Part 10
“Michael, I’m sure she’s not spying,” Liz said, shaking her head after Michael explained what he’d been talking about. “She’s probably just looking for some extra cash.”
“So why doesn’t she work at her mom’s shop? Come on, Liz, the fact that she’s coming in today, after what happened here with Max yesterday doesn’t hit you as kind of weird?”
Liz shrugged. “The sign in the window just barely went up. She probably just wanted to get a head-start on the competition.”
“No she wanted a head-start on us, Liz. Which means that Max Evans doesn’t trust you as much as you think he does. Which means that I don’t trust him.”
Liz let out an exasperated sigh and glanced at her watch. She was already five minutes late getting back from break. “Michael, I’m sure this has nothing to do with Max. And even if it did, what do you want me to do about it?”
Michael shrugged. “Maybe talk to your dad? You know he’s going to ask you about her if he actually considers hiring her.”
Liz shook her head. “I can’t do that. We need the help. When Agnes heard about the shooting she started demanding double-pay, something about ‘hazardous working conditions,’ Dad had to let her go.”
Michael rolled his eyes. “Yeah, well, no great loss.”
Liz barely suppressed a frustrated groan. “Michael, what’s gotten into you? Can’t you just look for the positive in this?”
He looked at her like she was insane. “Positive? What is positive about this?” he gestured in the direction of the seating areas in front.
Liz took a breath and sighed. She’d seen Michael confrontational before, of course, but usually it wasn’t aimed at her. “Maybe this will give us a chance to get to know her. Them. All of them. We need to give them a chance, Michael. You need to.” She bit her lip, wanting to ask him something, but hesitating. She knew it wasn’t a good idea to push him, but she also needed to know. “Have you even thought about talking to Max and Isabel?”
Michael shrugged roughly, speaking low and harshly. “What difference does it make? One alien, three aliens, it doesn’t really matter. It still doesn’t explain what the hell we’re doing here or where the hell we’re from.”
“But this isn’t fair to them,” Liz argued, thinking about how obviously suspicious of her Isabel and Maria already were. If she kept lying to them things could get bad, fast.
As Michael opened his mouth to respond, Jeff Parker called from the back room. “Lizzie?” And as he caught sight of them in the kitchen he came in, arms folding across his chest, giving them a kindly but stern look. “Liz, Michael, can we save the gossip for off-hours, please? We have customers out there, you know. It’s the middle of the dinner rush.”
Liz turned a contrite face to him. “Sorry Dad. We’re almost finished here. Right Michael?” she asked, turning an only slightly-nervous smile to him.
“Right, Mr. Parker,” he agreed, but as soon as Jeff nodded and backed out of the room, he turned back to Liz, and she could hardly read the expression in his eyes as he spoke. “Liz I’m sorry, I just can’t be worried about what your new friends think of you right now. Or me for that matter.”
“Michael—”
“Look, I just need some time, okay?” He nodded towards the front. “Now get out there before your Dad really gets annoyed.”
Liz turned to go, but as she got to the doorway of the kitchen she turned around again. “Michael…” she waited for him to turn, and he raised an eyebrow at her. “Just… try to be nice to Maria. For me.”
He shrugged, but gave a half nod, so Liz turned and threw herself back into role of waitress extraordinaire. She couldn’t remember ever looking forward to closing time more than today. She’d been running on pure adrenaline the last two days, ever since the shooting, and she had the distinct feeling that she was going to crash, very, very soon.
Just as the thought crossed her mind, her eyes caught on the image of Max Evans sitting in his favorite booth, textbook in front of him, and he looked up, meeting her eyes, and giving her a slow, humble smile.
It was like a sun-lamp was turned on over her heart, and she smiled back, before turning to her section. As she took orders from Table Three, she thought of all the years she’d watched him in that booth, seeming so lonely and evasive, of all the times she’d met his eyes and he’d turned away almost in a panic. Maybe a smile from him was just a small change, but Liz knew without a doubt that it was the sign of things to come, and for some reason the thought sent a thrill through her like she’d never felt before.
When she handed the order over to a grim-faced Michael, though, her stomach twisted uncomfortably. Things in her life were changing, all right. But was it too much, too fast?
And how much of her old life would she have to give up for this new one?
*************
“She wanted to meet with Max, and then what?” Kyle prodded, after Tess had gone over what she and Isabel had talked about. Neither of the boys was particularly surprised that their guess about Max and Isabel had been right, though of course it was still a major deal.
Tess shrugged, rolling her neck as she did so, and looking out the window at the passing desert as night was falling. “I didn’t think it was the best idea tonight. That’s bound to be a long meeting with everyone, and I’m not really up for a late night.”
Kyle was immediately rubbing her shoulders from where he sat in the back seat of the rabbit, and she couldn’t stop the satisfied smile from coming to her face. She knew that their relationship had Alex feeling like a third-wheel a lot of the time, but she couldn’t help but be grateful for knowing he was there for her.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Alex said, checking his watch. “You and Isabel have got to be worn out anyhow. He glanced over at the yellow quartz sitting on his sister’s lap. “What do you think it means that she didn’t recognize your… rock thingy?”
Tess shrugged, sighing. “I don’t know what anything means anymore. But I’m not too surprised. I told you it’s mine.”
“So she didn’t feel… pulled to it the way you do?” Kyle pressed.
Tess bit her lip, considering Isabel’s reaction. “She was kind of weird about it. She could definitely feel the energy from it, she said she did, but…”
“But she wasn’t wrestling you to the ground trying to keep it for herself,” Kyle filled in.
Tess blushed a little. “Right.”
Alex let out a dry laugh. Tess had had that quartz since the day they’d found her. She’d been clinging to it for dear life and no one could get her to even put it down for months. She’d taken it to school with her for years, keeping it in her backpack and checking on it throughout the day. Nowadays she kept it in the drawer of her nightstand, only carrying it around when things got tense.
The thought pulled Alex back to the present. With that Trilling guy out there, things might very well get tense. Still, he and Kyle had decided not to worry too much about him until they knew what they might be up against. He shook his head as if to clear it. He didn’t want to think about this unless he had to. “So what’s the plan?”
Tess frowned, knowing something was up but not sure what. “She’s going to talk to Max tonight, and probably Maria—”
“Maria knows too?”
“Are you surprised by that? She’s been friends with them forever.”
Alex nodded appraisingly. “That’s true.”
“And then we’re going to have to set up someplace to meet tomorrow,” Tess continued. “Probably tomorrow night, all of us getting together at school might look weird.”
Kyle let out a guffaw. “You think?”
“Especially if we have to get Liz Parker away from Michael Guerin,” Tess said.
“Well, Liz doesn’t necessarily have to be there, does she?” Alex asked almost nervously.
Tess laughed, knowing he was probably worried about running into her after his last encounter with her. “No, she doesn’t have to be there, but I think she deserves to as much as anyone else. She’s just been pulled into this world against her will. It’s not fair to leave her in the dark about things.”
“So that’s… three, four, five… seven people.” Alex let out a low whistle. “We’re really getting ourselves into something here, Tessa. You sure you’re ready for this?”
Tess took a slow, deep breath, as if contemplating it. “I’m not sure, really. But if you’d seen Isabel… how she was, I mean.” She shrugged. “They’re good people, Alex. I know opening up to so many people will be a risk, but there’s no turning back now, is there?”
Alex shrugged, and he was surprised at how tense he was. “No, I guess not.”
“We should talk to Liz,” Kyle said, causing Tess to turn to look at him. “Maybe we could meet in the Crashdown after it closes tomorrow.”
“Yeah, definitely. That‘s a good idea,” Alex agreed, nodding emphatically.
Now Tess knew that something was wrong. “Why the Crashdown? What’s going on?”
Alex glanced over his shoulder as he turned off of the highway, “Oh nothing, Tessa. We’ve just got some tracks to cover.”
The deliberately absent way he said it worried her, though. What exactly were Alex and Kyle hiding from her?
*************
Morning came far too early for Maria’s tastes, and she grumbled when her alarm went off. Who knew that witnessing could be so exhausting? When she’d approached Jeff Parker at the Crashdown the day before she hadn’t expected having a uniform thrust into her hands ten minutes after she’d said she might be interested in the job. Apparently Mr. Parker had been desperate, though, so she’d given in and suited up.
So far she wasn’t impressed by the work atmosphere. Knock that off my list of lifetime careers, she thought sardonically as she tested the water in the shower before jumping in. She’d never realized how incredibly disgusting the remains of a meal could be. She shuddered at the memory of Table Five, which had been occupied half the night by a couple with three miniature hellions they were trying to pass off as children.
Rolling her neck under the stream of hot water, she sighed. Watching Max ogling after Liz Parker was even more annoying when she wasn’t sitting across from him with the opportunity of snapping him out of it. The weird thing, though, was that Liz had been doing a little bit of ogling herself.
Now, Maria knew that Max was a pretty good-looking guy, but he’d never been noticed by anyone much, and that was fine with her. Not that she was against Max and Isabel being accepted by other people, it was just going to take some getting used to. Like, a lot of getting used to. Maybe it wasn’t Maria’s secret personally, but she’d always been a part of it, and it had shaped so much of her life, just the idea of change was a little scary. And she wasn’t just talking about herself—she knew the risks involved in this as well as anyone. The more people involved, the more dangerous things got, that’s all there was to it.
Which was why she was going to make it clear to Liz Parker that telling that sad-excuse-for-a-teenage-miscreant Michael Guerin about Max and Isabel’s origins was completely out of the question. Max had told her as much, Maria was sure, but she was going to make it clear.
Just thinking about Michael had Maria’s nose wrinkling in distaste. She didn’t exactly have delicate feelings, or delicate taste, even, but Guerin was like an abomination waiting to happen. She’d always thought he was kind of annoying, even from afar, but actually trying to talk to him? Impossible. Maybe Liz did have some kind of character to her, if she could put up with that guy for so long, and the thought made Maria smirk.
She whisked out of the shower and dressed quickly, glancing at the clock and suppressing as groan. She’d just call Max and tell him she’d take the Jetta this morning. She didn’t want to make him late. As she reached for the phone, though, it rung, surprising her so much she nearly jumped out of her skin.
When she recovered from her shock she took a deep breath and picked up the cordless. “Hello?”
Who in their right mind called people at seven forty-five in the morning?
She had hardly finished saying the word, though, when a calm, strangely subdued voice asked simply, “Do you believe in aliens?”
Maria pulled away from the phone instinctively, a heavy feeling in her stomach—until she remembered that she lived in the alien capital of the world, and prank calls like this weren’t exactly uncommon. “What is this the Roswell version of Scream? Get a life,” she snapped, before hanging up the phone and throwing it onto her bed. She didn’t have time for this.
She cursed when she realized that she still had to call Max, but before she could even retrieve the phone, her mom’s voice was calling from the living room. “Maria honey, Max and Isabel are out front, are you ready?”
“Uh… yeah. I’ll be right there.”
So much for breakfast, she thought, and sighed. And lunch, technically, unless she got desperate enough to buy something from the cafeteria, which wasn’t likely to happen.
She shoved her jacket on and grabbed her backpack, wincing as she realized that she’d forgotten to do her English homework.
In a last, futile protest against the morning, and maybe more than that, what the day might bring, she stomped heavily towards the jeep, sitting down with hardly more than a groan of greeting to Max and Isabel, before leaning back in her seat and watching the houses as Max drove.
She was too busy praying that nothing anywhere between the scale of aggravating and life-changing would happen that day, that she didn’t even notice the nervous glances Max and Isabel were exchanging, or the way they were looking at her, just waiting for the right moment to drop the bomb.
