Re: Snapshot (AU M/L MATURE) Chapter 30 July 27th p. 14
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2008 5:37 pm
Alison
Christina
keepsmiling7
Laira
Eve
Kris
smith82
vaifeal
hayley85
Jason's Lover
Becky
Carrie
Natalie36
Alien_Friend
thetvgeneral
L-J-L 76
yayaliens
booboo
wistful dreamer
Emma
Ronnie
Kay
Guel
Tanya
sarammlover
roswell3053
Nikki04
mica
dreamsatnight
cocogurl
Ms_BuffyAnneSummers
bettylove8
Jessibelle47
carolina_moon
twilight
Blue*Soul
and
Elizabeth
Thank you everyone so much for the wonderful feedback!! I'm already running late for school so I'm gonna try and post this quickly.
Thank you for all the bumps as well!
Timeline
31. All the Small Things
Maria’s Apartment
Monday evening
(2008) Maria is 23, Liz is 22
Maria took one look at her friend and instinctively knew what had happened. “You told Michael about your feelings for Max, didn’t you?”
Liz blinked her red, dry eyes, any planned words of greeting getting lodged in her throat.
“What?” she croaked.
Maria cocked her head to the side, looking at Liz calmly. “You thought I didn’t know.”
Liz’s gut reaction was to ridicule Maria’s insinuations, but she was left speechless, because the whole purpose of this visit was to pour her heart out to Maria. She was about to tell Maria anyway.
Liz swallowed. “How?”
Maria smiled at her and Liz was struck by how grown-up Maria looked in that moment. It was like her friend was some wise sixty-year-old who had experienced every hardship of love and had learnt invaluable lessons because of it.
“Hun,” Maria said softly. “How about some ice cream?”
Liz nodded seriously. “Yeah. That sounds good.”
As Maria retrieved the ice cream from the freezer and pulled out a drawer to search for spoons, Liz tiredly sank down on one of the plastic chairs in the small kitchen. Maria had lived in this apartment for over two years already, but it still looked like she had moved in yesterday. Half of her stuff was still packed in large cardboard boxes, Maria’s handwriting announcing their content. There were Clothes, Stuff 1, Stuff 2, BE CAREFUL MICHAEL. Might break and Crap. Around the plastic kitchen table was one beach chair and two plastic garden chairs. In the large room serving as TV-room, bedroom and sometimes eating area, a king sized mattress had been placed on the floor. Maria had never really gotten around to buying that bed frame.
Liz was not anally neat, but she liked order and she would never be able to live like Maria was. But for some reason, Liz always liked to be at Maria’s place. The chaos made it homey and simple. Something Liz was always in the need for.
With the ice cream container in hand, Maria walked over to the mattress and sank down, gesturing for Liz to sit down next to her.
“How long have you known?” Liz asked quietly as Maria shoved two large spoons into the opened ice cream container.
She snorted and shook her head in frank incredulity. “You never really listened to me, did you?”
Liz frowned. “Of course I did.”
“Oh, okay,” Maria said skeptically. “Then you must remember the times I’ve hinted that there was more between Max and you than you wanted to tell me. Remember all the times I’ve told you that Max loves you?”
Liz grabbed one of the spoons and shook her head with a sarcastic huff. “But you never really meant it.”
The confidence in her words evaporated as she looked up into Maria’s serious face. “Yeah I meant it.”
“No. You were just making fun of me.”
Maria licked the cookies and cream ice cream off her spoon, her eyes fixed on the ice cream container. “Okay. Maybe it did sound as if I wasn’t really serious-“
“Exactly,” Liz said with emphasis.
“But that was just because you became so freaking defensive about it every time I brought it up. Seriously, Lizzie, did you really think you could fool me? The more you denied having feelings for him, the more I knew you wanted him. And Max hunting after all those girls?” She smiled brightly, as if she had just figured out the great mystery of life. “Classic. I mean, could he be more translucent?!”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he screw around with so many girls if he really wanted me?”
Maria shrugged. “Boys. Face it, Liz. The Y-chromosome makes them stupid.” She licked the ice cream off her spoon and added around a mouthful, “Besides, with all that pent up frustration about you in his system, he had to use it up somewhere.”
Liz looked at Maria silently for a second before pushing the spoon deep into the ice cream and leaving it buried. She was suddenly feeling a bit nauseous.
Maria grimaced sheepishly. “Sorry. Maybe that didn’t come out the way it should’ve.”
“I’m not sure why it bothers me so much-“
Maria raised an eyebrow. “Him sleeping with other people? It’s not really hard science, Lizzie. You’re in love with him. Of course you don’t want him sleeping with other girls.”
Liz sighed and let her head fall back against the wall with her eyes closed. “Every time he insinuates having sex with someone, my imagination kicks into overdrive. I can’t help but…seeing him.”
Maria wrinkled her nose in confusion. “Seeing him?”
Liz opened her eyes and looked at her friend with a painful expression. “You know, seeing him.”
Maria’s wrinkle turned into one of awkward disgust. “Oh… you don’t mean… oh.”
Liz sighed. “Maybe it’s because I’ve been there. If I hadn’t, my imagination wouldn’t have any facts to feed off-“
“Wait,” Maria interrupted. “What did you just say?”
Liz backpedaled to what she had said and a crimson red blush rushed across her cheeks as she realized what she had just unconsciously revealed.
Maria’s mouth fell open in stunned shock as she stared at Liz. “Elizabeth Anne Parker. Did something happen between you and Max?”
Liz nodded slowly, biting her lower lip in thoughtful insecurity.
Looking offended, Maria breathed, “If you don’t tell me right now-“
“We slept together.”
Maria’s eyes widened. “Oh. My. God.”
“Only once.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
“You had sex with Max Evans and you didn’t tell anyone about it?!”
Liz smiled momentarily at Maria’s stunned disbelief. “It was a mistake.”
Maria regarded her like she was crazy. “No it wasn’t.”
“You told me just minutes ago that he sleeps around a lot. Of course it was a mistake. He’s not made to be in a long-term meaningful relationship.”
Maria looked at her incredulously. “Does that lie help you sleep at night?”
“Maria-“
Maria laughed humorlessly. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I mean, I know that you had a thing for each other. I know that you were head over heels in love with him and I always knew that Max had a thing for you as well, but I could never even imagine that you at some point actually… God. This is big, Lizzie. How could you hide something like this from me?” Before Liz could answer, Maria shifted on the mattress to face Liz more completely and asked in a tone of pure curiosity. “How was it?”
Liz took a deep breath, feeling a warmth that she had been lacking spread inside of her. This was what she had been missing; being able to talk about her first time.
“I didn’t have much to compare to at the time, but-“
Maria frowned, signaling with a firm hand in the air for Liz to stop talking, “Wait. You’re not saying that… He deflowered you?”
“Maria!” Liz laughed at Maria’s choice of word.
Maria’s eyes widened excitedly. “He did! He was your first! Oh shit.”
Liz nodded.
“Oh my God,” Maria repeated and frowned as she came face to face with the impossibility of that notion. “Hang on. What about Sean? I’m pretty sure you had sex with him.”
“Yes, I did,” Liz answered, not really sure where Maria was going with this.
“How did Max get before him? When… How long ago was this?”
“Four years.”
Maria’s face blanched with shock. “Four years?! You had sex with Max Evans four years ago?”
Liz picked up her spoon from the ice cream and silently nodded.
“Are you stupid?!”
“Hey!” Liz cried out offended.
“You’ve had this huge pink elephant between you for four years!”
“Yes, Maria,” Liz sighed tiredly. “I’m acutely aware of that.”
“And he was good?”
“What?”
“He was good in bed?”
“Yeah?” Liz said carefully, wondering if she had sent poor Maria over the brink. Maria was basically hyperventilating.
“Did he like it?”
Liz blushed bright red and dropped her eyes. “I don’t know.”
“Judging from the way he speaks to you, the way he looks at you… And not to mention how he touches you, I would say he liked it. Liked it a lot.”
“What do you mean, ‘the way he looks at me’?”
“He’s fallen hard, my blind friend. He’s utterly in love with you.”
Liz swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling dry.
“And you haven’t been screwing each other’s brains out since, becaaause…?”
Liz rolled her eyes at Maria’s choice of words and distractedly dug up another chunk of ice cream. “There was nothing there.”
“Bullshit!”
Biting her lips together, Liz felt herself struggling to convince Maria of something that she had quite successfully convinced herself with for several years. “It was just a night of fun-“
“Of course it was fun!” Maria snickered. “It was sex with freaking Max Evans.”
“You make it sound like he’s a god.”
Maria raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Have you forgotten all the girls in high school? All the rumors? All the giggling girls? Are you so much in denial that you don’t notice the heads he’s turning when he’s walking down the freaking street?”
“Believe me, I’m trying really hard not to notice,” Liz muttered.
“That’s why he’s a god.”
“And that’s exactly why I didn’t end up in a relationship with him. You can’t have a relationship with a person like that. Have you noticed the size of his ego? Do you really think he would stick to just one person when he could have a new girl every night?”
“That’s a bit judgmental,” Maria mused, looking at her with amusement. Liz Parker had really gone to great lengths to deny her feelings. “You do realize that he’s been screwing with you?”
“He hasn’t been-“
“The other girls don’t mean anything to him,” Maria interrupted. “They were just back-ups when he couldn’t have the real thing.”
“What makes you so sure?” Liz asked thinly.
Maria smiled warmly. “Because sometimes you have to take a step back to see the whole picture and you, my darling, is far too close to the picture to appreciate it for what it is. So is he.”
“Do you think…” Liz hesitated, her hand tightening around the handle of the spoon. “Do you actually think that Max would settle for just one person?”
Maria laughed softly, shaking her head slowly. “Lizzie, you sweet sweet fool. I love you to bits, but it seriously worries me that you don’t believe you can tie Max down. He’s yours. He’s all yours.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because of the way he acts around you.”
“You mean; making fun of me, laughing at me…hurting me?”
Maria took a deep breath. “Okay. Do you remember the prom?”
Liz frowned at the lack of connection. “In high school?”
Maria nodded. “Who did you go with?”
“Alex Whitman.”
“And who were you supposed to go with?”
“Uhm… Can’t remember his name…”
“That guy you thought was cute, who dumped you for some bimbo, right?”
Liz shrugged. “What’s your point?”
“And people knew that you were going with this cute guy, correct?”
“Word got around.”
“And when did he tell you he wouldn’t go with you?”
“The night before.”
“Anybody know about that?” Maria asked lightly.
“No. Except Michael. And whoever what’s-his-name told.”
“Right. So didn’t you ever wonder why Alex – timid Alex Whitman – decided to ask a person he thought was already being taken to the prom by another guy, to go with him? Almost like he knew you had been dumped.”
“Maria, please, what the hell are you going on about?”
“Max, Lizzie. Max.”
“What about him?”
“He knew. Michael told him.”
“So?” And then Liz’s eyes widened as she realized the connection. Alex was one of Max’s friends. He was not a friend of that guy she had a crush on, so Alex couldn’t have found out that way. But he could’ve found out through Max. The only thing she couldn’t figure out was, “Why…?”
“Max called Alex, Liz. He asked Alex to take you to the prom because he knew how much you wanted to go. Evans might’ve taken you himself if he hadn’t already asked Tess Harding.”
Liz wasn’t sure if that piece of information was going to make her feel better or worse. The fact that Alex hadn’t asked her out by his own device made her feel like a charity case, but the fact that Max arranged all of that so that she could go to the prom confused her more than anything else.
“But Max was awful at the prom-“
“Because he wasn’t with you.”
“He was a jerk,” Liz said irritated. “He made a fool out of me in front of Alex.”
“He was jealous.”
“No. He was making me look small and foolish, telling the world that I’ve been stood up. Why would he do that after he supposedly arranged so that I could go to the prom?” Frustrated, she pulled at her hair. “See! This is what I’m talking about. He runs hot and cold on me. I don’t know what he fucking wants!”
“Think about it. It’s all a show. He didn’t want you to know that he asked Alex to ask you out-“
“Why?”
Ignoring her question, Maria continued, “But he couldn’t help being miserable about seeing you with another guy. He had to make sure that you really wouldn’t suspect him having anything to do with Alex asking you out, because he didn’t want you to feel pitied. And judging from your lack of knowledge on this, I assume he did a good job.”
“That’s just…” Liz sighed. “Jesus Christ.”
And she thought about everything that had happened at that prom. How she and Max had got into an argument about sex and her hinting to him that she was not a virgin, which then had got them into that awkward situation at the cabin, when Max realized that she was in fact sexually naïve.
“Remember Tess Harding?”
Liz grimaced. “How could I forget?”
“Did you know that he broke up with her because of you?”
Liz rolled her eyes. “He didn’t.”
“Okay, I’m not a 100 percent sure that he broke up with her because of you, but what I do know is that I called him and told him about what a bitch Tess had been to us in the bathroom and that they were broken up the following day.”
Liz shrugged. “Doesn’t really mean anything. He could have done it for his friends. Because he didn’t like his girlfriend treating his friends like that. Maybe he did it for you, Maria.”
Maria smirked. “Very funny.”
Thinking for a while, Maria said, “Okay, what about that time you were really sick? Max wouldn’t leave your side. He only did when that stupid boyfriend of yours arrived. But he wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t eat, anything! Michael was the same, but he’s your brother so I can understand if he’s a bit worried. But Max… If you had only been conscious enough to see his face.”
“Maybe you’re just reading way too much into this.”
“What about the time he pulled you out of that hot tub and saved you from getting raped?”
“So maybe he has a tendency to be there to witness some of my more humiliating life choices.”
Maria sighed helplessly. “He’s your freaking knight in shining armor for Christ’s sake. The guy worships the ground you walk on.”
“Don’t be ridiculous-“
“How can you not see it? It’s so obvious!”
“Then why aren’t we together?”
Maria rolled her eyes and sighed despondently. “God knows. Because you’re both incredibly retarded?”
“Ha ha,” Liz said, Maria’s words still ringing clear through her head.
Straightened up, Maria looked at Liz suddenly worried, “You didn’t tell Mike that you and Max slept together, did you?”
Looking sheepish, Liz avoided Maria’s eyes as she answered, “Uhm…”
Maria inhaled deeply. “And where is Max now?”
Liz looked at Maria. “You don’t think…?”
“That’s exactly what I think,” Maria said slowly. “I think you should go and have a chat with Max and let him know that Michael might not be so happy right now and that Max should stay away from him.”
“But I asked Michael to not do anything to Max.”
“What if Max goes to your apartment? Will Michael be able to restrain himself?”
Michael’s angry face flashed before Liz’s inner eye and she jumped up from her seat. “I gotta go.”
Maria nodded. “Tell Max I said ‘hi’.”
Liz was too worried to respond as she barged out the door.
Maria flicked her eyes back to the ice cream container and whispered, “Oh boy.”
TBC...
Christina
keepsmiling7
Laira
Eve
Kris
smith82
vaifeal
hayley85
Jason's Lover
Becky
Carrie
Natalie36
Alien_Friend
thetvgeneral
L-J-L 76
yayaliens
booboo
wistful dreamer
Emma
Ronnie
Kay
Guel
Tanya
sarammlover
roswell3053
Nikki04
mica
dreamsatnight
cocogurl
Ms_BuffyAnneSummers
bettylove8
Jessibelle47
carolina_moon
twilight
Blue*Soul
and
Elizabeth
Thank you everyone so much for the wonderful feedback!! I'm already running late for school so I'm gonna try and post this quickly.
Thank you for all the bumps as well!
Timeline
31. All the Small Things
Maria’s Apartment
Monday evening
(2008) Maria is 23, Liz is 22
Maria took one look at her friend and instinctively knew what had happened. “You told Michael about your feelings for Max, didn’t you?”
Liz blinked her red, dry eyes, any planned words of greeting getting lodged in her throat.
“What?” she croaked.
Maria cocked her head to the side, looking at Liz calmly. “You thought I didn’t know.”
Liz’s gut reaction was to ridicule Maria’s insinuations, but she was left speechless, because the whole purpose of this visit was to pour her heart out to Maria. She was about to tell Maria anyway.
Liz swallowed. “How?”
Maria smiled at her and Liz was struck by how grown-up Maria looked in that moment. It was like her friend was some wise sixty-year-old who had experienced every hardship of love and had learnt invaluable lessons because of it.
“Hun,” Maria said softly. “How about some ice cream?”
Liz nodded seriously. “Yeah. That sounds good.”
As Maria retrieved the ice cream from the freezer and pulled out a drawer to search for spoons, Liz tiredly sank down on one of the plastic chairs in the small kitchen. Maria had lived in this apartment for over two years already, but it still looked like she had moved in yesterday. Half of her stuff was still packed in large cardboard boxes, Maria’s handwriting announcing their content. There were Clothes, Stuff 1, Stuff 2, BE CAREFUL MICHAEL. Might break and Crap. Around the plastic kitchen table was one beach chair and two plastic garden chairs. In the large room serving as TV-room, bedroom and sometimes eating area, a king sized mattress had been placed on the floor. Maria had never really gotten around to buying that bed frame.
Liz was not anally neat, but she liked order and she would never be able to live like Maria was. But for some reason, Liz always liked to be at Maria’s place. The chaos made it homey and simple. Something Liz was always in the need for.
With the ice cream container in hand, Maria walked over to the mattress and sank down, gesturing for Liz to sit down next to her.
“How long have you known?” Liz asked quietly as Maria shoved two large spoons into the opened ice cream container.
She snorted and shook her head in frank incredulity. “You never really listened to me, did you?”
Liz frowned. “Of course I did.”
“Oh, okay,” Maria said skeptically. “Then you must remember the times I’ve hinted that there was more between Max and you than you wanted to tell me. Remember all the times I’ve told you that Max loves you?”
Liz grabbed one of the spoons and shook her head with a sarcastic huff. “But you never really meant it.”
The confidence in her words evaporated as she looked up into Maria’s serious face. “Yeah I meant it.”
“No. You were just making fun of me.”
Maria licked the cookies and cream ice cream off her spoon, her eyes fixed on the ice cream container. “Okay. Maybe it did sound as if I wasn’t really serious-“
“Exactly,” Liz said with emphasis.
“But that was just because you became so freaking defensive about it every time I brought it up. Seriously, Lizzie, did you really think you could fool me? The more you denied having feelings for him, the more I knew you wanted him. And Max hunting after all those girls?” She smiled brightly, as if she had just figured out the great mystery of life. “Classic. I mean, could he be more translucent?!”
“That doesn’t make any sense. Why would he screw around with so many girls if he really wanted me?”
Maria shrugged. “Boys. Face it, Liz. The Y-chromosome makes them stupid.” She licked the ice cream off her spoon and added around a mouthful, “Besides, with all that pent up frustration about you in his system, he had to use it up somewhere.”
Liz looked at Maria silently for a second before pushing the spoon deep into the ice cream and leaving it buried. She was suddenly feeling a bit nauseous.
Maria grimaced sheepishly. “Sorry. Maybe that didn’t come out the way it should’ve.”
“I’m not sure why it bothers me so much-“
Maria raised an eyebrow. “Him sleeping with other people? It’s not really hard science, Lizzie. You’re in love with him. Of course you don’t want him sleeping with other girls.”
Liz sighed and let her head fall back against the wall with her eyes closed. “Every time he insinuates having sex with someone, my imagination kicks into overdrive. I can’t help but…seeing him.”
Maria wrinkled her nose in confusion. “Seeing him?”
Liz opened her eyes and looked at her friend with a painful expression. “You know, seeing him.”
Maria’s wrinkle turned into one of awkward disgust. “Oh… you don’t mean… oh.”
Liz sighed. “Maybe it’s because I’ve been there. If I hadn’t, my imagination wouldn’t have any facts to feed off-“
“Wait,” Maria interrupted. “What did you just say?”
Liz backpedaled to what she had said and a crimson red blush rushed across her cheeks as she realized what she had just unconsciously revealed.
Maria’s mouth fell open in stunned shock as she stared at Liz. “Elizabeth Anne Parker. Did something happen between you and Max?”
Liz nodded slowly, biting her lower lip in thoughtful insecurity.
Looking offended, Maria breathed, “If you don’t tell me right now-“
“We slept together.”
Maria’s eyes widened. “Oh. My. God.”
“Only once.”
“And you didn’t tell me?”
“I didn’t tell anyone.”
“You had sex with Max Evans and you didn’t tell anyone about it?!”
Liz smiled momentarily at Maria’s stunned disbelief. “It was a mistake.”
Maria regarded her like she was crazy. “No it wasn’t.”
“You told me just minutes ago that he sleeps around a lot. Of course it was a mistake. He’s not made to be in a long-term meaningful relationship.”
Maria looked at her incredulously. “Does that lie help you sleep at night?”
“Maria-“
Maria laughed humorlessly. “I can’t believe it. I can’t believe I didn’t see it. I mean, I know that you had a thing for each other. I know that you were head over heels in love with him and I always knew that Max had a thing for you as well, but I could never even imagine that you at some point actually… God. This is big, Lizzie. How could you hide something like this from me?” Before Liz could answer, Maria shifted on the mattress to face Liz more completely and asked in a tone of pure curiosity. “How was it?”
Liz took a deep breath, feeling a warmth that she had been lacking spread inside of her. This was what she had been missing; being able to talk about her first time.
“I didn’t have much to compare to at the time, but-“
Maria frowned, signaling with a firm hand in the air for Liz to stop talking, “Wait. You’re not saying that… He deflowered you?”
“Maria!” Liz laughed at Maria’s choice of word.
Maria’s eyes widened excitedly. “He did! He was your first! Oh shit.”
Liz nodded.
“Oh my God,” Maria repeated and frowned as she came face to face with the impossibility of that notion. “Hang on. What about Sean? I’m pretty sure you had sex with him.”
“Yes, I did,” Liz answered, not really sure where Maria was going with this.
“How did Max get before him? When… How long ago was this?”
“Four years.”
Maria’s face blanched with shock. “Four years?! You had sex with Max Evans four years ago?”
Liz picked up her spoon from the ice cream and silently nodded.
“Are you stupid?!”
“Hey!” Liz cried out offended.
“You’ve had this huge pink elephant between you for four years!”
“Yes, Maria,” Liz sighed tiredly. “I’m acutely aware of that.”
“And he was good?”
“What?”
“He was good in bed?”
“Yeah?” Liz said carefully, wondering if she had sent poor Maria over the brink. Maria was basically hyperventilating.
“Did he like it?”
Liz blushed bright red and dropped her eyes. “I don’t know.”
“Judging from the way he speaks to you, the way he looks at you… And not to mention how he touches you, I would say he liked it. Liked it a lot.”
“What do you mean, ‘the way he looks at me’?”
“He’s fallen hard, my blind friend. He’s utterly in love with you.”
Liz swallowed, her throat suddenly feeling dry.
“And you haven’t been screwing each other’s brains out since, becaaause…?”
Liz rolled her eyes at Maria’s choice of words and distractedly dug up another chunk of ice cream. “There was nothing there.”
“Bullshit!”
Biting her lips together, Liz felt herself struggling to convince Maria of something that she had quite successfully convinced herself with for several years. “It was just a night of fun-“
“Of course it was fun!” Maria snickered. “It was sex with freaking Max Evans.”
“You make it sound like he’s a god.”
Maria raised an incredulous eyebrow. “Have you forgotten all the girls in high school? All the rumors? All the giggling girls? Are you so much in denial that you don’t notice the heads he’s turning when he’s walking down the freaking street?”
“Believe me, I’m trying really hard not to notice,” Liz muttered.
“That’s why he’s a god.”
“And that’s exactly why I didn’t end up in a relationship with him. You can’t have a relationship with a person like that. Have you noticed the size of his ego? Do you really think he would stick to just one person when he could have a new girl every night?”
“That’s a bit judgmental,” Maria mused, looking at her with amusement. Liz Parker had really gone to great lengths to deny her feelings. “You do realize that he’s been screwing with you?”
“He hasn’t been-“
“The other girls don’t mean anything to him,” Maria interrupted. “They were just back-ups when he couldn’t have the real thing.”
“What makes you so sure?” Liz asked thinly.
Maria smiled warmly. “Because sometimes you have to take a step back to see the whole picture and you, my darling, is far too close to the picture to appreciate it for what it is. So is he.”
“Do you think…” Liz hesitated, her hand tightening around the handle of the spoon. “Do you actually think that Max would settle for just one person?”
Maria laughed softly, shaking her head slowly. “Lizzie, you sweet sweet fool. I love you to bits, but it seriously worries me that you don’t believe you can tie Max down. He’s yours. He’s all yours.”
“How can you be so sure?”
“Because of the way he acts around you.”
“You mean; making fun of me, laughing at me…hurting me?”
Maria took a deep breath. “Okay. Do you remember the prom?”
Liz frowned at the lack of connection. “In high school?”
Maria nodded. “Who did you go with?”
“Alex Whitman.”
“And who were you supposed to go with?”
“Uhm… Can’t remember his name…”
“That guy you thought was cute, who dumped you for some bimbo, right?”
Liz shrugged. “What’s your point?”
“And people knew that you were going with this cute guy, correct?”
“Word got around.”
“And when did he tell you he wouldn’t go with you?”
“The night before.”
“Anybody know about that?” Maria asked lightly.
“No. Except Michael. And whoever what’s-his-name told.”
“Right. So didn’t you ever wonder why Alex – timid Alex Whitman – decided to ask a person he thought was already being taken to the prom by another guy, to go with him? Almost like he knew you had been dumped.”
“Maria, please, what the hell are you going on about?”
“Max, Lizzie. Max.”
“What about him?”
“He knew. Michael told him.”
“So?” And then Liz’s eyes widened as she realized the connection. Alex was one of Max’s friends. He was not a friend of that guy she had a crush on, so Alex couldn’t have found out that way. But he could’ve found out through Max. The only thing she couldn’t figure out was, “Why…?”
“Max called Alex, Liz. He asked Alex to take you to the prom because he knew how much you wanted to go. Evans might’ve taken you himself if he hadn’t already asked Tess Harding.”
Liz wasn’t sure if that piece of information was going to make her feel better or worse. The fact that Alex hadn’t asked her out by his own device made her feel like a charity case, but the fact that Max arranged all of that so that she could go to the prom confused her more than anything else.
“But Max was awful at the prom-“
“Because he wasn’t with you.”
“He was a jerk,” Liz said irritated. “He made a fool out of me in front of Alex.”
“He was jealous.”
“No. He was making me look small and foolish, telling the world that I’ve been stood up. Why would he do that after he supposedly arranged so that I could go to the prom?” Frustrated, she pulled at her hair. “See! This is what I’m talking about. He runs hot and cold on me. I don’t know what he fucking wants!”
“Think about it. It’s all a show. He didn’t want you to know that he asked Alex to ask you out-“
“Why?”
Ignoring her question, Maria continued, “But he couldn’t help being miserable about seeing you with another guy. He had to make sure that you really wouldn’t suspect him having anything to do with Alex asking you out, because he didn’t want you to feel pitied. And judging from your lack of knowledge on this, I assume he did a good job.”
“That’s just…” Liz sighed. “Jesus Christ.”
And she thought about everything that had happened at that prom. How she and Max had got into an argument about sex and her hinting to him that she was not a virgin, which then had got them into that awkward situation at the cabin, when Max realized that she was in fact sexually naïve.
“Remember Tess Harding?”
Liz grimaced. “How could I forget?”
“Did you know that he broke up with her because of you?”
Liz rolled her eyes. “He didn’t.”
“Okay, I’m not a 100 percent sure that he broke up with her because of you, but what I do know is that I called him and told him about what a bitch Tess had been to us in the bathroom and that they were broken up the following day.”
Liz shrugged. “Doesn’t really mean anything. He could have done it for his friends. Because he didn’t like his girlfriend treating his friends like that. Maybe he did it for you, Maria.”
Maria smirked. “Very funny.”
Thinking for a while, Maria said, “Okay, what about that time you were really sick? Max wouldn’t leave your side. He only did when that stupid boyfriend of yours arrived. But he wouldn’t sleep, wouldn’t eat, anything! Michael was the same, but he’s your brother so I can understand if he’s a bit worried. But Max… If you had only been conscious enough to see his face.”
“Maybe you’re just reading way too much into this.”
“What about the time he pulled you out of that hot tub and saved you from getting raped?”
“So maybe he has a tendency to be there to witness some of my more humiliating life choices.”
Maria sighed helplessly. “He’s your freaking knight in shining armor for Christ’s sake. The guy worships the ground you walk on.”
“Don’t be ridiculous-“
“How can you not see it? It’s so obvious!”
“Then why aren’t we together?”
Maria rolled her eyes and sighed despondently. “God knows. Because you’re both incredibly retarded?”
“Ha ha,” Liz said, Maria’s words still ringing clear through her head.
Straightened up, Maria looked at Liz suddenly worried, “You didn’t tell Mike that you and Max slept together, did you?”
Looking sheepish, Liz avoided Maria’s eyes as she answered, “Uhm…”
Maria inhaled deeply. “And where is Max now?”
Liz looked at Maria. “You don’t think…?”
“That’s exactly what I think,” Maria said slowly. “I think you should go and have a chat with Max and let him know that Michael might not be so happy right now and that Max should stay away from him.”
“But I asked Michael to not do anything to Max.”
“What if Max goes to your apartment? Will Michael be able to restrain himself?”
Michael’s angry face flashed before Liz’s inner eye and she jumped up from her seat. “I gotta go.”
Maria nodded. “Tell Max I said ‘hi’.”
Liz was too worried to respond as she barged out the door.
Maria flicked her eyes back to the ice cream container and whispered, “Oh boy.”
TBC...