Category : AU without Aliens.
Rating : Mature.
Pairing : M/L.
Disclaimer : I do not own Roswell nor the characters, those belong to Jason Katims, Melinda Metz, WB, and UPN.
Summary : With their marriage at risk, Max and Liz decide to go on vacation together... but what exactly led them there?
A/N : English isn't my first language and I don't have a beta, so if anyone notices any error, you can tell me!
Chapter One
Present
Liz pushed the door open from her hotel room and sighed in relief when she didn’t see Max.
This weekend was supposed to be about them, about how they could fix their marriage, but obviously, so far, it wasn’t working at all.
They both had needed some time to process the news that they had learned in the last couple of months, and it had complicated things a lot for their couple, but she couldn’t - wouldn’t - believe that this was the end.
They had to work through this.
They simply had to.
*
Past
“Please, chica, stop crying…”
Liz took another tissue and wiped at her tears while she looked at her best friend. The two of them were sitting alone in the CrashDown café. They had closed only a couple of minutes ago and the brunette had finally processed the emotions of what she had learned today.
Around four o’clock this afternoon, Pam Troy came into the café and made her way toward Liz as she was serving a Will Smith burger and Roswell roast beef sandwich to a table.
She avoided the blonde girl as she finished serving her customers before rolling her eyes and walking toward the counter.
“What do you want, Pam?”
“Just wanted to let you know that Kyle was cheating on you.”
Liz stopped in her tracks as she was about to wipe down the counter and turned around to watch the other girl, frowning.
“What are you talking about?”
Pam smirked. “Oh, please, Liz, everyone knows but you. The new girl that came into school a couple of months ago? Vicky? He’s been doing her ever since the first day she came to Roswell.”
Liz felt tears welled in her eyes but refused to cry in front of the other girl. “Why should I believe you?”
Pam shrugged. “Just ask her, you’ll see.”
The young woman shook her head as she closed her eyes for a second. “And why would you decide to tell me?”
“Well, because I’m rooting for Vicky and Kyle, of course.” Pam laughed and turned around. “See ya, bitch.”
Liz blinked a couple of times, feeling her heart break. She took a deep breath and walked to the break room, where her best friend and coworker, Maria, was.
She had told her everything, and even though her best friend had said that she should go home and process her emotions, Liz had refused to cut her day short. She needed the money right now, and she wouldn’t let a man ruin that for her.
So she kept her emotions in check until closing time, when she had burst into tears and Maria had quickly hugged her.
“Kyle is not worth crying over…” She said.
“I-I-I know that, but I can’t…”
“I’ll tell you what. Go up to your room, I’ll close down, call Alex and we’ll join you with some chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream, okay?”
Liz only nodded as she walked defeated up to her place. Her parents weren’t home today and the young woman was grateful for it. Even though all she wanted was a hug from her father, she didn’t want to explain to them that Kyle didn’t love her as much as she did.
There were only a couple of weeks left of high school, and then she would be able to move to Massachusetts to go to university. Her heart skipped a beat as she thought about the fact that she didn’t want to go to prom anymore and fresh tears stained her cheeks. She had been looking forward to it, she had found the perfect dress and had booked the day to go to the hair salon and get her makeup done… well, she could cancel those now.
As she sat in her bed, she looked at the phone as rage overtook her and she quickly took the receiver before dialing Kyle’s number.
“I can’t believe you would do something like this!” She screamed into the phone when her boyfriend - well, ex, now - answered.
“Liz? What are you talking-”
“Don’t lie to me, Kyle, I know you’ve been cheating on me.”
A long pause came from the other end and she wondered if he had hung up before she heard “... Shit. Who told you?”
Liz opened her mouth in shock as she heard the words from Kyle. A part of her had thought that Pam had only decided to mess with her and that she was lying, but now, she knew that the girl had been sincere.
“Fuck you, Kyle.”
She hung up the phone and laid down in her bed, crying.
They had been together for two years now, and even though she knew that he would go to a different University than her, she had hoped that they would be able to continue their relationship long-distance… She had been so naive.
*
Monday was the hardest day. Walking into the corridors of her school, Liz felt like everyone knew that she had been cheated on.
Surely they could see it on her face, she had slept so poorly and had cried so much the previous weekend that her eyes were puffy and red. She felt someone take her hand and looked up as Maria smiled at her.
“I know it’s hard, but you can do it. You’re Liz Parker. You’re gonna be a badass molecular biologist one day and Kyle will stay in Roswell, probably following in his dad’s footsteps even if he doesn’t want to. And soon, you’ll be in Harvard. It’s going to be okay, even if it doesn’t feel like it right now. Seriously, fuck Pam Troy. She shouldn’t have told you that way.”
They stopped in front of Maria’s class as Liz smiled for the first time in a while.
“Thanks, Ria… I love you.”
“Love you too, girl.”
As Liz walked into her science class, her heart felt a little bit lighter.
Harvard was closer to her than it had ever been… She didn’t have time to think about Kyle, she had to focus on her bright future.
That was easier said than done, as she had difficulties concentrating during class as thoughts of her ex-boyfriend filled her head. She went to the bathroom after class and cried while sitting in a stall.
During lunch time, she decided to go home for the day, after she saw Kyle and Vicky sitting in the cafeteria together, smiling and laughing together.
Later that night, her dad hugged her tightly and told her that he was sorry and that she deserved better.
“You have to take it one day at a time,” Jim told her. “When I was your age, a girl broke my heart… a girl I thought I would be spending my life with. But now I’m glad it happened because I would have never met your mom and you wouldn’t be here today.”
Liz nodded and smiled at her dad. It was true, she needed to process her heartbreak and the loss of the life she had imagined with Kyle.
One day at a time.
