<center>Chapter 29</center>
~Max~
The term “beach bonfire” could be loosely translated as an excuse for teenagers experiencing the first thrills of freedom to get drunk and party with members of the opposite sex in a coastal atmosphere. All the while a giant fire burns on the sand.
As I lead Liz down the dunes towards the smoldering blaze, I glance over and offer her a smile. “You sure you feel up to this?” I whisper, squeezing her fingers as the wind from the ocean tosses her dark hair around her face.
“Yes,” she laughs, a faint blush coloring her cheeks. “Really, you guys are worse than my parents. I’m fine, and in fact…” she trails off and leans closer towards me so that her breasts brush the bare skin of my shoulder. “I was kind of hoping maybe later we could… finish what we started…?”
I glance down at her as she nibbles her lips uncertainly, and my gaze darkens. “Uh… yeah, that’s a definite possibility,” I respond huskily, my mouth already lowering to hers when Kyle lets out a giant whoop.
“Hellooo, ladies,” he drawls, stopping in front of us so suddenly that we nearly run smack into his back. He yanks his shirt over his head and tucks it securely into the back of his trunks before turning towards Michael. “Me and you dude. Let’s scope this place out.”
“I dunno…” Michael says, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. “I might just hang here for awhile.”
Kyle stares at him openmouthed as the rest of us start snickering. I have no doubt Michael’s sudden turn-about has something to do with the mysterious ten-minute conversation he had with Maria when Tess called her to let her in on Liz’s condition.
“What are you talking about?” Kyle demands, planting both fists on his hips as he narrows his gaze on our friend. “Since when don’t you want to meet up with hot chicks, huh Guerin? What’s going on in that brain of yours?”
“Dude, I just said I don’t feel like doing it right now,” Michael covers smoothly, looping an arm around Tess and Liz’s shoulders. “Besides, we got all the hot chicks we could want right here.”
“Um… thanks for that,” Tess slides from underneath him and folds her arms across her chest as she glares at Kyle. “Go on, Kyle. Tits and ass await, remember?”
He stares at her and something shifts in his gaze before he nods. “Yeah, you’re right. I’ll catch up with you guys later.” With that he turns and starts across the sand towards a group of chattering females in skimpy, brightly colored bikinis.
We all turn to stare at Tess as she struggles to look unaffected. “Look at him go,” she smiles sarcastically. “Tweedle Dum in a Ralph Lauren bathing suit. You know, I think I want a beer.”
With that, she stomps off in the opposite direction, butt wiggling in a way that has several of the guys on the beach stopping to take a second glance. I rub my temples as a particularly brawny blonde guy stops her about halfway to the keg. “Why do I have a bad feeling about this?” I wonder out loud as Tess flicks a glance in Kyle’s direction before laughing at whatever Muscle Boy says and lays a hand on his arm.
“Ooh… Kyle looks ready to duke it out,” Michael observes, inclining his head. Liz and I look over to see Kyle glaring at the interaction as the girls hang all over him. “Twenty bucks those two are going at it by the end of the night.”
I choke, recalling another bet. “Uh… maybe,” I try not to laugh as he and Liz both give me curious glances. “Sorry, it uh… went down the wrong pipe,” I motion towards my throat.
“Come on, Liz, let’s get you a drink – non-alcoholic of course, can’t have anything messing with your drugs – and save you a place by the fire,” Michael takes her arm and starts leading her towards the bonfire.
“I think I can handle it,” I catch up to them and give him a warning glance before tucking Liz up against my side. “Why don’t you go and stop Kyle from making a complete ass out of himself?” I suggest, glancing over to see our friend in question doing just that as he lifts his arm and flexes as the girls all start touching his biceps.
Michael snickers. “I dunno… maybe he’s actually doing something right,” he shrugs. “It’s getting her attention, anyway,” he adds, gesturing towards Tess, who’s glaring at the scene unfolding.
“Is something going on there?” Liz asks. “I feel so out of the loop, but I mean… there’s a lot of… um…”
“Sexual tension?” Michael and I respond at the same time. “Yeah, they’re always like that lately.” I quirk a brow as Tess yanks on the blonde Adonis’s arm and pulls him towards the keg.
This sets Kyle into motion, as he breaks away from the female clutches and starts towards the direction where Tess and No-Neck have headed off, a dark scowl on his face as he stomps across the sand.
“That’s my cue,” Michael quips, walking away to distract Kyle. I’m not all that sure how well this will work, judging by the shove Kyle lands against his chest as Michael tries to block him.
“Where did Tess go?” Liz asks in worry. “I mean… we shouldn’t really let her go off with some random guy. Max?”
Tess Harding can hold her own, I have no doubt. But still… “Yeah, you’re right,” I sigh. “Come on.” I lead her down the beach until we catch sight of Tess mingling with a group of college-aged kids. “Well… should we drag her back?” I wonder.
“No, she’s safe enough out here as long as we can see her,” Liz decides. “Come on, let’s go find somewhere to sit down.”
“Can we get under a blanket and fool around?” I ask in a low voice. “Maybe get a headstart on… later?”
She gasps. “Max! Out here?” I grin at the fact that she doesn’t sound nearly as scandalized as she’s trying to appear.
“Come on,” I growl, dragging her towards a secluded cove just out of sight of the party. We’re both giggling like kids as we fall onto the sand, kissing and running our hands down each other’s bodies.
“Oh my God, I can’t believe we’re doing this out here,” she gasps as I fasten my lips against her neck, suckling gently. “This is so… so…”
“Yummy,” I breathe, referring to the taste of her vanilla-scented skin. “Mmm… remind me why we left the bedroom, again?”
“Because,” she giggles as I nibble my way up her chin. Her fingers tangle into my hair as she moves more on top of me. “You wanted to spend time with your friends on your vacation, too.”
“Screw them,” I say succinctly. “I see them all the time. You, on the other hand…” I slip my finger inside the dip of her bikini top and relish in the gasp that escapes her throat. Dragging the pad of my thumb across her nipple, I lick my lips. “You, I only have thirty-five more days with.”
She shivers as I slide the cups of her top aside, allowing the ocean air to caress her flesh. “Thirty-six,” she corrects on a soft moan.
“I love your mathematical mind,” I growl, lifting my head to close my lips over her. Unfortunately, the heat of the moment is lost as something bites me in the ass. “What the fuck!” I pull away from her and practically launch her onto the ground beside me as I jump up and start rubbing myself. “Something bit me!”
“What?” she shakes her head, brushing sand off herself as she stares up at me in dazed confusion. Her nipple, still glistening from my mouth, appears hard and swollen in the moonlight. “Max… what are you…?”
I drop to my knees, searching the ground. “It was a fucking sand crab, I know it! Those little bastards… where’d you go, huh? Want to take a chunk out of my ass, do ya? Well, come on! Let’s see how you do in a fair fight.”
I glance up and catch her openmouthed expression and falter slightly. “Sorry it uh… it hurt,” I grumble, sitting back gingerly on my ass as her mouth starts quivering. My eyes narrow. “Are you about to laught at me?”
“No… yes!” she gasps, doubling over and shaking as laughter spills into the evening. “You were about to start a fight with a crab!”
“He started it!” I point out unnecessarily.
“Oh, well, then,” she giggles, scooting towards me as I pout. “Should I spank him for being a bad widdle crabbie?”
“Very funny. I’ll have you know my butt hurts really bad, right now.”
“Oh… poor baby,” she murmurs, nuzzling my cheek as I struggle to remain indifferent to the fact that her hand is now inching up my thigh. “Want me to make you feel better?”
“Uh…” I swallow as she grazes my groin, and lean back on my elbows. “Sure. If you think it might help.”
She raises a brow at me, but begins to toy with the band of my shorts. I hold my breath, every muscle tense as she finally reaches in and closes her soft hand around my rapidly growing cock. Releasing a soft hiss of breath, I give up and lay against the sand, eyes falling closed as she starts to run her hand up and down my length. “Oh, God…”
“Is it starting to feel better?” she asks softly, breath hitching as I lift my hips into her hand.
“Oh yeah,” I groan, reaching for her. “Come here and kiss me,” I demand gruffly, bringing her lips to my own. We both sigh into each the other’s mouth, lips rubbing as her hand continues to drive me crazy. I reach down and slip my own inside her bathing suit bottoms and nearly lose my mind when I realize how wet she already is.
She moans as I brush across her slick flesh and grinds her hips into mine. “Maax…”
Through the sexual fog, I realize that we’re taking things pretty far considering we’re still out in an open area. With a sigh of regret I still her hands as she begins to lower my trunks. “Baby, wait.”
“What is it?” she breathes heavily. “I want you, Max. I can’t… wait…”
“Parker, if we do this here, we might end up on someone’s private porno collection,” I state wryly, trying not to chuckle as she blinks. “And besides, this isn’t the most favorable setting to get it on. I don’t look forward to taking the beach home in the crack of my ass.”
“Oh my God,” she whispers, laying her head on my chest as she starts giggling. “I can’t believe we nearly just… Oh my God! I’ve turned into a shameless slut, haven’t I?”
“Hell no,” I growl, lifting her to meet my eyes. “I love that you want me that bad, okay? And for the record… this is very hard for me to resist.”
She smiles impishly, squeezing my erection. “So I see,” she purrs, giggling as I let out another groan. “So… what do we do?”
“Well…” I’m about to suggest some mutual relief, when a voice sounds through the air, extremely close by.
“Maaax? Liz? Where’d you guys go? You better not be doing anything I wouldn’t do!” Kyle slurs. “Wait a second, that might not be the best argument.”
I let out a little groan of frustration as Liz jumps off me and starts straightening her bathing suit before Kyle appears. He takes one glance at us both, blinks, then walks over and plops down on a piece of driftwood. “I’m drunk, you guys.”
No shit. “Kyle, we’ve only been here an hour,” I point out, adjusting myself before moving to join Liz as she sits next to Kyle. The scent of beer practically knocks me off my feet. “Shit, Valenti! What did you do, bathe in it?”
He flips me off before turning to Liz with wide eyes. “Liz, you’re smart, right? I mean… you gave that speech at graduation. So you had to have been pretty high up on the brain food chain, right?”
“The brain food chain?” I roll my eyes, folding my arms across my chest as I wonder where this inane conversation is going.
“Well… I don’t know,” Liz nibbles her lips. “I mean, I guess I’m considered intelligent, but I just… did you need my help with something, Kyle?” she settles for, looking extremely curious.
He lets out a giant sigh and nods solemnly. “I have a problem.”
“At least you’re finally acknowledging it,” I smirk, wincing as Liz elbows me for my trouble. “Sorry.”
“Well, it isn’t really my problem,” Kyle continues quickly, completely oblivious to our interplay. “It’s… a friend.”
I open my mouth, but Liz shoots me a glare. I press my lips together, struggling not to laugh.
“Anyway, this… friend,” Kyle over-enunciates, nearly causing me to laugh again, “He’s a great guy, right? Everyone loves him… he’s goodlooking, funny… he has it all. Basically a great catch.”
“Modest, too,” I state, completely straight-faced. This time, I hear a snicker come from Liz’s direction, although when I look she’s simply nodding understandingly at Kyle.
“Yeah, he’s a great guy,” Kyle sighs. “And well, he makes the mistake of hooking up with a friend of his at a party one time. Only, afterwards he realized it wasn’t a mistake… that he really liked the girl. Only Te… Terri, that’s the girl, she freaked out and didn’t want anything to do with him.”
“Oh, Jesus,” I chuckle, nearly falling off the end of the log as Liz and Kyle both glare at me. “I’m sorry…” I gasp. “Uh… damn crabs, again.”
“Evans, you shouldn’t go telling everyone you have crabs,” Kyle cracks.
“Fuck you, Valenti.”
“Guys!” Liz cries. “Max, Kyle was trying to explain something about himself… I mean, his friend,” she quickly covers when I snort. “Stop being disrespectful.”
“Yeah, Max,” Kyle sniffles. “I’m hurt, dude.”
“Kyle, just… finish what you were saying,” she sighs.
“Yeah well, anyway. So my friend is sort of pissed off that she doesn’t want anything to do with him, but he figures, hey, he’s such a great guy surely he could make her like him just as much as he likes her, right? So he sort of suggests that they continue seeing each other, only not tell anyone,” Kyle continues, making wild arm gestures.
“That explains so much,” I shake my head, thinking of all the strange undercurrents I’ve witnessed between Tess and Kyle the last few weeks.
“So… what’s the matter?” Liz asks gently. “Your friend wants to move things to the next level?”
“Yes!” he cries out in frustration. “I just don’t understand why she doesn’t want people to know we’re together! Am I such a terrible embarrassment to her?”
“Of course not!” Liz states firmly, not mentioning the fact that he’s completely blown his cover. “Kyle, maybe Tess is just as scared as you.”
“No, she just doesn’t want anyone to know she was slumming with a jock,” he mutters forlornly. “I can’t take this shit anymore! All the hiding and… and covering shit up! I’ve never been an embarrassment to any girl before! Why her? Why the one girl I actually have feelings for?”
“Then why did you push her about the girls here?” I point out. “You all but flaunted your intentions to score in her face, Kyle.”
“I’m desperate, okay?” he stands up and nearly stumbles. “I just wanted her to have some sort of reaction. And what does she do? She goes running straight into some surfer dude’s arms. Apparently I’m the only jock who’s too stupid to be considered actual boyfriend material.”
Liz takes his arm and helps him back onto the log. “Listen, Kyle, you wanted my advice, right?” she asks gently, rubbing his arm as he stares into the distance. “Well, I think you should tell Tess how you feel about her. Most likely, she’s doing this as a way to keep herself from falling for you because she doesn’t think you take her seriously. Girls… girls are like that, okay? They do what they can to protect themselves.”
He stares at her. “So… what? You’re saying I should go up and tell her I love her?”
I suck in a breath and start whistling uncomfortably, not wanting to think about the fact that one of my best friends is in love with another of my best friends. But Liz nods her head. “Take a chance, Valenti,” she smiles.
He ponders her statement for a long moment, then nods. “You’re right. I’m gonna do it. Here I go.” With that, he stands and starts across the sand in wide, ambling steps.
Liz and I hurry after him, eager to see whatever show is sure to occur. As we catch up with him by the bonfire, we watch as Kyle strides up to where Tess is sitting among a group of adoring men, and plants his feet in the sand directly in front of her.
“Listen up!” he calls out, garnering her attention and that of several people standing by. A hush falls over the crowd as Kyle glares at Tess, who has turned a light shade of pink that’s detectable even in the dark.
“I’ve had it with you,” he states in a light slur. “You think you can play with my emotions this way, Tess? Well… you can’t! You might think I’m a dumb jock, but I still have feelings, and they still hurt when someone stomps all over them!”
“What are you talking about, Kyle?” Tess hisses, glancing back and forth as people start to murmur. “You’re making a scene!”
“A scene?” he cries out. “A scene?! You want me to make a scene? Well how about this. We had sex, Tess! Just because you’re too embarrassed for anyone to know doesn’t change that fact, or that we’ve been dating for a month and a half!”
Several gasps sound and I slap a hand to my forehead as Tess jumps up, murder sparkling in her blue gaze.
“Oh, Kyle,” Liz murmurs sorrowfully.
“You asshole!” she cries out. “How dare you! I… I trusted you!” Her voice catches and she starts to storm away, but Kyle grabs her arm before she can leave.
“I’m not done,” he says in a dark tone. “I fucking love you, woman! But you don’t see that because you’re too busy worrying that anyone might find out that the oh-so-high-and-mighty Tess Harding is down slumming with the rest of us. Well, excuuuse me Princess! I'm not that easy! Kyle Valenti is no woman's dirty secret!"
With that, he turns and walks off leaving Tess staring after him as tentative clapping starts around us. I almost have to laugh as Kyle stops a few feet away, turns and gives a sardonic bow before stomping the rest of the way off.
Michael walks up to us, a cup of beer in one hand as Tess lets out a shriek and starts to follow after Kyle. “Uh… what did I miss?”
My Life as a Teenaged Superhero (AU, M/L, Adult) (Complete)
Moderators: Itzstacie, Forum Moderators
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Deejonaise
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I'd just like to preface this by saying...Linds made me do it. It's all her influence.
<center>Chapter 30</center>
~Liz~
I stand out on the balcony, watching the moonlight play over the water and wondering how I’m going to leave Max when the times comes.
The entire suite is asleep. Poor Michael is sprawled across the sofa bed all alone while Kyle and Tess share the second room. We hadn’t seen them since the bonfire and Kyle so raucously and drunkenly declared his love. Max, Michael, and I were fully prepared to return to the room and find ourselves smack in the middle of World War III. Instead, however, we were greeted with Tess’ breathy cries of, “Oh, Kyle oh!” which were pretty self-explanatory.
Max, Michael and I caught some dinner down on the strip and then returned to the room afterwards. The suite had fallen quiet by then but Kyle and Tess were still nowhere in sight. Max and I decided to sojourn to our bedroom for a little extra curricular activity of our own, leaving Michael in the living room alone. Hopefully, he found someway to amuse himself but still…I feel bad for the guy. Now everybody’s paired up on this trip except him.
For another countless time I wish Maria had come. But my dad, in an attempt at manipulation, had refused to let her off thinking if he didn’t then I wouldn’t go on the trip without her. He evidently underestimated my desire to be with Max. Unfortunately, my dad is also very prideful. Even though he knew Maria’s absence would not stop me from going he was still unwilling to let her off so that she could come along, too.
I really don’t know how to feel about this newfound tension between my dad and me. I’ve always been his angel and he’s always been my hero. Nobody was braver or stronger or wiser than my daddy. He’s always had a better understanding of me than my mother ever could. But lately…my opinion has changed. Oh, I still think he’s as brave and strong and wise as ever but I’m definitely somebody else’s angel now.
I snort to myself. When did this all become so complicated? One month ago I knew what I wanted. My life was set. My future was set. I had it planned out to the minutest detail. A relationship had been seen as nothing more than a stumbling block on the road to success. I didn’t have time for them and then…Max happened.
Yes, I know. Isn’t this the very same boy I’ve been crushing on since I started high school? My ultimate fantasy, my private obsession…the pretty boy super jock who would never look sideways at Liz Parker, school brain.
But he did look sideways. More than that he’s snared me in a way I never dreamed. I’m caught at the heart and the hook is in deep. We’ve talked about how my leaving is going to affect him but how’s it going to affect me? How am I supposed to be without him? Only two weeks have gone by and I don’t know how to do that anymore.
The patio doors slide open behind me but I don’t jump. I know without turning around that it’s Max. His smell surrounds me even before he encircles my waist and props his chin onto my shoulder.
“I was scared for a minute,” he whispers into my ear.
I grin in response to the shivering caress. “Why is that?”
“When I woke up and you weren’t there, I panicked,” he says, “It doesn’t seem right to wake up without you there beside me. I don’t like it.”
“You’re so spoiled,” I tease him.
“Oh, I know it,” he growls into my neck, “…Your fault…”
I scrutinize him with a challenging look. “My fault?” I query in mock affront, “How do you figure?”
“Well, you are very irresistible,” he charms, “And sexy…and gorgeous…and….”
“And?”
“Mine,” he whispers, turning me around in his arms, “Are you mine, Parker?”
“You know I am,” I reply against his lips. We engage in an avidly, wet kiss, seeking out each other’s tongues for sleek caress. I slide my hands over the supple muscles of his back, dipping lower to caress his taut buttocks. But when I dare to give them a squeeze he yelps and rears back.
“What?” I laugh softly.
“I told you that crab took a chunk out of my ass,” he gripes, rubbing the sore spot, “Did you think I was kidding? I’m really hurting here.”
I give his chin a playful nip. “Aww… You want me to kiss it and make it better?”
His eyes flare wide at my naughty suggestion. “Who are you and what have you done with the prim Liz Parker I used to know,” he teases between nuzzling kisses.
“She got totally corrupted by this guy who used to always borrow her pencils,” I toss back drolly. His laughter rings out like a shot, so loud that I clamp my hand over his mouth for fear he’ll wait the others. “Be good,” I scold as he eyes continue to gleam.
“You started it,” he says when I take my hand away, “So what were you saying again about kissing it and making it better?”
I cast a surreptitious glance over at Michael’s sleeping form. He appears dead to the world if his loud snoring is any indication but I’ve learned the hard way that Max’s friends are quite adept at playacting. “Close the door,” I order softly.
Max scurries to execute the command, sliding the glass door closed with a soft click. While his back is still turned I pad up behind him and drop to my knees, pulling his boxers down his tanned legs as I do. Max groans over my unexpected attack. Sure enough his flesh is a mottled blue black from the crab bite. I finger the discoloration before pressing my lips there in a gentle caress.
He moans again, spurring me to touch my tongue to his skin as well. While I apply delicate kisses to his “boo-boo,” I let my free hand creep up his inner thigh until I reach the soft, wrinkly skin of his testicles. I cup them, caress them before sliding higher to curve my fingers around his rock hard erection. Max’s entire body jackknifes.
“May…maybe we should sit down,” he suggests thickly.
After stepping from his boxers completely and kicking them away, he pivots around slowly and pulls me to my feet, leading me over to one of the terrace chairs. After he lies back against the cushioned furniture he pulls me down into his lap, his fingers playing with the ends of my hair.
“Liz?” he queries after a silent moment that lets me know he has something on his mind.
I lean forward to nuzzle kisses against his throat, sharply cognizant of his erection brushing against my backside. “Hmm?”
“Do…Do you remember what you did for me that night at Tess’ party?” he stammers.
Maria has warned me that guys tend to have a one-track mind about this kind of thing. Who would have guessed she’d be right? A slow grin forming, I lift my head and cock one brow in amused inquiry. “Do you mean when I sucked your d--,” He presses a finger over my lips to stifle the remainder of my sentence and the action makes me giggle.
“Don’t say it,” he scolds with a painful blush, “But…um…yeah, that’s what I was getting at, okay.”
Having been completely mortified that time we’d talked about him doing it to me I must say that I’m absolutely thrilled at the turnabout. The fact that I have the upper hand, so to speak, helps to quell much of my embarrassment, infuses me with a boldness I didn’t know I possessed.
“Are you saying you want me to go down on you again, Max?” I whisper.
He sucks in a serrated breath and drops his eyes away from mine. I’m just amazed after everything we’ve done together he continues to be shy. But then I can be shy about some things, too. I can sympathize with him at this moment though. While I have absolutely no problem telling Max the things I want to do to him, telling him what I want done to me proves difficult. Max evidently has that same problem. We are an odd pair.
“Yeah…yeah, I want you to do that,” he admits gruffly, “But…”
“But?”
“…that’s not all,” he goes on in a suffocated tone, “I…I sorta want to do it to you at the same time…you know…go down on you.”
“What?” I wonder vaguely.
He plucks at the neckline of my nightshirt, his face flaming brighter. The sight has me biting back a grin. “Have you…um…ever heard of 69, Parker?”
“69?” I echo, “What’s 69?”
“Oh god,” he groans in chagrin, shutting his eyes, “Just forget I said anything at all. C’mere…just kiss me.”
“Max?” I nudge him slightly. “Tell me. I want to know.”
“Liz…”
“Come on,” I cajole, “You can tell me anything, okay.”
He heaves another deep breath and rolls his eyes heavenward. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” he mutters more to himself than to me, “You’re going to smack me.”
“I doubt it.”
“You’re sure you want to know?”
“I’m asking, aren’t I?”
“Okay, well…um…69 is…a sexual position,” he reveals slowly.
I bob my eyebrows at the revelation before grinning like a sated cat. “Hmm…sexual, huh? Now you’ve got my attention,” I tease him, “What does this…um…sexual position involve?” Instead of telling me the details aloud Max leans forward and whispers them in my ear. At first I’m rolling my eyes because I think his antics are beyond ridiculous but the more he talks the wider my eyes become. By the time he’s finished, my face is just as red as his.
“Oh…uh…wow…” I choke, “Is…Is that something you want to try?”
“I’d like to,” he whispers shakily, “It’s like my fantasy…”
“Out here?”
“We can do it in our room if you want,” he offers gamely.
I nibble my lip in consideration. “I guess we can stay out here,” I decide after a few seconds, “It’s a pretty night and it’s not like anyone can see us…plus I’m feeling a little wicked right now so…why not? That’s my fantasy.”
Max gapes at me. “Why not?” he echoes blankly.
I laugh at his dubious expression. “I thought you wanted to.”
“I do,” he confirms shyly, “I just never expected you to say yes. I thought I’d have to…I dunno…convince you.”
“Evans, you’re such a moron sometimes,” I giggle, leaning in to kiss him all the while groping for the lever that will render the heavy iron chair completely level. When I do we fall back with grunting giggles. “But I love you anyway.”
With Max’s help I move to straddle him and we seek out each other’s lips for a wet kiss. Our kissing gradually escalates to something more as we quietly discard the remainder of our clothing. By the time we’re completely naked, our clothes littered all over the terrace, we’re heavy into the moment and our initial awkwardness has been overtaken by gut instinct.
I nibble my way down Max’s chest, pausing at his belly to dip my tongue into his navel. He hums over the caress, inching his hand up my thigh. When I reach his groin I climb over his body completely so that my knees straddle his head. Only when I’m in position do I take him into my mouth.
The feel of his fingers parting me and his tongue exploring the moist inner folds of my body tempers the flooding sensation that comes with taking his cock into my mouth. I momentarily forget my goal as pleasure waves through my body. I grind down onto his face, moaning incoherently for him to taste deeper.
We have a series of hits and misses. Either I become too distracted with his ministrations and neglect him or he becomes too wrapped up with the pleasure he’s receiving and neglects me. But with some determination and much trial and error we get it right.
I stroke his length with my mouth to the exact rhythm he flicks his tongue against my wet center. His hips rise eagerly to every dip of my head, so that he nearly touches the back of my throat with each descent. I feel like I’m tingling all over, near explosion with the gratification I’m both giving and receiving.
As Max races closer towards orgasm the bucking of his hips become frenzied and sharp in perfect time with the forceful thrusts of his tongue. I can feel myself start to quiver… I grunt and groan around his distended length, his forceful reaction making me hungrier.
However, the moment his mouth closes around my swollen clit I come hard, with whimpered, gurgled cries of repletion. As the sensations peak, I suck down hard on the head of his cock as I feel him expand with his coming orgasm. That’s all it takes. Jets of semen explode from his body and wash down my throat in a warm, salty arc.
For a long time we lay in that position, my cheek pressed to his inner thigh and his face nestled quite snugly between my legs. The scent of our coupling wafts around me, mingled with the salty sea air. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so content.
Gradually, my entire body starts to go boneless with exhaustion and the first vestiges of sleep begin to overtake my consciousness. I’m just a snore away from blissful oblivion when I feel a nudging against my thighs and hear a muffled, “Liz…uh, baby…could you get off my face? I can’t breathe…”
<center>Chapter 30</center>
~Liz~
I stand out on the balcony, watching the moonlight play over the water and wondering how I’m going to leave Max when the times comes.
The entire suite is asleep. Poor Michael is sprawled across the sofa bed all alone while Kyle and Tess share the second room. We hadn’t seen them since the bonfire and Kyle so raucously and drunkenly declared his love. Max, Michael, and I were fully prepared to return to the room and find ourselves smack in the middle of World War III. Instead, however, we were greeted with Tess’ breathy cries of, “Oh, Kyle oh!” which were pretty self-explanatory.
Max, Michael and I caught some dinner down on the strip and then returned to the room afterwards. The suite had fallen quiet by then but Kyle and Tess were still nowhere in sight. Max and I decided to sojourn to our bedroom for a little extra curricular activity of our own, leaving Michael in the living room alone. Hopefully, he found someway to amuse himself but still…I feel bad for the guy. Now everybody’s paired up on this trip except him.
For another countless time I wish Maria had come. But my dad, in an attempt at manipulation, had refused to let her off thinking if he didn’t then I wouldn’t go on the trip without her. He evidently underestimated my desire to be with Max. Unfortunately, my dad is also very prideful. Even though he knew Maria’s absence would not stop me from going he was still unwilling to let her off so that she could come along, too.
I really don’t know how to feel about this newfound tension between my dad and me. I’ve always been his angel and he’s always been my hero. Nobody was braver or stronger or wiser than my daddy. He’s always had a better understanding of me than my mother ever could. But lately…my opinion has changed. Oh, I still think he’s as brave and strong and wise as ever but I’m definitely somebody else’s angel now.
I snort to myself. When did this all become so complicated? One month ago I knew what I wanted. My life was set. My future was set. I had it planned out to the minutest detail. A relationship had been seen as nothing more than a stumbling block on the road to success. I didn’t have time for them and then…Max happened.
Yes, I know. Isn’t this the very same boy I’ve been crushing on since I started high school? My ultimate fantasy, my private obsession…the pretty boy super jock who would never look sideways at Liz Parker, school brain.
But he did look sideways. More than that he’s snared me in a way I never dreamed. I’m caught at the heart and the hook is in deep. We’ve talked about how my leaving is going to affect him but how’s it going to affect me? How am I supposed to be without him? Only two weeks have gone by and I don’t know how to do that anymore.
The patio doors slide open behind me but I don’t jump. I know without turning around that it’s Max. His smell surrounds me even before he encircles my waist and props his chin onto my shoulder.
“I was scared for a minute,” he whispers into my ear.
I grin in response to the shivering caress. “Why is that?”
“When I woke up and you weren’t there, I panicked,” he says, “It doesn’t seem right to wake up without you there beside me. I don’t like it.”
“You’re so spoiled,” I tease him.
“Oh, I know it,” he growls into my neck, “…Your fault…”
I scrutinize him with a challenging look. “My fault?” I query in mock affront, “How do you figure?”
“Well, you are very irresistible,” he charms, “And sexy…and gorgeous…and….”
“And?”
“Mine,” he whispers, turning me around in his arms, “Are you mine, Parker?”
“You know I am,” I reply against his lips. We engage in an avidly, wet kiss, seeking out each other’s tongues for sleek caress. I slide my hands over the supple muscles of his back, dipping lower to caress his taut buttocks. But when I dare to give them a squeeze he yelps and rears back.
“What?” I laugh softly.
“I told you that crab took a chunk out of my ass,” he gripes, rubbing the sore spot, “Did you think I was kidding? I’m really hurting here.”
I give his chin a playful nip. “Aww… You want me to kiss it and make it better?”
His eyes flare wide at my naughty suggestion. “Who are you and what have you done with the prim Liz Parker I used to know,” he teases between nuzzling kisses.
“She got totally corrupted by this guy who used to always borrow her pencils,” I toss back drolly. His laughter rings out like a shot, so loud that I clamp my hand over his mouth for fear he’ll wait the others. “Be good,” I scold as he eyes continue to gleam.
“You started it,” he says when I take my hand away, “So what were you saying again about kissing it and making it better?”
I cast a surreptitious glance over at Michael’s sleeping form. He appears dead to the world if his loud snoring is any indication but I’ve learned the hard way that Max’s friends are quite adept at playacting. “Close the door,” I order softly.
Max scurries to execute the command, sliding the glass door closed with a soft click. While his back is still turned I pad up behind him and drop to my knees, pulling his boxers down his tanned legs as I do. Max groans over my unexpected attack. Sure enough his flesh is a mottled blue black from the crab bite. I finger the discoloration before pressing my lips there in a gentle caress.
He moans again, spurring me to touch my tongue to his skin as well. While I apply delicate kisses to his “boo-boo,” I let my free hand creep up his inner thigh until I reach the soft, wrinkly skin of his testicles. I cup them, caress them before sliding higher to curve my fingers around his rock hard erection. Max’s entire body jackknifes.
“May…maybe we should sit down,” he suggests thickly.
After stepping from his boxers completely and kicking them away, he pivots around slowly and pulls me to my feet, leading me over to one of the terrace chairs. After he lies back against the cushioned furniture he pulls me down into his lap, his fingers playing with the ends of my hair.
“Liz?” he queries after a silent moment that lets me know he has something on his mind.
I lean forward to nuzzle kisses against his throat, sharply cognizant of his erection brushing against my backside. “Hmm?”
“Do…Do you remember what you did for me that night at Tess’ party?” he stammers.
Maria has warned me that guys tend to have a one-track mind about this kind of thing. Who would have guessed she’d be right? A slow grin forming, I lift my head and cock one brow in amused inquiry. “Do you mean when I sucked your d--,” He presses a finger over my lips to stifle the remainder of my sentence and the action makes me giggle.
“Don’t say it,” he scolds with a painful blush, “But…um…yeah, that’s what I was getting at, okay.”
Having been completely mortified that time we’d talked about him doing it to me I must say that I’m absolutely thrilled at the turnabout. The fact that I have the upper hand, so to speak, helps to quell much of my embarrassment, infuses me with a boldness I didn’t know I possessed.
“Are you saying you want me to go down on you again, Max?” I whisper.
He sucks in a serrated breath and drops his eyes away from mine. I’m just amazed after everything we’ve done together he continues to be shy. But then I can be shy about some things, too. I can sympathize with him at this moment though. While I have absolutely no problem telling Max the things I want to do to him, telling him what I want done to me proves difficult. Max evidently has that same problem. We are an odd pair.
“Yeah…yeah, I want you to do that,” he admits gruffly, “But…”
“But?”
“…that’s not all,” he goes on in a suffocated tone, “I…I sorta want to do it to you at the same time…you know…go down on you.”
“What?” I wonder vaguely.
He plucks at the neckline of my nightshirt, his face flaming brighter. The sight has me biting back a grin. “Have you…um…ever heard of 69, Parker?”
“69?” I echo, “What’s 69?”
“Oh god,” he groans in chagrin, shutting his eyes, “Just forget I said anything at all. C’mere…just kiss me.”
“Max?” I nudge him slightly. “Tell me. I want to know.”
“Liz…”
“Come on,” I cajole, “You can tell me anything, okay.”
He heaves another deep breath and rolls his eyes heavenward. “I can’t believe I’m about to do this,” he mutters more to himself than to me, “You’re going to smack me.”
“I doubt it.”
“You’re sure you want to know?”
“I’m asking, aren’t I?”
“Okay, well…um…69 is…a sexual position,” he reveals slowly.
I bob my eyebrows at the revelation before grinning like a sated cat. “Hmm…sexual, huh? Now you’ve got my attention,” I tease him, “What does this…um…sexual position involve?” Instead of telling me the details aloud Max leans forward and whispers them in my ear. At first I’m rolling my eyes because I think his antics are beyond ridiculous but the more he talks the wider my eyes become. By the time he’s finished, my face is just as red as his.
“Oh…uh…wow…” I choke, “Is…Is that something you want to try?”
“I’d like to,” he whispers shakily, “It’s like my fantasy…”
“Out here?”
“We can do it in our room if you want,” he offers gamely.
I nibble my lip in consideration. “I guess we can stay out here,” I decide after a few seconds, “It’s a pretty night and it’s not like anyone can see us…plus I’m feeling a little wicked right now so…why not? That’s my fantasy.”
Max gapes at me. “Why not?” he echoes blankly.
I laugh at his dubious expression. “I thought you wanted to.”
“I do,” he confirms shyly, “I just never expected you to say yes. I thought I’d have to…I dunno…convince you.”
“Evans, you’re such a moron sometimes,” I giggle, leaning in to kiss him all the while groping for the lever that will render the heavy iron chair completely level. When I do we fall back with grunting giggles. “But I love you anyway.”
With Max’s help I move to straddle him and we seek out each other’s lips for a wet kiss. Our kissing gradually escalates to something more as we quietly discard the remainder of our clothing. By the time we’re completely naked, our clothes littered all over the terrace, we’re heavy into the moment and our initial awkwardness has been overtaken by gut instinct.
I nibble my way down Max’s chest, pausing at his belly to dip my tongue into his navel. He hums over the caress, inching his hand up my thigh. When I reach his groin I climb over his body completely so that my knees straddle his head. Only when I’m in position do I take him into my mouth.
The feel of his fingers parting me and his tongue exploring the moist inner folds of my body tempers the flooding sensation that comes with taking his cock into my mouth. I momentarily forget my goal as pleasure waves through my body. I grind down onto his face, moaning incoherently for him to taste deeper.
We have a series of hits and misses. Either I become too distracted with his ministrations and neglect him or he becomes too wrapped up with the pleasure he’s receiving and neglects me. But with some determination and much trial and error we get it right.
I stroke his length with my mouth to the exact rhythm he flicks his tongue against my wet center. His hips rise eagerly to every dip of my head, so that he nearly touches the back of my throat with each descent. I feel like I’m tingling all over, near explosion with the gratification I’m both giving and receiving.
As Max races closer towards orgasm the bucking of his hips become frenzied and sharp in perfect time with the forceful thrusts of his tongue. I can feel myself start to quiver… I grunt and groan around his distended length, his forceful reaction making me hungrier.
However, the moment his mouth closes around my swollen clit I come hard, with whimpered, gurgled cries of repletion. As the sensations peak, I suck down hard on the head of his cock as I feel him expand with his coming orgasm. That’s all it takes. Jets of semen explode from his body and wash down my throat in a warm, salty arc.
For a long time we lay in that position, my cheek pressed to his inner thigh and his face nestled quite snugly between my legs. The scent of our coupling wafts around me, mingled with the salty sea air. I don’t think I’ve ever felt so content.
Gradually, my entire body starts to go boneless with exhaustion and the first vestiges of sleep begin to overtake my consciousness. I’m just a snore away from blissful oblivion when I feel a nudging against my thighs and hear a muffled, “Liz…uh, baby…could you get off my face? I can’t breathe…”
Last edited by Deejonaise on Fri Jul 16, 2004 7:19 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Applebylicious
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- Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2002 8:45 pm
Just a little warning... this next chapter isn't as good as Dee's last one. 
Sorry to disappoint ahead of time. 
<center>Chapter 31</center>
~Max~
The trip back to Roswell is almost as interesting as the trip itself. Michael takes it upon himself to constantly point out the fact that all of his friends are succumbing to the lure of coupledom, although he fails to mention that he’s made three mysterious phone calls back home during the two day trip. Kyle and Tess are apparently doing research on how long you can go without breathing while eating someone else’s face off. There hasn’t been a moment that both have been awake where they haven’t been all over each other.
In fact, that’s what they’re doing right now. I glance in the rearview mirror and grimace as I get a view of Kyle’s hand sliding up Tess’ blue tank. Something tells me that Kyle doesn’t mind being stuck in the middle anymore. Michael looks completely disgusted, shoved as far to the other side as he can get without touching the amorous couple.
He meets my gaze and makes a face, causing me to struggle not to grin as I look back towards the road ahead. The familiar New Mexican desert surrounds us, and although we had a blast in Florida… a part of me admits to always feeling satisfied when we return home.
“Almost there,” I murmur to Liz, reaching over to squeeze her thigh as she smiles back at me. “Did you have a good time?”
“Yes I did,” she flushes slightly. “Aside from the whole hospital ordeal. My Dad’s giving me the week off of work. He’s so over-protective.” She rolls her eyes and sighs.
“I agree with him,” I state firmly. “As I told him when I called.” It still surprises me that I was able to get up the courage to call and let him know that Liz had had an allergic reaction and had been taken to the hospital. Of course, it took me two days…
“You talked to him about it?” she cries out. “Max! I’m fine… you guys worry too much.”
Kyle breaks away from Tess and says, “Only you would complain about a week off from work, Parker.” Then Tess yanks his head back to hers.
“Thanks,” Liz mumbles, lips poking out as she slumps in her seat. “You guys see me as this sick little girl who needs to be tended. But I'm not."
"Baby, you make me hot when you pout,” I growl, ignoring the groan from Michael in the back seat. “Do it some more.”
She growls. “Max!”
Flashing her a wicked smile, I turn onto our exit and clear my throat loudly. “Okay guys, what’s the deal for tonight?”
“Tonight?” Liz asks, her brow furrowing. “I thought… I mean, aren’t we all pretty much going home to recuperate?”
The silence is so deafening from her statement, I almost feel sorry for her. Then Kyle shouts out, “Liz! Be ashamed!”
“Yeah, Parker! It’s summer vacation!” Michael adds, leaning forward and smacking her lightly on the shoulder. “We can’t just go home and recuperate. The whole point of summer is wearing yourself out before you have to go back to school. That’s what the first week of school is. Recuperation.”
“What these morons are trying to say,” Tess says in a bland voice, “is that there’s always something going on, Liz. You’re new to this crazy crowd. Don’t worry… with us by your side, we’ll make sure you’re having too much fun to worry about London or college or anything like that.”
“Um… thanks?” she says uncertainly, glancing my way. “But I don’t know… my parents… I mean, I was just gone for the weekend…”
“She’s right,” I finish when her voice trails off. Squeezing her fingers, I offer her a small smile. “Maybe we should all just call it a day. We can hang out another time. I’m kind of tired, too.”
Kyle coughs. “Bullshit.”
I shoot him a glare through the rearview, even though he’s telling the truth. The last thing I feel like doing is going home and being by myself. The popularity scene has been far too ingrained in me to be able to change that now. But I don’t relish the idea of being away from Liz. And I know that going to some random party without her will leave me feeling just as bored and restless as I would be hanging out at the house on my summer break.
“Hey, I have an idea,” Michael perks up. “Why don’t we just make it a gang bang?” Three heads swivel to stare at him in shock and in typical Michael fashion, he simply grins. “Get your minds out of the gutter, guys. Just because you’ve been getting some this weekend—“
“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence,” Tess warns, leaning over Kyle to show Michael her clawed hand. “I’m warning you, Guerin.”
“Hey, babe, while you’re down there…” Kyle grins and waggles his brows. Then lets out an oof when Tess elbows him in the ribs. “Uh… never mind.”
“What I meant, was why don’t we just get together at the CrashDown or something?” Michael shrugs. “Liz, you can call up Maria and that other kid you hang out with all the time. We can make our own party.”
“Uh huh, I think I know what kind of fun you’re planning with Maria DeLuca,” Kyle chuckles, and gets another elbowing for his efforts. “Ow! Damn, Guerin… there ain’t nothing amusing about your pointy funny bone.”
“You’re such a moron,” Michael and Tess say at the same time, then look at each other wryly. “He’s your boyfriend,” Michael adds in a snicker.
“He’s your friend,” Tess tosses back. “So what does that make you?”
“Please… stop fighting over me, it’s giving me a big head,” Kyle mumbles.
“That sounds like fun,” I meet Liz’s gaze. “What do you think, baby? That way we could all hang out, and your parents wouldn’t have to worry about you.”
She nibbles her lips. “Well… we close early on Sunday’s. But maybe my Dad won’t mind us staying as long as we don’t mess things up too much.”
“Sounds good to me,” Kyle sings. “But I have a question… what time does the kitchen close?”
We all roll our eyes as Tess slaps him lightly upside the head.
<center>***</center>
“Well, well… look what the cat dragged in,” Maria drawls as we all walk through the café doors. Then she squeals and runs forward to embrace Liz. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” she laughs, returning the hug. “What did you do to your hair, Maria?” she exclaims, stepping back and holding the other girl at arm’s length.
I raise a brow, not having even noticed that anything was different about Maria DeLuca. I guess it must be a girl thing.
“Oh, I got it trimmed and highlighted,” Maria answers, tossing said hair over her shoulder as the two begin studying it. “For summer. I wanted to try something new… you like?”
“I think it looks great,” Liz murmurs her approval as the two begin giggling. The bell chimes again behind me as the rest of the group enters. At the sight of Michael, Maria’s entire expression changes and she clears her throat before stepping away from Liz and folding her arms across her chest expectantly.
Michael squirms slightly, but nods her way. “DeLuca.”
“Guerin,” is her witty reply.
Michael’s gaze narrows and he reaches out to finger a strand of her blonde hair. “You did something different to your hair.”
Well, I’ll be damned.
For a long moment, no one says anything as the sounds of the dinner crowd continue around us, then Maria smiles. “You might not be as dumb as you look, after all.”
When it comes to compliments… well, it wasn’t one. Still, Michael looks extraordinarily pleased with himself. “Thanks.”
A sudden sniffling behind us grabs my attention and I turn to see Kyle wiping at his eyes. “This is just so beautiful,” he whispers, not bothering to conceal his grin when Michael accidentally steps back onto his foot.
“Where’s Alex?” Liz asks in excitement. “I figured he’d be here already.”
Maria’s expression turns sour. “He’s here, all right,” she mumbles, inclining her head towards the back of the café. “I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
We all glance over and my eyes nearly bug out of my head as I see Alex’s dark head at the same booth where my sister is currently holding court. Isabel’s usual air of sophisticated boredom has been replaced by something that resembles an actual smile.
Alex waves his arms around and she, I shit you not, laughs. I stumble back, a hand held to my heart as Kyle pretends to hold me upright. “I think I need my eyes checked,” I say out loud, squinting in their direction. “Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Maria growls. “She’s been here every day. The first time she ignored Alex, as per usual, then she randomly called him over to discuss God knows what. He won’t tell me, and believe me, I’ve tried to get it out of him. I swear to God, Max… if your bitch of a sister does anything to hurt Alex’s feelings…”
“Mar!” Liz lays a hand on her best friend’s arm as Maria takes a threatening step forward. “It isn’t Max’s fault, no matter what Isabel does. Chill out.”
“Chill out?” Maria gapes. “Liz, do you see what she’s doing? She’s using him! And he’s too damn in awe of her to see it.”
“Using him for what?” Liz sighs.
“Well…” Maria bites her lip as we all look on in fascination. “I don’t know! But she’s Isabel… she’s an icy bitch and I don’t trust her.”
“Can I get an amen,” Kyle murmurs in a low voice.
Everyone looks at me as if expecting me to be upset. After all… they are talking about a member of my family. And a part of me does want to defend my sister, but the bigger part of me wonders at her motives, as well. “Don’t look at me,” I settle for, holding my hands up defensively. “Whatever Isabel does, I try to do the opposite.”
“And as if that wasn’t bad enough,” Maria rambles on, arms flailing around as she basically forgets our existence during her diatribe to Liz on the events surrounding our absence. “Guess who’s back from band camp.”
“Band camp?” Kyle mouths to Michael, who shrugs and scowls as Maria effectively dismisses him.
Liz gasps. “No way. He’s here?”
At the statement, Michael stiffens and his expression grows even darker. He clears his throat, arms folding across his chest as Tess stifles a giggle. Maria either doesn’t hear him, or is doing a very effective job of playing hard to get.
“Yeah, he’s here and he’s called only twenty times,” she rolls her eyes. She opens her mouth to say something else, but Michael breaks into the conversation.
“Who the fuck is he?”
Acknowledging his presence once again, Maria sniffs in disdain. “Is it really necessary to curse? This is a family establishment.”
Now Kyle’s the one stifling the laugh as we all watch the storm brewing in Michael. He takes a step forward, eyes narrowing until his brows press together in the center of his forehead. “I don’t give a shit,” he says succinctly. “Who the hell is this guy?”
With a sigh of exasperation, Maria tosses her hair again before replying, “He’s just an ex-boyfriend. Nothing to worry about.”
“Who said I was worried?” he blurts out, then looks completely horrified. “Oh God… what the hell are you doing to me?” He shakes an accusing finger at her as she simply smirks. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? You’re trying to see if I slipped up and cheated on you while I was in Florida. Right? There is no guy. You’re a sick, sick person Maria DeLuca!”
Kyle, Tess and I blink like the confused friends we are, but Liz giggles while Maria bats her lashes. “But Michael… a scheme like that would imply that I have a reason to be worried that you’ve cheated, when in actuality… we’re not together. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what or who you did in Palm Beach.”
“What… but you threatened to castrate me with a rusty kitchen knife if I so much as looked at another girl,” he says, scratching his head in confusion as we all start laughing.
Maria blushes. “Well… that was only because I was still on a high from our date, I guess. But really… no harm, no foul, Guerin. I get that it was a weird one-time thing. Feel free to see other people and so will I.”
He stares at her, his mouth hanging wide open as a hush of anticipation falls over our group. Then he shouts, “The hell you will!” Several heads turn our way as he takes a deep breath. “You… you’re not seeing anyone but me, damn it! Don’t push me, Maria.”
She doesn’t back down from his dark expression, but raises a brow and crosses her arms. “Oh yeah? Then prove it.”
He opens his mouth, then seems to slump. “Prove it how?”
“Right here, right now,” she says challengingly. “In front of your friends… ask me out on a date.”
“I thought I just did,” he smirks, the anger fading from his face.
“Don’t play games you won’t win, buddy boy.”
“Oh, for the love of God, ask her out already!” Tess exclaims. “My feet are hurting.”
“Then go sit down,” Michael answers through gritted teeth.
“And miss the downfall of the Mighty Michael Guerin? I don’t think so,” she laughs. “Hurry up.”
“Fine!” he throws his hands up. “Will you go out on a fucking date with me, Maria. Again,” he adds after a split second.
Maria taps her chin. “I’ll think about it.” With that, she turns away.
“What’s to think about?” Michael demands, following after her like a puppy in heat as we all shake our heads.
“That… was the saddest thing I’ve seen all week,” Kyle mourns. “Even worse than me getting drunk and yelling out about that time Tess and I shaked it like a polaroid picture on the—“
“If you want to still have a dick in ten seconds, you’ll shut up,” Tess hisses, dragging him by the ear towards the booth where Isabel and Alex are sitting.
I glance over at Liz, who hasn’t said anything during the entire scene. I find her doubled over laughing, most likely at Kyle and Michael’s expense. It brings an answering smile to my own face. “What’s so funny?” I ask, pulling her against me as we follow Tess and Kyle.
“Maria put me up to that,” she admits. “She wanted to see if it was possible to make Michael jealous. I’m not sure who won that one.”
I look over and find that our best friends are mysteriously missing. “I think they both won,” I murmur, wiggling my brows. “It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“Well… a few weeks ago, none of us really talked,” I point out the obvious. “Not that we didn’t want to… but now, we’re all pairing up and I just find it interesting. I wonder who’s next.”
As if on cue, none other than Tammy Curtis appears by the booth where Isabel and Alex are sitting. With a gasp of surprise, she exclaims loudly, “Isabel, what are you doing with this freak of nature? Ew!”
We glance at each other, then back to the scene about to unfold as Isabel’s cheeks turn red and she opens her mouth.
Sorry to disappoint ahead of time. <center>Chapter 31</center>
~Max~
The trip back to Roswell is almost as interesting as the trip itself. Michael takes it upon himself to constantly point out the fact that all of his friends are succumbing to the lure of coupledom, although he fails to mention that he’s made three mysterious phone calls back home during the two day trip. Kyle and Tess are apparently doing research on how long you can go without breathing while eating someone else’s face off. There hasn’t been a moment that both have been awake where they haven’t been all over each other.
In fact, that’s what they’re doing right now. I glance in the rearview mirror and grimace as I get a view of Kyle’s hand sliding up Tess’ blue tank. Something tells me that Kyle doesn’t mind being stuck in the middle anymore. Michael looks completely disgusted, shoved as far to the other side as he can get without touching the amorous couple.
He meets my gaze and makes a face, causing me to struggle not to grin as I look back towards the road ahead. The familiar New Mexican desert surrounds us, and although we had a blast in Florida… a part of me admits to always feeling satisfied when we return home.
“Almost there,” I murmur to Liz, reaching over to squeeze her thigh as she smiles back at me. “Did you have a good time?”
“Yes I did,” she flushes slightly. “Aside from the whole hospital ordeal. My Dad’s giving me the week off of work. He’s so over-protective.” She rolls her eyes and sighs.
“I agree with him,” I state firmly. “As I told him when I called.” It still surprises me that I was able to get up the courage to call and let him know that Liz had had an allergic reaction and had been taken to the hospital. Of course, it took me two days…
“You talked to him about it?” she cries out. “Max! I’m fine… you guys worry too much.”
Kyle breaks away from Tess and says, “Only you would complain about a week off from work, Parker.” Then Tess yanks his head back to hers.
“Thanks,” Liz mumbles, lips poking out as she slumps in her seat. “You guys see me as this sick little girl who needs to be tended. But I'm not."
"Baby, you make me hot when you pout,” I growl, ignoring the groan from Michael in the back seat. “Do it some more.”
She growls. “Max!”
Flashing her a wicked smile, I turn onto our exit and clear my throat loudly. “Okay guys, what’s the deal for tonight?”
“Tonight?” Liz asks, her brow furrowing. “I thought… I mean, aren’t we all pretty much going home to recuperate?”
The silence is so deafening from her statement, I almost feel sorry for her. Then Kyle shouts out, “Liz! Be ashamed!”
“Yeah, Parker! It’s summer vacation!” Michael adds, leaning forward and smacking her lightly on the shoulder. “We can’t just go home and recuperate. The whole point of summer is wearing yourself out before you have to go back to school. That’s what the first week of school is. Recuperation.”
“What these morons are trying to say,” Tess says in a bland voice, “is that there’s always something going on, Liz. You’re new to this crazy crowd. Don’t worry… with us by your side, we’ll make sure you’re having too much fun to worry about London or college or anything like that.”
“Um… thanks?” she says uncertainly, glancing my way. “But I don’t know… my parents… I mean, I was just gone for the weekend…”
“She’s right,” I finish when her voice trails off. Squeezing her fingers, I offer her a small smile. “Maybe we should all just call it a day. We can hang out another time. I’m kind of tired, too.”
Kyle coughs. “Bullshit.”
I shoot him a glare through the rearview, even though he’s telling the truth. The last thing I feel like doing is going home and being by myself. The popularity scene has been far too ingrained in me to be able to change that now. But I don’t relish the idea of being away from Liz. And I know that going to some random party without her will leave me feeling just as bored and restless as I would be hanging out at the house on my summer break.
“Hey, I have an idea,” Michael perks up. “Why don’t we just make it a gang bang?” Three heads swivel to stare at him in shock and in typical Michael fashion, he simply grins. “Get your minds out of the gutter, guys. Just because you’ve been getting some this weekend—“
“Don’t even think about finishing that sentence,” Tess warns, leaning over Kyle to show Michael her clawed hand. “I’m warning you, Guerin.”
“Hey, babe, while you’re down there…” Kyle grins and waggles his brows. Then lets out an oof when Tess elbows him in the ribs. “Uh… never mind.”
“What I meant, was why don’t we just get together at the CrashDown or something?” Michael shrugs. “Liz, you can call up Maria and that other kid you hang out with all the time. We can make our own party.”
“Uh huh, I think I know what kind of fun you’re planning with Maria DeLuca,” Kyle chuckles, and gets another elbowing for his efforts. “Ow! Damn, Guerin… there ain’t nothing amusing about your pointy funny bone.”
“You’re such a moron,” Michael and Tess say at the same time, then look at each other wryly. “He’s your boyfriend,” Michael adds in a snicker.
“He’s your friend,” Tess tosses back. “So what does that make you?”
“Please… stop fighting over me, it’s giving me a big head,” Kyle mumbles.
“That sounds like fun,” I meet Liz’s gaze. “What do you think, baby? That way we could all hang out, and your parents wouldn’t have to worry about you.”
She nibbles her lips. “Well… we close early on Sunday’s. But maybe my Dad won’t mind us staying as long as we don’t mess things up too much.”
“Sounds good to me,” Kyle sings. “But I have a question… what time does the kitchen close?”
We all roll our eyes as Tess slaps him lightly upside the head.
<center>***</center>
“Well, well… look what the cat dragged in,” Maria drawls as we all walk through the café doors. Then she squeals and runs forward to embrace Liz. “How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” she laughs, returning the hug. “What did you do to your hair, Maria?” she exclaims, stepping back and holding the other girl at arm’s length.
I raise a brow, not having even noticed that anything was different about Maria DeLuca. I guess it must be a girl thing.
“Oh, I got it trimmed and highlighted,” Maria answers, tossing said hair over her shoulder as the two begin studying it. “For summer. I wanted to try something new… you like?”
“I think it looks great,” Liz murmurs her approval as the two begin giggling. The bell chimes again behind me as the rest of the group enters. At the sight of Michael, Maria’s entire expression changes and she clears her throat before stepping away from Liz and folding her arms across her chest expectantly.
Michael squirms slightly, but nods her way. “DeLuca.”
“Guerin,” is her witty reply.
Michael’s gaze narrows and he reaches out to finger a strand of her blonde hair. “You did something different to your hair.”
Well, I’ll be damned.
For a long moment, no one says anything as the sounds of the dinner crowd continue around us, then Maria smiles. “You might not be as dumb as you look, after all.”
When it comes to compliments… well, it wasn’t one. Still, Michael looks extraordinarily pleased with himself. “Thanks.”
A sudden sniffling behind us grabs my attention and I turn to see Kyle wiping at his eyes. “This is just so beautiful,” he whispers, not bothering to conceal his grin when Michael accidentally steps back onto his foot.
“Where’s Alex?” Liz asks in excitement. “I figured he’d be here already.”
Maria’s expression turns sour. “He’s here, all right,” she mumbles, inclining her head towards the back of the café. “I don’t know what he’s thinking.”
We all glance over and my eyes nearly bug out of my head as I see Alex’s dark head at the same booth where my sister is currently holding court. Isabel’s usual air of sophisticated boredom has been replaced by something that resembles an actual smile.
Alex waves his arms around and she, I shit you not, laughs. I stumble back, a hand held to my heart as Kyle pretends to hold me upright. “I think I need my eyes checked,” I say out loud, squinting in their direction. “Am I seeing what I think I’m seeing?”
“Unfortunately, yes,” Maria growls. “She’s been here every day. The first time she ignored Alex, as per usual, then she randomly called him over to discuss God knows what. He won’t tell me, and believe me, I’ve tried to get it out of him. I swear to God, Max… if your bitch of a sister does anything to hurt Alex’s feelings…”
“Mar!” Liz lays a hand on her best friend’s arm as Maria takes a threatening step forward. “It isn’t Max’s fault, no matter what Isabel does. Chill out.”
“Chill out?” Maria gapes. “Liz, do you see what she’s doing? She’s using him! And he’s too damn in awe of her to see it.”
“Using him for what?” Liz sighs.
“Well…” Maria bites her lip as we all look on in fascination. “I don’t know! But she’s Isabel… she’s an icy bitch and I don’t trust her.”
“Can I get an amen,” Kyle murmurs in a low voice.
Everyone looks at me as if expecting me to be upset. After all… they are talking about a member of my family. And a part of me does want to defend my sister, but the bigger part of me wonders at her motives, as well. “Don’t look at me,” I settle for, holding my hands up defensively. “Whatever Isabel does, I try to do the opposite.”
“And as if that wasn’t bad enough,” Maria rambles on, arms flailing around as she basically forgets our existence during her diatribe to Liz on the events surrounding our absence. “Guess who’s back from band camp.”
“Band camp?” Kyle mouths to Michael, who shrugs and scowls as Maria effectively dismisses him.
Liz gasps. “No way. He’s here?”
At the statement, Michael stiffens and his expression grows even darker. He clears his throat, arms folding across his chest as Tess stifles a giggle. Maria either doesn’t hear him, or is doing a very effective job of playing hard to get.
“Yeah, he’s here and he’s called only twenty times,” she rolls her eyes. She opens her mouth to say something else, but Michael breaks into the conversation.
“Who the fuck is he?”
Acknowledging his presence once again, Maria sniffs in disdain. “Is it really necessary to curse? This is a family establishment.”
Now Kyle’s the one stifling the laugh as we all watch the storm brewing in Michael. He takes a step forward, eyes narrowing until his brows press together in the center of his forehead. “I don’t give a shit,” he says succinctly. “Who the hell is this guy?”
With a sigh of exasperation, Maria tosses her hair again before replying, “He’s just an ex-boyfriend. Nothing to worry about.”
“Who said I was worried?” he blurts out, then looks completely horrified. “Oh God… what the hell are you doing to me?” He shakes an accusing finger at her as she simply smirks. “You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you? You’re trying to see if I slipped up and cheated on you while I was in Florida. Right? There is no guy. You’re a sick, sick person Maria DeLuca!”
Kyle, Tess and I blink like the confused friends we are, but Liz giggles while Maria bats her lashes. “But Michael… a scheme like that would imply that I have a reason to be worried that you’ve cheated, when in actuality… we’re not together. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what or who you did in Palm Beach.”
“What… but you threatened to castrate me with a rusty kitchen knife if I so much as looked at another girl,” he says, scratching his head in confusion as we all start laughing.
Maria blushes. “Well… that was only because I was still on a high from our date, I guess. But really… no harm, no foul, Guerin. I get that it was a weird one-time thing. Feel free to see other people and so will I.”
He stares at her, his mouth hanging wide open as a hush of anticipation falls over our group. Then he shouts, “The hell you will!” Several heads turn our way as he takes a deep breath. “You… you’re not seeing anyone but me, damn it! Don’t push me, Maria.”
She doesn’t back down from his dark expression, but raises a brow and crosses her arms. “Oh yeah? Then prove it.”
He opens his mouth, then seems to slump. “Prove it how?”
“Right here, right now,” she says challengingly. “In front of your friends… ask me out on a date.”
“I thought I just did,” he smirks, the anger fading from his face.
“Don’t play games you won’t win, buddy boy.”
“Oh, for the love of God, ask her out already!” Tess exclaims. “My feet are hurting.”
“Then go sit down,” Michael answers through gritted teeth.
“And miss the downfall of the Mighty Michael Guerin? I don’t think so,” she laughs. “Hurry up.”
“Fine!” he throws his hands up. “Will you go out on a fucking date with me, Maria. Again,” he adds after a split second.
Maria taps her chin. “I’ll think about it.” With that, she turns away.
“What’s to think about?” Michael demands, following after her like a puppy in heat as we all shake our heads.
“That… was the saddest thing I’ve seen all week,” Kyle mourns. “Even worse than me getting drunk and yelling out about that time Tess and I shaked it like a polaroid picture on the—“
“If you want to still have a dick in ten seconds, you’ll shut up,” Tess hisses, dragging him by the ear towards the booth where Isabel and Alex are sitting.
I glance over at Liz, who hasn’t said anything during the entire scene. I find her doubled over laughing, most likely at Kyle and Michael’s expense. It brings an answering smile to my own face. “What’s so funny?” I ask, pulling her against me as we follow Tess and Kyle.
“Maria put me up to that,” she admits. “She wanted to see if it was possible to make Michael jealous. I’m not sure who won that one.”
I look over and find that our best friends are mysteriously missing. “I think they both won,” I murmur, wiggling my brows. “It’s kind of weird, isn’t it?”
“What?”
“Well… a few weeks ago, none of us really talked,” I point out the obvious. “Not that we didn’t want to… but now, we’re all pairing up and I just find it interesting. I wonder who’s next.”
As if on cue, none other than Tammy Curtis appears by the booth where Isabel and Alex are sitting. With a gasp of surprise, she exclaims loudly, “Isabel, what are you doing with this freak of nature? Ew!”
We glance at each other, then back to the scene about to unfold as Isabel’s cheeks turn red and she opens her mouth.
Last edited by Applebylicious on Sat Jul 17, 2004 12:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Deejonaise
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- Posts: 385
- Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2002 12:48 am
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<center>Chapter 32</center>
~Liz~
It’s like witnessing one of those high-speed car crashes on tv. Everything rolls in slow motion as a precursor to the hell raising carnage to follow. I watch with hitching breaths as Alex’s grin gradually fades from his lips. Isabel’s eyes, in turn, widen in surprise as she beholds Tammy, almost like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar.
This is the moment, I know. This is the moment when Isabel stomps all over my good friend’s heart and leaves it ripped and bleeding on the floor. What’s worse is that he’s right there to witness every, horrifying second that she will take to cut him down. I almost want to pitch myself across the booth table in an effort to stop the unfolding horror.
I’m only vaguely aware of Michael and Maria frozen by the counter and Kyle and Tess arrested in the booth across from Alex and Isabel. We’re all entrenched in the unfolding mini-drama before us, all waiting for the resulting explosion…looming disaster. I blindly grope out for Max’s hand and literally cringe when Isabel starts to speak.
What she says, however, is like a kick…right in the butt-Tocks. Thank you, Forrest Gump.
“Oh hey, Tams,” she breezes as if hanging with Alex Whitman is the most natural occurrence on earth, “You remember Alex, don’t you? He serenaded me at Tess’ party that time.” And then, she turns to Alex and says in this totally casual way, “What did you sing to me again…wasn’t it like Jesse’s Girl or something?” That’s it, ladies and gentlemen…angels have just officially sprouted out of my ass!
Mouths agape, six pairs of eyes zigzag to Tammy’s face, our breaths held in unison as we await her reaction. Tammy lifts one hand in evident disconcertion, as if she can’t quite figure out what’s going on. She’s in damned good company.
“Oookay,” she drawls out sardonically, “Is this the Twilight Zone or something? First Max is with Lizard Parkinson’s Disease and now you’re carousing around with Sir Geek-a-lot. Hello? Has the whole world gone insane?”
Max takes a menacing step forward, as if he means to cut Tammy down to size for the insult but I snag hold of his arm to keep him back. I’m rather interested to see how Isabel will respond to this. She’s shocked me once already but I’m half convinced it was a fluke. I’m curious as to whether or not she’s being for real or merely putting on a show.
“Tams, you don’t have to be rude, okay,” she scolds her friend softly, “Alex is a decent guy. Get off his back.”
Okay, now I’m going to have a heart attack.
“Ohmygod, I need to talk to you right now,” Tammy announces, all but dragging Isabel from the booth and ushering her off for the bathroom. “What is going on?” we hear her demand as she and Isabel disappear inside.
The moment she’s gone, however, Maria and I descend on Alex like flocking geese. “Now spill your guts,” I order calmly, bracing my hands against the tabletop, “What’s going on, Alex? What was all that about with Miss Ice Princess?”
“Yeah, what she said,” Maria cracks, joining me.
Alex tugs self-consciously at the collar of his shirt. “Do we have to do this here?” It’s then that I become aware that Max, Michael, Tess and Kyle are eavesdropping rather shamelessly. “…with an audience?”
“We’ll go to the back where it’s more private,” I concede firmly, which prompts Kyle to groan his disappointment. Tess pinches him for his trouble then favors me with a sheepish smile. As Alex slides from the booth I warn him, “You’re telling us everything.” On our way back towards the breakroom I remember to stop and brush a kiss across my boyfriend’s lips while my friend’s go on ahead. “I’ll be right back, ‘k?”
“I guess I’ll let you go,” he relents with a teasing grin, wagging a finger at me, “But you’re telling me everything when you get back.”
I make a face, rolling my eyes at how expertly he turns my words back on me; however, my parting grimace earns me a firm swat on the butt as I turn away. I lurch back around quickly to find Max whistling tunelessly, his hands shoved into his pockets in feigned innocence. I poke my tongue out at him and quickly scurry away with a giggle before he can swat me again.
I’m still grinning when I stroll into the breakroom to catch the tail end of Maria’s inquisition. “…so what does her breaking up with her boyfriend have to do with you?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” I balk, mouth agape as I stare at Alex, “Isabel broke up with her boyfriend for you?” Damn, I’m gone for a week and the whole world changes!
“No, her boyfriend dumped her,” Maria clarifies, impatiently waving me into silence, “Apparently, he got back together with his ex and dropped Miss Snooty Pants like hooker with crabs.”
“Gee, that’s a nice analogy, Maria!” Alex growls in affront.
She shrugs. “Hey…I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em.”
This moment feels mighty surreal. I’m caught between shock, dismay and laughter. “Okay, lemme get this straight,” I say, struggling with my composure, “Are you telling me that Isabel Evans, Miss I’m All That herself got…” I have to swallow back a guffaw at this point, “…dumped?”
“That’s a rodger,” Maria snickers.
“Well, you definitely don’t have to take so much glee in it,” Alex mutters crossly, “She was had her heart broken. Where’s your humanity?”
“You’re right, Alex,” I reply, straight-faced, “I’m sure she was devastated.” But I ruin the contrite declaration with a choked giggle.
“Liz, stop it,” Alex warns direly. He cuts a sharpened glance to Maria who is stifling her own laughter behind her hands. “That goes for you, too!” he barks.
“Okay…okay, we’ll lay off,” Maria relents between giggles, “But I still don’t get how you fit into all of this.”
“Well…he broke up with her here at the Crashdown,” Alex tells us.
“Here?” Maria and I echo and then from Maria alone, “Where the hell was I during this milestone event?”
“It was your day off,” Alex explains impatiently, “Now do you want to hear the story or not? I wanna be back out at the booth when Isabel gets back.” Maria and I exchange a wordless look at that but we’re wise enough to keep our comments to ourselves. Alex seems quite capable of doing us bodily harm if we say the wrong thing.
“Carry on,” I invite diplomatically.
“Anyway, she was here the other night with that Jesse guy,” Alex resumes, “I was at the counter just minding my own business and secretly watching her like I always do. And then they start to argue...not loudly or anything but just enough to let you know that there’s trouble in Paradise. You know that look girls get on their faces when they’re getting the axe?”
Both Maria and I start to nod only to shake our heads at the last minute and stare at him in befuddled confusion. How the hell should we know what that look is? Until this year we’ve been fairly invisible to the opposite sex.
“Look, I could tell she was close to crying, okay?” he huffs in exasperation, “I felt bad for her so…when he left I bought her an Alien Blast.”
And now we’re back to gaping. Our jaws have taken up permanent residence on the floor. “An Alien Blast,” Maria queries slowly, “The girl gets her heart broken into a million pieces and you offer comfort by buying her a milkshake?” She lays a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “She reamed ya good, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she was kinda uptight about it,” Alex admits, “But then as I was leaving she came and apologized to me for being such a bitch.”
“Huh?” Maria and I guffaw simultaneously.
“That’s when she told me that she broke up with her boyfriend,” he says, “We started talking and… The next thing I knew your dad was closing up the Crashdown for the night. We’ve been hanging out with each other ever since.”
“Hanging out?” Maria echoes dubiously, “Define ‘hanging out.’ You certainly haven’t been doing it here.”
“We are friends, okay,” Alex states, “That is the entire story.” He shoves to his feet with an exasperated sigh. “Now if this interview is over may I step down from the bench, Counsel? Please?”
“You’re dismissed,” Maria tells him with a wave of her hand, “But we reserve the right to call you back to the stand for further questioning.”
<center>***</center>
My dad is surprisingly cool about letting us hang at the Crash after closing.
Of course, he’s never had a problem with letting Maria, Alex and me do it whenever we wanted but you throw five new friends into the mix and I can understand why he would see the need to hover, which he does…religiously. Still, he doesn’t attempt to bust up our fun, which is a plus in and of itself.
It takes some doing but I manage to convince him to go to bed with the promise that I won’t let them stay too late and that I will lock up after their done. Once we truly have the restaurant to ourselves, Maria and Michael put in an order for pizza and then leave shortly thereafter to pick it up. Watching them maul each other as they disappeared through the doors I had to wonder if we’d see them against anytime soon.
In the meantime Kyle and Tess make music selections for my portable CD player, which helps to take our minds off the food. Max is presently propped on one of the stools at the counter with me pressed loosely between his open legs. Though my back is against his chest I don’t need to be facing him to know that he’s staring his sister down at this very moment. His body is rigid behind me and I can practically hear the irritated grinding of his teeth.
“They look like they’re getting along,” I observe objectively as Isabel laughs at whatever lame joke Alex has just shared, “Maybe this is a good thing.”
Max reacts with a noncommittal grunt. “I don’t like it,” he growls, “Her interest just seems a little too convenient if you ask me.”
I give him a playful nudge. “You and Maria and your suspicious minds,” I laugh, “Lighten up. Could it be that they just really like each other?”
“No way,” Max grouses, “You don’t know Isabel like I do. She’s a total snob. There’s no way she’d look twice at a guy like Alex unless she wanted something.”
I pivot around slowly in his arms, my brow cocked in challenge. “Are you trying to imply that a guy like Alex could never get a girl like your sister on his own merit?” I query archly, “Because you know…there are some people who would say the same thing about you and me.”
“But we’re different,” he argues, pulling me closer so he can nuzzle my nose, “I’m in love with you, Parker.”
I sigh into his mouth. “Say that again.”
“I love you, Liz,” he obliges softly, “I love you so damn much. I want to be alone with you, baby.”
“Ahh, take it to a Holiday Inn, you two!” Kyle throws at us from across the room.
Max matter-of-factly flips him the bird without ever lifting his mouth from mine. Nipping at my lips, he wisecracks, “Hey…I said nothing when you were practically giving Tess a tonsillectomy in the backseat of the jeep, now did I?” he reminds his friend, “Now shut the hell up and give me and my woman some peace.”
“All I hear is blah, blah, blah,” Kyle gestures back, earning a round of snickers from everybody present.
“Come on,” I urge Max, tugging on his hand and pulling him from the stool, “We’ll go in the back.”
“Hey, should we let you know when the pizza arrives?” Kyle calls at our backs sardonically, “Or are you just gonna skip it?” But we hardly hear him as we disappear together through the swinging doors.
Once we’re alone Max and I don’t attack one another as has become our m.o. during the last seven days but instead fall down together onto the breakroom sofa to cuddle. It feels good just to be in his arms, quiet and still…like the most perfect moment on earth. I never want it to end and, I suspect, neither does Max.
“I can’t believe we’re going to spend the night apart,” Max grumbles into my hair, his fingers coasting over the naked skin of my shoulders, “I’m not going to be able to hold you or wake up beside you. I mean…it sucks.”
So that’s why he’s in such a shitty mood. I realize his annoyance at the strange new friendship that seems to have sprung up between Alex and Isabel is just a cover. He’s mainly bent over the prospect of leaving me tonight. I can’t help but grin with the realization.
“Maax, come on…” I groan, knowing where he’s headed before he even formulates the words.
“My parents wouldn’t know you’re there at all. Their bedroom is downstairs,” he opens in hanging suggestion, fiddling with my hair as a means to convince me, “They’d never know the difference if you decided to spend the night.”
I reluctantly shake my head at the dangerous and albeit tempting suggestion, swatting away his hand. He knows the quickest way to get me to agree to anything is by playing with my hair but tonight I have to force myself not to take the bait. “Stop trying to corrupt me.”
“I wanna be with you, Liz,” he moans into my neck.
“I really wish I could,” I refuse him gently, hoping to lessen the sting, “But I know my dad is just waiting to have ‘the talk’ with me and I can’t put it off much longer.”
Max lifts his head, a befuddled frown creasing his forehead. “The talk?”
“You know the ‘I know you’re in love but you have to keep focused on your future goals’ talk,” I clarify dryly, “He already started in before he went to bed. Apparently, he and my mom don’t think I have my priorities together.” His eyes darken with uneasiness as he regards me and I give him reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’ll set them straight.”
But my words seem to have little affect. Max grows silent beside me, a myriad of expressions playing across his beautiful face before he finally pulls away entirely. I try not to show my hurt at his physical withdrawal though I am.
“What’s to set them straight about,” he asks dully, draping his forearms across his knees, “They’re right. Your priority should be preparing for your trip and not cavorting all over the countryside with me. You need to keep focused on your future, Liz.” My heart starts tripping with panic as he drags his hands down the length of his face. “Maybe I’m distracting you too much,” he mutters.
“Max?”
“Look, all I know is I’m crazy about you,” he blurts suddenly, lurching around to face me, “It might sound hokey but you’re the first thing on my mind when I open my eyes in the morning and the last thing I think about before I go to bed at night. This…this need I have to be with you is almost like an obsession for me, you know? I can’t…” He trails off into painful silence, staring at me with confused eyes as he’s visibly snared between tears and frustration. “I don’t know how the fuck we’re supposed to do this long distance thing, Parker. Every time I think about you leaving me…I can’t even breathe, you know?”
Any other time I might have been flattered by such a declaration but the sheer, blind uncertainty in his voices just fills me with dread. “What are you saying to me, Max?” I ask slowly, my words rough with the tears suddenly clogging my throat, “Are you saying you don’t want to do this anymore…that you…you wanna break up or something?”
He winces at the very idea but his next words are contrary to the agony slashed across his face. “I dunno, Parker,” he says with a tentative shrug, “Maybe I do.”
~Liz~
It’s like witnessing one of those high-speed car crashes on tv. Everything rolls in slow motion as a precursor to the hell raising carnage to follow. I watch with hitching breaths as Alex’s grin gradually fades from his lips. Isabel’s eyes, in turn, widen in surprise as she beholds Tammy, almost like a kid with her hand in the cookie jar.
This is the moment, I know. This is the moment when Isabel stomps all over my good friend’s heart and leaves it ripped and bleeding on the floor. What’s worse is that he’s right there to witness every, horrifying second that she will take to cut him down. I almost want to pitch myself across the booth table in an effort to stop the unfolding horror.
I’m only vaguely aware of Michael and Maria frozen by the counter and Kyle and Tess arrested in the booth across from Alex and Isabel. We’re all entrenched in the unfolding mini-drama before us, all waiting for the resulting explosion…looming disaster. I blindly grope out for Max’s hand and literally cringe when Isabel starts to speak.
What she says, however, is like a kick…right in the butt-Tocks. Thank you, Forrest Gump.
“Oh hey, Tams,” she breezes as if hanging with Alex Whitman is the most natural occurrence on earth, “You remember Alex, don’t you? He serenaded me at Tess’ party that time.” And then, she turns to Alex and says in this totally casual way, “What did you sing to me again…wasn’t it like Jesse’s Girl or something?” That’s it, ladies and gentlemen…angels have just officially sprouted out of my ass!
Mouths agape, six pairs of eyes zigzag to Tammy’s face, our breaths held in unison as we await her reaction. Tammy lifts one hand in evident disconcertion, as if she can’t quite figure out what’s going on. She’s in damned good company.
“Oookay,” she drawls out sardonically, “Is this the Twilight Zone or something? First Max is with Lizard Parkinson’s Disease and now you’re carousing around with Sir Geek-a-lot. Hello? Has the whole world gone insane?”
Max takes a menacing step forward, as if he means to cut Tammy down to size for the insult but I snag hold of his arm to keep him back. I’m rather interested to see how Isabel will respond to this. She’s shocked me once already but I’m half convinced it was a fluke. I’m curious as to whether or not she’s being for real or merely putting on a show.
“Tams, you don’t have to be rude, okay,” she scolds her friend softly, “Alex is a decent guy. Get off his back.”
Okay, now I’m going to have a heart attack.
“Ohmygod, I need to talk to you right now,” Tammy announces, all but dragging Isabel from the booth and ushering her off for the bathroom. “What is going on?” we hear her demand as she and Isabel disappear inside.
The moment she’s gone, however, Maria and I descend on Alex like flocking geese. “Now spill your guts,” I order calmly, bracing my hands against the tabletop, “What’s going on, Alex? What was all that about with Miss Ice Princess?”
“Yeah, what she said,” Maria cracks, joining me.
Alex tugs self-consciously at the collar of his shirt. “Do we have to do this here?” It’s then that I become aware that Max, Michael, Tess and Kyle are eavesdropping rather shamelessly. “…with an audience?”
“We’ll go to the back where it’s more private,” I concede firmly, which prompts Kyle to groan his disappointment. Tess pinches him for his trouble then favors me with a sheepish smile. As Alex slides from the booth I warn him, “You’re telling us everything.” On our way back towards the breakroom I remember to stop and brush a kiss across my boyfriend’s lips while my friend’s go on ahead. “I’ll be right back, ‘k?”
“I guess I’ll let you go,” he relents with a teasing grin, wagging a finger at me, “But you’re telling me everything when you get back.”
I make a face, rolling my eyes at how expertly he turns my words back on me; however, my parting grimace earns me a firm swat on the butt as I turn away. I lurch back around quickly to find Max whistling tunelessly, his hands shoved into his pockets in feigned innocence. I poke my tongue out at him and quickly scurry away with a giggle before he can swat me again.
I’m still grinning when I stroll into the breakroom to catch the tail end of Maria’s inquisition. “…so what does her breaking up with her boyfriend have to do with you?”
“Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa,” I balk, mouth agape as I stare at Alex, “Isabel broke up with her boyfriend for you?” Damn, I’m gone for a week and the whole world changes!
“No, her boyfriend dumped her,” Maria clarifies, impatiently waving me into silence, “Apparently, he got back together with his ex and dropped Miss Snooty Pants like hooker with crabs.”
“Gee, that’s a nice analogy, Maria!” Alex growls in affront.
She shrugs. “Hey…I calls ‘em like I sees ‘em.”
This moment feels mighty surreal. I’m caught between shock, dismay and laughter. “Okay, lemme get this straight,” I say, struggling with my composure, “Are you telling me that Isabel Evans, Miss I’m All That herself got…” I have to swallow back a guffaw at this point, “…dumped?”
“That’s a rodger,” Maria snickers.
“Well, you definitely don’t have to take so much glee in it,” Alex mutters crossly, “She was had her heart broken. Where’s your humanity?”
“You’re right, Alex,” I reply, straight-faced, “I’m sure she was devastated.” But I ruin the contrite declaration with a choked giggle.
“Liz, stop it,” Alex warns direly. He cuts a sharpened glance to Maria who is stifling her own laughter behind her hands. “That goes for you, too!” he barks.
“Okay…okay, we’ll lay off,” Maria relents between giggles, “But I still don’t get how you fit into all of this.”
“Well…he broke up with her here at the Crashdown,” Alex tells us.
“Here?” Maria and I echo and then from Maria alone, “Where the hell was I during this milestone event?”
“It was your day off,” Alex explains impatiently, “Now do you want to hear the story or not? I wanna be back out at the booth when Isabel gets back.” Maria and I exchange a wordless look at that but we’re wise enough to keep our comments to ourselves. Alex seems quite capable of doing us bodily harm if we say the wrong thing.
“Carry on,” I invite diplomatically.
“Anyway, she was here the other night with that Jesse guy,” Alex resumes, “I was at the counter just minding my own business and secretly watching her like I always do. And then they start to argue...not loudly or anything but just enough to let you know that there’s trouble in Paradise. You know that look girls get on their faces when they’re getting the axe?”
Both Maria and I start to nod only to shake our heads at the last minute and stare at him in befuddled confusion. How the hell should we know what that look is? Until this year we’ve been fairly invisible to the opposite sex.
“Look, I could tell she was close to crying, okay?” he huffs in exasperation, “I felt bad for her so…when he left I bought her an Alien Blast.”
And now we’re back to gaping. Our jaws have taken up permanent residence on the floor. “An Alien Blast,” Maria queries slowly, “The girl gets her heart broken into a million pieces and you offer comfort by buying her a milkshake?” She lays a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. “She reamed ya good, didn’t she?”
“Yeah, she was kinda uptight about it,” Alex admits, “But then as I was leaving she came and apologized to me for being such a bitch.”
“Huh?” Maria and I guffaw simultaneously.
“That’s when she told me that she broke up with her boyfriend,” he says, “We started talking and… The next thing I knew your dad was closing up the Crashdown for the night. We’ve been hanging out with each other ever since.”
“Hanging out?” Maria echoes dubiously, “Define ‘hanging out.’ You certainly haven’t been doing it here.”
“We are friends, okay,” Alex states, “That is the entire story.” He shoves to his feet with an exasperated sigh. “Now if this interview is over may I step down from the bench, Counsel? Please?”
“You’re dismissed,” Maria tells him with a wave of her hand, “But we reserve the right to call you back to the stand for further questioning.”
<center>***</center>
My dad is surprisingly cool about letting us hang at the Crash after closing.
Of course, he’s never had a problem with letting Maria, Alex and me do it whenever we wanted but you throw five new friends into the mix and I can understand why he would see the need to hover, which he does…religiously. Still, he doesn’t attempt to bust up our fun, which is a plus in and of itself.
It takes some doing but I manage to convince him to go to bed with the promise that I won’t let them stay too late and that I will lock up after their done. Once we truly have the restaurant to ourselves, Maria and Michael put in an order for pizza and then leave shortly thereafter to pick it up. Watching them maul each other as they disappeared through the doors I had to wonder if we’d see them against anytime soon.
In the meantime Kyle and Tess make music selections for my portable CD player, which helps to take our minds off the food. Max is presently propped on one of the stools at the counter with me pressed loosely between his open legs. Though my back is against his chest I don’t need to be facing him to know that he’s staring his sister down at this very moment. His body is rigid behind me and I can practically hear the irritated grinding of his teeth.
“They look like they’re getting along,” I observe objectively as Isabel laughs at whatever lame joke Alex has just shared, “Maybe this is a good thing.”
Max reacts with a noncommittal grunt. “I don’t like it,” he growls, “Her interest just seems a little too convenient if you ask me.”
I give him a playful nudge. “You and Maria and your suspicious minds,” I laugh, “Lighten up. Could it be that they just really like each other?”
“No way,” Max grouses, “You don’t know Isabel like I do. She’s a total snob. There’s no way she’d look twice at a guy like Alex unless she wanted something.”
I pivot around slowly in his arms, my brow cocked in challenge. “Are you trying to imply that a guy like Alex could never get a girl like your sister on his own merit?” I query archly, “Because you know…there are some people who would say the same thing about you and me.”
“But we’re different,” he argues, pulling me closer so he can nuzzle my nose, “I’m in love with you, Parker.”
I sigh into his mouth. “Say that again.”
“I love you, Liz,” he obliges softly, “I love you so damn much. I want to be alone with you, baby.”
“Ahh, take it to a Holiday Inn, you two!” Kyle throws at us from across the room.
Max matter-of-factly flips him the bird without ever lifting his mouth from mine. Nipping at my lips, he wisecracks, “Hey…I said nothing when you were practically giving Tess a tonsillectomy in the backseat of the jeep, now did I?” he reminds his friend, “Now shut the hell up and give me and my woman some peace.”
“All I hear is blah, blah, blah,” Kyle gestures back, earning a round of snickers from everybody present.
“Come on,” I urge Max, tugging on his hand and pulling him from the stool, “We’ll go in the back.”
“Hey, should we let you know when the pizza arrives?” Kyle calls at our backs sardonically, “Or are you just gonna skip it?” But we hardly hear him as we disappear together through the swinging doors.
Once we’re alone Max and I don’t attack one another as has become our m.o. during the last seven days but instead fall down together onto the breakroom sofa to cuddle. It feels good just to be in his arms, quiet and still…like the most perfect moment on earth. I never want it to end and, I suspect, neither does Max.
“I can’t believe we’re going to spend the night apart,” Max grumbles into my hair, his fingers coasting over the naked skin of my shoulders, “I’m not going to be able to hold you or wake up beside you. I mean…it sucks.”
So that’s why he’s in such a shitty mood. I realize his annoyance at the strange new friendship that seems to have sprung up between Alex and Isabel is just a cover. He’s mainly bent over the prospect of leaving me tonight. I can’t help but grin with the realization.
“Maax, come on…” I groan, knowing where he’s headed before he even formulates the words.
“My parents wouldn’t know you’re there at all. Their bedroom is downstairs,” he opens in hanging suggestion, fiddling with my hair as a means to convince me, “They’d never know the difference if you decided to spend the night.”
I reluctantly shake my head at the dangerous and albeit tempting suggestion, swatting away his hand. He knows the quickest way to get me to agree to anything is by playing with my hair but tonight I have to force myself not to take the bait. “Stop trying to corrupt me.”
“I wanna be with you, Liz,” he moans into my neck.
“I really wish I could,” I refuse him gently, hoping to lessen the sting, “But I know my dad is just waiting to have ‘the talk’ with me and I can’t put it off much longer.”
Max lifts his head, a befuddled frown creasing his forehead. “The talk?”
“You know the ‘I know you’re in love but you have to keep focused on your future goals’ talk,” I clarify dryly, “He already started in before he went to bed. Apparently, he and my mom don’t think I have my priorities together.” His eyes darken with uneasiness as he regards me and I give him reassuring squeeze. “Don’t worry. I’ll set them straight.”
But my words seem to have little affect. Max grows silent beside me, a myriad of expressions playing across his beautiful face before he finally pulls away entirely. I try not to show my hurt at his physical withdrawal though I am.
“What’s to set them straight about,” he asks dully, draping his forearms across his knees, “They’re right. Your priority should be preparing for your trip and not cavorting all over the countryside with me. You need to keep focused on your future, Liz.” My heart starts tripping with panic as he drags his hands down the length of his face. “Maybe I’m distracting you too much,” he mutters.
“Max?”
“Look, all I know is I’m crazy about you,” he blurts suddenly, lurching around to face me, “It might sound hokey but you’re the first thing on my mind when I open my eyes in the morning and the last thing I think about before I go to bed at night. This…this need I have to be with you is almost like an obsession for me, you know? I can’t…” He trails off into painful silence, staring at me with confused eyes as he’s visibly snared between tears and frustration. “I don’t know how the fuck we’re supposed to do this long distance thing, Parker. Every time I think about you leaving me…I can’t even breathe, you know?”
Any other time I might have been flattered by such a declaration but the sheer, blind uncertainty in his voices just fills me with dread. “What are you saying to me, Max?” I ask slowly, my words rough with the tears suddenly clogging my throat, “Are you saying you don’t want to do this anymore…that you…you wanna break up or something?”
He winces at the very idea but his next words are contrary to the agony slashed across his face. “I dunno, Parker,” he says with a tentative shrug, “Maybe I do.”
Last edited by Deejonaise on Sun Jul 18, 2004 11:20 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
Applebylicious
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 425
- Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2002 8:45 pm
Once again reiterating... this will NOT be a teenage-pregnancy fic. So no flames, please.
Hugs,
Lindsay
<center>Chapter 33</center>
~Max~
Until the words leave my lips, I don’t realize how much a large part of me has been aching to say them. Not necessarily the breaking up part… in fact, I’m kicking myself over being in an emotional enough state to have blurted it out like that.
But the part about being obsessed with her to a point that it nearly scares me at the intensity of feelings I have for her. I’m not exaggerating when I say she’s the first thing I think about in the morning, at night, and nearly every moment in between. For an eighteen-year-old guy who’s never been in a serious relationship in his life… it’s a little overwhelming.
She’s staring at me with wounded eyes that cause my chest to tighten. I open my mouth to take it all back, when she suddenly lets out a shriek and tears at the tie in her hair, allowing it to spill in a tousled wave across her shoulders as her expression darkens.
“I can’t believe you!” she yells, shocking me at the vehemence radiating from her petite body. I’ve never heard Liz Parker raise her voice, much less actually scream at me. “Have you lost your freaking mind?”
“Excuse me?” I demand stiffly, feeling slightly embarrassed by the disgusted expression on her face. Now, I’m well aware of the ridiculousness of my statement saying I wanted to break up. But I hadn’t expected her to react quite this way.
“Excuse me,” she mocks, hands on her hips as she chokes on an angry sob. “You think you get to make the final decision, Max? You decide you want to break up, so I’m just going to sit back and let you make your mind up for both of us? Well, fuck you!”
“Liz!” I shout in shock.
“Don’t you Liz me,” she snaps, walking over and turning the lock on the door with a definitive click. When she turns back, her eyes are murderous. “You know what, Max? You’ve changed me. I’m not so damn shy anymore. I know how to speak my mind, and I rather like it. And right now, I think you’re a pansy-assed mother—“
I just stand there blinking, feeling anger wash over me even as a part of me gets excited by her rage. Am I sick or what? But I can’t help feeling damn proud of her for not backing down. In the end, I whisper thickly, “Baby…”
“Shut up!” she screeches, collapsing onto the tattered couch that sits against one wall. “God… is this what it comes to? Not even a month together before he breaks up with me. God, Maria was right.”
“What did you say?” I demand, my back stiffening at the blatant revulsion in her soft tone. “What did Maria say about me?” When she doesn’t answer, I raise my voice. “Tell me, damn it!”
She hesitates before lifting her eyes to mine, an almost miserable rage lurking in the brown depths. “That you were only out for one thing, and when you got it…” She trails off meaningfully, and I stare at her as my face floods with color.
“Take that back,” I state in a shaky tone. “Take it back right now. You didn’t mean it.”
She returns my gaze coolly. “I think I do mean it. Evans.”
“Fuck!” I yell, ripping at my hair and turning away from her as I struggle to breathe in. “How can you… you’re being so… fuck!”
“We already have, and apparently it wasn’t worth repeating,” she answers stonily. “At least, not for longer than two weeks.”
“Damn you,” I hiss, turning around and striding to where she sits. Her eyes widen at the emotion in my gaze as I slap my hands down on either side of her and lean in until our faces are pressed close together. “You fucking take it back.”
Her breath hitches, but she answers with a solid, “No.”
I growl, lowering myself over her and delighting in the way her breath comes faster. Heavier. “Take it back. Now,” I whisper silkily. “Don’t fucking make me ask you again.”
“Don’t curse at me,” she whispers, lifting her hands to shove at my chest. But instead of pushing me away, as soon as her palms make contact, they begin to stroke the cotton of my shirt and the flesh underneath.
I clench my teeth, unable to keep from groaning slightly as I lower myself more on her. “You cursed at me,” I point out in a hard tone. “And accused me of using you for sex.”
“What do you expect me to think?” she demands, her hands moving to clench around my collar. “You said you wanted to break up, Max. I put two-and-two together and…”
“I said I was thinking about it,” I interrupt, feeling like a complete moron as she arches a sardonic brow. “I wouldn’t have followed through on it and you know it. I’m totally gone over you, Parker. Do you think I act like an idiot on a regular basis?” When she doesn’t answer, I laugh roughly, sitting up and running a hand through my hair as I watch her. “I’ve never fucking worried so much about what another person thinks of me. I’m just… I don’t know if I can handle this, Liz. The thought of you leaving… it just… why do you have to go?” I groan, banging my head softly against the wall as I hover above her. “I hate this.”
“You know I don’t want to go,” she whispers. “Tell me not to go, Max. Just tell me—“
I cut her off with a hot kiss that leaves us both gasping. When I tear away, I can practically feel the air vibrating with my anger and frustration. “You think it’s that easy for me?” I snap. “To just ask you to give up all your damn plans… for me? Hell no, I’m not that big of an asshole, okay?”
“I didn’t say you were!” she cries out. “I just want to be with you… I don’t care about anything else…”
“Stop,” I choke out, knowing I’m seconds away from doing… God knows what. “Shit, just don’t say anything else!”
“Max,” her voice tremors at the dark expression I know has to be plastered on my face. “I need you… don’t leave me.”
With a harsh curse I bend and take her lips, plundering her mouth as I reach down to fumble with the hook on her shorts. She moans in acquiescence, her own fingers working my zipper as we continue to writhe against each other.
“Liz… Liz…” I manage thickly, yanking down her shorts and underwear as she shoves mine down my legs. “Tell me you love me. Please… just… say it.”
“I love you,” she whispers achingly, and guides me to her entrance as I thrust inside and throw my head back at the warm, silky welcome. “Say it back.”
“You know I do,” I respond passionately. “God, you fucking own me.” Another thrust, and we both gasp with pleasure. In the back of my mind I realize that something feels wrong… she’s too hot, too wet. Then she sucks my tongue into her mouth and tangles her fingers into my hair, extracting a heavy groan from my throat. Everything slips away from my mind as we grind against each other.
“Oh God, Max…” she gasps, wrapping her legs around my waist. “Now!” I crash my lips back down to muffle her scream as she climaxes fiercely around me, wrenching my own intense orgasm from deep inside.
It’s at that moment when the afterglow of really amazing lovemaking sets in that I realize just what was wrong. “Baby,” I whisper, surprised at just how calm I feel at the knowledge pounding through my mind. “We didn’t use anything.”
She stills for a second before continuing the slight stroking down my back where my shirt sticks to my sweaty skin. “I know,” she answers softly.
“I could have gotten you pregnant,” I point out in a low murmur, raising my head to look into her eyes. She doesn’t answer, and I push the issue. In a gruff voice I admit, “I hope I got you pregnant.” Sadly, I don’t know if I’m even kidding.
She remains silent, then pulls my mouth back to hers. “It isn’t the right time,” she answers in a nearly disappointed voice.
God, is this what it’s come to? Am I really so freaking afraid to lose her… are we so afraid that we’d risk ruining a child’s life in order to be together? As she kisses me, I close my eyes and make a decision. One that could make or break my future.
“I guess we just had our first fight,” she says quietly. “It was… interesting.”
“Yeah,” I mumble, wishing I could freeze-frame this moment and never leave. Well, okay, I might have wished for something aside from a raggedy couch and a room that smells faintly of cat piss. I’m an expert at detecting cat urine, having been on the wrong side of Sophia’s ire one too many unfortunate times in the past.
“We better get dressed,” she sighs, then glances down and winces at the proof of our animalistic desire. “Well, you know what I mean.”
I laugh at the sight of my pants around my ankles, shoes and socks still on my feet. “I guess we were in a hurry to make up,” I nuzzle her nose, then turn serious. “Listen, I need to go home for a little while… but I don’t want you to think I’m bailing because of… well, because of all this.”
She looks slightly disappointed, but understanding. “It’s okay. I don’t really feel much like partying anymore, either. My head’s starting to hurt, actually. I think I’m still having side effects from the medication they gave me at the hospital.” At my worried look she smiles. “It’s completely normal, so don’t ask me if I’m okay.”
I grunt, but concede. “I’ll get rid of everyone,” I promise, standing up to yank my shorts and underwear back up my hips. She does the same and we catch each other’s eyes. My lips twitch as she lets out a nervous giggle. Then we’re both laughing hysterically. Maybe it’s a result of the tension from before, but we’re leaning against each other and tears are literally filling my eyes.
“Oh, God… I don’t know if I’m laughing or crying,” she gasps, reading my mind.
“Don’t cry,” I whisper, slowing my chuckles and tucking a finger beneath her chin. “Parker, it damn near kills me to see you cry.”
She nibbles her lips and blinks rapidly. “Oh, Max… what are we going to do?”
I open my mouth to tell her my plan, but decide against it. For now. Hedging, I say, “I really need to get back. I love you so much, you know that right?”
She nods without hesitation, sniffling as I tighten my arms around her. Turning her face into my chest, she mumbles, “I’m sorry I called you a… you-know-what.”
“What was that?” I ask in gentle amusement.
She clears her throat and raises her voice a scant inch. “I said I’m sorry I called you a… a…”
“Ohh, Wonder Woman’s lost her bravado now,” I tease, placing a tender kiss on the tip of her nose as she scowls lightly. “And for the record… I’m sorry for even kidding about us breaking up. That’s the last thing I’d ever want. I’m an idiot.”
I expect her to come back with something sweet and complimenting of me, like maybe “Oh, no honey… you’re no idiot.” Instead, I get a, “Well, at least you can admit it.”
I mock gasp, reaching back and pinching her on the butt as she squeaks. “And the imp returns,” I growl. “Good one, Parker.”
“I try,” she says airily. “And I love you, too, Max.”
“Made me wait long enough before you answered,” I grunt. “And now… I really have to leave. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“I’ll be waiting,” she whispers.
I move away, my hand on the doorknob before I glance back and see her sitting there. With a rough groan I’m back across the room and she’s in my arms. We kiss feverishly before I tear myself away. “I’m leaving now,” I breathe heavily. “Don’t you distract me.”
“I won’t,” she licks her now swollen lips. My eyes follow the movement and I let out a groan.
“You’re doing it right now!”
“Huh? Really? How?”
“Well, don’t look so proud of yourself.”
“I thought you were leaving.”
“I’ll leave when I’m good and ready,” I mumble perversely, pouting as she giggles. “I wish we lived together. This going home without you sucks a big… well... you-know-what,” I tease, enjoying the way her cheeks flush.
“Oh… just get outta here,” she waves her hand at me. “And call me.”
I laugh as I unlock the door… and walk right into my sister… and a part of her I would just rather forget ever existed. “Uh… could you kindly remove your breasts from my person?” I ask, shivering as we both jump back. “That never happened.”
“Nope,” she says quickly as we both glance at each other, look away, and take off in the opposite direction.
Hugs,
Lindsay
<center>Chapter 33</center>
~Max~
Until the words leave my lips, I don’t realize how much a large part of me has been aching to say them. Not necessarily the breaking up part… in fact, I’m kicking myself over being in an emotional enough state to have blurted it out like that.
But the part about being obsessed with her to a point that it nearly scares me at the intensity of feelings I have for her. I’m not exaggerating when I say she’s the first thing I think about in the morning, at night, and nearly every moment in between. For an eighteen-year-old guy who’s never been in a serious relationship in his life… it’s a little overwhelming.
She’s staring at me with wounded eyes that cause my chest to tighten. I open my mouth to take it all back, when she suddenly lets out a shriek and tears at the tie in her hair, allowing it to spill in a tousled wave across her shoulders as her expression darkens.
“I can’t believe you!” she yells, shocking me at the vehemence radiating from her petite body. I’ve never heard Liz Parker raise her voice, much less actually scream at me. “Have you lost your freaking mind?”
“Excuse me?” I demand stiffly, feeling slightly embarrassed by the disgusted expression on her face. Now, I’m well aware of the ridiculousness of my statement saying I wanted to break up. But I hadn’t expected her to react quite this way.
“Excuse me,” she mocks, hands on her hips as she chokes on an angry sob. “You think you get to make the final decision, Max? You decide you want to break up, so I’m just going to sit back and let you make your mind up for both of us? Well, fuck you!”
“Liz!” I shout in shock.
“Don’t you Liz me,” she snaps, walking over and turning the lock on the door with a definitive click. When she turns back, her eyes are murderous. “You know what, Max? You’ve changed me. I’m not so damn shy anymore. I know how to speak my mind, and I rather like it. And right now, I think you’re a pansy-assed mother—“
I just stand there blinking, feeling anger wash over me even as a part of me gets excited by her rage. Am I sick or what? But I can’t help feeling damn proud of her for not backing down. In the end, I whisper thickly, “Baby…”
“Shut up!” she screeches, collapsing onto the tattered couch that sits against one wall. “God… is this what it comes to? Not even a month together before he breaks up with me. God, Maria was right.”
“What did you say?” I demand, my back stiffening at the blatant revulsion in her soft tone. “What did Maria say about me?” When she doesn’t answer, I raise my voice. “Tell me, damn it!”
She hesitates before lifting her eyes to mine, an almost miserable rage lurking in the brown depths. “That you were only out for one thing, and when you got it…” She trails off meaningfully, and I stare at her as my face floods with color.
“Take that back,” I state in a shaky tone. “Take it back right now. You didn’t mean it.”
She returns my gaze coolly. “I think I do mean it. Evans.”
“Fuck!” I yell, ripping at my hair and turning away from her as I struggle to breathe in. “How can you… you’re being so… fuck!”
“We already have, and apparently it wasn’t worth repeating,” she answers stonily. “At least, not for longer than two weeks.”
“Damn you,” I hiss, turning around and striding to where she sits. Her eyes widen at the emotion in my gaze as I slap my hands down on either side of her and lean in until our faces are pressed close together. “You fucking take it back.”
Her breath hitches, but she answers with a solid, “No.”
I growl, lowering myself over her and delighting in the way her breath comes faster. Heavier. “Take it back. Now,” I whisper silkily. “Don’t fucking make me ask you again.”
“Don’t curse at me,” she whispers, lifting her hands to shove at my chest. But instead of pushing me away, as soon as her palms make contact, they begin to stroke the cotton of my shirt and the flesh underneath.
I clench my teeth, unable to keep from groaning slightly as I lower myself more on her. “You cursed at me,” I point out in a hard tone. “And accused me of using you for sex.”
“What do you expect me to think?” she demands, her hands moving to clench around my collar. “You said you wanted to break up, Max. I put two-and-two together and…”
“I said I was thinking about it,” I interrupt, feeling like a complete moron as she arches a sardonic brow. “I wouldn’t have followed through on it and you know it. I’m totally gone over you, Parker. Do you think I act like an idiot on a regular basis?” When she doesn’t answer, I laugh roughly, sitting up and running a hand through my hair as I watch her. “I’ve never fucking worried so much about what another person thinks of me. I’m just… I don’t know if I can handle this, Liz. The thought of you leaving… it just… why do you have to go?” I groan, banging my head softly against the wall as I hover above her. “I hate this.”
“You know I don’t want to go,” she whispers. “Tell me not to go, Max. Just tell me—“
I cut her off with a hot kiss that leaves us both gasping. When I tear away, I can practically feel the air vibrating with my anger and frustration. “You think it’s that easy for me?” I snap. “To just ask you to give up all your damn plans… for me? Hell no, I’m not that big of an asshole, okay?”
“I didn’t say you were!” she cries out. “I just want to be with you… I don’t care about anything else…”
“Stop,” I choke out, knowing I’m seconds away from doing… God knows what. “Shit, just don’t say anything else!”
“Max,” her voice tremors at the dark expression I know has to be plastered on my face. “I need you… don’t leave me.”
With a harsh curse I bend and take her lips, plundering her mouth as I reach down to fumble with the hook on her shorts. She moans in acquiescence, her own fingers working my zipper as we continue to writhe against each other.
“Liz… Liz…” I manage thickly, yanking down her shorts and underwear as she shoves mine down my legs. “Tell me you love me. Please… just… say it.”
“I love you,” she whispers achingly, and guides me to her entrance as I thrust inside and throw my head back at the warm, silky welcome. “Say it back.”
“You know I do,” I respond passionately. “God, you fucking own me.” Another thrust, and we both gasp with pleasure. In the back of my mind I realize that something feels wrong… she’s too hot, too wet. Then she sucks my tongue into her mouth and tangles her fingers into my hair, extracting a heavy groan from my throat. Everything slips away from my mind as we grind against each other.
“Oh God, Max…” she gasps, wrapping her legs around my waist. “Now!” I crash my lips back down to muffle her scream as she climaxes fiercely around me, wrenching my own intense orgasm from deep inside.
It’s at that moment when the afterglow of really amazing lovemaking sets in that I realize just what was wrong. “Baby,” I whisper, surprised at just how calm I feel at the knowledge pounding through my mind. “We didn’t use anything.”
She stills for a second before continuing the slight stroking down my back where my shirt sticks to my sweaty skin. “I know,” she answers softly.
“I could have gotten you pregnant,” I point out in a low murmur, raising my head to look into her eyes. She doesn’t answer, and I push the issue. In a gruff voice I admit, “I hope I got you pregnant.” Sadly, I don’t know if I’m even kidding.
She remains silent, then pulls my mouth back to hers. “It isn’t the right time,” she answers in a nearly disappointed voice.
God, is this what it’s come to? Am I really so freaking afraid to lose her… are we so afraid that we’d risk ruining a child’s life in order to be together? As she kisses me, I close my eyes and make a decision. One that could make or break my future.
“I guess we just had our first fight,” she says quietly. “It was… interesting.”
“Yeah,” I mumble, wishing I could freeze-frame this moment and never leave. Well, okay, I might have wished for something aside from a raggedy couch and a room that smells faintly of cat piss. I’m an expert at detecting cat urine, having been on the wrong side of Sophia’s ire one too many unfortunate times in the past.
“We better get dressed,” she sighs, then glances down and winces at the proof of our animalistic desire. “Well, you know what I mean.”
I laugh at the sight of my pants around my ankles, shoes and socks still on my feet. “I guess we were in a hurry to make up,” I nuzzle her nose, then turn serious. “Listen, I need to go home for a little while… but I don’t want you to think I’m bailing because of… well, because of all this.”
She looks slightly disappointed, but understanding. “It’s okay. I don’t really feel much like partying anymore, either. My head’s starting to hurt, actually. I think I’m still having side effects from the medication they gave me at the hospital.” At my worried look she smiles. “It’s completely normal, so don’t ask me if I’m okay.”
I grunt, but concede. “I’ll get rid of everyone,” I promise, standing up to yank my shorts and underwear back up my hips. She does the same and we catch each other’s eyes. My lips twitch as she lets out a nervous giggle. Then we’re both laughing hysterically. Maybe it’s a result of the tension from before, but we’re leaning against each other and tears are literally filling my eyes.
“Oh, God… I don’t know if I’m laughing or crying,” she gasps, reading my mind.
“Don’t cry,” I whisper, slowing my chuckles and tucking a finger beneath her chin. “Parker, it damn near kills me to see you cry.”
She nibbles her lips and blinks rapidly. “Oh, Max… what are we going to do?”
I open my mouth to tell her my plan, but decide against it. For now. Hedging, I say, “I really need to get back. I love you so much, you know that right?”
She nods without hesitation, sniffling as I tighten my arms around her. Turning her face into my chest, she mumbles, “I’m sorry I called you a… you-know-what.”
“What was that?” I ask in gentle amusement.
She clears her throat and raises her voice a scant inch. “I said I’m sorry I called you a… a…”
“Ohh, Wonder Woman’s lost her bravado now,” I tease, placing a tender kiss on the tip of her nose as she scowls lightly. “And for the record… I’m sorry for even kidding about us breaking up. That’s the last thing I’d ever want. I’m an idiot.”
I expect her to come back with something sweet and complimenting of me, like maybe “Oh, no honey… you’re no idiot.” Instead, I get a, “Well, at least you can admit it.”
I mock gasp, reaching back and pinching her on the butt as she squeaks. “And the imp returns,” I growl. “Good one, Parker.”
“I try,” she says airily. “And I love you, too, Max.”
“Made me wait long enough before you answered,” I grunt. “And now… I really have to leave. I’ll call you later, okay?”
“I’ll be waiting,” she whispers.
I move away, my hand on the doorknob before I glance back and see her sitting there. With a rough groan I’m back across the room and she’s in my arms. We kiss feverishly before I tear myself away. “I’m leaving now,” I breathe heavily. “Don’t you distract me.”
“I won’t,” she licks her now swollen lips. My eyes follow the movement and I let out a groan.
“You’re doing it right now!”
“Huh? Really? How?”
“Well, don’t look so proud of yourself.”
“I thought you were leaving.”
“I’ll leave when I’m good and ready,” I mumble perversely, pouting as she giggles. “I wish we lived together. This going home without you sucks a big… well... you-know-what,” I tease, enjoying the way her cheeks flush.
“Oh… just get outta here,” she waves her hand at me. “And call me.”
I laugh as I unlock the door… and walk right into my sister… and a part of her I would just rather forget ever existed. “Uh… could you kindly remove your breasts from my person?” I ask, shivering as we both jump back. “That never happened.”
“Nope,” she says quickly as we both glance at each other, look away, and take off in the opposite direction.
Last edited by Applebylicious on Sun Jul 18, 2004 1:24 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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Deejonaise
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- Posts: 385
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<center>Chapter 34</center>
~Liz~
I arrive on Max’s doorstep at twenty minutes to six. I know I’m early for dinner but Max doesn’t appear bothered by that when he wrenches open the door and finds me standing there. “Baby…” is all he breathes before tugging me into his arms for a hot, “hello” kiss. His tongue traces the seam of my lips before slipping inside, filling my mouth with the taste of him.
I’m a little surprised by his boldness, especially considering the fact we’re standing right in the middle of his parents’ foyer but that reality doesn’t temper Max’s passion one iota. When he finally breaks the kiss I’m pretty breathless and very shaky. He cradles my head against his chest and I gladly stay there.
“I love you,” he whispers into my hair.
Suspicious of his peculiar demeanor, I rear back out of his arms with narrowed eyes. I recall the last time I came to dinner and how he dragged me around the back of the house for a torrid make-out session. I also remember the reason why. Thinking, perhaps, that I’m facing a repeat performance tonight I crane my neck in a search for the others.
“What are you doing?” Max asks with a bemused smirk.
“Aren’t Michael, Kyle and Tess here?” I wonder.
He shakes his head. “Nope.”
“Isabel?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Another ex-girlfriend?”
He smacks my lips with a sound kiss. “Parker, you’re such a silly girl,” he teases.
“And you’re acting very loopy,” I return glibly, “Is it because you’re nervous?”
Really, I can’t imagine that he would be. After all, he’s the one that boldly snuck into my room at two o’clock in the morning to inform me of his sudden epiphany. He was blowing off his scholarship to LSU to go to London with me.
So…oookay. At first I’d been too stunned to really say anything. I was still half asleep and rather groggy not to mention a little confused to find him in my bedroom. Once I had shaken off the fog I still didn’t get the full import of what he was telling me because he’d talked a mile a minute. I finally got it on the third explanation and after that I was just…speechless.
Eventually, however, I managed to unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth. But rather than telling him that the entire idea was crazy or being noble I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him so hard we fell out of my bed. Afterwards we’d surfed the Net most of the night gathering any and all information we could find on the cost of living in Europe. By the five o’clock that morning our decision was made. We were going to Europe together.
Now I notice Max’s jumpy manner and darting eyes and I wonder if he’s changed his mind. “No,” he says before I can even open my mouth to say a word, “I haven’t changed my mind. Don’t even think that. It’s just…”
“Just…?”
“I can guarantee you that my dad is going to flip out,” he informs me direly, “You thought your last dinner here was bad…compared to tonight that one will seem like a day at Disney Land.”
“I’m prepared,” I tell him, inhaling a fortifying breath, “I mean, if we can win over your parents then my folks should be a snap, right?”
“Right.” But he doesn’t sound anymore convinced than I do.
Disheartened and wanting to restore some of the good humor he had when I arrived, I ask, “Hey, you wanna piece of good news?”
“You just saved a load of money by switching to Geico?” he jokes lamely.
“No, smart ass,” I retort with an eyeroll, “I got my period this afternoon.”
He looks less than thrilled by that disclosure. Any other teenage boy would be doing backwards handstands into the living room right now but Max just sighs, looking quite resolved and reserved. “Are you feeling okay?” His hand drifts down to scrape across my belly. “No cramps or anything?”
“I feel fine,” I tell him, searching his face for some clue as to what’s he’s thinking right now, “Are you okay with it? You seem…I dunno…disappointed…”
“No…I’m okay with it,” he says gruffly, “Of course I’m not disappointed. It’s great…I’m okay. I’m totally okay.” And then he sighs again, before taking hold of my hand to lead me further into the house, “Come on…let’s get this over with.”
“Wait a minute,” I say, hanging back, “I need you to help me get the stuff out of my car.”
He frowns. “Stuff? What stuff?”
I can feel my cheeks heat at the question and I drop my gaze to the top button on his shirt, unable to look him in the eyes right then. “I…uh…just did a few charts and graphs to…”
“Charts and graphs?” he interrupts on a bubble of laughter, “On what exactly?” Detecting his laughter, I level him with narrowed eyes and tweak his nipple for making fun of me. “Ow!” he yelps, leaping away and rubbing his injured part, “You pinched me!”
“Feel my wrath,” I warn in mock menace, “I just thought your parents would feel better about…well everything if we showed them that we actually put some thought into the decision.”
He seems to think that’s a practical idea and even commends me for thinking of it but when we walk out to the car and he sees the glossy, 9x12 portfolios I’ve printed up for each of us he dissolves into laughter all over again. “Statistics?” he chortles, “You’ve printed up statistics, too?” He thumbs through the pages of one portfolio. “Cost of living, rate of unemployment, crime? Baby, when did you have time to do all this?”
“I worked on it after you left this morning,” I whisper, not knowing whether I should be offended by his laughter or join in with him, “I couldn’t sleep and… I just wanted to be prepared for them, you know?”
He’s still grinning at me but I can see now that his eyes are aglow with pride and love. “C’mere, woman,” he murmurs, pulling me into his arms, “Forget the charts and the graphs and the statistics, okay.” He tosses them back through the open door of my car and quickly stifles my answering protest over the action. “We’re doing this, Parker,” he declares sternly, “Whether they agree or not…we’re doing this, baby.”
“Max, they’re going to hate me,” I groan into his chest, “I don’t want them to hate me.”
The feel of his lips sifting through my hair comforts me immensely. He surrounds me not only with his arms, but his protective spirit as well. Nothing can go wrong as long as Max is holding me in his arms. “They’re not going to hate you,” he replies softly, “I expect them to be upset and there will probably be some yelling but…they won’t hate you. Nobody could hate you, Parker…not if they really knew you.”
It’s those soothing words that keep me from shaking all over as Max leads me back into the house, without the benefit of my charts mind you, to join his mother in the kitchen. The moment she spots us Diane Evans smiles warmly at me and wipes her hands on a nearby dishtowel so she can enfold me in a hug. As I return her embrace I wonder if she’d be nearly as friendly if she knew I was planning to take her son with me to Europe.
“Liz, sweetheart,” she gushes with broad smiles, “I’m so glad you could make it. I really hope this is going to be a regular occurrence.” She levels Max with a meaningful glance.
“Mom, please,” Max groans in embarrassment as his mother returns to the stove, “What’s for dinner?”
“Hmm…a little bit of this, a little bit of that,” she replies vaguely, “I’m trying out a new recipe I saw on television.”
Judging by Max’s answering wince and grimace I’m thinking that’s not a good thing. “There aren’t any nuts in it, is there?” Max jokes, “One allergy attack is about all I can stand.” When his mother’s back is turned I mouth at him to “kiss my ass.” Undaunted, he winks back audaciously.
“Oh, I did hear about that,” she tells me as she stirs a big pot of…something, “Max told me that you had to go to the hospital. That’s so awful, dear.” She tosses me a smile over her shoulder; “Rest assured that I’m serving nothing with nuts tonight.”
“I’m sorry if I’ve put you through any trouble about that,” I mumble with a grimace, “About what happened in Palm Beach…that was really a fluke. I’m…just really embarrassed about that whole thing. I’m usually really, really careful about what I eat but that night I was just having such a good time that I didn’t pay attention.”
“Don’t you wear a bracelet or something like that,” Mrs. Evans inquires and I can detect some mild scolding in her tone. She flicks me with a sincere glance. “If you hadn’t before then you might want to consider doing so now. You want to take better care of yourself, “Liz.”
“Yes, maam,” I reply dutifully, cheeks aflame.
I suppose Max must sense my embarrassment because he comes to stand beside me and loops his arm around my shoulder. “Mom, we can handle it, alright,” he tells her, his tone slightly censorious, “Enough with the lectures.”
“I’m not lecturing,” she says mildly, “I just worry for you kids.” Apparently, satisfied with whatever she’s cooking she replaces the lid on the pot and then turns to face us. “You know, I was talking with your parents, Liz, and they told me--,”
“Oh, here we go,” Max groans in interruption, rolling his eyes.
“And,” his mother presses on glibly after shooting Max a look, “We’re all in agreement that perhaps you and Max are moving a little fast. Your parents told me that you hadn’t had an attack in years. It just seems that, when you and Max are together, you tend to distract each other...”
My heart drops down into my stomach like a stone, Max goes incredibly stiff beside me. “Mom, I thought we agreed--,”
“I don’t mean anything against you personally, Liz,” she rushes on, “In fact, I think you’re a very delightful girl. I can tell that Max is very smitten with you and I can see why but, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. You’ve only been dating a short time and already things seem so…so intense between the two of you.”
With each word she says my throat aches with the strain of holding back my tears. Logically, I understand that she’s not saying she hates me. Quite the opposite actually but that doesn’t negate the fact that she’s clearly uncomfortable with our relationship. Plus, I know if she’s got issues about how fast we’re moving then the news that Max is moving with me to Europe is going to send her straight into orbit.
“Mom, I really don’t appreciate this,” Max declares with quiet anger, “It isn’t fair. I wanted Liz to come over to dinner because I thought it would give you a chance to know her better. Now I wish I hadn’t bothered. I didn’t know you were going to attack her.”
“Max, please,” Mrs. Evans scoffs, “I’m hardly attacking her.” She looks at me then and I pray devoutly that the floor will open and swallow me whole. “Liz, do you feel attacked?”
“Um…no maam,” I croak, but by this time it must be pretty evident I’m near tears.
“Oh, sweetheart,” Mrs. Evans croons, crossing the distance between us to give me yet another hug, “This has nothing to do with how I feel about you. I like you. I hope you and Max stay together for a long, long time.”
I answer with a jerky nod at her disclosure, sniffling back my tears. She rears back to give me a gentle smile while Max hovers like a pit bull primed for attack. “Liz, this is not about you and Max being together,” she say gently, “I actually like the effect you have on him.” She slants a wry glance over to Max who answers with a surly glare. Shaking her head, she sighs. “I’m just concerned.”
“Why?” Max bursts out impatiently, “You just said that you know Liz makes me happy so why should it matter if we’re moving fast? She’s obviously the right one for me, Mom! You know it and I know it but, most importantly, Liz knows it. We belong together.”
“He’s right, Mrs. Evans,” I speak up quietly, “I love your son very much. I’ve…never felt this way about anyone before.”
“I don’t doubt that you do love him,” Mrs. Evans tells me, “Or that he loves you. But the fact remains that you both are just beginning your lives and those lives are going in two very different directions.” Max and I exchange a wordless glance as she continues, “Your parents already told me that you’re planning to study abroad for the next year and I’m sure you’re aware that Max has a scholarship to LSU to play football.”
“Yes, maam,” I confirm with a slow nod.
“We don’t keep secrets from each other, Mom,” Max growls tartly, “So what’s your point?”
“My point is that long distance relationships are very hard to maintain and they rarely last,” his mother retorts crisply, “And don’t you take that tone with me, mister. I know you think you have all the answers but I’ve been where you are and I’ve had twice your life experience. It would have been hard enough if Liz were in a different state but she’ll be in a different country, Max, on a completely different continent! You can’t just pretend it doesn’t matter!”
I’m cringing by this point and that’s before Max has his complete meltdown. “Don’t you think I know that already?” he explodes, “I’m not a kid anymore, Mom! I don’t need you figuring out my life for me! God!”
“Hey, what’s with all the shouting?” Mr. Evans’ entrance is just the topper to the atomic sized explosion that just went down in the kitchen but I know it’s too late to escape now.
“Just forget it!” Max rants, throwing up his hands in frustration, “I’ll let Mom fill you in, since she has all the answers and all. Come on, Liz!” He grabs hold of my hand and starts dragging me from the kitchen so that I have little choice but to stare after his parents in sheepish apology. “We’ll be in the living room!” he announces as he stomps out, “Lemme know when dinner is ready…that is if you don’t want her to leave altogether.” He storms from the kitchen then with me in tow, despite the fact his mother is calling after him.
Once we’ve found refuge outside the door, Max pulls me into his arms and for the first time I realize just how badly his entire body is shaking. I slide my hands into the indentations at the small of his back as he presses his forehead to mine and groans a small sigh. “This isn’t going to be good, is it?” he asks grimly.
I favor him with a queasy smile, shaking my head. “Not good at all.”
~Liz~
I arrive on Max’s doorstep at twenty minutes to six. I know I’m early for dinner but Max doesn’t appear bothered by that when he wrenches open the door and finds me standing there. “Baby…” is all he breathes before tugging me into his arms for a hot, “hello” kiss. His tongue traces the seam of my lips before slipping inside, filling my mouth with the taste of him.
I’m a little surprised by his boldness, especially considering the fact we’re standing right in the middle of his parents’ foyer but that reality doesn’t temper Max’s passion one iota. When he finally breaks the kiss I’m pretty breathless and very shaky. He cradles my head against his chest and I gladly stay there.
“I love you,” he whispers into my hair.
Suspicious of his peculiar demeanor, I rear back out of his arms with narrowed eyes. I recall the last time I came to dinner and how he dragged me around the back of the house for a torrid make-out session. I also remember the reason why. Thinking, perhaps, that I’m facing a repeat performance tonight I crane my neck in a search for the others.
“What are you doing?” Max asks with a bemused smirk.
“Aren’t Michael, Kyle and Tess here?” I wonder.
He shakes his head. “Nope.”
“Isabel?”
“Uh-uh.”
“Another ex-girlfriend?”
He smacks my lips with a sound kiss. “Parker, you’re such a silly girl,” he teases.
“And you’re acting very loopy,” I return glibly, “Is it because you’re nervous?”
Really, I can’t imagine that he would be. After all, he’s the one that boldly snuck into my room at two o’clock in the morning to inform me of his sudden epiphany. He was blowing off his scholarship to LSU to go to London with me.
So…oookay. At first I’d been too stunned to really say anything. I was still half asleep and rather groggy not to mention a little confused to find him in my bedroom. Once I had shaken off the fog I still didn’t get the full import of what he was telling me because he’d talked a mile a minute. I finally got it on the third explanation and after that I was just…speechless.
Eventually, however, I managed to unglue my tongue from the roof of my mouth. But rather than telling him that the entire idea was crazy or being noble I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him so hard we fell out of my bed. Afterwards we’d surfed the Net most of the night gathering any and all information we could find on the cost of living in Europe. By the five o’clock that morning our decision was made. We were going to Europe together.
Now I notice Max’s jumpy manner and darting eyes and I wonder if he’s changed his mind. “No,” he says before I can even open my mouth to say a word, “I haven’t changed my mind. Don’t even think that. It’s just…”
“Just…?”
“I can guarantee you that my dad is going to flip out,” he informs me direly, “You thought your last dinner here was bad…compared to tonight that one will seem like a day at Disney Land.”
“I’m prepared,” I tell him, inhaling a fortifying breath, “I mean, if we can win over your parents then my folks should be a snap, right?”
“Right.” But he doesn’t sound anymore convinced than I do.
Disheartened and wanting to restore some of the good humor he had when I arrived, I ask, “Hey, you wanna piece of good news?”
“You just saved a load of money by switching to Geico?” he jokes lamely.
“No, smart ass,” I retort with an eyeroll, “I got my period this afternoon.”
He looks less than thrilled by that disclosure. Any other teenage boy would be doing backwards handstands into the living room right now but Max just sighs, looking quite resolved and reserved. “Are you feeling okay?” His hand drifts down to scrape across my belly. “No cramps or anything?”
“I feel fine,” I tell him, searching his face for some clue as to what’s he’s thinking right now, “Are you okay with it? You seem…I dunno…disappointed…”
“No…I’m okay with it,” he says gruffly, “Of course I’m not disappointed. It’s great…I’m okay. I’m totally okay.” And then he sighs again, before taking hold of my hand to lead me further into the house, “Come on…let’s get this over with.”
“Wait a minute,” I say, hanging back, “I need you to help me get the stuff out of my car.”
He frowns. “Stuff? What stuff?”
I can feel my cheeks heat at the question and I drop my gaze to the top button on his shirt, unable to look him in the eyes right then. “I…uh…just did a few charts and graphs to…”
“Charts and graphs?” he interrupts on a bubble of laughter, “On what exactly?” Detecting his laughter, I level him with narrowed eyes and tweak his nipple for making fun of me. “Ow!” he yelps, leaping away and rubbing his injured part, “You pinched me!”
“Feel my wrath,” I warn in mock menace, “I just thought your parents would feel better about…well everything if we showed them that we actually put some thought into the decision.”
He seems to think that’s a practical idea and even commends me for thinking of it but when we walk out to the car and he sees the glossy, 9x12 portfolios I’ve printed up for each of us he dissolves into laughter all over again. “Statistics?” he chortles, “You’ve printed up statistics, too?” He thumbs through the pages of one portfolio. “Cost of living, rate of unemployment, crime? Baby, when did you have time to do all this?”
“I worked on it after you left this morning,” I whisper, not knowing whether I should be offended by his laughter or join in with him, “I couldn’t sleep and… I just wanted to be prepared for them, you know?”
He’s still grinning at me but I can see now that his eyes are aglow with pride and love. “C’mere, woman,” he murmurs, pulling me into his arms, “Forget the charts and the graphs and the statistics, okay.” He tosses them back through the open door of my car and quickly stifles my answering protest over the action. “We’re doing this, Parker,” he declares sternly, “Whether they agree or not…we’re doing this, baby.”
“Max, they’re going to hate me,” I groan into his chest, “I don’t want them to hate me.”
The feel of his lips sifting through my hair comforts me immensely. He surrounds me not only with his arms, but his protective spirit as well. Nothing can go wrong as long as Max is holding me in his arms. “They’re not going to hate you,” he replies softly, “I expect them to be upset and there will probably be some yelling but…they won’t hate you. Nobody could hate you, Parker…not if they really knew you.”
It’s those soothing words that keep me from shaking all over as Max leads me back into the house, without the benefit of my charts mind you, to join his mother in the kitchen. The moment she spots us Diane Evans smiles warmly at me and wipes her hands on a nearby dishtowel so she can enfold me in a hug. As I return her embrace I wonder if she’d be nearly as friendly if she knew I was planning to take her son with me to Europe.
“Liz, sweetheart,” she gushes with broad smiles, “I’m so glad you could make it. I really hope this is going to be a regular occurrence.” She levels Max with a meaningful glance.
“Mom, please,” Max groans in embarrassment as his mother returns to the stove, “What’s for dinner?”
“Hmm…a little bit of this, a little bit of that,” she replies vaguely, “I’m trying out a new recipe I saw on television.”
Judging by Max’s answering wince and grimace I’m thinking that’s not a good thing. “There aren’t any nuts in it, is there?” Max jokes, “One allergy attack is about all I can stand.” When his mother’s back is turned I mouth at him to “kiss my ass.” Undaunted, he winks back audaciously.
“Oh, I did hear about that,” she tells me as she stirs a big pot of…something, “Max told me that you had to go to the hospital. That’s so awful, dear.” She tosses me a smile over her shoulder; “Rest assured that I’m serving nothing with nuts tonight.”
“I’m sorry if I’ve put you through any trouble about that,” I mumble with a grimace, “About what happened in Palm Beach…that was really a fluke. I’m…just really embarrassed about that whole thing. I’m usually really, really careful about what I eat but that night I was just having such a good time that I didn’t pay attention.”
“Don’t you wear a bracelet or something like that,” Mrs. Evans inquires and I can detect some mild scolding in her tone. She flicks me with a sincere glance. “If you hadn’t before then you might want to consider doing so now. You want to take better care of yourself, “Liz.”
“Yes, maam,” I reply dutifully, cheeks aflame.
I suppose Max must sense my embarrassment because he comes to stand beside me and loops his arm around my shoulder. “Mom, we can handle it, alright,” he tells her, his tone slightly censorious, “Enough with the lectures.”
“I’m not lecturing,” she says mildly, “I just worry for you kids.” Apparently, satisfied with whatever she’s cooking she replaces the lid on the pot and then turns to face us. “You know, I was talking with your parents, Liz, and they told me--,”
“Oh, here we go,” Max groans in interruption, rolling his eyes.
“And,” his mother presses on glibly after shooting Max a look, “We’re all in agreement that perhaps you and Max are moving a little fast. Your parents told me that you hadn’t had an attack in years. It just seems that, when you and Max are together, you tend to distract each other...”
My heart drops down into my stomach like a stone, Max goes incredibly stiff beside me. “Mom, I thought we agreed--,”
“I don’t mean anything against you personally, Liz,” she rushes on, “In fact, I think you’re a very delightful girl. I can tell that Max is very smitten with you and I can see why but, I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t worried. You’ve only been dating a short time and already things seem so…so intense between the two of you.”
With each word she says my throat aches with the strain of holding back my tears. Logically, I understand that she’s not saying she hates me. Quite the opposite actually but that doesn’t negate the fact that she’s clearly uncomfortable with our relationship. Plus, I know if she’s got issues about how fast we’re moving then the news that Max is moving with me to Europe is going to send her straight into orbit.
“Mom, I really don’t appreciate this,” Max declares with quiet anger, “It isn’t fair. I wanted Liz to come over to dinner because I thought it would give you a chance to know her better. Now I wish I hadn’t bothered. I didn’t know you were going to attack her.”
“Max, please,” Mrs. Evans scoffs, “I’m hardly attacking her.” She looks at me then and I pray devoutly that the floor will open and swallow me whole. “Liz, do you feel attacked?”
“Um…no maam,” I croak, but by this time it must be pretty evident I’m near tears.
“Oh, sweetheart,” Mrs. Evans croons, crossing the distance between us to give me yet another hug, “This has nothing to do with how I feel about you. I like you. I hope you and Max stay together for a long, long time.”
I answer with a jerky nod at her disclosure, sniffling back my tears. She rears back to give me a gentle smile while Max hovers like a pit bull primed for attack. “Liz, this is not about you and Max being together,” she say gently, “I actually like the effect you have on him.” She slants a wry glance over to Max who answers with a surly glare. Shaking her head, she sighs. “I’m just concerned.”
“Why?” Max bursts out impatiently, “You just said that you know Liz makes me happy so why should it matter if we’re moving fast? She’s obviously the right one for me, Mom! You know it and I know it but, most importantly, Liz knows it. We belong together.”
“He’s right, Mrs. Evans,” I speak up quietly, “I love your son very much. I’ve…never felt this way about anyone before.”
“I don’t doubt that you do love him,” Mrs. Evans tells me, “Or that he loves you. But the fact remains that you both are just beginning your lives and those lives are going in two very different directions.” Max and I exchange a wordless glance as she continues, “Your parents already told me that you’re planning to study abroad for the next year and I’m sure you’re aware that Max has a scholarship to LSU to play football.”
“Yes, maam,” I confirm with a slow nod.
“We don’t keep secrets from each other, Mom,” Max growls tartly, “So what’s your point?”
“My point is that long distance relationships are very hard to maintain and they rarely last,” his mother retorts crisply, “And don’t you take that tone with me, mister. I know you think you have all the answers but I’ve been where you are and I’ve had twice your life experience. It would have been hard enough if Liz were in a different state but she’ll be in a different country, Max, on a completely different continent! You can’t just pretend it doesn’t matter!”
I’m cringing by this point and that’s before Max has his complete meltdown. “Don’t you think I know that already?” he explodes, “I’m not a kid anymore, Mom! I don’t need you figuring out my life for me! God!”
“Hey, what’s with all the shouting?” Mr. Evans’ entrance is just the topper to the atomic sized explosion that just went down in the kitchen but I know it’s too late to escape now.
“Just forget it!” Max rants, throwing up his hands in frustration, “I’ll let Mom fill you in, since she has all the answers and all. Come on, Liz!” He grabs hold of my hand and starts dragging me from the kitchen so that I have little choice but to stare after his parents in sheepish apology. “We’ll be in the living room!” he announces as he stomps out, “Lemme know when dinner is ready…that is if you don’t want her to leave altogether.” He storms from the kitchen then with me in tow, despite the fact his mother is calling after him.
Once we’ve found refuge outside the door, Max pulls me into his arms and for the first time I realize just how badly his entire body is shaking. I slide my hands into the indentations at the small of his back as he presses his forehead to mine and groans a small sigh. “This isn’t going to be good, is it?” he asks grimly.
I favor him with a queasy smile, shaking my head. “Not good at all.”
-
Applebylicious
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 425
- Joined: Fri Sep 06, 2002 8:45 pm
<center>Chapter 35</center>
~Max~
I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t arrange dinner parties anymore. The last one turned out to be a disaster, and this one doesn’t appear to be shaping up any better. At least this time around, Isabel isn’t being her annoyingly bitchy self.
In fact, ever since we’ve been back from Florida, she seems to be an entirely different person. It’s as if being dumped knocked her off the pedestal she saw herself on, and she’s beginning to realize her past behavior as mean-spirited and nasty.
I glance over at my sister, and she gives me a surprisingly compassionate glance as we all sit down to dinner. I turn my head towards Liz, who looks nervous and edgy, playing with her napkin as my father says the prayer. That could have something to do with the fact that my mother invited her parents to dinner as well, probably realizing our intentions.
We had been up in my room, going over some last minute arguments to use in case things got heated… well, when things got heated… and exchanging reassuring kisses and embraces. When we walked back downstairs, it was to meet the sight of all four of our parents waiting for us. If I hadn’t been in front of Liz, I have no doubt she would have missed the last step completely, but as it is she was able to hold onto me while squeaking out a surprised hello to her parents. The nerves coming off of her are nearly tangible, and I have no doubt that they all know something is going on.
I can’t deny I’m feeling pretty damn anxious myself, as I keep catching my father and Mr. Parker’s suspicious eyes. Swallowing, I reach beneath the table and squeeze Liz’s hand, bringing it to rest on my thigh as our gazes meet.
“So, this is nice,” my mother smiles, taking a sip of her requisite glass of chardonnay. “It’s such a pleasure to finally be able to meet you both. Liz is a delightful young woman, and we’re so delighted that Max has found someone like her.”
Liz’s cheeks flush as everyone’s attention moves towards her. “Thank you Mrs Evans,” she murmurs with a polite smile, holding my hand in a clammy death grip. I stifle the grimace of pain and clear my throat lightly, rubbing her hand down my thigh in an attempt to gain her attention. She inhales and loosens her grasp.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, as well,” Mrs. Parker smiles. “I must admit, Liz’s father and I were quite surprised by her relationship with Max. You must understand, we’ve always known Liz’s friends, and she’d never mentioned Max before. So it came as quite a shock when we were introduced at graduation.”
“Oh my God,” Liz whispers, covering her face in embarrassment. I glance sharply at her as her breathing quickens, wondering if she’s going to erupt into an attack right there in the middle of dinner. Hell, this is the first act. It’s not anywhere near as bad as it’s going to get.
“Max seems like a wonderful young man,” Mrs. Parker continues, apparently oblivious to her red-faced daughter. “We are slightly concerned at the speed of which they’re taking their relationship…”
“Mom!” Liz snaps, causing several surprised eyes to turn her way. She forces a bright smile and tries to change the topic. “Mrs. Evans, this lamb is delicious. I’ve never had anything like it, except for at my favorite Italian restaurant.”
Mom smiles. “Thank you, sweetheart. Actually, it’s a new recipe that I borrowed from Max’s grandmother. She was born in Florence and lived there for several years before coming to the states and marrying Max’s grandfather.”
“How romantic,” Mrs. Parker sighs. “I’ve always wanted to visit Italy, it seems so beautiful. Of course, Jeff has a deathly fear of flying, don’t you darling?” She winks as Liz’s father grunts in response.
“I just don’t like flying coach,” he mumbles, dragging a snicker from both my father and I.
“Oh… Jeff!” Mrs. Parker rolls her eyes. “I guess I’ll just have to live vicariously through Elizabeth. I told you about her program in London, Diane, and I’m absolutely thrilled at the chance for her.”
“London?” my father speaks up, his eyes narrowing. “This is the first I’ve heard of this.”
I take a deep breath, catching Liz’s terrified gaze. Here we go. “Actually—“
I’m cut off as my mother breaks in with a laugh. “Phillip, of course you’ve heard about it. I just told you upstairs after I talked to Nancy!”
“Max is going to LSU to play football,” my father says bluntly, and all conversation ceases as a sudden tension falls over the table. “How are the two of you planning to have a relationship when both of your goals are so different?”
“Dad!” I grit out, glaring at him as Isabel slumps in her seat, a hand held to her head. “Liz and I are together, regardless of our goals.”
Okay. That might not have been the best thing to say, as four pairs of eyes immediately fly to me and pin me in my seat. I pick up my glass, chugging the iced-tea and wishing it was a glass of my mom’s wine.
“And how will that work, Maxwell?” my father asks, his gaze intent as he steeples his fingers together on top of the table. He appears very calm and in control, which I realize is the worst possible sign there could be.
“Max,” Liz whispers after a long moment, and I glance at her to see her pale face.
“Lizzie, you both should realize that it’s going to be hard enough to keep up with your studies as it is,” Mr. Parker tags on, a deep frown creasing his forehead as he watches the interaction. “You’ve only been dating each other for two weeks… you’ve got to think about what’s important here.”
“Dad, I can’t believe you,” Liz says tightly, placing her fork down and positively glowering at her father.
“Lizzie, what your father’s trying to say,” Mrs. Parker interrupts quickly, “is that it’s important that you concentrate on your future. I understand you want to go off and have fun… that’s completely normal, sweetie, but you’ve got to prioritize.”
“I don’t believe this!” Liz whispers, looking close to tears again. “This is all about Palm Beach, isn’t it? Because I went and you and Daddy didn’t want me to.”
I shift uncomfortably, but everyone else seems enraptured. Mrs. Parker looks taken aback, but admits, “It has us concerned, baby. You’ve never made such rash decisions, and we just want to make sure you’re concentrating on the right things right now, like—“
“Like my future,” she finishes bitterly. “Well, I hate to break it to you all… but Max is my future!”
Before anyone can respond, I join in with, “And Liz is mine. Which is why I’m going with her.”
Complete silence echoes around us. I reach for her hand again and this time, we’re both squeezing each other to death. I can practically hear my heart beating a thick cadence in my head as everyone stares.
Isabel clears her throat and quietly leaves the table. I glare at her, resisting the urge to cry out, “Deserter!” Unfortunately, no one notices her absence. My mother stares at me with a mixture of understanding and complete horror, if that’s possible. I can’t quite bring myself to meet my father’s gaze, but I can hear his teeth grinding from across the table.
I prepare myself for an outburst, but to my surprise he answers in that same cool tone. “Just where are you planning to go, Max?”
I finally risk a glance in his direction and my stomach plummets. His voice might not show it, but my father is beyond the realm of pissed off. I have no illusions that he knows exactly what I’m saying… but wants to force me into admitting it out loud in a way that can’t be misconstrued. Then he’ll take me apart. I clear my throat and repeat, “I’m going to London with Liz. I love her, and I don’t want to be away from her. Like Mrs. Parker said, this is a wonderful opportunity for her and—“
“A wonderful opportunity?” he bellows, and all the women cringe as he slams his glass down with a sharp crack. Ignoring my mother’s quiet utterance of his name, he leans forward. “And just what the hell is Louisiana State, Maxwell? Do you think Nick Saban signs just anyone on a whim?”
Setting my jaw, I prepare to defend myself. “Dad, I’ve made my decision and I think you should listen before you start getting angry—“
“I’m angry when you act like a child!” he thunders. “This is something we’ve planned from the get-go, Max. You’ve wanted to play ball at LSU for years… and now that you’re on your way, you’re willing to throw it all away because of some—“
“Don’t say it,” I warn in a dark tone, well aware of Liz shaking beside me.
“Max,” my mother corrects me sharply. “Don’t speak to your father in that tone. And Phillip, you should know better as well. I’m disappointed in the both of you. We have guests, and beyond that… this is something that could have been approached in a much better way.”
“How could I have approached it any differently?” I exclaim. “You’ve all made it very clear how you feel about Liz and my relationship. What you don’t seem to understand, is that it’s our decision. We want this, and so we’re going to do it. End of story.”
“You don’t know what you want!” my father answers. “Less than a month ago you were training for the fall season, and now you’re going to give it all up to do… what?”
I open my mouth to reply, and that’s when I realize something frightening… I have no idea what I plan to do once I’m in London. Sure, I’ve entertained fantasies of pursuing a literary career, but truthfully… it’s always been just that. A fantasy. One that seems daunting in the face of reality.
What do I know about poetry and literature, aside from a hidden interest and a high school education? All I know how to do, and do well, is play football. A sick feeling begins to rise in my gut as I feel everyone’s eyes on me. I look up, and meet Liz’s concerned gaze.
“Well?” my father repeats, one thick brow raised. “I’m waiting, Max. Just how do you plan on making a living in London, after giving up a full-ride at one of the most prominent universities in the country? Or have you even considered that?”
“Of course I have,” I snap, even as embarrassed color highlights my face. “It’s only for a year, Dad. Why can’t I wait a year before tying myself down to a four year sports scholarship?”
“That has to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard you say,” he replies, and at this point he’s literally shaking. “You think you can just delay this? You think there aren’t hundreds… thousands of recruits just waiting to slide in and take your place? Wake up, Maxwell! I thought this was what you wanted! I thought you loved football.”
“I do!” I cry out, feeling completely torn as I’m pierced with accusing stares all around the table. I can feel Liz’s most strongly, and it breaks my heart to be in this position. “I love to play ball, Dad… but there are more important things,” I whisper.
“More important than an education?” my mother adds in softly. “Honey… I told you before, you and Liz are just starting out. There’s plenty of time… you have your entire lives to spend together. All we want is for you to take four years and spend it learning and creating a career. That isn’t too much to ask.”
“Four years away from Liz might as well be a lifetime,” I answer gruffly. I don’t care that I sound melodramatic, at this point I feel as though I’m being ripped in two. A part of me acknowledges that I want to go to LSU and play football, get my education… but all of me wants Liz.
“The bottom line is that you both are acting irrational,” Mr. Parker says crisply. “You’ve come up with a half-cocked plan and you have absolutely no way to back it up, is that what you’re telling me?”
“No!” I exclaim at the exact moment Liz yells out, “We have charts!”
“Charts?” Mr. Parker frowns. “Liz, this isn’t a joke. You can’t just coordinate what will happen for a year of your life onto a chart.”
“But…I…” she stammers, glancing around wildly at all the frowning faces. “I researched for hours and I think I have some very valid points, if you’d just listen to us—“
“Liz, you’ll only be in Europe for a year,” Mrs. Parker interrupts. “How can you allow Max to give up his scholarship just so you can both stay together? Why not have a long-distance relationship?”
Liz remains silent, tears of guilt filling her eyes as she’s blasted with a glance from my father. “I…” her voice cracks and I jump up from the table, completely furious.
“That’s enough,” I speak succinctly. “I won’t sit here while you attack us for being honest. We could have taken the easy way out and simply left, but we wanted to tell you the truth. We felt you deserved to know… but we don’t deserve this. And I won’t take it from any of you.”
In the wake of my declaration, silence reigns. I help Liz out of her seat and wrap my arm around her as our parents stare in silence. “Go ahead and discuss it all you want,” I add as disdainfully as possible, “but it won’t change anything. Now I’m going to take my girlfriend home, because she doesn’t feel comfortable here right now, and to be honest… neither do I.”
“Max,” my mother whispers in surprise, but I ignore the hurt emanating from her voice as I lead Liz away.
“Oh my God, Max,” she whispers, trembling as I pick up her purse and open the door. “Oh my God.”
As we step onto the front porch, I spin her around and kiss her furiously. “This doesn’t change anything,” I state in a fierce whisper. “Look at me… it doesn’t change anything. If they can’t understand…”
“Maybe they’re right,” she interrupts me on a choked sob. “Max, when you said you wanted to come with me… I should have asked you if you were ready. I just… I was so happy you wanted to that I… God, now I’m the one asking you to give up your dreams!”
“No, Liz,” I say desperately, ignoring the tiny part of me that thinks maybe she’s right. Not that I wouldn’t give up everything for her… but somewhere, deep inside, I recognize that we haven’t solved anything. We’ve only switched places. But right now, I can’t think of that. I can only think of how much I want her… need her. “I’m going with you,” I murmur, framing her face and catching the tear that threatens to slip down her cheek.
“Oh, Max,” she sighs raggedly, burying her face in my neck as I wrap my arms around her and crush her to my chest.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I murmur, even as a part of me wonders how
~Max~
I’m starting to think that I shouldn’t arrange dinner parties anymore. The last one turned out to be a disaster, and this one doesn’t appear to be shaping up any better. At least this time around, Isabel isn’t being her annoyingly bitchy self.
In fact, ever since we’ve been back from Florida, she seems to be an entirely different person. It’s as if being dumped knocked her off the pedestal she saw herself on, and she’s beginning to realize her past behavior as mean-spirited and nasty.
I glance over at my sister, and she gives me a surprisingly compassionate glance as we all sit down to dinner. I turn my head towards Liz, who looks nervous and edgy, playing with her napkin as my father says the prayer. That could have something to do with the fact that my mother invited her parents to dinner as well, probably realizing our intentions.
We had been up in my room, going over some last minute arguments to use in case things got heated… well, when things got heated… and exchanging reassuring kisses and embraces. When we walked back downstairs, it was to meet the sight of all four of our parents waiting for us. If I hadn’t been in front of Liz, I have no doubt she would have missed the last step completely, but as it is she was able to hold onto me while squeaking out a surprised hello to her parents. The nerves coming off of her are nearly tangible, and I have no doubt that they all know something is going on.
I can’t deny I’m feeling pretty damn anxious myself, as I keep catching my father and Mr. Parker’s suspicious eyes. Swallowing, I reach beneath the table and squeeze Liz’s hand, bringing it to rest on my thigh as our gazes meet.
“So, this is nice,” my mother smiles, taking a sip of her requisite glass of chardonnay. “It’s such a pleasure to finally be able to meet you both. Liz is a delightful young woman, and we’re so delighted that Max has found someone like her.”
Liz’s cheeks flush as everyone’s attention moves towards her. “Thank you Mrs Evans,” she murmurs with a polite smile, holding my hand in a clammy death grip. I stifle the grimace of pain and clear my throat lightly, rubbing her hand down my thigh in an attempt to gain her attention. She inhales and loosens her grasp.
“It’s nice to finally meet you, as well,” Mrs. Parker smiles. “I must admit, Liz’s father and I were quite surprised by her relationship with Max. You must understand, we’ve always known Liz’s friends, and she’d never mentioned Max before. So it came as quite a shock when we were introduced at graduation.”
“Oh my God,” Liz whispers, covering her face in embarrassment. I glance sharply at her as her breathing quickens, wondering if she’s going to erupt into an attack right there in the middle of dinner. Hell, this is the first act. It’s not anywhere near as bad as it’s going to get.
“Max seems like a wonderful young man,” Mrs. Parker continues, apparently oblivious to her red-faced daughter. “We are slightly concerned at the speed of which they’re taking their relationship…”
“Mom!” Liz snaps, causing several surprised eyes to turn her way. She forces a bright smile and tries to change the topic. “Mrs. Evans, this lamb is delicious. I’ve never had anything like it, except for at my favorite Italian restaurant.”
Mom smiles. “Thank you, sweetheart. Actually, it’s a new recipe that I borrowed from Max’s grandmother. She was born in Florence and lived there for several years before coming to the states and marrying Max’s grandfather.”
“How romantic,” Mrs. Parker sighs. “I’ve always wanted to visit Italy, it seems so beautiful. Of course, Jeff has a deathly fear of flying, don’t you darling?” She winks as Liz’s father grunts in response.
“I just don’t like flying coach,” he mumbles, dragging a snicker from both my father and I.
“Oh… Jeff!” Mrs. Parker rolls her eyes. “I guess I’ll just have to live vicariously through Elizabeth. I told you about her program in London, Diane, and I’m absolutely thrilled at the chance for her.”
“London?” my father speaks up, his eyes narrowing. “This is the first I’ve heard of this.”
I take a deep breath, catching Liz’s terrified gaze. Here we go. “Actually—“
I’m cut off as my mother breaks in with a laugh. “Phillip, of course you’ve heard about it. I just told you upstairs after I talked to Nancy!”
“Max is going to LSU to play football,” my father says bluntly, and all conversation ceases as a sudden tension falls over the table. “How are the two of you planning to have a relationship when both of your goals are so different?”
“Dad!” I grit out, glaring at him as Isabel slumps in her seat, a hand held to her head. “Liz and I are together, regardless of our goals.”
Okay. That might not have been the best thing to say, as four pairs of eyes immediately fly to me and pin me in my seat. I pick up my glass, chugging the iced-tea and wishing it was a glass of my mom’s wine.
“And how will that work, Maxwell?” my father asks, his gaze intent as he steeples his fingers together on top of the table. He appears very calm and in control, which I realize is the worst possible sign there could be.
“Max,” Liz whispers after a long moment, and I glance at her to see her pale face.
“Lizzie, you both should realize that it’s going to be hard enough to keep up with your studies as it is,” Mr. Parker tags on, a deep frown creasing his forehead as he watches the interaction. “You’ve only been dating each other for two weeks… you’ve got to think about what’s important here.”
“Dad, I can’t believe you,” Liz says tightly, placing her fork down and positively glowering at her father.
“Lizzie, what your father’s trying to say,” Mrs. Parker interrupts quickly, “is that it’s important that you concentrate on your future. I understand you want to go off and have fun… that’s completely normal, sweetie, but you’ve got to prioritize.”
“I don’t believe this!” Liz whispers, looking close to tears again. “This is all about Palm Beach, isn’t it? Because I went and you and Daddy didn’t want me to.”
I shift uncomfortably, but everyone else seems enraptured. Mrs. Parker looks taken aback, but admits, “It has us concerned, baby. You’ve never made such rash decisions, and we just want to make sure you’re concentrating on the right things right now, like—“
“Like my future,” she finishes bitterly. “Well, I hate to break it to you all… but Max is my future!”
Before anyone can respond, I join in with, “And Liz is mine. Which is why I’m going with her.”
Complete silence echoes around us. I reach for her hand again and this time, we’re both squeezing each other to death. I can practically hear my heart beating a thick cadence in my head as everyone stares.
Isabel clears her throat and quietly leaves the table. I glare at her, resisting the urge to cry out, “Deserter!” Unfortunately, no one notices her absence. My mother stares at me with a mixture of understanding and complete horror, if that’s possible. I can’t quite bring myself to meet my father’s gaze, but I can hear his teeth grinding from across the table.
I prepare myself for an outburst, but to my surprise he answers in that same cool tone. “Just where are you planning to go, Max?”
I finally risk a glance in his direction and my stomach plummets. His voice might not show it, but my father is beyond the realm of pissed off. I have no illusions that he knows exactly what I’m saying… but wants to force me into admitting it out loud in a way that can’t be misconstrued. Then he’ll take me apart. I clear my throat and repeat, “I’m going to London with Liz. I love her, and I don’t want to be away from her. Like Mrs. Parker said, this is a wonderful opportunity for her and—“
“A wonderful opportunity?” he bellows, and all the women cringe as he slams his glass down with a sharp crack. Ignoring my mother’s quiet utterance of his name, he leans forward. “And just what the hell is Louisiana State, Maxwell? Do you think Nick Saban signs just anyone on a whim?”
Setting my jaw, I prepare to defend myself. “Dad, I’ve made my decision and I think you should listen before you start getting angry—“
“I’m angry when you act like a child!” he thunders. “This is something we’ve planned from the get-go, Max. You’ve wanted to play ball at LSU for years… and now that you’re on your way, you’re willing to throw it all away because of some—“
“Don’t say it,” I warn in a dark tone, well aware of Liz shaking beside me.
“Max,” my mother corrects me sharply. “Don’t speak to your father in that tone. And Phillip, you should know better as well. I’m disappointed in the both of you. We have guests, and beyond that… this is something that could have been approached in a much better way.”
“How could I have approached it any differently?” I exclaim. “You’ve all made it very clear how you feel about Liz and my relationship. What you don’t seem to understand, is that it’s our decision. We want this, and so we’re going to do it. End of story.”
“You don’t know what you want!” my father answers. “Less than a month ago you were training for the fall season, and now you’re going to give it all up to do… what?”
I open my mouth to reply, and that’s when I realize something frightening… I have no idea what I plan to do once I’m in London. Sure, I’ve entertained fantasies of pursuing a literary career, but truthfully… it’s always been just that. A fantasy. One that seems daunting in the face of reality.
What do I know about poetry and literature, aside from a hidden interest and a high school education? All I know how to do, and do well, is play football. A sick feeling begins to rise in my gut as I feel everyone’s eyes on me. I look up, and meet Liz’s concerned gaze.
“Well?” my father repeats, one thick brow raised. “I’m waiting, Max. Just how do you plan on making a living in London, after giving up a full-ride at one of the most prominent universities in the country? Or have you even considered that?”
“Of course I have,” I snap, even as embarrassed color highlights my face. “It’s only for a year, Dad. Why can’t I wait a year before tying myself down to a four year sports scholarship?”
“That has to be the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever heard you say,” he replies, and at this point he’s literally shaking. “You think you can just delay this? You think there aren’t hundreds… thousands of recruits just waiting to slide in and take your place? Wake up, Maxwell! I thought this was what you wanted! I thought you loved football.”
“I do!” I cry out, feeling completely torn as I’m pierced with accusing stares all around the table. I can feel Liz’s most strongly, and it breaks my heart to be in this position. “I love to play ball, Dad… but there are more important things,” I whisper.
“More important than an education?” my mother adds in softly. “Honey… I told you before, you and Liz are just starting out. There’s plenty of time… you have your entire lives to spend together. All we want is for you to take four years and spend it learning and creating a career. That isn’t too much to ask.”
“Four years away from Liz might as well be a lifetime,” I answer gruffly. I don’t care that I sound melodramatic, at this point I feel as though I’m being ripped in two. A part of me acknowledges that I want to go to LSU and play football, get my education… but all of me wants Liz.
“The bottom line is that you both are acting irrational,” Mr. Parker says crisply. “You’ve come up with a half-cocked plan and you have absolutely no way to back it up, is that what you’re telling me?”
“No!” I exclaim at the exact moment Liz yells out, “We have charts!”
“Charts?” Mr. Parker frowns. “Liz, this isn’t a joke. You can’t just coordinate what will happen for a year of your life onto a chart.”
“But…I…” she stammers, glancing around wildly at all the frowning faces. “I researched for hours and I think I have some very valid points, if you’d just listen to us—“
“Liz, you’ll only be in Europe for a year,” Mrs. Parker interrupts. “How can you allow Max to give up his scholarship just so you can both stay together? Why not have a long-distance relationship?”
Liz remains silent, tears of guilt filling her eyes as she’s blasted with a glance from my father. “I…” her voice cracks and I jump up from the table, completely furious.
“That’s enough,” I speak succinctly. “I won’t sit here while you attack us for being honest. We could have taken the easy way out and simply left, but we wanted to tell you the truth. We felt you deserved to know… but we don’t deserve this. And I won’t take it from any of you.”
In the wake of my declaration, silence reigns. I help Liz out of her seat and wrap my arm around her as our parents stare in silence. “Go ahead and discuss it all you want,” I add as disdainfully as possible, “but it won’t change anything. Now I’m going to take my girlfriend home, because she doesn’t feel comfortable here right now, and to be honest… neither do I.”
“Max,” my mother whispers in surprise, but I ignore the hurt emanating from her voice as I lead Liz away.
“Oh my God, Max,” she whispers, trembling as I pick up her purse and open the door. “Oh my God.”
As we step onto the front porch, I spin her around and kiss her furiously. “This doesn’t change anything,” I state in a fierce whisper. “Look at me… it doesn’t change anything. If they can’t understand…”
“Maybe they’re right,” she interrupts me on a choked sob. “Max, when you said you wanted to come with me… I should have asked you if you were ready. I just… I was so happy you wanted to that I… God, now I’m the one asking you to give up your dreams!”
“No, Liz,” I say desperately, ignoring the tiny part of me that thinks maybe she’s right. Not that I wouldn’t give up everything for her… but somewhere, deep inside, I recognize that we haven’t solved anything. We’ve only switched places. But right now, I can’t think of that. I can only think of how much I want her… need her. “I’m going with you,” I murmur, framing her face and catching the tear that threatens to slip down her cheek.
“Oh, Max,” she sighs raggedly, burying her face in my neck as I wrap my arms around her and crush her to my chest.
“Everything’s going to be fine,” I murmur, even as a part of me wonders how
Last edited by Applebylicious on Tue Jul 20, 2004 12:22 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Deejonaise
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- Posts: 385
- Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2002 12:48 am
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<center>Chapter 36</center>
~Liz~
Max doesn’t take me home because, quite honestly, I don’t want to go.
I’m just reeling right now.
Max loves football. Max wants LSU. All this time it’s been something I’ve been convinced was forced upon him. He didn’t really want it… But then I saw his face at the dinner table and I knew. He did. He does. And now I feel like the world’s most selfish bitch for not pushing him to stay when he told me his plan. How could I miss his true feelings about it? I feel like my world is coming apart.
Max takes us to a roadside motel on the other side of town. We’ve said nothing to each other during the twenty-minute trip beyond me asking him to stop so I can purchase a few feminine products and a bottle of Midol. All I want to do right now is crash…
When we’re finally alone in the motel room I scramble away from him, feeling the tension between us thicken considerably. He wants to talk it out. The desire is all over him but I just can’t verbalize anything. I know if I try I’m going to start crying and never stop.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I say, almost running for the bathroom.
“Liz?” he calls after me gruffly. I stop but I don’t turn around. “Don’t you think we should talk about it?”
“Nothing to say,” I mumble right before I shut myself away in the bathroom.
That’s when I finally cry, not just because dinner was a disaster and Max and I will possibly be split apart but because I don’t even know what the hell I want anymore…besides Max. He’s the only thing I’m sure of.
I keep thinking that love shouldn’t be this hard. Max and I have only been together a couple of weeks and already it seems unbearable. So many hard and painful decisions. It seems unnaturally cruel to have found this amazing, mind blowing connection with someone only to be forced apart in the end. I don’t know what’s worse, leaving him or watching him sacrifice his dreams just to be with me.
The shower does little to ease the tension from my body. I stand there beneath the lukewarm spray, my forehead pressed against the cold tiles as I try not to think of what mold and mildew must be growing there. There’s little more I can do than obsess over tonight’s events and wonder what I can do to make things right. But rather than gaining answers I only grow more and more confused instead.
When Max steps into the shower with me I’m just…relieved. I might have run from him before but I need him at the same time. The second he puts his arms around me I turn into his chest and start crying all over again.
“You…You should go to LSU,” I sniffle into his chest, “I…I hate f-feeling like I’m…h-holding y-you back!”
He tips up my chin, regarding me sadly. “Don’t you think that’s my decision to make?”
“I don’t want you to give up your dreams for me,” I mutter in misery.
“You’re my dream,” he says, “Nothing else matters.” But that’s not completely true. He knows it. I know it.
We stand together for a long, awkward moment until the ridiculousness of our situation finally dawns on me. In a rather ironic twist, we’re probably having one of the most profound conversations of our entire relationship and we’re in the shower as we have it…stark naked. The realization must hit Max at about the same time because he smirks at me.
“Can we shelve this discussion for a later time maybe…” he asks.
“…and agree to disagree for now?” I conclude with an impish smile.
“Done.”
We seek out each other’s lips in a relieved kiss, tongues touching. Max slides his hands up and down the length of my arms, bringing me closer against him so that I can feel his erection rise between us. I smile into his mouth, rearing back a little. “Um…period, remember?”
“I’m not trying to do anything,” he laughs thickly, “But I can’t help how my body reacts to you. It…just happens.”
“Here,” I say, turning him about and ripping open the motel bar of soap, “I’m going to take your mind off of what you can’t have and wash your back.”
“How is that supposed to help take my mind off of it,” he grumbles, “Your nipples will be poking me in my back the entire time. Don’t you know what a turn on that is? I’ll hardly be distracted from what I can’t have.”
“Better my nipples poking into your back than your cock poking into my butt,” I return glibly, earning a choked laugh from Max, “Now that’s distracting.”
When we emerge from the shower a long time later we wrinkly from so much time under the steamy spray but incredibly clean as well. Only my boyfriend can turn something as mundane as showering into a naughty adventure. We climb between the sheets together, me in only a pair of panties and Max completely naked but as I cuddle up against his chest we don’t pick up where we left off in the shower.
“If I do decide to go to LSU and this is a big if,” he emphasizes after we’ve lain in the dark silence for some minutes, “We can always keep in touch, Liz. There’s AOL instant messenger, email, the phone…plus we’ll see each other during the holidays. And I’m sure I could find a way out to London to visit you…”
I lift up onto my elbow and stare at him in the dimness. His expression is inscrutable right now but there’s no mistaking the glistening in his eyes. They sparkle and dance as he looks up at me. “Are you saying you want to go?”
“I…I don’t know what I’m saying,” he sighs in frustration.
“Max,” I urge him in a rumbling tone, “We’ve never bullshitted each other before so don’t start now. Come on and tell me the truth. Do you wanna go to LSU or not?”
“I…do,” he confesses miserably.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” I demand softly.
“Because I want to be with you more,” he says simply. The bed creaks and groans quietly as he shifts onto his side to regard me. “Liz…I’ve loved football my whole life. Everything about the game…the physicality, the teamwork, the adrenaline rush… It’s always been about doing something I love and enjoy. It’s been a game but for my dad… It’s about winning and being the best.
“Ever since I was little he always pushed me,” Max continues glumly, “I had to train harder and stay at practice longer. I had to be the best. I had to win. But the thing was that…football was just a part of me, but it wasn’t all of me. I didn’t want it to consume my life.”
“And what about LSU?” I ask him, “Do you want that or is it your dad?”
“I want that,” he tells me fervently, “I want the chance to play but at the same time I don’t want to give into this ideal my dad seems to have for me. I want to play the game on my own terms, you know?”
“Max…”
He presses his finger to my lips, silencing whatever he thinks I’m about to say. The action is ironic and unnecessary because, at this second, I have no idea what to say or do. “Liz, when we started going out I began second-guessing everything in my life,” he whispers, “Suddenly, football wasn’t so important anymore or writing or anything else I thought meant something. All that mattered to me was you…that is all that still matters. If I have LSU and I don’t have you I’m still fucked…and in a far worse way.”
“Don’t you know I feel the same way about you,” I utter emotionally, “I’ve been planning my major since I was in the sixth grade, Max. I have eaten, slept and breathed engineering ever since. All that ever mattered to me was my studies and getting into a good school. I never had time for a relationship and, until you; I didn’t think I wanted one. Now I don’t know if I even care about being an engineer anymore. I only want to be with you. I love you so much.”
He murmurs my name and cradles the small of my back, bringing me close so that he can brush kisses all over my face. “Baby…baby…I love you, too.” As he finds my lips and I melt into his touch I’m vaguely aware of the fact that we haven’t solved or settled anything yet and still I feel infinitely better about the whole thing.
I finally feel like we’re going to be okay.
<center>***</center>
I wake up the next morning sprawled across Max’s back. His shoulder blade digs into my cheek. But I’m unwilling to relinquish my spot. In fact, I climb onto his body fully so that I’m lying lengthwise over him. You’ve got to be a woman to understand this but having his buttocks pressed into my tender, bloated abdomen right now is oddly comforting.
Even with my faint cramping, it’s highly probable I would have fallen back asleep within seconds had Max not chosen that moment to shift beneath me and pull my arm over his shoulder. He laces his fingers through mine and carries my hand down beneath his body to curl around his waiting erection.
He says nothing and neither do I but I suspect he’s fully awake at this point. Moaning softly, he shifts again so my hand isn’t pinned beneath his body and the mattress and I’m free to stroke him at length. I do so eagerly, garnering as much pleasure from stroking his fevered skin as he does.
“I wish I could be inside you,” he sighs when my lips find the nape of his neck.
“Me, too,” I murmur into his skin, “This will have to do I guess.”
“Hmm…” he says but he hardly sounds disappointed. There’s a definite smile in his voice as our hands crest his cock together.
Max helps me find the rhythm he wants, murmuring hoarse words of encouragement as I follow the prompts of his hand. Our breathing becomes deep and harsh, hips grinding as our hands gain momentum. All too soon his jerking against me and groaning out my name, his semen spurting warmly between my fingers.
When he’s finally stopped shaking Max’s reaches over onto the nightstand for a tissue to wipe my hand and then shifts onto his back to face me. “Um…good morning?” he greets somewhat sheepishly, bringing the sheet up to his nose to ward off morning breath.
I laugh at the action but ultimately do the same. “Good morning,” I reply gruffly, “What time is it?”
“Eight o’clock,” he says, following up with the exact thought that tumbles through my mind right then, “Our parents are going to kill us.”
“Probably,” I reply without much concern.
“So…uh…did we ever decide what we were going to do?” he asks tentatively.
“Uh…I think we got distracted,” I blush, thinking of the evening we spent having outercourse for lack of a better word.
“Distracted,” he chuckles, “That’s the word for it.”
“I’d better call Maria,” I sigh reluctantly, “She’s probably rabid by now.” Really, I know I should call my parents because I know they must be worried sick. However, they are also the last people I want to talk to…not after last night’s humiliating fiasco.
Maria’s cell seems to ring endlessly before she finally puts me out of my misery and picks up. “Do you have any idea how much hot water you’re in,” she hisses the moment she clicks on.
“I guess that means my folks are giving you grief,” I groan.
“Your dad has like permanently attached himself at my hip,” she complains, “Lucky my phone was on vibrate or he would have been all over me. I had to run to the women’s bathroom just to answer because that’s the one place he won’t follow me.”
“Is it really bad?”
“Are you fucking kidding? Everybody is freaking out,” she yells at me, “Max’s parents are here at the Crashdown right now. Where are you guys?”
“The Desert Bloom Motel by the old highway,” I reply tiredly, “We’ll probably be home soon anyway. We…um…just needed to talk some stuff out.”
“Isabel told us what happened last night,” she says.
“Us?” I cry, “Who’s us? What does that mean? Does the whole world know?”
“I told you everyone was freaking out,” she stresses tartly, “We thought you and Max had run off and eloped or something. Ohmygod! You didn’t run off and elope, did you?”
“No,” I sigh in exasperation, even while at that very second I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it. We’re certainly old enough but then I suppose that would solve nothing. In fact, it would complicate our circumstances all the more.
“So what should I tell your parents?” Maria asks, reclaiming my attention, “I’m telling you, Lizzie, they are foaming at the mouth. It’s getting a little crazy here. I heard Mr. Evans say something about calling the Sheriff.”
“Don’t let them do that!” I cry in horror, “God! Tell them we’ll be there in half an hour.”
Once I hang up Max is right there waiting for word, having eavesdropped on my side of the conversation the entire time. “Well?” he prods impatiently when I don’t begin immediately, “What’s going on?”
“Your parents are at the Crashdown,” I whisper with a shake of my head, “They’re ready to put out a missing persons report, Max.” Max mutters something like “fucking ludicrous” under his breath but I can’t be sure. “I told Maria that we would be there in half an hour,” I inform him hesitantly, “What are we going to tell them when we get there? We never decided anything, did we?”
Max opens his mouth to reply only to snap it back closed a second later. “I don’t know, Parker,” he mutters after a moment, “I really don’t know.”
~Liz~
Max doesn’t take me home because, quite honestly, I don’t want to go.
I’m just reeling right now.
Max loves football. Max wants LSU. All this time it’s been something I’ve been convinced was forced upon him. He didn’t really want it… But then I saw his face at the dinner table and I knew. He did. He does. And now I feel like the world’s most selfish bitch for not pushing him to stay when he told me his plan. How could I miss his true feelings about it? I feel like my world is coming apart.
Max takes us to a roadside motel on the other side of town. We’ve said nothing to each other during the twenty-minute trip beyond me asking him to stop so I can purchase a few feminine products and a bottle of Midol. All I want to do right now is crash…
When we’re finally alone in the motel room I scramble away from him, feeling the tension between us thicken considerably. He wants to talk it out. The desire is all over him but I just can’t verbalize anything. I know if I try I’m going to start crying and never stop.
“I’m going to take a shower,” I say, almost running for the bathroom.
“Liz?” he calls after me gruffly. I stop but I don’t turn around. “Don’t you think we should talk about it?”
“Nothing to say,” I mumble right before I shut myself away in the bathroom.
That’s when I finally cry, not just because dinner was a disaster and Max and I will possibly be split apart but because I don’t even know what the hell I want anymore…besides Max. He’s the only thing I’m sure of.
I keep thinking that love shouldn’t be this hard. Max and I have only been together a couple of weeks and already it seems unbearable. So many hard and painful decisions. It seems unnaturally cruel to have found this amazing, mind blowing connection with someone only to be forced apart in the end. I don’t know what’s worse, leaving him or watching him sacrifice his dreams just to be with me.
The shower does little to ease the tension from my body. I stand there beneath the lukewarm spray, my forehead pressed against the cold tiles as I try not to think of what mold and mildew must be growing there. There’s little more I can do than obsess over tonight’s events and wonder what I can do to make things right. But rather than gaining answers I only grow more and more confused instead.
When Max steps into the shower with me I’m just…relieved. I might have run from him before but I need him at the same time. The second he puts his arms around me I turn into his chest and start crying all over again.
“You…You should go to LSU,” I sniffle into his chest, “I…I hate f-feeling like I’m…h-holding y-you back!”
He tips up my chin, regarding me sadly. “Don’t you think that’s my decision to make?”
“I don’t want you to give up your dreams for me,” I mutter in misery.
“You’re my dream,” he says, “Nothing else matters.” But that’s not completely true. He knows it. I know it.
We stand together for a long, awkward moment until the ridiculousness of our situation finally dawns on me. In a rather ironic twist, we’re probably having one of the most profound conversations of our entire relationship and we’re in the shower as we have it…stark naked. The realization must hit Max at about the same time because he smirks at me.
“Can we shelve this discussion for a later time maybe…” he asks.
“…and agree to disagree for now?” I conclude with an impish smile.
“Done.”
We seek out each other’s lips in a relieved kiss, tongues touching. Max slides his hands up and down the length of my arms, bringing me closer against him so that I can feel his erection rise between us. I smile into his mouth, rearing back a little. “Um…period, remember?”
“I’m not trying to do anything,” he laughs thickly, “But I can’t help how my body reacts to you. It…just happens.”
“Here,” I say, turning him about and ripping open the motel bar of soap, “I’m going to take your mind off of what you can’t have and wash your back.”
“How is that supposed to help take my mind off of it,” he grumbles, “Your nipples will be poking me in my back the entire time. Don’t you know what a turn on that is? I’ll hardly be distracted from what I can’t have.”
“Better my nipples poking into your back than your cock poking into my butt,” I return glibly, earning a choked laugh from Max, “Now that’s distracting.”
When we emerge from the shower a long time later we wrinkly from so much time under the steamy spray but incredibly clean as well. Only my boyfriend can turn something as mundane as showering into a naughty adventure. We climb between the sheets together, me in only a pair of panties and Max completely naked but as I cuddle up against his chest we don’t pick up where we left off in the shower.
“If I do decide to go to LSU and this is a big if,” he emphasizes after we’ve lain in the dark silence for some minutes, “We can always keep in touch, Liz. There’s AOL instant messenger, email, the phone…plus we’ll see each other during the holidays. And I’m sure I could find a way out to London to visit you…”
I lift up onto my elbow and stare at him in the dimness. His expression is inscrutable right now but there’s no mistaking the glistening in his eyes. They sparkle and dance as he looks up at me. “Are you saying you want to go?”
“I…I don’t know what I’m saying,” he sighs in frustration.
“Max,” I urge him in a rumbling tone, “We’ve never bullshitted each other before so don’t start now. Come on and tell me the truth. Do you wanna go to LSU or not?”
“I…do,” he confesses miserably.
“Why didn’t you tell me before?” I demand softly.
“Because I want to be with you more,” he says simply. The bed creaks and groans quietly as he shifts onto his side to regard me. “Liz…I’ve loved football my whole life. Everything about the game…the physicality, the teamwork, the adrenaline rush… It’s always been about doing something I love and enjoy. It’s been a game but for my dad… It’s about winning and being the best.
“Ever since I was little he always pushed me,” Max continues glumly, “I had to train harder and stay at practice longer. I had to be the best. I had to win. But the thing was that…football was just a part of me, but it wasn’t all of me. I didn’t want it to consume my life.”
“And what about LSU?” I ask him, “Do you want that or is it your dad?”
“I want that,” he tells me fervently, “I want the chance to play but at the same time I don’t want to give into this ideal my dad seems to have for me. I want to play the game on my own terms, you know?”
“Max…”
He presses his finger to my lips, silencing whatever he thinks I’m about to say. The action is ironic and unnecessary because, at this second, I have no idea what to say or do. “Liz, when we started going out I began second-guessing everything in my life,” he whispers, “Suddenly, football wasn’t so important anymore or writing or anything else I thought meant something. All that mattered to me was you…that is all that still matters. If I have LSU and I don’t have you I’m still fucked…and in a far worse way.”
“Don’t you know I feel the same way about you,” I utter emotionally, “I’ve been planning my major since I was in the sixth grade, Max. I have eaten, slept and breathed engineering ever since. All that ever mattered to me was my studies and getting into a good school. I never had time for a relationship and, until you; I didn’t think I wanted one. Now I don’t know if I even care about being an engineer anymore. I only want to be with you. I love you so much.”
He murmurs my name and cradles the small of my back, bringing me close so that he can brush kisses all over my face. “Baby…baby…I love you, too.” As he finds my lips and I melt into his touch I’m vaguely aware of the fact that we haven’t solved or settled anything yet and still I feel infinitely better about the whole thing.
I finally feel like we’re going to be okay.
<center>***</center>
I wake up the next morning sprawled across Max’s back. His shoulder blade digs into my cheek. But I’m unwilling to relinquish my spot. In fact, I climb onto his body fully so that I’m lying lengthwise over him. You’ve got to be a woman to understand this but having his buttocks pressed into my tender, bloated abdomen right now is oddly comforting.
Even with my faint cramping, it’s highly probable I would have fallen back asleep within seconds had Max not chosen that moment to shift beneath me and pull my arm over his shoulder. He laces his fingers through mine and carries my hand down beneath his body to curl around his waiting erection.
He says nothing and neither do I but I suspect he’s fully awake at this point. Moaning softly, he shifts again so my hand isn’t pinned beneath his body and the mattress and I’m free to stroke him at length. I do so eagerly, garnering as much pleasure from stroking his fevered skin as he does.
“I wish I could be inside you,” he sighs when my lips find the nape of his neck.
“Me, too,” I murmur into his skin, “This will have to do I guess.”
“Hmm…” he says but he hardly sounds disappointed. There’s a definite smile in his voice as our hands crest his cock together.
Max helps me find the rhythm he wants, murmuring hoarse words of encouragement as I follow the prompts of his hand. Our breathing becomes deep and harsh, hips grinding as our hands gain momentum. All too soon his jerking against me and groaning out my name, his semen spurting warmly between my fingers.
When he’s finally stopped shaking Max’s reaches over onto the nightstand for a tissue to wipe my hand and then shifts onto his back to face me. “Um…good morning?” he greets somewhat sheepishly, bringing the sheet up to his nose to ward off morning breath.
I laugh at the action but ultimately do the same. “Good morning,” I reply gruffly, “What time is it?”
“Eight o’clock,” he says, following up with the exact thought that tumbles through my mind right then, “Our parents are going to kill us.”
“Probably,” I reply without much concern.
“So…uh…did we ever decide what we were going to do?” he asks tentatively.
“Uh…I think we got distracted,” I blush, thinking of the evening we spent having outercourse for lack of a better word.
“Distracted,” he chuckles, “That’s the word for it.”
“I’d better call Maria,” I sigh reluctantly, “She’s probably rabid by now.” Really, I know I should call my parents because I know they must be worried sick. However, they are also the last people I want to talk to…not after last night’s humiliating fiasco.
Maria’s cell seems to ring endlessly before she finally puts me out of my misery and picks up. “Do you have any idea how much hot water you’re in,” she hisses the moment she clicks on.
“I guess that means my folks are giving you grief,” I groan.
“Your dad has like permanently attached himself at my hip,” she complains, “Lucky my phone was on vibrate or he would have been all over me. I had to run to the women’s bathroom just to answer because that’s the one place he won’t follow me.”
“Is it really bad?”
“Are you fucking kidding? Everybody is freaking out,” she yells at me, “Max’s parents are here at the Crashdown right now. Where are you guys?”
“The Desert Bloom Motel by the old highway,” I reply tiredly, “We’ll probably be home soon anyway. We…um…just needed to talk some stuff out.”
“Isabel told us what happened last night,” she says.
“Us?” I cry, “Who’s us? What does that mean? Does the whole world know?”
“I told you everyone was freaking out,” she stresses tartly, “We thought you and Max had run off and eloped or something. Ohmygod! You didn’t run off and elope, did you?”
“No,” I sigh in exasperation, even while at that very second I’m kicking myself for not thinking of it. We’re certainly old enough but then I suppose that would solve nothing. In fact, it would complicate our circumstances all the more.
“So what should I tell your parents?” Maria asks, reclaiming my attention, “I’m telling you, Lizzie, they are foaming at the mouth. It’s getting a little crazy here. I heard Mr. Evans say something about calling the Sheriff.”
“Don’t let them do that!” I cry in horror, “God! Tell them we’ll be there in half an hour.”
Once I hang up Max is right there waiting for word, having eavesdropped on my side of the conversation the entire time. “Well?” he prods impatiently when I don’t begin immediately, “What’s going on?”
“Your parents are at the Crashdown,” I whisper with a shake of my head, “They’re ready to put out a missing persons report, Max.” Max mutters something like “fucking ludicrous” under his breath but I can’t be sure. “I told Maria that we would be there in half an hour,” I inform him hesitantly, “What are we going to tell them when we get there? We never decided anything, did we?”
Max opens his mouth to reply only to snap it back closed a second later. “I don’t know, Parker,” he mutters after a moment, “I really don’t know.”
-
Applebylicious
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<center>Chapter 37</center>
~Max~
“I’m leaving!" I shout, descending the stairs while twirling my keys around a finger. As I pass by my mother and father sitting in the living room, my back stiffens and I nod coolly while heading towards the kitchen.
It’s been three weeks since Liz and I walked into the Crashdown to face the wrath of our parents, and things have only gotten slightly better. At first, there was screaming and angry accusations flying about, demands to see the marriage license because it was going to be torn in half and defiled. When they realized we hadn’t eloped, the stipulations turned to Liz and I taking a break from each other.
My father threatened me with everything under the sun, but he knew he couldn’t really do anything to me seeing as how I was of legal age. My mother just watched me with disappointed eyes, and that’s what got to me the most. I hate letting her down, but I truly believe the way they handled our news was wrong.
As for Liz’s parents…well, let’s just say that any tentative peace that was forged between Jeff Parker and I has been blown apart. He called me that boy about fifteen different times during the argument, and I nearly slipped up and called him Gigantigor to his face. Wouldn’t that have been the frosting on the stale cake that is our life?
As it is, they know they can’t stop us from being together…so they’ve switched to applying pressure on both ends about our schooling. Liz and I were so angry we didn’t bother letting them know that we had both decided to go our separate ways when the time came. When we finally broke the news, you would have thought they would ease up. Instead, it’s become a concern about how we’re going to handle a long-distance relationship.
“Max, honey…where are you going?” my mother asks, glancing over as I grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. My father grunts, deeply engrossed in the NFL game playing on the big screen.
“I’m heading to Tess’s for awhile,” I answer, leaning over the bar that separates the kitchen from the dining room. “She’s throwing a pool party for the end of summer and it’ll be one of the last times we’re all together before…” I trail off, staring down at the bottle in my hands as Cameron comes rushing into the living room.
“Man, Mom said I had to drag Taylor along,” he groans, wearing a pair of blue swim trunks and a towel across his shoulders. “And she had to bring her friend.”
“Just how many of you guys am I taking?” I ask, raising a brow as Cam’s younger sister by eleven months comes walking through the door with a glare. “Hey, Taylor,” I smirk as she walks up and stomps on Cam’s foot.
“Why can’t you be nice, Cam?” she snaps, tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder. “What did Channon ever do to you?”
“I didn’t say anything,” Cam says defensively, but his back stiffens when Channon walks through, wearing a cute pair of pink shorts and a matching top. “I just don’t see why I gotta hang out with a bunch of dumb girls.”
“Cameron Evans!” my mother scolds at the same time Taylor screams, “You’re such a jerk Cameron!”
“Okay here’s an idea,” I say, clapping my hands together. “Cam’s riding with me…and Taylor, you and Channon can go with Isabel. Blood doesn’t wash out of leather easily, and I just had the Jeep re-upholstered.”
“Is Liz going to be at this party?” my dad asks gruffly. When I send him a sharp glance he simply shrugs. “I thought she had left for London already.”
My jaw tics as my mother lets out a sigh. “No, she doesn’t leave until next week,” I state through my teeth. “Come on, Cameron.”
“Max, be careful,” my mother calls out in a sad voice, but I don’t say anything as I grab the bag at my feet and take off through the door. Cam jogs behind me, being quiet as he senses my sour mood.
“So, what’s up with you and that Channon girl?” I ask after a few moments of silence. “She’s cute.”
As expected, his face turns dark red. “There’s nothing up with us,” he mumbles. “She’s just one of Taylor’s stupid friends. And she hates me, anyway.”
“That’s funny,” I drawl, backing out of the driveway as Cam fiddles with the radio. “She seems really nice…whereas you’re the one who can’t stand being around her.”
His lower lip pokes out as he stares out the window. I fight a smile at his obvious pouting, when he blurts out, “She made fun of me.”
I blink as he lets out a huff and folds his arms across his chest. “She made fun of you,” I repeat. “Um…about what?”
“We had to write some dumb paper in school about who we most admired,” he starts rambling. “And well, I thought it would be funny to write about Ronald McDonald.”
“Oh, jeez, Cam. Or should I say Kyle?”
“Hey, everyone else thought it was funny!” he claims defensively, a small smile lighting his lips. “And I really do admire the guy…he walks around in those big shoes and doesn’t fall flat on his ass!”
“Butt,” I correct, then smack a hand against my forehead. “God, I’m turning into mom.”
Not even hearing my groan, he continues on. “Anyway, everyone was laughing about it, even Ms. Perkins. But Channon just rolled her eyes and later on I heard her telling her friends that I was just trying to get attention. She thinks I’m a moron.”
I let out a wry chuckle. “Let me tell you a little story, Cameron. That’s exactly how I thought Liz felt about me before we got together.”
He blinks at me, then snorts. “No way, Liz totally loves you and all that garbage. She’s nothing like Channon. She’s always calling you baby, and sweetie, and honey—“
“She called me a lab monkey once.”
“Whaaat?” he breaks off and stares at me, then starts cracking up. “Liz said that, for real?”
“No need to get all put out in my defense,” I grumble as he continues laughing. “And yeah, she did. But that was before she really knew me. Have you ever given Channon any reason to think you’re more than a class clown?”
He stops laughing and pins me with a glare. “I don’t care what she thinks.”
“Cut the crap, Cameron. You like the girl.”
His ears turn red but he doesn’t deny it. “She’s not that great,” he mumbles, turning to look out the window. “There are prettier girls at school, and they don’t think I’m dumb.”
“Yeah, but you don’t care what they think do you?” I point out, feeling sympathetic to my cousin. “And you never know…maybe she does like you. But seriously, stop being mean to her. You might as well pull her hair and go chasing her around the playground, it’s so obvious.”
He flips me off and I just shake my head. “I’m serious, when your mom asks where you learned all that crap…you better leave my name out of it.”
“I’m gonna take up an ad in the paper.”
Our ribbing continues during the trip to the store and as I pull into Tess’s driveway. I recognize Kyle and Michael’s trucks, and also Maria’s red jetta. I pull up behind it and park while Cam jumps out of the side window.
“Yeah baby!” he shouts in his best Austin Powers imitation. “Bring on the bikinis!”
“Hey putz, are you gonna help me carry this stuff in or not?” I demand, tossing a bag of charcoal out onto the pavement as I reach in for the rest of the supplies. The sound of a motor approaching behind us causes me to glance over my shoulder.
A sappy grin lights my features as Liz honks and waves behind the windshield of her 2001 Honda Accord. Cameron winks at me and ambles over to her car. “Hey, Liz,” he calls out, leaning in through the driver’s side window. “Lookin’ good.”
“Hey, Cameron,” she laughs as he grins at her. “Want to help me carry in some of this stuff?”
“Sure,” he answers, puffing out his chest and abandoning me as I stand there with three grocery bags. As he starts grabbing things from the backseat, Liz opens the car door and gets out. A smile curves her lips as I stand there gawking.
“Like it?” she asks, walking towards me as my mouth falls to the ground. She starts giggling. “Max?”
“Where in God’s name did you find that?” I demand, a flush creeping up my neck as I stare at the shirt she’s wearing that features Mr. Krabs pinching Spongebob on the butt. “Not funny.”
“Oh, you love it,” she laughs, and wraps her arms around my neck. “I think you’ll like what’s underneath it even more…” The soft murmur in my ear coupled with her provocative statement have me swallowing as her tongue begins to play with the outer shell of my ear.
I drop the bag of chips on the ground and reach for her bottom as her lips find mine. Squeezing her butt through the cotton shorts, I growl as she giggles into my mouth, then squeaks as I smack her playfully.
“Cool, porn,” Cam wiggles his brows as he passes by, causing Liz to gasp and jerk away with a red face. He cracks up as we both stand there feeling ridiculous while he makes kissy noises the entire way towards Tess’s front door.
“I can’t believe…we just…” Liz looks ready to faint at the prospect of my cousin witnessing our…er…ardor.
I can’t help it. I start laughing at the completely mortified expression on her face. “Relax, he’s probably already forgotten about it and moved on to something else. His attention span lasts five minutes.”
She lightly slaps me on the arm, covering her face with the other hand. “That’s not the point, Max!” she hisses. “Your eleven year old cousin just saw us…he’s going to think…”
“That we’re doing the hibbity-dibbity?” I tease, ducking as she reaches out to smack me again. “Baby, relax…it’s really not a big deal. Cameron’s not exactly an innocent. He steals Kyle’s Busty Biker Babe subscription every month and Kyle never even realizes it.”
Her mouth falls open. “Oh, my God.”
Shrugging my shoulders sheepishly, I smile. “What can I say?”
“He’s eleven years old, Max!”
Before I can answer, another car pulls up and we turn to see Isabel and Alex with Taylor and Channon. They all wave and I experience a strange moment as I watch Alex lean over and kiss Isabel lightly on the lips before he climbs out of her silver Acura.
Liz notices my shiver and glances sideways at me. “What’s wrong?”
I make a face. “I still don’t know about that,” I grumble, motioning my head towards where Isabel is watching Alex with an expression of hesitant adoration. “I just don’t want your friend to get hurt.”
“Max, Alex can take care of himself,” she answers, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me away. “Give Isabel a chance, okay?”
“Max, did you leave Cameron on the side of the road somewhere?” Taylor asks with a hopeful expression as she and Channon approach.
Laughing, I reach out and flick the end of her ponytail. “No such luck. He’s inside already.”
With an exaggerated moan that only a pre-pubescent female can accomplish, she turns and drags Channon inside, muttering beneath her breath about how much brother’s suck.
“Hey, guys,” Alex says happily, walking up and grabbing the bag at my feet. “Need some help?”
“Sure, thanks,” I toss in gratefully, placing a kiss on Liz’s cheek before releasing her to turn to the rest of the bags. “Cam bailed on me.”
“He did not! He helped me,” Liz defends my cousin.
“Yeah, because you have a cute ass,” I return, and Alex and I share a snicker as she rolls her eyes and starts up the driveway, Isabel trailing behind. I heft the charcoal over my shoulder as Alex lugs the grocery sacks behind me. “So…you and my sister,” I start casually.
He groans. “How did I know this conversation was coming?” he asks wryly.
“I just wanted to make sure…you do know what you’re doing, right?” I ask, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye. “I know it isn’t my business…”
“You’re right, it isn’t,” he says cheerfully. “But I butted in when you and Liz first started dating, so I guess I have this coming.”
I pause and turn to meet his gaze full on. “Look, Alex. You’re a decent guy. If I could handpick a guy for my sister, it would be someone like you,” I admit, shifting on my feet as we both stand there in manly discomfort. “I just…are you sure she’s the one you want?”
He doesn’t take my statement as an insult towards Isabel, which in truth it wasn’t. Instead he sighs. “Yeah, you know…everyone thinks of her as this shallow person, but there’s more to her than that. I think she just acted the way people expected her to act. And now she’s learning that she doesn’t have to be that way.”
I nod my head slowly. “Maybe you’re right…I can’t claim that I haven’t done the same thing.”
“I think it’s just as easy to misjudge you jocks and popular people as it is us geeks,” he answers wisely. “Labels suck.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, that they do. And for the record…you’re a cool geek, Whitman.” I clap him on the back as we start back to the house. The door swings open and Michael and Kyle stand there, grinning like idiots.
“So, Max…” Kyle states a little too casually. “I heard you were engaging in a little sexual revolution in the driveway.”
“Dude, can’t you put the cock on lock for a day?” Michael shakes his head in mock reproof.
Alex snorts and walks inside as I stand there flaming. Then I drop the bag of charcoal and shout, “Cameron!”
~Max~
“I’m leaving!" I shout, descending the stairs while twirling my keys around a finger. As I pass by my mother and father sitting in the living room, my back stiffens and I nod coolly while heading towards the kitchen.
It’s been three weeks since Liz and I walked into the Crashdown to face the wrath of our parents, and things have only gotten slightly better. At first, there was screaming and angry accusations flying about, demands to see the marriage license because it was going to be torn in half and defiled. When they realized we hadn’t eloped, the stipulations turned to Liz and I taking a break from each other.
My father threatened me with everything under the sun, but he knew he couldn’t really do anything to me seeing as how I was of legal age. My mother just watched me with disappointed eyes, and that’s what got to me the most. I hate letting her down, but I truly believe the way they handled our news was wrong.
As for Liz’s parents…well, let’s just say that any tentative peace that was forged between Jeff Parker and I has been blown apart. He called me that boy about fifteen different times during the argument, and I nearly slipped up and called him Gigantigor to his face. Wouldn’t that have been the frosting on the stale cake that is our life?
As it is, they know they can’t stop us from being together…so they’ve switched to applying pressure on both ends about our schooling. Liz and I were so angry we didn’t bother letting them know that we had both decided to go our separate ways when the time came. When we finally broke the news, you would have thought they would ease up. Instead, it’s become a concern about how we’re going to handle a long-distance relationship.
“Max, honey…where are you going?” my mother asks, glancing over as I grab a bottle of water from the refrigerator. My father grunts, deeply engrossed in the NFL game playing on the big screen.
“I’m heading to Tess’s for awhile,” I answer, leaning over the bar that separates the kitchen from the dining room. “She’s throwing a pool party for the end of summer and it’ll be one of the last times we’re all together before…” I trail off, staring down at the bottle in my hands as Cameron comes rushing into the living room.
“Man, Mom said I had to drag Taylor along,” he groans, wearing a pair of blue swim trunks and a towel across his shoulders. “And she had to bring her friend.”
“Just how many of you guys am I taking?” I ask, raising a brow as Cam’s younger sister by eleven months comes walking through the door with a glare. “Hey, Taylor,” I smirk as she walks up and stomps on Cam’s foot.
“Why can’t you be nice, Cam?” she snaps, tossing her long brown hair over her shoulder. “What did Channon ever do to you?”
“I didn’t say anything,” Cam says defensively, but his back stiffens when Channon walks through, wearing a cute pair of pink shorts and a matching top. “I just don’t see why I gotta hang out with a bunch of dumb girls.”
“Cameron Evans!” my mother scolds at the same time Taylor screams, “You’re such a jerk Cameron!”
“Okay here’s an idea,” I say, clapping my hands together. “Cam’s riding with me…and Taylor, you and Channon can go with Isabel. Blood doesn’t wash out of leather easily, and I just had the Jeep re-upholstered.”
“Is Liz going to be at this party?” my dad asks gruffly. When I send him a sharp glance he simply shrugs. “I thought she had left for London already.”
My jaw tics as my mother lets out a sigh. “No, she doesn’t leave until next week,” I state through my teeth. “Come on, Cameron.”
“Max, be careful,” my mother calls out in a sad voice, but I don’t say anything as I grab the bag at my feet and take off through the door. Cam jogs behind me, being quiet as he senses my sour mood.
“So, what’s up with you and that Channon girl?” I ask after a few moments of silence. “She’s cute.”
As expected, his face turns dark red. “There’s nothing up with us,” he mumbles. “She’s just one of Taylor’s stupid friends. And she hates me, anyway.”
“That’s funny,” I drawl, backing out of the driveway as Cam fiddles with the radio. “She seems really nice…whereas you’re the one who can’t stand being around her.”
His lower lip pokes out as he stares out the window. I fight a smile at his obvious pouting, when he blurts out, “She made fun of me.”
I blink as he lets out a huff and folds his arms across his chest. “She made fun of you,” I repeat. “Um…about what?”
“We had to write some dumb paper in school about who we most admired,” he starts rambling. “And well, I thought it would be funny to write about Ronald McDonald.”
“Oh, jeez, Cam. Or should I say Kyle?”
“Hey, everyone else thought it was funny!” he claims defensively, a small smile lighting his lips. “And I really do admire the guy…he walks around in those big shoes and doesn’t fall flat on his ass!”
“Butt,” I correct, then smack a hand against my forehead. “God, I’m turning into mom.”
Not even hearing my groan, he continues on. “Anyway, everyone was laughing about it, even Ms. Perkins. But Channon just rolled her eyes and later on I heard her telling her friends that I was just trying to get attention. She thinks I’m a moron.”
I let out a wry chuckle. “Let me tell you a little story, Cameron. That’s exactly how I thought Liz felt about me before we got together.”
He blinks at me, then snorts. “No way, Liz totally loves you and all that garbage. She’s nothing like Channon. She’s always calling you baby, and sweetie, and honey—“
“She called me a lab monkey once.”
“Whaaat?” he breaks off and stares at me, then starts cracking up. “Liz said that, for real?”
“No need to get all put out in my defense,” I grumble as he continues laughing. “And yeah, she did. But that was before she really knew me. Have you ever given Channon any reason to think you’re more than a class clown?”
He stops laughing and pins me with a glare. “I don’t care what she thinks.”
“Cut the crap, Cameron. You like the girl.”
His ears turn red but he doesn’t deny it. “She’s not that great,” he mumbles, turning to look out the window. “There are prettier girls at school, and they don’t think I’m dumb.”
“Yeah, but you don’t care what they think do you?” I point out, feeling sympathetic to my cousin. “And you never know…maybe she does like you. But seriously, stop being mean to her. You might as well pull her hair and go chasing her around the playground, it’s so obvious.”
He flips me off and I just shake my head. “I’m serious, when your mom asks where you learned all that crap…you better leave my name out of it.”
“I’m gonna take up an ad in the paper.”
Our ribbing continues during the trip to the store and as I pull into Tess’s driveway. I recognize Kyle and Michael’s trucks, and also Maria’s red jetta. I pull up behind it and park while Cam jumps out of the side window.
“Yeah baby!” he shouts in his best Austin Powers imitation. “Bring on the bikinis!”
“Hey putz, are you gonna help me carry this stuff in or not?” I demand, tossing a bag of charcoal out onto the pavement as I reach in for the rest of the supplies. The sound of a motor approaching behind us causes me to glance over my shoulder.
A sappy grin lights my features as Liz honks and waves behind the windshield of her 2001 Honda Accord. Cameron winks at me and ambles over to her car. “Hey, Liz,” he calls out, leaning in through the driver’s side window. “Lookin’ good.”
“Hey, Cameron,” she laughs as he grins at her. “Want to help me carry in some of this stuff?”
“Sure,” he answers, puffing out his chest and abandoning me as I stand there with three grocery bags. As he starts grabbing things from the backseat, Liz opens the car door and gets out. A smile curves her lips as I stand there gawking.
“Like it?” she asks, walking towards me as my mouth falls to the ground. She starts giggling. “Max?”
“Where in God’s name did you find that?” I demand, a flush creeping up my neck as I stare at the shirt she’s wearing that features Mr. Krabs pinching Spongebob on the butt. “Not funny.”
“Oh, you love it,” she laughs, and wraps her arms around my neck. “I think you’ll like what’s underneath it even more…” The soft murmur in my ear coupled with her provocative statement have me swallowing as her tongue begins to play with the outer shell of my ear.
I drop the bag of chips on the ground and reach for her bottom as her lips find mine. Squeezing her butt through the cotton shorts, I growl as she giggles into my mouth, then squeaks as I smack her playfully.
“Cool, porn,” Cam wiggles his brows as he passes by, causing Liz to gasp and jerk away with a red face. He cracks up as we both stand there feeling ridiculous while he makes kissy noises the entire way towards Tess’s front door.
“I can’t believe…we just…” Liz looks ready to faint at the prospect of my cousin witnessing our…er…ardor.
I can’t help it. I start laughing at the completely mortified expression on her face. “Relax, he’s probably already forgotten about it and moved on to something else. His attention span lasts five minutes.”
She lightly slaps me on the arm, covering her face with the other hand. “That’s not the point, Max!” she hisses. “Your eleven year old cousin just saw us…he’s going to think…”
“That we’re doing the hibbity-dibbity?” I tease, ducking as she reaches out to smack me again. “Baby, relax…it’s really not a big deal. Cameron’s not exactly an innocent. He steals Kyle’s Busty Biker Babe subscription every month and Kyle never even realizes it.”
Her mouth falls open. “Oh, my God.”
Shrugging my shoulders sheepishly, I smile. “What can I say?”
“He’s eleven years old, Max!”
Before I can answer, another car pulls up and we turn to see Isabel and Alex with Taylor and Channon. They all wave and I experience a strange moment as I watch Alex lean over and kiss Isabel lightly on the lips before he climbs out of her silver Acura.
Liz notices my shiver and glances sideways at me. “What’s wrong?”
I make a face. “I still don’t know about that,” I grumble, motioning my head towards where Isabel is watching Alex with an expression of hesitant adoration. “I just don’t want your friend to get hurt.”
“Max, Alex can take care of himself,” she answers, wrapping an arm around me and pulling me away. “Give Isabel a chance, okay?”
“Max, did you leave Cameron on the side of the road somewhere?” Taylor asks with a hopeful expression as she and Channon approach.
Laughing, I reach out and flick the end of her ponytail. “No such luck. He’s inside already.”
With an exaggerated moan that only a pre-pubescent female can accomplish, she turns and drags Channon inside, muttering beneath her breath about how much brother’s suck.
“Hey, guys,” Alex says happily, walking up and grabbing the bag at my feet. “Need some help?”
“Sure, thanks,” I toss in gratefully, placing a kiss on Liz’s cheek before releasing her to turn to the rest of the bags. “Cam bailed on me.”
“He did not! He helped me,” Liz defends my cousin.
“Yeah, because you have a cute ass,” I return, and Alex and I share a snicker as she rolls her eyes and starts up the driveway, Isabel trailing behind. I heft the charcoal over my shoulder as Alex lugs the grocery sacks behind me. “So…you and my sister,” I start casually.
He groans. “How did I know this conversation was coming?” he asks wryly.
“I just wanted to make sure…you do know what you’re doing, right?” I ask, glancing at him out of the corner of my eye. “I know it isn’t my business…”
“You’re right, it isn’t,” he says cheerfully. “But I butted in when you and Liz first started dating, so I guess I have this coming.”
I pause and turn to meet his gaze full on. “Look, Alex. You’re a decent guy. If I could handpick a guy for my sister, it would be someone like you,” I admit, shifting on my feet as we both stand there in manly discomfort. “I just…are you sure she’s the one you want?”
He doesn’t take my statement as an insult towards Isabel, which in truth it wasn’t. Instead he sighs. “Yeah, you know…everyone thinks of her as this shallow person, but there’s more to her than that. I think she just acted the way people expected her to act. And now she’s learning that she doesn’t have to be that way.”
I nod my head slowly. “Maybe you’re right…I can’t claim that I haven’t done the same thing.”
“I think it’s just as easy to misjudge you jocks and popular people as it is us geeks,” he answers wisely. “Labels suck.”
I can’t help but laugh. “Yeah, that they do. And for the record…you’re a cool geek, Whitman.” I clap him on the back as we start back to the house. The door swings open and Michael and Kyle stand there, grinning like idiots.
“So, Max…” Kyle states a little too casually. “I heard you were engaging in a little sexual revolution in the driveway.”
“Dude, can’t you put the cock on lock for a day?” Michael shakes his head in mock reproof.
Alex snorts and walks inside as I stand there flaming. Then I drop the bag of charcoal and shout, “Cameron!”
Last edited by Applebylicious on Fri Jul 23, 2004 12:52 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Deejonaise
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 385
- Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2002 12:48 am
- Location: On my rusty dusty...
I would like to thank my other half Lindsay for her inspiration on this part. Again...her influence, folks. I'm just an innocent bystander.
I forgot to mention our little surprise... Linds and I have decided to write a tag story for Cameron once My Life... is finished for all those who have expressed interest in Linds' baby. It will pick up eight years after My Life... ends so stay tuned.
<center>Chapter 38</center>
~Liz~
I’m not very good at acting cool.
The other girls seem to have it down to an art form. Tess and Isabel lounge beautifully on the deck chairs, their sunglasses perched primly on the tips of their noses while the other party goers and particularly their boyfriends flock and fawn. Even Maria has little trouble pulling off the look. She lies there, perfectly relaxed, as if she suns herself on Tess Harding’s patio deck every week. I, however, am acutely aware that my bikini is riding up the crack of my ass and that the sun is cooking me crispy.
“You wanna go inside?”
I turn a glance over at Max where he’s stretched out beside me on the next deck chair. “Why do you say that?”
“You’ve been muttering to yourself for the last five minutes,” he chuckles, “I don’t guess parties are your scene.”
“There are a lot of people here,” I hedge.
“You’re bored?” Max surmises.
“I’m hot.”
“Hmm…really?” he purrs, “I wonder if I can cool you down…”
“Max Evans, be good.”
“Let’s sneak into the house,” he coaxes, “No one will even notice.”
“What about Cameron?” I wonder, “Don’t you have to watch him, Mr. Irresponsible? We can’t just run off to do…what did you call it again…hibbity-dibbity.”
He laughs but pretends to look hurt. “I like hibbity-dibbity.”
“You should,” I snort, “You get enough of it.”
“That’s an extremely relative observation, baby,” he tosses back, “Trust me. Besides Cam is fine. He can watch himself for a while.”
The aforementioned disputes that statement by pushing his sister and her friend into the pool and then beating a hasty retreat for the interior of the house. The sodden girls give immediate pursuit, screaming threat and murder the entire way. Max sighs his disgruntlement.
“Okay, Isabel can watch him then,” he declares finally, “Let him give her gray hairs for a change.”
“Max, I don’t know…” I protest as he grabs my hand and pulls me up from the chair, “Every time I go off somewhere alone with you I get in trouble.”
Max rolls his eyes. “Come on,” he urges, “There’s something I wanna give you…”
“You mean a present,” I giggle girlishly as he leads me into the house, “Max, what did you get me?”
“You have to wait and see,” he hedges with a smile, dragging me down the corridor towards Tess’ bedroom. “I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to give it to you all morning,” he says after when gained some privacy, “I sorta wanted to do this when we weren’t surrounded by screaming kids.”
“Do what?” I ask him breathlessly.
He rummages around on Tess’ bed for his bag, fishing around inside for something. Oh my God. My heart literally freezes when he starts to pull that something free…something big… I can feel the blood roaring in my ears. If he drops to one knee I’m going to lose it. If he drops to one knee I’m going to lose it. The mantra reverberates over and over again in my head, so powerful that I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose it anyway. My world goes in slow motion as he slowly pivots and hands me…a baseball? WTF???
“Huh?” I try to mask my disappointment. “It’s a…um…baseball,” I declare inanely, “It’s…uh…nice…”
“It’s not just any baseball,” Max laughs, turning it over in my palm, “It’s the fly ball you caught of Cam’s during our first date. See…I had him sign it and everything.” My disappointment is quickly replaced with melting affection over his inordinately sweet and nostalgic gift. I offer him a sappy smile. “I guess…I just want you to have a piece of that day with you,” he whispers thickly, “…wherever you go.”
“Oh Max…I love you,” I groan, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him deeply. When we break apart I’m actually crying. Max tenderly lifts my tears away with the tip of his tongue. “How am I supposed to leave you?” I lament aloud.
“I’ve been asking myself the same thing for the last three weeks,” he confesses, pulling me towards the bed. We shove all the clutter aside and curl up together atop the mattress. “I’ve thought about this long and hard, you know,” he tells me, “I know it’s a good opportunity for you and I want you to have this chance but… I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a kick in the gut.”
“I understand what you mean,” I mumble, setting the baseball aside on the nearby nightstand, “I’m actually glad I’m leaving first because if it was the other way around I don’t think I could handle it.”
“Gee thanks,” he deadpans, “Way to feel my pain, Parker.”
“Well, you’re the guy,” I tease, rolling over onto my stomach so I can kiss his bare chest, “You can take it.”
Moments later his fingers plunge into my hair, guiding my nibbling kiss across his naked flesh. He rumbles a low groan of satisfaction. “You remember what we did the last time we were in this bed?”
The suggestive thread in his tone prompts me to lift my head. “You were drunk then,” I giggle in excuse.
“I’m sure I’d enjoy it ten times more sober,” he grins, wiggling his brows.
“It feels weird,” I say with a self-conscious shrug, “That time it just…sort of happened. This time would be planned and… I just don’t think Tess would appreciate us doing it in her bed.”
“We could do it on the floor,” Max suggests, undeterred.
“Max!” I whine even though I know I’m going to give into him.
“I can’t help it,” he groans into my neck, licking and nibbling the skin above my collarbone, “I’m addicted.” He plucks at the waistband of my bikini bottoms. “Come on, baby…let me hit that…”
I shove him away with an eye-rolling laugh. “You’re such a conceited ass!”
He pouts. “Do you really think I’m conceited, Parker?”
“You think I’m just going to fall all over you just because you tell me you want to…you want to…” I falter despite my best attempt at being nonchalant.
“…to hit that,” Max finishes for me irreverently.
“That’s not exactly romantic,” I huff in mock affront.
“Well, what should I have said instead,” he teases, tickling my ribs. I squirm and wiggle against him, valiantly struggling against giving into my laughter, which only eggs him on. “Oh, Ms. Parker, let me sample from the golden chalice that is your pus--,”
“Max!” I screech in laughing horror, bucking at him in an attempt to escape his questing fingers, “Stop…it…I can’t…breathe…!” I scoot out from beneath his body, rolling away quickly…and right off the bed. I hit the floor with a bone jarring thump that rattles my teeth.
Above me, Max doesn’t bother to stifle his chortles of laughter. He falls back to the mattress howling. I scowl up at him. “Oh, now you’re most definitely NOT going to hit this,” I sniff disdainfully.
He regards me with raised brows. “Aww…are you sure, Parker?” he whispers, crawling from the bed and pushing down his swim trunks as he does. The moment his erection springs free my eyes fall to where it juts out from between his legs. My greedy stare does not escape his notice. “You still don’t want me to hit it?” he challenges huskily.
I nibble my lip and offer him a coy smile. “Maybe…”
He’s on me in a matter of seconds and we grapple together to free me of my bikini top. The moment the cool air hits my skin his tongue is sliding over the hardened tips of my breasts. His sucks hungrily, his hips doing a slow roll against mine. I can feel his arousal pressed hotly into my thigh and the sensation is very distracting. I want him inside me.
Taking hold of a fistful of his hair, I yank up his head and growl, “Enough foreplay.”
He grins at me. “I love it when you’re demanding.” Seconds later he’s scrambling up onto his knees to yank down my bottoms. However, when I’m naked he doesn’t immediately settle himself back between my legs but instead bends low to press a kiss to my pubic bone.
I groan his name, toes curling when I feel his finger stretch inside me. “Shh,” he hums against me, running his tongue along the lips of my sex, “I know what I’m doing.”
My God, does he! It only takes a few facile flicks of his tongue before I come apart. Stars burst before my eyes and I arch into his mouth with a gurgling cry. “That was amazing,” I sigh.
He leans up over me, brushing my lips with a sex-flavored kiss. “That was just the appetizer,” he grunts, “You ready for the main course?”
“You’re so cocky,” I murmur, spreading my legs wider to accommodate him.
“I hope so,” he teases against my ear. But to my extreme frustration he hesitates just short of stretching inside me and rears up onto his forearms. “Wait…do I need to use anything?”
“Max, it’s fine. I’ve been on the pill three weeks now,” I whisper urgently, arching my hips against his, “Just come inside me already!”
There are no further preliminaries between us. He drives inside me hard and fast, without any discernable rhythm at all…just giving and taking…thrusting deep… Our slick bodies slap and pop loudly, nearly drowning out the sound of our excited moans as we pump against each other.
“Max…oh, Max!”
“Oh, baby…I’m going to--,”
“Yes!” I clamp around him reflexively as I feel him expand within me, contracting around his thumping hardness with a serrated moan. He hisses a series of curses into my ear before the reflexive jerking of his hips finally falls still.
After it’s over Max burrows his face into my throat, his body sprawled across me heavily. I don’t really mind it, despite the hard floor biting into my back and the raw carpet burns on my ass. I’m content to lie there and stroke my hands up and down the sweaty planes of his back.
“I love you,” he grunts, his words muffled in my jaw.
I smile into his hair. “I love you, too.”
“You wanna do it again?” he asks after a beat of silence.
I start to giggle. “Are you kidding me? Do you?” I get my answer a few seconds later when I feel his cock begin to stir inside me. “Maaax…”
He kisses a teasing path towards my lips. “Does that answer your question?” he murmurs, “I just want to fuck you, baby…is that wrong…?”
“N-No…” I stammer when he starts to rock against me.
“Hmm…you feel so good,” he moans, surging deep once before pulling out completely, “Why don’t you get on top this time? I like to watch your breasts jiggle while you ride me.”
We’re in the process of flipping our positions when the bedroom door swings wide and a horrified gasp goes up in the silence. As Max makes a desperate grab for the bed comforter to cover us, my muffled squeak of horror lodges in my throat when I come face to face with Max’s eleven-year-old cousin, staring at us with his mouth agape. There’s nothing I can say but, “Holy-fucking-shit,” and it’s totally appropriate right now.
I’m going to die.
I forgot to mention our little surprise... Linds and I have decided to write a tag story for Cameron once My Life... is finished for all those who have expressed interest in Linds' baby. It will pick up eight years after My Life... ends so stay tuned.
<center>Chapter 38</center>
~Liz~
I’m not very good at acting cool.
The other girls seem to have it down to an art form. Tess and Isabel lounge beautifully on the deck chairs, their sunglasses perched primly on the tips of their noses while the other party goers and particularly their boyfriends flock and fawn. Even Maria has little trouble pulling off the look. She lies there, perfectly relaxed, as if she suns herself on Tess Harding’s patio deck every week. I, however, am acutely aware that my bikini is riding up the crack of my ass and that the sun is cooking me crispy.
“You wanna go inside?”
I turn a glance over at Max where he’s stretched out beside me on the next deck chair. “Why do you say that?”
“You’ve been muttering to yourself for the last five minutes,” he chuckles, “I don’t guess parties are your scene.”
“There are a lot of people here,” I hedge.
“You’re bored?” Max surmises.
“I’m hot.”
“Hmm…really?” he purrs, “I wonder if I can cool you down…”
“Max Evans, be good.”
“Let’s sneak into the house,” he coaxes, “No one will even notice.”
“What about Cameron?” I wonder, “Don’t you have to watch him, Mr. Irresponsible? We can’t just run off to do…what did you call it again…hibbity-dibbity.”
He laughs but pretends to look hurt. “I like hibbity-dibbity.”
“You should,” I snort, “You get enough of it.”
“That’s an extremely relative observation, baby,” he tosses back, “Trust me. Besides Cam is fine. He can watch himself for a while.”
The aforementioned disputes that statement by pushing his sister and her friend into the pool and then beating a hasty retreat for the interior of the house. The sodden girls give immediate pursuit, screaming threat and murder the entire way. Max sighs his disgruntlement.
“Okay, Isabel can watch him then,” he declares finally, “Let him give her gray hairs for a change.”
“Max, I don’t know…” I protest as he grabs my hand and pulls me up from the chair, “Every time I go off somewhere alone with you I get in trouble.”
Max rolls his eyes. “Come on,” he urges, “There’s something I wanna give you…”
“You mean a present,” I giggle girlishly as he leads me into the house, “Max, what did you get me?”
“You have to wait and see,” he hedges with a smile, dragging me down the corridor towards Tess’ bedroom. “I’ve been waiting for the right opportunity to give it to you all morning,” he says after when gained some privacy, “I sorta wanted to do this when we weren’t surrounded by screaming kids.”
“Do what?” I ask him breathlessly.
He rummages around on Tess’ bed for his bag, fishing around inside for something. Oh my God. My heart literally freezes when he starts to pull that something free…something big… I can feel the blood roaring in my ears. If he drops to one knee I’m going to lose it. If he drops to one knee I’m going to lose it. The mantra reverberates over and over again in my head, so powerful that I’m pretty sure I’m going to lose it anyway. My world goes in slow motion as he slowly pivots and hands me…a baseball? WTF???
“Huh?” I try to mask my disappointment. “It’s a…um…baseball,” I declare inanely, “It’s…uh…nice…”
“It’s not just any baseball,” Max laughs, turning it over in my palm, “It’s the fly ball you caught of Cam’s during our first date. See…I had him sign it and everything.” My disappointment is quickly replaced with melting affection over his inordinately sweet and nostalgic gift. I offer him a sappy smile. “I guess…I just want you to have a piece of that day with you,” he whispers thickly, “…wherever you go.”
“Oh Max…I love you,” I groan, throwing my arms around his neck and kissing him deeply. When we break apart I’m actually crying. Max tenderly lifts my tears away with the tip of his tongue. “How am I supposed to leave you?” I lament aloud.
“I’ve been asking myself the same thing for the last three weeks,” he confesses, pulling me towards the bed. We shove all the clutter aside and curl up together atop the mattress. “I’ve thought about this long and hard, you know,” he tells me, “I know it’s a good opportunity for you and I want you to have this chance but… I’d be lying if I didn’t say it was a kick in the gut.”
“I understand what you mean,” I mumble, setting the baseball aside on the nearby nightstand, “I’m actually glad I’m leaving first because if it was the other way around I don’t think I could handle it.”
“Gee thanks,” he deadpans, “Way to feel my pain, Parker.”
“Well, you’re the guy,” I tease, rolling over onto my stomach so I can kiss his bare chest, “You can take it.”
Moments later his fingers plunge into my hair, guiding my nibbling kiss across his naked flesh. He rumbles a low groan of satisfaction. “You remember what we did the last time we were in this bed?”
The suggestive thread in his tone prompts me to lift my head. “You were drunk then,” I giggle in excuse.
“I’m sure I’d enjoy it ten times more sober,” he grins, wiggling his brows.
“It feels weird,” I say with a self-conscious shrug, “That time it just…sort of happened. This time would be planned and… I just don’t think Tess would appreciate us doing it in her bed.”
“We could do it on the floor,” Max suggests, undeterred.
“Max!” I whine even though I know I’m going to give into him.
“I can’t help it,” he groans into my neck, licking and nibbling the skin above my collarbone, “I’m addicted.” He plucks at the waistband of my bikini bottoms. “Come on, baby…let me hit that…”
I shove him away with an eye-rolling laugh. “You’re such a conceited ass!”
He pouts. “Do you really think I’m conceited, Parker?”
“You think I’m just going to fall all over you just because you tell me you want to…you want to…” I falter despite my best attempt at being nonchalant.
“…to hit that,” Max finishes for me irreverently.
“That’s not exactly romantic,” I huff in mock affront.
“Well, what should I have said instead,” he teases, tickling my ribs. I squirm and wiggle against him, valiantly struggling against giving into my laughter, which only eggs him on. “Oh, Ms. Parker, let me sample from the golden chalice that is your pus--,”
“Max!” I screech in laughing horror, bucking at him in an attempt to escape his questing fingers, “Stop…it…I can’t…breathe…!” I scoot out from beneath his body, rolling away quickly…and right off the bed. I hit the floor with a bone jarring thump that rattles my teeth.
Above me, Max doesn’t bother to stifle his chortles of laughter. He falls back to the mattress howling. I scowl up at him. “Oh, now you’re most definitely NOT going to hit this,” I sniff disdainfully.
He regards me with raised brows. “Aww…are you sure, Parker?” he whispers, crawling from the bed and pushing down his swim trunks as he does. The moment his erection springs free my eyes fall to where it juts out from between his legs. My greedy stare does not escape his notice. “You still don’t want me to hit it?” he challenges huskily.
I nibble my lip and offer him a coy smile. “Maybe…”
He’s on me in a matter of seconds and we grapple together to free me of my bikini top. The moment the cool air hits my skin his tongue is sliding over the hardened tips of my breasts. His sucks hungrily, his hips doing a slow roll against mine. I can feel his arousal pressed hotly into my thigh and the sensation is very distracting. I want him inside me.
Taking hold of a fistful of his hair, I yank up his head and growl, “Enough foreplay.”
He grins at me. “I love it when you’re demanding.” Seconds later he’s scrambling up onto his knees to yank down my bottoms. However, when I’m naked he doesn’t immediately settle himself back between my legs but instead bends low to press a kiss to my pubic bone.
I groan his name, toes curling when I feel his finger stretch inside me. “Shh,” he hums against me, running his tongue along the lips of my sex, “I know what I’m doing.”
My God, does he! It only takes a few facile flicks of his tongue before I come apart. Stars burst before my eyes and I arch into his mouth with a gurgling cry. “That was amazing,” I sigh.
He leans up over me, brushing my lips with a sex-flavored kiss. “That was just the appetizer,” he grunts, “You ready for the main course?”
“You’re so cocky,” I murmur, spreading my legs wider to accommodate him.
“I hope so,” he teases against my ear. But to my extreme frustration he hesitates just short of stretching inside me and rears up onto his forearms. “Wait…do I need to use anything?”
“Max, it’s fine. I’ve been on the pill three weeks now,” I whisper urgently, arching my hips against his, “Just come inside me already!”
There are no further preliminaries between us. He drives inside me hard and fast, without any discernable rhythm at all…just giving and taking…thrusting deep… Our slick bodies slap and pop loudly, nearly drowning out the sound of our excited moans as we pump against each other.
“Max…oh, Max!”
“Oh, baby…I’m going to--,”
“Yes!” I clamp around him reflexively as I feel him expand within me, contracting around his thumping hardness with a serrated moan. He hisses a series of curses into my ear before the reflexive jerking of his hips finally falls still.
After it’s over Max burrows his face into my throat, his body sprawled across me heavily. I don’t really mind it, despite the hard floor biting into my back and the raw carpet burns on my ass. I’m content to lie there and stroke my hands up and down the sweaty planes of his back.
“I love you,” he grunts, his words muffled in my jaw.
I smile into his hair. “I love you, too.”
“You wanna do it again?” he asks after a beat of silence.
I start to giggle. “Are you kidding me? Do you?” I get my answer a few seconds later when I feel his cock begin to stir inside me. “Maaax…”
He kisses a teasing path towards my lips. “Does that answer your question?” he murmurs, “I just want to fuck you, baby…is that wrong…?”
“N-No…” I stammer when he starts to rock against me.
“Hmm…you feel so good,” he moans, surging deep once before pulling out completely, “Why don’t you get on top this time? I like to watch your breasts jiggle while you ride me.”
We’re in the process of flipping our positions when the bedroom door swings wide and a horrified gasp goes up in the silence. As Max makes a desperate grab for the bed comforter to cover us, my muffled squeak of horror lodges in my throat when I come face to face with Max’s eleven-year-old cousin, staring at us with his mouth agape. There’s nothing I can say but, “Holy-fucking-shit,” and it’s totally appropriate right now.
I’m going to die.
Last edited by Deejonaise on Sun Jul 25, 2004 12:58 am, edited 2 times in total.