M&M will deliver the drama for sure.
begonia9508: We will bring light into the M&M situation eventually.
Sleeping arrangements… oh they will be… interesting.
HypnotiqBlueEyes: Steam for M&L and drama for M&M? Hm, yeah, you might be onto something here.
xilaj: Out characters will enlighten their stories a bit further towards each other today… also some very important facts seem to be still missing, lol.
sarammlover: Lol, that’s going to be a painful vacation for Max, huh?
LovelyPOM83: Thanks! M&L have some work to do before they can be together, lol.
CandyliciousLovah: Well for now, lol.
LuckyMiss: We will bring light to the M&M situation and their past in time. You just have to wait a bit longer.
No doubt, the group is going to discover some secrets from each other and this might put them through drama, chaos and also a lot of fun…
Alien_Friend: His plan is to leave and yet it has to be seen if anyone / anything can hold him up.
Things are settled down for now, but just so much… they won’t stay this comfy for all too long. hehe
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Chapter 20
“I think dinner in an hour would be good,” Liz stood in the kitchen area with one of the crew to hand out the list of menus everyone had chosen in the front. The flight had lasted for several hours now and everyone seemed to still be testing the water with each other, which really wasn’t a surprise after the length of time that’d passed since they’d seen each other. She glanced over her shoulder when everyone behind her suddenly broke out into laughter.
Kyle was waving his hands around and it looked like he was telling some big story. With the distance between them she couldn’t hear all of it, but she did make out a few words like Jamaica, after shoot party, stripper, banana, and ... totally vanished.
Alex had his hand over his eyes and was shaking his head in disbelief, Isabel had her head thrown back doing that pig snort thing she only did when she was extremely tickled, Maria and Max were both leaning into each other as tears rolled down their cheeks from laughing so hard, and Tess, ...well, Liz couldn’t help but smirk at her tiny blonde friend.
Ever since the whole Kyle male model secret had been let out, she had noticed that Tess had been more and more drawn to him. She followed his every move with her eyes, tried to have flirty conversations with him, and was always shifting closer to him.
Only problem was, Kyle seemed to take no notice of it and was completely ignoring her. And it was driving Tess up the wall!
It had been a good idea to bring him, she thought. He fit so much better with everyone than Dean ever would. Guilt washed over her right after that thought. Was she relieved he had cancelled this trip with her?
Even though everyone had changed, it seemed like the group still had its easygoing dynamic from high school. They had yet to catch up with the past few years, but one thing was certain: Dean most likely wouldn’t have liked any of her old friends. He was the type who was always too busy to let his hair down in order to have fun and be crazy.
Yeah... Dean’s idea of acting ‘crazy’ would be wearing a tie to the office that didn’t match his Armani suit.
That thought was enough to make her mood sink for a moment until her thoughts were interrupted.
“What’s with the passenger in the back?” the stewardess asked as she glanced over the list and recognized one order was missing.
Liz looked at the closed curtain uncertainly. Michael hadn’t come out since they had left New York City and he most likely wouldn’t until they landed. “I’ll go to check on him,” she told the woman and walked over to the separating curtain. As she pushed it open slowly and carefully she could almost hear the narrator to one of those nature shows she liked. “When dealing with a wounded, cornered animal speak very softly and don’t make any sudden movements.”
He was sitting at the very end of the aisle, arms crossed over his chest, posture slouched down and feet propped up on the seat across from him. His head leaned against the oval window, but he wasn’t sleeping; he was staring out into the distance. Liz couldn’t help but feel more guilt.
From the corner of his eye he caught movement and the hope that Maria would approach him died down when he recognized the dark hair. Who was he kidding? Maria would never come to talk to him. Not after the way he had ended things with her. She probably didn’t have any interest in him anymore because there was a new good looking guy at her side. Just the thought alone made him clench both of his hands into firsts.
“Hey, Michael,” Liz greeted him and stopped a row in front of him to kneel on the seat and look over it. Maybe a safe distance wasn’t a bad idea since he still looked pissed. She swallowed when he didn’t respond and held a menu card out to him. “I’m here to ask what you’d like to eat.”
He barely glanced up to look at the menu, but still didn’t say anything.
“They um… have lasagna or something like chicken with potatoes and veggies.” It’s like talking to a wall, she thought in frustration and let herself sink into the seat, facing away from him. Michael had always been a character she didn’t know how to handle, but it had been a different story with Maria. It was like one day she had gotten the manual ‘How-To-Handle-A-Guerin’ and she had just known what to say or do with him. “I told her you were tricked into this trip and that you weren’t trying to mess with her on purpose. She’s not mad or anything.”
Yeah, why would she be? She was over him, he thought.
“I understand that you don’t want to see her-”
“You fuckin’ don’t understand anything, Parker, so just let it go.” The problem was that he’d wanted to see her every damn day for the last few years, but after all the shit in his life he had no right to just walk back to her and confuse her again. When he’d made the decision to leave her alone, he’d known it had to be for forever. His sister had no right to mess with that!
If his voice hadn’t sounded so broken she would’ve been offended by his words, but obviously it was mostly hurt speaking out of him. “Yeah, you’re right, maybe I don’t.”
“I’ll take the chicken,” he said after a long silence, hoping that she would leave him alone again. In a mood like this, he preferred his own company.
“Okay,” she got out of her seat and glanced at him again. “You wanna join us for dinner or…,” she trailed off when he sighed. “I’ll have it brought back here then.” With that she went to leave and was glad she had survived with no further yelling. She went through the separating curtain again but this time ran smack into Tess.
“How’s he doing?” she asked, her eyes full of worry.
“What do you think?”
The curly blonde sighed. “I didn’t do it to hurt him.”
“Don’t tell me that,” Liz said and glanced up when Isabel waved them over.
“Come on ladies, it’s time to lay your cards on the table.”
Tess glanced at Liz with a half hearted smirk. “I’m not sure I like what she’s suggesting.”
They made their way over to the rest of the gang and took the seats in the booths located around tables, four seats, two left and two right of one table. “Almost like back at the Crashdown,” Liz smirked when they sat there with their drinks.
Maria rolled her eyes. “No, this is like 100 times more luxurious and we have Star Trek Valenti with us,” she winked at Kyle.
“Was that the only nickname you gave me?” he grumbled.
“Well, if you’d looked like you do now back when we were in school we’d have called you Captain Steel Abs.” Maria smirked as she leaned over and used her hand to pat Kyle’s stomach.
Tess’s eyes narrowed as she watched Maria touch Kyle. She shouldn’t be touching him like that! She has a boyfriend!
“That was the only one that can be said out loud,” Tess countered with a good bit of jealous anger tinting her voice. And all it earned her was another glare from Kyle.
“So,” Isabel interrupted. “Since we have new people around and we also haven’t seen each other in a long while, Maria and I thought it’d be good to just get it over with and say where we stand in life right now. This tiptoeing around each other is no fun at all.”
Kyle watched Tess out of the corner of his eye as Isabel spoke. He had noticed how her face, which was wrapped in cute blonde curls, fell and went pale. Seems like someone’s not so proud of her life, he thought and smirked. “Sounds like fun. Who’s gonna start?”
“Why don’t you?” Tess suggested. “We all know you got the shiniest story already. So tell us how Star Trek Valenti transformed into super model Valenti.”
“Yeah fine, whatever,” he narrowed his eyes at her before turning back to the group. “Not long after we graduated I knew I wanted to change how I looked. So I started watching what I ate and when I got to school I joined a gym close to campus. Every day after classes I’d go there and lift weights and do cardio.”
“What kind of cardio? “Alex asked.
“I tried my hand at all kinds at first: stairmaster, stationary bike and even aerobic classes,” a big smirk spread across Kyle’s face. “But I tried that last one mostly so I could see the hot ladies in the skimpy leotards bend over in front of me.”
While everyone else laughed at his comment, Tess only rolled her eyes.
“Anyway, one day I got on a treadmill and gave it a shot,” Kyle continued. “At first I could barely half walk half run a mile. But I stuck with it and as the days turned to weeks, then months and then years I lost all my weight.”
“Yeah, but how did the whole underwear model thing come about?!” Tess suddenly blurted out and then blushed profusely when everyone started smirking at her “I .... uhhh ... mean ... I’m sure everyone else here was wondering. “
Maria turned in her seat with a fake serious look on her face and asked her best friend: “I wasn’t wondering.... were you wondering, Max?”
“It was eating me up inside,” Max put a hand over his heart. “I knew I’d never be able to have any fun on this vacation until I found out how some guy I never met before became an underwear model.”
“Ohhh, bite me,” Tess muttered under her breath at the snickering pair.
“After a year or so of heavy jogging you could already see a real difference,” Kyle nodded. “From there it just all worked out in my favor I guess. One day around my junior year, Matt – my dormmate – made me take a part in a casting for underwear modeling job that some ad company was hiring for. I thought it’d be a funny distraction after my girlfriend broke up with me and well, I got the deal and from there I got booked for shoot after shoot. I actually had to drop out of school, because modeling was starting to take up too much of my time. And suddenly before I knew it, I seemed to be famous. End of story.”
Liz laughed and bumped his shoulder gently. “There’s more to you than just being famous now. How about all those charities you’re always promoting in between shoots?”
He winked back at her. “Shhh, don’t ruin my new bad boy reputation I worked so hard for.”
Tess snorted loudly, but really the only thing she could think of was how sexy he had turned out and how cruel destiny had to be to throw it right in her face.
“You wanna be next?” He looked at her challengingly.
“I’m next,” Isabel interrupted though, because she wanted to get it off her chest as soon as possible. “Okay, so soon after moving to LA I met a lawyer. His name’s Jesse Ramirez.”
“Your husband, right?” Liz asked.
“Yes, yes,” the tall blonde nodded. “Soon to be ex though.” She paused a moment when the brunette gasped in surprise. “He’s the biggest asshole in the world. I’m not sure how or why I got married to him in the first place now.” She shook her head helplessly.
“Sometimes people you think you know just turn out different,” Maria told her and placed an encouraging hand on her shoulder.
Isabel smiled slightly and placed a hand over hers. “Yeah, I guess they do.”
Tess clenched her fists under the table. She knew Maria was referring to Michael and based on what the girl knew, it was no surprise she thought that way; it just killed her that everyone was getting a picture of Michael that wasn’t him.
“Anyway,” Isabel went on. “At least one good thing came out of my marriage.” She pulled out a little photo and placed it on the table. “That’s my two year old daughter Maya.”
“You have a daughter?” The question came from several sides and everyone craned their necks to have a look at the picture.
“She looks like you,” Liz smiled and blinked a tiny tear away. Her friend’s story was totally getting to her.
“Wow,” Maria leaned back in her seat and looked at her friend. “That’s just about the last thing I expected.”
Isabel chuckled. “Yeah, I know, right? For a girl with totally different dreams… but I wouldn’t change anything because Maya’s the best thing in my life.”
“Is she with her father now?” Liz asked.
“Yeah,” her tone went sad, but she suddenly felt a bit better when Alex reached down and placed his hand over hers. She smiled at not only the concerned look in his eyes, but the way he was slightly blushing over their contact with each other. “The judge decided she lives one week with me and then one week with him from now on. It’s all pretty new and it’s the reason why I couldn’t give you a straight answer until shortly before the trip.”
“That’s tough. I’m sorry you had to deal with all of that.”
“It’s okay,” Isabel put on a brave face. “I’ll get through it eventually.”
“Alright, I’m next,” Liz decided. “As you know I have a fiancé. His name’s Dean and we live together in a house in San Francisco.”
“House?” Kyle asked. “It’s a palace.”
She rolled her eyes. “It’s not. It is pretty big, too big for my taste, but well… it’s a nice place.”
“Her fiancé is stinking rich,” he added.
“He works hard for it,” she countered and placed a hand over Kyle’s mouth to shut him up. “Like you’ve got room too talk Mr. I Live on a Big Yacht.”
“Yacht?” everyone heard Tess ask under her breath, her eyebrows raised in shock.
“Anyway, I work at the San Francisco Medical Lab and was just promoted to floorwalker. Other than that, I’m afraid my life’s pretty boring.”
Tess snorted. “Are you kidding? What’s not perfect? Money, fiancé and a job you wanted.”
“Yeah, I guess…”
Max studied the brunette while she laid out her past but somehow he wasn’t buying the smile she wore. Her eyes told a different story and he was pretty sure there was something she hadn’t mentioned. “So, when’s the big wedding?” he asked.
“Oh,” Liz said, not prepared for that question. “I don’t know, we haven’t set a date yet.” If there would be one at all, she thought, but she wasn’t ready to share that with all of them together.
Uh-huh, that hit home, he thought but let it go for now.
Maria studied her former best friend and couldn’t shake the feeling that there was something she wasn’t telling, but maybe this wasn’t the time for the whole truth. She glanced at Max and felt the guilt inside. Obviously her friends weren’t all as happy as she had thought and now she felt like an ass for pretending she had something with Max that wasn’t true. The show was already on though and coming out with the truth now would just be too embarrassing.
“So what about you guys? What’s your story? How’d you meet?”
Maria was drawn out of her musings by Liz’s questions, but before she could even get a word out, Max had already opened his big mouth.
“Well, you see it was a dark and stormy night......omphhhh!”
“Don’t listen to him,” Maria took her elbow out of Max’s side. “He likes to joke a lot.”
“Okay, so I live in New York obviously. I moved in with a pretty cool guy, which turned out to be my new best friend and later also boyfriend in the big city.” She smirked at Max and squeezed his hand. At least the best friend part was true, she thought. “I work in a bar and get the chance to sing there now and then, but it’s not what I want. Well, what can I say, things in New York aren’t so easy to handle, especially when you’re not swimming in money.” The little detail about her job taking place in a strip bar wasn’t important, she decided silently.
“She handles herself pretty well in the city,” Max said supportively. “She had to take breaks from college now and then to work, but she’s not giving up.”
“Yeah, but it means I’m still not finished with my education.”
“You will be soon,” he told her.
“I think you can be very proud of yourself,” Liz told her with an encouraging smile. “You went after what you wanted and you’re still sticking with it even if it’s hard.”
“Thanks,” Maria nodded and her heart clenched tightly because lying about Max felt wrong and because of the man who sat only a few feet away and had no clue how much she still missed him. “I had a lot of help from Max. He’s a social worker and because of that he can read people really well. He’d always know what to say or to do to make me feel better.”
Liz looked at the man in question and felt a hint of jealousy. So Max didn’t only look like a god, he also had a good heart.
When the silence grew all eyes landed on Tess. “So Harding,” Isabel said, amused, “the ball’s in your hands.”
“Well,” she squirmed in her seat, while she tried to decide what to tell them. Her story really wasn’t anything fancy, but after the mess she had created with Michael more lies would probably cause a disaster. If only Valenti wouldn’t listen, she thought, frustrated.
“I lived in LA for a long time after high school and went with the sports degree I wanted. I met a guy in a sports club where I was working out daily. He turned out to be the owner of several studios along the West Coast and we started to date and got more serious. I moved in with him, took classes or went to the studio, my goal and his promise was to take over one of the studios in LA after college.” She looked at the other faces and swallowed hard, her memories still so fresh they hurt. “That was until one day an 18-year-old supermodel requested personal training from him and he decided he’d rather fuck her than stay with me anymore.”
She tried to play it cool. Kyle watched her closely, but it had obviously rattled her little world big time. “You at least castrated the guy before you left?”
Tess snorted and couldn’t help but smile at his attempt to lighten the mood. “I wish.”
“There are always some assholes beneath the good ones,” Isabel squeezed her shoulder.
“I suppose that’s true.” She straightened, determined to stay out of the depressed mood she’d been in for a while after that. “I didn’t know where to go so I showed up at Michael’s door in Seattle pretty unexpectedly.”
“He lives in Seattle?” Before Maria knew it the question was out. Damn it!
Tess nodded. “He was pretty cool about it and let me use his couch. That was a few months ago and I’m still staying with him. It kinda works out pretty good right now, but I guess I should finally look around for my own apartment.”
“You plan to stay in Seattle?” Liz wanted to know.
“I thought about it. The city’s nice and Michael and Jay are like family to me.” Tess looked at Maria, who was practically boring her eyes in her. “He works at his father’s car repair shop a lot and has a second job at a bar. He’s also taking evening engineer classes.”
Silence broke out again and went on when everyone seemed to be withdrawing into their own little world of thoughts.
Liz blinked and then shook herself out of her musings. She forced a smile and lifted her glass to everyone. “To the return of the Roswell girls and a fun vacation.”
“But we’re not all girls here,” Kyle pointed out while Alex nodded and Max seemed to be trying to puff his chest out a bit in a sort of macho way.
“Can’t you guys just go with it just this once? “ Liz asked.
Kyle rolled his eyes but raised his glass “Fine, but only this one time.”
“To a fun vacation! “ Everyone clinked glasses with those around them, but Maria’s eyes shifted to the closed curtain at the end of the gangway.
