Friendly Encounters
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters from Roswell. I don’t own characters from “Friends” either. I just own the plot of this story. Please don’t sue.Rating: Teen to Mature. I think. Maybe I’ll enlist some help if I want to go into adult territory.
Author’s Note: I’d like to say a quick thank you to April, pijeechinadoll, and Wench On A Leash for helping me brainstorm, and convincing me to post this. You guys are awesome. I will try to come up with a regular posting schedule, but for now, things will be posted as they are written. Bear with me please. Feedback is appreciated, as always.
Summary: A chance encounter at a coffee house brings together six friends. Together, they deal with hook-ups, break-ups, make-ups, and learning how to deal with daily life in the real world. The is lightly based on the TV show “Friends,” though the plot will differ from the storyline in obvious aspects.
Thanks to pijeechinadoll for the beautiful banner!
Episode 1: The One With The Runaway Bride
Wonderful, she thought.
As if things couldn’t get any worse, it was raining. After all, it hardly ever rained in LA as it was. Don’t they say rain on a wedding day is bad luck? Whatever the superstition was, she was starting to think that maybe everything that was happening to her was a sign. A sign that she was making the wrong decision. That was the reason she was hiding out here, in the bathroom, instead of letting her girlfriends gush over how amazing she looked and how lucky she was to be getting married to someone who could take care of her for the rest of her life.
But did she really want to sacrifice love for security?
“Pull yourself together, Liz,” she muttered to the mirror. “Aaron’s a good guy, any woman would be lucky to be marrying him.”
Her expression changed as she said the words. She didn’t believe he was a good man. She believed he was a rich man. One that could provide her with the type of lifestyle she’d grown accustomed to.
She thought back to what she had seen a few days before. Was it stupid for her to be marrying a man she had seen making out with her supposed best friend? Probably.
It was that thought that made her come to the realization. I can’t do this, she thought as she started to panic.
She could hear footsteps coming down the hall. Oh shit. Here comes that backstabbing bitch now. Looking desperately for somewhere to escape, she spotted the window that led outside the church and into freedom.
As she got her legs through and reached down to pull up the train of her dress, she heard a knock, then a voice.
“Liz? Are you okay in there? Everyone’s waiting for you to start,” said Sarah, the maid of honor.
I swear, I could kill Sarah. Although I guess I should’ve seen that she felt something for Aaron. She’s always been jealous of me. Well, Liz Parker plays second fiddle to no one.
The door opened a crack and a painted blue eye could be seen. “Liz?” Opening the door wider, Sarah stepped into the now empty bathroom, noticed the open window, and ran out into the hall. Ripping open the doors leading into the chapel, the audience turned to look at her, expecting her to be the bride. Sarah managed to pant out two words.
“She’s gone!”
* * *
“I can’t believe you didn’t know she was seeing someone else. How could you not know?” Michael asked.“I don’t know, I mean, she was always so attentive and it’s not like she ever just disappeared for long periods of time,” Max replied with a sad tone.
“But you were going out with her for like, a year. How did you even find out she was seeing someone else?” Isabel questioned. She felt bad that her brother was going through a bad time, but she never liked that stupid bimbo anyway. Deep down, Isabel was glad she was out of the picture.
“I kind of found them when I went over to her apartment.”
“Found them? Found them like, hide-and-seek? Or found them like… found them?” Alex said excitedly.
“Gee, I think I’m gonna have to go with the latter, Alex. I appreciate the sensitivity.”
“Hey, I’m sensitive. I’m just… curious. Like George.”
“Well, yes. I caught them making out when I used my key to see if her and her friend needed anything from the store.”
“Wow,” Isabel breathed. “I know I never liked her, but I never thought she could be that much of a bitch. I mean, cheating on you with another man? And I can’t believe you were so trusting that you didn’t suspect that her friend was something more.”
“Well, actually, you wouldn’t suspect anything either considering her friend was a woman.”
The looks of disbelief spoke volumes about what everyone was thinking. Max could understand that, considering he was equally as shocked when he saw what he did.
When everyone else started laughing, Max couldn’t help but laugh at the situation along with them. After all, at least he still had his best friends.
* * *
Liz ran for what felt like hours to her but was actually only 10 minutes for the rest of the world. She finally came to a stop at a quaint little coffee shop called The Daily Grind and decided she could use something to warm her up, considering it was raining and she was feeling cold. Walking up to the counter, soaking wet and in a wedding dress, she ordered a coffee and took in her surroundings. There were people scattered around on chairs and couches. Liz turned around to reach for her coffee and did a double take. “Isabel? Isabel Evans?”
A laughing blonde woman turned around in her chair, a look of shock on her face. “Liz! Oh my god you’re… in a wedding dress.”
Looking down, Liz suddenly felt self-conscious. Must be because everyone’s staring at you now, she berated herself. “Oh… yeah, I was um…”
“Getting married?” Isabel offered gently.
“Yeah! Yeah… but um… not so much anymore.” And that’s when the rambling began. “I mean, I’m not stupid here right? I’m not completely crazy to be giving up a young, hot millionaire even if he’s cheating on me with my ex-best friend, am I?!”
“Oh um… no, no, of course not! You should be with someone who loves and respects you, and from the sound of it, this guy… doesn’t,” Isabel replied.
“You’re right. You’re absolutely right. I shouldn’t be thinking this is a mistake when I don’t love him anyway. I mean, who cares if I could be in Italy on my honeymoon tomorrow? Who cares if I could be opening hundreds of wedding presents? That shouldn’t matter!” The moment the words were out of her mouth, Liz sobbed like a baby. As if she hadn’t been telling herself these things for the past three hours. But to have to tell someone else about this, well… it just hurt. It didn’t matter that she and Aaron didn’t love each other. The fact of the matter was that putting so much into one thing and having it blow up in your face would hurt anyone.
“Well hey, it’s okay. Why don’t you come sit with me and have a cup of coffee, you know, take your mind off things?”
Glancing at the area Isabel had left, she noticed a group of people watching them closely. “Oh, I don’t want to intrude.”
“Don’t be silly, Liz, you won’t be intruding. Come meet everyone,” Isabel said with a smile.
Walking tentatively toward the group, Liz gave a smile and a tiny wave. “Hello.”
“Hey!” the table exclaimed.
Isabel started the introductions. Starting with Michael Guerin, a shaggy-haired man, who appeared to be checking her out, Liz went on to meet Tess Harding, a blonde woman who appeared to be in the middle of meditating and did not seem to take kindly to being interrupted, and Alex Whitman, a man wearing a business suit, gave her a sarcastic comment in greeting, but wasn’t altogether unpleasant.
“Oh, and you remember my brother Max, right?”
Max gave her a shy smile before returning to his coffee.
“Of course! It’s so good to see you again. And it’s so great to meet everyone,” said Liz, grabbing a chair from a nearby table. “God, Isabel, you don’t know how relieved I am to see you here. So tell me what you’ve been up to! I haven’t talked to you since high school, what have you been doing these past seven years?”
“Oh, well I went to FIDM, here in LA. It‘s the Fashion Institute of Design and Marketing, and I got my degree in fashion design. And Max went to UCLA and got a degree in archaeology.”
“Oh wow, Max, that’s great!” Liz said.
“Yeah, it’s great, I just went out to Death Valley to look at some--” Max started.
“So Liz,” Alex said loudly, earning him a glare from Max, “before Max bores us all to death with his story so one of his descendants can excavate our bodies, why don’t you tell us a little bit about you?” Everyone laughed a little bit before turning to Liz.
“Well, I’ve known Isabel and Max since we were kids. We grew up on the same street, but then my mom wanted to move, so we moved and then we drifted apart a little bit and then I met Aaron and he asked me to marry him and I said yes and then I left. That’s about it,” Liz said. “I’m uh… sorry for rambling.”
“Oh, don’t even worry about it,” Tess said with a smile. “Alex rambles when he’s nervous and no one ever mentions it to his face. Well guys, I gotta go. I’ve got a massage patient waiting for me at my apartment.”
“You massage patients at your apartment?” Alex questioned.
“Oh, not all of them. Just the cute ones. See you guys!”
She left the group shaking their heads at her comment.
* * *
After coffee, Liz followed Isabel back to her apartment. Apparently Alex and Michael lived across the hall, but Michael frequently barges into Isabel’s apartment to raid the fridge.Liz paced back and forth in Isabel’s perfectly clean living room, having a heated argument with her mother while the rest of the group tried to subtly eavesdrop.
“No, mother! Doesn’t what I want matter? What do you mean, sometimes?! No, mom, I am not going to marry Aaron, I don’t care how much money he has, I don’t care how many vacation houses he can buy me! Well, maybe I don’t need dad’s money. Well, maybe I’ll just stay here in the city then! Of course I know people here, I can stay at Isabel’s!”
Everyone turned to observe Isabel’s look of unpleasant surprise. “I guess she’s staying here with Isabel, then.”
“No! Goodbye, mother!” Liz hung up her phone violently. “God, can you believe her? I mean, it doesn’t even matter to her that I wouldn’t have been happy in that marriage. The only thing she can think about is the fact that she can’t say her daughter’s husband is a podiatrist!”
Isabel’s natural mother-hen tendencies took over at Liz‘s distress. She walked over to Liz and gave her a hug. “It’s ok, hun. You can stay here until you get back on your feet okay?”
Liz wiped tears from her eyes. “Thank you so much, Is.”
“Isabel, you should probably inform her about Shirtless Sundays,” Alex smirked.
“Liz, Alex has this delusion that some day we’re going to walk around the apartment on Sundays with no shirts on. I’d hate for his weird thoughts to become reality, so try not to be too kinky,” Isabel replied with a smile.
“Way to kill a man’s dream, Izzy,” Alex said as he and the others started walking back to Isabel’s apartment.
Isabel just rolled her eyes.
End Episode 1
Be brutal.
