Alright here's chapter three. Sorry it took so long to get out, but school's just been crazy with finals and everything. Unfortunately, chapter four, Fight Or Flight, will take a while too, 'cause I'm going on vacation.
Thanks to everyone who reviewed. You people do wonders for my confidence :P
Chapter Three
Atteindre
Reaching Out
"So is Kyle coming back anytime soon?" It's lunch again and we're sitting under the same tree as yesterday. I'm reading my book for AP English and he's doing his French homework while we talk.
"I think I heard Sherriff Valenti say something to my dad about Kyle coming home in a week or so, but I'm not really sure." I tell him. "I hope he's doing better than he was right after the whole Tess thing." I'm very proud that I can actually say her name now without sneering.
I put my book down to take a bite out of my sandwich when I notice Max and Maria across the quad glaring at us, yet again. Seriously, can't they just leave us alone and, if not, be a little more grown up about it?
I notice that Isabel is absent.
"She's been skipping classes a lot. Mainly after lunch. I have no idea where she goes, neither does Maxwell. Apparently she doesn't come home until after dinner on those days, her parents are really worried about her too from what Max told me."
I nod, my own worry increasing after hearing this news. "I'll try to talk to her as soon as I can find her." I think I have a hunch on where she is, but telling Michael that won't do any good, he'd just go and find her right away and right now I don't think that's what Izzie needs.
"Look I have some stuff to do after school, could you tell my dad I'll be a little late?" I ask as I get up to go to my next class. He nods and walks off in the opposite direction, heading for his French class.
"Later Liz."
--
The minute I walk out of the schoolbuilding I'm hit with a wave of heat and humidity, it's times like these that I really hate summer. I walk off the schoolgrounds and take a left, determined to get where I'm going as soon as possible. I slow down when I get to the gate and freeze. She's there, I was right, but suddenly I feel like I can't move. The heat is no longer bothering me as there are shivers going up and down my spine and I realize I'm trembling slightly.
I haven't been here since that day, his funeral. Alex.
Isabel is sitting on the grass in front of his grave. I don't want to go there, I'm not ready, not yet. I'm terribly afraid that if I go there now all my efforts to put myself together will have been in vain. I'm afraid I'll break all over again.
But what if I don't do this? The chance that I'll be able to talk to Izzie when she's alone won't come up again anytime soon and from what Michael told me she really needs some help. And suddenly, as if my body has already made up my mind for me, I find myself walking through the gate and towards her. She doesn't notice I'm there until I sit down beside her, a weary sigh escaping my lips.
"Hi, Liz." She doesn't look up.
"Hi." I answer before turning my gaze to his headstone. Another sigh escapes me when I read his name.
"Do you want me to leave?" She asks me tentevily, already moving to get up from the ground.
"No, that's allright. You can stay." We don't speak again for a good ten minutes. We just sit there silently under the scorching sun, both lost in our own thoughts of the boy that meant so much to both of us.
"Michael's really worried about you, you know." Her head snaps up at that, confusion as to how I would know that clear in her eyes.
"He told me." I say "Are you okay?"
I'm already hating the fact that I'm asking that question, since the answer is obvious. I look at her once more and see denial written all over her face. I guess I'll have to push, can nothing ever be easy?
"Before you say that you are I'd just like to remind you that you're skipping school to hang out with a piece of granite." It sounds harsh when I put it like this, especially to me since I know what she's going through. I understand why she would want to be here, but if someone doesn't make it clear to her that she's falling into a black hole than she'll never get better and I know that better than anyone.
She considers me for awhile and I try my best to put on my you-can-tell-me-anything face.
"I just miss him so much." She tells me after awhile.
"I know, me too." I say, so quietly that I'm surprised if she heard me. "But what you're doing isn't healthy Isabel. He wouldn't have wanted you to be like this."
She sniffles a little before speaking. "I-I know, I just can't help but think that…that…" There are tears rolling down her face now.
"That what?"
"That it was my fault." She chokes out before truly starting to cry. My heart breaks a little for her.
"It's not your fault Iz. Tess fooled us all. Even I trusted her. I mean I hated her guts with a fiery passion, but I did trust her. None of us saw this coming. If you're to blame than we all are too." I try my best to sound sincere, but I can feel my own guilt issues about his death come up again.
"But how do you know for sure?"
I take a deep breath and try to calm myself. I'm going to tell her everything. And so after a few more seconds I start. I tell her about Future Max and the end of the world. I tell her that if it wasn't for my actions Alex might still have been alive.
We're both crying by the time I'm finished and I realise that I feel a little better, relieved now that someone besides Maria knows.
"It's not your fault either Liz, like you said, none of us could have known what would happen. You tried to do the right thing, you probably saved our lives. You're not to blame either."
I nod. "I know that." I tell her. "Doesn't really help me feel less guilty though."
"Me neither." I'm surprised when she squeezes my hand.
We sit for a little while longer, until I find the heat becoming a little too much for me.
"You want to go get something to drink?" I ask.
"Yeah sure." And with that she stands up before offering a hand to help me up.
We silently walk to the Crash.
--
When I enter the Crash with Isabel in tow. Michael looks at me with so many different emotions that I'm not sure what to do, there's worry there and relief and curiosity, gratitude and, if the heat hasn't made me delusional, even some form of fondness that's directed at me.
I smile at him slightly before guiding Isabel to a booth and getting us some drinks, hoping that it reassures him somewhat. He seems to understand that he shouldn't come over, because he goes back to working the grill, though his eyes hardly ever leave Isabel.
I sit down with a smile while handing Izzie her drink. At first we talk about nothing and everything: about her parents and mine, even a little about Alex and, ofcourse, about Michael, but when the subject of school comes up she goes quiet. I'm unsure if I should ask her what's wrong, since we're not really friends, we could be I think, but we're not there yet.
Unfortunately I'm relieved from asking her as she speaks up herself.
"Hey, Liz. Do you remember that right after Alex died I wanted to go to college in San Fransisco?" I frown, Izzie had wanted to go to college?
"No, I don't. I never knew about that actually, we must've already broken all ties with eachother by then. Why?" Now I'm really curious.
"Well, actually…I sent in another application, after we knew we were here to stay for good. And I got in, and I really want to go, but Max and Michael would never let me. I mean the first time Max threatened to tell mom and dad that I was a drug addict."
I've never felt such an urge to kick a certain alien where it hurts as right now.
"What?...How dare he! I, mean...wait a minute they? Michael was with Max on this?" I ask incredulously. I can't believe they'd sink that low. Well, I can believe that about Max, but Michael?
Isabel shakes her head. "No he doesn't know about the whole threatening thing Max pulled, but he'd made it perfectly clear that he didn't want me to go. That's why I need a favour from you."
I nod at her to continue.
"You two seem to be friends now and I was just wondering if you could talk to him for me, maybe you can logic him into supporting me."
She looks hopeful and I nod my consent, even though I'm not completely comfortable with the fact that I'm already being dragged back into the soapopera that seems to be their lives. But for this I'm willing to. She looked so excited when she was talking about San Fransisco. I haven't seen her look that happy in quite a while and if me meddling will help keep that smile on her face, then I suppose it's worth it.
"I'll talk to him after our shift." I say.
Izzie lets out a very un-Izzie-like squeal and hugs me. We talk about the college a few minutes longer before I tell her to go home and spend some time with her parents before they have a heart attack from worrying about her.
--
"Your talk with Iz seems to have worked wonders." He says when we're finally doing our homework at a booth hours after Izzie left.
"Yeah, about that. I need to talk to you for a minute." I shut my notebook and his, turn of the music that's playing before turning to face him, my serious-face firmly in place.
That seems to make him a bit nervous.
"Isabel's going to college...in San Fransisco." I say, maybe not the best approach to use when talking to an alien with serious abandonment issues, but he needs to hear that this is not a negotiation. I've made up my mind to support her through this, Izzie's going to 'Frisco, no matter what her brothers say.
"What? She can't, we can't split up, it's way to dangerous. What if we need her, what if she needs us? What if-" I put my hand over his mouth to shut him up.
"She can and she is." I put my hand up to shut him up when he moves to interrupt me. "Look Michael, you guys are aliens, and yes danger will probably always be lurking around the corner somewhere if you're not careful. But we haven't had any incidents since Tess' departure, you can't keep Isabel here because there may be trouble somewhere far away in the future. She's only a planeride away if you need her, same goes for her needing you. But Michael, what Izzie needs right now is to leave Roswell. This town is smothering her Michael. More importantly, you guys are here to stay, you need to start making a life on this planet. Isabel needs a new start and she can't do that here with all these memories of Alex haunting this place." By the end of my speech I'm not sure anymore if I'm explaining Isabel's feelings or my own.
"I know it's hard to let her go, Michael, but you need to. If you don't, I'm afraid you might lose her. " I tell him softly when he doesn't say anything. "She needs you to support her in this Michael. She needs to know that you'll still be there for her. She needs you to be there when she tells Max."
At that he finally looks at me, confusion shining in his eyes. "What does Max have to do with all of this?"
I sigh and prepare myself to stop him from killing the boy once I tell him this. "Max threatened her the first time she wanted to go."
"WHAT?!" He jumps up, angry beyond anything I've ever seen him.
"Why would he do that?" He asks me as I make him sit back down.
I shrug. "Because he's a controlling little bastard with delusions of grandeur. I think, since he sees himself as king, that it's his right to rule over those he views as his 'subjects'"
Now Michael's looking at me with this strange expression on his face.
"What?" I'm starting to feel selfconsious here.
He shakes his head. "Just never thought I'd see the day that Liz Parker would diss Max Evans."
I chuckle. If the girl I was a year ago would see me today, she wouldn't either.
"Okay, back to the issue at hand." I say. "When Max finds out that Izzie's going to San Fransisco, you just know that he's going to pull the same trick as last time adn she needs you to back her up."
He nods and says he will, before getting up to leave. We both need sleep.
"Oh and Michael?" I say just before he reaches the door.
"Yeah? "
"Try to be happy for her?"
He smiles slightly. "I am, Liz. I'm just sad too." And with that he walks out.
With a sigh I take of my shoes and lean my head back against the booth I'm sitting in. It's almost eleven and I really should go to bed, but right now I'm just too tired to get up.
I stay put for at least another quarter of an hour when I hear the back door being opened.
My heart starts beating furiously as I remember that I locked it. I'm just about to run over to the counter to grab the baseball bat that's lying there when he walks into the diningroom.
Max.
