and pushed it off the page, and took her yellow highlighter up. It was time to colorize. She took a deep breath, “So, I get this part about the development of his theories and their micro level effects,” she explained as she went over five lines of text in the neon color. She hesitated over another part before putting down the tip again, “and I really get that theory.” She highlighted that section and carried her highlighter over some more of the reading, letting it hover a few inches above the text.

She continued on to highlight another part, and for the next few seconds, the only sounds were her sighs and the squeak of the highlighter. She went across the pages that were open, going from side to side, and soon the entire pages were wet with smudge marks from the highlighter.

Max smiled as he watched the disaster in progress and he chuckled, “It looks like you get the whole thing.”

“Yeah,” she said as she looked down at the mess she had made of the textbook. “I think I get it, but then I feel like I don’t. I guess I really don’t understand why Freud was so influential. I get that his theories were larger than life, but beyond that I’m stumped. I don’t really get why he’s so important.”

“Well, that’s it. His theories were larger than life. He introduced theories that the psychologists before him had only touched upon; that’s why he was revolutionary. It was like he brought together all the pieces that had never been linked together in the years before.”

“And he was brave enough to express them,” Liz added, a smile tugging on her lips. It was becoming clearer by the minute.

“Yes. And he was so brave that he did dissertations on them where he defended his studies. He practiced with his patients, and he spoke with other members in the field. If you make an argument that Freud was one of the pioneers of modern psychology and you connect that part of who he was to his discoveries, Callaghan will eat it up.”

“Okay,” Liz said, her voice more confident. “I think I can do this.”

“Good, because it’s in eight hours,” he said slowly, and predictably, Liz reacted. She sat up from the floor and looked over at his alarm clock once it was within her line of sight again…12:01 am, and she had come over at nine; the day was going by too quickly. A little over twelve hours ago she and Max had stayed in Callaghan’s extended review lesson, and now the hours were really getting lost on her. Even if she got proper rest tonight, she wouldn’t get to study in the morning.

“Oh no,” she said, “I can’t believe this,” and her scowl was back. She was still on her knees on the floor, but she moved as quickly as she would have if she were standing. She rushed to scoop her two textbooks, her file folder, and all of the handouts from class into her arms, but the more she rushed, the less she held on to.

Max stepped in though. He reached his hand out to calm her and said, “Liz, it’s okay. You’re ready,” he reminded her. He was holding her forearm and his touch had the right effect. She took a deep breath and repeated after him, “I’m ready.”

She sunk down onto the floor again and let the books and the handouts slip off her lap and onto the floor, “I’m ready.”

He smiled at her when she looked back at him. “I’m so ready,” she said, and he nodded.

“It’s good that you’re ready, because I’m tired.”

“Right,” she said smiling, “Sleep. We really should go to sleep.” She stood up, and walked to the chair by his desk to get her jacket off the back. While she was putting on her jacket and her scarf, she had her back to him.

He waved his hand over the rest of her papers, the ones she had scattered on the floor minutes before, bringing them into a neat stack in one swift motion.

She turned around while she was swinging her scarf around her neck. She was expecting to see the papers spread out on the floor and she frowned when they weren’t there. Max was standing too, and his back was to her. Her papers and her textbooks were on the desk by his door, and he was putting on his jacket also. She thought it was odd because it had been an overwhelming pile. Callaghan gave out five to eight handouts per class, and handouts could be anything from essays to worksheets to outlines to syllabi; it was an overwhelming class. This test was five weeks into the class, and Liz already had a four-inch pile.

She cleared her throat and Max turned to look at her. He thought he saw a flash of doubt in her eyes, but he pushed the feeling aside when he saw her smile.

“Ready?” she asked.

“Yeah, let’s get you home,” he said. He picked up her textbooks and papers, and held the door open for her.

Ten minutes later when they were in front of her door, he was still holding everything for her. She jostled her purse to begin her hunt for her key and when she did, he stepped aside so his shadow wouldn’t block her progress. When she got the door open, she heard Jennifer snoring. She wondered briefly what Jennifer was even doing back here so early, but she let those thoughts go as Max stepped into the dark room and put her books down onto her desk. She was curious how in the dark he knew where her desk was, but she didn’t let her thoughts linger on that. It was one of the quirks of Max Evans that she liked. She liked that Max knew things, or could figure things out. He was thoughtful.

He stood before her in the triangle created from the hallway light. “Do you want coffee tomorrow?”

“Yeah, I’ll meet you at the café?”

“Or I could bring it here? You look tired.”

“Thanks,” she said, laughing softly.

Any more laughs she would have liked to exchange, and they had already shared a lot that night, were forgotten as soon as he reached out to hug her.

“Bye, Liz.”

“Bye, Max.”

She closed the door behind him, and when she did, that’s when she noticed that Jennifer was no longer snoring. Jennifer sat up in her bed and even in the dark, Liz could feel her stare. “Who was that?” she said loudly. She flicked the switch on the lamp that was on her night table, and the room was filled with an unfamiliar glow. Jennifer never used that lamp, and it looked as if it hadn’t been touched since she unpacked it in August.

“Shh,” Liz said, and she walked over to Jennifer’s side of the room to turn it back off. “I have a test tomorrow morning and I have to go to sleep.”

Jennifer stayed quiet while Liz changed and settled into her bed. “You know, he’s really cute, Liz.”

“Yeah, he is,” and that night Liz didn’t fall asleep worrying about the million things that had to do with school and her friends. She wasn’t making lists in her head of what she had to do the next morning or even trying to put together in her mind as many facts about Freud that Callaghan might test on. That night when Liz fell asleep, she was smiling because she was looking forward to seeing what flavor of coffee Max would bring her in only a few hours.

[DreamerLaure]

Author's Note Thanks everyone! It looks like you didn’t have any questions, so let’s just get on with the show

Chapter 8

Max came down the hallway of Harris Hall and stood outside of room 29 at seven thirty, half an hour before the psych test. He held a Styrofoam tray with two cups of coffee and a brown bag holding a croissant that fit easily into one of the pockets of the tray. Liz had croissants on Fridays, and he wanted her to have one today. She might only think of it as a treat for herself at the end of each week, but today he wanted to put her at ease.

He knew from sharing his mornings with her that she made deliberate efforts during the week to eat properly and not indulgently. But he thought she was perfect as is.

Max had been close to his sister Isabel and his mother as he was growing up and he knew that little insecurities tripped them up. He thought his mother was so beautiful, but over the years, especially the more recent ones, he noticed that she lingered before the mirror the mornings of her birthdays and wedding anniversaries, bemoaning the few gray hairs that lined her crown.

And Isabel was stunning, but fragile. Max and Isabel had been popular in high school and because of degrees of relation, the guys who were interested in her found it easy to relay their insecurities on him. They wanted one word of confidence or in some cases, one word against Isabel, so they could be as confident and aloof as she appeared to be.

Inside she was worried, scared and guarded, and all of that stemmed from who they were. She could play the part though of someone who was normal, and she had only encouraged him over the years to do the same.

Now that he had Liz in his life, she only became more beautiful in his eyes. The feelings that were starting now were unexpected and new. Max had only shied away from the girls in his high school; he hadn’t had a real relationship. He was “not human” and “another life form,” so what possibilities could he hold for any girl except disappointment and heartbreak. He always thought that one day he would have to walk away, so he kept himself distant and he rejected any interest anyone showed for him. The girls who walked away, their egos slightly deflated, didn’t realize at the time that in a small way, Max was doing them a huge favor.

Isabel had taken a similar route; she accepted that she was different, but then she also went after the full high school experience.

And on the cool desert morning in June that the three, Michael, Isabel and Max, had parted, she told him it was his life now.

“Find what you’re looking for, and don’t let it go,” she whispered as they hugged. She would be driving back home with him, but the goodbyes and the closure of this phase of their life together was making her sentimental to the point that she told Max every wish she had in her heart for him.

Max only nodded, and he felt her arms lose feeling when she was done pouring every ounce of love into the hug. She released him and went over to Michael, sinking into his arms. The three had never been separated, and knowing Michael, his moods and his inclinations, Max suspected it might be a long time before they would see him again.

Their family was breaking apart. There had been no alien destiny waiting to be uncovered, and there had been no contact. To Max, it had felt that during their years of awareness, their teen years, they had been waiting for it to happen. Michael wanted answers to every question so he could live his life. Without answers, he felt lost and knowing his history and what he was meant for would guide him. Isabel wanted to know so she could move on, and choose. She felt just as trapped between the two as Max did.

He wanted to know, but then he would change his mind. He didn’t want to know while his guidance counselor showed him shiny brochures that were brought out for the top students with the potential to succeed anywhere, and he didn’t want to know when he had dinner alone with his mother sometimes. During those dinners, he didn’t even want to be something else. It was the nights that Philip had extra work at the office or Isabel had a date that his Mom served dinner for and they sat and ate together. He loved her a lot, but it was like she was always waiting. She wanted him to tell her. He didn’t know how she knew he was holding something back from her, but she did and Max never spoke. It was a question left in the air, open and unanswered, and it was at those times that Max wished he were of this world.

Whenever something unusual happened to them, he wanted desperately to know. Life as they knew it was being interrupted every time something changed for them, but, then Max would find comfort with staying where he was. He wasn’t hugely popular because he was always quiet. He had to wait throughout high school to see if anything would happen, and it hadn’t. From the time they came out of their pods to now, nothing had happened: nothing spun out of control, and no one contacted them.

So, he listened to Isabel’s words, keeping them in his mind as he went to California then Chicago. And there, at Northwestern, in a small student-run café, he had seen Liz. She was the girl who captivated him in high school with her large brown eyes, small delicate hands, and petite body. She was perfect then and she was perfect here.

He had seen something in the curve of her lips as she smiled, the soft voice she used indoors, and the energy she threw into her work. There was something holding her back, something in her eyes. He’d seen it at the café the countless mornings when he sat just outside of her view, and he saw it over the past three weeks when they studied and hung out together. He suspected that it was as if she was trying to hide and be inconspicuous. He didn’t want her to because in his heart, she was becoming the most beautiful girl. He would always treasure his sister’s beauty. Even when she annoyed him, he could always look past it to see the goodness in her heart. And his mother would always hold a special place in his heart too.

Now, his heart hummed with anticipation as he stood outside of her door; he was about to share a morning with her. And if all went well, if he said the right words at the right moment, looked at her the way she wanted him to when she needed him to, maybe they could share an entire day together.

He wanted to be her friend right now and just get to know her, but he couldn’t decide if it was a hint of sadness or uncertainty in her eyes. He wanted to find out and that was what he was thinking when she opened the door, rosy and rested. She had spent the morning sleeping in, and it showed. She wasn’t as exhausted like some of the mornings he saw her at the café. Max knew from being around her that she poured all of her energy into her schoolwork. He had never seen her reading anything other than a textbook at the café, and during the year, the few times he had seen her around campus, she was always walking hurriedly, three or four textbooks tucked under the crook of her arm.

The night before, he had offered to bring her coffee so she could sleep an extra hour. She was holding a blow dryer in her hand when she opened the door and she looked surprised when she saw Max standing before her. He hadn’t knocked and she hadn’t known what time he was coming, but she recovered from the good surprise of seeing him with coffee in his hands saying, “Hey, Max.”

“Hi,” he said.

Her hair was warm against his cheek when she hugged him and he breathed in her subtle scent of lilac. He could tell she had just blow-dried her hair, and it took a lot of effort to not reach out to touch it. He was careful though not to spill the tray as they hugged and she was careful not to press the hot tip of the blow dryer against any part of him that could be burned by the heat of it. When they broke apart, she realized she was getting addicted to his hugs already. It wasn’t a good sign, but she didn’t want to analyze right now. They were only friends so far, and it was just starting…she could always stop when she wasn’t …

“Oh, is that French Vanilla coffee?” she asked, her eyes snapping to the coffee in his hands. The smell was filling the air, and she licked her lips in anticipation of the sweet flavor.

He smiled when he heard the delight in her voice, “Yes, it’s French Vanilla. Margaret said you liked it.”

“I do,” she said smiling. Then her eyes wandered to the brown bag on the tray. “What’s that?”

“Breakfast,” he replied.

She frowned, “I don’t really have breakfast a lot, but I am looking forward to the coffee,” she added. Was that disappointment, she wondered when he broke eye contact. He couldn’t have known that I don’t eat breakfast, but it was nice that he thought of me.

She added, “Thank you.” Then she tore her eyes away from the coffee and the food to the blow dryer she was holding. She felt awkward because it was still in her hands and she explained, “I was just about to give this back, but I didn’t realize it was so late.”

“It’s not late; we’ll be on time,” he said, and she nodded. This was just a test, one she was more than ready for and one for which she would not be going into worn out. Sometimes she over studied, but for this test, it had been the perfect balance. She had laughed with Max yesterday, studied with him, and at the end of the night, she settled into her bed for a nice stretch of more than six hours of sleep.

That morning she didn’t enter the bathroom while it was empty; there were seven other girls from her dorm in there when she got in, and she felt it: she felt the true dorm experience. She had found it hard to make friends before, but now she opened herself up. As they talked and laughed, the other girls realized that Jennifer’s rumors about Liz were unfounded; she was nice. And that’s how she ended up with the blow dryer too. During the back and forth, Liz mentioned that hers was broken, and one of the girls hopped up and got her blow-dryer from out of her shower caddy.

“I was really hoping that it was yours,” he said smiling.

“No,” she smiled and holding up the hot pink Hello Kitty blow dryer, “this is definitely not mine. I can give it back to her later, though,” she said, and she placed it down on the dresser. Turning back to Max, she eyed the coffee and the bag and said, “We can have some before class.”

“Sure,” Max smiled, and he put down the tray on her desk. He took off his jacket and swung it over the back of one of the chairs. While he was doing that, she was getting Jennifer’s computer chair so she could sit on it, and while he wasn’t looking, she shoved a sweatshirt that had been left out of the closet for over two weeks onto the floor. She cleared her throat when the sweatshirt landed softly, and she had a smile on her face when she was sitting before him seconds later. He didn’t notice at all, and Liz was proud that she had managed to make the room presentable. She had started cleaning up before he came, slipping in tidying up Jennifer’s side into her morning routine, and the room ending up looking habitable.

They were on opposite sides of her computer desk, the tray between them, and Liz reached for the napkins and spread them out. He put her coffee cup on her side of the desk, and he took his out too. Then she reached for the brown bag, her curiosity got the better of her and her hunger, so she tugged at it’s opening to see what was inside.

“A croissant?” she asked, her eyes lighting up.

“I thought you’d like it,” he smiled. He was thinking he had done really well. And Liz was thinking that he had a knack for knowing how to make her happy. It was comforting.

[DreamerLaure]

AN Thanks everyone for reading. I think I might try Sundays with an occasional Thursday slipped in. I have exams coming up and I know that if I don't stick to a schedule, things will get even crazier I made this part a little longer...I hope you guys don't mind....OH, who am I kidding, you guys love it as much as I do

clueless Thanks! Your feedback is terrif
Natalie36 Aw, yeah he is
LoveisForever Thank you! I hope that is a really good thing!
Timelord31 Thank you!
Flamehair Alex and Liz, huh? *whistles* That's going to be explained later, but Alex and Isabel haven't met yet, or at least re-met. By the way, congratulations! I'm waving to little Ember
L-J-L 76 Thanks!
Begonia9508 Lol, wasn't enough, huh? And yup, he sure is a nice guy.
Alizaleven Thanks! A cute update *aw* thanks
Alien614Lol, yeah so they think. Thanks!
ken_r Very interesting! Thank you - I'm feeling better now
Dreamer<3 Thanks Lol, don't worry about the comp prob's. I need a new one too.
Stars in My Eyes Thanks! By the way, I love your siggy, wonderful quote
Dreamon Wow, okay Thanks for delurking, and I'm very complimented that you did stop by then. Thank you!

Chapter 9

It’s his eyes, she decided. Simply Irresistible was playing, the half-eaten popcorn was in the bowl that was between them, and the common room was empty. She invited him over earlier to come watch movies with her and a few of the other girls from her dorm. Liz was surprised at how open the other girls were to her now. Maybe they just needed to warm up to her and her personality, but over the past few weeks, Liz had become a fixture in their lives. She saw them around campus now and instead of overlooking her because her arms were weighed down by more than one textbook or misinterpreting her silence as a product of conceit, they tried getting to know her. They played Taboo on Wednesday nights in the common room together, they borrowed her boots and her skirts because they admired her style, and she couldn’t go across campus without being waved to or stopped by a friend.

“I’m going to go too,” Nicole yawned. She was one of the girls Liz befriended recently. She was sitting behind Liz and Max on the couch, or rather reclining. “I’m falling asleep here; you two are machines,” she joked. She sat up and stood, but before she left, she tousled Liz’s hair.

Liz looked up from where she was on the floor and she said, “Good night, Nicole.”

“Night,” Nicole said. She lingered by the door to the hallway and looking back, she said in a sickeningly sweet voice, “Good night, Max.”

Max tore his eyes away from the TV screen and smiled, “Good night, Nicole. Nice hanging out with you.”

“You bet,” Nicole said smiling, and when Max wasn’t looking and only Liz was looking her way, she mouthed a few words to her and did a familiar motion with her hands that Liz had seen too much recently. She blushed and turned her head down, away from Nicole, but she did hear Nicole sigh as she walked away.

“Liz, you okay?”

“Um,” Liz looked up at Max, and of course the feeling hit her again, and for all times for it to do it, this wasn’t the right time; not when he was expecting her to say something. She was staring at him, her mouth wide open, completely incoherent, until she finally recovered a few seconds later with, “I’m fine, I’m perfectly okay.”

“Oh, okay then. I thought you might be tired.”

She smiled, “No way,” she planted her elbows into the rug and put her chin in her hands, “I said I was going to finish this one, so I’m going to do it.”

He smiled, “Right, if you say so.” She looked up at him with a warning in his eyes, but he dropped the sarcasm by laughing at her expression. “I don’t know though; thirteen romantic comedies do have a lot of sap. Are you sure you aren’t getting tired of it?”

“Me? No way, these movies were made for me; it’s you I’m worried about.”

“Oh come on. I’m doing good.”

Liz put her hand down flat on the floor and sat upright to look around the room properly. It was true, she realized. He had done well with this marathon. Everyone else had left, and it was just the two of them left.

The girls on the third floor decided it would be fun to have a marathon of romantic comedies. They rented twenty movies from Blockbuster, lined them up in alphabetical order, and everyone was supposed to go from the top of the alphabet. A team could take a movie out and watch it in a different room or they could stay in the common room with other teams and watch them together. The first option worked when one team was behind or ahead of everyone else.

The goal was for each team to have five movies left by the end of the three days. It was a test of stamina and capacity; how many jokes could you predict, which happy endings could you call, which guy or girl would be the first to run away, or better yet, give in? Those were all typical questions, but Liz had to admit her skills with it were getting sharper from just doing the marathon. Of course, the marathon was expected to go down without a hitch for all of the girls, but to make it more complicated and interesting, Nicole had proposed a twist. Nicole, who roomed three doors down from her, had suggested that they invite guys along too.

“It would be so much fun, and it’d just add another level,” she had explained. They were having a meeting with everyone on the floor in the common room. Harris Hall had eight floors, but each floor was like its own neighborhood. Liz had felt completely at ease at the meeting because at least now she knew more people than just Jennifer. Jennifer was sitting in the back with a pair of sunglass shades on, obviously trying to cover up a night out, and Liz was keeping her distance from her as much as possible. Things between the two girls weren’t getting easier or more difficult; instead, they avoided each other as much as possible, each one trying not to be in the room at the same time as the other. They hardly got along and Jennifer had taken what appeared to be a permanent dislike to Liz and was sticking to it.

“Think about it? Guys are always complaining when we pick a romantic comedy that they know exactly what’s going to happen,” Nicole added, “Do you want to bet that they can’t pick out as much as they think is wrong with these movies? I bet they could come away from it liking a few.”

“That sounds great, but who would we invite? Should we invite one of the other dorms and make it an open night?” Claire, their residential advisor, asked.

“Maybe just our boyfriends,” one girl offered, and a couple of the girls around the room started nodding and calling out their approval of that idea.

Liz had looked down; she didn’t have a boyfriend yet. Was it easy to have one, because she had been trying so hard for the last week to get even closer to Max, but nothing had really happened. Nicole saw the flash of disappointment in Liz’s eyes and she called out, “Or we could just do guy friends,” and the response to that mirrored her first suggestion. It was so much easier to find a guy friend than to keep a boyfriend. Once that was settled, they went about picking out the movies.

The marathon had started at one two days before, but as the hours went by and the movie pile for each team dwindled, people started to lose steam. It was now nine thirty on the last day, and Max, Liz, Nicole and her guy friend Jake had only six movies left. Jake left early, saying even he couldn’t last any longer, and then Nicole had just called it a night. Only a few hours ago, there were thirteen other teams and groups of people doing the marathon, but three days was a lot to take. Now, it was only Max and Liz left.

“Yeah, you’re not doing too badly,” she said smiling. He shared the smile with her before he turned back to the movie. The clipboard that they used to tally the movies was in front of them and he picked up the pen and started adding to one of the pages.

“You’re really taking this seriously?” Liz asked.

“Yes,” he said. He got off his stomach and sat up beside her, “It’s kind of cool.”

“Didn’t Isabel feed you enough of these movies? I thought she would have given you tons of this stuff already.”

“Not really,” he started, and he turned his attention back to the clipboard.

She waited for him to elaborate, but he didn’t say anything else. He had been doing that a lot lately. Anytime Isabel or anything to do with Roswell came up he didn’t say as much. As well as she knew him, and they had done a lot together over the past three months, she had a growing feeling that there was something more, something else that he knew that she could, possibly, never understand. It hurt her, but she tried to let it go.

“So, what’s the verdict; how do you feel about ‘Simply Irresistible.’”

He smiled, “It’s good. I have to say I liked the kitchen scene.”’

“I would have died with embarrassment if that was me,” Liz said, blushing as she remembered the scene. “She ruined their dinner.”

“She made it better,” he insisted.

“By bringing all of those emotions to the surface, she made it better?” Liz asked, challenging his point a little. “I don’t see how that was better.” There was a part in the movie where Amanda used her new magic powers, accidentally, while she was cooking and the result was catastrophic for the people who ate her food. She had just fallen out with her love interest in the movie, everything that she was feeling while she was cooking, her disappointment and her heartache all went into the food. Then while the guests were eating, they were overwhelmed with the emotion each entrée carried because it infected them too. Liz knew that if something like that happened to her she would be embarrassed, but she felt like she couldn’t relate all the way. “Her powers made a mess of things, and it wasn’t a good thing that she made them feel that way.”

“She was, unintentionally, showing them things they didn’t know about themselves. She was making them face their true feelings, but it wasn’t like she could help it.”

“Max, she knew she had ‘powers’” Liz said frowning. “And maybe it was better for them to not feel that way.” Liz turned back to the TV screen and saw the credits were now rolling. “It’s finished anyway,” she told him, “So it doesn’t really matter.”

“I guess it doesn’t.”

“It’s just a movie,” she started to sit up and she asked him, “Are you up for one more?”

“Yeah, I am.”

He thought to himself, It’s just a movie.

* * * * *

Two weeks earlier

“Okay, that wasn’t too bad,” Max joked.

“Are you kidding me?” Liz retorted. She was frowning at him but not smiling around Max was hard to do so she fought back the smile that was just under the surface with her excuse: “That stack of books was too high. Borders discriminates.”

He nodded, pretending her theory had complete credibility and he asked her, “Against whom?”

“Short people,” she whined. She rubbed the top of her head again and ran her fingers through her hair before she sat down by him. “If they would only make all of the shelves five feet, and no more, and put all of the textbooks for the classes we tend to frequent nearer to the middle area,” she gestured to the space around her waist and chest, “then there wouldn’t be any problems.”

“And what kind of classes do short people tend to frequent?” he asked.

“Any class that doesn’t need a Spark Notes handheld, or a sports magazine,” she laughed.

Max smiled, but he pretended to be offended, “Are you referencing my library?”

She frowned, deep in thought, as she tried to reconstruct Max’s “library” in her mind. Granted his room was small, but he managed to put together a good bookshelf. It had the classics like Dickens and Voltaire’s works, and also some back issues of Spiderman and Sports Illustrated. She then looked back up at him and smiled, “Oh, are you referring to the unwrinkled 1998 Sports Illustrated Fall edition I’ve seen on your top shelf, which, also happens to be just out of reach?”

He smiled, “Well, I wouldn’t want anyone’s grubby hands getting on it.”

“Grubby hands?” she pouted.

He glanced sideways at her and he nodded, “Yes. You won’t believe it unless you see the disaster in progress, like the rec room after morning practice, but some of the men in my dorm are very messy.”

She laughed. “I’ll take your word. For a second, I thought you were going to say I was messy.”

“I didn’t say that.”

She frowned again, but started smiling when she saw him biting back a grin. “Oh, you’re going to regret you said that,” she promised, and she leaned in to tickle him, hard.

As usual though, he ended up on top of her, making her cheeks flushed with every effort she made to push him away and overpower him. She wriggled and writhed as laughter ripped through her, and the only thing she could do before he would make her surrender with the power his wandering fingers had over her waist and neck was to swat him with the nearest pillow she had.

She heard him sigh into the pillow as it made contact with his face and she giggled when he rolled over to be side to side with her. He was winded now. “Ouch.”

She laughed, “I’m sorry.”

He shifted so that he was looking at her face. Three weeks of spending time around Max had been fun, and he always found ways to make her smile everyday. She literally spent everyday around him, too. From psych class to breakfast at the café to where they were right now, laughing, he made her feel things. There were things that she felt happening to her when she was around him: she waited for his smile because without doubt, it could make the day go by quicker, and she waited for his soft ‘Hi’ or even just for him to hold her hand, protectively. He did that a lot too, she noticed.

Last October she didn’t feel any of this. With Alex, it had just happened; one minute he was her best friend and then they had transitioned into something more. The line hadn’t been a hurdle for them to go over together but something that had just taken place.

And here she was, a year later, at the precipice, ready to jump.

“Max,” she said.

* * * * *

“Max,” she said, as she sat back down. “Earth to Max!”

“What?” he stuttered, and the filmy bright color of the DVD she was holding snapped him back to the present. “Huh?”

“I asked if you would mind if we tried for Titanic.”

“Isn’t that three hours long?” he asked as he smiled.

Thoughtfully, Liz turned the cover over, “Actually, three hours and 14 minutes.”

“Okay,” he agreed. “Put it in.”

She did and then she came back to where he was sitting now, his back against the bottom part of the couch and she sat beside him. She was surprised when he opened up his arm and let her lean on his shoulder, and she smiled as she moved closer.

[DreamerLaure]

AN Thanks guys! Sorry this is brief, but you know I appreciate the feedback, right?

Oh, and stars, that's the longest I've ever gotten, and, ask and you shall receive.

Chapter 10

Max reached over her shoulder for the remote once the final credits scrolled up to the top of the screen and disappeared, When it was off, he settled back to sitting on the floor with his back against the couch.

Liz ducked her head when he reached over her and she put her head on his shoulder again when it was off. She’d been right there since one hour into the movie and though he hadn’t said anything when she did, she thought she saw him smile.

“So…” he said, his voice trailing off. He glanced down at her at the same time she looked up and she smiled, “Yeah, what are we going to do now?”

“It’s sufficient to say we’ve won,” she added.

“Yeah, I think we did.”

He had the clipboard that they were using to keep track of what they had seen to his left and he picked it up with his free arm, put it on his leg, and unscrewed the pen cap. Liz smiled when she realized he wasn’t moving, and she said, “I could have moved.”

“No,” he said, “It’s fine. Stay where you are,” and he smiled back at her.

He looked back at the clipboard right after, and she said in a small voice, “Okay.”

“How many stars?” he asked, oblivious to how much she had reacted to what he had said.

“Hmm, five, maybe.”

“Okay,” he filled in the stars on the sheet, and went on to the next question, “More romantic or comedy.”

“Romantic. I wouldn’t give it comedy at all.”

“Yeah,” he agreed, and he checked the box for that.

Throughout the movie, he had taken notes on the film for them, and the last hour was so gripping that both Max and Liz had kept their eyes glued to the screen. The sheet was complete then, and putting it back down on the floor, he put his hand on his knee, a few inches away from hers.

“What time is it?” Liz asked quietly; her voice sounded tired.

He raised his head, bringing his eyes away from her face, and he said, “Almost two thirty.”

“Two thirty,” she repeated, stifling a yawn.

He watched her, waiting for her to react, and she did, repeating it again, “Two thirty?”

“We don’t have class today; it’s Saturday,” he reminded her.

“Yeah, Saturday,” she smiled. She was looking down at the floor to where her right hand was twirling the fray of the carpet in between her fingertips. “I thought we...”

“Not today,” he smiled, and she sat upright, and looked at him, “Oh, yeah no class today.”

He nodded, and she blushed because she always seemed to be thinking of this or that, the scheduling in her life that gave her structure. “Sorry.”

“Think about it,” he continued, “You won’t have to take notes, make index cards, be ready with the answers when he calls on you; you don’t have to do any of that.”

“That’s true,” she laughed.

“One weekend of doing nothing sounds good, but promise me one thing,” she said, “No more movies for a while?”

He laughed, “We were doing so well.”

“We won,” she corrected him.

He laughed, “That’s true.”

“You put your heart into everything; I couldn’t have asked for a better partner.”

She blushed again, “You noticed, huh?”

“Yeah, I did,” he said. Then his eyes met hers, “But I think it’s great.”

She saw something brighten in his eyes when he admitted this and she peered into his eyes thoughtfully and decided she liked how they seemed to glow every time they looked back at her. It was his eyes that seemed to look past her smile, her face, and right at something deeper.

Max’s eyes locked with hers for a few seconds and she faintly registered that he was moving closer and that his hand was on her thigh. He wanted this, and as much as the doubts that had plagued him ever since he laid eyes on her, again, here on campus, still swam in his mind, it felt right.

She waited in anticipation for what she knew was coming, and she could see his lips finally making their way to hers.

A thought, unasked for, came to her mind and she interrupted when he was inches away, saying, “What are you doing later?”

She smiled when he pulled away from the kiss, and she even saw a glint of frustration in his eyes, but she didn’t take it back.

“Are you always planning?” he teased.

She smiled at him serenely, and he looked back at her thoughtfully.

“Spending the day with you,” he ventured hopefully.

“Yeah?” she nodded, “Where do you want to go?”

“Is noon late enough for you?”

“Noon’s perfect.”

“Then I know the perfect place.”

She said softly, “Okay.”

Then she inched closer to him and put her palm on his chest before she leaned in this time.

“What’s that?” he asked, suddenly, turning his head away from her.

“What?” she asked. She raised her eyebrows when he looked back at her, and he said, “I thought I heard something. Wait,” he grabbed her hand when she was about to move away, “Listen.”

She fell silent and she listened with him. “See? Nothing.”

“Liz,” he motioned to the glass doors behind the TV, and Liz stared at the quarterback who was standing outside of it tapping on the glass.

“Do you know him?” Max asked, frowning as he stood and went over to the door to open it up. He had his back to Liz when he let the quarterback in so he didn’t hear her reply.

Liz bit her lip and murmured, “Yes.”

His name was Jack, one of the fraternity secretaries and an all-star quarterback on the university's football team. Jennifer happened to have a thing for his friend, the fraternity president, and as much as some girls wouldn’t have minded opting to stay the night in a frat house, it might do more damage than good to their image.

He stepped into the common room, and he had his arm draped over Jennifer’s shoulder, helping her stand upright. Max held out his hand to steady Jennifer when Jack let go of her.

Jack, clearly annoyed that he had to bring her back, said irritated, “freshmen,” as if that one word was indication enough of why he was tired of helping out.

Liz knew that Brad, the frat president, Jennifer was currently lusting after had probably asked him to bring her back, and she was grateful someone had. She didn’t look like she was in a condition to have made it home on her own.

“Thanks,” Liz called out to his retreating back and the slam of the door prompted Jennifer to bring her hands to her ears and whine, “Ow, it’s so loud.”

Jennifer shrugged off Max’s grip on her wrist and wobbled over to the couch, on her own. She placed her hand on the back of it to steady herself. Liz winced when she did this; she was petulant even when she couldn’t handle herself.

She looked so dizzy and uncertain that Max and Liz left her where she was. It didn’t look as if there was much that either of them could do, but after a few seconds her moans lessened and Max touched Liz on the arm and led her to the door.

“I can help you get her upstairs,” Max offered.

“That’d be really nice,” she started, and she guiltily looked back over her shoulder at Jennifer, who was now rubbing her temples with her fingertips.

When she turned to face Max again, the words she didn’t want to say most of all came out anyway because it was the right thing to do, “But, you should probably go, Max.”

If he did stay, she wouldn’t go to sleep right away, and it was very likely she would find herself like she had been on the couch a few minutes ago, right about to kiss him.

He nodded, and for a brief second she thought he was going to leave right away. She would have regretted if he did because the only thing she had gotten addicted to more than his greetings were his goodbyes. She loved the time they spent together too but those openings and closings were unlike anything else she’d ever had.

And he might have regretted it too later, so he stepped closer to her, cupped her chin and kissed her lips softly. It looked as if she was finally getting her kiss, and she closed her eyes. She was pressing her lips into his when Jennifer yelped loudly, and a thud followed her cry as she fell onto the floor.

She didn’t look to see what had happened, right away, but she did feel him start to come out of the kiss. She opened her eyes lazily just as he broke it, “Bye,” he whispered.

“Bye,” she said back, her voice faltering as she watched him go to the front door. When the door closed, she heard Jennifer giggling and she walked over to the couch. She put her hands on her hips and stared at her roommate, “What’s so funny?”

Jennifer hiccupped, “The lights; they’re so tiny.”

She pointed to the light on the ceiling and she started counting them. Liz frowned, and instead of even responding to that, because what could she have said, she held her hand and pulled her off the floor.

Liz held her waist gingerly, and put her hand on her back for support. She helped Jennifer to the stairs, and they climbed them together. The faint whiff of vomit from her hair was getting to Liz but she kept on walking with her despite it.

She lead Jennifer up to their room one step at a time, and once inside, she guided Jennifer to the bed, and set her down carefully.

Liz threw back the comforters and Jennifer dropped onto the pillow, out like a light within seconds. She turned her so that she was on her stomach, in case she did decide to empty her stomach again, and she positioned a wastebasket there as well.

Liz rummaged through her dresser in the dark for a pair of pajama bottoms and a tank top. When she found something that looked somewhat similar to the soft pair that she liked best, she put it on her bed. She took off her socks, and shoes, and traded her jeans skirt and blue top for her sleep attire.

When Liz came back from the bathroom two minutes later, she didn’t notice the pulsing of her answering machine on her desk. Maybe if she had, she would have known that Alex had tried calling her that night only to get endless rings and no response.

Maybe she would have also known that he missed her calls; he hadn’t heard from her in a month, and if she had replied, she might have had a good excuse and it would have been logical to him.

But any reply from Liz at that point, since she had found something more than a friend in Max, would have been in her voice, her laugh, and any urgency she might have expressed to not extend the call. And it would also remind him of the one thing he wanted to ignore too: you can move on.