Author: crazedearthgirl
Disclaimer: I own nothing
Pairings: M/L, S/L, M/T
Rating: Mature
Summary: This is basically all dialogue. Max and Liz are best friends. (Again, I am not good with summaries)
Author's Note: I know Chances isn't finished but I am working on it. This is something I had before and I wanted to share. Let me know what you think.
PART 1
The music was loud and there were too many people in the house. Liz Parker was on her third drink when she walked past Max’s room and noticed him sitting on the bed. He had a beer in one hand and a picture which Liz assumed was of him and his girlfriend, Tess, in the other. Not again, she thought as she walked into the room.
“A penny for your thoughts?” Liz asked him as she sat down on the bed beside him. She had been right; the picture was of him and Tess.
“Tess broke up with me,” Max answered as he took a gulp from his beer.
“Okay, you’ve had enough of that.” She took the beer from him and set it on the nightstand.
“Thanks, mom,” he sarcastically replied.
Liz sighed. “It’s the night before your birthday. You have a house full of people waiting to celebrate with you. You should be partying, not sitting here miserable over that bitch. She’s not worth it. You deserve someone better than her.”
“Thanks, Liz, but I really just wanna be alone right now.”
“No way, I’m not going anywhere. What kind of friend would I be if I left you here, miserable and drowning your sorrows in alcohol?”
“A good one,” Max said as he took back his beer from the nightstand and chugged what was left of it.
“She is not worth it, Max. She breaks up with you at least once a month over the stupidest stuff, and then when she feels like it, she calls you and makes up.”
“Yeah, yeah,” Max sarcastically replied as he rolled his eyes at Liz.
“Don’t roll your eyes at me, Max. I will kick your ass,” Liz jokingly threatened.
“Yeah, whatever.” Max smiled at her.
“Ha, ha, made you smile,” Liz exclaimed.
“Yeah, yeah you did. Thanks, Liz,” Max said playfully.
“What are friends for?” Liz said as she shoved him playfully.
“To pick you up at 3:00am when you get stranded and you are too drunk to drive,” Max replied, smirking.
“Hey! You promised you wouldn’t bring that up. It was one time, jerk,” Liz laughed as she recalled the late night car ride.
“Yeah, true. Well, at least I didn’t bring up the conversation in the car,” he said, looking at her mockingly.
“Shut up. I should have let you drown yourself in your sorrows.” She pushed him again.
“Yeah, but then you wouldn’t be my best friend,” he gently nudged her back.
“I thought I was your best friend because I keep you from getting into trouble.” Liz laughed as she recalled the time that she saved Max from his close encounter with the cops. She was still laughing when Max looked at her. She stopped laughing, and before she could react, his lips were on hers.
PART 2
“There you are. I was looking for –-,” came a voice from the doorway. Liz quickly turned away from Max and saw her boyfriend, Sean, standing in the doorframe. Before Liz could say anything, Sean took off. She ran after him and found him outside leaning against the side of the house. He had a beer in one hand, and his other was clenched at his side.
“Sean,” Liz began as she walked over to where he stood.
“Don’t,” he replied as he closed his eyes and walked away from her.
“Can you please just let me explain, so we can talk about this, please?” Tears began to form in her eyes.
“Talk about what? How I found my girlfriend kissing another guy!” he yelled at her.
“It’s not what you think, baby,” her voice pleaded with him to listen to her.
“I have eyes, Liz. I know what I saw.” He chugged the rest of the beer, then threw the empty bottle, and she heard it shatter.
“He kissed me!” she shouted grabbing his arm.
“Oh, so that’s suppose to make it okay?” he shrugged her off his arm and walked away from her.
“It’s the truth,” she stated as she followed him.
He grabbed her arm. “You’re gonna have to do better than that, Liz. Why were you in his room in the first place?”
“Max was upset. Tess had just broken up with him, and I was trying to cheer him up,” she stated as calmly as possible trying to keep the fear out of her voice because of the tight grip Sean had on her arm.
“So you thought kissing him would make him feel better?” Sean retorted angrily. Between the grip on Liz’s arm and the anger in his voice, his temper began to scare Liz.
“It wasn’t like that. I told you. He kissed me! It didn’t mean anything,” she exclaimed as she pulled her arm out from his grasp.
“Is this the first time it happened?” Sean asked, looking at her for the first time.
“Yes,” Liz replied meeting his eyes.
“How can I believe you?” Sean’s words were slurred, and Liz knew that he had had too much to drink and talking to him about this situation would not do her any good.
“I’m your girlfriend. You’re supposed to trust me.” Liz had tears streaming down her cheeks.
“I did trust you and look where that landed me!” Sean shouted grabbing her arm again.
“Sean, let go. You’re hurting my arm,” she pleaded with him as she tried to get her arm back.
He let go of her arm and made his way back to the wall away from her. “Let’s just finish this conversation in the morning.”
“Why? So you can go back to your buddy and finish what you started?” he shouted accusingly at her.
“You’re drunk,” Liz stated as she walked away from him.
“And you’re a tramp!” Sean yelled after her. Liz turned back around and walked to where he stood.
“How dare you!” she shouted as she slapped him across his cheek. He looked at her and rubbed his stinging cheek. He grabbed her arm, sighed, then let go and walked away.
PART 3
Liz sat on the step and let the tears fall from her cheeks, as she watched Sean walk down the street. She heard the door open behind her and saw Max standing there.
“I guess he’s really mad, huh?” Max said as he sat on the step next to her.
“Yeah he’s mad. What the hell were you thinking, Max!” Liz yelled as she left the step and walked over to the tree in front of the house.
“I don’t know. I was upset about Tess, and I guess when you said I deserved someone better than that, I just...” his words trailed off and he sighed as he looked at his best friend leaning against a tree with tears streaming down her cheeks.
“You know how I feel about Sean. What it took for him to trust me again. Everything we have been through together.” Liz sat down and leaned against the tree, pulling her knees to her chest.
“Liz, I’m sorry,” Max said leaving the step and sitting next to her.
“Sorry, isn’t going to bring Sean back. I love him, Max,” Liz cried as she leaned her head on his shoulder and began to cry.
It broke Max’s heart to see her like this, and knowing that he had been the cause just made him feel worse. He had to find Sean and talk to him. Her argument with Sean had been all his fault and he had to be the one to fix it.
“Why don’t you go inside and calm down. I’ll be back in a few,” Max reassuringly told her as he stood up and offered his hand to her. She took it and he pulled her to her feet.
“Where are you going?” Liz asked as she rubbed her hands on her face removing the tear stains from her cheeks.
“To fix this,” Max replied as he disappeared down the street.
Max walked down the street looking for Sean. As he looked, he couldn’t help but think maybe the argument between Liz and Sean had been a good thing. In his opinion, Sean did not belong with her. She was too good for him. With that thought he turned back around and made his way back to the house. He was almost there, when he saw the tree Liz had been leaning against earlier.
He sighed, remembering his friend crying her eyes out to him and professing her love for Sean to him.
“Damn it,” he mumbled, changing his direction and walking back down the street. He continued till the end of the street and found Sean sitting on the hood of his car with a beer in his hand. Sean looked up when he heard the footsteps and found himself face- to- face with Max. He chugged what was left of the beer bottle, then threw it into the street.
“What do you want?” he asked looking at Max with hatred in his eyes.
“We need to talk about what hap--” Max barely finished his sentence when he felt his face connect with one of Sean’s fists.
“About how you kissed my girlfriend!” he yelled as he prepared to deliver another blow to Max’s face. Max had been expecting this and hit Sean before he could him.
“I don’t wanna fight with you, Sean,” Max replied as he moved so that Sean’s fist grazed his shoulder and missed his face.
“You should have thought about that before you kissed my girlfriend!” Sean retorted as he plummeted his fist into Max’s stomach.
PART 4
Max felt the impact and struggled to keep his balance. He steadied himself, then drove one of his fists into Sean’s face. Sean wobbled a bit before falling forward on top of Max. The two exchanged blows as Max struggled to get out from underneath Sean’s dead- weight drunken body. Sean prepared to hit Max again, but Max managed to push himself out from underneath Sean. Max grabbed Sean’s arm and held it behind his back, twisting it.
“Now, listen. I never liked you. I put up with you cause you make Liz happy and she’s my friend. You don’t deserve her,” Max exclaimed, struggling to keep his hold on Sean.
“Shut up!” Sean yelled as he thrashed about trying to get out of Max’s hold.
“I suggest you calm down, because I’m not letting you up until you do.”
Sean stopped his thrashing. “Let me up!” he yelled.
Max sighed and then let go of Sean’s arm. Sean got up and wiped the blood from his face.
“Are you going to listen now?” Max asked.
“I know what I saw,” Sean replied.
“What’s wrong? Afraid you’ll lose her to a better man?” Max asked smugly.
“If by that you mean you, then, no” Sean retorted.
“She wants you, you ass.”
“Then why was she kissing you?” Sean asked.
“She didn’t kiss me. I kissed her,” Max replied.
“Why should I believe you? You would say anything for her. Besides, this wouldn’t be the first time she cheated on me,” Sean stated.
“That was a long time ago. And you forgave her,” Max pointed out to him.
“Yeah, whatever. Maybe that was my mistake.”
“Oh, cause you’re so innocent?”
“Whatever,” Sean mumbled pushing past Max.
Max grabbed his arm. “You forget. I was the one with her when she cried her eyes out for hours. I was the one helping her into her car that night when she was drunk. I—.”
“Did you kiss her that night, too?” Sean interjected.
“No, I didn’t. That’s not the point, either. The point is you cheated on her and she forgave you,” Max replied.
“Like I said, maybe that was my mistake,”
“You either trust her or you don’t.”
“This coming from the guy that just kissed my girlfriend,” Sean retorted mockingly.
“You know what. I said what I came to say. You either believe me or you don’t. But if you don’t believe her, then you don’t deserve her. Well, you don’t deserve her but that’s besides the point,” with that said, Max turned and began to walk away.
“Once a tramp, always a tramp!” Sean yelled after him.
Max stopped and turned back around. He couldn’t help the anger he felt building inside of him. Before Sean could react, he delivered a punch to the left side and then right side of Sean’s mouth.
“Don’t ever call her that!” he yelled as he watched Sean wipe the freshly drawn blood from his bruised mouth. With that he turned to leave and left Sean sitting on the ground.
PART 5
Liz sat at the house waiting for Max to return. She would have gone after Sean herself, but she didn’t want Max to return and her not to be there. Max was her best friend, but Sean was her boyfriend. Max will understand, she thought as she headed to the front door to find Sean. She opened the front door and found Max standing in front of her. He had a cut above his left eye, he was dirty, and his shirt was torn.
“Oh, my God! Max, what happened?” Liz exclaimed as she raised her hand to the gash above his eye.
“I found Sean,” Max replied forcing a smirk.
“It’s not funny. Your eye, it’s bleeding and look at your cheek, it’s bruised.”
“It looks worse than it is,” Max responded as he pushed Liz’s hand away.
“I’m sorry. I should have been the one to go after him,” Liz said sympathetically.
“So he could have done this to you? No, thanks, I’m a big boy, Liz.”
“Sean would never hurt me. He loves me,” Liz replied confidently.
“Liz, he doesn’t love you. If he did, he would have stayed to work things out and talked to you,”
“He’s just drunk. We’ll talk things out in the morning and everything will be fine.”
Max wondered if he should tell Liz the things that Sean had said to him. However, he was wondering more if he should tell her that the kiss that had been a mistake meant more to him then he had let on.
“Liz, I--” his words were interrupted by a knock on the door.
Opening the door, he found an equally battered Sean looking at him. He had a cut above his right eye, a bruise on his left cheek and remnants of blood around his mouth.
Liz pushed past Max to get to Sean. She reached her hand to his cheek and then to his eye. “Oh, my God! Are you okay, baby?” Liz asked.
“Yeah, just a few bruises,” Sean replied but he winced when Liz touched his eye.
“What do you want?” Max asked, trying to keep the anger from his voice.
“I thought about what you said. I came to talk to Liz.”
“Liz, I think me and you should talk first,” Max whispered to her.
“Can it wait? I really wanna talk to Sean,” she asked as she smiled up at him.
“Sorry about that cut, man,” Sean retorted with a smirking smile.
“Yeah, sorry about your face. It looks like that hurt,” Max replied, giving Sean the same smirking smile he had given him.
Liz sensed the tension between the two men and wanted to leave before anymore fists were thrown. She looked between the two. Both were dirty and bruised badly. She wanted to yell at both of them but couldn’t because she did not know who to blame for the fight.
“Why don’t you wait outside? I’ll be out in a second,” Liz said squeezing Sean’s hand.
“Okay,” Sean said looking from Liz to Max. He gave Max one last dirty look, then went outside to wait for Liz.
“Now, what did you want to talk about?” Liz asked, looking at Max.
Max saw the smile on her face. He loved the way her eyes lit up when she smiled. He did not want to be the one to take it away from her. He sighed, forcing a smile at her.
“It can wait,” he replied.
“Are you sure?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m sure,” he said grudgingly before forcing another smile.
“I don’t know what you said to get Sean to come back, but thank you,” she said hugging him.
“Hey, what are friends for?” he asked.
“You really are my best friend,” she replied as she gave him one last hug before she left.
Max watched as she linked hands with Sean and contently walked down the street with him. He sighed in defeat, “Yeah, I’m your best friend.”
THE END
Author's Note: Feedback Please!
