Roswell Fanatics

Chapter 10

[Liz]

Shortly after Mr. Evans left the room, he came back with an officer that let us out. We all walked out of the station in one group following behind Mr. Evans. No one spoke. I don’t think anyone knew what to say.

The display that we saw revealed so many things. Jesse finally got to see the strain between Max and Mr. Evans. I wondered what he was thinking, and I wondered what he would do when he found out Isabel’s secret.

And Max. Poor Max. It was him scared. It was one of the few times I saw him tear up. It was him and I against the world. It was stressful, and it was heartbreaking. Max was right to hold off the engagement. Maybe it was best that there was some distance between us. It’d give him time to work things out with his parents. This morning was somewhat of a milestone for Max and his father. Max and Mr. Evans came to a silent compromise, and they were another step closer to being back to a somewhat normal family, but there were still many steps to take. And I remembered one large obstacle in the way. That board of notes and pictures in Mr. Evans’s office. I needed to tell Max about.

“You know, we could probably make it to school in time,” Max said to me in the car.

We were in the backseat while Michael drove. We had driven for a while now, and I’d guess that we were only ten minutes from the Reino. It was probably only 7:45 in the morning and we make it on time to school before 8:30, but after the long morning, I didn’t feel like it.

“I think I’ll take my time and take a tardy,” I sighed.

“What about your dad?” Max asked me. “Won’t he wonder why your bed’s empty?”

I shook my head. “I have plenty of time to sneak in.”

“I have corrupted you.”

I looked up in Max's eyes and grinned. “What do you mean?”

“Oh, come on, Liz Parker. Before you and I were together, you never used to sneak out at night.”

“Right,” I replied, rolling my eyes. “So, all I did was let that perfectly good ladder sit on the side of my balcony? I don’t think so.”

Max bent down and his warm, soft lips touched my forehead. I lied back against his chest and watched the sky outside the window. A few minutes later, the car came to stop.

I sat up in my seat and saw that we were at Max's apartment complex behind Isabel’s Honda Civic and in front of a tan Ford Explorer. Michael opened the door and Max and I stepped out and saw everyone stretching. Then I saw Mr. Evans climb out of the SUV, and I was reminded of the board in his office. I stood in front of Max, grabbed his jacket, and got on my toes to kiss him.

“Mm…what was that for?” he asked me.

I looked over my shoulder. “There’s something I need to—”

“Does anybody need a ride?” Mr. Evans interrupted. “Liz? Maria?”

“Thanks, Mr. Evans,” I heard Maria say, “but I’ve got the Jetta.”

Mr. Evans smiled. “Alright. What about you, Liz?”

I looked back up at Max and he rubbed my upper arms. “You should go with him,” he whispered to me.

“But—” I tried to plead.

“Let him take you home,” Max urged.

I grabbed the things I had put in Isabel’s car earlier, thanked her and started walking towards Mr. Evans’s vehicle. But I jogged back to Max and kissed him once more.

“I need to see you tonight,” I said, and then I climbed into the front seat of the SUV.

“Jesse,” Mr. Evans said, “take Isabel home, and I’ll see you at work. The rest of you, go home, or go to school.”

I waited patiently in the car and looked at the side mirror. Everyone dispersed. Isabel and Jesse climbed into their car, and Michael and Kyle mooched a ride off of Maria. And Max waited outside until we left.

*~*

Mr. Evans parked in the back like Max always did and I gathered up my things. “Thanks for the ride, Mr. Evans.” I unlocked the door and pulled the handle.

“Liz…” Mr. Evans sighed. I closed the door and sat back in the car. “Liz, talk to me. I want to know what’s going on with my son. Why were you all going to Santa Fe?”

I sat with my knapsack in my lap and stared at the floor mat. “Max was telling you the truth, sir. He proposed to me earlier this week and we wanted to get married so I wouldn’t have to go to Vermont. We didn’t want to get married here in Roswell because my father knew Judge Walsh. So we decided to go to the City Hall in Santa Fe, the farther the better. What else would we do in Santa Fe, Mr. Evans?”

From the corner of my eye I could see Max's father bob his head up and down. “My son was telling the truth.” I gave a silent reply by nodding. “He goes to great lengths to be with you.”

“I guess so.”

“Liz, you’re a great girl,” Philip sighed. “Now, I’m still puzzled as to what you and my son were doing in Utah…but thank you.”

My eyes widened and something told me that maybe I should have left a while ago. “What for?”

“I think you’re the only person Max really trusts, before you, he didn’t have…a special someone. So, thank you for being there for my son.”

I’ve never been so confused in my life. Why was Mr. Evans saying this? Was he trying to get to me to get to Max?

“You know, Max is great guy, also. He’s ok, he’s doing a good thing with his life. That’s all you need to know for right now.”

I pulled the door handle again and even managed to let one foot out of the car, but Mr. Evans grabbed my arm. “Liz, I’m happy that you two are getting married.”

I stared at him somewhat frightened.

*~*

I did go to school today, hoping to see Max, but he had to skip out of some classes today to attend some labs at B&A. I also needed to go to school just to have time pass. I knew that I wasn’t going to be able to be with Max until it was dark. That’s the only time we got to hold each other’s hand. It really sucked. The moonlight was great and everything, but it still was hard to see in the dark.

At least the darkness was here now. And it was best that it was late at night. It would be hard to break into the place where I wanted to take Max if it was broad daylight. No one would be there. It’d be completely empty, and I’d be able to show Max.

I grabbed two flashlights from my closet and threw them into a small bag. I knew Max was waiting in his car outside. I could always tell when he was here, it was a connection we had. It came in handy.

I threw the small bag on my back and climbed out my window. Again, Max ran to the ladder and waited at the bottom with a smile on his face. I rushed down the steps of the ladder and jumped, landing just in front of Max.

“No, corny lines, please,” I grinned.

He nodded and greeted me with a kiss. “Now, what’s so important that you needed to tell me?”

“Actually, I needed to show you something very important,” I said very serious. I dragged him back to the car and got behind the wheel, forcing him to take the passenger’s seat.

“I take it you’re driving?” he grinned.

But I didn’t really smile back. I don’t think I looked at him at all. What I was about to show him was something that was going to break his heart.

I drove down the street and took a few turns. Mr. Evans’s law firm wasn’t very far from the Crashdown. We probably would have gotten there quicker if we walked. It would have been better too, ‘cause then I wouldn’t have to park two blocks from the building.

“This is it?” Max wondered. “Where are we?”

I grabbed Max's hand and pulled him out of the car. I picked up a jog and dragged Max along.

“Liz, where are we going?” Max wanted to know.

We ran the two blocks and carefully walked into a little garden just outside a building. I peered in the window and saw that the coast was clear.

“Liz, what are you doing?” he asked me. “We’re at my father’s office. What—Why are we here?”

There was no way to explain but to just show him. “There’s a lock on the window and it’s rigged to the security alarm. Can you get us in here?”

Max stepped behind me and got a closer work. “Yeah, I can. But I want to know what we’re doing here.”

“Ok,” I sighed. “Your father’s gone beyond asking my father and Valenti about Tess’s disappearance. He’s got this whole board with notes and photos about everything.”

Max looked at me, and then his eyes darted inside the room. “Everything? What’s everything?”

There were so many things on the board that I don’t think I could even remember it all. There were timelines, pictures, notes, locations, everything.

“He’s recorded what’s happened in Utah, Los Angeles, and now Santa Fe, probably. Then he’s got notes on things before that. He’s got notes on Tess, and me, Max. He knows I’m involved. He’s trying to get me to talk. In the car today? He wanted to know why we were really going to Santa Fe.”

I saw the muscles in Max's cheeks bulge. He started working on the window, and it didn’t take him long. The alarm wires were burnt through and the lock was unlatched. Max lifted the window and turned to me with his hands cupped. He crouched down and took up a stance.

“You first.”

I put my foot in his manmade step and carefully and quietly climbed in. Max climbed up on his own, and closed the window behind him. He looked around the dark room. In the daylight, the room would be clean white. I opened my bag and handed Max a flashlight.

“It’s right over here,” I told him, and I moved to a wall where a cork board hung.

“‘Pick up dry-cleaning’,” Max read. “Liz, this is—”

I lifted up the board he looked at and revealed a completely new board. Across the top were index cards with large, bold letters. “WHAT IS MAX HIDING?” they said. On other cards were remarks and comments. Several surveillance photos.

“I—I can’t believe this,” he stuttered. “My whole life’s up here.”

I nodded. “Max, he’s got everything carefully documented. Look at those photos,” I pointed out. “They’re surveillance photos. I don’t think your father has that much time to spy on us.”

“You think he’s hired someone?” Max asked.

“Yes,” I sighed. “And I did some research today. I looked up private investigator agencies in the area. You father’s contacted one, and he hired two PIs.”

Max grabbed my hand while he stared at the board. He glanced at it hard, reading the notes that were so specific. “My father’s the enemy,” he sighed. “I didn’t want to believe that he could go this far, but he has.”

“What do we do about this, Max?”

He took a deep breath and exhaled heavily. “Liz, for a few days, we stay away from each other. I don’t want anyone following you around. We could have been followed here.”

“You just want me to sit at home and wait for you to deal with all of this?” I asked him. “Max, you know that’s not how things work between us.”

Max turned to me. “These are my parents, Liz. There’s nothing that you can do. I’m going to deal with it. Everyday, you go to school, you go home, and we stop seeing each other late at night like this until I deal with all of this.”

“What are you going to do?”

Max shook his head and slid the board down.


(A/N: some lines in this chapter were from "Behind the Music". and credit must be given to the episode and the writers.)

Chapter 11

{Isabel}

“Max, I don’t believe it,” I said with doubt. “I believe that Dad would ask Mr. Parker and Valenti some questions, but he wouldn’t go as far as—”

“He has, Iz,” my brother interrupted. “Last night I saw it with my own eyes. I didn’t think so either, but he has. Isabel, he had us arrested.”

I paced around his apartment totally questioning my brother. No, our father was making an effort to work out the kinks between Max and him. That’s why we were put in jail. I might have done it too if I were my father. It was a good way to get some answers out of him.

Wait a second. How stupid could I be? My father wasn’t trying to work out the kinks. My father was trying to discover our secret. My eyes shut in disappointment in myself, and my brother realized my stubbornness. I wanted to see the good in my father because he came through for me. He didn’t know my involvement with Max's secret, which was our secret.

“Max, we have to talk to him,” I realized. “Make something up to get him off your back, our back.”

“What is he going to tell him?” Michael asked. “‘Hey, Dad, so I broke into your office and found your board of surveillance photos of me and my friends. What’s up with that?’” he said sarcastically.

I stopped pacing around and dropped onto his couch. “Max, things between him and I are good. He’ll understand. Mom would understand.”

“Isabel, no,” Michael and Max both said in unison.

Legally, I was older than both Michael and Max. I was their older sister. Yet, they were the ones that made the final decision. They always had last word. Well, for once, I’m using the “Older Sibling Card”.

“Max, Michael, I’m sorry, but this is the only way to keep them from getting hurt. If we don’t tell them, they could get in some serious danger, and we wouldn’t be able to protect them,” I argued. “We tell them and we can be prepared to protect them.”

Michael heaved a heavy sigh. “Isabel, how do you think they would react?”

“They’d accept us, and continue to love us.”

“How do we know that?” Max wondered, shaking his head.

I stood up in front of him. “Our father loves basketball. Do you remember how heartbroken he was when you said that you wanted to stop playing in that YMCA league even though you had so much promise?” Max looked up at the trophies he had out on display on a shelf in his living room. I followed his eyes. “He still loved you, Max.”

Max continued to stare for a while, then his head swung. “Iz, this is completely different. We’re talking about being from a different planet, not about basketball.”

“I know,” I sighed. “But it runs along the same lines. Our parents will love us no matter what.”

Michael stared at me. “Do you think Jesse would react that way if we let you tell him?”

I couldn’t give an answer. I really never thought about the way he’d react, but I’d bet he wouldn’t react like I know my parents would. Max nodded, agreeing with Michael’s point, supporting his defense.

Michael scoffed. “I didn’t think so.”



{Max}

“Isabel, I’ll drive you home,” I said, and looked to Michael. “You going to hang out for a while?”

He looked up at me with a donut in his mouth and nodded. I walked with Isabel to the door and we silently started our way down to the parking lot.

Isabel was right. Our parents would continue to love us no matter what we are, but that wasn’t why I didn’t want to tell them. Our parents had no idea what we went through in just our sophomore year alone. How many sixteen-year-olds can say they were chased by the FBI? So many people were involved as it was. Kyle, Valenti, Maria, and Liz. It didn’t seem like a lot, but it was. I’m glad that I saved Liz’s life. But I’m not so glad that she’s had to go through all of this. She’s so innocent; she didn’t deserve this crazy life.

Before Isabel got into my car, she looked at me and sighed. “Max, would you just think about it?”

I was going to look at Isabel to let her know that I wasn’t ever going to tell our parents what we were. But something caught my eye. There were some bushes that hid the pool of the Reino, and I could see something reflect the sun. The bushes rattled and I tried my best not to stare at them. I quickly slid into the car without answering Isabel.

“Are you going to consider it or not?” she wondered.

I didn’t look at her as I started the engine. “Get in the car, Iz.”

“You don’t have to be so commanding,” Isabel complained.

I rolled my eyes as Isabel finally got in. I backed out of my parking space pretty quickly and changed gears. In my rear view mirror, I saw the bushes rattle even more, and my suspicions were correct. A man emerged from the bushes with a camera around his neck. Attached to the camera was a large lens, something a private investigator would use.

I closed my eyes. I wasn’t sure if it was anger or disappointment I was feeling but I think it was hurt because I felt it deep in my heart. It was all true. I mean, I knew it was true, but somewhere in the back of my mind I wanted to believe that my father wasn’t doing what he was doing, but with that damn man in the bushes, it persuaded that part of me.

“Max, are you ok?” Isabel asked me.

I finally opened my eyes and nodded quickly. “Yes. I’m fine.”

“Are you planning on actually driving?”

I nodded once more and pressed on the gas. I don’t know where the man went right after he left the bushes, but I wondered no more. After the first turn I made, I saw a tan station wagon follow behind us. I made another turn and again the station wagon followed us. Isabel’s house was a good distance away from the Reino, and for a good few minutes, the same tan station wagon continued to follow us and I recognized the man behind the wheel.

“Iz,” I said, keeping my eyes focused on the road. “Don’t panic and don’t make it obvious.”

Isabel stared at me and I could see from the corner of my eye that I had frightened her. “What are you talking about?’

“Don’t do it yet,” I began, “but look in the rear view mirror like you’re checking your makeup.”

“But I’m not wearing any.”

I sighed and squeezed the steering wheel nervously. “Just do it…and look at the car behind us.”

Isabel cautiously slid into the middle of the front seat and carefully looked into the rear view mirror. “Ok, what am I looking at?”

“The man driving the car,” I said. “Do you recognize him?”

Isabel sat back on her side of the car and shook her head. “I’m not sure. Why?”

“Think about it hard. Imagine him with a five o’clock shadow, a flannel shirt, and a baseball cap.”

I still focused on the road, but I could see Isabel’s eyes widen. “He was one of the truckers at that diner.”

“Ok,” I said satisfied. “Think about that really hard.”

“You don’t think?” she realized almost immediately.

We came up to a red light at an intersection where I nodded. “It makes sense, Isabel. I saw him in the bushes at the Reino, and he’s been following us.”

Her breathing became shallow. “It’s true.”

“Maybe showing you the board would have been easier to convince you instead of being followed by one of the PIs.”

Isabel shook her head in disbelief. “You were right, Max. Dad is the enemy.”

“That’s not the case right now,” I told Isabel. “We need to lose this guy. Do that thing I told you to do when you get caught in this type of situation.”

I remembered that night when the FBI followed us while Liz and I were supposed to be on a “date”. The next day, I had thought of all types of scenarios and ways to get out of them. One was this.

Isabel nodded in reply and held her hand over the floor mat of my car. I cautiously looked at her hand burn red and noticed the red light change to green. I pressed hard on the gas and a large crack sounded. Isabel had just made my car backfire. A large cloud of exhaust exited my tailpipe. It completely covered the man’s station wagon. I looked in the rear view mirror and saw the man get out of his car to escape the smoke. Mission accomplished.

“Well, done, Iz.”

“Max, what are we going to do about this?” she immediately wanted to know. “It’s definitely out of hand.”

I shook my head, because I really didn’t know what to do about it, and that’s all I could tell Isabel. I dropped her off at her house and made sure she got inside ok. It was pretty early in the morning, but I needed to make an important stop first. I drove in the same direction I came in and made my way into town. I needed to go to the police station.

Roswell’s PD was pretty nice. It was only about four years old, so pretty new. I hurried out of my car and walked into the lobby area of the police station and climbed the steps to get to the main area. I saw Deputy Blackwood at the front desk and gave him a smile. I don’t think he liked me much.

“Morning, sir,” I nervously said. He was a tall Native American man, and he’d sure as hell make anyone nervous. “Is Deputy Valenti in?”

“Hey, Max.” It was Valenti, sitting at his desk. “Let him back here, Blackwood.”

Blackwood still hadn’t said a word to me and he didn’t have a response for Valenti. He just did as he was told and then went to his own desk. I smiled when Blackwood unlatched the door for me and walked over to Valenti’s desk.

“Max, haven’t seen you since the wedding. It was a great one wasn’t it? I hear you and Liz are next.”

Valenti was so great. I loved him like a father now, and honestly, right now, I loved him more than my own father. Valenti was nothing but a saint to me and the others.

“Yes—yes, we are,” I stuttered. “Sorry, I haven’t told you, but we’re shooting for a real wedding now. So, you’ll definitely get an invitation.”

“That’s great,” Kyle’s father smiled. “Great. So, what can I do for you?”

I cleared my throat and ran my thumbnail over a small portion of his desk. I usually did that when I had something to say. “Kyle, told me that my father approached you,” I finally said.

Suddenly the smile that Valenti wore on his face died away. “Yeah, he did. Man, I can’t believe I let that slip my mind. Max, is everything ok?”

I shook my head and continued to not look Valenti in the eye. “My father knows I have a secret, he wants to find out what it is. And he’s stopping at nothing to find out.”

“I see,” Valenti replied, bobbing his head. “What can I do for you then?”

“I know my father’s hired PIs, and I saw one following me. I want to know what I can do to fight this.”

Valenti shook his head and shrugged his shoulders. “Max…I’ve never heard of this happening before. I don’t know what you should do. Let me ask Hanson.”

“No,” I said as he was about to stand. “No, I trust you. I don’t want anyone else to get involved.”

“Al—Alright, Max,” Valenti said soothingly. “It’s ok, we’ll take care of this.”

“Isn’t there something I can do? A restraining order I can file or something?”

Again Valenti shook his head; he had an answer I didn’t want. “I would have to talk to Hanson about it.”

"That's alright," I sighed. "Thanks anyway."

"Sorry, Max."

Suddenly Valenti came to a conclusion that Isabel had come to quite a while ago. I guess I wanted to hear it from him. “You think I should tell them,” I realized.

Valenti nodded. “I don’t know how you, Michael, and Isabel were before all of us joined your group, but I think we’re a lot stronger being a big group. We all look out for each other. They’ll understand, Max.”

I gave one solid nod and stuck my hand out to shake Valenti’s hand. “Thanks, Valenti.”

I turned to walk away but Valenti stopped me. “Max,” he said, and I turned back around. “Listen, I know that everything’s screwed up right now. You and I haven’t seen each other in a while, and I haven’t been able to help you out. But this might: Liz’s father wanted to know my position when it comes to you. He wanted my opinion.”

I shrugged my shoulders. “What did you say?” I said curiously.

“I told him you were a great guy and that you and Liz are good for each other. I put in a good word for you two.”

A smile stretched out on my face. “I—I don’t know what to say…thanks so much.”

“And just to let you know,” Valenti grinned. “I think he took my words to heart. Now get out of here. It won’t look good if your father sees you here.”

I smiled again and walked out of the police department. I love Valenti. He’s such a great man.

*~*

So many things were trying to be organized in my head. Maybe I shouldn’t have been driving right now, but it’s usually what I did when I needed to organize things in my head. Maybe I should start taking walks.

But my head…things in my head. It’s what I wanted to focus on. So many issues that needed to be resolved. I was supposed to head over to B&A for a lab, but I was driving around deciding whether or not I should tell my parents. It was the easy way out and it seemed like the only way out.

Then in my head came the thoughts of Liz. She always knew how to find a way into my head. Random thoughts of Liz would pop into my mind pretty often. Those thoughts brought on issues like our engagement, and what Valenti told me as I left the police station. I don’t know what Valenti said to Mr. Parker, but I sure hope that whatever he said was really persuasive enough to let me marry Liz, and I hope that Mr. Parker did take it to heart. And I got happy, ecstatic at the notion of the best-case-scenario. But how would I find out if it was ok to marry Liz? I’d find a way. I’d need to find one before tomorrow night when Liz leaves.

My phone rang and I felt the vibration in my back pocket. “Hello?”

“Max!” Liz said eagerly.

Even though I was a little down because she was leaving tomorrow night, I smiled. “Hi, you sleep well?”

I heard a little sigh on the other end. “I should ask you that. I showed you that board last night. Did you sleep well?”

I shook my head and pulled my car over to the side of the road. “I tried the best I could,” I lied. “I told Isabel and Michael this morning.”

“How’d they take it?”

I turned off the engine and sighed. “Michael didn’t seem to have any trouble believing it, but Isabel did. That was until one of my father’s PIs followed us to her home.”

“You saw one of them?!” Liz asked, shocked.

“Yeah, I recognized him as one of the truck drivers in that diner.”

“So that’s how your father knew everything.”

I nodded. “Yeah. I think I’m going to tell my parents, Liz. With those PIs, they’re involving more people, and I think that this is the only way out.”

“Good,” Liz sighed. “Max, they’ll be able to handle it, and you won’t have to worry about them being in danger.”

“We just have to hope and pray for the best,” I replied. “Was there anything you wanted to tell me? It seemed like there was something you wanted to tell me.”

“Yes,” she said, and I picture her nodding her head. “Something’s happened to my father. He’s acting like a total saint.”

My face lit up. Maybe Valenti was right. “How?” I wondered.

“I’m not leaving tomorrow night,” she said happily.

My eyes widened. “That’s great. Do you know why?”

“He’s letting me stay to attend the homecoming dance next Saturday, but I’ll be leaving the following Sunday.”

“At least it’s another week,” I said, relieved. “God, I’m so happy, Liz.”

“I know,” Liz utterly agreed. “We can use next week to convince my father drop the whole Vermont thing, and maybe we can get married next week.”

Liz didn’t know I had an idea concerning Vermont, and I wasn’t going to tell her yet. And me wanting Liz to have an actual wedding was going to stand. “Liz,” I sighed. “You are going to have a wedding. A wedding with me in a formal suit and you in a wedding gown that will blow me away. We’re not going to get married any other way.”

“Max, how do you know I even want an actual wedding?”

I grinned. “Liz, I’ve already seen into your soul.”

Chapter 12: Part 1

{Michael}

We can’t let anyone else in. That’s where I stand, and I know that’s where Maxwell stands also. I was upset when Maxwell told us that he told Liz about our little secret. Later on, I realized it was the only way to explain it to her. So, I guess I was ok with it. Then Liz told Maria. We needed her help that night at the crash site festival, and again, I was upset that another person knew, but Maria helped us and now Liz had someone who she could talk to because I sure as hell didn’t know how Liz was feeling about this whole alien thing. She had Maria, who she trusted and who she could talk to. Two people that knew our secret was enough.

But then Maxwell saved Mr. Ed and got into a car accident. Alex got involved and days later, we had to tell him the truth. That’s when things got dangerous. The FBI knew Alex was in on this, and he was their first target. That might have been when the shit it the fan.

Watching and looking out for all these people was like babysitting. Maxwell didn’t look at it that way, but I did. I used to be independent with only Maxwell and Isabel to rely on when I needed to, now I was part of this large group, a group that knew our secret. It just wasn’t me, but I got used to the group, and I was content with it. We were a large group but we were tight knit. If we include anyone else, we put them on the list of people whose lives are pretty much no longer their own, but all of ours.

“Michael.”

My eyes were diverted away from Max's large, flat screen tv to Max. I dusted the powdered sugar off my fingers. “Hey, where’ve you been?”

I watched him take a seat on his recliner. He seemed exhausted. “I went to see Valenti.”

I moved to the edge of my seat. “What for?”

“I needed to ask him what I should do when I know there’s a private investigator following me.”

I stared at Maxwell hard. “You’re kidding me.”

But my best friend shook his head. “He was in the bushes and he followed my car when I took Isabel home.”

“So what’d you do?” I wanted know.

Max shrugged his shoulders. “We lost him,” he replied simply. “I dropped Isabel off, and went to talk to Valenti.”

“What’d he say?”

“He said there’s really nothing I can do about the PI,” I listened to Max say, and I don’t like where he was going. “But I know there’s something I can do about my father. I can have him call off the crusade.”

Damn it! I knew it. The only way to get Mr. Evans off the crusade was to tell him our secret. “Max, we can’t tell them. What the hell ever happened to not telling anybody else?”

“And I think we should tell Jesse,” Max said.

I couldn’t even believe he said it. “What the hell are you thinking, Maxwell?”

“I’m having them over for dinner tonight. Michael, if you’ve got a better idea, then please, share it with me.”

I gave a laugh. “Yeah, we don’t tell them, and just tell your father you know about the guy in the bushes.”

“He’ll keep on pushing, and he needs to stop before he contacts someone to dig even deeper.”

I shook my head, disapproving everything that had just come out of Maxwell’s mouth. “Maxwell, Alex died because he was involved with us. He was used and treated horribly,” I reminded Max. “Tess killed him, and she claims it was an accident. Valenti, Kyle, Maria, and Liz are at risk. Tonight, if you go on with this dinner, you include your parents and Jesse to the bunch. Jesse won’t know the woman he married and he’ll be introduced to a life he most likely won’t believe.”

“Michael, I want you there when we tell them.”

I shook my head, again, in disapproval. “Sorry, Maxwell,” I sighed. “I can’t. I can’t watch you guys make the biggest mistake of our lives.”



{Isabel}

I nervously paced around the room, waiting for Jesse to come home from work. Max called a few hours ago, telling me that he was finally ready to tell our parents. I’m not going to lie, I was so relieved. It was the only way to clear up the mess in our lives right now. It was more of Max's mess, but it concerned the whole group. I knew that it was going to be ok to let them in. I knew that when I wanted to tell Alex. I had a knack for seeing these things.

The door opened and Jesse walked in, setting his briefcase on the floor before hugging me and kissing me on the cheek. “Hey,” he smiled. “Were you waiting for me to come home?”

I nodded happily. “Yes, actually.”

“You seem really happy, are you ok?”

I nodded my head excessively. “Yeah, I’m fine. Listen, my brother wants us to go over to his place for dinner tonight. Is that ok?”

He looked at me, surprised. “Yeah…I mean, sure. That’d be great,” he grinned. “He’s really changed since the wedding.”

“He really has. It might be because he’s changed his view on our parents. He thinks they’re the bad guys, and for a minute I thought my father was too, but he’s finally figured out how to deal with it.”

I think I bored him slightly with all that information he didn’t really care for hearing. “That’s great,” he replied. “This thing with him and your father is getting freaky. Your father wanted me to ask you a few things about him.”

“What things?” I asked.

“Something about a Jeep?” Jesse tried to recall. “What he was doing in LA, stuff like that. I can’t really remember it all. I didn’t pay much attention to it.”

I sighed in relief. “Good. When my father comes to you about Max, don’t pay attention.”

“What is going on with the two of them?” Jesse wondered.

I looked at Jesse and kissed his lips. “You’ll find out tonight. Let’s get ready.”

*~*

“Hey, Max,” Jesse smiled as he shook my brother’s hand. “Thanks for having us over for dinner.”

“No problem,” Max beamed back. “I’ve had the place for a few days now, and I’ve been wanting to have some people over for a house warming kind of thing.”

Jesse nodded in understanding. “Well, thanks for inviting me.”

Max let him into the apartment and Jesse walked on into the living room. I hugged Max at the door and sighed.

“Are you ready?” I asked.

He shot a sigh my way. “Are you ready?”

How can you prepare to tell loved ones that you’re really an alien from another planet? There was so much to tell them, and I had no idea how we’d explain it. I knew they were going to ask questions, and on the ride over, I tried to think of all the possible questions they asked, and the list went on and on.

“No,” I finally answered.

“Same here,” Max laughed sadly.

I couldn’t hear the sound of Michael, and wondered where he was.

“He doesn’t approve,” Max told me. “He won’t be here.”

“He should be here with us.”

My little brother led me into the living room, and I found Jesse sitting on one of Max's leather couches as he looked around. He seemed to be fascinated by the wonderful art prints on my brother’s walls, the entertainment system, and my brother’s collections of DVDs, videos, and cds.

“You’ve got a really great place,” Jesse admired. “Behr&Appleby must be paying you pretty well.” (quick little a/n: on my computer in Word, i have the floor plans of Max's apartment inserted into the story. LoL. if you do happen to want to see what Max's apartment looks like. let me know. )

Max blushed slightly, but it was true and he deserved it. “Thank you,” Max replied.

He left us to go back into the kitchen where we could smell the food cooking.

“The food smells great,” I said. “What are we having?”

“Lasagna,” Max shouted back from the kitchen. “Do you guys want something to drink?”

“Water would be great,” Jesse requested.

I shook my head. “I’m fine.”

Max came back with a water bottle and handed it to Jesse. “Hey, Jesse,” he said, “I just wanted to say welcome to the family.”

Jesse looked at me and I shrugged my shoulders with a smile. “Thanks for making this my first real family dinner with the new family. Isabel told me that you make the best lasagna.”

“I try,” Max replied.

You do not know how relieved I was to see Max and Jesse getting along so well. They continued talking. Jesse complimented Max on all the trophies on the shelves of one wall and the books on the shelves of another wall. Max even recommended that they get together sometime to play basketball since Jesse revealed he played a little basketball at Cornell.

Then the doorbell ran and we all fell silent. Our parents arrived. Max nervously looked at the door while he rubbed his thighs to wipe the sweat from his palms. It was something he always did when he was nervous. Max had all sorts of little quirks.

“I’ll get it,” I finally said after a while.

I left them alone, but I could still hear Max. “Still a little nervous about talking to my parents,” I heard him say to Jesse.

I opened the door and saw both my parents eagerly waiting to come in. My mother held a pastry box in her hands and forced it towards me.

“Isabel, hi,” she smiled. “Here’s a cheesecake. Would you mind putting it in the fridge?”

“Sure,” I said. “Max and Jesse are in the living room.”

My mother kissed my cheek, and then my father did the same before the two of them walked into the living room. While I put the cheesecake in the fridge, I heard Jesse give a warm welcome to my parents, and I pictured Max hesitantly waiting to do the same. Before going back into the living room, I grabbed the phone off the base and dialed Michael’s number.

“Hello?”

I smiled and gave a sigh of relief. “Michael, it’s Isabel.”

“What do you want?” Michael asked callously.

“Michael, I’m sorry about what’s going on, but I think it’ll be for the best.”

“Ok, well, you think that.”

I closed my eyes in frustration. “They’re here already, and we’re going to tell them tonight,” I told Michael. “I want you to be here when we do. Max needs you to be here when we do.”

“Wouldn’t he prefer Liz to be there?”

“Michael, don’t be like this.”

“Like what?” Michael asked rudely.

“Like a stubborn little boy who doesn’t want anyone’s help.”

“I don’t want anyone’s help,” Michael agreed.

“Please, Michael. Max and I would really like it if you were here when we told them. To prove to them that we aren’t the enemy, and to prove to you that we can trust them. I mean, was Max wrong about Liz?”

“She told Maria, then Alex, and Valenti, oh, and then Kyle.”

“Liz was only looking out for us.”

I could hear Michael’s sigh, and hesitantly speak. “Look what happened to Alex,” Michael said.

“It was Tess,” I replied. “Tess did that, and I know, I know that we trusted her somewhat and that fell through. But that was Tess.”

“And you and Max keep saying that!” Michael shouted.

“I know, I don’t know what else to say. Please, Michael, just trust us.”

I waited for a reply, and I was hoping so much that it would be a positive one, but I didn’t get a reply at all. Silence lingered for a while, and then the dial tone chimed in. Michael just hung up on me. Well, fine. Maybe he shouldn’t be here if he was going to act like a brat.

I rushed back out to the living room and saw my family awkwardly sitting in the silence. My parents sat on Max's leather love seat while my brother sat in his recliner, the one piece of furniture farthest from the love seat. Jesse sat in between them, unsuccessfully playing mediator, nervously looking around.

“Max,” I finally said. “Maybe you should check on the lasagna.”

He snapped his attention my way and coolly walked over to me. He looked at me gratefully as we walked back to the kitchen together.

“Thank you,” he breathed out. “Am I sweating much?”

I looked at his forehead and swiped away some beads of sweat. “Not much,” I replied. “Max, just breathe, relax, keep calm.”

Max took the lasagna out of the oven and placed it on the stove. He closed the oven and then leaned back on the counter. “I don’t know about this,” he said.

“Well, too late now,” I sighed. “They’re here and they won’t leave after being here only two minutes.”

“Actually, three minutes, eleven seconds. I’ve been counting.”

“I can see that,” I swiftly replied.

I grabbed the pot holders and used them to carry the dish of lasagna to the already set table. Max went all out to make sure this dinner was acceptable for my parents. Max followed me with the bowl of salad and basket of garlic bread.

“Dinner’s served,” I announced.

Jesse jumped up and rushed over to the table. “Is it hot in here or just me?” he wondered.

“Might be just you, sweetie,” I kissed his cheek and we took a seat next to each other.

My father took the end, and my mother took the seat closest to him while my brother sat at the other end. Jesse and I exchanged looks while the silence that was pretty much the theme of the night permeated the room. We all passed around the food and the only thing we listened to were the sounds of utensils scraping against the plates.

“Sorry I’m late,” Michael said.

He was standing in the doorway of the kitchen and dining room. The light behind him silhouetted him, making him out to be some kind of savior. I guess he was, because Max sighed in relief and welcomed Michael.

“Thanks for coming,” Max said softly.

He shrugged his shoulders and took the empty chair between my mother and Max. “Isabel called me, and I couldn’t turn down a home cooked meal, especially if Maxwell cooked it himself.”

“Max does cook an excellent meal,” my mother smiled.

I caught Max's eyes and he gave me a silent thank you. I grinned back in response and we continued to shovel food on our plates. Everything went silent again as we started to eat. I watched Jesse look around as he jabbed at his ranch drenched salad. Tonight could not be running this badly. But it was. My parents had been here for ten minutes, and nine out of the ten minutes was awkward silence.

The rest of the dinner was like that. Max and Michael sat around silently while my parents chatted with Jesse and I. My father and Jesse spoke about work and my mother wondered how La Jolla was. I didn’t give her very detailed descriptions but more like yes or no answers.

“Why don’t you guys sit in the living room while we bring out the coffee and cheesecake?” I said to Jesse and my parents.

This wasn’t my apartment and I didn’t cook the dinner, but it seemed like I was the hostess. Max was nervous and preoccupied with the imminent news, I couldn’t blame him.

Michael, Max, and I picked up all the dirty plates and dishes and met up at the sink.

“Ok, this is it,” I said to my brothers. “Are we ready?”

Max shook his head and was ready to back out. “I—I don’t know what to say. I don’t know how to put it out there.”

“We can still back out,” Michael suggested.

But I shook my head fiercely. “No, there’s no backing out now. We have to do this.”

Michael grabbed the tray of coffee and mugs and I took the cheesecake out of the fridge, and the three of us walked out to the living room.

“Dessert’s here,” I announced.

TBC

*here's the conclusion to chapter 12. thanks everyone for the feedbakc! sorry to leave you all hanging!*

Chapter 12: Part 2

{Michael}

I helped Isabel serve up the cheesecake while Maxwell sat in the recliner. He sat on edge, rubbing his forehead. I was nervous, but Maxwell must’ve been pissing in his pants.

“This cheesecake looks great,” I announced. “Thanks for bringing it, Mrs. Evans.” It’d be a whole lot better if I had some Tabasco Sauce but Maxwell was out.

“It wasn’t a problem,” Diane smiled. “How’s school going, Michael?”

I shrugged my shoulders and prepared to hide my nervousness. “It’s going great. Looks like I’ll be able to graduate after all.”

I watched Isabel hide her smirk. I wasn’t lying. If I worked hard, which I did, then I’d be able to graduate with Maria. I would be fine with not graduating, but Maria was pushing like hell for me to graduate. She thinks I’ll go to the same college as she is, but Maria’s smart, and I slacked off. I’ll be lucky if I can get into a community college that’s close to her university and Maria was aiming for some kind of art school to play her music.

“That’s great, Michael,” Mr. Evans said. “If you need help getting into college, I can always put a good word in for you.”

I was shocked. I had been best friends with Max and Isabel since grade school, but I barely talked to their parents. They barely knew me and I barely knew them. Maybe Mr. Evans was trying to get to me like he was trying to get to Liz. I just bobbed my head and smiled, I had stuffed my mouth full of cheesecake to prevent myself from saying something stupid.

“Max,” his father said. “How’s work at B&A?”

He was the only one not eating cheesecake or drinking coffee. Max had been observing us the whole time. Or it appeared that he was observing us. I bet that he was thinking of a way to bring up the issue. He nervously looked to me and then to Isabel.

He cleared his throat like he was prepared to answer his father. “I know,” he said instead. “I know about the board in your office.”

Mr. Evans fork fell against his plate, making a high clang noise.

“What board?” Diane asked.

She continued to cut at her cheesecake, unaware of how important the issue really was. Jesse was doing the same.

“There’s a board in Dad’s office with surveillance photos and notes,” I watched Max say.

I looked at Mr. Evans and he and Max just glared at each other. Jesse did the same thing I did, and our heads shot back between both men.

“Wh—what’s going on, Isabel?” Jesse asked nervously.

“Just listen,” she told him.

“You hired those private investigators,” Mrs. Evans realized. “I told you it wasn’t a good idea.”

Max remained calm, he looked more disappointed and hurt than angry, which was what I’d probably feel if I were in his position. But I wasn’t and I would never have to be. I guess I was lucky that way, if you would consider it luck.

“I needed to know,” Mr. Evans finally said.

“So you hired someone to stalk us and invade our privacy?” Max asked.

“Isabel, maybe we should leave,” I heard Jesse whisper.

But the woman I considered a sister shook her head. She looked like she was about to cry. “No, this concerns you too,” she replied softly.

Max sighed heavily. “You went too far, Dad. I told you that I didn’t want to tell you my secret because I wanted to keep you safe.”

“What if this secret is dangerous, Max?” What if we can help you—”

“It is dangerous, and that’s why you shouldn’t know,” Max replied. “But we’re going to tell you.”

Max's mother stared at him. “We’re?” she wondered.

“Max's secret involves Michael and me also,” Isabel finally declared.

I could hear everyone’s heart pounding so hard. Jesse looked nervous and slightly panicked…ok…really panicked. I wasn’t doubting whether or not Jesse would be able to take the news by the way he was worrying.

“Isabel, what are you talking about?” he questioned.

“Mom, Dad, Jesse,” she said. “Michael, Max, and I…we’re not…human.”

Jesse laughed. “What?”

“We are human,” Max corrected. “We’re just not completely human.”

“Hybrids,” I jumped in.

Max nodded. “Yes. We’re…we’re hybrids. Mom and Dad, you didn’t give birth to us, but we’re still your kids. Earth is our home, you’re our family.”

“And Jesse,” Isabel said, turning to him. “I’m still the woman you married.”

“We’re just special,” I decided to say.

It really was the only way to explain it. Technically, we were human, we just had gifts.

Jesse shook his head. “Special? Special, how?”

Everyone fell silent as Isabel picked her plate of cheesecake up. She held her hand just an inch above the cake and concentrated hard. Seconds later, Isabel’s concentration paid off. Her plate was now holding a puddle of cheese.

“Wh—Wh—How?” Jesse mumbled. He laughed to himself and cleared his throat. “What the hell did you just do?” he finally said.

“We have gifts,” Max explained. “It’s all hard to explain, but you just have to trust that we’re telling the truth.”

He looked to Jesse, his mom, and then his dad, to find a response. They nodded their heads, but I don’t think they knew what they were agreeing to.

“Michael, Isabel and I,” Max began again. “We’re the survivors of the 1947 crash. You’re going to have questions, and we’ll try to explain it, but we don’t really know what we are. We know we’re human, we’re just…different.”

“We were put on Earth for protection,” I continued on for Max. “We were in incubation pods until 1989 when we emerged as six-year-olds.”

“That’s when you found us,” Isabel said to her parents. “We’re not here to hurt anyone. That’s not our ‘mission’. We just want to live a normal life.”

Mrs. Evans shook her head in disbelief. “Who else knows this?”

Isabel and I decided to let Max explain that. “Two years ago,” he said. “Liz was shot at the diner. I have this ability to heal—”

“Which Isabel and I don’t have,” I interrupted. “But we’ll explain that later.”

Max nodded and went on. “Nobody knew that I healed Liz, except for Liz. I had to tell her…what I am. It was the only way to explain what I did to her. She told Maria, and then…Alex.” Every time Max said Alex’s name, he always hesitated. “Valenti found out what we were because I had to heal Kyle also. So, Kyle also knows. Liz, Maria, Kyle, and Valenti. And now…the three of you.”

“It’s vital that you keep our secret,” Isabel said, staring at the ground. “Our lives are in your hands, and now your lives are in ours.”

Jesse laughed once more. “You’re kidding me?” he looked to Mr. and Mrs. Evans. “You guys can’t be buying this,” he said to them.

“She’s serious,” Max said. “Our lives depend on you three keeping it a secret. Our lives have been in danger ever since that day at the diner. I can’t…I can’t go into detail, but at one point, the FBI wanted us…me. They tried to get to me through the people I loved. If you knew then, they would have gotten to the two of you.”

“What did they want?” Max's mother wondered.

I watched as Max swallowed the lump in his throat. I remember when Maxwell was in the White Room. I think we all could remember that night. It was too hard to forget. No matter how much you wanted those days to go away, they would continue to pry themselves into your brain and become permanent memories. None of us could fathom what Max felt when he was in there. Sweat formed at his forehead, and he seemed too exhausted or nauseous to continue. But Max did anyway.

“They thought we were a threat…but we’re not. They wanted to hurt me,” Max said softly as he recalled his torture in the White Room. “You have to understand that we don’t want to hurt anyone. We want to be normal. That’s all we ever wanted.”

Jesse nodded his head up and down in understanding. “At the bachelor party, you were so paranoid when you thought I interned at the FBI.”

“Believe it or not,” I said to Jesse and the Evans’, “but we’re telling the truth. Now our lives are in your hands. Mr. and Mrs. Evans, Isabel and Max have grown up to be the greatest people I know. It’s not because of what we are, it’s because of the people that took them into their home to raise and love. You’ve raised great kids.

“We’re just…gifted. The three of us…we are human. We think, we live, we get angry, we love, we can do all of the above. Physically and emotionally, we’re the same as the three of you. Mentally, we’re gifted. That’s why Maxwell can wake up every morning and go to work at one of the most prestigious medical companies in the world. Isabel and I can do the same, but we chose not too. The three of us, we’ve tried our best to be normal. We tried to fit in with the crowd because we love our home, we love being human. It is what we are.”

I felt so compassionate, and I wanted so much to convince them. “Think what you want,” I continued. “Be scared of us, question us, or be angry with us, but Mr. and Mrs. Evans, don’t stop loving Max and Isabel. And Jesse, don’t stop loving Isabel, because she loves you. You taught her love.”

Both Max and Isabel looked up at me proudly. I think it was the first time they looked at me that way. “Is there anything you guys want to say?” Isabel asked.

Silence fell again. The pounding of hearts was driving me insane.

“I really can’t believe this. Aliens…the FBI…I just…I wish I knew,” Philip finally said. He had been quiet the whole time. “I—I wish I knew. I would have helped, Max. I knew that there was something different about you when we found you and Isabel in the desert. I can’t believe you hid this from us.”

Thank God that was his reaction. Now, we just have to sew everything together.

“I know, Dad,” Max sighed. “But every time we told someone, when we let someone into our world, they’re life was at risk too. Not only from the FBI, but also from…”

Max couldn’t find the words. “Other worldly things,” I threw in.

“Yes, Michael, thank you,” Max said. “This is our life. This is what we’ve been dealing with; the FBI, other worldly things. We look over our shoulders constantly. We want so bad to have a normal life, but we don’t have one. We may never have one. Our lives are dangerous, but we can’t just become new people, new identities. This is who we are, this is what we are. It’s a burden. And we don’t want people, innocent people, to be part of this dangerous life. But you asked for it, Dad.”

“And Jesse,” Isabel said to her husband. “I know you didn’t want to be a part of this. But I was selfish. I was blinded by our love. You were the one who taught me how to love, Jesse. I’m so sorry I dragged you into this.”

Jesse looked deep into his wife’s eyes, smiled, and shook his head. “I’m not. Isabel Ramirez, I love you. I fell in love with you, and I know that you didn’t put some power over me. I know you, Isabel. I know all of you. I’m not scared. I want to love you for the rest of my life. I wish you told me sooner also. I just have this feeling that you’ve all been through hell. I wish that I was there to help you, Isabel, to protect you.”

“Jesse,” Isabel smiled. She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him.

“I am a little scared, just because it’s something different, but I’m not scared of you,” Jesse admitted. “And so, I’m not going to stop loving the person I fell in love with, and that’s you, Isabel.”

“Max,” Mrs. Evans said, “what were you doing in Salina? LA?”

My best fried nervously looked at the floor. “I love my family, I love Liz, and I love Earth. This is my home. I don’t want to go back to wherever we came from. But our ship was reassembled.”

“Your spaceship?” Philip wondered.

Max nodded. “I got Tess pregnant,” he explained. “Tess is a hybrid too, but she’s not like us. She was…evil. She left the planet with my son, and he’s in danger up there. I needed to save him.”

“That basement under that convenience store held your spaceship,” Philip realized. “What about your son now, Max?”

He cleared his throat. “In LA, there was an alien who would have been able to help me, but I failed,” he said softly. Water in his eyes gathered and his face turned red. “I want to save my son…but I’ve failed too many times…and…I—there’s no other way up there. There’s…nothing I can do.”

“Max…I’m sorry,” Jesse sympathized.

Max shook his head while the tears in his eyes remained. “There’s nothing I can do about it. Dad, I’m done looking for my son. I want to save him, but there’s nothing I can even do to help him. All I want now is to live my life, finish medical school, and marry Liz.”

“You all have been fighting one hell of a battle,” Philip said. “It doesn’t help that we were on the wrong side, does it?”

“It’s not your fault,” Max sighed. “You never knew, but you do now. I need you to stop this investigation and tell Mr. Parker that you don’t need his help anymore.”

“Max…I want to apologize,” Philip announced. He stood in front of his son. “I’m sorry, and I want to be here for you.”

He opened his arms and Max looked up at him. For the first time, I think I saw Maxwell shed a tear. His face was red and strained from trying to hold back his tears. Moments later, and Maxwell finally stood up and took his father’s embrace.

Max wrapped his arms around his father and held tight. I’m not much of a crying man, but Max and his father held each other so tight while we all watched and I felt a few tears coming on.

I’ll admit, I didn’t think it was going to happen this way, but Mr. and Mrs. Evans accepted us for the kids they’ve always known and Jesse continued to love the woman he fell in love with. I’m glad I was wrong about everything.

A/N:

Every story needs conflict and tension…drama. Apparently, the way I go about this is: a problem will be solved, the characters will move on, and that problem will almost basically be forgotten. However, another problem will pop up, then that one will be solved, and then forgotten. The cycle will repeat. For example: Problem- Max and his father with his little investigation. Problem was recently solved. So thus, we are moving onto another problem/story line. So, several different problems will occur in the story. Think of it this way, The Right Way: Simplicity/Beginnings is like one season of Roswell. I just thought that you guys would want a kind of warning when the story starts to go one way and then another, it'll seem like it's got a new story line. Some of the problems (story lines if you want to call them that) will seem out of place, but they most of them will serve a purpose for later on in the story or later on in the series. And I said that I was planning on writing three stories for the series. I’m planning on possibly four. Most likely four. They’ll be shorter than this one. This first story of the series is an introductory thus the subtitle “Beginnings”.

Ok, so there's my little caveat. Please, don’t get upset and then boycott reading this fanfic because things aren’t going towards that happily ever after feel, even though Max and Liz are trying to achieve happily ever…after-ness. It’s just for to set up later events and for conflict purpose to give some action so that the story won’t be bland. It’s to spice it up. Just like how Max, Michael, and Isabel like things, really, really sweet and really, really spicy. I can't just have them get married because I mean, it's Max and Liz. There's got to be turmoil. Otherwise, this would just be a fluff fic, and there's nothing wrong with that because I happen to like fluff fics, but when I write, I like a little drama. Ok, so remember, it's just to spice it all up. Thanks for reading. Enjoy. I appreciate all the feedback given, totally grateful. Continue to let me know what you think.
-hoLLy

Sorry for such a long author's note. Now back to the story...



Chapter 13: Part 1

{Max}

“So you’re telling me that that was you that was in my dream, Izzy?” my mother asked Isabel.

I remembered that week so clearly. Isabel dreamwalked someone besides me for the first time. We were eight, maybe nine, and I hadn’t known it then, but Isabel had dreamwalked our mother one night. All I had heard for days was my mother talking to my father about this odd dream she had and how she couldn’t sleep at night. I was so angry at Isabel.

Isabel nodded in reply as she explained the whole dreamwalking process to our parents and Jesse. We were in my parents home and it had been a while since I had been. Michael, Isabel, and I had spent the two hours or so explaining to the three new inductees of the “I-know-an-alien club” all we knew about us. It had started with the shooting in the Crashdown and went on from there, telling them about the last two years of our lives. Then we explained to them our specific powers.

My mother finally threw her hands in the air. “I need a break.”

Michael, Isabel, and I nodded in understanding. Honestly, we needed one too. My mother and father went off to the living room and Jesse and my sister followed them. I stood up to clean up the remnants of an apple. The result of a demonstration by Michael.

“Let me help you,” he said.

I gave a little sigh but put on a grateful smile. “Thanks.”

For having been proved wrong, Michael was acting…not how I expected him to act. He willingly came over to my parents’ house to help us answer the questions that they and Jesse had.

“Some day, huh?” he asked.

I looked at him slightly dazed. “What?”

He held up an apple chunk and tossed it into the garbage.

I finally nodded. “Yeah,” I replied, exhausted.

“Look, Maxwell,” Michael sighed. “I’m glad I was wrong about the parentals.”

Oh, how I wanted to see the surprised look on my face. “What?” I chuckled. “Michael Guerin’s glad he was wrong?”

He rolled his eyes and finished cleaning up. “I’m trying to be grateful here,” he replied.

“Ok, finish explaining.”

He nervously scratched his eyebrow. “I shouldn’t have been so adamant about refusing to tell your parents.”

I shook my head in confusion. “I don’t understand.”

“I sat here today, watching you guys explain all of this to your parents,” Michael began. “And I watched their faces, Jesse’s too. They weren’t the least bit frightened or threatened. They were more interested than anything else. I guess I didn’t want to believe that they would act this way.”

I nodded my head as I bent down to clean up our very own homemade applesauce. “I understand,” I told him. “You and I, we’re the same in so many ways, but we’re also very different. We grew up differently. Michael, I understand that it’s hard for you to trust people.”

He sighed and continued to stare at the floor. I also understood that it was hard for Michael to open up. “Forcing me to allow you all to let people in,” he laughed, “has made me trust people more and it’s changed me, and I’m glad. Maxwell, everything’s falling into place. We have nothing to worry about. No one’s out there to get us anymore. For now we’re safe. I’ve got graduation to look forward to, maybe even college. I’ve got all of you guys and I’ve got Maria. And you know what? I’m happy.”

I stood up straight and stared at Michael. Never once in all the years that I had known him has he said that he was happy. I don’t think he knew how to put the words “I’m” and “happy” together. Hearing him say it for the first time, it made me happy. “I’m happy for you, Michael,” I told him.

He gave an embarrassed grin and continued to wipe down the apple juice on the wall with a towel. “Well…” he said skeptically, “there is one more thing to worry about.”

“What?”

“You and Liz,” he sighed.

I couldn’t understand why Michael was so concerned with Liz and I. It was later that I realized he was just looking out for me. He wanted what was best for me like I wanted what was best for him. Now that conflict was behind us, achieving happiness was ahead of us. My happiness was Liz, Michael knew that.

“What about Liz and I?” I wondered.

Michael hopped on the counter and tossed the rag aside. “Well, you and your parents are ok now. They know about your engagement. They’ve given you their blessing. But what about Liz’s parents?”

I shook my head. “Mr. Parker never gives me a chance to talk to him. I think I frighten Mrs. Parker.”

Michael laughed. “Man, you and the in-laws are going to get along great.”

“I don’t know what to do with them, Michael.”

“You’ve got to talk to them. Force Mr. Parker to listen to what you have to say.”

I shook my head and remembered when I tried to talk to Mr. Parker at the Crashdown. He was the kitchen and saw me walking in. He marched out of the kitchen holding firmly onto his spatula. I was just glad that it wasn’t a knife.

“I don’t think just talking to him will make him approve of Liz and I,” I told Michael.

“Then do something daring, bold, uncharacteristic,” Michael suggested.

Daring, bold, uncharacteristic? Did I know how to do those things?

TBC

Chapter 13: Part 2

[Liz]

I snapped my phone shut and turned to Maria. “That was Max.”

“How was last night’s talk?”

I stared at my phone and smiled. Max spoke wearily and softly, but he told me everything had gone well. His parents said they’d stand by him and us no matter what, and Jesse wasn’t going to hold a grudge for being part of a family he didn’t think he was joining. He could only describe it as one thing though.

“Exhausting,” I replied. “He said it was exhausting.”

Maria gave a little laugh and took a few more dresses into the dressing room. “Just wait until we have to tell your parents.”

Max and I decided that we were never going to tell my parents unless it was absolutely necessary. Unless Max and I happened to have alien offspring. That was, if Max and I were compatible to have children. I never really thought about it. Kids would be great to have, but was it possible for Max and I?

My head suddenly became lightheaded. One minute I was thinking about having kids with Max and the next, I felt like I needed to sit down. Might have been walking around Roswell’s mall. It wasn’t the biggest, but it wasn’t the smallest. Maybe we had walked in circles too many times. Maria and I were searching for a new dress for homecoming. We’d been at the mall since when it opened for the day, wanting to find perfect dresses for our last high school homecoming together. Now all I wanted to do was go home and lie down.

“I found it,” Maria exclaimed, and I snapped out of my zone and subsided the lightheadedness. “This is it.”

“You…look gorgeous,” I managed to say.

She looked down at her outfit and smiled. “We are going to blow everyone away. Liz?”

I took me head away from the floor and looked at Maria. “Yeah?”

“Are you ok?” she asked me. “You seem a little preoccupied.”

I blinked a few times and tried my best to keep my balance. “Yeah…yeah, I’m fine. Why don’t you change out of that while I pay for my dress?”

Maria disappeared back into the small dressing booth and I headed for the register.

“Alright,” Jessica Donnelly smiled. “That’ll be $175, Liz.”

I reached into my wallet and pulled out a blank check my mother gave me for my homecoming dress. I wrote in the amount and handed it to Jessica. As I pulled my hand back, someone had reached around me and grabbed my hand.

“Hey, Max,” Jessica said.

I snapped around and saw Max standing behind me. “You scared me,” I said.

“Sorry,” Max sighed. “Hey, Jessica. Is that the dress?”

Jessica handed me a bag and I grabbed it, closing the handles. “Yes, and you can’t see it," i told him.

“Can I talk to you?” Max said to me. “We’ll see you later, Jessica.”

The two of us walked out to the front of the store, and we were back in the busy mall. Max didn’t lead me far; he sat me down on a plantar and sat next to me. Finally, I got to sit down, but I didn’t seem that glad. I had completely forgotten that I hadn’t been feeling well just moments earlier. Now, I was preoccupied with Max. He didn’t seem happy and he didn’t smile when he came up to me. He seemed tired. He wasn’t lying when he said the talk with his parents and Jesse was exhausting considering it happened last night.

“Is there something wrong?” I asked Max.

He shook his head. “No, I just wanted to see you, but maybe I should go, someone might see us.”

But I shook my head and pleaded for him to stay. “No, my father’s been great. Something happened, but he’s different. I think he’s warming up to us. I don’t think we have to hide anymore.”

“Ok,” Max said softly.

“You talk to your parents today?” I wondered.

He nodded. “Yeah, I just came from their house. They wanted to know about our…abilities. So Isabel, Michael, and I showed them.”

“How’d they react?”

He shrugged. “I think they were a little scared but they were ok.” Max didn’t talk much, and I didn’t know what to say. He rubbed his hands on thighs and looked around. Finally, he sighed. “I better go.”

“What?” I wondered. “Why?”

He shrugged his shoulders and stood up. “I just better leave.”

I tilted my head up to kiss his lips, but Max kissed my forehead instead. He walked away from me, and I wondered what had just happened. Maria walked over and saw Max walking away.

“Why’d Max leave? Is there something wrong?” she asked me.

I stared at the invisible path that Max had left and nodded. “Something’s definitely wrong.”

Chapter 14

{Max}

I pulled my phone out of my pocket and felt it vibrate in my hand. I flipped it open. It was Liz. I was on my way to school already, and I was going to see her in five minutes. I glanced at my phone once more and tossed it onto the passenger seat. Ok, so I was avoiding Liz. She had called me five times already. I knew she was concerned because of the way I acted yesterday at the mall.

“It’s about time you got here, Maxwell.”

I looked at the voice who called my name. “Michael,” I realized. “Hey.”

“I take it by your enthusiasm,” he said sarcastically, “that your plan is working.”

I shook my head as we continued to walk down the halls. “I haven’t actually executed it, yet.”

“Be careful, Max. If you’re not, this thing will blow up in your face.”

“I know, Michael,” I sighed. “You won’t let me forget.”

“Well, when are you going to talk to Mr. Parker?”

I shook my head and shrugged. “I don’t know.”

“You’ve got a good plan brewing,” Michael laughed.

“Hey, you’re the one that told me to do something uncharacteristic, and I am.”

I caught Michael rolling his eyes. “When I said uncharacteristic, I meant ‘mariachi band’ uncharacteristic, not ‘Maxedo” uncharacteristic. I also said that you should be daring and bold, not suicidial and asinine, and that's exactly what your plan is.” Then he slapped my arm and pointed out Liz. “There she is. Do it now.”

I slapped Michael back and turned around, away from Liz. “I can’t just ‘do it’ now. It takes time, it’s a process.”

“How do you think she’ll react when your plan succeeds?” Michael wondered. He walked beside me, looking over his shoulder as we walked farther and farther away from Liz.

“She won’t be happy about it,” I told Michael. “But it’ll help this thing between her father and I.”

Michael doubtfully scratched his eyebrow. “I don’t think that he’s going to be happy when you tell him that you and Liz are engaged.”

“Well,” I sighed, “we won’t be engaged much longer.”

*~*

The lunch bell rang and I decided to have lunch in the cafeteria. The food wasn’t great, but I needed to stay near school right now. I was ready. I looked around the cafeteria for Liz and found her sitting at a table alone. Maria was probably in the long line waiting to be served her food. I nervously walked towards Liz with my hands in my pockets.

“Max!” she smiled up at me. She got out of her seat and ran to kiss me, but I turned my head away and kissed her cheek. She backed away disappointed and sat me down. “Um…have you bought our homecoming tickets? I mean, you said you were going to pay for them, right?”

I swallowed the large lump in my throat and took my hands out of my pockets to wipe the sweat off of them. “I’m—I don’t think I’m going. I told you I was, but I’m not. Sorry.”

Liz looked panicked and I hated making her feel that way. “Max, what’s going on? I thought we were going together.”

I nodded. “I did too, but things change. I have—I’m busy Saturday night.”

“I’m school treasurer,” Liz reminded me. “I have to be there.”

“I know,” I nodded once again.

We didn’t talk for a moment, which seemed like eternity, until Liz remembered this morning. “I called you this morning.”

“I didn’t have my phone with me,” I lied.

Liz nodded, but she knew that something was up. “Is there something wrong?” she asked me.

I shook my head and stood up. “No, there’s nothing wrong, but I need to go.”

I glanced down at my hand and noticed Liz holding it. “Are you ok?”

I continued to look down at our hands together. I didn’t want to, but I shook Liz’s hand loose. “I’m fine.”

I didn’t leave Liz with a goodbye kiss like I usually do. Instead, I just dropped her hand and walked out of the cafeteria. Plan A execution complete, and there was no Plan B.



[Maria]

I joined my best friend over at the lunch table. She appeared dazed, which seemed to be happening to Liz a lot lately. Yet again, her skin appeared flushed and her sweat glistened in the sun.

“Hey,” I said to her. “How goes it?”

She shook her head and stared at the table. “Not so good.”

“Ah, so your pallor does derive from an ailment.”

Liz finally looked at me. “What?” she laughed.

I shook my head. “Sorry,” I apologized. “Ms. Reyes drilled all that vocabulary into me. Anyway, you’re pale and slightly sweaty.” I lifted my hand to her forehead and felt the warmth. “You’re a little warm.”

“I’m just stressed,” she explained. “Max isn’t going to homecoming.”

“What?!” I gasped. “Why not?”

I watched Liz shrug her shoulders. “He said he was busy.”

Busy. Riiiiight. “I thought his parents and Isabel and Jesse were chaperoning.”

Liz stared at me. “They are?”

“Yeah,” I nodded. “I found out last period. They signed up this morning. So, how is it that his parents, sister, and brother-in-law are attending his own homecoming, but he’s not?”

Liz looked off to the side once more. “Something’s going on."

This was our last high school homecoming together. Liz was going to get accepted to Harvard and I was bound to get into one of Boston’s art schools. I wanted to be close to Liz. She had been my best friend since we were four.

I wasn’t sure what the hell Michael was going to do after high school, but I assume if Max and Liz were going to get married and go off to Massachusetts so Liz could go to Harvard, Michael would follow Max. It seemed like Jesse was doing so well at Mr. Evans’s law firm, so it was probable that he and Isabel were going to stay in Roswell. Kyle was going to play baseball for the University of Southern California Trojans (it was already set in stone), so it’d almost definitely be the last homecoming with him.

Speaking of Kyle. “Hey,” I said to him. He took a seat and sighed. “What’s wrong?”

“Do people ask their homecoming dates months before the actual dance?” he wondered aloud. “Everyone’s taken.”

I grinned slightly and looked at Liz who still seemed to be thinking about Max. I tilted my heads towards her. “Max flaked, Liz is free.”

“He what?” Kyle asked.

“Apparently, he’s ‘busy’,” I replied, even using air quotes with my index and middle fingers; can't believe I did. “Liz is going stag.”

“What about you?” Kyle asked me.

I grinned proudly. “Spaceboy already asked me.”

Kyle chuckled. “You’re kidding.”

“Nope,” I told him, shaking my head.

“I don’t know what you did,” Kyle sighed. “But he’s a changed man, Maria. Excellent job.”

“Thanks. And you? Are you going to ask Liz?”

We both looked at her and noticed that she was still staring off into space.

“Liz?” Kyle beckoned. “Liiiiiz…”

She blinked herself conscious and smiled. “Kyle, hey, when’d you get here?”

Kyle and I laughed. “A while,” he answered. “Listen, I hear you don’t have a date for homecoming, and neither do I. Do you want to go together, if it’s ok with Max?”

She gave a pleasant smile. “He’ll be ok with it,” she insisted. “I’d love to go with you.”

TBC

(thanks for the feedback you guys!!! i really appreciate it!!!)

Chapter 14: Part 2

[Liz]

I looked over my shoulder as I grabbed the handle of the eraser room door, holding two chalkboard erasers in one hand and a note from Max in the other. The coast was clear, no one was in the halls. I slowly opened the door and as soon as I did, I found Max sitting on a old desk against the far wall. He was waiting patiently for me.

“You’re going with Kyle?” he asked me immediately.

Word traveled fast around West Roswell. Lunch ended all of twenty minutes ago, which was when Kyle and I agreed to go to homecoming together, as friends. I pretended to ignore Max and his sudden feelings of jealousy.

I rolled my eyes and turned on the eraser cleaner. “Is there a problem with that?”

“I wish you would’ve checked with me.”

I scoffed and turned around. “Do you want me to call you every hour from now on too?” I sarcastically asked. “Or maybe I should wear a pager so you know where I am at all times.”

Max rolled his eyes.

When I caught him doing so, I did the same. “He asked me right after you left me at the lunch table,” I sighed.

“So you’re going to go with him?” Max questioned.

I nodded with a look of disbelief in my face. “Yes, I’m going to go with him. Max, it’s my homecoming. I’m not going to go alone.”

“Then hang out with Maria,” Max said, glaring.

His brooding and mysterious characteristics usually had great appeal to me, but right now, they were irritating and unattractive. He used them now with those innate commanding characteristics of his and turned into King Max, controlling and assertive.

“Jealous of Kyle?” I laughed.

He didn’t laugh back or smile for that matter.

“Max, Kyle’s your friend and mine,” I told him. “You have nothing to worry about.”

“I just don’t know how it’ll look if my girlfriend goes to homecoming with her ex-boyfriend,” Max said fiercely.

His voice was so har—Girlfriend? Fiancée? I referred to Max as my fiancé, why didn’t he do the same?

“Girlfriend?” I asked Max. I tried to not let my hurt ease its way out through my tone.

“Liz, I didn’t mean anything by it,” Max quickly replied.

I swallowed hard and stared at him. Then I shook my head in confusion. “Which is it, Max? Am I your fiancée or just your girlfriend?”

His mouth hung open as he tried to find words.

"You’ve been different these past couple days,” I finally said to him. “What is wrong with you?”

Max stared at the eraser room floor and shook his head. “It…Liz…I—Can you just stop asking what’s wrong with me? There’s nothing wrong with me.”

“Well, you’re kind of freaking me out here, Max,” I told him. “One day, we’re in the desert talking about college and you following me to wherever I go and recently, we take it a step farther and get engaged, but now…” I sighed, “now…you’ve been acting like…Max, you’ve just been quiet and introverted. It seems like…you just don’t want to even be with me…” My heart sank to my feet when I realized that what I had just said was probably true.

Max continued to stare at the floor. I shook my head in disbelief. No, that couldn’t be it. Was it? Was that really what he was thinking?

“Talk to me, Max,” I begged. “Am I right? It can’t be, ‘cause maybe something’s going on. You can’t just change your mind so easily.”

“Yeah, maybe I can,” Max disagreed.

I ran my hands through my hair. What was going on? “I can’t believe this, Max. Is there something else going on?”

“No,” Max said assertively. “There’s nothing going on.”

I shook my head. “Then what? Why? Why can you just change your mind so easily?”

“Because,” Max sighed. He slid off the desk and stood up, facing the utility shelf and the contents on it. He slid a can of Comet towards him and pretended to read it. “Because, Liz,” he continued, still looking at the cleaning product, “twice we’ve tried to get married…” Slowly, he finally turned to me and shook his head sadly. “Why do we have to fight so hard just to get married, to be together?”

“That’s why we decided to wait, Max,” I reminded him. “We decided to wait until all this stuff with both our parents cooled down.”

Max shook his head and continued to look everywhere but in my eyes. “Why do we have to be the ones who are always struggling to be together? Why do we have to wait for them to come around? Why is it always us making the sacrifices?” The way he spoke, it was like he was angry at the world.

My heart began to race when I spotted the pool of tears forming in his eyes. “Max…” I pleaded. “We’ve always come out on top.”

“I’m tired of fighting,” he almost cried. “That’s all we do is fight to be together. We even fight each other. I hate having to struggle. I'm tired of waiting. And I don't want to sacrifice anything anymore. Everything keeps on telling us that we shouldn’t be together. I’m finally listening.”

I forced down the lump in my throat and shook my head. “I can't believe,” I whispered. I knew if I wasted my energy speaking in normal volume, I wouldn’t have been able to hold my tears. “I can’t believe you’re just giving up.”

“Liz, I’m sorry.”

I shook my head, not wanting to believe it. “Where is all of this coming from? When did you start feeling this way?”

Max hung his head low. “Yesterday,” he admitted quietly.

“Is that why you were acting so weird at the mall yesterday?” I asked as it was slowly starting to make sense.

Max remained quiet.

"Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked him, slightly raising my voice, deeply hurt by the sudden events.

“Because how do I say something like this to you?!” Max said firmly. “I don’t want to have to deal with it anymore. I can’t deal with this anymore. This is the hardest thing to do, Liz, to say that we shouldn’t be together. I said it to you once before. It’s so hard to. I can’t say it again, but I’m going to have to."

"No," I shook my head. "You don't have to, Max. Please don't."

"GOD, LIZ!" Max shouted. "I love you! Don’t you know that?”

“THEN FIGHT TO BE WITH ME! Fight for us! You told me to have faith in us when Tess came into town. I had that faith, Max! Where’s yours?!”

We were practically shouting at each other, having out first fight in a long time.

Max didn’t answer.

“You led me on, Max,” I told him. “You gave me hope and right now, you’re taking it away. Jesus...and it’s so sudden. You couldn’t have at least talked to me?”

“We’re talking now,” he sighed.

I stared into his eyes.

Max clenched his jaw shut and rubbed his forehead. “It's not that we shouldn't be together. The thing is: You and I aren’t even supposed to be together,” he finally said.

I scoffed in complete disbelief. “Don’t give me that, Max!” I ordered. “We are meant to be together, and don’t even give me all that crap about you having a destiny to fulfill. You told me that we make our own destinies. Make yours with me,” I begged.

I stared into Max's contemplative eyes, believing that he was going to say, “Ok, Liz. I’ll fight for us, because I love you.” Instead…

“I’m breaking it off,” he announced. “I can’t do this anymore.”

“Do what" I wondered. “Max, there’s nothing even in our way to deal with.”

“Your parents,” Max replied.

I nodded. “Yeah, and we were going to ride it out with them.”

Max laughed and looked up at the ceiling, then back at me. “It’s a waste of time."

I rolled my eyes in disappointment, hurt, anger, frustration, just everything that would want to make you scream at the top of your lungs. “Where is this coming from? Why are you doing this?” I cried. My tears were visible in a pool in each eye and about to fall over the edge.

I had some sort of impact on Max. His own eyes began to have a glassy effect, realizing that he had hurt me. His mouth hung open slightly like he was about to answer.

I scoffed while my shoulders shrugged. I wasn’t going to let him answer. “All you know how to do is hurt me, Max.”

I stared at him hard and he didn’t even have the decency to give me some sort of response. I walked out, slamming the door shut behind me and rushed down the halls, walking as fast as I could. Reaching the student lounge, I headed straight for the phones. I grabbed a quarter from my pocket and put it into the slot. I punched a few numbers and waited for someone to pick up.

“Crashdown Café. How can I help you?”

“Dad,” I practically cried.

“Lizzie?”

I nodded. “Yeah, it’s me.”

“What’s wrong?”

I looked around the empty lounge and huddled close to the phone. “Dad, I need to go to boarding school.”

(A/N: Last line is kind of like the line Liz says to her father in "Ch-Ch-Changes". It's not the exact line, but I thought I should still give credit to the episode and the great writers.)

-hoLLy

Chapter 15

[Maria]

“What?” I gasped. “You’re going to Vermont?”

My best friend nodded and continued going through her locker.

“When was this decided?” I wondered.

“Yesterday,” Liz shrugged.

She spoke softly and monotonically. She was depressed about something, I knew it. I could tell. Liz was my best friend and we had been best friends for as long as we could remember.

We met when we were four. My mother had just opened her alien souvenir shop. It was the only way my mother knew how to support me. My father had just left us and when my mother was 18 she was a hippie, so school was never a goal for her. So opening an alien souvenir shop was her only option.

To spread the word about the new business, my mother had decided to bring some samples over to the local restaurant, the Crashdown Café. My mother and I walked in and immediately, I found a girl my age sitting alone in one of the booths. The jukebox was on it and it was playing George Michaels’s “Faith”. The little girl was singing along, but about every other word, she’d just hum along because she didn’t know the words. So I walked over and sang them for her. I caught her attention and she smiled at me with that slightly crooked smile of hers. Without saying a word, she invited me into the booth. She was coloring in her Strawberry Shortcake coloring book, and she tore out a page and slid it towards me along with her crayons. We still hadn’t said anything to each other, but she and I connected and clicked. Thus began the friendship between Liz and I.

“Why are you leaving, Liz?” I asked her. “What about Max--Oh my God, your dad found out.”

But Liz shook her head as she held her bag in one hand and used the other to rummage through her locker. “No, he didn’t find out. It was my decision.”

“What?!” I took her bag from her hand to get her attention. “Why on Earth would you decide to go to Vermont?”

There was only one thing--more like person-- that could drive Liz away from Roswell.

“What did he do, Liz?” I asked her.

Liz shook her head and snatched her bag back. “Nothing.”

“Liz, you’re not going to boarding school because it’ll look good on your college résumé,” I told her. “‘Cause you’ve already sent out your applications and Harvard’s going to accept you.”

“Maria, will you shut up?” Liz snapped.

My eyes widened. “See? He did something to you. Otherwise, you wouldn’t be so pissy.”

“Maria!” Liz shouted. “He didn’t do anything. That’s the thing. I don’t want to talk about it.” She slammed her locker shut and started to walk away.

I jogged up to catch up with her. “Liz, you’re my best friend and you’re leaving. I deserve to know why.”

She stared straight ahead as she continued her march. Then suddenly Liz stopped. She glared at something for a moment and then turned back around and started walking. I watched her walk away with a confused expression on my face and looked down the hall at whatever she had spotted. Max.



{Max}

What had I gotten myself into? The thought of making Liz cry hurt. Actually making her cry killed. I couldn’t get to sleep. It just kept replaying it in my head, the tears in her eyes, the hurt in her voice. Why did I have to go to extremes? I shouldn’t have started it. I regret it now. Michael was right, but now it was too late. I was in too deep.

“So, she ran away crying?” Michael asked me. He sneered at a freshman who accidentally ran into him.

“I think so,” I sighed.

“Nice, Maxwell,” Michael replied. “I hope it’s all worth it.”

I swallowed the lump in my throat and hesitantly nodded. “It will be,” I convinced myself and Michael. “It’s just—”

As I was about to describe my anguish to Michael, we bumped right into Maria, literally. She ran into me, full force, knocking the wind out of me.

“Geezu—” Maria began. “I’m so sor—” then she looked up and realized it was me she ran into. “Max…”

“Sorry, Maria,” I apologized. “I didn’t see you.”

Michael stood next to us, his own girlfriend hadn’t even acknowledged him yet. He rocked on his heels and toes with his hands boyishly in his pockets. “Hi,” he said to Maria.

But Maria didn’t hear Michael. She chose not to. “Do you know where Liz is?” she asked me.

I shook my head and crossed my arms in front of my chest. Maria knew where Liz was, she was just asking if I knew. So, I stood with my arms in front of my chest, waiting to hear the answer.

“She’s at home,” Maria finally said. “She’s at home, packing the rest of her clothes into a suitcase.”

My eyes widened and my arms slowly became uncrossed. “What? Why?”

“Because she’s leaving for Vermont Friday. Not Sunday, Max, Friday.”

“N-n-no,” I stuttered. “She can’t.”

Maria scoffed. “Well, she is. Thanks to you, Max, my best friend’s leaving earlier than planned.”

“Maria, calm down,” Michael told her.

He placed his hand on her shoulder, but she threw it off. “No!” she shouted. “What did you do to her?!”

“No, she can’t leave Friday,” I told myself.

“It’s blown up, Maxwell, and it’s all over your face,” Michael sighed.

Maria’s eyes narrowed. “What’s blown up?” she inquired.

“Maria, please, I know you must hate me right now,” I told her, “but you’ve got to do everything in your power to get Liz to stay for homecoming.”

Maria shook her head. “What’s going on at homecoming?”

“Maxwell, you need to just tell Liz.”

“Tell her what?!” Maria cried out.

Again, I ignored Maria’s pleas and stared at a distant spot on the floor.

“What are you going to do?” Michael asked.

I shook my head and continued to stare at the floor. “I don’t know. I’ve got to talk to her. I’ll try to convince her that she shouldn’t leave because of me, and I’ll talk to her father as soon as possible. You stay here, convince Maria to get Liz to go to homecoming.”

“I’m standing right here!” she shouted.

*~*

I shut off the engine and jumped out of my Chevelle, leaving the keys in the ignition. I jogged across the street to the Crashdown and skidded to a stop when I spotted Liz in the alleyway throwing out some trash. I ran straight to her and grabbed her arm. She jumped in fright.

“I’m sorry,” I apologized.

“Max, what are you doing here?” she sighed.

I swallowed the lump in my throat as I slowly removed my hand from her arm. “I—I’m sorry,” I said again.

Liz rolled her eyes and walked around me to the back door of her father’s diner.

“Liz,” I said firmly.

I turned and saw her standing still. She faced the door to the diner and didn’t seem like she was about to turn to me. So, I guess I was going to have to talk to Liz’s back.

“I’m sorry,” I said for the third time.

Liz scoffed. “You know, you keep on saying that…but it doesn’t mean anything to me.”

I swallowed hard and tried to push down my hurt, but that’s what I deserved. “Liz, please don’t leave because of me.”

“I’m leaving because of you either way, Max,” Liz reminded me. “The idea of boarding school came about because of you. So I’m leaving because of you. Nothing changed that.”

“But you’re leaving early because of me,” I sighed. “And I don’t want you to do that. It’ll kill Maria…and Kyle.”

“So now you care about Kyle?” Liz said, finally turning to me. “I don’t know what’s going on with you, Max Evans, but I know that I don’t care much to find out, because I don’t want to have to deal with it anymore.”

It was a perfect play of my words. Once again, it was what I deserved.

I nodded in agreement, it’s all I could do. “I understand,” I told her. “Look, I intentionally came here for me and you. I came in hopes that maybe I could ease the wound I made between us, bridge the gap. But now, I realized that maybe I can’t, Liz. Because I hurt you. So, I’m here for Maria. She doesn’t want you to go so soon.”

“Then I’ll talk to Maria,” Liz snapped. “I’ll deal with her. You don’t need to look out for us anymore.”

I bit down hard and nodded. All I could do was stand and take the abuse. “Ok,” I replied. “Just…please, don’t leave because of me. I’m not worth all your troubles, Liz. You bought a dress for homecoming, don’t let that go to waste.”

She remained still and silent. We stared at each other for a little bit and then finally Liz made her move. She turned back around and walked into the diner.

“I’m sorry,” I said to the closing door.

Chapter 16: Part 1
[Maria]

I marched through the halls of West Roswell High. Freshmen and sophomores got out of my way as I continued on my quest. Michael Guerin was my target. Yesterday, after the encounter with heart-breaking Max, Michael was supposed to convince me to get Liz to go to homecoming. I had hoped on getting the whole plan out from Michael, but he had run away, and so Spaceboy still had some explaining to do.

There he was, coming out of class, saying bye to Vinny DeMartino. I maintained my fast speed and continued towards him, grabbing his arm and pulling him away without even stopping or slowing my pace.

“What the—?” he gasped. “Maria?” he realized. “What are you doing?”

“You and I need to talk,” I told him immediately.

He was about to do that thing where he sighs, rolls his eyes, and scratches his eyebrow. I really hated when he did that and I just wanted to slap him in the arm before he was about to do it. But I didn’t.

“You’ve got to be kidding,” he sighed, rolling his eyes and scratching his damn eyebrow, all on cue. “I’m sorry.”

I shook my head in confusion. “Sorry for what?” I asked. “Michael, stop apologizing ahead of time when you didn’t even do anything. It gets irritating.”

“Ok,” he nodded. “So what’s the problem?”

“You’re going to tell me what’s going on with Max and Liz,” I demanded. “I know there’s something going on, and I know that you know.”

He rolled his eyes and started walking away, I quickly caught on to his pace and walked along side of him. “Maria, nothing’s going on,” he replied. “Everything will be ok. Just wait for it.”

“‘Wait for it’?” I wondered. “Wait for what? What did Max talk to Liz about and why is he going to talk to her father?”

Michael took a moment to think, and I knew whatever he was going to say was going to be a lie. “He want—.”

“Michael,” I said firmly, stopping him before he could lie.

He did his best to avoid eye contact. “Maria,” he sighed. “I promise you, everything will be ok. You just have to be patient. Maxwell’s taking care of it.”

“But what is ‘it’?” I asked. “Michael, my best friend’s leaving for Vermont. Do you know how far it is? Pretty damn far. Now, I know that Liz is leaving early for Vermont because Max screwed her over, but I don’t think that’s really it. He wouldn’t do that to her again. He’s got something up his sleeve, doesn’t he?”

“Maria, you’ve got to respect the two,” Michael pointed out. “Max never intrudes into our relationship—thank God—and Liz doesn’t barge in, either.”

“But, Michael…” I pleaded.

Michael stopped and held my upper arms. “Maria, just stop butting in. Maxwell’s got it taken care of. That’s all you need to know about that. The only thing that you need to worry about is making sure you’re ready for your last high school homecoming,” he said, satisfied. “And make sure Liz goes.”

“She’s not going to want to go,” I told Michael.

“You heard Max,” Michael told me. “Do everything in your power to get her to go. Buy her a ticket, make her feel guilty that you bought a ticket for her, then she’ll have to go.”

I shook my head in confusion and stared at Michael. “Why is it so important that Liz go? What’s Max going to do?”

My boyfriend rolled his eyes. “Are we going to keep dancing around in circles?”

“If you don’t tell me,” I warned, “I’ll tell Liz to go ahead to Vermont. My mom will let me fly over once a month, so really, I don’t mind.”

Got him. I had just pinned him in the corner. I told him one, big fat lie, but maybe it’d get him to tell me.

“Don’t,” Michael ordered. “Don’t tell her to leave.”

“Then tell me what’s going on,” I said plainly.

“Goodbye, Maria,” Michael sighed, ready to walk away.

“Michael!”

He rolled his eyes. “Maria…” he mocked.

“Michael!” I said, getting irritated.

He exhaled heavily and rolled his eyes. “Alright,” he finally gave in. “Alright, I’m going to tell you so you'll shut up. If he finds out, he’s going to kill me.”

I smiled giddily and sat Michael down at one of the outside lunch tables. “Great, now explain quickly.”

Michael sighed heavily and leaned in towards me. He cupped his hand around my ear and started to whisper. From the beginning of his explanation to the end, my eyes grew wider and wider. The punch line came and my face lit up.

“You’re kidding me,” I smiled.

But Michael shook his head. “Nope,” he sighed. “Chivalrous Max comes galloping in on his white steed yet again.”

I wrapped my arm around Michael’s and started making him walk me to my next class. He dragged his feet, pretending that he didn’t want to, but I know Michael, he didn’t hate it as much as he let on.

“This is unbelievable. It’s great how Max and Liz are actually going to do this, huh?” I asked.

Michael shrugged his shoulders as he took my books from my arms. “That is if Maxwell’s plan works.”

“It will.”

“Good,” Michael nodded.

“It definitely will,” I told him. “Liz loves him. When he tells her every thing, then she'll have to forgive him. And then they’ll go through with it because I don’t know how they could be with anyone else,” I said, smiling up at Michael.

Michael nodded and stared around as we walked down the halls. “Yeah, you’re probably right.”

“‘Cause they’re in love,” I continued to say, “and they’re ready to make that step.”

Michael nodded again. “Yeah.”

“They want to be together forever, and they should be.”

Michael continued to bob his head. “Yeah.”

My eyes widened angrily. “Michael!” I sighed.

We stopped in the middle of the hallway. “What?!” he exclaimed.

“I’m talking about the future here and being in love, and all you can say is ‘yeah’?”

Michael exaggerated a shrug and shook his head. “What am I supposed to say?”

“Don’t you have more input?” I questioned.

“With Max and Liz?” he asked. “That’s Max and Liz, I don't know what to say about them.”

I rolled my eyes and sighed in exhaustion. “I was talking in a general sense. Don’t you think about this type of thing?”

“Maria, I’m 17,” Michael argued.

“Max and Liz are 18.”

He gave a little chuckle, grabbed my hand and started walking. “No, Maria, they’re 30-year-olds in 18-year-olds’ bodies.”

Again, I sighed. “Still, Michael, don’t you think about it?” I asked him. “It’s part of your future right?”

I watched Michael shrug as he continued to stare ahead. “I don’t think that far ahead.”

Michael and I really did dance in circles all the time. That’s all we ever did. I shook my head in disappointment and took my books from Michael.

“I’ll see you at work,” I told him.

I started to walk away when Michael grabbed my arm, turning me around and making me drop my books. They hit the floor and our feet, but I couldn’t feel the pain of my history book dropping on my toes. Michael pulled me close and stared into my eyes and then kissed my lips.

“I don’t think that far ahead,” he started, “because you are my future, Maria, and I don’t have to worry about my future, right?”

My face lit up and I shook my head. “No, you don’t.”

Chapter 16 TBC