ONE

"Ms. Parker," the rough voice said, pulling me abruptly out of my thoughts which were entangled with the common task of organizing my study schedule for the weekend. But it wasn't the roughness of his voice that had me turning my head, rather the seduction dripping like sweet syrup of my otherwise very ordinary name.

My body knew who it was even before my mind registered the clarity of his voice and my shoulders were already squaring, my back straightening, against what I hoped to be a fearless front to the man I was about to face.

Michael Guerin.

His stone face looked slightly bemused as his eyes collided with mine and a tremble of nervousness went through my body. Against my intention, the tremble vibrated through my voice as I spoke, "Y-yes?"

His head angled slightly to the side and he whispered, his breath crossing the distance between us with dangerous warmth while his eyes gleamed coldly, "Did you cut your hair?"

Feeling very much like the bug under a microscope I resisted the temptation to swallow and nodded silently, already beating myself up for my natural fear.

A slow smirk pulled at his lips and my heart froze as he reached out with his hand and grabbed a strand of my dark hair, his fingertips ghosting across my flushed skin.

"Interesting," he murmured.

"Michael."

The voice was quiet and controlled but it ripped through me with the intensity of a scream and I took a step back from his hand as the owner of the voice stepped up next to Michael.

I watched a silent exchange of annoyance pass between the two tall, beautiful people, before the person who saved me from Michael turned to me with a flawless smile, "I'm sorry. Was he bothering you?"

Isabel Evans, with her fair perfect skin, her red lips, curvy body and golden hair, was the person every girl in the school envied. She was the girl every boy lusted for in the privacy of their thoughts.

Giving in to my need to swallow in an effort to lubricate my dry throat, I nodded and said perfectly evenly, "Yes."

Her smile was smooth as apology reached her brown eyes. "I do apologize. He has the intelligence level of a monkey."

I knew that I was supposed to smile at this. I knew it was supposed to be a joke, maybe even an attempt at lightening the situation, but I didn't find anything amusing about the tension in the air.

With an almost imperceivable nod of her head, she grabbed Michael's elbow and pulled him away, all through the motion managing to look perfectly collected.

"What was that?" Maria, my best friend, breathed behind me.

"Michael Guerin," I answered and felt the personality that seemed to have escaped me just now crash back into my body.

"What did he want?" Maria asked, confusion coloring her voice.

I managed a casual shrug of my shoulders and pulled my bag out of my locker, slamming the door shut with a loud clang before I turned to face Maria. "Nothing."

As I started to move down the hallway towards the large front doors, I was only partly aware of Maria hurrying to gather her things to follow me as my thoughts were running all over the place.

Michael Guerin and Isabel Evans were two of the members of the infamous mysterious trio of Roswell High. The third one was Max Evans. They were known as a trio because they were always seen together in some form or another. They were named mysterious because no one really knew anything about them. This was strange in itself. The trio was not new to the school. In fact, they had lived in Roswell for the last ten years or so and had been part of the Roswell school system since third grade.

Yet no one really knew them.

They kept to themselves, only making bare minimum effort to blend with society.

Well, except for Max Evans.

The third member of the trio, Max Evans, was nothing like the two people he spent most of his time with. While Michael and Isabel kept mostly to themselves, Max was part of almost every school event – as long as it involved some type of sport activity. While Michael and Isabel were rarely seen at parties, Max had never missed a single one.

Just then the front doors opened and the object at the front of Liz's thoughts sauntered through the doors, followed by a train of guys and beautiful girls.

Mesmerizingly beautiful, Max Evans was like poison to the females of Roswell High. They followed him like bewitched puppets, almost tripping over themselves for a second of his attention.

The boys, the well-trained muscular jocks following Max, were keeping up a conversation about the latest game while Max's eyes slowly scanned the school hallway.

My steps had faltered somewhat when he had crashed through the doors (not even I was immune to his magnetism), but I quickly recovered with a snap of my back and by locking my gaze in front of me so that my eyes would avoid contact with his at all cost.

A shiver raced down my spine as I felt his gaze brush over me and I resisted the urge to look in his direction while I put my hands up against the front doors and pushed them open.

Maria was at my heels the moment I reached the outside and I felt relief flood me as the fresh air saturated my starving lungs.

"Are you going to the party?" she asked breathlessly.

I frowned. "What party?"

It was impossible to miss Maria's loud exasperated sigh. "The Halloween party."

I sighed. "I don't feel much like a party."

"Oh come on," Maria tried. "It's the party of the year."

Having reached my car, I fumbled through my bag for the key. "You say that every year, Ria."

"It's true every year," Maria said simply.

I brushed a hand through my hair, the unconscious act bringing forth the recent memory of Michael Guerin touching me and I shivered. "I don't think I'll go this year."

She looked at me incredulously and flung my own words back into my face, "You say that every year, Lizzie."

"They freak me out," I said, wanting her to get off the case. She knew how uncomfortable Isabel, Max and Michael made me and the Halloween party was held at the Evans' resident every year. It was a success every year.

Or so I've heard. I had yet to attend one.

It was apparently the only real social event that Isabel and Michael were involved in, which possibly made it even more alluring.

After discussing the matter with several people at school, including lengthy discussions with Maria, I had come to the understanding that I was the only one to really be uncomfortable around the three beautiful people. Everyone else saw them as unattainable, at another level. But they were not scared by them, rather, careful out of respect. As if they were royalty that always had to be treated properly.

Maybe that was what made me so uncomfortable; the fact that no one treated Max, Michael or Isabel like normal teenagers.

"There's something wrong about them," I told Maria and she rolled her eyes at the comment.

That was not anything new coming from me.

"What's your latest theory?" she asked with a small smile as I opened the passenger door and put my bag in the seat.

"They're vampires," I answered seriously and rolled my eyes as she laughed. Of course it sounded ridiculous but, "They're too perfect!"

She continued laughing at my defensive tone and said between breathless giggles, "I thought vampires combusted in the sun. Would they really move to the desert if they couldn't stand the sun?"

I slammed the door shut and walked around the front of the car, opening the door to the driver's seat. I couldn't help but smile and offered, "Yeah, that's where my theory ends as well. Plus, they seem to age just normally. Vampires don't age."

Maria snorted, shaking her head in amusement. "You're impossible."

"I'm just gonna stay at home and watch 'Moulin Rouge'," I said, getting in behind the steering wheel.

Maria sighed, the laughter dying from her eyes. "Again? Man, Liz. To have a social life, you should at least try to make an effort."

I frowned at her, wondering where she got the notion that I wanted a social life from. "Who said anything about wanting to be social?"

I reached out to close the door when Maria's hand stopped me. She bent down, looking at me with serious green eyes. Speaking with the voice of an all-seeing psychic, she murmured slowly, "Mark my words, woman. You're gonna end up as an old maid with 149 cats."

"So be it," I replied and pulled the door closed.

While I reversed out of the parking space, I started searching through my bag after my iPhone with one eye on the road.

"Where is it?" I mumbled, while my hand came up with various pens, post-its and paper clips. But no phone.

Rolling the car to a stop, I shifted out of reverse and into drive and my attention was momentarily on the bag while I tried to peek through the small opening into the bag in attempt to spot the white smart multifunctional device.

"Gotcha," I said triumphantly as my fingers touched the headphones which were plugged into the phone and as I started to pull it out of the bag, my foot automatically pressed on the gas.

My eyes were only a nanosecond behind, but when I looked up my heart jumped into my throat and I reflexively slammed the brakes into the floor. My body jolted slightly with the sudden stop and I was left staring at the boy that had appeared in front of my car.

I had almost run over Max Evans.

As he started walking around the car, his eyes locked with mine, I was painfully aware of the burning air whooshing through my windpipe.

He stopped next to my door, gazing down at me through the window, his face a blank slate. But his eyes were burning into me, dark as two pieces of charcoal.

I swallowed harshly.

I'm not sure how many seconds passed, but suddenly his eyes softened while a slow grin spread across his lips. Cocking his head to the side, his knuckles rapped against the window; the sound ripped through my body.

I kept on staring, my knuckles white as my grip on the steering wheel tightened further.

Shaking his head in something that might be amusement, Max moved his hand in a circular motion, obviously gesturing for me to wind down the window.

I didn't really feel like it.

But I seemed somewhat obliged, since I had almost run him over after all. Maybe I should apologize or something. I mean, I just almost killed the most beloved person of Roswell High. If that had actually happened the students of Roswell High would most likely lead the witch hunt which would end with me being burnt at the stake upon my capture.

"Liz, please," he said then, his voice subdued through the glassed barrier between us. I tried to ignore the way his voice caressed my name.

Holding my breath, I leaned over and slowly rolled down the window. The fresh moist rainy air hit my face, along with his scent. I tried my best to ignore how his scent made my mouth water and my heart skip a beat.

"What is it?" I asked, my voice a tad harsher than I had planned.

He raised an intrigued eyebrow at the hostility in my voice and said, "You almost ran me over."

There was no accusation in his voice, but I couldn't help feeling like I was suddenly on trial. "Sorry. I didn't see you."

He chuckled at this and my eyes narrowed. What was so funny about that?

"You should pay more attention to the road, Ms. Parker."

The amused twinkle in his eyes annoyed me. "You shouldn't be standing in the middle of the road, Mr. Evans."

One edge of his mouth drifted slightly north. "Touché."

"Did you want something?" I snarled. "Or were you just hanging around, waiting to be run over?"

"I'm having a party," Max said and I resisted the temptation to roll my eyes. He said it as if it wasn't general knowledge. As if his party wasn't described in detail under 'Party' in the dictionary.

I raised an eyebrow and tried my best to look apathetic. "Really?"

His eyes glinted and I shifted uncomfortably in my seat. "Everyone's invited," he continued.

"How nice," I said. I wanted to pull my eyes away from him, but I couldn't. I wanted to roll up the window, put the car in drive and get away from there. But I couldn't. Something in his eyes stopped me. Maybe it was the warm hue of his irises. Maybe it was the sensual shape of his upper lip. Maybe-

I shook my head to clear my mind of those thoughts. What was wrong with me?!

I would not allow Max Evans to work his magic on me.

"You should come," he said, a small smirk twisting his lips.

I had the clearest feeling that he knew what had just run through my mind. I shifted in my seat again.

"I don't like dress-ups," I said more confidently than I felt.

"You don't have to dress up," Max said slowly and started tracing the top of the window pane with his index finger. "You can come as Elizabeth Parker."

I stared at the slow movement of the finger, suddenly feeling very hot.

Get a grip, Parker!

I snapped my eyes back up to his face and all the strength appeared to have left my voice as I spoke again, "What's the fun in that? I might as well not come."

He put his head to the side, regarding me with penetrating eyes. I swallowed.

"Have you ever been to my party, Liz?"

"No."

"You should come."

"I don't really feel like it."

"It's gonna be fun."

"I have plans."

"Really? What are you doing?"

"None of your business."

He smiled and a tremble went through my body. "Please. Come. Just this once."

I was falling into his eyes and, before I could stop myself, I felt my head nod in agreement.

My protesting thoughts were loud in my head as he smiled and stepped away from the car.

Damn it, damn it, damn it

"I'll see you there," Max said and I grimaced at him.

Damn it.