Chapter 11
Liz lifted her fist to knock sharply on her front door only to snatch back her hand at the last minute. She had stressed to Max and his parents that this was what she needed to do, that she had put off confronting her parents long enough. However, now that she’d finally arrived home Liz couldn’t make herself go inside. No longer was it a case of her avoiding her parents because of their antagonism towards Max. She hadn’t stayed away for an entire month because of that. Now she was afraid that perhaps they might not want her to return home.
Her mother said different, but Liz’s self-esteem had taken a real beating in the last month. Between her parents’ rejection and the blatant dislike she received from Max’s father Liz didn’t have a whole hell of a lot to feel good about. Had it not been for Max and his unflagging support she might have fallen into a deep depression. But she and Max had been keeping each other’s heads above water lately. When they were together neither had an opportunity for sadness. But now Max wasn’t there beside her and she had to face her parents alone.
She wished belatedly that she had taken Max up on his offer to run somewhere else. As long as they were together, Liz would not have cared where they went… But responsible Liz Parker, reasonable Liz Parker had asserted herself. She couldn’t avoid her parents any longer. She had been the one to put the distance there with her secrets and lies and she would have to be the one to remove it.
Sucking in a harsh breath, Liz rapped on the door once and quickly before she lost her courage. She stood there, unconsciously holding her breath, until the door whooshed open and the air leaked from her lungs in an agonized wheeze. For those first stunning seconds father and daughter stared at one another in shock and dismay. Liz cringed inwardly, dreading the moment when her father would order her off of his property and out of his life. But what he did next surprised her into sobbing tears.
He fell upon her, hugging her so tight that her breath constricted in her chest. “Oh, Lizzie. Lizzie. Lizzie,” he crooned hoarsely, “Thank God you came home. Thank God.”
His reaction was so unexpected, so needed that Liz crumpled, just turned into his chest and wept out her breaking heart. She was vaguely aware of his drawing her into the house, all the while stroking her back in slow, comforting circles.
“Jeff, what’s going…” Nancy Parker never finished her sentence. She stopped short at the sight of her weeping daughter and husband.
“Nance,” Jeff said with a tearful, trembling smile, “Look who came home.”
Nancy dropped the dishtowel she’d been using to dry her hands in the floor and rushed forward to embrace her family, burying her face into her daughter’s neck and weeping as well. “Thank God,” she whispered, “Thank God you came back.”
After an interminable amount of time had passed rocking and crying and lamenting past mistakes Liz slipped from her parents’ hold and wiped at her streaming eyes. “I didn’t think you wanted me back,” she said in a tear-roughened voice.
“We didn’t think you wanted to come back,” her father countered.
“And we didn’t feel right asking you to after…well, you know,” added her mother.
“I haven’t broken up with Max,” Liz declared, “And I don’t have any intention of doing so either.”
“That’s just something we’re going to have to agree to disagree about,” her father said, “Right now I don’t care. I’m just so glad to have you home again.” Jeff crossed over to take Liz into another long, heartfelt hug. Liz could feel how much he’d missed her with each embrace and that knowledge went a long way in healing the fissures in her heart. “I was wrong for the way I acted before,” Jeff told her now, “But I was in such shock…”
For a second time Liz slid out of her father’s embrace and backed away to another corner of the room. “Do you feel differently about me now?” she asked, nibbling tentatively on her lower lip.
“We…We just don’t know what to make of it all,” Nancy interjected lamely, “We don’t even understand why you have powers, Liz. I mean…you’re human. 100% human.”
“It was Max,” Liz whispered in explanation, “When he healed…he changed me.”
“How?” her father wondered.
“Well,” Liz considered, “At first I thought it was just a change in my cellular structure, but it’s more than that. My abilities are directly linked with my cerebral cortex so I’m thinking that Max awakened some sleeping part of my brain as well. We know that humans use about 3% of their brain capacity but Antarians are different. I can’t help but wonder if Max has such profound capability being only half Antarian what must a full blooded Antarian be capable of?” She trailed off abruptly when she noticed that both her parents were regarding her with soft smiles. “What?”
“That scientific mind of yours,” Jeff whispered fondly, “We’ve definitely missed that.”
“I’ve…” Liz stumbled, taking a moment to clear the emotion from her throat, “I’ve missed you, too, Dad.”
“So show us,” Nancy murmured softly.
“What?”
Her parents bestowed her with more affectionate smiles. “Show us what the human brain is capable of,” her father clarified warmly.
Liz nodded, though her first instinct was to hesitate. The last time she’d displayed her powers to them they had not taken it well. Her fear over receiving another such reaction hindered her desire to show them what she could do.
Jeff Parker easily read the fear on his daughter’s face and he regretted his part in it. “Go ahead and show us, Lizzie,” he urged her gently, “We’re ready now.”
After inhaling a trembling breath, Liz closed her eyes. She concentrated on the fallen dishtowel on the floor. In her mind she will it to float mid-air and to bend itself into several different geometric shapes while hovering. Based on her parents’ amazed gasps and murmurs Liz concluded she’d been successful. When she opened her eyes again the towel dropped back to the floor, inanimate once more.
“How…How do you do that?” her father croaked in awe.
Liz shrugged, as if what she’d just done was the simplest thing on earth. “I just see it in my head and then…I do it,” she replied.
“Can Max do these things, too?” Nancy asked.
“He can do much more, Mom,” Liz answered proudly, “He is a king, after all.”
“Yes,” Jeff murmured, groping for a nearby chair and easing himself down into it, “Your mother told me about that. She said that Max’s people are coming here.”
“In another month or so,” Liz confirmed.
Her father shook his head and ran a shaky hand through his disheveled hair. “Lizzie, do you have any idea what you’ve gotten yourself into?”
“I love Max, Dad,” Liz replied unanswerably, “And these are the things you do…when you love someone.”
“And what about you?” Nancy wondered, “What does Max do to prove his love for you, Liz? We know he saved your life but you’re the one who seems to make all the sacrifices.”
“Max made the ultimate sacrifice!” she defended, “He risked his life to save mine! Because of what he did for me in the Crashdown that day nothing in his life was ever the same.”
“Nothing in yours either,” Nancy murmured.
Liz averted her eyes, having no ready response for that. For the first time she was able to see things from their perspective. She imagined herself in her mother’s place and Claudia in her own. Could she have really just stood idly by and watched her child fall in love with a man who might potentially destroy her? No wonder they were so terrified and no wonder they had reacted so strongly.
“You don’t know Max,” Liz whispered thickly, “If you did, you’d understand.”
“He’s put you in danger again and again,” her father recounted, “He cheated on you, impregnated some other girl, a girl who hated you no less. He betrayed you, Lizzie.”
“I never said he was perfect, Dad,” she argued softly, “Because he isn’t. I know better than anyone what Max is capable of. He has this incredible capacity for love and compassion but then…when he’s hurt…he has equal capacity to be a world class jerk. But I know that about him. I accept that and I love him anyway.”
“We don’t doubt your devotion to him, Liz,” her mother threw in wearily, “You’ve already demonstrated to us exactly how much he means to you. What we’re unclear about is what you mean to Max. What is he willing to sacrifice for you?”
Liz shook her head slightly, instinctively knowing that the conversation was about to go in a direction she did not want. “I don’t understand what you’re asking me,” she said.
“You’re supposed to start the Fall semester at Harvard in a few weeks,” her father clarified, “Are you going to attend or is Max expecting you to stay here in Roswell holding his hand?”
Nancy sidled up alongside her husband and placed a hand on his shoulder. A gesture, Liz suspected, was designed to keep him calm. “What your father is trying to say is…” her mother reworded carefully, “Well…we’ve noticed your willingness to give up all your dreams to stand by Max’s side, and that’s commendable, Liz, but--,”
“—what kind of man is he to let you give up your dreams,” Jeff concluded bitterly, “Why is he so willing to let you sacrifice everything?”
“He’s not!” Liz cried, “For your information he’s encouraging me to go! Max isn’t trying to hold me back. All he wants is for me to be happy!”
“You mean he knows now?” her father scoffed but then immediately regretted saying anything at all.
Liz went cold all over, her dismay instantly replaced with grinding fury. She tipped back her head and blew out an ironic laugh. “Oh my God,” she uttered, stabbing her father with a scathing glance, “It was you. You told Max about my acceptance.”
“The question is,” her mother interjected softly, “Why didn’t you?”
“It wasn’t your place to tell him anything!” Liz retorted fiercely, “I had my reasons for waiting! You hurt him, Dad, and for no good reason.”
“How were we supposed to know that you hadn’t told him?” Jeff fired, “You weren’t talking to us!”
“No, you weren’t talking to me!” Liz cried in accusation.
“That’s beside the point,” her father sighed, “I didn’t have some hidden agenda, Liz. It never crossed my mind that you hadn’t told him. I was just as shocked as he was.”
“I’ll bet,” Liz whispered bitterly.
“Your father’s telling you the truth, Liz,” Nancy insisted, “Neither of us had any idea that you hadn’t spoken to Max.”
Liz knew that they were telling her the truth but it did little to quell her frustration. “Why did you even go to see him in the first place?” she cried, “I know he didn’t come to you because he knew how I would have felt about that. So why couldn’t you just stay out of it?”
“Because you’re our daughter,” Jeff answered quietly, “And we love you. I hate seeing you on this path. I hate seeing all these things happening to you that I don’t understand. I hate knowing you’re in danger and being completely helpless to protect you.”
“You’re walking right into the fire and you don’t even care, Liz,” her mother added in thick emotion, “I asked you if you’d be willing to die for that boy and you didn’t even blink. What about your future? What about your dreams to be a molecular biologist? I don’t like how Max Evans just suddenly dropped into your life and proceeded to consume it!”
“I don’t know what you want me to do,” she whispered, “I can’t help how I feel.”
“Okay, well we accept that we can’t change that,” Nancy conceded gruffly, “But there is something you can do.” She crossed over to the hutch at the far corner of the living room and rummaged through a small wicker basket where they kept their correspondence and bills. A moment later she was striding across the room to pass Liz an envelope. It had already been opened. “They’re expecting you in three weeks for your interview and to move into your dorm,” Nancy explained as Liz opened the letter and scanned it for yourself, “All you have to do is go, Liz.”
“Three weeks?” Liz uttered, the letter falling slack in her fingers, “That’s…that’s so soon.” She had realized that going to Harvard would mean leaving Max but she hadn’t yet considered how soon that leaving would occur. Hearing the words spoken out loud made the entire situation seem frighteningly real to Liz.
“Lizzie, this is your education we’re talking about,” Jeff reminded her.
With pleading eyes, she looked helplessly from her mother to her father. “But Max…his people…they’ll be here soon,” she protested.
“That’s Max’s problem,” Jeff said, “And the government’s. You need to think about yourself right now.”
“Don’t push yourself to decide anything right now,” Nancy whispered, pulling Liz forward into the circle of her arms. She tucked her weeping daughter’s head beneath her chin and stroked her, much the way she’d done when Liz was a toddler. “You can sleep on it,” she crooned, “Everything will look better in the morning. Just sleep on it, baby.”
Walking the Road (CC / Adult) (COMPLETE)
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Deejonaise
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Deejonaise
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Girl with no willpower returns...
...I'll post again next "Tuesday." 
Chapter 12
“So what do you think?” Michael asked eagerly when Maria took a taste of his spaghetti.
“It’s good,” she said.
“It’s good?” he echoed, obviously disappointed with the simple assessment, “Just good?”
“Yeah…it’s pretty tasty,” she elaborated.
“Pretty tasty?” Evidently that didn’t cut it either.
Maria rapped him on the knuckles with her fork. “Why are you freaking out?” she cried, “It’s spaghetti! It’s very good spaghetti, Michael!”
“I’m thinking about going to cooking school,” Michael announced abruptly.
“What?” She tried not to laugh but honestly his declaration came completely out of left field. “Where did that come from?”
Michael shrugged. “I was just thinking that everyone is getting their lives together, you know,” he muttered in self-deprecation, “Isabel’s leaving for Yale in a few weeks. I’m sure Liz has got the appropriate Ivy League schools lined up and you, Kyle and Max are planning to start community college in the Spring. What am I doing? All I am is a high school dropout. I don’t want you married to a dead beat,” he finished miserably.
“I won’t be,” Maria contradicted glibly, “I’m marrying the co-ruler to an alien race, remember? I’ll practically be a celebrity.”
“That’s just it,” Michael sighed with a shake of his head, “What do I have to offer these people? I’m freakin’ nineteen years old and I flip burgers at a café. I’m no warrior. They’re looking to us for leadership and…we’re not even the people they want us to be. We’re clones, Maria. Pale imitations and literal descendents of the rulers they sent to earth. What if I’m as much a disappointment to them as I’ve been to everyone else in my life? And,” he tacked on before she could reply; “if you say I haven’t been a disappointment to you I swear I’ll hit you with this spatula.”
Maria threw her hands up in mock surrender. “There’s no need to threaten violence there,” she laughed, “Excuse me for trying to stroke the old ego.”
“I’m just saying that I’ve got a lot riding on me right now,” he huffed, “I’d just feel better about everything if I weren’t such a failure.”
“Okay, can I, at least, tell you that you’re not a failure?” she asked wryly, “Because you’re not, Michael. You’re eccentric and brooding and definitely hard to know but you’re not a failure. You’re one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known.”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a crooked grin over her assessment. “You really do love me, huh?”
Maria rolled her eyes. “Is it just now dawning on you?”
He laughed at her exasperated reply and pushed the plate of spaghetti closer. “Go on and eat, DeLuca,” he ordered with a lascivious wink, “You need to keep your strength up for later on.”
Maria picked at her meal, her brow gradually furrowing into a thoughtful frown. “You think now that we’ve talked about your insecurities we could give a little attention to mine?” she wondered meekly.
Michael twirled up a forkful of spaghetti and popped into his mouth. “You’re telling me that Maria “Destined to be Great” DeLuca has insecurities?” he teased.
“I’m serious, Michael,” Maria insisted, “There’s something that’s been bothering me for a while now but I didn’t know how to bring it up.”
“What?”
Resolutely pushing away the spaghetti dish, Maria folded her hands atop the counter and took a deep sigh before she began. “Okay here’s the deal,” she said shakily, “Your people are arriving in about a month, so far twelve ships full of them. And…when they get here they’re going to expect certain things…namely that you and Isabel are…well, you know.”
“Heh,” Michael snorted in reply, “You’re joking, right?” But the moment Maria lifted her conflicted green eyes he knew she was not. Her hands, which had been loosely linked upon the countertop, were now clenched into tight fists. There was a tremendous aura of tension surrounding her. “Maria,” he began tenderly, “I thought we already put an end to all this destiny crap. I don’t want to be with Isabel and she doesn’t want to be with me. She’s like my sister. Period.”
“Yeah, Michael, we’ve settled it,” Maria agreed, “But for your people it might not be so cut and dried. I know how scared you are of disappointing them and not being what they need you to be.”
“Wait a minute,” he cut in sharply, “What are you saying? You think I’m gonna dump you for Isabel just because my people say so?”
“You were gonna cut out on me that time you thought she was pregnant,” Maria reminded him, “Maybe that’s something you can just brush off, Michael, but it’s stuck with me.”
“Maria, that was a long time ago,” Michael replied impatiently, “I was just a scared kid.”
“What so different then?” Maria charged, “You’re just as scared now!”
“The difference is that I’m committed to you, dammit!” he retorted, “The difference is that with all the uncertainty in my life and the lack of direction, the only thing I know for sure is that I want you! I want you, Maria! You just have to believe it. So why the hell can’t you?”
Michael was eager to know what her response to that would be but unfortunately a sharp knock sounded at the door just as she opened her mouth. “I’ll get rid of whoever it is,” he mumbled, pushing away from the counter. However, the moment he opened the door to tell his unknown visitor to take a hike Max swept inside uninvited and in a flurry of agitation.
“I need to crash here for a few days,” he said. He tossed his haphazardly packed bag of clothes onto the sofa.
“What? Why?” Michael demanded, “Did something go down with your parents?”
“Where’s Liz?” Maria chimed in, slipping down from her stool.
“She’s with her parents,” Max answered dully, “My Dad asked her to leave tonight.”
“Oh man,” Maria breathed, “What happened?”
“My mom…kinda walked in on us,” Max confessed with a hot blush.
“Walked in on you doing what?” Michael goaded, smirking openly.
“Playing twister,” Max snapped in sarcastic reply, “What do you think?”
“Well, I’m not surprised Philip kicked her out,” Michael remarked unsympathetically, “You should have known better.”
“So does that mean I can’t stay?” Max asked irritably.
“I’m not saying that,” his friend replied, “Mi casa es su casa, dude. You hungry?” The resounding growl of Max’s stomach answered that quickly enough. “There’s some spaghetti on the stove,” Michael instructed, “Help yourself.”
As Max crossed over into the kitchen he noted the two plates on the counter. Though there wasn’t any wine or candlelight the atmosphere still struck him as a cozy little dinner designed for two. He swung a look back around to Maria and Michael and, for the first time since arriving, noted the strain on their faces. “Did I interrupt something?” he asked tentatively.
“No,” Maria answered quickly, already sweeping up her jacket from the sofa, “We were done.” She traded meaningful glances with Michael that seemed to belie her words alleging they had finished. “I’m going to go and check on Liz,” she told Michael, “I’ll call you later tonight.”
“I thought you were spending the night,” Michael said tautly as she leaned in to kiss his cheek good-bye.
“Max needs you,” she whispered, “And I’m pretty wiped. We’ll talk more tomorrow, okay? I promise.”
After she was gone Max stared in her wake in dumbfounded confusion. “Did I just miss something?” he asked Michael.
“Women!” Michael snorted, “I’ll never fucking figure them out!”
“Ooookay,” Max drawled, “So I’m guessing I did come at a bad time after all.”
“You came at the perfect time,” Michael contradicted, “For Maria. She was just looking for a reason to run out of here and you were a convenient excuse.” He passed a hand over his face in general weariness. “So tell me what went down with your parents?”
“That was essentially it,” Max replied as he went into the kitchen to fix himself a plate, “Liz and I were half naked on the bed and my mom just breezes in. Thank God she didn’t walk in five minutes later or I swear I’d never be able to look her in the eye again.”
“So your folks freaked and then what?” Michael prodded.
“After Liz left my folks and I fought some more,” Max recounted, “I could see it wasn’t getting us anywhere so I went to my room, packed a bag and here I am.” He plopped down onto Michael’s recently vacated stool.
“Here you are,” Michael murmured.
He sat down in the seat across from his friend, his earlier conversation with Maria continuing to plague him. He couldn’t understand what he was doing wrong. Nothing he said or did seemed to reassure Maria that he wanted to be with her. But then maybe that wasn’t the problem at all, Michael considered. Maybe it wasn’t the wanting that was the issue with Maria but whether or not he actually could be with her. And therein lay the clincher. Maria obviously didn’t think he could make a commitment to her, not a real one anyway.
“The spaghetti’s excellent,” Max said suddenly.
“Huh?”
“You’re sitting over there brooding,” Max clarified, “I figured it was cuz I hadn’t complimented your cooking yet. I know how seens-see-teeve you get about that.”
“Nah, it’s not that,” Michael denied, “I’ve just got a lot of stuff on my mind.”
Max polished off the rest of his meal and pushed the plate aside. “Are you still worried about the arrival?”
“Partly,” Michael revealed, “I still don’t know what we’ll do with them all when they get here, Maxwell.”
“That’s where Diadne comes in,” Max replied.
Michael grimaced his confusion. “Dee who?”
“Larek’s daughter,” Max explained, “Apparently she’s going to be serving as our Antarian advisor.”
“I didn’t know Larek had a kid,” Michael considered in surprise.
“That makes two of us,” Max said, “But he assures me that I can trust her and that she will prove herself a great asset to us. And face it…we need all the help we can get.” Michael was still nodding his agreement over that statement when Max’s cell phone rang. He passed a quick glance down at the caller screen. “It’s Liz,” he told Michael, “I gotta take it.” A moment later he clicked the phone to life. “How’d it go?”
“Max?” Liz said, a little startled by his greeting, “Where are you?”
“I’m at Michael’s,” he said, “I’ll probably be here for a few days.”
Her response was immediate and remorseful. “Oh, Max I--,”
“We don’t have to talk about that right now,” he interrupted, not wanting to get sidetracked with a discussion about his parents, “How did things go with your folks?”
“It’s better,” she whispered with an expansive sigh, “We worked through a lot of stuff.”
“That’s good,” Max said, but he really wasn’t sure how he should feel about the news. He well knew that Liz’s parents weren’t too keen of the idea of them being together and he couldn’t stifle the worry in the back of his mind that somehow they had managed to convince her of the same thing. “So everything’s okay now?” he prodded.
“As okay as they can be,” she replied unanswerably, “But…there’s actually something I need to talk to you about.”
Max’s heart did a sickening dip into his belly but he endeavored not to reveal his sudden dread in his tone. “Do you need me to come over now?” he asked with some hesitation.
“No,” she replied, “Maria just got here and…I’m pretty tired after tonight so I’ll probably go to bed once she leaves. You sound exhausted, too. You should get some sleep. Why don’t we meet here in the Crashdown tomorrow morning for coffee?”
“The Crashdown?” Max balked, “Won’t your parents have a problem with that?”
“They’ll be fine,” Liz reassured him, “I’ll see you then, Max. I love you.”
“Love you, too,” he replied. However, by the time he clicked off the phone his expression mirrored Michael’s, a twisted mixture of agony, confusion and fear. “She wants to talk in the morning,” Max explained at Michael’s expectant look, “I’m supposed to meet her at the Crashdown.”
“I thought her parents hated your guts,” Michael remarked pensively.
“They do,” Max confirmed, “But Liz said it would be fine.”
“Uh…that doesn’t sound good.”
“No,” Max agreed, panic rising in his chest, “It doesn’t.”
Chapter 12
“So what do you think?” Michael asked eagerly when Maria took a taste of his spaghetti.
“It’s good,” she said.
“It’s good?” he echoed, obviously disappointed with the simple assessment, “Just good?”
“Yeah…it’s pretty tasty,” she elaborated.
“Pretty tasty?” Evidently that didn’t cut it either.
Maria rapped him on the knuckles with her fork. “Why are you freaking out?” she cried, “It’s spaghetti! It’s very good spaghetti, Michael!”
“I’m thinking about going to cooking school,” Michael announced abruptly.
“What?” She tried not to laugh but honestly his declaration came completely out of left field. “Where did that come from?”
Michael shrugged. “I was just thinking that everyone is getting their lives together, you know,” he muttered in self-deprecation, “Isabel’s leaving for Yale in a few weeks. I’m sure Liz has got the appropriate Ivy League schools lined up and you, Kyle and Max are planning to start community college in the Spring. What am I doing? All I am is a high school dropout. I don’t want you married to a dead beat,” he finished miserably.
“I won’t be,” Maria contradicted glibly, “I’m marrying the co-ruler to an alien race, remember? I’ll practically be a celebrity.”
“That’s just it,” Michael sighed with a shake of his head, “What do I have to offer these people? I’m freakin’ nineteen years old and I flip burgers at a café. I’m no warrior. They’re looking to us for leadership and…we’re not even the people they want us to be. We’re clones, Maria. Pale imitations and literal descendents of the rulers they sent to earth. What if I’m as much a disappointment to them as I’ve been to everyone else in my life? And,” he tacked on before she could reply; “if you say I haven’t been a disappointment to you I swear I’ll hit you with this spatula.”
Maria threw her hands up in mock surrender. “There’s no need to threaten violence there,” she laughed, “Excuse me for trying to stroke the old ego.”
“I’m just saying that I’ve got a lot riding on me right now,” he huffed, “I’d just feel better about everything if I weren’t such a failure.”
“Okay, can I, at least, tell you that you’re not a failure?” she asked wryly, “Because you’re not, Michael. You’re eccentric and brooding and definitely hard to know but you’re not a failure. You’re one of the most amazing people I’ve ever known.”
The corner of his mouth lifted in a crooked grin over her assessment. “You really do love me, huh?”
Maria rolled her eyes. “Is it just now dawning on you?”
He laughed at her exasperated reply and pushed the plate of spaghetti closer. “Go on and eat, DeLuca,” he ordered with a lascivious wink, “You need to keep your strength up for later on.”
Maria picked at her meal, her brow gradually furrowing into a thoughtful frown. “You think now that we’ve talked about your insecurities we could give a little attention to mine?” she wondered meekly.
Michael twirled up a forkful of spaghetti and popped into his mouth. “You’re telling me that Maria “Destined to be Great” DeLuca has insecurities?” he teased.
“I’m serious, Michael,” Maria insisted, “There’s something that’s been bothering me for a while now but I didn’t know how to bring it up.”
“What?”
Resolutely pushing away the spaghetti dish, Maria folded her hands atop the counter and took a deep sigh before she began. “Okay here’s the deal,” she said shakily, “Your people are arriving in about a month, so far twelve ships full of them. And…when they get here they’re going to expect certain things…namely that you and Isabel are…well, you know.”
“Heh,” Michael snorted in reply, “You’re joking, right?” But the moment Maria lifted her conflicted green eyes he knew she was not. Her hands, which had been loosely linked upon the countertop, were now clenched into tight fists. There was a tremendous aura of tension surrounding her. “Maria,” he began tenderly, “I thought we already put an end to all this destiny crap. I don’t want to be with Isabel and she doesn’t want to be with me. She’s like my sister. Period.”
“Yeah, Michael, we’ve settled it,” Maria agreed, “But for your people it might not be so cut and dried. I know how scared you are of disappointing them and not being what they need you to be.”
“Wait a minute,” he cut in sharply, “What are you saying? You think I’m gonna dump you for Isabel just because my people say so?”
“You were gonna cut out on me that time you thought she was pregnant,” Maria reminded him, “Maybe that’s something you can just brush off, Michael, but it’s stuck with me.”
“Maria, that was a long time ago,” Michael replied impatiently, “I was just a scared kid.”
“What so different then?” Maria charged, “You’re just as scared now!”
“The difference is that I’m committed to you, dammit!” he retorted, “The difference is that with all the uncertainty in my life and the lack of direction, the only thing I know for sure is that I want you! I want you, Maria! You just have to believe it. So why the hell can’t you?”
Michael was eager to know what her response to that would be but unfortunately a sharp knock sounded at the door just as she opened her mouth. “I’ll get rid of whoever it is,” he mumbled, pushing away from the counter. However, the moment he opened the door to tell his unknown visitor to take a hike Max swept inside uninvited and in a flurry of agitation.
“I need to crash here for a few days,” he said. He tossed his haphazardly packed bag of clothes onto the sofa.
“What? Why?” Michael demanded, “Did something go down with your parents?”
“Where’s Liz?” Maria chimed in, slipping down from her stool.
“She’s with her parents,” Max answered dully, “My Dad asked her to leave tonight.”
“Oh man,” Maria breathed, “What happened?”
“My mom…kinda walked in on us,” Max confessed with a hot blush.
“Walked in on you doing what?” Michael goaded, smirking openly.
“Playing twister,” Max snapped in sarcastic reply, “What do you think?”
“Well, I’m not surprised Philip kicked her out,” Michael remarked unsympathetically, “You should have known better.”
“So does that mean I can’t stay?” Max asked irritably.
“I’m not saying that,” his friend replied, “Mi casa es su casa, dude. You hungry?” The resounding growl of Max’s stomach answered that quickly enough. “There’s some spaghetti on the stove,” Michael instructed, “Help yourself.”
As Max crossed over into the kitchen he noted the two plates on the counter. Though there wasn’t any wine or candlelight the atmosphere still struck him as a cozy little dinner designed for two. He swung a look back around to Maria and Michael and, for the first time since arriving, noted the strain on their faces. “Did I interrupt something?” he asked tentatively.
“No,” Maria answered quickly, already sweeping up her jacket from the sofa, “We were done.” She traded meaningful glances with Michael that seemed to belie her words alleging they had finished. “I’m going to go and check on Liz,” she told Michael, “I’ll call you later tonight.”
“I thought you were spending the night,” Michael said tautly as she leaned in to kiss his cheek good-bye.
“Max needs you,” she whispered, “And I’m pretty wiped. We’ll talk more tomorrow, okay? I promise.”
After she was gone Max stared in her wake in dumbfounded confusion. “Did I just miss something?” he asked Michael.
“Women!” Michael snorted, “I’ll never fucking figure them out!”
“Ooookay,” Max drawled, “So I’m guessing I did come at a bad time after all.”
“You came at the perfect time,” Michael contradicted, “For Maria. She was just looking for a reason to run out of here and you were a convenient excuse.” He passed a hand over his face in general weariness. “So tell me what went down with your parents?”
“That was essentially it,” Max replied as he went into the kitchen to fix himself a plate, “Liz and I were half naked on the bed and my mom just breezes in. Thank God she didn’t walk in five minutes later or I swear I’d never be able to look her in the eye again.”
“So your folks freaked and then what?” Michael prodded.
“After Liz left my folks and I fought some more,” Max recounted, “I could see it wasn’t getting us anywhere so I went to my room, packed a bag and here I am.” He plopped down onto Michael’s recently vacated stool.
“Here you are,” Michael murmured.
He sat down in the seat across from his friend, his earlier conversation with Maria continuing to plague him. He couldn’t understand what he was doing wrong. Nothing he said or did seemed to reassure Maria that he wanted to be with her. But then maybe that wasn’t the problem at all, Michael considered. Maybe it wasn’t the wanting that was the issue with Maria but whether or not he actually could be with her. And therein lay the clincher. Maria obviously didn’t think he could make a commitment to her, not a real one anyway.
“The spaghetti’s excellent,” Max said suddenly.
“Huh?”
“You’re sitting over there brooding,” Max clarified, “I figured it was cuz I hadn’t complimented your cooking yet. I know how seens-see-teeve you get about that.”
“Nah, it’s not that,” Michael denied, “I’ve just got a lot of stuff on my mind.”
Max polished off the rest of his meal and pushed the plate aside. “Are you still worried about the arrival?”
“Partly,” Michael revealed, “I still don’t know what we’ll do with them all when they get here, Maxwell.”
“That’s where Diadne comes in,” Max replied.
Michael grimaced his confusion. “Dee who?”
“Larek’s daughter,” Max explained, “Apparently she’s going to be serving as our Antarian advisor.”
“I didn’t know Larek had a kid,” Michael considered in surprise.
“That makes two of us,” Max said, “But he assures me that I can trust her and that she will prove herself a great asset to us. And face it…we need all the help we can get.” Michael was still nodding his agreement over that statement when Max’s cell phone rang. He passed a quick glance down at the caller screen. “It’s Liz,” he told Michael, “I gotta take it.” A moment later he clicked the phone to life. “How’d it go?”
“Max?” Liz said, a little startled by his greeting, “Where are you?”
“I’m at Michael’s,” he said, “I’ll probably be here for a few days.”
Her response was immediate and remorseful. “Oh, Max I--,”
“We don’t have to talk about that right now,” he interrupted, not wanting to get sidetracked with a discussion about his parents, “How did things go with your folks?”
“It’s better,” she whispered with an expansive sigh, “We worked through a lot of stuff.”
“That’s good,” Max said, but he really wasn’t sure how he should feel about the news. He well knew that Liz’s parents weren’t too keen of the idea of them being together and he couldn’t stifle the worry in the back of his mind that somehow they had managed to convince her of the same thing. “So everything’s okay now?” he prodded.
“As okay as they can be,” she replied unanswerably, “But…there’s actually something I need to talk to you about.”
Max’s heart did a sickening dip into his belly but he endeavored not to reveal his sudden dread in his tone. “Do you need me to come over now?” he asked with some hesitation.
“No,” she replied, “Maria just got here and…I’m pretty tired after tonight so I’ll probably go to bed once she leaves. You sound exhausted, too. You should get some sleep. Why don’t we meet here in the Crashdown tomorrow morning for coffee?”
“The Crashdown?” Max balked, “Won’t your parents have a problem with that?”
“They’ll be fine,” Liz reassured him, “I’ll see you then, Max. I love you.”
“Love you, too,” he replied. However, by the time he clicked off the phone his expression mirrored Michael’s, a twisted mixture of agony, confusion and fear. “She wants to talk in the morning,” Max explained at Michael’s expectant look, “I’m supposed to meet her at the Crashdown.”
“I thought her parents hated your guts,” Michael remarked pensively.
“They do,” Max confirmed, “But Liz said it would be fine.”
“Uh…that doesn’t sound good.”
“No,” Max agreed, panic rising in his chest, “It doesn’t.”
-
Deejonaise
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And what's wrong with today???
For tallguy171 and all those others who knew I wouldn't wait until Tuesday to post this. I'm so predictable.
Chapter 13
“Hey.”
Max cursed himself for the cold and distant way the greeting had come out but he could hardly help it. He’d spent most of the night, lying awake on Michael’s couch agonizing over this moment. If Liz had called this meeting for the reason he thought she did Max hoped fervently that she would end things quickly and cleanly. He didn’t want any lingering explanations about how she didn’t want to hurt him nor did he want to part on bitter terms with her, which was the reason Max immediately regretted his terse hello.
Liz regarded him with a curious stare as he slid into the adjacent booth after placing what seemed a perfunctory kiss to her cheek. “You don’t look so good,” she remarked anxiously, “Did you sleep alright?”
“I had a lot on my mind,” Max replied vaguely. He was anxious to know why she had called him there but fearful to push her on the matter. Wisely, he decided to simply follow her lead.
“Are you still upset about your parents?” she asked timidly.
“Among other things,” was Max’s laconic reply.
“I really hate being the cause of the rift between you and your folks,” Liz continued regretfully, her eyes properly downcast, “Everything just seems to keep getting worse instead of better.”
“Is that your way of telling me that things are about to get worse?” Max wondered stiffly, noting her averted gaze and mentally ticking off all the possible reasons for it.
“Depends on your perspective,” Liz replied. And then she threw him for a complete loop by asking, “Would you like a cup of coffee? I made a fresh pot.”
Max wanted to throttle her. At times she could be absolutely maddening and he suspected that she knew it. “Liz,” he began as patiently as he was able, “why don’t you tell me the reason you wanted to meet here this morning?”
“I have to leave,” she blurted loudly.
He wanted to groan with this newest delay tactic of hers. “Where do you have to go now?” he demanded, his tone sharpened with growing irritation.
“No, I mean I have to go…away…to school,” Liz clarified in slow bursts.
Max slumped a bit with the revelation. Impulsively, he reached across the table for Liz’s hand. “Is that why you called me here?” he breathed in relief, “I thought you were trying to break up with me.”
Relief flickered across Liz’s features as well and she grimaced. “Is that what you thought?” She shook her head with a dismay that would have been comical were it not for the stone like feeling in her heart. “Why would you just jump to that conclusion, Max?” Liz brushed her fingers over the ridge of his knuckles, saddened that he had been torturing himself with that fear since last night.
Max sighed again. “I guess I’m still having a hard time believing this is real,” he confessed shakily, “I keep expecting you to call me up one morning and tell me it was all a mistake.”
“I’m never going to do that,” Liz vowed fiercely, “But…”
“But,” Max prodded, feeling that he was ready for whatever news she had now. Nothing she had to tell him could be as bad as what he’d imagined.
“I have to leave for Boston in three weeks,” Liz said.
Nothing except that. Max twitched, his hold on her fingers tightening reflexively. “What do you mean three weeks?” he rasped. He knew they had discussed her leaving but nothing had been set in stone and he’d never imagined it would be so soon.
“I have to go to Boston for an interview,” she explained, “They want to review my summer school transcripts and discuss my options for the Fall semester. Plus I have to get settled into my dorm room and everything so… My parents thought it would be best that…once I went up there I just stayed until the semester started.”
“What about you?” he asked rigidly, “What do you think?”
“It’s a good idea,” Liz replied with a hitching breath, “It will give me some time to get acquainted with campus and the city. And I think I’ll need the downtime considering…”
She didn’t have to finish her sentence. Max understood that she was leaving early for the same exact reason that Isabel had chosen to do so. Their lives would become practically unrecognizable once the ships arrived and, if they didn’t leave for school before the chaos began, it was unlikely they would start once it was over.
They had just talked about this the other night and Max had reassured her that he didn’t expect her to sacrifice her dreams for him. His feelings about that still had not changed. But three weeks? He had only three more weeks with her? The realization was almost cruel considering the fact that the two of them had been reconciled a little over a month. To Max it seemed he was always losing Liz within months of finding her again.
“This doesn’t have to be the end,” Liz rallied, giving his hand a reassuring jostle, “You’re the one who said that our relationship didn’t have to end simply because I was in Boston.”
“That was when I thought I had another month or so with you,” Max mumbled.
“I don’t have to go,” Liz whispered fervently, “You know I’ll stay here with you if that’s what you want. Just say the word.”
“And you’ll resent me for the rest of your life,” he concluded grimly, “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
Liz couldn’t help but breath a small sigh of respite with his reply. Though she would have stayed if he had asked her and gladly Liz was simultaneously grateful that he had not asked her to do so. As much as she wanted to stay there with Max and be his support system she wanted equally to pursue the career path she’d envisioned for herself since she was fifteen years old. In that moment she loved him more than she could have ever imagined possible because he was still encouraging her to go even when it was obvious that pushing her towards her dreams was killing him.
“Okay, so with have three weeks,” he concluded in a shuddering breath.
“Three weeks,” Liz confirmed softly.
“Will your parents have a problem with us seeing each other in the meantime?” Max didn’t think he could handle the knowledge she was leaving so soon while simultaneously dealing with the problem of, not only his parents trying to keep them apart, but her parents as well.
“Well, that’s actually the second part of the reason I asked you to meet me here today,” Liz hedged carefully.
“What?”
Almost on cue her parents emerged from the back storeroom and came striding over in their direction. Max couldn’t quite swallow back his answering groan. “It’s not what you’re thinking,” Liz reassured him quickly as her parents made it to the booth, “I had a long talk with Mom and Dad last night and they understand that we’re committed to each other.” She tossed a glance up at her parents. “Right Mom and Dad?” Both Jeff and Nancy Parker responded with stiff, but sincere nods. Liz stared back at her dumbfounded boyfriend, who still looked as if he was on the verge of walking out. “They’re willing to try if we are,” she whispered.
“And what does that mean exactly?” Max asked suspiciously.
“It means that we’re willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, Max,” Jeff Parker simplified kindly, “That is…if you’re willing to do the same for us.”
“I’m not the one with the problem,” Max reminded him without heat.
Jeff sighed. “Lizzie’s leaving in a couple of weeks,” he said, “You’re not the only one who will miss her. The one thing she wants before she goes is for us to come to some kind of understanding and…with everything you’ll be up against in the coming weeks she wants you to have as many allies as possible.” Max blinked in response to Jeff Parker’s heartfelt reply, not quite knowing how he should react. Jeff took advantage of his speechlessness, however, and stunned him further.
“I don’t like you, Max,” he declared with brutal honesty, “And I’m sure that your feelings are more than mutual right now but I would like to change that…for Liz’s sake.”
Max threw Liz a helpless glance, torn between mistrust and hope. “Please, Max,” she pleaded prettily, “I can’t go away to school knowing that so much animosity exists between the three people I love most in this world.”
She did him in with her eyes. How could anyone in their right mind resist those fluttering pools of dark beauty? He certainly wasn’t immune and, quite honestly, he didn’t want to be. “Okay,” he agreed softly, “If this is what you want, Liz…I’ll make the effort.”
“Good,” she sighed with a crooked smile, “We can start with breakfast.” After taking a few moments to readjust their seating arrangements so that Max and Liz were on one side of the booth and Jeff and Nancy were on the other, Liz made her first formal introductions between the three. It was her way of establishing a new beginning. “Max,” she began expansively, “These are my parents, Jeff and Nancy Parker. Mom…Dad, this is Max Evans and…I’m totally in love with him.”
********************
Maria huffed and puffed and sputtered before making a dramatic swan dive to the sidewalk pavement. It took several seconds for Kyle to realize that Maria was no longer jogging alongside him. When he turned back around he found her lying spread eagle on the ground, staring up at the blue summer sky most pensively. Kyle threw up his hands in mild disgust as he approached his fallen jogging partner. “What are you doing, DeLuca?” he demanded breathlessly.
“I think this is a good place for me to die,” Maria replied with quiet thoughtfulness, “Don’t you?”
Unsympathetic, Kyle nudged her with the toe of his sneaker. “Aww, get up, you wimp!”
“Kyle, I don’t mean to alarm you here but I think I’m having a heart attack.”
Laughing, he hunkered down beside her and swept up her wrist. “Maria, you’re eighteen years old,” he reasoned as he felt her pulse, “You’re not having a heart attack. Your heart rate’s fine.”
“Okay, then my lungs are about to explode,” Maria amended in a gasp.
“You’re just out of shape,” Kyle told her glibly, hooking her arm around his neck and hoisting her back onto her feet. Maria leaned against him in weary exhaustion. “This is ridiculous, Maria,” he said in exasperation, “We haven’t even been running ten minutes!”
“For me that’s an eternity,” Maria replied, pushing away from him to limp for a nearby bench, “I say we take a break.” Realizing that they wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon, Kyle reluctantly trudged after her. “I don’t understand how you do this every day,” she gasped when he sat down beside her.
“I told you,” he said, “I’m preparing--,”
“—for war,” Maria finished for him, rolling her eyes as she did, “I know. I know. You’ve been telling me the same thing for weeks now. It’s getting old.”
“You’re being sort of glib about it,” Kyle observed, swiping a hand across his sweating brow, “Do you remember when the Skins came to town and caused all those problems?” Maria nodded, recalling with exquisite clarity how terrified she had been that day. “I’m not going to be caught off guard like that again,” he vowed softly.
“This is hardly the same thing,” Maria rationalized.
“Isn’t it?” he countered, “We know next to nothing about these Antarians. They might be plotting to kill us for all we know. I’m not content to bury my head in the sand like Max. If something goes down I’m going to be ready.”
“Max is not burying his head, Kyle,” Maria defended, “He’s just trying to make the best decision for everyone involved. What did you expect him to do…just let them all die?” Kyle’s reverberating silence spoke for itself. Maria punched him in the arm. “I can’t believe you’re so heartless! Did it ever cross your mind that some of those…those beings up there are related to our dearly loved Podsquad?”
“Oh, don’t go all Mother Theresa on me, DeLuca!” Kyle snorted, “I know you’re not any more thrilled about Michael’s Antarian relatives coming to town than I am.”
“How would you know?” Maria tossed back defensively.
“Maybe because you’re out here jogging with me at 7:00 in the morning instead of snuggled up under your fiancé,” Kyle considered, “I’m not stupid. I know avoidance when I see it. Hell, I perfected it.”
“Max is staying with him,” Maria replied in lame excuse.
“Since when did that ever matter?”
“They’re doing guy stuff,” she insisted, “I didn’t want to intrude!”
“All you do is intrude,” Kyle accused laughingly, “Your name should be Maria “Interruptus” DeLuca! So that excuse just isn’t going to fly with me.”
Maria sighed, suddenly too tired to keep up with pretense. “Kyle,” she whispered somberly, tilting back her head to squint up at the sun, “Do you think Michael loves me?”
“Do I think he loves you?” Kyle sputtered, “Well yeah, Maria…I think he loves you. I doubt he would have asked you to marry him if he didn’t.”
Abruptly, she swiveled around on the bench to face him fully. “Okay, let me rephrase the question then,” she said, “Do you think Michael is capable of living up to that kind of commitment?”
“I don’t know!” Kyle cried, made acutely uncomfortable by her line of questioning, “What do you think?”
“I think, for the first time, Michael is going to have the family he’s been searching for,” she confessed sadly, “And I think he might be willing to do anything to keep them.”
“Meaning?” Kyle prodded.
“I’m having serious doubts,” Maria told him flatly, “I’m more scared than I’ve ever been in my entire life. On the one hand, I want to be happy. I want to believe that Michael and I are going to make it alright but… In the back of my head I’ve just got this nagging feeling and I don’t want to commit to him if it’s not gonna be forever, you know?”
“So why are you telling me all this?” Kyle queried practically, “Tell your fiancé. Duh.”
“I have told him,” she replied in a mournful whisper, “And he just doesn’t get it. He’s so busy making reassurances to me that I don’t think he’s even taken the time to figure out how he feels. I’m just so afraid that we’ll get married and then, somewhere down the line, he’ll regret that we did. I can’t take that kind of rejection, Kyle. I just can’t.”
I'm so predictable.Chapter 13
“Hey.”
Max cursed himself for the cold and distant way the greeting had come out but he could hardly help it. He’d spent most of the night, lying awake on Michael’s couch agonizing over this moment. If Liz had called this meeting for the reason he thought she did Max hoped fervently that she would end things quickly and cleanly. He didn’t want any lingering explanations about how she didn’t want to hurt him nor did he want to part on bitter terms with her, which was the reason Max immediately regretted his terse hello.
Liz regarded him with a curious stare as he slid into the adjacent booth after placing what seemed a perfunctory kiss to her cheek. “You don’t look so good,” she remarked anxiously, “Did you sleep alright?”
“I had a lot on my mind,” Max replied vaguely. He was anxious to know why she had called him there but fearful to push her on the matter. Wisely, he decided to simply follow her lead.
“Are you still upset about your parents?” she asked timidly.
“Among other things,” was Max’s laconic reply.
“I really hate being the cause of the rift between you and your folks,” Liz continued regretfully, her eyes properly downcast, “Everything just seems to keep getting worse instead of better.”
“Is that your way of telling me that things are about to get worse?” Max wondered stiffly, noting her averted gaze and mentally ticking off all the possible reasons for it.
“Depends on your perspective,” Liz replied. And then she threw him for a complete loop by asking, “Would you like a cup of coffee? I made a fresh pot.”
Max wanted to throttle her. At times she could be absolutely maddening and he suspected that she knew it. “Liz,” he began as patiently as he was able, “why don’t you tell me the reason you wanted to meet here this morning?”
“I have to leave,” she blurted loudly.
He wanted to groan with this newest delay tactic of hers. “Where do you have to go now?” he demanded, his tone sharpened with growing irritation.
“No, I mean I have to go…away…to school,” Liz clarified in slow bursts.
Max slumped a bit with the revelation. Impulsively, he reached across the table for Liz’s hand. “Is that why you called me here?” he breathed in relief, “I thought you were trying to break up with me.”
Relief flickered across Liz’s features as well and she grimaced. “Is that what you thought?” She shook her head with a dismay that would have been comical were it not for the stone like feeling in her heart. “Why would you just jump to that conclusion, Max?” Liz brushed her fingers over the ridge of his knuckles, saddened that he had been torturing himself with that fear since last night.
Max sighed again. “I guess I’m still having a hard time believing this is real,” he confessed shakily, “I keep expecting you to call me up one morning and tell me it was all a mistake.”
“I’m never going to do that,” Liz vowed fiercely, “But…”
“But,” Max prodded, feeling that he was ready for whatever news she had now. Nothing she had to tell him could be as bad as what he’d imagined.
“I have to leave for Boston in three weeks,” Liz said.
Nothing except that. Max twitched, his hold on her fingers tightening reflexively. “What do you mean three weeks?” he rasped. He knew they had discussed her leaving but nothing had been set in stone and he’d never imagined it would be so soon.
“I have to go to Boston for an interview,” she explained, “They want to review my summer school transcripts and discuss my options for the Fall semester. Plus I have to get settled into my dorm room and everything so… My parents thought it would be best that…once I went up there I just stayed until the semester started.”
“What about you?” he asked rigidly, “What do you think?”
“It’s a good idea,” Liz replied with a hitching breath, “It will give me some time to get acquainted with campus and the city. And I think I’ll need the downtime considering…”
She didn’t have to finish her sentence. Max understood that she was leaving early for the same exact reason that Isabel had chosen to do so. Their lives would become practically unrecognizable once the ships arrived and, if they didn’t leave for school before the chaos began, it was unlikely they would start once it was over.
They had just talked about this the other night and Max had reassured her that he didn’t expect her to sacrifice her dreams for him. His feelings about that still had not changed. But three weeks? He had only three more weeks with her? The realization was almost cruel considering the fact that the two of them had been reconciled a little over a month. To Max it seemed he was always losing Liz within months of finding her again.
“This doesn’t have to be the end,” Liz rallied, giving his hand a reassuring jostle, “You’re the one who said that our relationship didn’t have to end simply because I was in Boston.”
“That was when I thought I had another month or so with you,” Max mumbled.
“I don’t have to go,” Liz whispered fervently, “You know I’ll stay here with you if that’s what you want. Just say the word.”
“And you’ll resent me for the rest of your life,” he concluded grimly, “I couldn’t ask you to do that.”
Liz couldn’t help but breath a small sigh of respite with his reply. Though she would have stayed if he had asked her and gladly Liz was simultaneously grateful that he had not asked her to do so. As much as she wanted to stay there with Max and be his support system she wanted equally to pursue the career path she’d envisioned for herself since she was fifteen years old. In that moment she loved him more than she could have ever imagined possible because he was still encouraging her to go even when it was obvious that pushing her towards her dreams was killing him.
“Okay, so with have three weeks,” he concluded in a shuddering breath.
“Three weeks,” Liz confirmed softly.
“Will your parents have a problem with us seeing each other in the meantime?” Max didn’t think he could handle the knowledge she was leaving so soon while simultaneously dealing with the problem of, not only his parents trying to keep them apart, but her parents as well.
“Well, that’s actually the second part of the reason I asked you to meet me here today,” Liz hedged carefully.
“What?”
Almost on cue her parents emerged from the back storeroom and came striding over in their direction. Max couldn’t quite swallow back his answering groan. “It’s not what you’re thinking,” Liz reassured him quickly as her parents made it to the booth, “I had a long talk with Mom and Dad last night and they understand that we’re committed to each other.” She tossed a glance up at her parents. “Right Mom and Dad?” Both Jeff and Nancy Parker responded with stiff, but sincere nods. Liz stared back at her dumbfounded boyfriend, who still looked as if he was on the verge of walking out. “They’re willing to try if we are,” she whispered.
“And what does that mean exactly?” Max asked suspiciously.
“It means that we’re willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, Max,” Jeff Parker simplified kindly, “That is…if you’re willing to do the same for us.”
“I’m not the one with the problem,” Max reminded him without heat.
Jeff sighed. “Lizzie’s leaving in a couple of weeks,” he said, “You’re not the only one who will miss her. The one thing she wants before she goes is for us to come to some kind of understanding and…with everything you’ll be up against in the coming weeks she wants you to have as many allies as possible.” Max blinked in response to Jeff Parker’s heartfelt reply, not quite knowing how he should react. Jeff took advantage of his speechlessness, however, and stunned him further.
“I don’t like you, Max,” he declared with brutal honesty, “And I’m sure that your feelings are more than mutual right now but I would like to change that…for Liz’s sake.”
Max threw Liz a helpless glance, torn between mistrust and hope. “Please, Max,” she pleaded prettily, “I can’t go away to school knowing that so much animosity exists between the three people I love most in this world.”
She did him in with her eyes. How could anyone in their right mind resist those fluttering pools of dark beauty? He certainly wasn’t immune and, quite honestly, he didn’t want to be. “Okay,” he agreed softly, “If this is what you want, Liz…I’ll make the effort.”
“Good,” she sighed with a crooked smile, “We can start with breakfast.” After taking a few moments to readjust their seating arrangements so that Max and Liz were on one side of the booth and Jeff and Nancy were on the other, Liz made her first formal introductions between the three. It was her way of establishing a new beginning. “Max,” she began expansively, “These are my parents, Jeff and Nancy Parker. Mom…Dad, this is Max Evans and…I’m totally in love with him.”
********************
Maria huffed and puffed and sputtered before making a dramatic swan dive to the sidewalk pavement. It took several seconds for Kyle to realize that Maria was no longer jogging alongside him. When he turned back around he found her lying spread eagle on the ground, staring up at the blue summer sky most pensively. Kyle threw up his hands in mild disgust as he approached his fallen jogging partner. “What are you doing, DeLuca?” he demanded breathlessly.
“I think this is a good place for me to die,” Maria replied with quiet thoughtfulness, “Don’t you?”
Unsympathetic, Kyle nudged her with the toe of his sneaker. “Aww, get up, you wimp!”
“Kyle, I don’t mean to alarm you here but I think I’m having a heart attack.”
Laughing, he hunkered down beside her and swept up her wrist. “Maria, you’re eighteen years old,” he reasoned as he felt her pulse, “You’re not having a heart attack. Your heart rate’s fine.”
“Okay, then my lungs are about to explode,” Maria amended in a gasp.
“You’re just out of shape,” Kyle told her glibly, hooking her arm around his neck and hoisting her back onto her feet. Maria leaned against him in weary exhaustion. “This is ridiculous, Maria,” he said in exasperation, “We haven’t even been running ten minutes!”
“For me that’s an eternity,” Maria replied, pushing away from him to limp for a nearby bench, “I say we take a break.” Realizing that they wouldn’t be going anywhere any time soon, Kyle reluctantly trudged after her. “I don’t understand how you do this every day,” she gasped when he sat down beside her.
“I told you,” he said, “I’m preparing--,”
“—for war,” Maria finished for him, rolling her eyes as she did, “I know. I know. You’ve been telling me the same thing for weeks now. It’s getting old.”
“You’re being sort of glib about it,” Kyle observed, swiping a hand across his sweating brow, “Do you remember when the Skins came to town and caused all those problems?” Maria nodded, recalling with exquisite clarity how terrified she had been that day. “I’m not going to be caught off guard like that again,” he vowed softly.
“This is hardly the same thing,” Maria rationalized.
“Isn’t it?” he countered, “We know next to nothing about these Antarians. They might be plotting to kill us for all we know. I’m not content to bury my head in the sand like Max. If something goes down I’m going to be ready.”
“Max is not burying his head, Kyle,” Maria defended, “He’s just trying to make the best decision for everyone involved. What did you expect him to do…just let them all die?” Kyle’s reverberating silence spoke for itself. Maria punched him in the arm. “I can’t believe you’re so heartless! Did it ever cross your mind that some of those…those beings up there are related to our dearly loved Podsquad?”
“Oh, don’t go all Mother Theresa on me, DeLuca!” Kyle snorted, “I know you’re not any more thrilled about Michael’s Antarian relatives coming to town than I am.”
“How would you know?” Maria tossed back defensively.
“Maybe because you’re out here jogging with me at 7:00 in the morning instead of snuggled up under your fiancé,” Kyle considered, “I’m not stupid. I know avoidance when I see it. Hell, I perfected it.”
“Max is staying with him,” Maria replied in lame excuse.
“Since when did that ever matter?”
“They’re doing guy stuff,” she insisted, “I didn’t want to intrude!”
“All you do is intrude,” Kyle accused laughingly, “Your name should be Maria “Interruptus” DeLuca! So that excuse just isn’t going to fly with me.”
Maria sighed, suddenly too tired to keep up with pretense. “Kyle,” she whispered somberly, tilting back her head to squint up at the sun, “Do you think Michael loves me?”
“Do I think he loves you?” Kyle sputtered, “Well yeah, Maria…I think he loves you. I doubt he would have asked you to marry him if he didn’t.”
Abruptly, she swiveled around on the bench to face him fully. “Okay, let me rephrase the question then,” she said, “Do you think Michael is capable of living up to that kind of commitment?”
“I don’t know!” Kyle cried, made acutely uncomfortable by her line of questioning, “What do you think?”
“I think, for the first time, Michael is going to have the family he’s been searching for,” she confessed sadly, “And I think he might be willing to do anything to keep them.”
“Meaning?” Kyle prodded.
“I’m having serious doubts,” Maria told him flatly, “I’m more scared than I’ve ever been in my entire life. On the one hand, I want to be happy. I want to believe that Michael and I are going to make it alright but… In the back of my head I’ve just got this nagging feeling and I don’t want to commit to him if it’s not gonna be forever, you know?”
“So why are you telling me all this?” Kyle queried practically, “Tell your fiancé. Duh.”
“I have told him,” she replied in a mournful whisper, “And he just doesn’t get it. He’s so busy making reassurances to me that I don’t think he’s even taken the time to figure out how he feels. I’m just so afraid that we’ll get married and then, somewhere down the line, he’ll regret that we did. I can’t take that kind of rejection, Kyle. I just can’t.”
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Deejonaise
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 385
- Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2002 12:48 am
- Location: On my rusty dusty...
Chapter 14
“Okay, what’s on the agenda for today, fearless leader?” Isabel queried.
As had become their custom in the last two months, the group had congregated together in Michael’s apartment for their weekly meeting. The gathering provided an opportunity to discuss the nuances of their plan as well as any relevant life changes that might affect them as a whole. Considering the fact that Max had recently moved out the house, Liz was Harvard bound with Isabel not far behind for Yale, Michael and Maria’s engagement was teetering on the edge of extinction and Larek had launched another three ships it was pretty evident the six had a lot of ground to cover.
“First item up for discussion,” Max announced expansively, “My living arrangements.” He looked directly at his sister when voicing that declaration. “To answer your unspoken question, Isabel…no, I am not moving back home,” he said with concise precision, “So you can tell Mom she can stop sending over baked goods as peace offerings. I can’t be bought with cookies.”
“You can’t just sleep on Michael’s couch indefinitely, Max,” Isabel reasoned austerely.
“He’s not,” Michael said.
“You mean you’re sharing the bed,” Kyle gasped in tasteless jest, “I always suspected you two had something going on the side. It should have been me!” Liz smacked him in the face with a pillow for his joking effort while everyone else merely groaned in annoyance.
“I’m signing a new lease, you pea brain,” Michael retorted shortly, “Max and I are going to rent a two bedroom apartment together.”
“I guess that pretty much confirms that we won’t be getting married anytime soon, huh Michael?” Maria snorted in disgust.
“Excuse me for thinking you weren’t so inclined to begin with,” Michael tossed back, “You run hot and cold, DeLuca! Make up your mind.”
“Okay, enough!” Isabel ordered in a low tone, “Both of you back into your respective corners.” That wasn’t so far from what they did either. Maria and Michael retreated to opposite sides of the apartment, eyeing each other warily while licking their emotional wounds. For the present they were ignored while Isabel released the full onslaught of her acid tongue on her wayward brother. “Have you stopped to think for one second what this decision will do to our mother?” she snapped, “She’s cried everyday since you left.”
Max would not allow himself to be browbeaten into acquiesce. “Isabel, I’m a grown man,” he replied sensibly, “I had to leave home sometime.”
“Sometime sure,” Isabel conceded, “Not right after you and Dad have had the biggest fight of your lives, Max!”
“I’m not debating this with you,” Max sighed, “I’m staying with Michael for the time being and that’s all there is to it.”
“Whatever,” Isabel mumbled, clearly mutinous over his decision.
“Alright, next item,” Max said, making the wise decision to ignore his sister’s tantrum for the time being, “Liz is leaving in three weeks time and Isabel one week after that, which means that when the news breaks about us they will be away at school. I don’t think it’s a good idea for them to be by themselves when that happens.”
“So what are you proposing,” Kyle wanted to know.
“I was hoping that maybe you and Maria could go up and keep and eye on them,” Max said, “Just so they won’t be alone when everything hits the fan.”
“I don’t need a babysitter, Max!” Isabel fired out stubbornly.
“She’s right, Max,” Liz agreed with less blaze, “I’m sure we’ll be okay. All the real focus will be on you and Michael.”
“Exactly my point,” Max countered, “How long do you think it will take the media to figure out that you two are connected to us? You’ll be mobbed by reporters, not to mention how the general public might react. There might be some who are genuinely interested in the existence of aliens but for the majority…they’ll fear us.” When it looked as if they still might argue Max added solemnly, “I’d just feel better if there were someone there to have your back so to speak.” He traded pleading glances between the two girls. “Please?”
“Okay,” both Isabel and Liz huffed in reluctant compliance.
“Good,” Max commended, “Maria, do you have a problem hanging with Liz during that time?”
“No problem,” Maria replied tightly. She leveled Michael with a glaring look of distaste. “It’s not like I have anything to keep me here.”
Deliberately ignoring her unspoken jibe towards Michael, Max turned his attention to Kyle. “I need you to keep an eye on Isabel.”
“That’s not necessary,” Isabel shot out before Kyle could agree or disagree.
“Isabel, you just said you’d cooperate,” Max reminded her in long-suffering.
“I don’t want to put him out,” Isabel returned lamely.
“I won’t be put out,” Kyle assured her, “I’m fine with going to New Haven.” The entire time he spoke he could feel Isabel’s intense brown gaze boring into the side of his face. It required a massive strength of will on his part not to blush under her penetrating scrutiny. She was trying to cow him with the look and she was damned close to accomplishing her goal. Kyle had an idea about why she was upset but he knew she wouldn’t dare mention it in front of the group.
Last night he had kissed her. The instant had been completely unplanned and unanticipated. She and Maria had come over to his place to watch videos and hang out. Sometime during their third video the three had passed out on the sofa. When Kyle awakened a few hours later Maria was sprawled across one end of the couch while Isabel had her head resting neatly in his lap.
Thinking back on it, Kyle didn’t know what had compelled him to do it. She was just laying there, so beautiful and perfect, her hair spilled across her face like shimmering strands of corn silk. He had only meant to brush the tendrils from her cheek but had ended up leaning down to brush her lips instead. She had responded to him, too.
Eyes closed, she had sighed in happy contentment and given herself over to the kiss. Kyle might have worked up the courage to stroke the tender skin at her throat if she hadn’t whispered a name right then. Alex.
At that point Kyle had reared back, his jerky movement startling Isabel awake. To say the least she’d been horrified by the entire incident. They hadn’t spoken to one another since but it was obvious that she was incredibly uncomfortable with him. By volunteering to be her watchdog Kyle was hoping to rectify that situation.
“And another problem solved,” Max declared gladly, moving on quickly to the next topic and the touchiest so far. “Now Michael and Maria,” he sighed, turning to regard his two friends, “Have you two set a date for the wedding or is the engagement off?”
“It’s postponed,” they prevaricated simultaneously. Even when they were at odds their minds seemed to work on a similar track. The two exchanged disgruntled glowers.
“Well, at least they agree on something,” Kyle smirked.
“Shut up, Kyle!” everyone ordered.
“Sheesh,” he muttered under his breath, “Tough room.”
“If you’ve finished entertaining can we please move on?” Max deadpanned. He continued only when he was met with silence. “Now for our last, and most pressing, order of business we need to talk about the arrival date.” Max ignored the reverberating groans in response to his statement. “As you know Larek has recently launched the next to the last group of ships. In another few weeks he’ll send another and those will be the last.”
“So by now we must be up in the thousands now, huh?” Kyle asked, “That’s a lot of heads to count, Evans.”
“Give or take a few hundred,” Max answered flatly, “But you have to keep in mind that we’re taking less than 1/16th of Antar’s population. We didn’t evacuate any of the four orbiting planets at all. So what we’ve done so far is really on a small scale.”
“Depends on how you look at it,” Kyle mumbled under his breath.
“The point is this,” Max pressed on, “In another month we’ll be dealing with hundreds of refugees and then hundreds after those and hundreds after those. Larek,” he paused a moment to gather his composure, “Larek won’t be here to guide us through the tough spots anymore so we’re going to have to play this whole thing by ear.”
“Is he really going to stay on the planet?” Isabel asked in disbelief, “There has to be another way.”
“He doesn’t have a choice, Isabel,” Michael interjected, “If he leaves Khivar will get suspicious and then our plan is sunk. The last thing we want is that maniac on a ship bound for earth.”
“As opposed to the hundreds of maniacs already en route,” Kyle mumbled where no one could hear him.
“So he’s not going to save our mother?” Isabel murmured in mournful disappointment.
Max shook his head sadly. “Doesn’t look like it.”
As usual Kyle was the one to dispel much of the gloom with his practicality. “Who’s going to take Larek’s place?” he wondered, “Despite your Superman complex, Evans, we can’t pull this off on our own.”
“Larek has appointed his daughter Diadne to be our advisor,” Max said, “He said that she’s young but capable.”
“We’re supposed to entrust our lives into the hands of a girl?” Kyle bleated incredulously.
“You got a better idea?” Michael asked.
“She’ll be aboard the first ship to arrive so we won’t be foundering around too long,” Max stated, hoping to reassure the group.
However, when he looked around the room at the faces of his friends and family they looked as gloomy and despondent as they had when the meeting first began. Truthfully, he was gloomy and despondent as well. Max didn’t have a clue what he was doing though he tried to make a good show of it. If they knew he was panicking inside then they would only panic all the more. For their sakes Max knew he had to maintain an outer façade of calm and control when, in all honesty, he was drowning in responsibility he was not ready for.
“Okay,” he said, clapping his hands together and coming to his feet, “That concludes our meeting. Until next week…” Liz was against his side an instant later, her arms encircling his waist as if she instinctively recognized his need for comfort. After saying their goodbyes, the two left a few minutes later, arm and arm.
As Michael and Maria faded into the kitchen for a semi-private bickering session Kyle caught hold of Isabel just as she would have slipped out the door after her brother. “Can I talk to you a minute?” he questioned self-consciously.
Isabel flicked a glance in the direction of the kitchen just to make sure they hadn’t caught Michael and Maria’s attention. The couple quarreled on in oblivion. Isabel looked at Kyle again, her expression frosty. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Can you let me apologize, at least?” he asked, “I feel like a complete idiot for kissing you like I did.”
He was unprepared for Isabel’s viselike hold on his forearm as she dragged him, unsuspecting, out the door and into the corridor. Once they were outside she flung him away. “Don’t ever mention it again. We’ll just pretend it didn’t happen,” she said through clenched teeth, “Got it?”
“Obviously, that’s not so easy for you,” Kyle remarked, frowning and fingering his smarting arm, “Look, Isabel…it doesn’t have to be this big thing. I crossed over the line. I get that but it’s just…the other day when we were in the video store.” His voice dropped down to a bare whisper as his blue eyes blazed with intensity. “I felt something and…I’m pretty sure you did, too.”
“It doesn’t matter if I did or didn’t,” she replied dismissively, “The point is that nothing can happen period. You can’t kiss me, Kyle. More importantly I don’t want to be kissed, okay!”
Kyle fell back a step to regard her speculatively. “I don’t think you’d be reacting this strongly if you didn’t feel something,” he ventured cautiously.
“That just shows how much you know about me,” she bit back, “Because I didn’t like you kissing me at all.”
“That’s right,” Kyle drawled, “You wanted it to be Alex. Is that right?”
“That’s right,” Isabel tossed back.
“Well, you wanna know what I think?”
“Not particularly.”
Kyle actually smiled at her reply. “I think that you knew I wasn’t Alex at all,” he charged, “I think you wanted me to kiss you all night and when I did you freaked.”
“And I think you haven’t been washing your fruit before you eat it because you’re obviously hallucinating,” Isabel snapped back irritably, “You’re so arrogant and full of yourself that you actually believe kissing a girl when she’s unsuspecting and vulnerable will make her fall all over you!”
“Two things you’re not, Princess, helpless and vulnerable,” Kyle replied glibly, “Your problem is that you can’t stop trying to control everything around you. You won't let yourself feel anything, Isabel. I just don’t get it. I mean…how long are you going to punish yourself for what happened to Alex?”
Isabel winced at the question, her icy pretense breaking down at last. “Please Kyle, don’t start with me about this,” she pleaded in a small voice.
“What am I starting?” he demanded, “I’m trying to help you.”
“You’re a great guy,” she said softly, “And you’re funny and sweet and best of all you know what I am and you don’t care.”
“But,” Kyle prodded, sensing that was where she was leading.
“You’re my friend,” Isabel said, “One of the few I have and I don’t want to lose that.”
“Maybe we could have something better than friendship,” Kyle considered delicately.
Isabel shook her head, her gaze dropping away from the beseeching hope she glimpsed in his eyes. “It would never work out,” she whispered with certainty, “You were right when you said there was something there between us…but…I’m not ready. I will never be ready because even if I decided to move forward with you Alex would still be in the back of my mind. I can’t forget him, Kyle.”
“I’m not asking you to forget him,” he replied, gently scooping up her hand and pressing it between his own. Together they stared down at their intertwined fingers, each considering the risk, each silently agonizing over whether the leap was worth it. “Isabel, you don’t have to forget Alex,” Kyle whispered again, “I’d never ask you to do that. Just…let him go.”
Isabel hardened explicably then, withdrawing her hand firmly from his grasp. “No,” she uttered tersely, “I can’t do what you’re asking. I won’t.” She backed away from him several steps, shaking her head in genuine remorse. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I,” he whispered to her back when she turned away, “More than you know.”
“Okay, what’s on the agenda for today, fearless leader?” Isabel queried.
As had become their custom in the last two months, the group had congregated together in Michael’s apartment for their weekly meeting. The gathering provided an opportunity to discuss the nuances of their plan as well as any relevant life changes that might affect them as a whole. Considering the fact that Max had recently moved out the house, Liz was Harvard bound with Isabel not far behind for Yale, Michael and Maria’s engagement was teetering on the edge of extinction and Larek had launched another three ships it was pretty evident the six had a lot of ground to cover.
“First item up for discussion,” Max announced expansively, “My living arrangements.” He looked directly at his sister when voicing that declaration. “To answer your unspoken question, Isabel…no, I am not moving back home,” he said with concise precision, “So you can tell Mom she can stop sending over baked goods as peace offerings. I can’t be bought with cookies.”
“You can’t just sleep on Michael’s couch indefinitely, Max,” Isabel reasoned austerely.
“He’s not,” Michael said.
“You mean you’re sharing the bed,” Kyle gasped in tasteless jest, “I always suspected you two had something going on the side. It should have been me!” Liz smacked him in the face with a pillow for his joking effort while everyone else merely groaned in annoyance.
“I’m signing a new lease, you pea brain,” Michael retorted shortly, “Max and I are going to rent a two bedroom apartment together.”
“I guess that pretty much confirms that we won’t be getting married anytime soon, huh Michael?” Maria snorted in disgust.
“Excuse me for thinking you weren’t so inclined to begin with,” Michael tossed back, “You run hot and cold, DeLuca! Make up your mind.”
“Okay, enough!” Isabel ordered in a low tone, “Both of you back into your respective corners.” That wasn’t so far from what they did either. Maria and Michael retreated to opposite sides of the apartment, eyeing each other warily while licking their emotional wounds. For the present they were ignored while Isabel released the full onslaught of her acid tongue on her wayward brother. “Have you stopped to think for one second what this decision will do to our mother?” she snapped, “She’s cried everyday since you left.”
Max would not allow himself to be browbeaten into acquiesce. “Isabel, I’m a grown man,” he replied sensibly, “I had to leave home sometime.”
“Sometime sure,” Isabel conceded, “Not right after you and Dad have had the biggest fight of your lives, Max!”
“I’m not debating this with you,” Max sighed, “I’m staying with Michael for the time being and that’s all there is to it.”
“Whatever,” Isabel mumbled, clearly mutinous over his decision.
“Alright, next item,” Max said, making the wise decision to ignore his sister’s tantrum for the time being, “Liz is leaving in three weeks time and Isabel one week after that, which means that when the news breaks about us they will be away at school. I don’t think it’s a good idea for them to be by themselves when that happens.”
“So what are you proposing,” Kyle wanted to know.
“I was hoping that maybe you and Maria could go up and keep and eye on them,” Max said, “Just so they won’t be alone when everything hits the fan.”
“I don’t need a babysitter, Max!” Isabel fired out stubbornly.
“She’s right, Max,” Liz agreed with less blaze, “I’m sure we’ll be okay. All the real focus will be on you and Michael.”
“Exactly my point,” Max countered, “How long do you think it will take the media to figure out that you two are connected to us? You’ll be mobbed by reporters, not to mention how the general public might react. There might be some who are genuinely interested in the existence of aliens but for the majority…they’ll fear us.” When it looked as if they still might argue Max added solemnly, “I’d just feel better if there were someone there to have your back so to speak.” He traded pleading glances between the two girls. “Please?”
“Okay,” both Isabel and Liz huffed in reluctant compliance.
“Good,” Max commended, “Maria, do you have a problem hanging with Liz during that time?”
“No problem,” Maria replied tightly. She leveled Michael with a glaring look of distaste. “It’s not like I have anything to keep me here.”
Deliberately ignoring her unspoken jibe towards Michael, Max turned his attention to Kyle. “I need you to keep an eye on Isabel.”
“That’s not necessary,” Isabel shot out before Kyle could agree or disagree.
“Isabel, you just said you’d cooperate,” Max reminded her in long-suffering.
“I don’t want to put him out,” Isabel returned lamely.
“I won’t be put out,” Kyle assured her, “I’m fine with going to New Haven.” The entire time he spoke he could feel Isabel’s intense brown gaze boring into the side of his face. It required a massive strength of will on his part not to blush under her penetrating scrutiny. She was trying to cow him with the look and she was damned close to accomplishing her goal. Kyle had an idea about why she was upset but he knew she wouldn’t dare mention it in front of the group.
Last night he had kissed her. The instant had been completely unplanned and unanticipated. She and Maria had come over to his place to watch videos and hang out. Sometime during their third video the three had passed out on the sofa. When Kyle awakened a few hours later Maria was sprawled across one end of the couch while Isabel had her head resting neatly in his lap.
Thinking back on it, Kyle didn’t know what had compelled him to do it. She was just laying there, so beautiful and perfect, her hair spilled across her face like shimmering strands of corn silk. He had only meant to brush the tendrils from her cheek but had ended up leaning down to brush her lips instead. She had responded to him, too.
Eyes closed, she had sighed in happy contentment and given herself over to the kiss. Kyle might have worked up the courage to stroke the tender skin at her throat if she hadn’t whispered a name right then. Alex.
At that point Kyle had reared back, his jerky movement startling Isabel awake. To say the least she’d been horrified by the entire incident. They hadn’t spoken to one another since but it was obvious that she was incredibly uncomfortable with him. By volunteering to be her watchdog Kyle was hoping to rectify that situation.
“And another problem solved,” Max declared gladly, moving on quickly to the next topic and the touchiest so far. “Now Michael and Maria,” he sighed, turning to regard his two friends, “Have you two set a date for the wedding or is the engagement off?”
“It’s postponed,” they prevaricated simultaneously. Even when they were at odds their minds seemed to work on a similar track. The two exchanged disgruntled glowers.
“Well, at least they agree on something,” Kyle smirked.
“Shut up, Kyle!” everyone ordered.
“Sheesh,” he muttered under his breath, “Tough room.”
“If you’ve finished entertaining can we please move on?” Max deadpanned. He continued only when he was met with silence. “Now for our last, and most pressing, order of business we need to talk about the arrival date.” Max ignored the reverberating groans in response to his statement. “As you know Larek has recently launched the next to the last group of ships. In another few weeks he’ll send another and those will be the last.”
“So by now we must be up in the thousands now, huh?” Kyle asked, “That’s a lot of heads to count, Evans.”
“Give or take a few hundred,” Max answered flatly, “But you have to keep in mind that we’re taking less than 1/16th of Antar’s population. We didn’t evacuate any of the four orbiting planets at all. So what we’ve done so far is really on a small scale.”
“Depends on how you look at it,” Kyle mumbled under his breath.
“The point is this,” Max pressed on, “In another month we’ll be dealing with hundreds of refugees and then hundreds after those and hundreds after those. Larek,” he paused a moment to gather his composure, “Larek won’t be here to guide us through the tough spots anymore so we’re going to have to play this whole thing by ear.”
“Is he really going to stay on the planet?” Isabel asked in disbelief, “There has to be another way.”
“He doesn’t have a choice, Isabel,” Michael interjected, “If he leaves Khivar will get suspicious and then our plan is sunk. The last thing we want is that maniac on a ship bound for earth.”
“As opposed to the hundreds of maniacs already en route,” Kyle mumbled where no one could hear him.
“So he’s not going to save our mother?” Isabel murmured in mournful disappointment.
Max shook his head sadly. “Doesn’t look like it.”
As usual Kyle was the one to dispel much of the gloom with his practicality. “Who’s going to take Larek’s place?” he wondered, “Despite your Superman complex, Evans, we can’t pull this off on our own.”
“Larek has appointed his daughter Diadne to be our advisor,” Max said, “He said that she’s young but capable.”
“We’re supposed to entrust our lives into the hands of a girl?” Kyle bleated incredulously.
“You got a better idea?” Michael asked.
“She’ll be aboard the first ship to arrive so we won’t be foundering around too long,” Max stated, hoping to reassure the group.
However, when he looked around the room at the faces of his friends and family they looked as gloomy and despondent as they had when the meeting first began. Truthfully, he was gloomy and despondent as well. Max didn’t have a clue what he was doing though he tried to make a good show of it. If they knew he was panicking inside then they would only panic all the more. For their sakes Max knew he had to maintain an outer façade of calm and control when, in all honesty, he was drowning in responsibility he was not ready for.
“Okay,” he said, clapping his hands together and coming to his feet, “That concludes our meeting. Until next week…” Liz was against his side an instant later, her arms encircling his waist as if she instinctively recognized his need for comfort. After saying their goodbyes, the two left a few minutes later, arm and arm.
As Michael and Maria faded into the kitchen for a semi-private bickering session Kyle caught hold of Isabel just as she would have slipped out the door after her brother. “Can I talk to you a minute?” he questioned self-consciously.
Isabel flicked a glance in the direction of the kitchen just to make sure they hadn’t caught Michael and Maria’s attention. The couple quarreled on in oblivion. Isabel looked at Kyle again, her expression frosty. “I really don’t think that’s a good idea.”
“Can you let me apologize, at least?” he asked, “I feel like a complete idiot for kissing you like I did.”
He was unprepared for Isabel’s viselike hold on his forearm as she dragged him, unsuspecting, out the door and into the corridor. Once they were outside she flung him away. “Don’t ever mention it again. We’ll just pretend it didn’t happen,” she said through clenched teeth, “Got it?”
“Obviously, that’s not so easy for you,” Kyle remarked, frowning and fingering his smarting arm, “Look, Isabel…it doesn’t have to be this big thing. I crossed over the line. I get that but it’s just…the other day when we were in the video store.” His voice dropped down to a bare whisper as his blue eyes blazed with intensity. “I felt something and…I’m pretty sure you did, too.”
“It doesn’t matter if I did or didn’t,” she replied dismissively, “The point is that nothing can happen period. You can’t kiss me, Kyle. More importantly I don’t want to be kissed, okay!”
Kyle fell back a step to regard her speculatively. “I don’t think you’d be reacting this strongly if you didn’t feel something,” he ventured cautiously.
“That just shows how much you know about me,” she bit back, “Because I didn’t like you kissing me at all.”
“That’s right,” Kyle drawled, “You wanted it to be Alex. Is that right?”
“That’s right,” Isabel tossed back.
“Well, you wanna know what I think?”
“Not particularly.”
Kyle actually smiled at her reply. “I think that you knew I wasn’t Alex at all,” he charged, “I think you wanted me to kiss you all night and when I did you freaked.”
“And I think you haven’t been washing your fruit before you eat it because you’re obviously hallucinating,” Isabel snapped back irritably, “You’re so arrogant and full of yourself that you actually believe kissing a girl when she’s unsuspecting and vulnerable will make her fall all over you!”
“Two things you’re not, Princess, helpless and vulnerable,” Kyle replied glibly, “Your problem is that you can’t stop trying to control everything around you. You won't let yourself feel anything, Isabel. I just don’t get it. I mean…how long are you going to punish yourself for what happened to Alex?”
Isabel winced at the question, her icy pretense breaking down at last. “Please Kyle, don’t start with me about this,” she pleaded in a small voice.
“What am I starting?” he demanded, “I’m trying to help you.”
“You’re a great guy,” she said softly, “And you’re funny and sweet and best of all you know what I am and you don’t care.”
“But,” Kyle prodded, sensing that was where she was leading.
“You’re my friend,” Isabel said, “One of the few I have and I don’t want to lose that.”
“Maybe we could have something better than friendship,” Kyle considered delicately.
Isabel shook her head, her gaze dropping away from the beseeching hope she glimpsed in his eyes. “It would never work out,” she whispered with certainty, “You were right when you said there was something there between us…but…I’m not ready. I will never be ready because even if I decided to move forward with you Alex would still be in the back of my mind. I can’t forget him, Kyle.”
“I’m not asking you to forget him,” he replied, gently scooping up her hand and pressing it between his own. Together they stared down at their intertwined fingers, each considering the risk, each silently agonizing over whether the leap was worth it. “Isabel, you don’t have to forget Alex,” Kyle whispered again, “I’d never ask you to do that. Just…let him go.”
Isabel hardened explicably then, withdrawing her hand firmly from his grasp. “No,” she uttered tersely, “I can’t do what you’re asking. I won’t.” She backed away from him several steps, shaking her head in genuine remorse. “I’m sorry.”
“So am I,” he whispered to her back when she turned away, “More than you know.”
Last edited by Deejonaise on Sun Mar 07, 2004 9:54 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Deejonaise
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 385
- Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2002 12:48 am
- Location: On my rusty dusty...
Chapter 15
“So you’ve been really quiet,” Liz observed softly as she and Max cleared away the remnants of their picnic lunch.
The rocky bluff situated on Vasquez Rock provided the perfect secluded location, an ideal setting for a romantic rendezvous between young lovers. Yet Max had hardly seemed aware of the craggy beauty surrounding him or Liz’s pleasant company. Throughout most of the meal his thoughts had been elsewhere as he was plagued with self-doubt, fear and dread.
So many things were happening to him all at once that Max was having a difficult time keeping everything straight in his mind. First Liz was leaving. That realization was so big and so painful to contemplate that it nearly overshadowed all his other worries. In the last two months he had come to rely upon her heavily. The thought of going through the day without her at his side literally constricted his breath. He wanted her to stay almost as much as he wanted her to pursue her future and the conflict within him was driving him a little crazy.
However, even with Liz’s ever nearing departure consuming his thoughts, Max couldn’t quite forget that in little more than a month’s time hundreds and hundreds of his people would arrive on earth looking to him for guidance. The very notion struck him as ludicrous. Max didn’t even know what courses he wanted to take for his first semester of college so how was he supposed to know how to rule an entire nation?
But apparently he was supposed to know. Michael, Isabel…everyone, frankly, expected him to know exactly what the right thing do was all the time. They expected him to know what their next move should be and he didn’t always have the answers. Sometimes he was stumbling blind just like the rest of them but he was never allowed to admit his confusion as they could so freely. After all he was the king, “the fearless leader” as they teasingly, but sincerely referred to him and he was supposed to know the path no matter what. Too bad he didn’t have the faintest clue what he was doing.
Truthfully, Max was scared. Even more scared than he’d been when trapped in the white room by Pierce and the Special Unit. At least when he had been in that situation Max had known that he would be the only one to suffer but now he carried the great burden in knowing that if he made a wrong decision, just one misstep then hundreds would suffer because of it. Max didn’t want that sort of responsibility at all and the weight of it on his shoulders was gradually crippling him.
Max wanted to tell Liz all those things. He wanted to unload the heavy burden that had been weighing on his heart for weeks now but he hesitated to do so. He didn’t want to bog her down in his miserable insecurities. She was currently dealing with enough of her own issues. He hated continually running to her with the various crises in his life. It felt as if he was forever dumping on her. So he kept silent and brooding through what should have been a romantic lunch.
Liz could see that his mind was racing with a hundred different thoughts at once, but for some unknown reason he hesitated to give voice to them. While they were eating she had not pushed him to talk to her but now that they were finished Liz was no longer willing to let him sit across from her in silent agony. However, the moment she voiced her question Max hastily averted his eyes and feigned absorption with the precise repacking of the picnic basic. Nonetheless, Liz was not deterred. She grasped hold of his chin and forced him to meet her questioning stare. “Tell me what’s bothering you,” she insisted firmly.
Max didn’t attempt to deny her assumption that something was plaguing him. Undoubtedly his thoughts were plain on his face right then and Liz would have little trouble seeing through the cheerful veneer he presented. Max sighed wryly and favored her with a crooked smile. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
She shook her head slowly, smiling right back. “Not a chance,” she whispered, “Now will you tell me why you’ve been so quiet or will I have to strangle you?” Liz wiggled her fingers threateningly.
Laughing, Max rolled out of her reach. “No need to threaten bodily harm,” he teased her, “I’ll tell you…if you really want to know.” Liz nodded, wordlessly expressing to him that she did.
With a shuddering sigh, Max sprawled out onto the blanket thrown out beneath them and pulled her down into the cradle of his arms. He curled into her body so that their heads were nestled close together and Liz lay across him, her legs dangling over the crook of his knees. For a moment Max contented himself with just looking at her in adoration, marveling at how the sun kissed her face and brought out the faintest trace of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Max leaned down to kiss her gently, brushing his lips against her temple, her eyes, the tip of her nose. With each tender caress he felt more fortified to tell her what was in his heart.
“Max, talk to me,” Liz urged when he finally rested his forehead to hers.
Her sweet coaxing proved too much and Max decided to plunge right ahead. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he blurted.
Liz wrinkled her nose in a pensive grimace, misunderstanding his statement. “Doing about what?” she asked blankly, “You don’t mean the kissing, do you? I think you were doing just fine, though I tend to be biased in that regard.”
Max burst out laughing at her innocent reply. She looked so remarkably sincere when she said that, so chagrined that he couldn’t resist the desire to kiss her again, deeper and longer this time. “I didn’t mean that I don’t know about kissing,” he said when they surfaced for air, “Kissing you is something I’m quickly becoming an expert in. I meant,” he clarified largely, “that I don’t know what I’m doing about my people, Liz. Every decision I’ve made since telling Larek to send them here has been by the seat of my pants.”
He paused for a moment, looking down into her eyes and expecting to find condemnation or, at the very least, astonishment there but all he found was gentle understanding. Liz lay in the circle of his arms, patiently waiting for him to continue.
With a small sigh of relief, Max snuggled back against her. “I don’t have a friggin clue how I’m supposed to make all this work,” he confessed softly, “I know that I present it to the group like I’m handling everything and like I’m perfectly sure that things will work out the way I want them to, but…I really don’t know, Liz. This could be a horrific disaster.” By the time he was done talking his good-natured smile had completely faded and replaced with a worried frown.
“You don’t think I know that?” Liz whispered knowingly. He reared up a bit and stared down at her in such flabbergasted surprise that Liz had to roll her eyes at his shocked response. “I know very well when you’re putting up a front, Max,” she said glibly, “I’ve known since day one that you didn’t know what you were doing.”
“B…But you’ve gone along with me,” he sputtered, “You’ve supported my every decision, Liz. Why would you do that when you knew I was walking blind?”
“Because I know that you’re doing your best,” Liz replied mildly. She reached up to trace the straight line of his eyebrows, her fingers cresting over his forehead and curving around to play at the delicate rim of his ear. “I know you’re scared,” she told him gently, “I’m scared, too, but I believe in you, Max. I believe in what you’re doing and I know it’s going to work out.”
Tears pricked the back of his eyes at her confident words and Max hugged her hard in response. “What will I do without you?” he lamented into the cloud of her hair, “You’ve been my support system this entire time, Liz. My rock. I don’t know how I’m going to go on without you.”
Liz let her touch drift down the angled jut of his jaw, unaware that her innocent caresses were lighting the flames of desire. “The same goes for me, too,” she replied solemnly, “The only reason I haven’t crawled into some dark place these last two months has been completely because of you. I don’t think I could have made it through that time when my dad wasn’t speaking to me if you hadn’t been there, Max. You’re my best friend.”
“Ooh, don’t let Maria hear you say that,” he teased, nibbling at the underside of her jaw, “I’m already on her list as it is.”
“She’s not mad at you, Max,” Liz explained breathlessly, “She’s just having issues with Michael right now and you’re an easy target.”
“Is that so?” he considered, unexpectedly flipping their positions so that she lay fully beneath him and he was cradled in between her thighs. He pressed down into her, his body hardening with desire. “Do you know any secret way that I can get on her good side,” he wondered vaguely, his words muffled against Liz skin as he pressed fervent kisses all over her neck and torso.
Liz plunged her fingers into his hair and lifted his head for her kiss. “Nah, not really,” she replied in a low, concupiscent tone, “But I know a way for you to get on mine.”
********************
Maria stared at Michael in mute fury, watching as he casually shoveled popcorn into his mouth while seemingly engrossed with a ball game on tv. She was so livid she could scream. Here she hadn’t spoken a single word to him in nearly an hour and how did he respond? He stuck a frozen pizza into the oven, popped a bag of microwavable popcorn and ignored her completely. Currently he was lamenting some penalty or other that the ref had called on his team and Maria simply lost it.
She shot up from her stool at the kitchen counter and stalked across the living room. Without preamble she clicked off the set and then stepped in front of it, blocking the screen from his view just in case he decided to try and supersede her action with the remote.
“What are you doing?” Michael demanded irritably.
“How can you just sit over here calmly eating popcorn when you know I’m mad at you,” Maria cried shrilly, “Don’t you even care at all?”
“Maria,” Michael sighed, fingering the ticking vein that had sprung to life in his eyelid, “We’ve gone over this same argument over and over again for two days now. Either you want to marry me or you don’t. This isn’t a hard decision.”
Maria plunked her hands onto her hips and responded with a terse, “Are you ready for a commitment, Michael? Are you really ready?”
“Would I have asked you if I weren’t?” he retorted shortly.
“See that proves it!” she exclaimed, “You haven’t done any soul searching about this at all, Michael!”
“Why the hell do I need to do any soul searching,” he demanded furiously, “I love you! I asked you to marry me! We should take the next logical step, not analyze to death my reasons for doing it.” He shot up from the sofa and stomped into the kitchen for a beer. “You’re making me crazy over this, woman!”
“Is it so wrong that I want to be absolutely sure this is what you want?” Maria cried.
Michael whipped around to face her with unprecedented ferocity. “You’ll never be sure,” he fired back, “I can reassure you again and again until I drop dead from expending so much air and you still wouldn’t believe it! It’s like you’ve absolutely convinced yourself that I’m going to leave you someday or something!” The moment the words left Michael’s mouth he went absolutely still and that was before he noticed Maria’s wince of pain.
His unknowing accusation had provided an unexpected clarity into his fiancée’s convoluted thought process and for the first time Michael realized what was truly bothering Maria. “That’s it, isn’t it?” he breathed in an aching whisper, “You think I’m going to walk out on you just like your dad did.”
“I didn’t say that,” Maria snapped back, but her defensive stance said that was exactly what she was afraid of.
“Maria, I’m not your father,” Michael replied gently. He set his beer onto the counter and crossed the living room to take her into his arms, but she danced out of his reach.
When she looked at him again her eyes were leaping with accusation and anger. “You’ve left before, Michael,” she reminded thickly, “The first time was after Pierce and then…you were going to leave the planet with Max…twice!”
“But I came back all three times, didn’t I?” he reasoned.
“The point is that you were going to leave, Michael,” Maria stressed, “If circumstances were different I’m sure I would have never seen you again.”
“That’s not true,” Michael denied softly.
“And you’re moving in with Max soon,” she tossed out suddenly, “What am I supposed to think of that, huh? You say you’re ready to get married. You say that’s what you want but then you make plans to move in with your best friend!”
“What does one have to do with the other?”
Maria actually growled at the question, throwing a pleading glance heavenward. “You can’t possibly be this dense, Michael!”
“What?” he demanded, clueless, “I honestly don’t see how me living with Max is going to impact us at all. I didn’t expect that we would be getting married anytime soon anyway with everything that’s about to go down. And since Max and I are going to be working pretty closely in the coming months it just made sense.”
“More sense than asking your fiancée to move in with you instead,” Maria countered bitterly.
Finally her words hit their mark and Michael had the grace to look shamefaced. He palmed his forehead in chagrin. “You’re looking at this whole thing all wrong, Maria,” he returned lamely.
“I don’t think I am, Michael. I think I’m seeing the whole picture. You’re the one who’s being blind! Don’t you get it?” she whispered, her shoulders hunching forward in defeat, “I want to be able to depend on you. I want you to be my husband. I want to marry you. But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering if you’ll stick around and dreading the day when you’ll disappear from my life forever.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he reassured her. And this time when he stepped forward to take her into his arms he didn’t let her flailing arms and stiffening reaction discourage him. Instead he cradled her, stroking her back gently until she relaxed in his arms. “Babe, I promise,” he murmured, “That’s not going to happen.”
“That’s what you keep saying,” Maria sobbed into his shirt, “And I really want to believe it but… Michael, if you walked out on me, if I let myself need you and you left, I would never survive that.”
“Maria, I don’t know what else I can do,” Michael murmured, “I’ve given you my heart, my ring and my word. The rest is totally up to you. Either you take a leap of faith and trust me to love you the way you need or you admit that you can’t and we just…end this thing.”
Maria tore out of his arms and threw him a startled glance. “Is that what you want, Michael?” she asked fearfully.
He skated his fingers across her cheek, lingering at her trembling mouth. It was a gesture that was incredibly rare and yet heartbreakingly beautiful coming from Michael Guerin. “You know this isn’t about what I want anymore, Maria,” he said sadly, “It’s about what you want. Either you trust me or you don’t. Either you want to be with me or you don’t. The choices are easy, babe, but you’re the one who has to make them.”
“So you’ve been really quiet,” Liz observed softly as she and Max cleared away the remnants of their picnic lunch.
The rocky bluff situated on Vasquez Rock provided the perfect secluded location, an ideal setting for a romantic rendezvous between young lovers. Yet Max had hardly seemed aware of the craggy beauty surrounding him or Liz’s pleasant company. Throughout most of the meal his thoughts had been elsewhere as he was plagued with self-doubt, fear and dread.
So many things were happening to him all at once that Max was having a difficult time keeping everything straight in his mind. First Liz was leaving. That realization was so big and so painful to contemplate that it nearly overshadowed all his other worries. In the last two months he had come to rely upon her heavily. The thought of going through the day without her at his side literally constricted his breath. He wanted her to stay almost as much as he wanted her to pursue her future and the conflict within him was driving him a little crazy.
However, even with Liz’s ever nearing departure consuming his thoughts, Max couldn’t quite forget that in little more than a month’s time hundreds and hundreds of his people would arrive on earth looking to him for guidance. The very notion struck him as ludicrous. Max didn’t even know what courses he wanted to take for his first semester of college so how was he supposed to know how to rule an entire nation?
But apparently he was supposed to know. Michael, Isabel…everyone, frankly, expected him to know exactly what the right thing do was all the time. They expected him to know what their next move should be and he didn’t always have the answers. Sometimes he was stumbling blind just like the rest of them but he was never allowed to admit his confusion as they could so freely. After all he was the king, “the fearless leader” as they teasingly, but sincerely referred to him and he was supposed to know the path no matter what. Too bad he didn’t have the faintest clue what he was doing.
Truthfully, Max was scared. Even more scared than he’d been when trapped in the white room by Pierce and the Special Unit. At least when he had been in that situation Max had known that he would be the only one to suffer but now he carried the great burden in knowing that if he made a wrong decision, just one misstep then hundreds would suffer because of it. Max didn’t want that sort of responsibility at all and the weight of it on his shoulders was gradually crippling him.
Max wanted to tell Liz all those things. He wanted to unload the heavy burden that had been weighing on his heart for weeks now but he hesitated to do so. He didn’t want to bog her down in his miserable insecurities. She was currently dealing with enough of her own issues. He hated continually running to her with the various crises in his life. It felt as if he was forever dumping on her. So he kept silent and brooding through what should have been a romantic lunch.
Liz could see that his mind was racing with a hundred different thoughts at once, but for some unknown reason he hesitated to give voice to them. While they were eating she had not pushed him to talk to her but now that they were finished Liz was no longer willing to let him sit across from her in silent agony. However, the moment she voiced her question Max hastily averted his eyes and feigned absorption with the precise repacking of the picnic basic. Nonetheless, Liz was not deterred. She grasped hold of his chin and forced him to meet her questioning stare. “Tell me what’s bothering you,” she insisted firmly.
Max didn’t attempt to deny her assumption that something was plaguing him. Undoubtedly his thoughts were plain on his face right then and Liz would have little trouble seeing through the cheerful veneer he presented. Max sighed wryly and favored her with a crooked smile. “You’re not going to let this go, are you?”
She shook her head slowly, smiling right back. “Not a chance,” she whispered, “Now will you tell me why you’ve been so quiet or will I have to strangle you?” Liz wiggled her fingers threateningly.
Laughing, Max rolled out of her reach. “No need to threaten bodily harm,” he teased her, “I’ll tell you…if you really want to know.” Liz nodded, wordlessly expressing to him that she did.
With a shuddering sigh, Max sprawled out onto the blanket thrown out beneath them and pulled her down into the cradle of his arms. He curled into her body so that their heads were nestled close together and Liz lay across him, her legs dangling over the crook of his knees. For a moment Max contented himself with just looking at her in adoration, marveling at how the sun kissed her face and brought out the faintest trace of freckles across the bridge of her nose. Max leaned down to kiss her gently, brushing his lips against her temple, her eyes, the tip of her nose. With each tender caress he felt more fortified to tell her what was in his heart.
“Max, talk to me,” Liz urged when he finally rested his forehead to hers.
Her sweet coaxing proved too much and Max decided to plunge right ahead. “I don’t know what I’m doing,” he blurted.
Liz wrinkled her nose in a pensive grimace, misunderstanding his statement. “Doing about what?” she asked blankly, “You don’t mean the kissing, do you? I think you were doing just fine, though I tend to be biased in that regard.”
Max burst out laughing at her innocent reply. She looked so remarkably sincere when she said that, so chagrined that he couldn’t resist the desire to kiss her again, deeper and longer this time. “I didn’t mean that I don’t know about kissing,” he said when they surfaced for air, “Kissing you is something I’m quickly becoming an expert in. I meant,” he clarified largely, “that I don’t know what I’m doing about my people, Liz. Every decision I’ve made since telling Larek to send them here has been by the seat of my pants.”
He paused for a moment, looking down into her eyes and expecting to find condemnation or, at the very least, astonishment there but all he found was gentle understanding. Liz lay in the circle of his arms, patiently waiting for him to continue.
With a small sigh of relief, Max snuggled back against her. “I don’t have a friggin clue how I’m supposed to make all this work,” he confessed softly, “I know that I present it to the group like I’m handling everything and like I’m perfectly sure that things will work out the way I want them to, but…I really don’t know, Liz. This could be a horrific disaster.” By the time he was done talking his good-natured smile had completely faded and replaced with a worried frown.
“You don’t think I know that?” Liz whispered knowingly. He reared up a bit and stared down at her in such flabbergasted surprise that Liz had to roll her eyes at his shocked response. “I know very well when you’re putting up a front, Max,” she said glibly, “I’ve known since day one that you didn’t know what you were doing.”
“B…But you’ve gone along with me,” he sputtered, “You’ve supported my every decision, Liz. Why would you do that when you knew I was walking blind?”
“Because I know that you’re doing your best,” Liz replied mildly. She reached up to trace the straight line of his eyebrows, her fingers cresting over his forehead and curving around to play at the delicate rim of his ear. “I know you’re scared,” she told him gently, “I’m scared, too, but I believe in you, Max. I believe in what you’re doing and I know it’s going to work out.”
Tears pricked the back of his eyes at her confident words and Max hugged her hard in response. “What will I do without you?” he lamented into the cloud of her hair, “You’ve been my support system this entire time, Liz. My rock. I don’t know how I’m going to go on without you.”
Liz let her touch drift down the angled jut of his jaw, unaware that her innocent caresses were lighting the flames of desire. “The same goes for me, too,” she replied solemnly, “The only reason I haven’t crawled into some dark place these last two months has been completely because of you. I don’t think I could have made it through that time when my dad wasn’t speaking to me if you hadn’t been there, Max. You’re my best friend.”
“Ooh, don’t let Maria hear you say that,” he teased, nibbling at the underside of her jaw, “I’m already on her list as it is.”
“She’s not mad at you, Max,” Liz explained breathlessly, “She’s just having issues with Michael right now and you’re an easy target.”
“Is that so?” he considered, unexpectedly flipping their positions so that she lay fully beneath him and he was cradled in between her thighs. He pressed down into her, his body hardening with desire. “Do you know any secret way that I can get on her good side,” he wondered vaguely, his words muffled against Liz skin as he pressed fervent kisses all over her neck and torso.
Liz plunged her fingers into his hair and lifted his head for her kiss. “Nah, not really,” she replied in a low, concupiscent tone, “But I know a way for you to get on mine.”
********************
Maria stared at Michael in mute fury, watching as he casually shoveled popcorn into his mouth while seemingly engrossed with a ball game on tv. She was so livid she could scream. Here she hadn’t spoken a single word to him in nearly an hour and how did he respond? He stuck a frozen pizza into the oven, popped a bag of microwavable popcorn and ignored her completely. Currently he was lamenting some penalty or other that the ref had called on his team and Maria simply lost it.
She shot up from her stool at the kitchen counter and stalked across the living room. Without preamble she clicked off the set and then stepped in front of it, blocking the screen from his view just in case he decided to try and supersede her action with the remote.
“What are you doing?” Michael demanded irritably.
“How can you just sit over here calmly eating popcorn when you know I’m mad at you,” Maria cried shrilly, “Don’t you even care at all?”
“Maria,” Michael sighed, fingering the ticking vein that had sprung to life in his eyelid, “We’ve gone over this same argument over and over again for two days now. Either you want to marry me or you don’t. This isn’t a hard decision.”
Maria plunked her hands onto her hips and responded with a terse, “Are you ready for a commitment, Michael? Are you really ready?”
“Would I have asked you if I weren’t?” he retorted shortly.
“See that proves it!” she exclaimed, “You haven’t done any soul searching about this at all, Michael!”
“Why the hell do I need to do any soul searching,” he demanded furiously, “I love you! I asked you to marry me! We should take the next logical step, not analyze to death my reasons for doing it.” He shot up from the sofa and stomped into the kitchen for a beer. “You’re making me crazy over this, woman!”
“Is it so wrong that I want to be absolutely sure this is what you want?” Maria cried.
Michael whipped around to face her with unprecedented ferocity. “You’ll never be sure,” he fired back, “I can reassure you again and again until I drop dead from expending so much air and you still wouldn’t believe it! It’s like you’ve absolutely convinced yourself that I’m going to leave you someday or something!” The moment the words left Michael’s mouth he went absolutely still and that was before he noticed Maria’s wince of pain.
His unknowing accusation had provided an unexpected clarity into his fiancée’s convoluted thought process and for the first time Michael realized what was truly bothering Maria. “That’s it, isn’t it?” he breathed in an aching whisper, “You think I’m going to walk out on you just like your dad did.”
“I didn’t say that,” Maria snapped back, but her defensive stance said that was exactly what she was afraid of.
“Maria, I’m not your father,” Michael replied gently. He set his beer onto the counter and crossed the living room to take her into his arms, but she danced out of his reach.
When she looked at him again her eyes were leaping with accusation and anger. “You’ve left before, Michael,” she reminded thickly, “The first time was after Pierce and then…you were going to leave the planet with Max…twice!”
“But I came back all three times, didn’t I?” he reasoned.
“The point is that you were going to leave, Michael,” Maria stressed, “If circumstances were different I’m sure I would have never seen you again.”
“That’s not true,” Michael denied softly.
“And you’re moving in with Max soon,” she tossed out suddenly, “What am I supposed to think of that, huh? You say you’re ready to get married. You say that’s what you want but then you make plans to move in with your best friend!”
“What does one have to do with the other?”
Maria actually growled at the question, throwing a pleading glance heavenward. “You can’t possibly be this dense, Michael!”
“What?” he demanded, clueless, “I honestly don’t see how me living with Max is going to impact us at all. I didn’t expect that we would be getting married anytime soon anyway with everything that’s about to go down. And since Max and I are going to be working pretty closely in the coming months it just made sense.”
“More sense than asking your fiancée to move in with you instead,” Maria countered bitterly.
Finally her words hit their mark and Michael had the grace to look shamefaced. He palmed his forehead in chagrin. “You’re looking at this whole thing all wrong, Maria,” he returned lamely.
“I don’t think I am, Michael. I think I’m seeing the whole picture. You’re the one who’s being blind! Don’t you get it?” she whispered, her shoulders hunching forward in defeat, “I want to be able to depend on you. I want you to be my husband. I want to marry you. But I don’t want to spend the rest of my life wondering if you’ll stick around and dreading the day when you’ll disappear from my life forever.”
“That’s not going to happen,” he reassured her. And this time when he stepped forward to take her into his arms he didn’t let her flailing arms and stiffening reaction discourage him. Instead he cradled her, stroking her back gently until she relaxed in his arms. “Babe, I promise,” he murmured, “That’s not going to happen.”
“That’s what you keep saying,” Maria sobbed into his shirt, “And I really want to believe it but… Michael, if you walked out on me, if I let myself need you and you left, I would never survive that.”
“Maria, I don’t know what else I can do,” Michael murmured, “I’ve given you my heart, my ring and my word. The rest is totally up to you. Either you take a leap of faith and trust me to love you the way you need or you admit that you can’t and we just…end this thing.”
Maria tore out of his arms and threw him a startled glance. “Is that what you want, Michael?” she asked fearfully.
He skated his fingers across her cheek, lingering at her trembling mouth. It was a gesture that was incredibly rare and yet heartbreakingly beautiful coming from Michael Guerin. “You know this isn’t about what I want anymore, Maria,” he said sadly, “It’s about what you want. Either you trust me or you don’t. Either you want to be with me or you don’t. The choices are easy, babe, but you’re the one who has to make them.”
-
Deejonaise
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Chapter 16
“Now are you sure you have everything?” Nancy Parker asked for the umpteenth time as her only child checked her luggage into the baggage claim.
Liz bit back an exasperated smile. “Mom, I’m sure I have everything,” she said, tipping forward to press a quick kiss to Nancy’s cheek, “Please stop worrying. You’re making Dad cry.”
Sure enough, Jeff Parker’s eyes were misting over with tears he made no attempt to hide. However, he felt justified. It wasn’t everyday that you sent your only child off to college and Harvard University at that. With a huge, prideful smile he pulled his daughter against him for a crushing hug. “Now remember you can call us,” he reminded her emotionally, “Day or night. Don’t worry about the cost.”
“Okay, Dad,” Liz placated.
“And remember to eat well,” Jeff admonished when she managed to wiggle out of his hold, “I remember when I was in college all we lived on was cold pizza and beer.” He grimaced at the thought. “Promise me you won’t live on cold pizza and beer, Lizzie.”
“Dad, I’ll be fine,” she swore.
“And don’t forget to wear a warm coat,” her mother warned, “I hear that it gets pretty cold in the Boston-Cambridge area. You wouldn’t want to come down with a cold your first semester, would you?”
“Both of you just stop it,” Liz replied laughingly, “I’ve got it together, okay. Don’t worry about me.” She started to offer them a jaunty salute when she caught sight of Max standing just beyond her father’s shoulder. As he approached and she caught sight of his solemn expression, Liz felt her teasing demeanor slip away. “Well, I’d better get down to my terminal now,” she announced reluctantly. She nodded towards her boyfriend. “Max is here.”
Jeff Parker glanced over his shoulder at Max and then expelled a heavy sigh before turning to regard Liz again. “Are you sure you don’t want us to walk you there?” he asked his daughter.
“Dad, we already discussed this,” Liz reminded him gently, “We agreed that you guys were going to drop me off at the airport but Max was going to walk me to the terminal. I want to have this time alone with him…to say goodbye.”
How well they did know that fact! When Liz had initially broached the idea with them Jeff’s first reaction had been to refuse her without a thought. After all, he and Nancy would miss her just as much as Max and, in fact, more so. She was their child. They had been with her through infancy onward and had seen her through her highest highs and her lowest lows. They, too, deserved an opportunity to say their last emotional goodbyes and watch their daughter take off for a brand new life.
Yet Liz had been adamant. She wanted that time to be especially designated for her and Max alone. True to form, however, she had made an effort to soften the blow by spending the day before exclusively with her parents. She had only said her final goodbyes to Maria that very morning and, to Jeff’s knowledge, this was the first Liz had seen of Max in two days. He supposed he couldn’t begrudge her. Besides Nancy had admonished him earlier to be content with the time they’d had and to respect Liz’s wishes. Consequently, Jeff made every effort to do so.
“Okay,” he sighed, brushing her forehead in a quick kiss, “But you’re to call us the moment you arrive in Boston. Understood?”
“I will call,” Liz promised. She endured another few moments of kissing and hugging and tearful farewells before her parents finally waved goodbye for the last time and made their way for the airport exit.
When they were gone Max approached Liz slowly, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his denims. “So I guess this is it,” he declared gruffly, his gaze intensely longing as he regarded her, “I don’t want to say goodbye, Liz.”
“Neither do I,” she whispered, pitching herself into his arms.
The night before they had shared together out on her balcony had not been enough. Instead of comforting her, the memory of his hands roaming over her body only caused Liz to crave his touch all the more. That earth-shattering moment when he had joined his flesh to hers had only made her feel all the lonelier and bereft when it was over. She couldn’t stop herself from wondering when they would be together that way again. Accordingly, Liz held him fiercely now, wanting to absorb him into her body…wanting to be absorbed into him.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be this hard,” she whispered into the lapel of his jacket. He smelled so wonderful, clean and masculine. Liz pressed into him, hoping that the scent would saturate her clothes so that she could take at least some part of him with her when she boarded the plane. “I feel like I’m abandoning everyone when they need me most.”
And it was easy to feel that way. A mere ten days from now and nothing would be the same. Yet, while Max would be bogged down in press conferences and the most concentrated scrutiny he had ever endured in his life, Liz would be starting her first classes at Harvard. While Max was here perhaps justifying his very existence to the entire world, she would be making new friends in a new city. Max’s old life would be ending, whereas her new one would be just beginning.
“Don’t do that,” Max scolded, guessing the direction of her thoughts even though he couldn’t see her face. “It isn’t as if you’re walking out on me, Liz. You have to live your life,” he said, “No one is faulting you for that, especially not me.”
“Are you sure?” she wondered carefully, tipping back her head to look up at him, “Are you sure you don’t resent me for leaving? I think I would if the situations were reversed.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” he countered with a knowing smile.
“I don’t know about that,” she mumbled, “And maybe you feel just the same. Maybe you’re burying your feelings right now, Max.”
“Liz, I could never resent you for anything,” he whispered, “I want to give you what you need. That’s all that matters to me and what you need right now is to leave for school and pursue your dreams.”
“Okay, you’re fine with it but what about Maria?” Liz protested, “She’s going through a really painful time right now and I’m just…taking off.”
“You’re not ‘taking off’,” Max reassured her, “And Maria will be okay.” Max bit back a wry smile at the look Liz gave him. “Well, not completely okay,” he amended, “She’ll be as wacky as ever but I think she and Michael will work things out like they always do.” He tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “As for my being fine about it…not hardly,” he murmured with a small smile, “That’s just a brave front I’m putting up for your sake. When you actually board that plane I’m going to bawl like a baby.”
Liz tightened her arms reflexively about his waist. “Why are you making this so easy for me, Max?” she sighed mournfully, “You’re breaking my heart.”
“I’m not trying to,” he whispered, framing her face in his hands so that he could brush her lips with a languid kiss, “I need to make this easy for you, Liz. You deserve that much.”
“Who’s making it easy for you?”
Max just smiled at the question and kissed her again, soft and sweet. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?” he whispered into her mouth, “You’re like air to me, Liz. I feel like I can’t breathe without you. But I couldn’t ask you to stay, not when I know what Harvard means to you. I couldn’t do that.”
Liz expelled a hefty sigh before reluctantly pulling from his arms. “Okay,” she stated definitively, “So I’m really going to do this? I’m really going to get on that plane and leave you here?”
“You’re going away to school and you’re going to totally dazzle them,” Max predicted with a proud smile. He kissed her again; taking his time to explore her mouth because he knew his opportunities to do so would be few and far between in the coming months. “We should get moving,” he whispered when they finally drifted apart, “You can’t miss your plane.”
By the time they made it to her terminal Liz was weeping openly. So was Max. They hugged again, trying to put on a brave face but finding it impossible to mask their misery any longer. “God, I don’t want to go!” Liz wept, clutching at his jacket in the fierce determination not to let him go.
“Think of this as a test to our relationship,” he whispered into her hair, “This will make us stronger, Liz.”
“Our relationship has already had enough tests, Max!” Liz cried, “Why can’t we just be together for once?”
At that point Max forced her to loosen her hold because he knew if he didn’t put some distance between them there was no way he would let her get on the plane. There was no way he’d let her leave. “This should be a piece of cake for us after everything else we’ve been through, right?” he queried lightly. Unfortunately, his attempt to smile only ended in an anguished grimace. “It hasn’t been easy being with me, has it, Liz?”
“It’s been one of the most complicated and painful experiences in my life,” she answered with aching candor, “And the most beautiful. My time with you is so precious, Max. I wouldn’t trade it, not ever.”
“I feel the same,” he whispered hoarsely and then he began pushing her towards the ticket desk, “Go on…go on before I can’t let you.”
In the end she had to walk away from him quickly, without a final kiss or even a lingering glance. Max watched as the flight attendant checked her ticket and then watched Liz disappear from sight. But he didn’t leave. Instead he waited at the large window, staying until all the passengers had boarded. Staying until her plane taxied down the runway and out of his view.
********************
“I’ve been looking all over for you,” Michael whispered when he found Maria coasting listlessly in one of the swings at the local elementary school playground, “Are you okay?”
Maria fixed him with a dull stare. “My best friend since kindergarten just left for college this morning,” she replied dryly, “What do you think?”
Michael hunkered down so that he could see her face. “I don’t think you need to be alone,” he said softly. She didn’t say anything but it wasn’t difficult to miss the gratitude that flickered in her eyes. “Do you wanna talk?” he offered.
She shrugged and used the tip of her toe to nudge her swing into renewed rocking. Though her response was seemingly indifferent Michael knew her well enough to realize that the floodgates were about to be opened. “Okay, it’s not only that she’s gone,” Maria admitted after an extended pause, “It’s that she’s doing something, you know? She knows what she wants and she’s going after it.”
“And you?” Michael queried.
Maria leveled him with a penetrating stare. “I know what I want but I’m too scared to go after it,” she declared quietly. A profound silence crackled between them following her words. Michael wanted to respond with something equally reflective but he found that his throat had closed over. Maria wisely took advantage of his silence. “I’ve never thought much about college for myself,” she told him, “We’re the same concerning that. But I did always want to do something with my music.” She sighed before continuing. “When Alex asked me to sing in his band two years ago it just seemed like everything was coming together but then after he died I just felt like it wasn’t possible anymore.”
“So you’re telling me you want to be a famous singer,” Michael surmised.
“Not necessarily that,” she replied with an ironic smirk, “But I definitely want to make my mark. I want the world to know that Maria DeLuca was here.”
“Well, I’d say you’re definitely about to do that,” he tossed back wryly.
“What makes you think so?”
“It’s about to become known to the majority of earth’s population that you’re involved with an alien from outer space,” he said, “If that doesn’t tell the world that Maria DeLuca was here I don’t know what will.”
Maria punched him lightly in the shoulder, chuckling a bit at his humorous reply. “I was thinking I’d do it by my own merit, thank you very much.” They traded another short, disjointed laugh before falling into silence once again. “So Guerin,” Maria opened when she sobered, “What are we going to do about us?”
“I don’t know,” Michael replied, growing serious as well, “It’s your decision, remember?”
“Yes, I do.”
“And?” he prodded.
“And…” she dissembled, “You were right. I do have to let myself trust you, Michael, and I can admit that hasn’t been happening much lately.”
Michael looked so shocked that she could have probably prodded him with her index finger and he would tip over like a felled tree. “You’re saying I was right?” he queried in disbelief.
“I am.”
“And with no arm twisting, no sulking, no tantrums?”
“I talked to Liz about it,” she told him, “Apparently, she seems to think that I’m the one who needs to work out some issues, not you.”
“No. You think?”
Maria’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Is that sarcasm, Spaceboy?”
Michael wisely clapped his mouth shut and acquired a most industrious expression. “Proceed,” he invited cordially.
“You see I’ve been so worried about you walking out on me like my father did that the idea of committing to you just terrifies me,” she explained expansively, “But you have to admit that you’ve given me reason to! I mean…you run hot and cold, Michael. You let me in and then you push me right back out again. That kind of crap does not a marriage make,” she finished sagely.
“Okay, I’ll give you that I haven’t been the world’s best boyfriend,” Michael admitted gamely. However, at Maria’s eye roll he added, “Alright I’ve been pretty lousy and it’s not a leap to figure out why you would think I’d be a lousy husband, too. But,” he added meaningfully, “I won’t be a lousy husband. I won’t let you down, Maria.”
“How do you know?” she demanded softly, “What makes this time so different from all the rest, Michael?”
“Because this time I’m sure,” he declared solemnly, “Nothing in my life has ever felt as right as being with you. For the first time I know where I’m going. I know where I am.”
Maria rested her head against the swing chain, lulled by his sweet words and soothing tone. “And where are you, Michael?”
“I’m home, DeLuca,” he said with an irrefutable certainty, “I’m home.”
“Now are you sure you have everything?” Nancy Parker asked for the umpteenth time as her only child checked her luggage into the baggage claim.
Liz bit back an exasperated smile. “Mom, I’m sure I have everything,” she said, tipping forward to press a quick kiss to Nancy’s cheek, “Please stop worrying. You’re making Dad cry.”
Sure enough, Jeff Parker’s eyes were misting over with tears he made no attempt to hide. However, he felt justified. It wasn’t everyday that you sent your only child off to college and Harvard University at that. With a huge, prideful smile he pulled his daughter against him for a crushing hug. “Now remember you can call us,” he reminded her emotionally, “Day or night. Don’t worry about the cost.”
“Okay, Dad,” Liz placated.
“And remember to eat well,” Jeff admonished when she managed to wiggle out of his hold, “I remember when I was in college all we lived on was cold pizza and beer.” He grimaced at the thought. “Promise me you won’t live on cold pizza and beer, Lizzie.”
“Dad, I’ll be fine,” she swore.
“And don’t forget to wear a warm coat,” her mother warned, “I hear that it gets pretty cold in the Boston-Cambridge area. You wouldn’t want to come down with a cold your first semester, would you?”
“Both of you just stop it,” Liz replied laughingly, “I’ve got it together, okay. Don’t worry about me.” She started to offer them a jaunty salute when she caught sight of Max standing just beyond her father’s shoulder. As he approached and she caught sight of his solemn expression, Liz felt her teasing demeanor slip away. “Well, I’d better get down to my terminal now,” she announced reluctantly. She nodded towards her boyfriend. “Max is here.”
Jeff Parker glanced over his shoulder at Max and then expelled a heavy sigh before turning to regard Liz again. “Are you sure you don’t want us to walk you there?” he asked his daughter.
“Dad, we already discussed this,” Liz reminded him gently, “We agreed that you guys were going to drop me off at the airport but Max was going to walk me to the terminal. I want to have this time alone with him…to say goodbye.”
How well they did know that fact! When Liz had initially broached the idea with them Jeff’s first reaction had been to refuse her without a thought. After all, he and Nancy would miss her just as much as Max and, in fact, more so. She was their child. They had been with her through infancy onward and had seen her through her highest highs and her lowest lows. They, too, deserved an opportunity to say their last emotional goodbyes and watch their daughter take off for a brand new life.
Yet Liz had been adamant. She wanted that time to be especially designated for her and Max alone. True to form, however, she had made an effort to soften the blow by spending the day before exclusively with her parents. She had only said her final goodbyes to Maria that very morning and, to Jeff’s knowledge, this was the first Liz had seen of Max in two days. He supposed he couldn’t begrudge her. Besides Nancy had admonished him earlier to be content with the time they’d had and to respect Liz’s wishes. Consequently, Jeff made every effort to do so.
“Okay,” he sighed, brushing her forehead in a quick kiss, “But you’re to call us the moment you arrive in Boston. Understood?”
“I will call,” Liz promised. She endured another few moments of kissing and hugging and tearful farewells before her parents finally waved goodbye for the last time and made their way for the airport exit.
When they were gone Max approached Liz slowly, his hands shoved deep into the pockets of his denims. “So I guess this is it,” he declared gruffly, his gaze intensely longing as he regarded her, “I don’t want to say goodbye, Liz.”
“Neither do I,” she whispered, pitching herself into his arms.
The night before they had shared together out on her balcony had not been enough. Instead of comforting her, the memory of his hands roaming over her body only caused Liz to crave his touch all the more. That earth-shattering moment when he had joined his flesh to hers had only made her feel all the lonelier and bereft when it was over. She couldn’t stop herself from wondering when they would be together that way again. Accordingly, Liz held him fiercely now, wanting to absorb him into her body…wanting to be absorbed into him.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be this hard,” she whispered into the lapel of his jacket. He smelled so wonderful, clean and masculine. Liz pressed into him, hoping that the scent would saturate her clothes so that she could take at least some part of him with her when she boarded the plane. “I feel like I’m abandoning everyone when they need me most.”
And it was easy to feel that way. A mere ten days from now and nothing would be the same. Yet, while Max would be bogged down in press conferences and the most concentrated scrutiny he had ever endured in his life, Liz would be starting her first classes at Harvard. While Max was here perhaps justifying his very existence to the entire world, she would be making new friends in a new city. Max’s old life would be ending, whereas her new one would be just beginning.
“Don’t do that,” Max scolded, guessing the direction of her thoughts even though he couldn’t see her face. “It isn’t as if you’re walking out on me, Liz. You have to live your life,” he said, “No one is faulting you for that, especially not me.”
“Are you sure?” she wondered carefully, tipping back her head to look up at him, “Are you sure you don’t resent me for leaving? I think I would if the situations were reversed.”
“No, you wouldn’t,” he countered with a knowing smile.
“I don’t know about that,” she mumbled, “And maybe you feel just the same. Maybe you’re burying your feelings right now, Max.”
“Liz, I could never resent you for anything,” he whispered, “I want to give you what you need. That’s all that matters to me and what you need right now is to leave for school and pursue your dreams.”
“Okay, you’re fine with it but what about Maria?” Liz protested, “She’s going through a really painful time right now and I’m just…taking off.”
“You’re not ‘taking off’,” Max reassured her, “And Maria will be okay.” Max bit back a wry smile at the look Liz gave him. “Well, not completely okay,” he amended, “She’ll be as wacky as ever but I think she and Michael will work things out like they always do.” He tucked an errant strand of hair behind her ear. “As for my being fine about it…not hardly,” he murmured with a small smile, “That’s just a brave front I’m putting up for your sake. When you actually board that plane I’m going to bawl like a baby.”
Liz tightened her arms reflexively about his waist. “Why are you making this so easy for me, Max?” she sighed mournfully, “You’re breaking my heart.”
“I’m not trying to,” he whispered, framing her face in his hands so that he could brush her lips with a languid kiss, “I need to make this easy for you, Liz. You deserve that much.”
“Who’s making it easy for you?”
Max just smiled at the question and kissed her again, soft and sweet. “Do you have any idea how much I love you?” he whispered into her mouth, “You’re like air to me, Liz. I feel like I can’t breathe without you. But I couldn’t ask you to stay, not when I know what Harvard means to you. I couldn’t do that.”
Liz expelled a hefty sigh before reluctantly pulling from his arms. “Okay,” she stated definitively, “So I’m really going to do this? I’m really going to get on that plane and leave you here?”
“You’re going away to school and you’re going to totally dazzle them,” Max predicted with a proud smile. He kissed her again; taking his time to explore her mouth because he knew his opportunities to do so would be few and far between in the coming months. “We should get moving,” he whispered when they finally drifted apart, “You can’t miss your plane.”
By the time they made it to her terminal Liz was weeping openly. So was Max. They hugged again, trying to put on a brave face but finding it impossible to mask their misery any longer. “God, I don’t want to go!” Liz wept, clutching at his jacket in the fierce determination not to let him go.
“Think of this as a test to our relationship,” he whispered into her hair, “This will make us stronger, Liz.”
“Our relationship has already had enough tests, Max!” Liz cried, “Why can’t we just be together for once?”
At that point Max forced her to loosen her hold because he knew if he didn’t put some distance between them there was no way he would let her get on the plane. There was no way he’d let her leave. “This should be a piece of cake for us after everything else we’ve been through, right?” he queried lightly. Unfortunately, his attempt to smile only ended in an anguished grimace. “It hasn’t been easy being with me, has it, Liz?”
“It’s been one of the most complicated and painful experiences in my life,” she answered with aching candor, “And the most beautiful. My time with you is so precious, Max. I wouldn’t trade it, not ever.”
“I feel the same,” he whispered hoarsely and then he began pushing her towards the ticket desk, “Go on…go on before I can’t let you.”
In the end she had to walk away from him quickly, without a final kiss or even a lingering glance. Max watched as the flight attendant checked her ticket and then watched Liz disappear from sight. But he didn’t leave. Instead he waited at the large window, staying until all the passengers had boarded. Staying until her plane taxied down the runway and out of his view.
********************
“I’ve been looking all over for you,” Michael whispered when he found Maria coasting listlessly in one of the swings at the local elementary school playground, “Are you okay?”
Maria fixed him with a dull stare. “My best friend since kindergarten just left for college this morning,” she replied dryly, “What do you think?”
Michael hunkered down so that he could see her face. “I don’t think you need to be alone,” he said softly. She didn’t say anything but it wasn’t difficult to miss the gratitude that flickered in her eyes. “Do you wanna talk?” he offered.
She shrugged and used the tip of her toe to nudge her swing into renewed rocking. Though her response was seemingly indifferent Michael knew her well enough to realize that the floodgates were about to be opened. “Okay, it’s not only that she’s gone,” Maria admitted after an extended pause, “It’s that she’s doing something, you know? She knows what she wants and she’s going after it.”
“And you?” Michael queried.
Maria leveled him with a penetrating stare. “I know what I want but I’m too scared to go after it,” she declared quietly. A profound silence crackled between them following her words. Michael wanted to respond with something equally reflective but he found that his throat had closed over. Maria wisely took advantage of his silence. “I’ve never thought much about college for myself,” she told him, “We’re the same concerning that. But I did always want to do something with my music.” She sighed before continuing. “When Alex asked me to sing in his band two years ago it just seemed like everything was coming together but then after he died I just felt like it wasn’t possible anymore.”
“So you’re telling me you want to be a famous singer,” Michael surmised.
“Not necessarily that,” she replied with an ironic smirk, “But I definitely want to make my mark. I want the world to know that Maria DeLuca was here.”
“Well, I’d say you’re definitely about to do that,” he tossed back wryly.
“What makes you think so?”
“It’s about to become known to the majority of earth’s population that you’re involved with an alien from outer space,” he said, “If that doesn’t tell the world that Maria DeLuca was here I don’t know what will.”
Maria punched him lightly in the shoulder, chuckling a bit at his humorous reply. “I was thinking I’d do it by my own merit, thank you very much.” They traded another short, disjointed laugh before falling into silence once again. “So Guerin,” Maria opened when she sobered, “What are we going to do about us?”
“I don’t know,” Michael replied, growing serious as well, “It’s your decision, remember?”
“Yes, I do.”
“And?” he prodded.
“And…” she dissembled, “You were right. I do have to let myself trust you, Michael, and I can admit that hasn’t been happening much lately.”
Michael looked so shocked that she could have probably prodded him with her index finger and he would tip over like a felled tree. “You’re saying I was right?” he queried in disbelief.
“I am.”
“And with no arm twisting, no sulking, no tantrums?”
“I talked to Liz about it,” she told him, “Apparently, she seems to think that I’m the one who needs to work out some issues, not you.”
“No. You think?”
Maria’s eyes narrowed dangerously. “Is that sarcasm, Spaceboy?”
Michael wisely clapped his mouth shut and acquired a most industrious expression. “Proceed,” he invited cordially.
“You see I’ve been so worried about you walking out on me like my father did that the idea of committing to you just terrifies me,” she explained expansively, “But you have to admit that you’ve given me reason to! I mean…you run hot and cold, Michael. You let me in and then you push me right back out again. That kind of crap does not a marriage make,” she finished sagely.
“Okay, I’ll give you that I haven’t been the world’s best boyfriend,” Michael admitted gamely. However, at Maria’s eye roll he added, “Alright I’ve been pretty lousy and it’s not a leap to figure out why you would think I’d be a lousy husband, too. But,” he added meaningfully, “I won’t be a lousy husband. I won’t let you down, Maria.”
“How do you know?” she demanded softly, “What makes this time so different from all the rest, Michael?”
“Because this time I’m sure,” he declared solemnly, “Nothing in my life has ever felt as right as being with you. For the first time I know where I’m going. I know where I am.”
Maria rested her head against the swing chain, lulled by his sweet words and soothing tone. “And where are you, Michael?”
“I’m home, DeLuca,” he said with an irrefutable certainty, “I’m home.”
-
Deejonaise
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- Posts: 385
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Thanks to Itzstacie for betaing me! You rock, girl!
Chapter 17
“So how badly are you missing Max right now?”
Liz had to give her credit. Maria had waited, at least, until they had established some small talk before diving into the meat of their conversation. Really, she was surprised that Maria had managed to hold out for as long as she had.
Honestly, there was no adequate description to convey exactly how severely she was missing Max. One week, one day, twelve hours and twenty-seven minutes later Liz still felt the devastating void his absence had created with acute precision. Though she had talked to him nearly every day, whether by cell phone or Instant Messenger, since she left Roswell it was hardly the same as seeing him in person. She was due to begin her first class, Inorganic Chemistry, bright and early tomorrow morning but she could concentrate on nothing else but Max.
She flopped down on her bed, steadfastly ignoring the droning snores of her roommate. “Remember how I said Harvard was my dream?” she whispered miserably to Maria, “Now I can’t recall why that was…that’s how much I miss him, Maria.”
“You want to be a molecular scientist,” Maria returned glibly, purposely ignoring Liz’s maudlin ramblings.
“Biologist,” Liz corrected.
“Now see…I knew you remembered,” Maria replied in dry amusement, “Melodramatic much?” Hearing Liz’s answering groan she knew she had made her point and returned to her original topic. “He talks about you night and day, girl. I swear all his infatuated moping is enough to make me puke sometimes.”
Liz’s features went soft with a sugary smile. “He mopes for me?” she simpered, “What does he say?”
“Mostly he goes on about how he misses you and wishes he could see your face,” Maria recounted drolly, “Everyday he sits on the couch and stares at your senior head shot. The other day he regaled me with your latest love emails,” she continued in mock disgust, “You know he actually carries them around in his wallet. He’s like a lovesick puppy, Liz. It’s kinda sad.”
“Stop making fun of him,” Liz admonished, “He has a sensitive soul and he’s heartbroken without me. Don’t you give him a hard time, Maria!” But their teasing rapport was lost all too soon in the face of more pressing matters. “So how long until…well, you know.”
“Four days,” Maria said direly, “Things are definitely getting tense around here and especially since Isabel left yesterday morning. Michael’s even touchier than usual.”
“Are they scared?” Liz asked.
As frequently as she and Max spoke they hardly ever discussed “the arrival.” Not because they couldn’t but because they hadn’t wanted to dwell on anything other than how much they missed each other. However, Liz was wildly curious, nervous and dismayed all at once.
Though she knew that everything they knew and counted on was going to be blown apart in a matter of days she couldn’t staunch her avid fascination with the idea that another species would soon be inhabiting their planet. True, that had already been the case for over ten years now but Max, Michael and Isabel looked perfectly human and it was easy to forget sometimes. But the beings that were on their way…they were 100% Antarian and they were certain to look the part. There was a part of Liz that was dying to know what Max’s alien half looked like, but then there was an equal part of her that wished to remain in the dark.
Liz considered that if she was feeling such a wide range of emotion she couldn’t imagine what Michael, Isabel and Max were experiencing. Most likely they were alternating between periodic bouts of excitement and absolute dread. Where Max was concerned Liz had a pretty good indication but with the others she felt a little hazy, which was why she’d asked her question.
“Are they scared?” Maria echoed in consideration, “I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘scared’ to describe it.”
“What word would you use?” Liz asked.
“Resigned maybe. Even anxious and anticipating, but I don’t think they’re scared at all. Not anymore.”
“What do you mean ‘not anymore’?” Liz asked, a sudden shiver of apprehension trickling down the center of her back. She slowly swung upright on her bed.
“You’ve talked to Max,” Maria replied, “He hasn’t seemed strange to you at all?”
“What do you mean strange,” she demanded, growing increasingly more alarmed, “He acts like he always does, Maria. What are you getting at?”
Her friend expelled a massive sigh. “It’s probably nothing, Liz,” she dismissed.
“Maria!” Liz sang out through clenched teeth, “Will you just tell me?”
“Okay,” Maria relented, “It’s just lately it’s like Michael’s body has gone haywire. His powers are stronger, he glows at the most inopportune times and his senses have become almost freakishly sharp. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear our conversation right now and he’s in the kitchen making us lunch.”
“You’re kidding,” Liz breathed.
“Not even,” Maria returned, “I know he’s been having these massive headaches lately because he can hear practically everything. It’s like someone flipped on a switch inside of him and he’s coming alive or something. It’s really weird. And that’s not even taking into account the other four senses, although I’m not complaining about the heightened touch. I’m assuming it’s the same for Max.”
“Max hasn’t said a word,” Liz murmured more to herself than to Maria.
“Again I’m assuming,” Maria stressed.
“Still, you’d think he’d mention it,” she reasoned in a mumble.
“Maybe he didn’t want to worry you,” Maria said, “Maybe he was afraid you’d freak out and try to come back home.”
“Well, I am freaking out and considering exactly that!” Liz confirmed, “Has he made it home from work yet?”
“Um…I think he just walked through the door,” Maria told her.
“Put him on, please.”
Liz wasn’t even annoyed that Max had failed to mention Michael’s bodily changes to her, she was too worried with the fact that Max might be experiencing those same physiological changes as well. If so, he was probably scared out of his mind. A fact that, if true, he’d obviously gone to tremendous lengths to hide. At the moment, Liz was too alarmed to give thought to how she felt about that realization.
In the background Liz could hear a telltale rustle as the phone exchanged hands. A moment later Max’s excited voice burst in her ear. “Liz?”
“Are you changing?” she demanded without preamble.
“Gee, I love you, too,” he replied sardonically.
“Max!” Liz said in a warning tone, “Maria just told me all the stuff that’s been going on with Michael. Is…is it happening to you, too?”
He paused for a long time before answering. “Yes. But before you get upset,” he prefaced before she could think to form a reply, “I wasn’t keeping this from you on purpose. I had every intention of telling you about it. I was only waiting for Larek so that I could get some answers first. I couldn’t explain to you what I didn’t understand myself, now could I?”
“How long has it been happening to you?” she whispered.
“Three or four days,” Max told her, “But it’s not consistent and right now I feel fine.”
“But that doesn’t mean you are fine, Max,” Liz countered worriedly. She dropped her voice to a bare whisper in an effort not to catch her stirring roommate’s attention. “Should I come home?”
“No!” Max protested vehemently, “That’s the last thing I want you to do!”
His strident reaction caused Liz to bite back a smile. “The last thing…really, hmm,” she teased, “Gee, thanks a lot, Max.”
“You know what I mean,” he huffed and she could imagine him blushing to the rims of his ears in response. “I’m just saying that you’re due to start classes tomorrow, Liz. I don’t want to disrupt your life. Besides I think I know what’s happening and, if I’m right, I don’t want you to be anywhere near me right now because who knows what could go wrong.”
“Why?” she fretted, “What do you think is happening, Max?”
“The alien inside me…is waking up,” he replied hesitantly.
Liz responded to his ominous revelation with silence. To say that the prospect was daunting was putting terms very mildly. She had seen many sides of Max Evans in the short time they had been involved with each other. There was his all-encompassing compassionate side, his passionately sweet and sensitive side, his egocentric jerk side and the frightened little boy side of him that he’d never let anyone see but her. Liz had seen all aspects of him, good and bad, except the alien side. That was a part of himself that Max had always kept strictly under raps and Liz couldn’t help but wonder if his diligence in that area had been a good thing.
She admitted with some reluctance that Kyle had been right in his assessment. Antarians had never struck her as a race of people dedicated and true either, at least, not the majority that she’d had dealings with. That being the case Liz wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of her boyfriend embracing that side of himself. Right now he was contending with only the physical changes but what if the psychological ones were soon to follow?
“Liz?” Max questioned tentatively when she failed to respond, “Is everything okay?”
“Are you sure that’s what it is?” she asked with an edge of desperation.
“I can feel something inside me changing, Liz,” Max admitted in a muffled tone, “Everything seems crisper around me…more intense. I see more, taste more…feel more… It’s like I’m coming alive.”
Liz detected a low hum of excitement in his words and she shivered with it. “You like these changes,” she surmised quietly.
“Yes, I think I do,” he told her, “But…But I get the impression you don’t think I should.”
She shook her head in denial, although she knew he couldn’t see the gesture. Liz waited until her roommate had rolled from bed and stumbled off for the bathroom before she responded. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t like the changes,” she replied, “I’m just saying that you don’t know what they’re about right now. What about the side effects?”
“Headaches from the noise,” he said, “And my eyes are very sensitive to light right now, but I’m adjusting. Liz, I think this is going to be okay.”
“Okay,” she agreed tonelessly.
“No, I’m serious,” he reassured her in a gentle whisper, “These changes aren’t going to change me…not the real me, not who I am inside. They’re not going to change the fact that I’m totally in love with you.”
“You really mean that?” she asked in a small voice.
“Loving you is like the seal in my brain,” he replied, “It’s a part of me. Period.”
Liz grimaced over the analogy but easily read his point. “Thanks…I think.” He chuckled over her disgruntled tone. “So you’re sure that these changes aren’t serious?” she queried once most of their mirth had died down.
“I don’t know if they are or not,” he answered truthfully, “But I’m not worried about them and you shouldn’t either.”
“If you say so.”
“So what do you have planned for tomorrow,” he asked her in hopes of changing the subject, “What classes will fill my pretty girl’s day?”
Liz decided to play along since it seemed so important to him. “Well I have Inorganic Chemistry at 8:00 and Pre-Calculus at one,” she recited, “And then on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays I have Freshman Seminar, Biology and English.”
“You must be in mini heaven with so many science classes,” Max laughed.
“Kinda,” Liz confessed, smiling, “But it’s bittersweet. I miss you so much, Max.”
“I miss you, too,” he whispered soberly and because he could still detect the worry in her tone, he added, “Listen Liz…I promise everything will work out. You trust me, don’t you?”
“With my life,” she confirmed.
“Then trust me when I say that this okay, these changes happening to me right now, won’t change who I am. Nothing could ever change what I feel for you, unless it means falling in love with you even more than I already am,” he said, “Please believe that, Liz. I swear I won’t let you down.”
“So how badly are you missing Max right now?”
Liz had to give her credit. Maria had waited, at least, until they had established some small talk before diving into the meat of their conversation. Really, she was surprised that Maria had managed to hold out for as long as she had.
Honestly, there was no adequate description to convey exactly how severely she was missing Max. One week, one day, twelve hours and twenty-seven minutes later Liz still felt the devastating void his absence had created with acute precision. Though she had talked to him nearly every day, whether by cell phone or Instant Messenger, since she left Roswell it was hardly the same as seeing him in person. She was due to begin her first class, Inorganic Chemistry, bright and early tomorrow morning but she could concentrate on nothing else but Max.
She flopped down on her bed, steadfastly ignoring the droning snores of her roommate. “Remember how I said Harvard was my dream?” she whispered miserably to Maria, “Now I can’t recall why that was…that’s how much I miss him, Maria.”
“You want to be a molecular scientist,” Maria returned glibly, purposely ignoring Liz’s maudlin ramblings.
“Biologist,” Liz corrected.
“Now see…I knew you remembered,” Maria replied in dry amusement, “Melodramatic much?” Hearing Liz’s answering groan she knew she had made her point and returned to her original topic. “He talks about you night and day, girl. I swear all his infatuated moping is enough to make me puke sometimes.”
Liz’s features went soft with a sugary smile. “He mopes for me?” she simpered, “What does he say?”
“Mostly he goes on about how he misses you and wishes he could see your face,” Maria recounted drolly, “Everyday he sits on the couch and stares at your senior head shot. The other day he regaled me with your latest love emails,” she continued in mock disgust, “You know he actually carries them around in his wallet. He’s like a lovesick puppy, Liz. It’s kinda sad.”
“Stop making fun of him,” Liz admonished, “He has a sensitive soul and he’s heartbroken without me. Don’t you give him a hard time, Maria!” But their teasing rapport was lost all too soon in the face of more pressing matters. “So how long until…well, you know.”
“Four days,” Maria said direly, “Things are definitely getting tense around here and especially since Isabel left yesterday morning. Michael’s even touchier than usual.”
“Are they scared?” Liz asked.
As frequently as she and Max spoke they hardly ever discussed “the arrival.” Not because they couldn’t but because they hadn’t wanted to dwell on anything other than how much they missed each other. However, Liz was wildly curious, nervous and dismayed all at once.
Though she knew that everything they knew and counted on was going to be blown apart in a matter of days she couldn’t staunch her avid fascination with the idea that another species would soon be inhabiting their planet. True, that had already been the case for over ten years now but Max, Michael and Isabel looked perfectly human and it was easy to forget sometimes. But the beings that were on their way…they were 100% Antarian and they were certain to look the part. There was a part of Liz that was dying to know what Max’s alien half looked like, but then there was an equal part of her that wished to remain in the dark.
Liz considered that if she was feeling such a wide range of emotion she couldn’t imagine what Michael, Isabel and Max were experiencing. Most likely they were alternating between periodic bouts of excitement and absolute dread. Where Max was concerned Liz had a pretty good indication but with the others she felt a little hazy, which was why she’d asked her question.
“Are they scared?” Maria echoed in consideration, “I don’t know if I’d use the word ‘scared’ to describe it.”
“What word would you use?” Liz asked.
“Resigned maybe. Even anxious and anticipating, but I don’t think they’re scared at all. Not anymore.”
“What do you mean ‘not anymore’?” Liz asked, a sudden shiver of apprehension trickling down the center of her back. She slowly swung upright on her bed.
“You’ve talked to Max,” Maria replied, “He hasn’t seemed strange to you at all?”
“What do you mean strange,” she demanded, growing increasingly more alarmed, “He acts like he always does, Maria. What are you getting at?”
Her friend expelled a massive sigh. “It’s probably nothing, Liz,” she dismissed.
“Maria!” Liz sang out through clenched teeth, “Will you just tell me?”
“Okay,” Maria relented, “It’s just lately it’s like Michael’s body has gone haywire. His powers are stronger, he glows at the most inopportune times and his senses have become almost freakishly sharp. I wouldn’t be surprised if he could hear our conversation right now and he’s in the kitchen making us lunch.”
“You’re kidding,” Liz breathed.
“Not even,” Maria returned, “I know he’s been having these massive headaches lately because he can hear practically everything. It’s like someone flipped on a switch inside of him and he’s coming alive or something. It’s really weird. And that’s not even taking into account the other four senses, although I’m not complaining about the heightened touch. I’m assuming it’s the same for Max.”
“Max hasn’t said a word,” Liz murmured more to herself than to Maria.
“Again I’m assuming,” Maria stressed.
“Still, you’d think he’d mention it,” she reasoned in a mumble.
“Maybe he didn’t want to worry you,” Maria said, “Maybe he was afraid you’d freak out and try to come back home.”
“Well, I am freaking out and considering exactly that!” Liz confirmed, “Has he made it home from work yet?”
“Um…I think he just walked through the door,” Maria told her.
“Put him on, please.”
Liz wasn’t even annoyed that Max had failed to mention Michael’s bodily changes to her, she was too worried with the fact that Max might be experiencing those same physiological changes as well. If so, he was probably scared out of his mind. A fact that, if true, he’d obviously gone to tremendous lengths to hide. At the moment, Liz was too alarmed to give thought to how she felt about that realization.
In the background Liz could hear a telltale rustle as the phone exchanged hands. A moment later Max’s excited voice burst in her ear. “Liz?”
“Are you changing?” she demanded without preamble.
“Gee, I love you, too,” he replied sardonically.
“Max!” Liz said in a warning tone, “Maria just told me all the stuff that’s been going on with Michael. Is…is it happening to you, too?”
He paused for a long time before answering. “Yes. But before you get upset,” he prefaced before she could think to form a reply, “I wasn’t keeping this from you on purpose. I had every intention of telling you about it. I was only waiting for Larek so that I could get some answers first. I couldn’t explain to you what I didn’t understand myself, now could I?”
“How long has it been happening to you?” she whispered.
“Three or four days,” Max told her, “But it’s not consistent and right now I feel fine.”
“But that doesn’t mean you are fine, Max,” Liz countered worriedly. She dropped her voice to a bare whisper in an effort not to catch her stirring roommate’s attention. “Should I come home?”
“No!” Max protested vehemently, “That’s the last thing I want you to do!”
His strident reaction caused Liz to bite back a smile. “The last thing…really, hmm,” she teased, “Gee, thanks a lot, Max.”
“You know what I mean,” he huffed and she could imagine him blushing to the rims of his ears in response. “I’m just saying that you’re due to start classes tomorrow, Liz. I don’t want to disrupt your life. Besides I think I know what’s happening and, if I’m right, I don’t want you to be anywhere near me right now because who knows what could go wrong.”
“Why?” she fretted, “What do you think is happening, Max?”
“The alien inside me…is waking up,” he replied hesitantly.
Liz responded to his ominous revelation with silence. To say that the prospect was daunting was putting terms very mildly. She had seen many sides of Max Evans in the short time they had been involved with each other. There was his all-encompassing compassionate side, his passionately sweet and sensitive side, his egocentric jerk side and the frightened little boy side of him that he’d never let anyone see but her. Liz had seen all aspects of him, good and bad, except the alien side. That was a part of himself that Max had always kept strictly under raps and Liz couldn’t help but wonder if his diligence in that area had been a good thing.
She admitted with some reluctance that Kyle had been right in his assessment. Antarians had never struck her as a race of people dedicated and true either, at least, not the majority that she’d had dealings with. That being the case Liz wasn’t exactly keen on the idea of her boyfriend embracing that side of himself. Right now he was contending with only the physical changes but what if the psychological ones were soon to follow?
“Liz?” Max questioned tentatively when she failed to respond, “Is everything okay?”
“Are you sure that’s what it is?” she asked with an edge of desperation.
“I can feel something inside me changing, Liz,” Max admitted in a muffled tone, “Everything seems crisper around me…more intense. I see more, taste more…feel more… It’s like I’m coming alive.”
Liz detected a low hum of excitement in his words and she shivered with it. “You like these changes,” she surmised quietly.
“Yes, I think I do,” he told her, “But…But I get the impression you don’t think I should.”
She shook her head in denial, although she knew he couldn’t see the gesture. Liz waited until her roommate had rolled from bed and stumbled off for the bathroom before she responded. “I’m not saying you shouldn’t like the changes,” she replied, “I’m just saying that you don’t know what they’re about right now. What about the side effects?”
“Headaches from the noise,” he said, “And my eyes are very sensitive to light right now, but I’m adjusting. Liz, I think this is going to be okay.”
“Okay,” she agreed tonelessly.
“No, I’m serious,” he reassured her in a gentle whisper, “These changes aren’t going to change me…not the real me, not who I am inside. They’re not going to change the fact that I’m totally in love with you.”
“You really mean that?” she asked in a small voice.
“Loving you is like the seal in my brain,” he replied, “It’s a part of me. Period.”
Liz grimaced over the analogy but easily read his point. “Thanks…I think.” He chuckled over her disgruntled tone. “So you’re sure that these changes aren’t serious?” she queried once most of their mirth had died down.
“I don’t know if they are or not,” he answered truthfully, “But I’m not worried about them and you shouldn’t either.”
“If you say so.”
“So what do you have planned for tomorrow,” he asked her in hopes of changing the subject, “What classes will fill my pretty girl’s day?”
Liz decided to play along since it seemed so important to him. “Well I have Inorganic Chemistry at 8:00 and Pre-Calculus at one,” she recited, “And then on Monday, Wednesday and Fridays I have Freshman Seminar, Biology and English.”
“You must be in mini heaven with so many science classes,” Max laughed.
“Kinda,” Liz confessed, smiling, “But it’s bittersweet. I miss you so much, Max.”
“I miss you, too,” he whispered soberly and because he could still detect the worry in her tone, he added, “Listen Liz…I promise everything will work out. You trust me, don’t you?”
“With my life,” she confirmed.
“Then trust me when I say that this okay, these changes happening to me right now, won’t change who I am. Nothing could ever change what I feel for you, unless it means falling in love with you even more than I already am,” he said, “Please believe that, Liz. I swear I won’t let you down.”
Last edited by Deejonaise on Tue Mar 09, 2004 10:36 am, edited 2 times in total.
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Deejonaise
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 385
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Okay, people I'm back.
First to answer a question. Diadne is prounounced Dee*ad*nee, lol. Secondly, I can see there's general panic over Max and Liz, what part Diadne will play and the alien changes. Let me put your mind at ease about these things.
First, I'm not breaking Max and Liz up. I'm not letting some girl, alien or not come between them. Period. JK's done that already. I've done that already. It's old, people. I'm not going there this time. When I said this fic was different from anything I've written before I meant it. Max and Liz are together now and they are going to stay that way. Now that you have my word on that I will let you read to see how Diadne fits into things. Lastly, these alien changes...hmm... Let's just say I'm talking about real changes, not turning Max into the Maxhole again. Now if you want to know what those changes are, again, you'll have to read.
I do believe that covers it.
Chapter 18
Michael breezed from the Crashdown kitchen and made a beeline for Kyle Valenti, sweeping his faded red bandanna from his head as he did. When he slid into the seat across from Kyle his first words were, “You got a mint?”
“No.”
“Gum?”
“Nah, I don’t think so.”
“Breath spray?”
“Do I have the Lift-Off gas station stamped across my forehead?” Kyle demanded crossly, “What’s with you, Guerin?” At that moment he caught a whiff of the telltale scent of tobacco wafting about his friend like a heavy cloud. “Oh, so that’s it,” he surmised, slouching back in his seat with a huge, smug smile, “You’re still puffing away on those cancer sticks, aren’t you?”
“Bite me, Valenti.”
“Maria’s gonna kill you. Maria’s gonna kill you. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah,” Kyle sang out in his most goading tone.
“Shut up,” Michael replied good-naturedly, “Now tell me what’s going on with your dad and that reporter chick.”
“She’s cleared it with her station to broadcast us live,” Kyle said, “Though she did have to fudge the details, of course. And, she wanted me to remind you of your agreement. Following the arrival you and Max talk to no other reporter besides her.”
“I guess we know who’s on the fast career track now,” Michael muttered sardonically.
“Lauren Davis is a barracuda,” Kyle agreed.
“Barracuda or not…do you trust her?” Michael asked.
“Not at all,” Kyle replied, “She’s out for herself and, if the opportunity arises, she’ll sell us up the river without compunction. It doesn’t behoove us to depend on her.”
“We don’t plan to,” Michael said, “I just wanted to know where we stood. In the meantime, she’s serving a purpose and that’s it.” He drummed his fingertips against the tabletop in nervous anticipation. “So you have your plane ticket all ready to go?”
Kyle hitched a nod. “Not that my dad is at all thrilled over the prospect,” he laughed, “There goes my plan to start community college. Damn!” Despite his words, however, Kyle hardly seemed bothered by the fact.
“I don’t get it,” Michael considered in bewilderment, “You had all those sports scholarships. You could have gone anywhere you wanted, Valenti, so why the hell did you decide to stay here with the freaks and sideshows?”
“Because I’m one of those freaks,” Kyle sighed, “And this is where I belong.”
********************
Isabel stared down at the convoluted directions her roommate had given her with an exasperated growl. She hadn’t even been in New Haven two days and already she’d decided that she hated it. The city was definitely verdant and filled with all sorts of tantalizing sights and smells. It was also, unfortunately, cold as hell. Being a child of the dry New Mexican desert and its particularly humid summers, Isabel found the balmy 50-degree weather quite chilly.
Her transition into life at Yale had gone much smoother than Isabel could have hoped. Though she had undeniably saddened her parents and brother by leaving Isabel couldn’t help but be glad for the break. Despite the her strange body changes, her general homesickness and her growing dread of what was to come Isabel somehow managed to fit herself into some crook of normalcy. She wasn’t nearly as visible as she’d been at West Roswell. In fact, in New Haven, Connecticut, Isabel Evans was almost nonexistent and, in some strange way, she was glad of it.
Frustrated, annoyed and freezing, Isabel was so preoccupied trying to decipher her roommate’s illegible scrawl that she barreled into an unsuspecting passerby and they both went sprawling to the pavement. Isabel scrambled to her feet in mortification.
“Oh my God!” she cried as she tried to assist the fallen young man to his feet, “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
The man rolled upright, his features twisted in the most comically disgruntled expression but Isabel didn’t laugh because she suddenly found herself taken with his beautiful face. She had seen plenty of good-looking boys in her lifetime so pretty faces had failed to impress Isabel any longer. But there was something about this man’s intense, clear gaze, just barely visible beneath his thick blond bangs, which captured her attention and held it like a magnet.
“Is this yours,” he groaned, waving the little leaflet of scribbled directions just beneath her nose.
Caught staring at him like some lovesick idiot, Isabel blushed and snatched the paper from his fingers. “Thanks,” she mumbled. He pushed to his feet, brushing away the clinging remnants of rock and dirt from his crisp khaki slacks. “Are they ruined?” Isabel asked meekly, noting quickly that his clothes looked very new and very expensive.
“I’m pretty sure they can be salvaged,” he assured her, brushing ineffectually at his stain smudged pants leg, “Although I don’t quite know how yet…”
“Ahh, God…how much did they cost?” Isabel groaned in dismay, fumbling around in her purse for a few twenties, “What? Fifty or sixty dollars?”
“Two hundred and fifty,” he clarified dryly, “And they were hand tailored.”
“Figures.” Isabel crumpled a little at that, her humiliation growing leaps and bounds. “God,” she sighed out in chagrin, “I’m so sorry. I don’t have that kind of money on me.”
“It’s fine,” he said with an engaging smile, drawing attention to his startling white teeth, “Don’t worry about it. They’re only trousers. I’ve got plenty more. But please…can you just tell me one thing?”
“What do you want to know,” Isabel responded weakly as she pressed her money back into her purse.
“Do you always make a habit of mowing people down or am I just special?” Isabel snapped her eyes back to his face. He was smiling at her crookedly…almost flirtatiously. She shivered and offered him a tremulous smile, belatedly realizing that he seemed as taken with her as she had been with him.
Isabel colored again, but this time with laughter. “I’m so sorry,” she said again, her attempt to hold back her giggles unsuccessful, “I wasn’t looking where I was going and well… I’m not from around here actually so… I guess that’s pretty obvious, huh?”
“You do look a little lost,” he observed in agreement, “And a little cold. You’re obviously not used to New England weather.”
“Yeah, you could say that. I was actually looking for a local coffee house,” she explained, “I need warm liquid, pronto.”
The young man pointed tentatively at the directions in her hand. “Are those--?” Isabel nodded. “May I?” Isabel gamely passed him the paper. He scanned it briefly before saying, “I know this place. I actually just came from that direction.”
Isabel guffawed. “You mean you could actually read that?” she laughed when he gave her back the folded slip, “Half the frustration was trying to figure out what the hell my roommate had written down to begin with. So where is the place?”
“I could show you the way,” he offered graciously.
Though the suggestion seemed perfectly harmless Isabel was instantly on guard. She was acutely aware of the fact, more so than ever in her life, that she was different. Now it mattered more than any other time that she maintain her distance. She could not afford to let herself get close to any more outsiders. Just look at the disasters she’d left in her wake: Tess and Grant. She didn’t need to go down that road again.
Yet at the very moment Isabel opened her mouth to refuse him she found herself wondering why she was reacting so severely. This was a perfect stranger after all. He had offered to show her to a coffee house, not take her out to dinner.
Watching the indecision flicker over her features, he sought to put her at ease. “You could follow behind me if you want,” he said, “I just don’t like the idea of you wandering around on the street lost. Besides I’m doing it more for the innocent bystanders than for you. You’ve already proven that you’re a menace to pedestrians everywhere.”
Isabel laughed at his irreverent teasing. “Sure, you can show me the way,” she agreed, “Thank you for being so considerate.”
“Not a problem,” he said.
“I’m Isabel, by the way,” she told him, shifting aside her purse to thrust out her hand.
He shook it gladly. “I’m David McKee,” he said, “It’s nice to meet you.”
********************
“Are you sure this was all you needed?” Max asked his mother after he had moved their sofa from one end of the living room to the other.
“Well, you know about your father’s back,” Diane prevaricated, “He would have never been able to move it by himself.”
“Okay, I guess that’s it,” Max said, shoving his hands into his pockets, “I should really get going. Gotta long day tomorrow.”
“Sweetheart, wait!” Diane cried as he headed for the front door. Max slowly swung back around to face her, his expression both shuttered and vulnerable all at the same time. “Won’t you stay for a little while longer?” she pleaded, “I hardly see you any more.”
“Mom, please…”
The words sounded as if they were being tortured out of him and they filled Diane with a happy kind of dread. She didn’t like the idea of her son, her baby so agonized but she was glad to know that this estrangement had been just as difficult for him as it had been for her and Philip.
“If you stay you could talk to your father,” she cajoled.
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Max said.
He’d been avoiding his parents for weeks now but each day that passed doing so became harder and harder. At the heart of it all Max recognized that his parents loved him and that was the very reason they were reacting so strongly. He might have even been able to forgive them had they not taken out their fear on Liz. Though he had kept his word to Liz and filled them in on a detailed account of her numerous sacrifices Philip Evans was still unenthused about the relationship. In his opinion, Max and Liz were going too far, too fast. That very argument was at the crux of his many disagreements with his son.
“Max, you have to eat,” Diane reasoned gently, “I’m sure you’re practically living out of the can over at Michael’s or, at the very least, eating way too much take out.”
Max bit back a grin at his mother’s assessment, mostly because it was so far off base. In one of life’s more stranger bits of irony Max had discovered that Michael Guerin actually enjoyed spending time in the kitchen. He actually ate better at Michael’s than he had at home, but he didn’t tell his mother that.
“As tempting as the offer of a home cooked meal sounds, Mom,” he began tentatively, “I really don’t think Dad would want me here.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong,” Philip Evans interrupted gruffly as he entered the living room and found son and mother locked in a private chat, “I’d be glad if accepted your mother’s invitation and stayed, Max.”
“Will you rag on Liz if I do?” he challenged mutinously.
“That was never my intention.”
“And yet it’s what you always do,” Max retorted coldly.
“Why don’t we not talk about Liz at all?” Diane suggested in a neutral tone, “We can talk about so many other things…like what you and your sister have been up to for the last few weeks.”
“Up to?” Max queried.
“We’ve noticed the secret phone calls with Isabel,” his father said, “The strange hours and the coded talk. We just want to know what’s going on and if we should be worried.”
“Isabel didn’t tell you?” Max asked with some surprise.
“She seemed to think that was your call, Max,” Diane said.
“Please tell us what’s happening,” Philip beseeched, “You’ve been so open with us these past few months…please don’t keep us in the dark now.”
Max couldn’t withstand even the gentlest of pressure from them. Perhaps because, after unloading himself of the secrets he’d kept from them all his life, he didn’t want to go back to that cocooned existence. Now that he absolutely knew he could go to his parents about anything Max didn’t want to revert back to the way things had been before.
“Okay, but…” he agreed with a deep sigh, “…you might want to sit down for this.” Stricken, Philip and Diane huddled together on the couch and waited in mutual trepidation for their son to begin. “In four days a total of eighteen Antarian spaceships are due to arrive on earth.”
“Oh God!” Diane gasped in horror, “Are you…are you going back…home?”
“No, Mom,” Max reassured her with a gentle smile, “This is my home. But the ships…they’re coming here to live…”
“You mean invading?” Philip surmised in alarm.
“I mean evacuating,” Max corrected, “My home planet is dying and…my people have no where else to go.”
“So you’re bringing them here?” his father exploded in disbelief, “Max, how many people are we talking about here?”
“A few thousand or so.”
“A few thousand!” Philip sputtered, “You’ll never be able to hide that many people!”
“I don’t have any intention of hiding them,” Max announced quietly, “In four days I plan to announce to the world that I’m an alien.”
“Oh God,” Diane uttered again.
“Why didn’t you come to us sooner?” Philip cried, “My God! We could have helped you, Max. Or at least given you some alternative to this lunatic decision!”
Max winced inwardly over his father’s reaction but was careful to keep his face impassive. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” was his only response, “It’s done now and it’s happening soon. I just thought you both deserved some fair warning.”
First to answer a question. Diadne is prounounced Dee*ad*nee, lol. Secondly, I can see there's general panic over Max and Liz, what part Diadne will play and the alien changes. Let me put your mind at ease about these things.
First, I'm not breaking Max and Liz up. I'm not letting some girl, alien or not come between them. Period. JK's done that already. I've done that already. It's old, people. I'm not going there this time. When I said this fic was different from anything I've written before I meant it. Max and Liz are together now and they are going to stay that way. Now that you have my word on that I will let you read to see how Diadne fits into things. Lastly, these alien changes...hmm... Let's just say I'm talking about real changes, not turning Max into the Maxhole again. Now if you want to know what those changes are, again, you'll have to read.
I do believe that covers it.
Chapter 18
Michael breezed from the Crashdown kitchen and made a beeline for Kyle Valenti, sweeping his faded red bandanna from his head as he did. When he slid into the seat across from Kyle his first words were, “You got a mint?”
“No.”
“Gum?”
“Nah, I don’t think so.”
“Breath spray?”
“Do I have the Lift-Off gas station stamped across my forehead?” Kyle demanded crossly, “What’s with you, Guerin?” At that moment he caught a whiff of the telltale scent of tobacco wafting about his friend like a heavy cloud. “Oh, so that’s it,” he surmised, slouching back in his seat with a huge, smug smile, “You’re still puffing away on those cancer sticks, aren’t you?”
“Bite me, Valenti.”
“Maria’s gonna kill you. Maria’s gonna kill you. Nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah, nah,” Kyle sang out in his most goading tone.
“Shut up,” Michael replied good-naturedly, “Now tell me what’s going on with your dad and that reporter chick.”
“She’s cleared it with her station to broadcast us live,” Kyle said, “Though she did have to fudge the details, of course. And, she wanted me to remind you of your agreement. Following the arrival you and Max talk to no other reporter besides her.”
“I guess we know who’s on the fast career track now,” Michael muttered sardonically.
“Lauren Davis is a barracuda,” Kyle agreed.
“Barracuda or not…do you trust her?” Michael asked.
“Not at all,” Kyle replied, “She’s out for herself and, if the opportunity arises, she’ll sell us up the river without compunction. It doesn’t behoove us to depend on her.”
“We don’t plan to,” Michael said, “I just wanted to know where we stood. In the meantime, she’s serving a purpose and that’s it.” He drummed his fingertips against the tabletop in nervous anticipation. “So you have your plane ticket all ready to go?”
Kyle hitched a nod. “Not that my dad is at all thrilled over the prospect,” he laughed, “There goes my plan to start community college. Damn!” Despite his words, however, Kyle hardly seemed bothered by the fact.
“I don’t get it,” Michael considered in bewilderment, “You had all those sports scholarships. You could have gone anywhere you wanted, Valenti, so why the hell did you decide to stay here with the freaks and sideshows?”
“Because I’m one of those freaks,” Kyle sighed, “And this is where I belong.”
********************
Isabel stared down at the convoluted directions her roommate had given her with an exasperated growl. She hadn’t even been in New Haven two days and already she’d decided that she hated it. The city was definitely verdant and filled with all sorts of tantalizing sights and smells. It was also, unfortunately, cold as hell. Being a child of the dry New Mexican desert and its particularly humid summers, Isabel found the balmy 50-degree weather quite chilly.
Her transition into life at Yale had gone much smoother than Isabel could have hoped. Though she had undeniably saddened her parents and brother by leaving Isabel couldn’t help but be glad for the break. Despite the her strange body changes, her general homesickness and her growing dread of what was to come Isabel somehow managed to fit herself into some crook of normalcy. She wasn’t nearly as visible as she’d been at West Roswell. In fact, in New Haven, Connecticut, Isabel Evans was almost nonexistent and, in some strange way, she was glad of it.
Frustrated, annoyed and freezing, Isabel was so preoccupied trying to decipher her roommate’s illegible scrawl that she barreled into an unsuspecting passerby and they both went sprawling to the pavement. Isabel scrambled to her feet in mortification.
“Oh my God!” she cried as she tried to assist the fallen young man to his feet, “Are you alright? Are you hurt?”
The man rolled upright, his features twisted in the most comically disgruntled expression but Isabel didn’t laugh because she suddenly found herself taken with his beautiful face. She had seen plenty of good-looking boys in her lifetime so pretty faces had failed to impress Isabel any longer. But there was something about this man’s intense, clear gaze, just barely visible beneath his thick blond bangs, which captured her attention and held it like a magnet.
“Is this yours,” he groaned, waving the little leaflet of scribbled directions just beneath her nose.
Caught staring at him like some lovesick idiot, Isabel blushed and snatched the paper from his fingers. “Thanks,” she mumbled. He pushed to his feet, brushing away the clinging remnants of rock and dirt from his crisp khaki slacks. “Are they ruined?” Isabel asked meekly, noting quickly that his clothes looked very new and very expensive.
“I’m pretty sure they can be salvaged,” he assured her, brushing ineffectually at his stain smudged pants leg, “Although I don’t quite know how yet…”
“Ahh, God…how much did they cost?” Isabel groaned in dismay, fumbling around in her purse for a few twenties, “What? Fifty or sixty dollars?”
“Two hundred and fifty,” he clarified dryly, “And they were hand tailored.”
“Figures.” Isabel crumpled a little at that, her humiliation growing leaps and bounds. “God,” she sighed out in chagrin, “I’m so sorry. I don’t have that kind of money on me.”
“It’s fine,” he said with an engaging smile, drawing attention to his startling white teeth, “Don’t worry about it. They’re only trousers. I’ve got plenty more. But please…can you just tell me one thing?”
“What do you want to know,” Isabel responded weakly as she pressed her money back into her purse.
“Do you always make a habit of mowing people down or am I just special?” Isabel snapped her eyes back to his face. He was smiling at her crookedly…almost flirtatiously. She shivered and offered him a tremulous smile, belatedly realizing that he seemed as taken with her as she had been with him.
Isabel colored again, but this time with laughter. “I’m so sorry,” she said again, her attempt to hold back her giggles unsuccessful, “I wasn’t looking where I was going and well… I’m not from around here actually so… I guess that’s pretty obvious, huh?”
“You do look a little lost,” he observed in agreement, “And a little cold. You’re obviously not used to New England weather.”
“Yeah, you could say that. I was actually looking for a local coffee house,” she explained, “I need warm liquid, pronto.”
The young man pointed tentatively at the directions in her hand. “Are those--?” Isabel nodded. “May I?” Isabel gamely passed him the paper. He scanned it briefly before saying, “I know this place. I actually just came from that direction.”
Isabel guffawed. “You mean you could actually read that?” she laughed when he gave her back the folded slip, “Half the frustration was trying to figure out what the hell my roommate had written down to begin with. So where is the place?”
“I could show you the way,” he offered graciously.
Though the suggestion seemed perfectly harmless Isabel was instantly on guard. She was acutely aware of the fact, more so than ever in her life, that she was different. Now it mattered more than any other time that she maintain her distance. She could not afford to let herself get close to any more outsiders. Just look at the disasters she’d left in her wake: Tess and Grant. She didn’t need to go down that road again.
Yet at the very moment Isabel opened her mouth to refuse him she found herself wondering why she was reacting so severely. This was a perfect stranger after all. He had offered to show her to a coffee house, not take her out to dinner.
Watching the indecision flicker over her features, he sought to put her at ease. “You could follow behind me if you want,” he said, “I just don’t like the idea of you wandering around on the street lost. Besides I’m doing it more for the innocent bystanders than for you. You’ve already proven that you’re a menace to pedestrians everywhere.”
Isabel laughed at his irreverent teasing. “Sure, you can show me the way,” she agreed, “Thank you for being so considerate.”
“Not a problem,” he said.
“I’m Isabel, by the way,” she told him, shifting aside her purse to thrust out her hand.
He shook it gladly. “I’m David McKee,” he said, “It’s nice to meet you.”
********************
“Are you sure this was all you needed?” Max asked his mother after he had moved their sofa from one end of the living room to the other.
“Well, you know about your father’s back,” Diane prevaricated, “He would have never been able to move it by himself.”
“Okay, I guess that’s it,” Max said, shoving his hands into his pockets, “I should really get going. Gotta long day tomorrow.”
“Sweetheart, wait!” Diane cried as he headed for the front door. Max slowly swung back around to face her, his expression both shuttered and vulnerable all at the same time. “Won’t you stay for a little while longer?” she pleaded, “I hardly see you any more.”
“Mom, please…”
The words sounded as if they were being tortured out of him and they filled Diane with a happy kind of dread. She didn’t like the idea of her son, her baby so agonized but she was glad to know that this estrangement had been just as difficult for him as it had been for her and Philip.
“If you stay you could talk to your father,” she cajoled.
“I really don’t think that’s a good idea,” Max said.
He’d been avoiding his parents for weeks now but each day that passed doing so became harder and harder. At the heart of it all Max recognized that his parents loved him and that was the very reason they were reacting so strongly. He might have even been able to forgive them had they not taken out their fear on Liz. Though he had kept his word to Liz and filled them in on a detailed account of her numerous sacrifices Philip Evans was still unenthused about the relationship. In his opinion, Max and Liz were going too far, too fast. That very argument was at the crux of his many disagreements with his son.
“Max, you have to eat,” Diane reasoned gently, “I’m sure you’re practically living out of the can over at Michael’s or, at the very least, eating way too much take out.”
Max bit back a grin at his mother’s assessment, mostly because it was so far off base. In one of life’s more stranger bits of irony Max had discovered that Michael Guerin actually enjoyed spending time in the kitchen. He actually ate better at Michael’s than he had at home, but he didn’t tell his mother that.
“As tempting as the offer of a home cooked meal sounds, Mom,” he began tentatively, “I really don’t think Dad would want me here.”
“Now that’s where you’re wrong,” Philip Evans interrupted gruffly as he entered the living room and found son and mother locked in a private chat, “I’d be glad if accepted your mother’s invitation and stayed, Max.”
“Will you rag on Liz if I do?” he challenged mutinously.
“That was never my intention.”
“And yet it’s what you always do,” Max retorted coldly.
“Why don’t we not talk about Liz at all?” Diane suggested in a neutral tone, “We can talk about so many other things…like what you and your sister have been up to for the last few weeks.”
“Up to?” Max queried.
“We’ve noticed the secret phone calls with Isabel,” his father said, “The strange hours and the coded talk. We just want to know what’s going on and if we should be worried.”
“Isabel didn’t tell you?” Max asked with some surprise.
“She seemed to think that was your call, Max,” Diane said.
“Please tell us what’s happening,” Philip beseeched, “You’ve been so open with us these past few months…please don’t keep us in the dark now.”
Max couldn’t withstand even the gentlest of pressure from them. Perhaps because, after unloading himself of the secrets he’d kept from them all his life, he didn’t want to go back to that cocooned existence. Now that he absolutely knew he could go to his parents about anything Max didn’t want to revert back to the way things had been before.
“Okay, but…” he agreed with a deep sigh, “…you might want to sit down for this.” Stricken, Philip and Diane huddled together on the couch and waited in mutual trepidation for their son to begin. “In four days a total of eighteen Antarian spaceships are due to arrive on earth.”
“Oh God!” Diane gasped in horror, “Are you…are you going back…home?”
“No, Mom,” Max reassured her with a gentle smile, “This is my home. But the ships…they’re coming here to live…”
“You mean invading?” Philip surmised in alarm.
“I mean evacuating,” Max corrected, “My home planet is dying and…my people have no where else to go.”
“So you’re bringing them here?” his father exploded in disbelief, “Max, how many people are we talking about here?”
“A few thousand or so.”
“A few thousand!” Philip sputtered, “You’ll never be able to hide that many people!”
“I don’t have any intention of hiding them,” Max announced quietly, “In four days I plan to announce to the world that I’m an alien.”
“Oh God,” Diane uttered again.
“Why didn’t you come to us sooner?” Philip cried, “My God! We could have helped you, Max. Or at least given you some alternative to this lunatic decision!”
Max winced inwardly over his father’s reaction but was careful to keep his face impassive. “It doesn’t matter anymore,” was his only response, “It’s done now and it’s happening soon. I just thought you both deserved some fair warning.”
-
Deejonaise
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Thank you SAFIRESKYE26 for your kind words and everyone for the marvelous feedback. It really means a lot to me. Now for the next part.
Special thanks to Itzstacie for beta'ing me.
Chapter 19
Isabel sat curled into the comfy chair in the study section of the library, staring down at the World Civilization textbook in her lap and processing nothing. She was physically there in New Haven, Connecticut but her mind was a thousand miles away in Roswell. The clock was winding down. She could hear its proverbial ticking. Just two days more and she could kiss her newfound anonymity in Yale University goodbye. She would be famous the whole world over. Isabel Evans, alien princess.
A shuddering groan of apprehension bubbled up from Isabel’s throat. She had to stop doing this. She was making herself sick with anxiety. Most likely if she continued on this way she’d flunk out of her first semester before it had even really begun, yet she could hardly think about anything else. Whenever she made the attempt to redirect her thoughts the remembrance would rise again unbidden.
She couldn’t shake it. The knowledge was with her every second, growing more and more insistent as the day drew nearer. Her nervous apprehension prevented her from sleeping at night and her appetite had become fairly nonexistent as well. She nibbled here and there but with no real desire for food at all. Isabel couldn’t help but feel as if her world were slowly closing in all around her. And, to make matters worse, in addition to dealing with her near crippling anxiety she had also begun developing some rather deep seeded feelings of resentment towards her brother.
In the logical portion of her brain Isabel knew she was being irrational and unfair. Of course Max had made the best decision he could with the options he’d had, but still… A part of her, the undeniably selfish part, wished he had chosen to let their people die on Antar. It was a cruel consideration but one that Isabel could not completely squelch.
They knew next to nothing about their people and most of the ones they’d had close contact with had tried to kill them. All their interactions with Larek pointed to a detached, methodical race. Not exactly the qualities one would sacrifice one’s entire existence for. Yet, Max was perfectly willing to do just that. He was going to blow his life apart and hers as well just to save an alien race of people he had never known. Isabel supposed that was the reason he was king.
As for Isabel, she had serious misgivings about the plan, not because she feared some dire consequence but because she dreaded what people would think of her afterwards. All her friends and teachers from school…what would they say when they learned that one of the most popular girls in school wasn’t even human? Their opinion of her would change dramatically. For the first time in her life, Isabel Evans feared being an outsider in the truest sense of the word. Isabel wished devoutly that she could be as selfless and compassionate as her brother but unfortunately in this particular situation, her primary instinct was to look out for number one.
Isabel was in the middle of berating herself for that line of thinking when a dark shadow fell over her book. Annoyed, she glanced up at stinging retort at her lips. She never voiced it, however. Instead her mouth fell open in shocked surprise.
“What are you doing here?” she asked David as he took the chair across from her, “Are you following me or something?”
“Actually I could ask you the same thing,” he countered wryly, “When I saw you sitting over here I thought I had to be seeing things but here you are. Not a hallucination at all.” He leaned forward to regard her more closely, draping his forearms over the tops of his knees. Isabel colored a bit under the penetrating scrutiny.
“So you’ve been looking for me,” Isabel surmised with an uncomfortable frown.
“I came here to study,” David clarified, “Seeing you was just an odd coincidence.”
“You’re a student here?” she burst out in relief, “I didn’t realize that.” She was so happy to learn that he wasn’t some deranged stalker that she dazzled him with a smile. “So you’re a student here,” she murmured to herself, marveling over the irony, “The world is definitely a small place then.”
“I’ll say,” David agreed with a chagrined smile, “How is it I haven’t seen you around before now?” She was quite beautiful with a killer smile and a curvaceous body. It seemed unlikely that he would have missed seeing her around campus.
“This is only my first semester,” Isabel said, “I’m a freshman. What about you?”
“I’m in my third year, but this is only my second semester at Yale,” he replied, “I’m a transfer student and before that I had taken a little time off to find myself.”
“Find yourself?” Isabel questioned with a smirk.
“Read that as drink excessively and party incessantly and basically live a vagabond lifestyle that made my parents cringe,” David laughed, “I’m over it now.”
“Wow. So you’ll be graduating soon then,” Isabel noted, impressed.
“Little good it will do since a third of my credits didn’t transfer and, once I’m finished with my undergraduate degree, I’m entering graduate school right after,” David replied wryly, “I’m going for my M.B.A. How about you?”
“I haven’t decided on a major yet,” she said, “I’ve got a case of freshman procrastination. But it will probably have something to do with art. Maybe…I don’t know.”
It struck Isabel then how extraordinarily easy it was to talk to him. In five minutes she had admitted more to him about herself than she had to school acquaintances after a year at West Roswell. He made her forget, just in those few moments, that she was an alien and that her life was about to unfurl. He made her forget that her body was undergoing freaky manifestations she didn’t understand. For the moment, as she was talking to David McKee, it just didn’t seem to matter.
Presently, he smiled at her, an endearing half smile that reminding her of a mischievous little boy. “So you don’t look as cold now,” he said, “Though the turtleneck and leather might be a bit excessive.”
Isabel glanced down at her ensemble, a tight fitting, white turtleneck sweater and her equally tight fitting white leather pants. She set the entire outfit off with a pair of white, stiletto heeled boots. When she looked at David again one delicate eyebrow was arched in challenge. “I actually dress like this when I’m back home,” she said smugly, “My friends say I’m a danger to cows everywhere.”
“So you stay in a cold climate after all?” Isabel actually burst out laughing at that. “What?” David asked blankly, “Did I say something funny?”
She shook her head, still chuckling a bit. “No, it’s just that… I’m from Roswell, New Mexico,” she explained wryly, “We usually have a problem with heatwaves, not falling temperatures.”
David frowned with immediate interest. “Roswell? Hey, I--,”
“Before you say anything,” Isabel interrupted with a tired laugh, “Yes, it is the supposed site of the UFO crash and no, I don’t have any information about it.” She made the declaration with a nonchalant air but really her stomach was churning. Just like that she was back to remembering who she was and where she came from. Like she could really escape it at all.
“I wasn’t going to ask you about the crash,” David said, seeming not to notice the shuttered look that fell over Isabel’s eyes, “I actually know a girl from Roswell.”
“You do?” Isabel perked, “Well possibly I know her, too. Roswell is a really small community. What’s her name?”
“Elizabeth Parker. Her parents own a restaurant there.”
“The Crashdown?” Isabel questioned.
“That’s the one,” David confirmed.
Isabel sputtered a cough and slammed her World Civilization book shut. “Get out,” she uttered in disbelief, “You know Liz Parker?”
“We met while she was attending school in Vermont,” David confirmed, “How do you know her?”
“Liz and I have been in school together since the third grade,” she clarified glibly, “And she’s only been dating my brother off and on for the last two years now.” She rolled her eyes in mock disgust. “They’re a sickening pair. How well did you know her?”
“We used to go out.” His reply had been a simple one but there was nothing simple about the chaotic emotions going on behind his eyes. “You’re right,” he murmured somewhat sadly, “The world is a pretty small place.” He glanced down at her textbook, all his verve and charm seemingly gone flat. “Well I’ll let you get back to studying,” he said, pushing to his feet, “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”
Isabel stared after him as he walked away, a puzzled frown knitting her forehead.
********************
“Liz?”
“Isabel?” Liz screeched, clutching the phone in a worried death grip, “Is something wrong? Did something happen to Max? Is he hurt? Tell me!”
“God, no! Liz, calm down,” Isabel cried, “I was just calling to talk and then you just completely spaz out! Honestly, you’re worse than Max!”
“I’m sorry,” Liz sighed in relief, wilting down onto the nearest park bench, “It’s just when you called I automatically assumed the worst.”
Naturally she was on edge. Soon hundreds of Antarians would be flooding earth’s atmosphere with more to follow. The awareness was constant with Liz, impeding every attempt she made to study, eat or even think quietly. In a last desperate effort to achieve peace Liz had gone for a run, taking her cell phone with her on the off chance she might receive some news. Which was the reason that, when it actually rang, she almost had a heart attack thinking it was the bad news she’d been dreading all along.
Even now, after Isabel had reassured her that she’d only called to talk, Liz couldn’t completely relax. Though she and Isabel were getting along much better than they had been six months prior they were still far from best friends. The idea that Isabel Evans would just call her up to chat idly simply seemed a bit too far fetched for Liz. Something was definitely going on.
“So Isabel,” Liz began carefully, “What made you call?”
“I just wanted to see how you were doing,” Isabel replied casually, “How’s Harvard treating you?”
“I can’t complain,” Liz said, “I have to remember that I’m pretty fortunate I made it in at all. If it weren’t for Ms. Hardy and Mr. Seligman pulling for me so hard I don’t know if I would have.”
“You should write them ‘thank you’ letters,” Isabel suggested brightly.
That proposition seemed so out of the ordinary that Liz frowned. “So how’s Yale treating you?” she asked slowly.
“Well that’s actually the reason I called you,” Isabel hedged.
Liz smirked. She had known there had to be a reason for Isabel’s unprecedented call. “What’s going on?” she asked casually.
“I met a guy,” Isabel blurted.
For a second time Liz found herself without a ready response. She really didn’t know how to feel about Isabel’s sudden admission. On the one hand, their lives were about to become very complicated and Liz hardly thought this was the appropriate time for cultivating a romance. On the other hand, Liz knew how long Isabel had grieved for Alex, how she continued to grieve and she thought it was way past time for Isabel to move on with her life.
Feeling as if she were trapped between a rock and a hard place, Liz made the best response she could. “Don’t you think you should probably hold off on the romance for a while, Isabel,” she recommended tentatively, “At least until things cool down a bit.”
“I’m not talking about romance, Liz!” Isabel cried in exasperation, “This guy I met…he’s just a friend…sorta…anyway, the important part is that he knows you.”
“He knows me?” Liz echoed in surprise, “How does he know me?”
“He said that you two used to date,” Isabel replied softly, “His name is David and he says he met you in Vermont. Is that true? Is…Is David McKee the guy that got you pr--,”
“Yes,” she answered quickly before Isabel could finish the question, “Yes, he is but… I thought he was going to school someplace else.”
“He transferred,” Isabel provided. She fell quiet for a few seconds before posing her next question. “I don’t suppose he knew that you and Max were dating again, huh?”
Liz frowned in consideration. “I haven’t spoken to David since after I had the miscarriage,” she said, “We just kinda…lost touch. Why?”
“Well, he knows now,” Isabel replied, “That you and Max are back together, I mean…and…I don’t know…he seemed kinda…hurt by it.”
Liz groaned with the introduction of this newest revelation. “Oh God, Isabel why did you have to say anything at all?” she lamented.
“It shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Isabel charged a little tautly, “After all, you don’t have any lingering feelings for this guy seeing as how you and Max are totally involved now.”
“It’s not that,” Liz sighed, “David has met Max. After I had the miscarriage Max came to see me in the hospital and they met. When the news conference breaks David is going to be able to put two and two together pretty quickly.”
“So?”
“So,” Liz stressed, “Max was hoping to give us a delay just in case public reaction wasn’t good. He wanted to give us a chance to hide out since the media probably wouldn’t discover our connection for a day or two.”
“Oh,” Isabel said, properly chastened, “And I just screwed that up, huh?”
“I don’t know,” Liz breathed, “Once David figures all this out I don’t know what he’ll do with the information or how he’ll react. He could put a severe crimp in Max’s plan if this isn’t handled right.” She fingered her suddenly throbbing temples. “Dammit! I’ve got to do some serious damage control.”
Special thanks to Itzstacie for beta'ing me.
Chapter 19
Isabel sat curled into the comfy chair in the study section of the library, staring down at the World Civilization textbook in her lap and processing nothing. She was physically there in New Haven, Connecticut but her mind was a thousand miles away in Roswell. The clock was winding down. She could hear its proverbial ticking. Just two days more and she could kiss her newfound anonymity in Yale University goodbye. She would be famous the whole world over. Isabel Evans, alien princess.
A shuddering groan of apprehension bubbled up from Isabel’s throat. She had to stop doing this. She was making herself sick with anxiety. Most likely if she continued on this way she’d flunk out of her first semester before it had even really begun, yet she could hardly think about anything else. Whenever she made the attempt to redirect her thoughts the remembrance would rise again unbidden.
She couldn’t shake it. The knowledge was with her every second, growing more and more insistent as the day drew nearer. Her nervous apprehension prevented her from sleeping at night and her appetite had become fairly nonexistent as well. She nibbled here and there but with no real desire for food at all. Isabel couldn’t help but feel as if her world were slowly closing in all around her. And, to make matters worse, in addition to dealing with her near crippling anxiety she had also begun developing some rather deep seeded feelings of resentment towards her brother.
In the logical portion of her brain Isabel knew she was being irrational and unfair. Of course Max had made the best decision he could with the options he’d had, but still… A part of her, the undeniably selfish part, wished he had chosen to let their people die on Antar. It was a cruel consideration but one that Isabel could not completely squelch.
They knew next to nothing about their people and most of the ones they’d had close contact with had tried to kill them. All their interactions with Larek pointed to a detached, methodical race. Not exactly the qualities one would sacrifice one’s entire existence for. Yet, Max was perfectly willing to do just that. He was going to blow his life apart and hers as well just to save an alien race of people he had never known. Isabel supposed that was the reason he was king.
As for Isabel, she had serious misgivings about the plan, not because she feared some dire consequence but because she dreaded what people would think of her afterwards. All her friends and teachers from school…what would they say when they learned that one of the most popular girls in school wasn’t even human? Their opinion of her would change dramatically. For the first time in her life, Isabel Evans feared being an outsider in the truest sense of the word. Isabel wished devoutly that she could be as selfless and compassionate as her brother but unfortunately in this particular situation, her primary instinct was to look out for number one.
Isabel was in the middle of berating herself for that line of thinking when a dark shadow fell over her book. Annoyed, she glanced up at stinging retort at her lips. She never voiced it, however. Instead her mouth fell open in shocked surprise.
“What are you doing here?” she asked David as he took the chair across from her, “Are you following me or something?”
“Actually I could ask you the same thing,” he countered wryly, “When I saw you sitting over here I thought I had to be seeing things but here you are. Not a hallucination at all.” He leaned forward to regard her more closely, draping his forearms over the tops of his knees. Isabel colored a bit under the penetrating scrutiny.
“So you’ve been looking for me,” Isabel surmised with an uncomfortable frown.
“I came here to study,” David clarified, “Seeing you was just an odd coincidence.”
“You’re a student here?” she burst out in relief, “I didn’t realize that.” She was so happy to learn that he wasn’t some deranged stalker that she dazzled him with a smile. “So you’re a student here,” she murmured to herself, marveling over the irony, “The world is definitely a small place then.”
“I’ll say,” David agreed with a chagrined smile, “How is it I haven’t seen you around before now?” She was quite beautiful with a killer smile and a curvaceous body. It seemed unlikely that he would have missed seeing her around campus.
“This is only my first semester,” Isabel said, “I’m a freshman. What about you?”
“I’m in my third year, but this is only my second semester at Yale,” he replied, “I’m a transfer student and before that I had taken a little time off to find myself.”
“Find yourself?” Isabel questioned with a smirk.
“Read that as drink excessively and party incessantly and basically live a vagabond lifestyle that made my parents cringe,” David laughed, “I’m over it now.”
“Wow. So you’ll be graduating soon then,” Isabel noted, impressed.
“Little good it will do since a third of my credits didn’t transfer and, once I’m finished with my undergraduate degree, I’m entering graduate school right after,” David replied wryly, “I’m going for my M.B.A. How about you?”
“I haven’t decided on a major yet,” she said, “I’ve got a case of freshman procrastination. But it will probably have something to do with art. Maybe…I don’t know.”
It struck Isabel then how extraordinarily easy it was to talk to him. In five minutes she had admitted more to him about herself than she had to school acquaintances after a year at West Roswell. He made her forget, just in those few moments, that she was an alien and that her life was about to unfurl. He made her forget that her body was undergoing freaky manifestations she didn’t understand. For the moment, as she was talking to David McKee, it just didn’t seem to matter.
Presently, he smiled at her, an endearing half smile that reminding her of a mischievous little boy. “So you don’t look as cold now,” he said, “Though the turtleneck and leather might be a bit excessive.”
Isabel glanced down at her ensemble, a tight fitting, white turtleneck sweater and her equally tight fitting white leather pants. She set the entire outfit off with a pair of white, stiletto heeled boots. When she looked at David again one delicate eyebrow was arched in challenge. “I actually dress like this when I’m back home,” she said smugly, “My friends say I’m a danger to cows everywhere.”
“So you stay in a cold climate after all?” Isabel actually burst out laughing at that. “What?” David asked blankly, “Did I say something funny?”
She shook her head, still chuckling a bit. “No, it’s just that… I’m from Roswell, New Mexico,” she explained wryly, “We usually have a problem with heatwaves, not falling temperatures.”
David frowned with immediate interest. “Roswell? Hey, I--,”
“Before you say anything,” Isabel interrupted with a tired laugh, “Yes, it is the supposed site of the UFO crash and no, I don’t have any information about it.” She made the declaration with a nonchalant air but really her stomach was churning. Just like that she was back to remembering who she was and where she came from. Like she could really escape it at all.
“I wasn’t going to ask you about the crash,” David said, seeming not to notice the shuttered look that fell over Isabel’s eyes, “I actually know a girl from Roswell.”
“You do?” Isabel perked, “Well possibly I know her, too. Roswell is a really small community. What’s her name?”
“Elizabeth Parker. Her parents own a restaurant there.”
“The Crashdown?” Isabel questioned.
“That’s the one,” David confirmed.
Isabel sputtered a cough and slammed her World Civilization book shut. “Get out,” she uttered in disbelief, “You know Liz Parker?”
“We met while she was attending school in Vermont,” David confirmed, “How do you know her?”
“Liz and I have been in school together since the third grade,” she clarified glibly, “And she’s only been dating my brother off and on for the last two years now.” She rolled her eyes in mock disgust. “They’re a sickening pair. How well did you know her?”
“We used to go out.” His reply had been a simple one but there was nothing simple about the chaotic emotions going on behind his eyes. “You’re right,” he murmured somewhat sadly, “The world is a pretty small place.” He glanced down at her textbook, all his verve and charm seemingly gone flat. “Well I’ll let you get back to studying,” he said, pushing to his feet, “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”
Isabel stared after him as he walked away, a puzzled frown knitting her forehead.
********************
“Liz?”
“Isabel?” Liz screeched, clutching the phone in a worried death grip, “Is something wrong? Did something happen to Max? Is he hurt? Tell me!”
“God, no! Liz, calm down,” Isabel cried, “I was just calling to talk and then you just completely spaz out! Honestly, you’re worse than Max!”
“I’m sorry,” Liz sighed in relief, wilting down onto the nearest park bench, “It’s just when you called I automatically assumed the worst.”
Naturally she was on edge. Soon hundreds of Antarians would be flooding earth’s atmosphere with more to follow. The awareness was constant with Liz, impeding every attempt she made to study, eat or even think quietly. In a last desperate effort to achieve peace Liz had gone for a run, taking her cell phone with her on the off chance she might receive some news. Which was the reason that, when it actually rang, she almost had a heart attack thinking it was the bad news she’d been dreading all along.
Even now, after Isabel had reassured her that she’d only called to talk, Liz couldn’t completely relax. Though she and Isabel were getting along much better than they had been six months prior they were still far from best friends. The idea that Isabel Evans would just call her up to chat idly simply seemed a bit too far fetched for Liz. Something was definitely going on.
“So Isabel,” Liz began carefully, “What made you call?”
“I just wanted to see how you were doing,” Isabel replied casually, “How’s Harvard treating you?”
“I can’t complain,” Liz said, “I have to remember that I’m pretty fortunate I made it in at all. If it weren’t for Ms. Hardy and Mr. Seligman pulling for me so hard I don’t know if I would have.”
“You should write them ‘thank you’ letters,” Isabel suggested brightly.
That proposition seemed so out of the ordinary that Liz frowned. “So how’s Yale treating you?” she asked slowly.
“Well that’s actually the reason I called you,” Isabel hedged.
Liz smirked. She had known there had to be a reason for Isabel’s unprecedented call. “What’s going on?” she asked casually.
“I met a guy,” Isabel blurted.
For a second time Liz found herself without a ready response. She really didn’t know how to feel about Isabel’s sudden admission. On the one hand, their lives were about to become very complicated and Liz hardly thought this was the appropriate time for cultivating a romance. On the other hand, Liz knew how long Isabel had grieved for Alex, how she continued to grieve and she thought it was way past time for Isabel to move on with her life.
Feeling as if she were trapped between a rock and a hard place, Liz made the best response she could. “Don’t you think you should probably hold off on the romance for a while, Isabel,” she recommended tentatively, “At least until things cool down a bit.”
“I’m not talking about romance, Liz!” Isabel cried in exasperation, “This guy I met…he’s just a friend…sorta…anyway, the important part is that he knows you.”
“He knows me?” Liz echoed in surprise, “How does he know me?”
“He said that you two used to date,” Isabel replied softly, “His name is David and he says he met you in Vermont. Is that true? Is…Is David McKee the guy that got you pr--,”
“Yes,” she answered quickly before Isabel could finish the question, “Yes, he is but… I thought he was going to school someplace else.”
“He transferred,” Isabel provided. She fell quiet for a few seconds before posing her next question. “I don’t suppose he knew that you and Max were dating again, huh?”
Liz frowned in consideration. “I haven’t spoken to David since after I had the miscarriage,” she said, “We just kinda…lost touch. Why?”
“Well, he knows now,” Isabel replied, “That you and Max are back together, I mean…and…I don’t know…he seemed kinda…hurt by it.”
Liz groaned with the introduction of this newest revelation. “Oh God, Isabel why did you have to say anything at all?” she lamented.
“It shouldn’t be a problem, right?” Isabel charged a little tautly, “After all, you don’t have any lingering feelings for this guy seeing as how you and Max are totally involved now.”
“It’s not that,” Liz sighed, “David has met Max. After I had the miscarriage Max came to see me in the hospital and they met. When the news conference breaks David is going to be able to put two and two together pretty quickly.”
“So?”
“So,” Liz stressed, “Max was hoping to give us a delay just in case public reaction wasn’t good. He wanted to give us a chance to hide out since the media probably wouldn’t discover our connection for a day or two.”
“Oh,” Isabel said, properly chastened, “And I just screwed that up, huh?”
“I don’t know,” Liz breathed, “Once David figures all this out I don’t know what he’ll do with the information or how he’ll react. He could put a severe crimp in Max’s plan if this isn’t handled right.” She fingered her suddenly throbbing temples. “Dammit! I’ve got to do some serious damage control.”
-
Deejonaise
- Addicted Roswellian
- Posts: 385
- Joined: Thu Feb 28, 2002 12:48 am
- Location: On my rusty dusty...
I'm back...
...and because I know that you all are anxiously anticipating "the arrival" I'm going to post two parts instead of one. See you Tuesday or whenever.
Chapter 20
“So let me get this straight,” Maria intoned dryly, “We’re racing to New Haven on a bus to warn David not to say anything about something that’s going to become public knowledge in a matter of hours anyway? You’re ditching class to do this?” Maria shook her head in utter exasperation. “It’s official. You’ve finally cracked under the pressure.”
Maria had only just arrived a little before noon. She had dropped into Liz’s dorm room, complaining about everything from the trip to Michael’s terse goodbye only to have Liz drag her down to the bus station ten minutes after she arrived to board a bus bound for New Haven, Connecticut. Liz had been in such a rush that Maria hadn’t even had time to pee. She’d had to wait until the bus made its first stop. And what was really confusing Maria was why Liz seemed to be in such a tizzy over the David situation. In Maria’s opinion it was like crying over spilled milk.
Liz gathered much of Maria’s opinion from her impatient look and set about explaining as best she could. “Maria, I’m not going to New Haven to warn David about anything,” she said calmly, “I just want to explain some things to him so that he doesn’t do anything stupid like running to the media to talk about things he doesn’t understand.”
“Do you think he’ll do that?” Maria queried.
“Well, Isabel said he seemed hurt and I haven’t talked to him in months so… It’s possible, I guess,” Liz considered glumly. She dropped her face forward into her hands. “God, how did this all get so complicated?” she groaned.
“I suppose that’s what happens when you get knocked up by a guy you hardly know, Liz,” her friend returned glibly, “That ups the complication factor by half.”
She pierced Maria with a doleful glower. “Thanks so much for the reminder.”
“I’m here to help,” Maria returned cheekily. Honestly, she didn’t make the reminders to Liz to be a bitch, but because sometimes even she had a hard time believing what Liz had done. Her actions had always seemed a far cry from the capable responsible girl she had been and the self-assured young woman she presented herself as now.
“So did Isabel tell you how she knew David in the first place? I mean, that’s pretty weird, don’tcha think?”
“Apparently, they’re friends or something like that,” Liz replied absently, “He’s going to Yale now…something I didn’t know.”
“Friends, huh?” Maria considered with a note of skepticism.
“She might like him,” Liz conceded, “He’s very easy to like. She denied there was a romance, though…there was something weird in her voice when she asked me about him.” Liz shook her head dismissively. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid about it.”
“Well, I guess that shoots any future relationship with Kyle right out the window,” Maria muttered.
“Kyle? What relationship with Kyle?”
“It wasn’t a technical relationship,” Maria explained, gesticulating appropriately with quotes, “But he was definitely into her and vice versa.”
“How do you know these things?” Liz asked, frowning.
“Kyle told me.”
“Kyle told you that he and Isabel were seeing each other?” Liz queried in disbelief.
“No. He told me that they were attracted to one another,” she clarified, “But that Isabel was too scared to move forward.”
“And?”
“And frankly I think maybe Kyle was an easy choice for her,” Maria replied sagely, “He already knew her secret so there was no pressure or fear of rejection. And, I also think Kyle started looking at her for the same reasons.”
“Did you tell Kyle all this, oh great, wise one?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And what did he say?”
“I believe his exact words were, ‘Fuck you, DeLuca,’” she replied wryly, “But I know he meant it with the sincerest of affection.”
Liz couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. She laughed and laughed until her sides ached, tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and her nose began to run. When it was over she was sniffling into a Kleenex, half giggling, half crying. “Only you can make me laugh when my life is in turmoil,” she told Maria.
“I have to do something to keep my mind occupied,” Maria replied quietly, “Otherwise I’d probably have a nervous breakdown. Just four more hours and they’ll be here. Liz, this is so surreal.”
Liz leaned her head against Maria’s shoulder. “Don’t remind me,” she mumbled, but really it was all she could think about anyway.
Max had called her early that morning to take advantage of the calm and tell her how much he loved her. They had chatted for only a few minutes so there hadn’t been very much time to rehash the details of his plan again. Not that Liz needed to rehash the details. They were imprinted on her brain as if they had been branded there with a hot iron. She imagined that it was the same for Maria.
Maria patted Liz’s shoulder, resting her cheek against the top of her head. “So does Mr. McKee know we’re on our way or are we just flying blind here, chica?”
“He knows we’re on our way,” Liz said, “He’s meeting us at the bus station.”
“I bet you knocked him on his ass calling out of the blue like that.”
Rolling a look up at Maria, Liz shook her head. “I actually don’t think so,” she replied pensively, “It seemed as if he was actually expecting my call.”
“I’m not surprised if Isabel told him that you two knew each other.”
Liz sat upright, jostling Maria abruptly. Nervously, she sandwiched her hands together and pressed them between her knees. “I’m really dreading seeing him again,” she mumbled, “I feel horrible to say this considering how good he was to me but…he’s just a piece of my past I wish would just…disappear.”
Maria rubbed her back in short, sympathetic circles. “I think you feel that way because you know he still has feelings for you,” she whispered reassuringly, “Once you settle all the tension between you guys I think things will be better.”
“Maybe,” Liz replied, clearly unconvinced by the prospect.
Both girls made the remainder of the trip in silence, each agonizing over how the day would end and what their lives would look like in the aftermath. Eventually the anxiety became too much for them and they fell into a fitful sleep. Their next awareness was the loud whooshing of the bus as it jarred to a stop.
Still half asleep, Liz and Maria shuffled off the bus, shielding their eyes against the brilliant sunlight as they searched for David among the dense crowd. Finally, Maria caught sight of a flash of blond hair and shook Liz’s shoulder. “I think that’s him,” she said, pointing in the direction of the bus terminal entrance.
Looking in the direction Maria indicated, Liz felt her heart lurch. She was nervous and sick with anxious anticipation, so much so that she found it impossible to move right then. She stood planted in that spot, her head swimming. But she needn’t have worried about approaching David because he was already closing the distance between them.
“Liz,” he greeted simply.
She actually did a doubletake. In all the time she had known him he had never referred to her as Liz. It had always been Lizbeth or Elizabeth or Lizzabelle. He had told her that the misnomers were deliberate on his part because he wanted to stand out in her mind from everyone else. Liz supposed that was no longer important to him.
“Hey, David. I’m glad you could meet me,” she greeted weakly, reaching behind her to pull Maria forward, “You remember my friend Maria.”
“Yes, I do,” he said cordially and reached out to shake Maria’s hand, “It’s good to see you again. Are you at Harvard with Liz?”
Maria had to snort at the very idea. “No,” she laughed, “I’m just visiting.”
“Well, Liz,” David said, training his full attention back on her, “I was surprised to hear from you after so long. What made you call me up?”
“Do you think we could do this someplace less crowded?” Liz asked hopefully.
“There’s a coffee shop around the corner.”
Liz would have to remember later to thank Maria profusely. She saved them from an awful, tension filled trip by filling the silence with wild gushing over David’s silver Mercedes Benz. Liz would have never made it through that five-minute jaunt down the block had it not been for Maria’s unadulterated chatter. When they finally reached the coffee shop Liz almost fainted with relief. The sooner she cleared up the lingering misunderstandings between her and David, the smoother Max’s plan would proceed.
They chose a booth near the entrance. Maria and Liz took one side while David took the other, promptly ordering three coffees from a nearby waitress. Once their cups were served. David didn’t bother with preliminaries. He simply folded his hands atop the table and asked, “So I’m assuming you’ve spoken with Isabel?”
“She did tell me that she met you,” Liz revealed.
“So then you know that we’re barely acquainted with each other,” he said, “We’ve had exactly two conversations about fifteen minutes long, although I was able to find out why you dropped off the face of the earth a while back.” Liz had a difficult time holding his gaze, but somehow she managed. “Why didn’t you tell me you were involved with someone else while we were together, Liz?”
“Okay,” Maria interrupted brightly, sliding from the booth, “I’m going to go look at those delicious pastries at the counter.” As she headed off for the counter, she shot Liz a thumbs up sign behind David’s back.
“What are you asking me, David?” Liz asked carefully when she and David were alone.
“Isabel said that you and her brother have been dating off and on for two years,” David clarified tightly, “Which means you were involved with him when we…got together.”
“No, we were broken up by then.”
“That’s not what Isabel said,” he countered.
“We weren’t together,” Liz insisted, “But I did still have feelings for him. That’s the reason I couldn’t be in a relationship with you, David.”
“You told me you weren’t ready for a relationship period,” he reminded her coldly, “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth, huh? That would have sufficed. I was just a good lay and afterwards you wanted me to get lost.” Liz couldn’t respond because there was some truth to the accusation. “I’ve got the message, Liz, loud and clear. If you’re worried about me using Isabel to insinuate myself into your life again then I can put your mind at ease. Isabel and I barely know each other.”
“That’s not what this is about,” Liz denied weakly, “I just wanted to be sure there were no hard feelings between us.”
“You traveled over a hundred miles to ask me that,” he snorted, “I could have told you that over the phone!”
“I just don’t want you to be hurt,” Liz whispered painfully, “You’ve been so good to me and…I really hate that I haven’t been able to give you anything in return.”
“I believe that,” he said after a long moment. And then he laughed to himself, a soft, tortured sound. “Do you ever think about what it would have been like if you had married me?” he whispered. He pinned her with a soft, woeful stare. “I would have made you happy.”
“I’m in love with someone else, David,” Liz countered gently, “I’ll always be in love with him. I guess I should have told you that a long time ago. It might have saved us both some pain.”
“Maybe you’re right about that,” he conceded, “But that’s all cleared up between us now. Right, Liz?”
“Right,” she said, but there was something lurking around in his eyes that made her wonder.
Chapter 20
“So let me get this straight,” Maria intoned dryly, “We’re racing to New Haven on a bus to warn David not to say anything about something that’s going to become public knowledge in a matter of hours anyway? You’re ditching class to do this?” Maria shook her head in utter exasperation. “It’s official. You’ve finally cracked under the pressure.”
Maria had only just arrived a little before noon. She had dropped into Liz’s dorm room, complaining about everything from the trip to Michael’s terse goodbye only to have Liz drag her down to the bus station ten minutes after she arrived to board a bus bound for New Haven, Connecticut. Liz had been in such a rush that Maria hadn’t even had time to pee. She’d had to wait until the bus made its first stop. And what was really confusing Maria was why Liz seemed to be in such a tizzy over the David situation. In Maria’s opinion it was like crying over spilled milk.
Liz gathered much of Maria’s opinion from her impatient look and set about explaining as best she could. “Maria, I’m not going to New Haven to warn David about anything,” she said calmly, “I just want to explain some things to him so that he doesn’t do anything stupid like running to the media to talk about things he doesn’t understand.”
“Do you think he’ll do that?” Maria queried.
“Well, Isabel said he seemed hurt and I haven’t talked to him in months so… It’s possible, I guess,” Liz considered glumly. She dropped her face forward into her hands. “God, how did this all get so complicated?” she groaned.
“I suppose that’s what happens when you get knocked up by a guy you hardly know, Liz,” her friend returned glibly, “That ups the complication factor by half.”
She pierced Maria with a doleful glower. “Thanks so much for the reminder.”
“I’m here to help,” Maria returned cheekily. Honestly, she didn’t make the reminders to Liz to be a bitch, but because sometimes even she had a hard time believing what Liz had done. Her actions had always seemed a far cry from the capable responsible girl she had been and the self-assured young woman she presented herself as now.
“So did Isabel tell you how she knew David in the first place? I mean, that’s pretty weird, don’tcha think?”
“Apparently, they’re friends or something like that,” Liz replied absently, “He’s going to Yale now…something I didn’t know.”
“Friends, huh?” Maria considered with a note of skepticism.
“She might like him,” Liz conceded, “He’s very easy to like. She denied there was a romance, though…there was something weird in her voice when she asked me about him.” Liz shook her head dismissively. “Maybe I’m just being paranoid about it.”
“Well, I guess that shoots any future relationship with Kyle right out the window,” Maria muttered.
“Kyle? What relationship with Kyle?”
“It wasn’t a technical relationship,” Maria explained, gesticulating appropriately with quotes, “But he was definitely into her and vice versa.”
“How do you know these things?” Liz asked, frowning.
“Kyle told me.”
“Kyle told you that he and Isabel were seeing each other?” Liz queried in disbelief.
“No. He told me that they were attracted to one another,” she clarified, “But that Isabel was too scared to move forward.”
“And?”
“And frankly I think maybe Kyle was an easy choice for her,” Maria replied sagely, “He already knew her secret so there was no pressure or fear of rejection. And, I also think Kyle started looking at her for the same reasons.”
“Did you tell Kyle all this, oh great, wise one?”
“Uh-huh.”
“And what did he say?”
“I believe his exact words were, ‘Fuck you, DeLuca,’” she replied wryly, “But I know he meant it with the sincerest of affection.”
Liz couldn’t help it. She burst out laughing. She laughed and laughed until her sides ached, tears leaked from the corners of her eyes and her nose began to run. When it was over she was sniffling into a Kleenex, half giggling, half crying. “Only you can make me laugh when my life is in turmoil,” she told Maria.
“I have to do something to keep my mind occupied,” Maria replied quietly, “Otherwise I’d probably have a nervous breakdown. Just four more hours and they’ll be here. Liz, this is so surreal.”
Liz leaned her head against Maria’s shoulder. “Don’t remind me,” she mumbled, but really it was all she could think about anyway.
Max had called her early that morning to take advantage of the calm and tell her how much he loved her. They had chatted for only a few minutes so there hadn’t been very much time to rehash the details of his plan again. Not that Liz needed to rehash the details. They were imprinted on her brain as if they had been branded there with a hot iron. She imagined that it was the same for Maria.
Maria patted Liz’s shoulder, resting her cheek against the top of her head. “So does Mr. McKee know we’re on our way or are we just flying blind here, chica?”
“He knows we’re on our way,” Liz said, “He’s meeting us at the bus station.”
“I bet you knocked him on his ass calling out of the blue like that.”
Rolling a look up at Maria, Liz shook her head. “I actually don’t think so,” she replied pensively, “It seemed as if he was actually expecting my call.”
“I’m not surprised if Isabel told him that you two knew each other.”
Liz sat upright, jostling Maria abruptly. Nervously, she sandwiched her hands together and pressed them between her knees. “I’m really dreading seeing him again,” she mumbled, “I feel horrible to say this considering how good he was to me but…he’s just a piece of my past I wish would just…disappear.”
Maria rubbed her back in short, sympathetic circles. “I think you feel that way because you know he still has feelings for you,” she whispered reassuringly, “Once you settle all the tension between you guys I think things will be better.”
“Maybe,” Liz replied, clearly unconvinced by the prospect.
Both girls made the remainder of the trip in silence, each agonizing over how the day would end and what their lives would look like in the aftermath. Eventually the anxiety became too much for them and they fell into a fitful sleep. Their next awareness was the loud whooshing of the bus as it jarred to a stop.
Still half asleep, Liz and Maria shuffled off the bus, shielding their eyes against the brilliant sunlight as they searched for David among the dense crowd. Finally, Maria caught sight of a flash of blond hair and shook Liz’s shoulder. “I think that’s him,” she said, pointing in the direction of the bus terminal entrance.
Looking in the direction Maria indicated, Liz felt her heart lurch. She was nervous and sick with anxious anticipation, so much so that she found it impossible to move right then. She stood planted in that spot, her head swimming. But she needn’t have worried about approaching David because he was already closing the distance between them.
“Liz,” he greeted simply.
She actually did a doubletake. In all the time she had known him he had never referred to her as Liz. It had always been Lizbeth or Elizabeth or Lizzabelle. He had told her that the misnomers were deliberate on his part because he wanted to stand out in her mind from everyone else. Liz supposed that was no longer important to him.
“Hey, David. I’m glad you could meet me,” she greeted weakly, reaching behind her to pull Maria forward, “You remember my friend Maria.”
“Yes, I do,” he said cordially and reached out to shake Maria’s hand, “It’s good to see you again. Are you at Harvard with Liz?”
Maria had to snort at the very idea. “No,” she laughed, “I’m just visiting.”
“Well, Liz,” David said, training his full attention back on her, “I was surprised to hear from you after so long. What made you call me up?”
“Do you think we could do this someplace less crowded?” Liz asked hopefully.
“There’s a coffee shop around the corner.”
Liz would have to remember later to thank Maria profusely. She saved them from an awful, tension filled trip by filling the silence with wild gushing over David’s silver Mercedes Benz. Liz would have never made it through that five-minute jaunt down the block had it not been for Maria’s unadulterated chatter. When they finally reached the coffee shop Liz almost fainted with relief. The sooner she cleared up the lingering misunderstandings between her and David, the smoother Max’s plan would proceed.
They chose a booth near the entrance. Maria and Liz took one side while David took the other, promptly ordering three coffees from a nearby waitress. Once their cups were served. David didn’t bother with preliminaries. He simply folded his hands atop the table and asked, “So I’m assuming you’ve spoken with Isabel?”
“She did tell me that she met you,” Liz revealed.
“So then you know that we’re barely acquainted with each other,” he said, “We’ve had exactly two conversations about fifteen minutes long, although I was able to find out why you dropped off the face of the earth a while back.” Liz had a difficult time holding his gaze, but somehow she managed. “Why didn’t you tell me you were involved with someone else while we were together, Liz?”
“Okay,” Maria interrupted brightly, sliding from the booth, “I’m going to go look at those delicious pastries at the counter.” As she headed off for the counter, she shot Liz a thumbs up sign behind David’s back.
“What are you asking me, David?” Liz asked carefully when she and David were alone.
“Isabel said that you and her brother have been dating off and on for two years,” David clarified tightly, “Which means you were involved with him when we…got together.”
“No, we were broken up by then.”
“That’s not what Isabel said,” he countered.
“We weren’t together,” Liz insisted, “But I did still have feelings for him. That’s the reason I couldn’t be in a relationship with you, David.”
“You told me you weren’t ready for a relationship period,” he reminded her coldly, “Why didn’t you just tell me the truth, huh? That would have sufficed. I was just a good lay and afterwards you wanted me to get lost.” Liz couldn’t respond because there was some truth to the accusation. “I’ve got the message, Liz, loud and clear. If you’re worried about me using Isabel to insinuate myself into your life again then I can put your mind at ease. Isabel and I barely know each other.”
“That’s not what this is about,” Liz denied weakly, “I just wanted to be sure there were no hard feelings between us.”
“You traveled over a hundred miles to ask me that,” he snorted, “I could have told you that over the phone!”
“I just don’t want you to be hurt,” Liz whispered painfully, “You’ve been so good to me and…I really hate that I haven’t been able to give you anything in return.”
“I believe that,” he said after a long moment. And then he laughed to himself, a soft, tortured sound. “Do you ever think about what it would have been like if you had married me?” he whispered. He pinned her with a soft, woeful stare. “I would have made you happy.”
“I’m in love with someone else, David,” Liz countered gently, “I’ll always be in love with him. I guess I should have told you that a long time ago. It might have saved us both some pain.”
“Maybe you’re right about that,” he conceded, “But that’s all cleared up between us now. Right, Liz?”
“Right,” she said, but there was something lurking around in his eyes that made her wonder.