Max Evens sat in the science lab doing what he liked to do best, stare at Liz Parker. She had beautiful dark shiny hair and the most amazing smile. Plus she was great in science. He wished he were her partner, instead of having to deal with his sister, Isabel. His sister was more interested in make-up and fashion than schoolwork. He mostly had to do the experiments alone, and today he was already on their third set of ingredients.
"God, Max. Stop staring." Is barely glanced up from her powder mirror. "You'll give her a complex or something.
"She's just so...."
"Nauseatingly wholesome?" Isabel didn't really like Liz that much. Max figured she was jealous. The whole popular crowd shunned Is because she said she was better than them.
"Beautiful. By the way, where's Tess today?" Tess Guerin took the same chemistry class as they did.
"Why don't you find Michael and ask him." Is answered nonchalantly. Michael Guerin took the remedial science class. But he never went to class anyway, so it didn't matter to him.
"Yeah. Eh, it doesn't matter anyhow. She just follows us around." Max shrugged.
"She's Michael's sister. She's allowed to hang around."
"Not everywhere. She practically hangs off of me."
"Maybe she likes you." Is grinned.
"Don't even." Max rolled his eyes. "She's a nice girl, but very immature. Besides I like Liz."
"So why don't you go ask her out?"
"I'm going to."
"Aren't you forgetting a couple things?"
"Like what."
"Like the fact that she's in a whole different social class than you. Oh yeah, and her jock boyfriend." Isabel pointed out.
"He's not so big."
"Maybe not, but he has lots of jock friends that are bigger than you."
"You really don't think it's a good idea?" Asked Max, concerned. His sister usually knew about these things.
"Ya know what? You should just go ahead and do it. She might say yes."
"Hmmm. Well what do I have to lose?"
"Yeah, just don't do it right now."
"Why?"
"Because you just ruined the experiment again." She pointed to the beakers.
"Shit." Max said under his breath. Then called to the teacher. "Oh, Mr. Soetart...."
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At lunch Max was resuming his favorite pastime when both Michael and Tess came to sit down with him and Is.
"He staring at her again?" Michael rolled his eyes.
"Yeah. Pathetic, really." Is sighed. "Especially when I want to have a conversation and he keeps drifting away."
"Well why aren't you going over there?" Tess asked Max. "Just ask her out. You're good looking enough. Better than Kyle Valenti anyway." She wrinkled up her nose.
"Riiiight." Max shook his head. She was always saying something weird like that.
"What? Are you scared?"
"I'm not scared!"
"Yep." Michael piped in. "He's a chicken." He made a couple of clucking noises.
"Shut up." But Michael just kept it up. "I mean it." Mike got louder. "Okay. I'll go over there. Happy?"
"I didn't say anything." Michael laughed as Max got up. They watched him walk over to Liz's table where she was sitting with her smart guy friend and the blonde chick she always hung out with. He said a few things and Liz was trying her best to look interested, but he quickly gave up and came back.
"So what did you say to her?" Is smiled.
"I asked her if she'd go out with me."
"Liar." Tess smirked.
"Okay. I just asked if she had trouble with the experiment."
"Oooh, deep, Maxwell." Michael smacked him in the shoulder.
"Shut up. We're going up to the observatory again tonight, huh?"
"Sure."
"Want me to bring a bottle of beer and we can all get drunk?" Is asked cattily. They couldn't drink excessively. Michael had tried. Now his drug of choice was cigarettes.
"Funny." Mike stated sarcastically.
"Do you want a drag?" Michael asked practically burning Isabel with the cigarette.
"Ugh. Get lost Michael. You know I don't smoke!" She shoved his hand away.
"All the supermodels do. It's what keeps them so scrawny."
"Well I'm going to start a trend."
"Sure." He sat back against the wall and took a slow drag, pretending to be enjoying it fully. In actuality, he really didn't. It was just something he did. Something that promoted his bad-boy image.
"So…who's gonna have a drink with me?" Michael pushed the box with his toe making the bottles inside clink lightly. Isabel had brought alcohol—a four pack of strawberry-lime coolers.
"Yeah. You get drunk off of 2 sips now?" Max joked.
"Actually I can drink a whole one." Michael bragged.
"That's what comes from being a lush." Tess looked pointedly at Max.
"Practice…and talent, little sister." Michael freed his bottle from the case and opened it. "Anyone else?"
"Yeah." Isabel agreed hesitantly. "But only some of yours. I don't want to crawl home again tonight."
"Oh…remember when you got so drunk 'cus you drank almost a whole can of that nasty beer?" Tess laughed. "Me and Max had to drag you into the house."
"Don't remind me!" Is growled. "It was almost as bad as when Michael had like three shots of Sourpuss. Now that was pretty sad." She took her second sip of the cooler.
There was silence then in the observatory. Everyone was remembering that night. Michael had stumbled in and threw up on his foster-dad's shoes. He was beaten within an inch of his life. They had all been too terrified to heal him, so Tess brought him his homework for almost two weeks. As a result he was seriously slipping behind in class.
"Sorry." Replied Isabel, looking down. "I should go." She suddenly stood up and wobbled some. "I'm actually not feeling too good. Or maybe I'm feeling way too good." She giggled.
"Cheap drunk." Max laughed setting the mood higher again.
"Speak for yourself." She giggled again.
"I'll take you home." Max started to get up.
"No. I'll do it." Michael beat him standing. "I'll be right back." He grabbed Isabel's elbow and let her out the door.
Tess and Max sat in silence for a few minutes. Max reached into the open box for a bottle. "Do you think something's up with them?" He asked.
"Isabel and Michael? You can't be serious." She rolled her eyes.
"Why not?" He shrugged. "I mean he seems to try to take care of her a lot."
"That's the way we are. Don't you feel like we're all a bit secluded from everyone else because we know we're different?"
"Secluded can feel really lonely sometimes. You know?" Max looked down at the unopened bottle in his hands. It was obvious he was thinking about Liz.
"Not really. When I'm with you or Isabel or Michael, I feel like I'm with family. Maybe it's because me and Mike never really had a family, and suddenly you guys are like us and…I don't know." She looked at him tossing the cooler back and forth. "Are you going to open that?"
"Mmmm…." Max mused and finally turned the cap. The carbonated beverage spilled over the top and his hand. Tess snickered and he did as well. "Lady gets first drink?"
"Sure, okay." She took the sticky bottle from his hand and drank a gulp. "So what do you think we are?" She handed the bottle back.
"I'm not sure. I wish I knew, though. I don't even know why we're here."
"Yeah." She sighed, looking off dreamily. "Oooh. Maybe we're aliens! It would explain why we're in Roswell." She giggled.
"Okay. You're cut off."
"Whatever, Max." She pushed him, but he grabbed her wrist and they both went off balance. She toppled to the side of him. He rolled to pin her in a wrestling hold, but stopped above her and just looked into her face. He'd never seen Tess in that light before—not the dim overhead lights—the way she looked. Her blonde curls spilled around her head like a halo, her eyes were inviting, but not as much as her lips. He'd only ever thought of her as a bratty little sister, but in that moment, she looked anything but.
"Max." She whispered breaking the silence, but not for long. Max leaned forward to press his lips onto hers.
"Mmmm." She went with it. She couldn't deny that she'd dreamed of this before, but never imagined it would come true. She always woke up from her dreams, but now she wasn't waking up. She was feeling kind of tipsy and everything was going a little too fast. Before she even understood what was going on, the deed was done and they were lying on the cold floor completely naked.
"Oh my…." She couldn't describe the feeling. If that was what sex was all about, she could see herself doing it as a regular pastime. "Max!" She bolted up. "Michael said he was coming back." She scrambled for her clothes.
"Shit…shit shit shit shit." Max pulled on his boxers and pants at the same time. "I'm sorry, Tess. Shit. Please don't tell Michael. He'd kill me! Shit!"
"Calm down, Max. I won't tell anyone if you don't want me to." She said sort of put off.
"Good. Good." He looked at her and she looked at him both in silent agreement. They were dressed and relaxed by the time Michael opened the door five minutes later.
Alex looked at the strange book once again. He turned the pages over and over, back and forth. He had found it when he was looking for a book on a top shelf. The language—if it really was a language, was indecipherable, but the really strange part was that there were pictures of kids he knew from school on one of the pages. Isabel and Max Evens and Michael and Tess Guerin. He was already started on the language part and his monitor was getting really warm since he had been at it all evening. But the pictures would have to be asked about.
Max and Tess looked at each other frequently the next day. Her eyes held curiosity, his desire, but both said nothing. They thought Isabel and Michael would've said something about it, but they seemed oblivious. They always were anyway. Just as they were leaving school for the day, Max brushed passed Tess.
"Meet me at the observatory tonight."
She knew they had to talk as much as he did so that night she told Mike she was going 'out'--alone. She stressed the word "alone" and he didn't question her. He hated to be at home alone with the asshole, but sometimes he knew what a certain tone meant.
"Coming home tonight?"
"Probably." And she left him standing there pondering.
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"So…." He began.
"Yeah." She smiled
Max let out and awkward breath. "I just…. Tess, I just want to say I'm sorry."
"Why? I'm not." She replied bluntly. There was no easy way out of the conversation.
"Well…we're like brother and sister." If he had to state the obvious for her, he would.
"Right, but Max, it felt so…." She looked at him sideways.
"Yeah. I felt it too." He groaned. "What am I saying? It wasn't right. Michael would kill me if he found out."
"You said that last night already." She stepped forward lessening the gap between the two of them.
"This is so crazy." His hand reached up to her head and he ran his fingertips through her soft curls. He loved the way she smelled, like Herbal Essences. He was about to have a truly organic experience.
"This is so wrong." He whispered into her ear and moved over her lips.
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They began seeing each other like that almost every night thinking that a little innocent fooling around wouldn't mean much, but like all good things, it had to come to an end.
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"What have you and Max been doing?" Isabel confronted Tess. Tess looked around.
"Don't look for Max. He and Michael are off somewhere having a 'talk'."
"I hope, for all of us, that you are joking." Tess breathed.
Isabel snorted. "So what we've suspected is true. Do you think we're completely stupid? You don't think we see the way you guy's look at each other? I know something is up."
"Shit. Don't tell Michael. He'll seriously kill Max."
"Oh, no! God, Tess, don't tell me you're saying…." Is covered her mouth with a hand fearing the next words that were about to come out of her mouth. "You slept together?"
Tess' downward look confessed for her. She suddenly glanced up. "Well you and Michael are always looking at each other and he does nice things for you." She tried to get back.
"Please, Tess. There is nothing going on between Michael and me. Besides, this is about you and Max." She smirked. "Even if Michael and I cared about each other like that…ew…we'd never like each other like that."
"Sure, sure." Tess raised and eyebrow.
"Ugh…whatever. You believe what you want to about that, but the matter is still there that you and Max…."
"What's so wrong with it. We're just having some fun. It's not like it's serious, besides now we don't have to see him mooning over Liz Parker all the time." Tess said 'Liz Parker' in a condescending voice.
"There is sooo much wrong with the…thing you're having, but you know what, I won't tell Michael, okay?" Isabel relented.
"Oh, thank you, thank you!" Tess hugged Is.
"Calm down girl." Isabel laughed.
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Max, Michael and Tess were at the Crashdown when Liz was shot. Max moved to go to her and Tess grabbed his arm.
"Max, you can't go over there." She whispered.
"I have to."
"Tess is right Maxwell."
"Don't do it. It's too risky." Tess pleaded. "You'll expose us."
"I have to. Don't ask me not to again, or I will never talk to you again." He stared pointedly at her. His voice contained so much conviction that they didn't say any more as he got up and headed over to where Liz was lying. In that moment, Tess knew that she had lost him. She realized that she had never really had him, but it didn't console her any.
He healed Liz and they all hurried out of the Crashdown as fast as they could, but because of his act, Max became close to Liz and farther away from the others.
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Liz and Max became an item, "it was you", 'Eraser Room' and everything. The others didn't know how serious it really was but they had reason to be afraid. If she didn't keep their secret, they didn't know what would happen, but it wouldn't be good. She had an opportunity when Maria confronted her.
"You'd better tell me what's going on with you and Max Evens right now!" Maria demanded.
"Okay, okay. But you have got to promise me you're not going to flip-out."
"What?"
"Michael is selling drugs." Liz lied. "But you can't tell anyone. If he gets in trouble any more than he is, he and his sister will have to split up."
"But why are their parents not stopping it?"
"His foster dad is the one getting him to sell them, or so I'm told. Supposedly, he's not a very nice guy. They only stay with him so they don't have to relocate."
"Well that's shitty. I can't stand when parents act like the children. Speaking of which, my mom…." Maria went off onto another rant of her mother and dropped the issue.
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While Max and Liz were getting along so great, Tess and Kyle Valenti, Liz's ex-boyfriend, decided to console each other. He wasn't really the pompous jerk that everyone thought he was. It didn't mean he wasn't like a typical guy--thinking with his penis first, but he was more spiritual than anyone would guess. They got to be such good friends that it came as no surprise, to her at least that he was the first person she told.
"Kyle. I'm pregnant."
"It's not mine."
"Of course it isn't. It's Max's."
"Well what are you going to make him do?'
"What do you mean?" She looked at him perplexed.
"Well he's rich and…."
"No…I don't want his money."
"Well you're going to have to tell him. Right?" He looked at her face. "You are going to tell him, right?"
"Uh…." She held her breath for a long time. "Not so much."
"He may want to know about it. I know he's not really your favorite person right now, but he does have a right to know."
"But you're not going to be the one to tell him! I will tell him when I can. Okay?"
"Sure." But it wasn't really a promise. Kyle didn't tell Max, but he did let it slip amongst his football buddies, actually defending her and his honor. In a few days, it crept over the school and into the furious ears of Michael Guerin.
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"Maxwell, I'm going to have to kill you!" Michael bellowed.
"What?" Max laughed like he thought Michael was joking.
"I'm not fucking with you!"
"What's up, Mike?"
"My sister--YOUR sister. You got her pregnant!"
"Huh? Tess? She's pregnant?" Max was pretty surprised. Michael's confidence wavered, but only for a second.
"Of course. Don't play dumb."
Max didn't believe he was having this conversation with Michael. "How can you be sure?"
"Me and Isabel got her to confess after we heard all the rumors in school. I can't believe you guys slept together. We're like family!" Michael lit a cigarette and began to pace.
"How do you know it's mine?" Max rolled his eyes. This was getting out of hand. "It could be Kyle Valenti's--they've been close lately--or any other guy in the school for that matter!"
"Are you calling my sister a slut?" Michael got right into his face.
"Uh…" Michael's eyes held such fierceness that Max couldn't say much more. Not like there was much to say. He knew Tess wasn't like that, but she'd been spending quite a bit of time with Kyle and his buddies. Anything was possible.
"Did you or did you not sleep with my sister?"
Max hesitated and his silence told Michael the truth. "Damnit! Damnit, Max! We're all friends. You should have known better!" He ranted again then looked at Max seriously. "I can't be around you right now." He stated quietly and stalked off.
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"Since when did Max start smoking? He doesn't smoke!" Liz and Maria glanced into the smoke room to see Max take a long drag and let it out slowly. Liz didn't approve of smoking anyway, but the fact that the school had built a room for kids to smoke in disgusted her. And here was Max, her newfound boyfriend using it.
"Uh…maybe since Tess got pregnant with his child." Maria answered sarcastically. "Must be a highly stressful situation."
"Huh?" Where had that come from? "Pregnant?"
"Yeah and guess who she's with now? Kyle--your ex. Who we all know goes for easy women, present company not included, of course! Rumor had it, she's turned into some kind of super slut or something because, well she can't get pregnant while she is pregnant. It wouldn't surprise me if the poor guy isn't doing drugs or something."
"Maria!" Liz scolded harshly.
"Hey…I'm just saying." Maria held up her hands in defense.
"Well don't say. I'm going to talk to him alone. If all the rumors are true, he won't want both of us confronting him." She headed into the smog-filled room.
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"Max?" Max heard Liz's voice from above him. He looked up into her disapproving face and quickly put out the cigarette.
"Max…"
"Michael just…. I don't…"
"You don't have to explain. I seen you and I just wanted to tell you that there are other ways to relieve stress." She said sympathetically. Max thought about his former way to relieve stress and had to admit smoking was much safer.
"I heard about Tess."
"Yeah. Me too. Just about," He glanced down at his Rolex "three minutes ago. Michael came and tore a strip out of me."
"You didn't know before?" She asked shocked. "Why wouldn't she tell you herself?"
"I don't know. She wanted to be a bitch or something?"
"Max, it's probably not like that at all. Maybe it is just a rumor. But it's not just a rumor that you guys…." She cleared her throat.
"No." He couldn't imagine why she would want to know. He didn't want to hurt her but he also wanted to be honest with her.
"I thought you said you were like siblings. Now I don't know about where your from, but here--on Earth--we tend to frown on it." She tried to lighten the mood a little.
"It's complicated." He didn't seem into joking around.
"Sounds like it."
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