Author: Kippy
Kippy1932@aol.comRating: YTEEN
Disclaimer: I have no affiliation with the show, actors, writers, producers, network, or characters in Roswell. I only wish I did.
Summary: What would have happened if Liz hadn't gotten shot that day at the Crashdown?
Category: M/L
Author's Note: The story that started it all. This was my first attempt at fan fiction, the first of what would be a neverending series (Get in the Game, the Walls Come Crumbling Down, Walking Away, No Rhyme or Reason, Learning to Live Again, Choices, Gone ‘til November)
"Oh and Max Evans - is staring at you again," Maria DeLuca noted looking over at the tall, dark and mysterious sophomore staring at her best friend
Liz Parker from where he sat in his booth.
"No way, Maria that is so in your imagination," Liz glanced over at Max, who was sitting at a booth with his best friend, Michael Guerin, at the far end of the restaurant. He looked up at her and then quickly away.
"Max Evans?
This?" Liz pointed to her face, though she couldn't help but be flattered., "Uh-uh, no..." She shook her head, though she had clearly seen him staring at her. Again. He had this tendency to stare at her. All the time. It was something that her best friend had claimed to have noticed since third grade. It was the kind of thing best friends didn't just let go either. Liz seemed to brush the issue aside however and picked up a waiting order.
"And with those cheeks??" Maria laughed, holding Liz's face in her hands.
"And even if it were, I mean I'm going out with Kyle - and he's..." Liz sought to find the right way to describe the peculiar more than friends
relationship she had with the sheriffs son. "...Steady..and loyal...and he appreciates me."
"Sounds like you're talking about a poodle," Maria said disgustedly as she picked up an awaiting order and walked out into the dining area. The two girls, donned in thematic Crashdown Cafe attire delivered their orders and stopped in the middle of the room in front of a table, looking around at the contented customers. Liz bit her lip and suddenly glanced over at Max.
"Go for it, Liz - God what more could you want? Tall, dark, hadsome, mysterious..obsessed. Liz, he just stares at you."
"Maria, I'm going out with Kyle," Liz repeated and again Maria rolled her eyes.
"He finished his Coke, go refill it, go-" Maria pushed her friend towards the table occupied by Max and Michael. Liz stumbled forward and, a bit flustered, ended up in front of Max's table. Max looked up at her, the way he always did and Liz smiled shyly.
"Um, another Coke?" She questioned innocently.
"Sure," Max smiled slightly and Liz glanced down at the table with the emptied Tabasco bottles.
"More Tabasco?" she suggested.
"No," Michael suddenly snapped from across the table. A bit surprised at the harshness, Liz just nodded her head and stepped backwards. Max's smile quickly left as he looked over at Michael's face. Maria awaited hopefully behind the counter.
"So?" she asked impatiently as Liz headed to the soda machine.
"I'm getting him a Coke," Liz said simply and Maria looked as if she was awaiting more news.
"And???"
"And...what - nothing. I mean -" Liz dismissed her over eager friend. But as Maria turned around to pick up another order Liz caught herself looking at Max. Suddenly both boys got up from the table, Michael first and then a bit unwillingly it seemed, Max. Michael whispered something angrily into Max's ear and walked quickly out the door, dropping a few cents change onto the table for tip. Max glanced quietly at Liz, left a couple dollars and followed after. Maria grabbed a small stack of menus and clapped Liz over the head with them from behind.
"You blew it!"
"Ow," Liz held her hand to her head, "what? Maria - I did not blow it, there's nothing to blow!"
"Okay, wouldn't repeat that sentence again," Maria laughed as Liz said the last sentence a bit too loud. "If it's about Kyle, I swear LIz - come on...are you telling me you feel absolutely nothing when you look at Max Evans? Don't think I don't see you staring at him. You stare at him as much as he stares at you."
Liz blushed and walked over to clear the table that had been occupied by Max and Michael.
"Kyle is...he's not for you, Liz - " Maria persisted and Liz just looked at her as she stopped wiping the table. "You're this straight, like valedictorian type and Kyle's just - he went out with Darcy McTiernan last year - that is so like a step down from you."
"Maria - Kyle's nice..." Liz defended honestly.
"Yeah he's nice..but he's not you Liz. Last year he dragged Darcy to all those baseball games? Do you remember Liz? And before that it was basketball and wrestling and football - Liz do you want that to be you? Do you want to be dragged to wrestling meets your entire high school career? Have you ever been to a wrestling meet?" Maria had a disturbed look on her face, obviously having been to one herself. "Kyle's nice, yeah he appreciates you - but I mean he's so...blah. Fun for a coupla fays, I could see - but..." Maria glanced down at the table, "God - what's with these guys and Tabasco?"
Michael Guerin sped down the empty highway in the rusting jeep that legally belonged to Max Evans. Max sat quietly in the passenger side and just took in everything Michael said to him.
"Too long I've put up with this, Max! Too long!" Michael said in typical Michael tone, seeming as if it were the most important matter on the earth.
"You looking at her like that - and what was that with the Tabasco? She's getting suspicious, I knew it. You keep looking at her and it's making her suspicious."
"Would you relax, Michael..." Max laughed as he stared out the window at the vast New Mexico desert and the wind whipped at his face, "she's not suspicious of anything. She has no reason to be. She's just my lab partner."
"Yeah. And that's all she'll ever be."
~~~~~
Liz glanced around the biology classroom, looking for her lab partner as she carried the mciroscope over to the lab table she shared with Max Evans. Max was normally punctual, sitting at the table with his book open when the bell rang. Today Liz sat at the table alone as the teacher explained the aim and purpose of the laboratory experiment they would be conducting for the next 45 minutes. Dismissing the issue, she took out her pencil and began to take notes.
"Ah Mr. Evans, so nice of you to join us," Ms. Springman announced as Max quickly entered through the door and took his seat next to Liz. He began taking out his books and organizing himself when his head quickly shot up as he heard the teachers words. "The partner on the right will take a sample from their cheek, and -"
"Can I get a bathroom pass?" He immediately stood up, thinking quickly. Liz looked at him a bit curiously - he had asked for a bathroom pass with such urgency and importance. Whatever. She dismissed.
Ms. Springman handed him the wooden pass with a telling look. "High Maintenance today, aren't we?"
Max took the pass and exited as quickly as he'd come. You're completely overanalyzing, keep thinking like this and you'll prove Maria right. She
scolded herself as she scraped some of her own cheek cell and continued with the lab. There was something about being lab partners with someone. Like it was some sort of unspoken rule that you had to be awkward around one another, not knowing what to say and the things you do a strained attempt at conversation.
"Is the cell stain over by you?" Liz asked upon Max's return. They'd been working for the past fifteen minutes in silence. Max looked to his
right.
"No, it's not over here," he shrugged, continuing with his work.
"Well..." Liz said quietly, "we need it...for the onion cells."
"I'll go get it," Max stepped up and walked across the classroom. Liz sighed loudly as she looked down at the nearly completed lab. Max did stare at her, but every time she attempted to talk to him, he seemed like he didn't want to. Like her talking to him was a nuisance.
"There..." Max plopped two dark brown bottles onto the table, "I didn't know which one to bring - so I brought both."
"Yeah, she said it in the beginning of class..." Liz made a subtle reference to the fact that he was late. "It's the iodine stain," she picked up the smaller bottle and Max just nodded his head.
"Oh.." Max mumbled looking back down to his paper and not into Liz's brown eyes.
"Oh no!" Liz quickly put down the iodine bottle and looked down at her hands. There was reddish-brown stain all over them. "This isn't going to come out," she moaned, though she ran her hands underneath the water anyway. Max looked over at her and her distraught face thinking how much more he liked it when it was smiling.
"Try using some soap," Max suggested handing the container of soap to her, while at the same time discreetly moving his hand over hers.
"No, it's not going to work." Liz continued to scrub however and she looked down at her hands through the suds. The stain had vanished. "It did.." she mumbled a bit confused but happy. A smile played on her lips, obviously contented and Max just smiled.
Maria unwrapped her lunch from her brown paper bag during the fifth period lunch she shared with Liz and their other best friend, Alex Whitman. Maria's lunches were always so exciting compared to Liz - new and interesting foods. Today it was a portabello mushroom sandwich with sun dried tomatoes and a mesclun salad on the side. Liz pulled out her peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
"It's not fun to eat lunch with you anymore," Liz pushed her bag away laughing as she looked at her friend.
"What? blame it on my mother - I can't help it.." Liz just laughed as her friend took a bite of the sandwich.
"Maria you say to blame everything on your mother."
"Well being that she's the only other person I live with - it tends to rub off on me." Liz laughed again and as she looked up to Maria and began
talking she saw Max, Michael and his sister Isabelle heading out the door. Max was looking at her of course. Liz stopped talking midsentence and Maria turned around only to see Max's back.
"It's an unspoken love," Maria proclaimed but Liz didn't seem to hear what she said. She just looked out the window as the three jumped into Max's rickety old jeep and drove off to who knows where.
"Yes, that's what it is," Maria decided to herself.
"That's what what is?" Liz suddenly came back to reality.
"You and Max," Maria stated simply.
"Me and Max - are nothing. Would you quit it with this Maria," Liz finally stated a bit angrily.
"Liz, I have to live vicariously through you because I don't have a tall, dark, handsome guy brooding over me."
"What are we talking about? Whose brooding?" Alex suddenly interjected as he stepped off the lunch line and sat down next to Liz.
"Liz's not so secret admirer," Maria filled in Alex.
"Who? Kyle?" Alex made an intelligent guess and Maria just shook her head as she took a sip of her green tea.
"Ooooh - so an actual, unknown, yet not-secret? Wait - what?" Alex suddenly stopped his attempt at a train of thought.
"Max Evans," Maria helped him out and Liz gave her a look.
"Ah Max Evans. I talked to him once, we hung out," Alex played it cool, nodding his head.
"When did you hang out with Max?" Maria asked incredulously.
"Fifth grade field trip to the museum over in Hagerman." Both Maria and Liz smiled and rolled their eyes at Alex's response, "We wanted to see the dinosaurs and not the native American exhibit. So we ah - we left the group," He nodded his head like it was a huge deal.
"You left the group? What rebels.." Maria raised her eyebrows.
"Quiet kid, even when he was eight...so wait - he has a crush on Liz?" Maria nodded her head and Liz stepped into the conversation before it elevated into anything else.
"No, Alex - he doesn't. You know Maria, overactive imagination. Always - "
"I did see him staring at you in health class last year," Alex noted and Liz just rolled her eyes.
"You see what you've done, Maria?" she glared at her friend, "look I don't even know Max Evans? The only conversations I have with him are on - the digestive system of an earthworm, I mean -"
"- Liz he's infatuated with you," Maria reasoned and before Liz could say another word Alex opened his mouth.
"I don't know I think he's kinda weird." Both girls looked at him curiously. "It's not like he has a lot of friends - the only people he does hang out with are his sister and that kid Michael? Which by the way, is he even enrolled in our school anymore?"
"Max is quiet, it doesn't mean he's weird," Liz suddenly defended and Maria raised her eyebrows.
"Defending his honor?"
"I'm not defending his - I'm not gonna let you make fun of him."
"I'm not making fun of him, I just said he was weird."
~~~~
"I think Liz is weird anyway, if you ask me," Michael dismissed as he sat in Max's room and tossed a plush basketball against the ceiling. Max
laughed at the comment and just shook his head.
"Liz isn't weird, Michael. She's smart but-"
"She hangs out with that Maria chick, right? And she's weird." Max just shook his head. Isabelle suddenly ran through the hallway and both Michael
and Max took a double take as they looked at her attire.
"Iz?" Max called, "Iz why are you dressed like that?" Isabelle stepped into her brothers room.
"I have a date tonight - you two should try it," she looked to the two boys planning on sitting in Max's room on Friday night.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Michael got up from where he was laying on the bed.
"Michael it was a joke," Isabelle rolled her eyes, "I just hear things an' I bet there's a lot of girls who'd like to go out with both of you."
"Makes no difference," Michael grumbled, throwing the basketball towards the ceiling again as he lay sprawled on Max's bed.
"Why don't you at least try to have fun for once in your life, Michael?" Isabelle suddenly flung up her arms, "God make another friend besides each other -"
"So what - you're saying we can get involved now? We can go out with anyone, not have to worry - that we can trust people?" Michael attacked
Isabelle, blowing a simple date out of proportion. Isabelle looked at Michael a bit hurt by his sudden attack and then glanced at her brother who had been quiet the entire discussion.
"Who're you going out with anyway? and where're you going?" Max finally asked protectively.
"Ben Straley," Isabelle said quietly, "and we're just going to the Crash."
"Ben Straley?" Max looked over at her, "he's one of Kyle's friends, right?" Isabelle nodded her head and Max seemed to get a look in his eye. "I want to tell Liz."
"Funny Max," Michael was the first one to break the silence. Max just looked at him with a look that had no shred of joking in it. "Are you out of your mind?"
"Michael, I know what you think - but she'd okay with it...I know she would." Max stood up from his chair.
"You don't know it," Michael glared at him, "you don't know her, Maxwell, as much as you'd like to believe you do." He stood to stand face-to-face with his best friend. Max grabbed his brown leather jacket from his bed and walked towards the door. "Where're you going?" Michael asked annoyed, starting to follow Max out the door.
"Out."
You're just here for some Space Fries. Max thought to himself as he sat in a booth at the Crashdown. The booth he, Max and Isabelle always sat in. From that booth he could always see Liz behind the counter. She stepped out from behind the doors in the kitchen and his breath caught. Space Fries. He thought again, that's all. He looked down at the menu quickly. He knew he couldn't tell Liz. No matter how he thought she'd react, it wouldn't be fair to Michael or Isabelle. He'd kept quiet since the third grade, what was three more years of high school? Suddenly he heard Liz's voice. Torture
"Can I get you something?" she asked sweetly standing beside the booth. Max tried not to gaze at her but he knew it wasn't working. He couldn't help it, he couldn't take his eyes off her. "Max?"
"Space Fries," he said quickly, glancing down at the menu. "I'll just have an order of Space Fries."
"And to drink?" she scribbled the words onto her order pad.
"Cherry Coke.." he looked at the empty booth across from him trying not even to look at Liz in his peripheral vision. It was impossible. When he closed his eyes he saw her, when he went to sleep at night he dreamed about her.
"Okay, Space Fries and a Cherry Cola - I'll get right on it.." Liz began to head back to the counter.
"Hey Liz!" Max suddenly called, his voice had a tone to it Liz had never heard from the shy lab partner she knew.
"Yeah?" she turned back around to face him. He has incredibly soulful eyes she thought to herself as she stared into his chocolate brown eyes. How does he not have a girlfriend? her mind drifted off. Stop - you're going out with Kyle she brought herself back to reality.
"You want to go out sometime?" He couldn't even believe the words that werecoming out of his mouth. It was as if his brain wasn't connected to his mouth. His heart was. Liz paused for a moment, it felt like her heart had stopped beating. Max Evans was asking her out. Shy, quiet, brooding Max Evans. Max, who couldn't even ask to borrow her lab notes when he needed them, was asking her on a date. The room began to spin and a large heavyset man in one of the booths demanded his Tommy Lee Jones Bacon Basket. Liz hardly heard it. All she saw was Max. She'd hardly felt this way when Kyle had asked her out at the end of last year. Sure she'd been happy, to finally have a boyfriend. But the feeling she'd just gotten with Max ran deeper. Suddenly Kyle was the last thing on her mind.
"My shift ends in a couple minutes..." she looked over the clock on the wall then back over to Max. Max smiled. A smile she had never before known to see on Max Evans. "Okay..." she nearly whispered, backing up towards the counter.
"Miss! My Bacon Basket!" the heavyset man yelled and suddenly the room was no longer just Max. It stopped spinning, and Liz's feet landed back on the ground. Suddenly aware that there were other customers demanding their food.
"I'm right on it," she walked back into the kitchen and felt her face go red. Of all the days for Maria not to work - it's tonight. She thought to herself. She was going on a date with Max Evans in three minutes. She had to talk to Maria. Liz looked back out into the room. Max was still sitting alone at his booth and her mind got sidetracked again. She filled up a Cherry Cola quickly and brought it back over to him.
"Here you go, Cherry Cola..." Liz plopped the glass down in front of him and he looked up towards her. All he could think about was how badly he wanted to kiss her and his eyes drifted towards her lips.
"Ma'am there are other customers here besides him, y'know??" The outspoken heavyset man suddenly cried. Max felt his face go red and Liz just stared back at him, thinking that at this moment there weren't. No other customers mattered. Max scratched his head with his hand.
"Better go," and Liz nodded her head returning to the kitchen. Three other Crashdown employees had entered through the back and were already donned in their thematic attire, tying their alien aprons on and fitting on their antennaes. Liz finished serving all the other orders and returned to Max.
"I'm just...gonna change," She motioned behind the counter and Max just nodded. None of this seemed real. He and Liz ready to go out on a date. The fact that he had asked her out on a date. Was this really him? He sipped his Cherry Coke and thought over his actions. Then Liz walked through the doors. She was wearing jeans, sandals and a red tanktop with a button down over it. What she normally wore. Nothing too fancy, nothing too extravagant. Just Liz. His Liz.
"Hey.." she called dryly, her voice almost seemed to crack.
"Where're we going?" Max thought about how long he had waited for this moment. This was really him. For once in his life he was acting on behalf of his heart, and not his head. Isabelle and Michael were the last things on his mind. He shrugged his shoulders and stepped out of the booth. He thought about taking her hand in his, but decided not to. He'd wait for that. For something to build up to. To be able to touch her. Soon.
Max didn't tell Michael or Isabelle about where he'd gone that night, what he'd done. Neither did Liz. As much as she'd wanted to tell Maria at first, she didn't. When she'd said goodnight to Max in front of the Crash that night something inside her just told her to keep quiet. Max hadn't told her to. He hadn't even hinted at it, but for some reason she did. Nothing had happened. Max didn't have anything to worry about. He hadn't told her anything, they hadn't done anything. Except for the first time in his life, for that one night, Max Evans felt normal.
Liz hardly stayed out as late as she had with Max that night and as she sat up on her balcony, scribbling in her journal she realized she'd been out with him all night. Usually when she went out with Kyle they went to a movie to the Crash and then straight home. But with Max she had just connected. She talked and laughed with him like she had known him her entire life. They hadn't gone anywhere or done anything, nothing to remain secretive about. They'd walked around the streets of Roswell for three hours. They walked around the same blocks over and over until suddenly they realized there was no one else on the street but them. And he hadn't done anything, he hadn't tried to. Only the stare that Liz had grown so accustomed to seeing from afar she now saw head on. And she found it hard not to stare back. She looked down at her journal entry, tempted to write more but somehow not able to put any of the things that she felt into words. Putting her pen on the table beside her, she closed her journal, blew out the candles surrounding her and walked into her room.
Dear Journal,
It's September 23, I'm Liz Parker and I'm wondering just one thing and one thing only. Where has Max Evans been all my life?
Max went to the Crashdown Cafe only one time over the weekend. Saturday Night he, Michael and Isabelle had been sitting at their booth, they'd been interrogating Max over where he'd gone Friday night. He was in the midst of dismissing their fears, telling them he'd only been at the Crashdown, when Liz stepped up to the table.
"Can I get you guys anything?" she asked smiling and Max looked away. He couldn't look at her, one look and Michael and Isabelle would know. They'd know where he'd been, what he'd done. His head began to spin. What if last night had been a mistake? All of it just one big mistake.
"Max!" Isabelle called loudly to him from across the table, "earth to Max. You gonna order or not?" He turned his head slowly up to Liz. God, she's
beautiful he couldn't help but think. It hadn't been a mistake, none of it.
"Space fries and a cherry coke," he mumbled, smiling only slightly. Liz smiled back and began reading the order back to them to double check it. Max looked across the room and noted at the table across from him Kyle Valenti and his friends. Kyle called Liz over, motioning with his hand and she seemed a bit reluctant to walk over to him. He pulled her onto his lap and they began talking and laughing. Max quickly turned his head. Both Michael and Isabelle looked over at him. Michael stood up and grabbed a bottle of tabasco from the neighboring table.
"Sherriffs son Maximilien. Don't get any ideas."
Liz didn't know how to act around Max in school now. She didn't know how to act around Kyle either. She and Max hadn't done anything, she continued to tell herself. We talked. That's all. There's nothing to be uncomfortable about. But she knew there was. She tried to tell herself no, and when she was with Kyle she just continued to lie to herself. But when she saw Max the feeling of that night crept back up on her. At first they'd talked about biology class, about Pam Troy and the people in the school that bothered them the most. They talked about small-town Roswell, why they liked it, why they didn't, the preponderancy of tourists in the town, how insane the summer was when they all came. Then he'd asked her if she actually believed in aliens. She shrugged her shoulders and had said it would be ignorant of her not to. He seemed to think about her response for awhile. When she'd turned the question on him he'd grown quiet. That was when the conversation began to stem from cafeteria food and their high school principal.
She couldn't hide the way she felt about Max. He was so easy to talk to, so easy to trust. She'd told him things she hadn't told anyone else. And
there was something in his eyes that believed she could trust him. Maybe it was the was he looked at her, like she was the only thing that mattered. She'd find herself getting lost in his eyes during Biology as she gazed at him instead of the slides on the screen. The week passed and she and Max had hardly spoken again. She had things to tell him, things she wanted to say. Things she couldn't confide to to anybody else. The bell rang signalling the end of biology and as Max packed up his books and began to head out the door she grabbed his arm and turned him around.
"Max..." she called his name almost urgently and he just looked at her handholding onto his arm. She was touching him. "About last weekend..."
"Yeah," he mumbled, unsure of what she was going to say about it. He was ready to form an apology, ready to tell her he knew she was going out with Kyle and that nothing could happen.
"Maybe tonight...we could do it again."
PART V
His bookbag slung over his shoulder, Max walked out of West Roswell High School towards his home after school. On the basketball courts, Kyle Valenti and his friends were playing a pick-up game of basketball. He stared over at Kyle. He doesn't know how lucky he is. Max thought miserably. Kyle was yet another thing keeping him from being together with Liz, well along with the obvious. A human-alien relationship - yeah, like that could happen. He found himself just staring at the five boys playing basketball, wishing he could feel how he had with Liz last Friday all the time. He hadn't had to worry about the secret he, Michael, and Isabelle carried with them twenty-four hours a day when he was with Liz. He didn't have to worry about being Max the Alien when he was with her. He was simply Max. There had been a moment at the end when he was saying good-night and their faces had drifted too close together. The worry entered his mind again and he was the one who'd moved back. He had to.
"Evans!!" a voice sounded from across the courtyard and Max realized he must have been standing there for a good five minutes. He glanced around, seeing no one but Kyle and his buddies. He continued to walk but the voice continued, "Evans - come over here!" the voice called and he realized it was Kyle. Worry crossed his mind. Someone could have seen him with Liz last Friday. Kyle could have found out. Still Max found himself walking towards the basketball court. "Max man, wanna play?" Kyle asked a bit breathlessly and the guys on the court seemed to give him a look. Max Evans didn't play basketball, he didn't play any sport. He just hung out with his sister.
"Dude, what're you doing?" the one with the blonde buzz cut poked Kyle in the ribs and Kyle ignored him.
"We got an odd number of players, want in?" Max was still a bit suspicious. Kyle never talked to him, neither did any of his friends. He glanced down at his watch and dropped his bookbag to the ground.
"Sure."
Mrs. Evans was, needless to say, a bit surprised when her son walked through the door at five thirty, hot and sweaty, his t-shirt soaked with sweat. "Max honey, where've you been?" she inquired, pouring him a glass of ice water. She'd never once known Max to come late from school. In fact it actually worried her a bit. Yes, mothers see their children through rose-colored glasses but Max was a good-looking boy. Yet she'd never seen him go out on a weekend or on any other day with anyone but his sister or Michael Guerin. He was so quiet and always kept to himself. He wasn't like Isabelle. Isabelle had other friends, she'd gone out with boys. Max was different. She dismissed the thought and handed him the water.
"I was playing basketball," he dismissed sitting down at the kitchen table.
"Basketball, with who?" his mother's ears perked up.
"Kyle Valenti and some of his friends." And his mothers face shone at the comment.
"Kyle Valenti, the sheriff’s boy? That's terrific. Max, I didn't know you were friends with him."
"Mom, I'm not..." Max was quick to say. He picked his bookbag back off of the floor, "they just needed an extra man is all."
"Well, you should try to make friends with them - Kyle's a nice boy," she called as Max headed to his room.
"He's lucky..." Max mumbled softly to himself. He'd been tempted to ask Kyle about Liz during the two hour basketball game, but he knew he couldn't. He shouldn't. Kyle's friend however, the tall one who'd been on his and Kyle's team, asked Kyle about him and Liz. At first Max had smiled, curious as to what Kyle would say. But then the talks turned. 'How far' had Kyle gotten, did Liz 'put-out'? Max all but blocked his ears, a bit disturbed by how they referred to Liz. Talking about her like she was just a thing. "You gonna bring her to Janine's party?" one had asked and Kyle had shrugged. He actually, Max noticed, didn't seem all that comfortable with the way the guys were talking either. He avoided their questions, talked his way around them. He wasn't the Kyle Valenti Max had thought he'd be. The Kyle Valenti who walked the halls of West Roswell like he was the king of the school. Max didn't know why Kyle had invited him to play. What had possessed him to. He found out that before Kyle had asked him to play he'd been losing big-time with high stakes on the line. Max Evans, who according to the four other boys with Kyle, couldn't play basketball - had helped him win. Kyle'd been surprised, the four boys had been surprised. Max would get the ball and drive straight to the hoop for a perfect layup.
"Alright - Max, my man!" Kyle would laugh, slapping Max five as they would jogback to line up on defense. "Evans - for three...it's good!!" he'd announce as the ball sailed perfectly through the net. Isabelle had walked by then. She'd taken a double-take to make sure it was really her brother, then given him a queer look and walked on.
"What were you doing playing basketball with Kyle Valenti?" Isabelle demanded completely dumbfounded by her brothers actions as she stood in the doorway of Max's room. Max didn't respond as he reached into his drawer and pulled out a black v-neck sweater. "What're you doing?" she suddenly asked as he pulled a clean shirt over his head followed by the v-neck.
"Isabelle, I'm changing - I just took a shower-"
"You're going out aren't you?" she interrupted, her voice was more angry than it was curious. Max didn't answer and he continued to grab a clean pair of socks from his dresser drawer.
"No..." Max denied, "I mean but what if I was Iz - you go out all the time." He finally addressed a matter that had been bothering him forever.
"Max I go out on dates with guys who I don't care about. Yeah, I like them and they’re nice - but if you're going out I know where you're going," she shook her head, almost seeming to scold him. "Or more importantly who you're going to see."
"There's no other place to go to eat other than the Crashdown," Max looked at his sister mischievously.
"Yeah, like you go there for the food," she rolled her eyes. "Max, I'm serious - you can't get involved with Liz. I mean you know that."
"What's wrong with being friends with her!" Max began to raise his voice.
"What's wrong with it - take a wild guess!" Isabelle said exasperatedly.
"I'm not going to tell her," he said honestly, lowering his voice and sitting down on the bed.
"Oh and what about that outburst last week?" she questioned the uncharacteristic action that she and Michael hadn't brought up much since last weekend.
"Look I know I can't tell her. Last week I was just...I don't know - frustrated."
"Max I know you like her," Isabelle finally softened up and sympathized with her brother, sitting down on the bed next to him. Like her was an understatement. He thought. "But..." Isabelle started to say and Max stood up before she could finish.
"Yeah, I know.." he grabbed his leather jacket from it's resting spot on the back of his chair and began to head out the door.
"Max-" Isabelle called to him before he left. He turned around to face her, "don't do anything you're gonna regret." She said warningly, and he left.
The Crashdown was packed to it's fullest capacity and as Max entered and saw all the screaming kids and the dozens of classmates he began to head backwards out the door. Crowds weren't his type of thing. Then he saw Liz. His mouth turned up at the corners a bit and he just stood by the door and waited. Most of the students in the Crash were giggling girls clad in West Roswell High apparel. A few of them kept shooting Max glances from their seats, but they went unreturned. His eyes remained on Liz. He noticed Maria working with Liz and wondered if Liz had told Maria anything about last Friday. After all she was her best friend.
"Hey Max," Liz suddenly called brightly as she stood before him, wiping her hands on a towel. Neither said anything and suddenly Liz pointed to the giant group of girls behind her. "It's the soccer team," she explained, "apparently we just won a really big game or something..." Max looked over Liz's shoulder to the hyperactive group of girls.
"Apparently," he smiled.
"Yeah so - I have to, give them their check..." she stuttered and Max just nodded his head. "They'll be out in a...I mean - they'll be..." she continued to stumble as the smile remained on his face.
"Take your time." He assured and Liz nodded her head.
"Okay...I mean - yeah I will." She quickly turned around and held her hand up toher forehead. Oh my God could I sound like a bigger idiot. Liz mumbled to herself as she walked towards the counter.
"Mmmmm - what was that about?" Maria suddenly joined Liz as she looked at Max and then back towards Liz.
"I was telling him that I was going to seat him soon..." Liz dismissed – at least that's what she had meant to say. Her tongue had gotten tied when he'd kept smiling at her.
"Mmm-hmm, then why are you blushing?" Liz looked at her friend trying to hide a smile.
"Your customers are getting upset," Liz handed Maria two plates and Maria just smiled widely and walked away. The field hockey team and their followers finally left and the Crashdown emptied out. Max walked over to his traditional booth and actually looked at the menu this time.
"Cherry Coke?" Liz came up beside him.
"Actually.." Max looked down the list of special beverages unique to the Crashdown, "I thought I'd try..a uh..." he continued to look down at the menu, knowing that her eyes were on him. "An alien encounter."
"The milkshake machine's broken," Liz pointed with her pencil behind the counter. "Sorry.." she smiled the smile that drove Max insane.
"Cherry Coke," he laughed, dropping the menu down to the table.
"Too predictable," she didn't even bother to write it down, "space fries?"
"Well I was looking to branch out a bit," Max shrugged, "you have any suggestions?" he picked up the menu again and she opened it for him.
"The pies are really good, Maria's mom makes them - " she showed him the desert section on the Crashdown menu. Max raised his eyebrows as he looked over the selection. From her spot behind the counter Maria looked over at Liz and Max. They were both laughing and smiling as she pointed to things on the menu. She eventually sat down across from him and untied the alien apron from around her waist, wadding it up and throwing it on the seat next to her. They continued to talk, Max looking as shy and quiet as ever, but every now and then she saw the makings of a smile form on his mouth. Liz's shift didn't end for another half hour but Maria just smiled.
A party of ten had entered the Cafe and, a bit reluctantly, Liz had had to put her apron back on and finish her shift. Maria had insisted on working alone but with Agnes out on one of her eternal breaks Liz couldn't leave Maria alone to attend to the entire room. She was returning to Max's booth, smiling widely when Kyle and a group of his friends walked through the door.
"Oh - hi Kyle!" Liz suddenly called, caught off guard. She stopped in her tracks, walking no further towards Max.
"Hey Liz," Kyle called casually as he strode over to a table. "There's Max, my man.." Kyle glanced over towards Max, slapping him on the back. Max seemed a bit uncomfortable to be in the presence of both Kyle and Liz. Kyle threw a twenty dollar bill onto the table in front of Max.
"What's this?" Max was a bit confused as he picked up the bill.
"That's from today’s game - I was just tellin' the guys about it," Kyle sat down at a table right next to Max's. "You should try out for the team next month Evans..." Kyle suggested good-naturedly and Max just laughed and shook his head. Liz listened to all this with open ears.
"Wait, what - what game?" she was a bit confused.
"Nothin' just a game after school," Kyle dismissed the matter. "So Liz, when do you get off?" he asked.
"Ummm...not for - not for another hour," Liz lied, her shift had ended exactly three minutes ago. Maria silently listened to all this from behind her friend.
"Oh really," Kyle chewed his gum thoughtfully, "I thought you said you got off at nine." He just shrugged casually, not seeming to be bothered by it, "oh well - you have any plans tonight?" Liz looked over to Max, he glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
"Umm...well-" Liz stumbled, and as much as she didn't want them to her eyes rested on Max. She'd wanted to talk to him for longer than they had. She saw Max pull a ten dollar bill from his wallet and place it onto the counter. Her heart sank when she realized he was leaving. He got up from the booth and dropped the twenty dollar bill in front of Kyle. Kyle laughed at the gesture. He had known Max wouldn't have taken the money. He was one of those good natured types who didn't gamble and didn't bet - but man, could he play basketball.
"See ya Max," he called, and as Liz watched Max - a bit disappointedly - walk out the door, she sat down with Kyle.
The lyrics of Wayman Boone echoed through Max's head as he listened to his Splender cd while sprawled out on his bed. *There's a lot of things I understand. And there's a lot of things that I don't want to know. But you're the only face I recognize. And it's so damn sweet of you to look me in the eye.* And Isabelle saidhe only listened to the Counting Crows when he was upset. He didn't even know what he was upset about. Liz, Kyle, Isabelle, Michael, his mother - or all of them. It was when Kyle walked into the Crash that night that Max had begun to think. It was harder to dislike Kyle now that he'd been so friendly towards him. And why had Kyle been so nice to him? he'd never before uttered a word to him.
He ran his hands through his hair as he thought about Isabelle and Michael. How Isabelle was able to make other friends and go out with guys, but the one person in the world he wanted he couldn't be with. Then he thought of Michael. Michael who would kill him if he found out that he'd even spoken to Liz. His mother, always urging him to become more involved. Well he had, he'd asked a girl out and played basketball with Kyle Valenti and look where it had gotten him. In trouble with his sister and his best friend. He just held his head in his hands as the thoughts whirled around his head and the music echoed throughout the room. Why had he even approached Liz in the first place? What had he been thinking? Max just lay on his bed and thought over the day's events. As much as Kyle's friends bothered Max, Kyle wasn't that bad. In fact Kyle was pretty nice. Liz could certainly do worse. That feeling of normalcy that he'd felt with Liz last week had taken over him that afternoon with Kyle and even moreso that evening with Liz. He thought back to the two of them laughing and talking in the booth in the Crashdown. Max didn't know how to explain any of his actions. It'd felt so wrong, but it had felt so right.
*It's all right, I'm O.K. I think God can explain.
I'm relieved, I'm relaxed. I'll get over it yet.*
Listening to the lyrics, Max finally dropped his head onto his pillow and smiled.