Til We Meet Again (CC, Mature) - Chapter 84 - Completed - 09/01/2022
Posted: Sat Jan 15, 2022 12:35 pm
Title: Til We Meet Again
Author: Parker1947
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They were created once upon a time by Jason Katims and those associated with the writing staff of Roswell and before them it was the esteem creator of the Roswell High series by Melinda Metz that captured all our attentions for over 20 years… This story is based on the television show that started in 1999 and ended way too early, in 2002. I am only borrowing the characters or creating some new ones for my own fun and using my imagination within the framework given to us by our favorite show.
Rating: Mature (Angsty)
Category: CC
Characters: ALL
Couples Established: Michael and Maria. Isabel and Kyle…
Synopsis: Post Graduation: Nothing went as it should have and therefore Max and Liz were separated by events in the aftermath of their high school graduation. And they were forced to go their own way, which they did with both moving on in different pursuits. One more successfully than the other. One is quite content with life. The other one has seen much better days. But when tragedy strikes, and they happen to meet again…
Changes from the Show: Everything is the same, except those events in the wake of Tess’s return. Graduation went ahead, but not how we saw it. What else is new. And therefore, Max and Liz made different choices that forced the other to go on with life, separately, until of course, they meet up again and naturally things begin to evolve… in ways they never would have expected nor did I.
So, Enjoy…
Snow was starting to fall in the desert outside of town. The festive season was starting to blossom. Plans were being made. Sing a-longs in the downtown park were only days away. The Christmas lights, and decorations were all over the place in town. Signifying the start of the holiday season. But outside of town was a different story as it was an eerie sight as snow was starting to land on the desert sands that gave New Mexico its distinctive feel but at a nearby house… doors slammed.
Yelling could be heard even if there was no one around for miles to hear the sounds because only one family lived in this vicinity and a front door opened, and a teenage boy stalked out of the home he shared with his father. Seventeen years old just that previous summer and now he was cursing at the inside of the house “Why did you even keep me?” he yelled into the house before slamming the door behind him.
The young man knew better than to expect a response because it was not like he had not said something like that before, because nothing was going right for his father, and for the teenager to get his father teed off because of something he wanted to do was not going to help the situation brewing between he and his father, which was a situation that was been growing tenser with each day since even before his sixteenth birthday. But then he and his father had always been an explosion ready to happen because it had gone off before. Ever since he was old enough to know the situation that was his family. And to know this was not the life his father had wanted to be living…
And only settled for it because he had lost out on the life, he did want. Especially when it became clear that his father could not stand his biological mother even though the woman had been dead since he was only months old, and he had been too young to remember the woman who had birthed him, to be able to know whether he should be thinking different, because to hear his family talk about his mother….
You only got a lot of curses uttered at the mention of her name he thought because no one had a good word to be said about the woman. They had even called her the devil who had bewitched his father, and as a result he had ended up with a baby. Him the teenager thought as he walked down the pathway and waited for his ride to come and pick him up because there was no chance, he was going to borrow the family car even though he did have his driver’s license. Because if he had tried than that really would have set off a battle with his father.
He could feel the snow coming down and he looked up at the sky and saw a storm brewing and he did not want to call a halt to his plans because then that would mean going back inside the house and spending time with his father, who looked at him, like he had cost him a good thing.
Or a life he should have been living today…
But did not have it because he had devoted it to being a father to me, he thought. Even though his father had decided to keep him in the end. Because he had known from the family that his father had planned on adoption but chickened out at the last minute and decided to keep him. And so, he had stayed with his father and his grandparents until his father had moved out with him, and ever since, it had been only them in the house by the desert.
On the outskirts of town. Even though the teenager went to the local high school within town limits. His father old school he was told. West Roswell High. Not that his father was that interested in his education because he always looked haunted by what he had lost out in high school, and the boy supposed he had himself to blame. Because if not for his birth mother and devising some scheme to get pregnant with him than his father might have a better time of it.
So, yeah, he was not exactly high on either one of his parents. Of course, because he had to live with one of them. The one who was dead, seemed like a better person to him but he knew enough to know that was only something that resided in the furthest recesses of his mind. As he picked out on a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and went for a lighter and just stood and waited for his ride.
Puffing as he thought of the brunette, he had seen in home room that day. A transfer student from Chicago he heard through the grapevine that was his best friend and his cousin. A looker he thought as she looked beautiful in her studious ways.
Of course, you had to wonder who would transfer into class at the end of the semester, right before Christmas break. What kind of parents would move the kid at this point in the year, why not wait for classes in January, but then he was born and raised in Roswell? So, how should he know?
Okay, maybe not he thought. After all, his birthplace was another planet, but it was not like he could own up that to the local government or the federal one for that matter he thought so his legal documentation told people he was born in this town, and it was a town that had been his home since he showed up in it when he was only months old.
His birthdate and age being a little funny, because his birth mother had not been the honest type, his aunt would tell him. Yeah, my relatives never held any punches from me he thought. Except my grandparents because they freely admit my birth mother was a mystery to them So the stories had come from others, who had firsthand experience with the woman who would become his mother. So, because of what they did not know? They could only work with what they did know. Which meant a little fudging of the legalities to make him an official citizen.
But he felt human, although he knew his genetics told another story all together as a car finally arrived with three teenagers.
One male, and two females.
“Hey River, are you going to come out of dreamland and join us” came the voice of the male “Yeah, that is my name if you are asking” as River did snap out of his trance of his inner thoughts and walk to the car and open the side door of the passenger seat as the two females were in the back.
But they were not some dates, ready for a night out on the town when it was a school night and every one of them should be studying for their final final exam of the semester. River thought he had done enough studying, and that was one of the fights he had with his father even though his father was not one to keep an interest in his education. Well, he knew enough to know his semester was riding on these exams.
But River wanted to have some fun, and so he put out the call and his friends had come calling. “The old man was giving me trouble.”
“Sorry about that,” came one of the girls. The blonde by the brunette in the backseat. “Mom was saying he was even more jerkish than usual” she was saying because she knew it had been one of the discussions in the house when they left it, to get into the car and come and collect River.
“That he is,” River thought as the driver drove back to town, and they went looking for adventure. “Eighteen more months until I graduate and then I am out of here,” he thought as he was already checking out universities, so my grades do mean something to me he thought as he turned and faced his best friend who looked amused. “What?”
“That was apparently my father’s motto was back in the day,” said the friend.
“If it was, then that it is my plan too” River sighed as he hated that his father and he did not get along. Although he sensed it was because his father was deeply disappointed by the fate of his life, and not getting what he wanted out of it, or who he wanted because River Michael Evans knew that his father wanted the one who he had been with when his mother came into the picture and disrupted destiny. Events would take place that would take his father’s girlfriend away from him and so unfortunately his father was at the state of life he was in and was taking it out on his only child.
That he could have been given me away but chose to keep me and his action spoke as if he regretted doing so. So, River was counting down to graduation even though he had many months to go but he was counting on getting out of this town so that maybe one day he and his father can see eye to eye.
“I am disappointed in you Mac” came the blonde as she and her companion met up with the guys after being separated. River and his best friend, Mac Guerin, short for Mackenzie because his parents or mostly his mother wanted to be clever with her only child’s name therefore, and gave him a name that he resented and therefore tended to only go by his short form Mac is a fine name he thought as the group had gone their own way and each had found a way to get what they were after, and now they were meeting up by the car that Mac had been driving the group around in.
“It’s for River,” came Mac as if that were an excuse that would work as he was holding the beer that he and his friend had gotten a hold because he knew his friend was in a mood and he was open to anything. Including breaking of some rules. Rites of passages and all that… After all his parents were busy for the night. They were Christmas shopping in Las Cruces. So, he was willing to have fun. Even though River was usually more responsible than this. But then Mac knew that when River and his father got into one of their blowouts then his friend was going to be in a mood so they both tended to give into the worst of their impulses.
“Somehow I doubt it,” came the blonde “What do you think Jaime?” she asked as she asked the shorter girl, she was next too, the brunette that had also been in the car with them.
“I think River is too saintly for that?” Jaime Valenti muttered. “What do you think “Jessie” short for Jessica Amanda Ramirez Evans as she was being raised by her single mother who had become widowed when her father died in a car crash before she was born. So, her mother had decided to give both a form of her birth father’s name, and yet her maiden name to her daughter at birth, and therefore, her daughter had gone by the name Evans ever since.
Even though her mother was now engaged to Jaime’s father, Kyle. After dating him for the last ten years. A wedding had still not been scheduled. Although currently Jessie was living in the same house as Kyle and his own daughter Jaime whose mother also died when she was a kid. Although at the time Kyle had been in the process of divorcing his wife. Custody automatically went to her father after the funeral.
So, you could say that all the kids were missing something except for Mac who had the classic family to write home about, and yet here he was the one who was looking for trouble despite what River was telling himself. River was too much of a choir boy to want to drink and cause trouble, except maybe on the surface of things. But Mac was the one who was looking for action, and on this night, River was allowing him to because he was that annoyed at his father but then his eye turned to the side and saw the same brunette that he had seen in home room that day looking at him with amusement. “Got to go” River said. “Be back shortly.”
“Well,” Jessie said of her cousin’s interest in the new girl at school. West Roswell was too small for a transfer student in the middle of December, and in the middle of the school year not to be noticed and so they had all noticed her, and Jaime looked jealous as the 14-year-old saw River walk towards the new girl from school.
“You are too young kid,” Mac said as he and Jessie were both 15 years old with Jessie slightly older than he was, but not my much. Although River was oldest one of their group, so he was a year ahead of Mac and Jessie with Jaime a year behind them, so she was a freshman that year while Mac and Jessica were both Sophomores. Life was starting to become serious for all the teenagers. But still, they wanted to have a night jolly fun before they had to worry about end of semester exams.
“Do not call me kid,” Jaime muttered as she saw River approach the new girl. “After all you are only a year older than me, and you should not have even been driving,” she muttered even she had known better, and still she had gotten into the car because her stepsister was going to be there too, as she dismissively looked to where her crush had walked off too, and the newcomer that River had been entranced by. “What is her name anyway?”
“Mariah” Mac said softly as he ignored Jaime’s taunts as he did recognize the new girl from school. Because she was a topic of discussion at home. Along with Mariah’s younger brother, Alex but known to everyone by the nickname Lex. “Mariah Anthony.”
“You know her?” Jessica asked of her friend as she like River had noticed her in school. She did not know all the details, but the new girl was making waves in their school. And she and Mac treated each other as honorary family because of the fact their mother and father were so close that they were practically brother and sister, and so they had grown up together, along with Mac’s best friend, River who was of course, Jessie’s cousin because his father was her mother’s brother.
So, it was a small community. And it was coming to a head with the addition of the family whose details were still mysterious to the others in the group, but Mac obviously knew more than the others did of the newest girl to join their ranks.
“Yeah, I do” Mac murmured as the girls were paying attention to him so that they could hear more of what he knew as he looked over at where River and Mariah was now talking. “She has lived in Chicago until recently.”
“City girl?” Jessie remarked. Cool “This will be a culture shock to her?” she asked because this had been the only town she had known since she was born even though her birth father had moved to Boston, and her parents had been separated when her mother had found out she was pregnant. Apparently, her mother had been planning on joining her husband only for her birth father to die in a car crash before they could arrive, and therefore her mother stayed here in this town, and presto, she had been born in Roswell, and it had been her home ever since.
“Something like that,” Mac muttered. “Parents transferred her, so she did not have any choice” he allowed.
Across the road, and within the park. Admiring the park lights, and the Christmas tree that had been put up the previous weekend, and she could feel eyes on her, and then a soft voice and tone “You are new to town?” River as he approached the brunette his vision had caught attention of as he stood with his friends before leaving them and coming into the park towards the girl who had attracted him. Any thoughts of illicit behavior were forgotten as he had seen the girl with long flowy brown hair looking at him, like she knew him. “I saw you in home room?”
“Yes,” the girl murmured as she did remember him from her home room as she took her glaze from the Christmas tree as she did not know why she had been eying the blonde with an eye of wanting to get to know him, but she was as she waited for her father and little brother to return and pick her up after they went to search for something for their new house. She had wanted to see the action of the town, and shop for Christmas along the main street. So, her father had let her out, and gone with her brother to pick up the order he had called in, and she was expecting him any minute as she saw the crowd over across the road. “So, you are here with your friends?”
“Yes,” River smiled. “We should be studying but you know, the night called us to have some fun.”
“Right,” the girl smiled. “The principal gave me a pass from the exams because I just transferred in,” she sighed as she thought of her old home and old school. “Mom and Dad did not even let me finish off the school semester back home before they decided to move me and my brother?”
“I am sorry about that,” River thought as he did not know what it was like having to move to a new town. So different from the one he had lived in before and so late in a semester. “But I cannot say that I have any experience with that kind of thing because this is the only town I have ever known since I was a little baby” he murmured because he knew very well, he had come to this town as a baby, and had not been born in it.
“Yeah,” the girl asked as she was observing the bustling nature of the small town. The differences between her hometown and this one was so stark and different, and she had wanted to take it all in. Especially with the festive season upon them. After all the big city lights of Chicago where she had been born, and Roswell were like night and day. It was so different to be in this classic small town. As it was one that you would read about even if you did not experience it, and now she was experiencing it for herself and she did not know what to think about the place she would now call home.
“Yeah,” River murmured as she taken by the brunette’s beauty. “So, can I ask. What is your name?”
“Mariah” the girl muttered.
“Mariah….” River asked with a smile as he was trying to get more from her as the girl interested him and he did not know why because of his issues at home. He had spent his time with his friends or studying and doing homework so that he could get out of this this town one day, and did not have to be stuck here, unless that was his choice. And as of an hour ago. All he had known was that he would be on the first bus out of this town one he graduated. Because while he might love his family, and his hometown. Still, there was nothing to tie him here.
As he had not wanted to date. Nothing but the truth of this town kept me tied to it, but he was determined to reverse that when he graduated, and he left town.
And yet now. He was not too sure as he was looking into Mariah’s eyes, and the smile on her face. Something about her attracted to him, and yet he got a vibe from her that she was off limits, so he did not know why he was even trying to enquire about her?
“Mariah Anthony,” the girl asked as she was also taken by boy who had approached her out of nowhere. “And your name?”
“River,” the boy said before he amended his answer. “River Evans.”
“Hello, River” Mariah smiled. “It is nice to meet you River. Yes, I have seen you around the hallways,” she thought of her new school. Quite the change from the halls she had been used to. Small, and close knit. She did not know how she was going to take to it, but so far, she had managed to make it through the days, as she turned her focus back onto the boy who had come to say hello. “I find that your name is different?” she wondered because she had not known any Rivers back home. Intriguing she thought.
“Then you might have found my birth name even more different,” River laughed as he could not understand why he was even bringing this up. Because Mariah was a stranger to him, and he had not known her until this day. And the vibes coming off her were intoxicating, and yet it was nonthreatening at the same time. And yet, he here was, confessing secrets and it did surprise him.
“You had a different name?” Mariah asked as she was amused by River, and the nature of the boy who had blonde hair but had an aura of danger to him. “Why would you have had a different name?”
“You had to be here,” River muttered as he thought of his origin story. “It is an old family name” he thought of the name and how his birth name was not the name he had now because his father had changed it once he decided that he would not go the adoption route. As he had been named by his birth mother, and of course being that no one could stand his birth mother. His name was the first thing they changed about him. And came up with a unique monitor that apparently had connotations of the past for the clan that birthed him. “My birth name was Zan.”
“Wow, you are right, I think I like River, it’s different but normal” Mariah smiled. “I guess you can say that my name is relatively simpler because I was named after my mother’s best friend, although it is not an exact copy of the name because she is still alive but still close enough…”
“I like it,” River smiled.
“So, do I?” Mariah allowed as she glanced over and saw the boy by the car who noticed her and smiled. “So, you know Mackenzie?”
“You mean Mac?” River asked as his friend bristled at his legal birth name as he had gone by Mac ever since River had known him, which had been when they were kids growing up in this town together because of the closeness between his father and Mac’s parents. As he had seen how Mariah had recognized Mac, and Mac had down the same thing, and that surprised him because he could not remember his best friend mentioning Mariah to him in the past. “How do you know Mac?”
“You can say our families are close,” Mariah murmured.
“Funny thing is that Mac never mentioned knowing you?” River asked as he glanced across the street at his best friend and struggled to remember if there had been any time over their friendship that Mac had mentioned knowing someone like Mariah but could not think of something. “We have been friends since we were kids together?”
“It does not surprise me because it has been kind of a like a rule that I stay in Chicago until now,” Mariah allowed. “I mean we would have not moved here but my parents both got a job here, and before now, we rarely came out here or if my mother did, which was not very often, my brother and I stayed back home with our Dad who had to work and could not take time for a visit. Which was always weird if you ask me, and you did not ask me” she laughed as she too found a need to give out facts about her life “Because my mother is from this town.”
“Really?” River asked with a sexy smile that made Mariah fluttered a little. “So, you are not that much of a newcomer to our town?”
“Oh, I am” Mariah allowed as she looked around the park, and the Christmas tree. A symbol of celebration. “This town is completely brand new to me” she sighed. “All kind of experiences of all kinds are finding me since we arrived.”
“Then I guess I can say welcome” River smiled as he saw his friends by the car, talking amongst themselves as they were not paying attention to him and Mariah anymore, and so it drew his attention back to the newcomer to their fair town. As she was nothing like anything those, he had experience so far in his life. “So, since we have established you are new to this town. How are you liking Roswell?”
“It has had its moments,” Mariah laughed as they continued to talk, and time was ticking down, and neither were realizing it because they enjoyed talking to the other. For Mariah River was a chance to see there was some good in this town. Because she had not had a chance to make many friends since she started at the high school, and now someone was welcoming her to the town, and it was making her see that maybe moving was not the worst thing ever to happen to her only for that to change when they both heard a scream, and River focused his attention where it was coming because he had instantly recognized the sound of the voice. It was Jessica’s voice. His cousin, as they looked in horror as a car came out of nowhere, out of control and was coming right for Mac’s car or he shall qualify that as his parent’s car. Oh, shit he cried as horror struck him.
“Oh no” Mariah cried as she instantly recognized the car, and one of the people in the car with horror as. “No, please, no god” she screamed.
“You know the car?” River asked.
“Yes, it belongs to my Dad. And my little brother is in it with him” she said and before they could reach the scene as they started to run, but they were too late and the car rammed right into the car that had been stationary, and not moving, but had kids in the vicinity of it, as they heard the commotion of the crash…
Then the car catching on fire… because of the overwhelming force it was coming at, and how hard it hit…
River and Mariah did not have time to react as they watched in horror as Mac, Jessie and Jaime were all lying on the ground, and it was obvious there was two people still in the other car. River wanted to go and help his friends, but Mariah had other ideas…
“Dad,” Mariah screamed. “Alex…” she yelled as she took off for her car, and River raced after to cause her to prevent herself injury as they reached the fiery car.
And from what he could see as he reached the scene, River did not know how both were going to make it… or if they were even still alive for the matter.
But he dug in to help as he yanked open the door…
Author: Parker1947
Disclaimer: I do not own these characters. They were created once upon a time by Jason Katims and those associated with the writing staff of Roswell and before them it was the esteem creator of the Roswell High series by Melinda Metz that captured all our attentions for over 20 years… This story is based on the television show that started in 1999 and ended way too early, in 2002. I am only borrowing the characters or creating some new ones for my own fun and using my imagination within the framework given to us by our favorite show.
Rating: Mature (Angsty)
Category: CC
Characters: ALL
Couples Established: Michael and Maria. Isabel and Kyle…
Synopsis: Post Graduation: Nothing went as it should have and therefore Max and Liz were separated by events in the aftermath of their high school graduation. And they were forced to go their own way, which they did with both moving on in different pursuits. One more successfully than the other. One is quite content with life. The other one has seen much better days. But when tragedy strikes, and they happen to meet again…
Changes from the Show: Everything is the same, except those events in the wake of Tess’s return. Graduation went ahead, but not how we saw it. What else is new. And therefore, Max and Liz made different choices that forced the other to go on with life, separately, until of course, they meet up again and naturally things begin to evolve… in ways they never would have expected nor did I.
So, Enjoy…
*
December 2018
Roswell, New Mexico
Roswell, New Mexico
Snow was starting to fall in the desert outside of town. The festive season was starting to blossom. Plans were being made. Sing a-longs in the downtown park were only days away. The Christmas lights, and decorations were all over the place in town. Signifying the start of the holiday season. But outside of town was a different story as it was an eerie sight as snow was starting to land on the desert sands that gave New Mexico its distinctive feel but at a nearby house… doors slammed.
Yelling could be heard even if there was no one around for miles to hear the sounds because only one family lived in this vicinity and a front door opened, and a teenage boy stalked out of the home he shared with his father. Seventeen years old just that previous summer and now he was cursing at the inside of the house “Why did you even keep me?” he yelled into the house before slamming the door behind him.
The young man knew better than to expect a response because it was not like he had not said something like that before, because nothing was going right for his father, and for the teenager to get his father teed off because of something he wanted to do was not going to help the situation brewing between he and his father, which was a situation that was been growing tenser with each day since even before his sixteenth birthday. But then he and his father had always been an explosion ready to happen because it had gone off before. Ever since he was old enough to know the situation that was his family. And to know this was not the life his father had wanted to be living…
And only settled for it because he had lost out on the life, he did want. Especially when it became clear that his father could not stand his biological mother even though the woman had been dead since he was only months old, and he had been too young to remember the woman who had birthed him, to be able to know whether he should be thinking different, because to hear his family talk about his mother….
You only got a lot of curses uttered at the mention of her name he thought because no one had a good word to be said about the woman. They had even called her the devil who had bewitched his father, and as a result he had ended up with a baby. Him the teenager thought as he walked down the pathway and waited for his ride to come and pick him up because there was no chance, he was going to borrow the family car even though he did have his driver’s license. Because if he had tried than that really would have set off a battle with his father.
He could feel the snow coming down and he looked up at the sky and saw a storm brewing and he did not want to call a halt to his plans because then that would mean going back inside the house and spending time with his father, who looked at him, like he had cost him a good thing.
Or a life he should have been living today…
But did not have it because he had devoted it to being a father to me, he thought. Even though his father had decided to keep him in the end. Because he had known from the family that his father had planned on adoption but chickened out at the last minute and decided to keep him. And so, he had stayed with his father and his grandparents until his father had moved out with him, and ever since, it had been only them in the house by the desert.
On the outskirts of town. Even though the teenager went to the local high school within town limits. His father old school he was told. West Roswell High. Not that his father was that interested in his education because he always looked haunted by what he had lost out in high school, and the boy supposed he had himself to blame. Because if not for his birth mother and devising some scheme to get pregnant with him than his father might have a better time of it.
So, yeah, he was not exactly high on either one of his parents. Of course, because he had to live with one of them. The one who was dead, seemed like a better person to him but he knew enough to know that was only something that resided in the furthest recesses of his mind. As he picked out on a pack of cigarettes out of his pocket and went for a lighter and just stood and waited for his ride.
Puffing as he thought of the brunette, he had seen in home room that day. A transfer student from Chicago he heard through the grapevine that was his best friend and his cousin. A looker he thought as she looked beautiful in her studious ways.
Of course, you had to wonder who would transfer into class at the end of the semester, right before Christmas break. What kind of parents would move the kid at this point in the year, why not wait for classes in January, but then he was born and raised in Roswell? So, how should he know?
Okay, maybe not he thought. After all, his birthplace was another planet, but it was not like he could own up that to the local government or the federal one for that matter he thought so his legal documentation told people he was born in this town, and it was a town that had been his home since he showed up in it when he was only months old.
His birthdate and age being a little funny, because his birth mother had not been the honest type, his aunt would tell him. Yeah, my relatives never held any punches from me he thought. Except my grandparents because they freely admit my birth mother was a mystery to them So the stories had come from others, who had firsthand experience with the woman who would become his mother. So, because of what they did not know? They could only work with what they did know. Which meant a little fudging of the legalities to make him an official citizen.
But he felt human, although he knew his genetics told another story all together as a car finally arrived with three teenagers.
One male, and two females.
“Hey River, are you going to come out of dreamland and join us” came the voice of the male “Yeah, that is my name if you are asking” as River did snap out of his trance of his inner thoughts and walk to the car and open the side door of the passenger seat as the two females were in the back.
But they were not some dates, ready for a night out on the town when it was a school night and every one of them should be studying for their final final exam of the semester. River thought he had done enough studying, and that was one of the fights he had with his father even though his father was not one to keep an interest in his education. Well, he knew enough to know his semester was riding on these exams.
But River wanted to have some fun, and so he put out the call and his friends had come calling. “The old man was giving me trouble.”
“Sorry about that,” came one of the girls. The blonde by the brunette in the backseat. “Mom was saying he was even more jerkish than usual” she was saying because she knew it had been one of the discussions in the house when they left it, to get into the car and come and collect River.
“That he is,” River thought as the driver drove back to town, and they went looking for adventure. “Eighteen more months until I graduate and then I am out of here,” he thought as he was already checking out universities, so my grades do mean something to me he thought as he turned and faced his best friend who looked amused. “What?”
“That was apparently my father’s motto was back in the day,” said the friend.
“If it was, then that it is my plan too” River sighed as he hated that his father and he did not get along. Although he sensed it was because his father was deeply disappointed by the fate of his life, and not getting what he wanted out of it, or who he wanted because River Michael Evans knew that his father wanted the one who he had been with when his mother came into the picture and disrupted destiny. Events would take place that would take his father’s girlfriend away from him and so unfortunately his father was at the state of life he was in and was taking it out on his only child.
That he could have been given me away but chose to keep me and his action spoke as if he regretted doing so. So, River was counting down to graduation even though he had many months to go but he was counting on getting out of this town so that maybe one day he and his father can see eye to eye.
*
Ninety minutes later,
“I am disappointed in you Mac” came the blonde as she and her companion met up with the guys after being separated. River and his best friend, Mac Guerin, short for Mackenzie because his parents or mostly his mother wanted to be clever with her only child’s name therefore, and gave him a name that he resented and therefore tended to only go by his short form Mac is a fine name he thought as the group had gone their own way and each had found a way to get what they were after, and now they were meeting up by the car that Mac had been driving the group around in.
“It’s for River,” came Mac as if that were an excuse that would work as he was holding the beer that he and his friend had gotten a hold because he knew his friend was in a mood and he was open to anything. Including breaking of some rules. Rites of passages and all that… After all his parents were busy for the night. They were Christmas shopping in Las Cruces. So, he was willing to have fun. Even though River was usually more responsible than this. But then Mac knew that when River and his father got into one of their blowouts then his friend was going to be in a mood so they both tended to give into the worst of their impulses.
“Somehow I doubt it,” came the blonde “What do you think Jaime?” she asked as she asked the shorter girl, she was next too, the brunette that had also been in the car with them.
“I think River is too saintly for that?” Jaime Valenti muttered. “What do you think “Jessie” short for Jessica Amanda Ramirez Evans as she was being raised by her single mother who had become widowed when her father died in a car crash before she was born. So, her mother had decided to give both a form of her birth father’s name, and yet her maiden name to her daughter at birth, and therefore, her daughter had gone by the name Evans ever since.
Even though her mother was now engaged to Jaime’s father, Kyle. After dating him for the last ten years. A wedding had still not been scheduled. Although currently Jessie was living in the same house as Kyle and his own daughter Jaime whose mother also died when she was a kid. Although at the time Kyle had been in the process of divorcing his wife. Custody automatically went to her father after the funeral.
So, you could say that all the kids were missing something except for Mac who had the classic family to write home about, and yet here he was the one who was looking for trouble despite what River was telling himself. River was too much of a choir boy to want to drink and cause trouble, except maybe on the surface of things. But Mac was the one who was looking for action, and on this night, River was allowing him to because he was that annoyed at his father but then his eye turned to the side and saw the same brunette that he had seen in home room that day looking at him with amusement. “Got to go” River said. “Be back shortly.”
“Well,” Jessie said of her cousin’s interest in the new girl at school. West Roswell was too small for a transfer student in the middle of December, and in the middle of the school year not to be noticed and so they had all noticed her, and Jaime looked jealous as the 14-year-old saw River walk towards the new girl from school.
“You are too young kid,” Mac said as he and Jessie were both 15 years old with Jessie slightly older than he was, but not my much. Although River was oldest one of their group, so he was a year ahead of Mac and Jessie with Jaime a year behind them, so she was a freshman that year while Mac and Jessica were both Sophomores. Life was starting to become serious for all the teenagers. But still, they wanted to have a night jolly fun before they had to worry about end of semester exams.
“Do not call me kid,” Jaime muttered as she saw River approach the new girl. “After all you are only a year older than me, and you should not have even been driving,” she muttered even she had known better, and still she had gotten into the car because her stepsister was going to be there too, as she dismissively looked to where her crush had walked off too, and the newcomer that River had been entranced by. “What is her name anyway?”
“Mariah” Mac said softly as he ignored Jaime’s taunts as he did recognize the new girl from school. Because she was a topic of discussion at home. Along with Mariah’s younger brother, Alex but known to everyone by the nickname Lex. “Mariah Anthony.”
“You know her?” Jessica asked of her friend as she like River had noticed her in school. She did not know all the details, but the new girl was making waves in their school. And she and Mac treated each other as honorary family because of the fact their mother and father were so close that they were practically brother and sister, and so they had grown up together, along with Mac’s best friend, River who was of course, Jessie’s cousin because his father was her mother’s brother.
So, it was a small community. And it was coming to a head with the addition of the family whose details were still mysterious to the others in the group, but Mac obviously knew more than the others did of the newest girl to join their ranks.
“Yeah, I do” Mac murmured as the girls were paying attention to him so that they could hear more of what he knew as he looked over at where River and Mariah was now talking. “She has lived in Chicago until recently.”
“City girl?” Jessie remarked. Cool “This will be a culture shock to her?” she asked because this had been the only town she had known since she was born even though her birth father had moved to Boston, and her parents had been separated when her mother had found out she was pregnant. Apparently, her mother had been planning on joining her husband only for her birth father to die in a car crash before they could arrive, and therefore her mother stayed here in this town, and presto, she had been born in Roswell, and it had been her home ever since.
“Something like that,” Mac muttered. “Parents transferred her, so she did not have any choice” he allowed.
*
Across the road, and within the park. Admiring the park lights, and the Christmas tree that had been put up the previous weekend, and she could feel eyes on her, and then a soft voice and tone “You are new to town?” River as he approached the brunette his vision had caught attention of as he stood with his friends before leaving them and coming into the park towards the girl who had attracted him. Any thoughts of illicit behavior were forgotten as he had seen the girl with long flowy brown hair looking at him, like she knew him. “I saw you in home room?”
“Yes,” the girl murmured as she did remember him from her home room as she took her glaze from the Christmas tree as she did not know why she had been eying the blonde with an eye of wanting to get to know him, but she was as she waited for her father and little brother to return and pick her up after they went to search for something for their new house. She had wanted to see the action of the town, and shop for Christmas along the main street. So, her father had let her out, and gone with her brother to pick up the order he had called in, and she was expecting him any minute as she saw the crowd over across the road. “So, you are here with your friends?”
“Yes,” River smiled. “We should be studying but you know, the night called us to have some fun.”
“Right,” the girl smiled. “The principal gave me a pass from the exams because I just transferred in,” she sighed as she thought of her old home and old school. “Mom and Dad did not even let me finish off the school semester back home before they decided to move me and my brother?”
“I am sorry about that,” River thought as he did not know what it was like having to move to a new town. So different from the one he had lived in before and so late in a semester. “But I cannot say that I have any experience with that kind of thing because this is the only town I have ever known since I was a little baby” he murmured because he knew very well, he had come to this town as a baby, and had not been born in it.
“Yeah,” the girl asked as she was observing the bustling nature of the small town. The differences between her hometown and this one was so stark and different, and she had wanted to take it all in. Especially with the festive season upon them. After all the big city lights of Chicago where she had been born, and Roswell were like night and day. It was so different to be in this classic small town. As it was one that you would read about even if you did not experience it, and now she was experiencing it for herself and she did not know what to think about the place she would now call home.
“Yeah,” River murmured as she taken by the brunette’s beauty. “So, can I ask. What is your name?”
“Mariah” the girl muttered.
“Mariah….” River asked with a smile as he was trying to get more from her as the girl interested him and he did not know why because of his issues at home. He had spent his time with his friends or studying and doing homework so that he could get out of this this town one day, and did not have to be stuck here, unless that was his choice. And as of an hour ago. All he had known was that he would be on the first bus out of this town one he graduated. Because while he might love his family, and his hometown. Still, there was nothing to tie him here.
As he had not wanted to date. Nothing but the truth of this town kept me tied to it, but he was determined to reverse that when he graduated, and he left town.
And yet now. He was not too sure as he was looking into Mariah’s eyes, and the smile on her face. Something about her attracted to him, and yet he got a vibe from her that she was off limits, so he did not know why he was even trying to enquire about her?
“Mariah Anthony,” the girl asked as she was also taken by boy who had approached her out of nowhere. “And your name?”
“River,” the boy said before he amended his answer. “River Evans.”
“Hello, River” Mariah smiled. “It is nice to meet you River. Yes, I have seen you around the hallways,” she thought of her new school. Quite the change from the halls she had been used to. Small, and close knit. She did not know how she was going to take to it, but so far, she had managed to make it through the days, as she turned her focus back onto the boy who had come to say hello. “I find that your name is different?” she wondered because she had not known any Rivers back home. Intriguing she thought.
“Then you might have found my birth name even more different,” River laughed as he could not understand why he was even bringing this up. Because Mariah was a stranger to him, and he had not known her until this day. And the vibes coming off her were intoxicating, and yet it was nonthreatening at the same time. And yet, he here was, confessing secrets and it did surprise him.
“You had a different name?” Mariah asked as she was amused by River, and the nature of the boy who had blonde hair but had an aura of danger to him. “Why would you have had a different name?”
“You had to be here,” River muttered as he thought of his origin story. “It is an old family name” he thought of the name and how his birth name was not the name he had now because his father had changed it once he decided that he would not go the adoption route. As he had been named by his birth mother, and of course being that no one could stand his birth mother. His name was the first thing they changed about him. And came up with a unique monitor that apparently had connotations of the past for the clan that birthed him. “My birth name was Zan.”
“Wow, you are right, I think I like River, it’s different but normal” Mariah smiled. “I guess you can say that my name is relatively simpler because I was named after my mother’s best friend, although it is not an exact copy of the name because she is still alive but still close enough…”
“I like it,” River smiled.
“So, do I?” Mariah allowed as she glanced over and saw the boy by the car who noticed her and smiled. “So, you know Mackenzie?”
“You mean Mac?” River asked as his friend bristled at his legal birth name as he had gone by Mac ever since River had known him, which had been when they were kids growing up in this town together because of the closeness between his father and Mac’s parents. As he had seen how Mariah had recognized Mac, and Mac had down the same thing, and that surprised him because he could not remember his best friend mentioning Mariah to him in the past. “How do you know Mac?”
“You can say our families are close,” Mariah murmured.
“Funny thing is that Mac never mentioned knowing you?” River asked as he glanced across the street at his best friend and struggled to remember if there had been any time over their friendship that Mac had mentioned knowing someone like Mariah but could not think of something. “We have been friends since we were kids together?”
“It does not surprise me because it has been kind of a like a rule that I stay in Chicago until now,” Mariah allowed. “I mean we would have not moved here but my parents both got a job here, and before now, we rarely came out here or if my mother did, which was not very often, my brother and I stayed back home with our Dad who had to work and could not take time for a visit. Which was always weird if you ask me, and you did not ask me” she laughed as she too found a need to give out facts about her life “Because my mother is from this town.”
“Really?” River asked with a sexy smile that made Mariah fluttered a little. “So, you are not that much of a newcomer to our town?”
“Oh, I am” Mariah allowed as she looked around the park, and the Christmas tree. A symbol of celebration. “This town is completely brand new to me” she sighed. “All kind of experiences of all kinds are finding me since we arrived.”
“Then I guess I can say welcome” River smiled as he saw his friends by the car, talking amongst themselves as they were not paying attention to him and Mariah anymore, and so it drew his attention back to the newcomer to their fair town. As she was nothing like anything those, he had experience so far in his life. “So, since we have established you are new to this town. How are you liking Roswell?”
“It has had its moments,” Mariah laughed as they continued to talk, and time was ticking down, and neither were realizing it because they enjoyed talking to the other. For Mariah River was a chance to see there was some good in this town. Because she had not had a chance to make many friends since she started at the high school, and now someone was welcoming her to the town, and it was making her see that maybe moving was not the worst thing ever to happen to her only for that to change when they both heard a scream, and River focused his attention where it was coming because he had instantly recognized the sound of the voice. It was Jessica’s voice. His cousin, as they looked in horror as a car came out of nowhere, out of control and was coming right for Mac’s car or he shall qualify that as his parent’s car. Oh, shit he cried as horror struck him.
“Oh no” Mariah cried as she instantly recognized the car, and one of the people in the car with horror as. “No, please, no god” she screamed.
“You know the car?” River asked.
“Yes, it belongs to my Dad. And my little brother is in it with him” she said and before they could reach the scene as they started to run, but they were too late and the car rammed right into the car that had been stationary, and not moving, but had kids in the vicinity of it, as they heard the commotion of the crash…
Then the car catching on fire… because of the overwhelming force it was coming at, and how hard it hit…
River and Mariah did not have time to react as they watched in horror as Mac, Jessie and Jaime were all lying on the ground, and it was obvious there was two people still in the other car. River wanted to go and help his friends, but Mariah had other ideas…
“Dad,” Mariah screamed. “Alex…” she yelled as she took off for her car, and River raced after to cause her to prevent herself injury as they reached the fiery car.
And from what he could see as he reached the scene, River did not know how both were going to make it… or if they were even still alive for the matter.
But he dug in to help as he yanked open the door…