Earth2Mama
Chank_girl (Yes, Michael and Maria will be getting loud soon
)Begonia9508
RhondaAnn
Nibbles2
LilLoucfer
Michelle in LA
tequathdaisy
keepsmiling7
zaneri1
and of course LilithAnn (my best friend and lovely beta)
Chapter Thirteen
Wednesday August 27
Maria was just about to knock on the aliens’ door when it opened. “Liz!”
“Shhh.” Liz crept out the door quietly. “I don’t know who’s awake but I know Max is still sleeping. How are you doing?”
Maria frowned. “I’m okay. Still not sure if I can believe it all. Would have been nice if someone had come home last night so I could get all the answers.”
“I’m sorry about that. I just thought you guys might have wanted some time to…process? Besides…I don’t have any answers for you Maria. All the information I knew is what we told you guys last night. Trust me…not having all of the facts is bothering me as much as it’s probably bothering you.”
Maria frowned. “How could they have spent all of this time not knowing their origins? It would have driven me crazy.”
“I guess they didn’t have a choice.”
Maria nodded. “Well…I hope we all get some answers soon. I’m worried about you.”
“I know,” Liz said. “But Max meant it when he said he would protect us. Nothing’s gonna happen to me, ok? To any of us.” She reached over and gave Maria a hug.
Maria hugged her back and then said, “So where are you off to this early?”
“Thought I’d go home and get a shower before I have to head off to class.”
“Class. Yeah I have some today too. It’s so weird that today is just going to go on like any other day.” Maria fidgeted and then looked at the door again.
“So you want to go find some breakfast with me?” Liz asked.
“Well…I actually was coming up here to see if Michael was around.” Maria felt her face growing hot.
Liz’s eyes got a little wider. “Oh. Okay then. I’ll see you a little later then.” And she left smiling.
Maria grumbled and went in the door. Normally she wouldn’t have just walked into someone’s apartment without an invitation but she already knew that Max was asleep and she didn’t want to wake him up. When she had woken up this morning she had tried really hard to fight the urge to see Michael but it hadn’t worked out. Sure, they had class in a few hours together…but that was hours away. And she wanted to make sure he was okay now.
She knew which room was his because she couldn’t really picture Max or Isabel having a Metallica poster taped to theirs. She knocked gently hoping not to wake the others.
After a few moments she debated whether or not to knock again but then the door opened and Michael was standing there filling up the doorway. “Maria?”
“Good morning.” Now that she was here she was unsure about what she really wanted to say.
“It’s really fucking early. I wasn’t expecting any of you people to come around for a few hours.”
“You people?” She raised an eyebrow.
“You humans.” He sighed and opened the door. “Come in.”
Maria stepped into his bedroom and was mildly shocked to find it neat and orderly. For some reason she had expected him to be a messier person.
Michael walked past her and sat on the bed. “So. What’s up?” He still wasn’t looking at her.
She took a seat at his desk and said, “I just thought maybe I should make sure you were alright.”
He jerked his head up, “Make sure I’m alright?” Now he was looking at her.
“Yes! Okay? You seemed really upset yesterday and I wasn’t sure why.”
Michael scowled. “Let me get this straight. Yesterday you found out that not only do aliens exist but that they’re your neighbors and you’re asking me if I’m okay?”
“Well…yes. So?”
“So you’re crazy. I thought you’d be running back to Roswell by now.”
“Are you doubting my courage Guerin?”
Now Michael looked away again. “No, I’m just not sure why you’re still here.”
“Well because of a lot of reasons… We have to get to the bottom of all this. We need to know about your planet and this war that’s going on because if it gets dragged to Earth, we’ll all really be involved whether we like it or not. And Liz too. She stayed here last night you know?”
He nodded.
“Well she seems to be in this pretty deep. And she’s my best friend. So I’m here.” Maria smiled. “Besides, this is too insane for me to just forget about. I’d go stir crazy if I didn’t know what was going on with you guys.”
“Well this isn’t an adventure Maria. This is going to be dangerous.”
“I know. All the more reason for me to keep an eye on everyone.”
Michael didn’t respond and so she looked at him again. He did have the most interesting bedhead. And he still was avoiding her eyes.
“So you wanna tell me why through that whole meeting yesterday you wouldn’t look at me?”
**********
Michael hadn’t thought he had been so transparent. This is what I get for being such a coward and not looking at her the whole meeting. Now she knows something is up.
He looked her straight in the eyes. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
He thought he saw a flash of pain go through her eyes before she responded, “How could you not?”
“Look it was a tense time for all of us. What does it matter if I was looking at you or not?”
“Well…it doesn’t matter. It was just a little odd. I mean….I thought we were sort of becoming friends and at the meeting you just kind of shut down.”
“Friends?” He wasn’t sure in his wildest dreams he had ever thought he’d be friends with Maria. He knew he must look a little dumbfounded.
“Well…fine I guess I was wrong.” He was shocked to see her eyes get wetter. Is she about to cry?
She got off the chair and turned to the door. “Just forget I said anything. See you in class.”
Michael felt like he had no say in his body getting off the bed and grabbing her arm. It was like a compulsion. He couldn’t let her leave with tears in her eyes.
“Maria…”
She was facing him and looking down at his hand on her arm. She looked up and Michael saw that he had been right. She had a tear that was seconds from leaking out.
“Why are you crying?
Maria cringed and as she closed her eyes he couldn’t help but see the tear leak out onto her cheek. “I don’t know!” She sounded disgusted with herself.
She pulled at her arm but Michael held tight. “Maria…” He took a step and it brought him incredibly close to her. “It isn’t that I don’t want to be friends with you…”
He looked at her face trying to find the right way to say what he felt. He wasn’t used to having to tell anyone anything he felt. But she was looking at him with her big eyes and pouty mouth. And he had to say something. Instead, he kissed her.
He couldn’t help himself. Her lips were soft and warm and she tasted like caramel. He felt her stiffen but he put his arm around her back and pulled her closer. Soon he felt her relax in his arms and he thanked whatever Gods existed.
He felt her arms loop over his shoulders and around his neck and then her body was pressed up against his. He knew he had to end it now. Soon he would not want to stop at all.
He found her hands and slowly moved them back down. He felt something unbelievably possessive for her when he saw how swollen her lips were and how dazed her eyes were. He let go of one of her hands to wipe the tear on her cheek. “It isn’t that I don’t want to be friends with you…it’s that I don’t want to be friends with you.”
**********
Isabel was laying on the Green looking at the sky again. “You know…if we keep running into each other in this same place every day I’m gonna start thinking of it as our spot.”
She turned and smiled, “Either that or you’re stalking me. How are you, Alex?”
“Pretty good. On my way to my next class. Doesn’t start for twenty minutes though. You?”
“Same. Just wasting some time while I wait for mine.”
He sat down next to her. “Candy bar?” He held out a twix and a snickers.
“Oh no thanks. Some breakfast though,” she teased
“I have a slight chocolate addiction. I’m not gonna lie. Besides I ate breakfast hours ago with Liz.”
“I thought I heard her leaving this morning.”
“Does that bother you?”
“No…it’s just always been the three of us so it’s going to take some getting used to.” She laid back down and looked at the sky again. Alex moved to lay next to her.
He felt for her hand and held it. “It’ll be better, Isabel. You’ll see.”
“I know. I just hope we’re not dragging you guys into all of this mess. You all could get hurt.” She bit her lip worriedly.
He scoffed. “Oh and you couldn’t?”
“Well we at least have powers,” she whispered.
Alex sat up, “Woah woah woah…I knew you three had powers but what exactly are we talking about here? Can you….fly?”
Isabel laughed and he was happy to see that she didn’t look so worried anymore. “No! Of course not. But we can do a few interesting things. Let’s see…well you already know about healing. That’s what Max tried to do to Liz that day and it didn’t work. That’s the first time our powers haven’t worked actually.”
“Hrmm… well what about what Max did with Liz’s hair. What was that?”
“That was just molecular manipulation. We can change the form of anything. That’s actually how we heal things too. We just remove what doesn’t belong.”
“Wow that’s pretty amazing.” He smiled. “And my dream last night? How’d you do that?” He chuckled a little as her eyes got round.
“How did you know that wasn’t just a normal dream?”
He hadn’t known. Until now. “Well you’re not usually quite so vivid when I dream about you.”
She laughed. “And I’m starting to see it’s rather often.”
Now it was his turn to feel embarrassed. “Do you…uh…do that a lot?”
“Only twice.” She saw him faintly blushing. “Don’t worry Alex. I saw what I needed to. I promise I won’t do it again without asking.”
He said, “Well thanks. Though I can’t say it matters. Either way you’re in there.”
**********
Kyle knew that he was on the track again because he was looking for that girl. It was probably not the best idea due to her lack of interest, but Kyle was hoping maybe it was some sort of defense mechanism. She was way too cute to give up on so easily.
Not long after he got there did she arrive. White t-shirt, little black running shorts, Kyle had to catch up.
When he got beside her she slowed to a jog and he took it as a good sign.
“Kyle.”
“Tess. Funny meeting you here.” She smiled a little and Kyle knew he was starting to win her over.
“Yeah what a coincidence.” She rolled her eyes playfully.
“So you run like… faster then I’ve seen anyone with such short legs run.”
“Hey! My legs are not short!” She replied indignantly. “I’m petite.”
“Okay okay. So what were you, like a track star in high school?”
“Nope. I was home schooled. I just run for exercise.”
“Really?!” Kyle was pretty amazed. Most people who ran for exercise didn’t run like a bat out of hell.
“Yeah. What of it?”
“Well then I’m just wondering, are you running from something?” He asked playfully.
The look she gave him was more serious. “Why would you ask that?”
“Tess I was joking.”
“Oh. Well…I’m just into endurance sports.”
“Cool. What else do you do? I used to play football myself.”
“Well I’m trained in martial arts as well.” She looked faintly surprised that she was sharing this with him.
“Nice. So you can kick my ass?”
She laughed. It was the first time he had heard her laugh and Kyle was smitten immediately. It was musical and cheerful and funny coming out of this sarcastic little woman.
“I guess I could. If it was necessary.”
He smiled. “Well I’ll be sure to watch my back around you.”
**********
