PART 2

Max's POV

So I'm sitting here in the Crashdown supposedly waiting to order breakfast, but really I'm just hoping for a glimpse of Liz Parker.

Wow, de ja vu.

How many times did I do this in high school? Sit down in this very spot and pretend I was here strictly for the food?

It's actually pretty ridiculous, I know. At some point I fully intend to get over the paralyzing shyness and the crippling fear of rejection and ask Liz out. I mean, it's been years or whatever but you know, if you compare it to the history of the world, it really hasn't been that long at all . . .

Ok, I know, I'm pathetic.

So what's the big deal right? Boy meets girl. Boy likes girl. Boy asks girl out, right?

Um, no.

See you take a really shy boy and a really beautiful girl and then throw in a curve ball like the fact that said 'boy' is an alien and the story's not quite so simple.

Yep, I said it. 'A-li-en.'

Me, my sister Isabel and our best friend, Michael are aliens. Ironic right? Real live aliens in Roswell, New Mexico. I guess you really can find things in the most obvious of places, huh?

Anyway, we don't know anything about how we came to be here. In fact, the first memory we have is of wandering along the side of the road out in the desert and that was like 13 years ago. We looked like 6 year olds so that's the age they declared us.

Isabel and I were picked up by our future adoptive parents, the Evans'. But Michael was too scared and wouldn't join us when we saw headlights, so he wasn't found till later. He ended up getting shuffled from foster home to foster home until he finally got himself legally emancipated like three years ago.

But for years after being found, we three closed ourselves off to the world, conceding that we were too different to mingle with those around us. And I can't speak for Isabel and Michael, but for me the self-imposed emotional isolation felt more like a prison every day.

But something happened in high school. Ironically it was Michael who took the first step. When he got emancipated, I guess it actually set him free in other ways too because he started working at the Crashdown as a cook and before either of us knew it, him and Liz's best friend, Maria, were dating. Isabel and I gave him a hard time about it, but he ignored us. And it's a good thing he did because from the most unlikely of sources we saw that it was ok. To open ourselves up. To love.

I think Michael finally found his home on this planet when he and Maria got together, although you'd never get him to admit it. But there were just subtle changes in him that only Isabel and I noticed. Like he wasn't as concerned about answers about where we'd come from after Maria. He was no longer on a quest to find that elusive 'family' that he'd so desperately wanted. It seems being with Maria convinced him of the one thing Iz and I never could: that he already had a family right here . . . maybe not by blood, but definitely in heart. So he relaxed. And since he was always the most uptight in our group, we relaxed too.

Now, don't get me wrong and go thinking that Michael and Maria have this fairy tale romance going on. If anything, they're more like that War of the Roses movie, with Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner.

Except, you know, without the horrible deaths at the end . . .

Yep, they fight a lot . . . and I do mean a lot. But underneath it all, you can really tell that they love each other. Michael even ended up sharing our secret with Maria and you know what? She didn't run and tell. She didn't panic and alert the media. But mostly, she didn't stop loving Michael. And I think that clinched it for all of us. We knew we were ok after that. Ok to stop standing on the outside watching life pass us by.

So Isabel started dating nonstop. Some serious relationships, some not. And I even dated a little myself.

But no one ever came close to Liz Parker. It seems she's been in my heart since I first saw her. And every girl I encountered was compared to her and eventually found wanting because, well, because they weren't her.

Breaking out of my thoughts, I know the second Liz steps into the room. It's like everything goes into slow motion and my heart skips a beat when she notices me.

Liz's POV

I step out into the lion's den (a.k.a. the Crashdown), look around, and stop.

Sitting at a table in my station is none other than Max Evans . . . Ex-high school lab partner, drop dead gorgeous, wanna-jump-his-bones Max Evans . . .

What?

I do.

And that's actually not the opposite . . . I am soooo bad . . .

"Liz and Ma-ax, sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g" Maria whispers in my ear as she passes by.

Oh yeah, Maria thinks she's hilarious . . . ha freakin' ha ha . . .

So I set my coffee cup behind the counter and walk over to his table to take his order. All the while chanting 'Don't ask a question, don't ask a question, don't ask a question' in my head.

You know, because of the Opposite's Day thing.

So inwardly I'm a wreck. Outwardly I say casually "Hey Max."

Hey, I can be casual. That's how he never figured out how hard I was crushing on him all those years in high school.

I was so casual they used to call me 'Casual Liz.'

Ok, no, that just sounds wrong, so nevermind. Anyway 'don't ask me a question, don't . . .'

"Hey Liz, uh, how's it going?"

Damn.

"Good, good. And you?" Wow, how lame are we? And no I didn't forget about Opposite's day. This day has actually been pretty bad so far, so the opposite is true.

Huh?

Oh just whatever.

So I take his order and head over to the pick up window to drop it off, chancing a glance back at Max 'cause boy is he easy on the eyes!

Hmm . . . Strange . . . If I didn't know better I'd swear he was just staring at my behind as I walked away. But nah, that couldn't be, could it?

Anyway, it's ironic, because in all the time I've known Max, he and I have never once hung out.

So why is that ironic you ask? . . . Well, two reasons. One is because his best friend and my best friend have been dating on and off since high school. Yep, this week I think they're off again. And two, because we all attend the same college.

"You know chica, we need to go out tonight and shake our groove things. What do you say? Alien Oasis tonight?" Maria asks me and she even does a hip bump thing for emphasis.

Laughing, I think about it, running through my head what's on tv tonight that I would miss if I went out. Hmm, Walker Texas Ranger . . .

How sad is my life that I plan my social calendar around a tv guide? Yep, that decided it.

"Nope, I'm out." Which means, 'Yep, I'm in' in case you're confused.

"Great, chica. I'll pick you up at 10!" she squeals at me.

I mean, I can always set the VCR . . .

Max's POV

Darn, I think she just caught me staring at her behind! I didn't mean to look. Really I didn't. The sway in her hips just caught my eye and then I was like transfixed or something.

But wait . . . Did I just hear Maria inviting her out to a dance club tonight?

I'm practically holding my breath waiting for the answer.

I sigh when Liz answers in the negative thinking that if she went out tonight I'd go too.

So wait, if she declined, then how come Maria is so excited and just said she'd pick her up like they're going?

Weird.

Anyway, to be on the safe side I think I'll be putting in an appearance at Alien Oasis tonight. I never could resist watching Liz dance.

Besides I can always tape Walker, Texas Ranger.