9. The Other Woman

The apartment
Saturday evening, a couple of weeks after the prom
(2003) Max is 18, Liz is 17

Behold! Max Evans has a girlfriend.

Maybe Liz Parker should be happy about this.

Maybe it should please her to know that he was no longer sleeping around, but had actually formed a commitment to one girl.

But Liz Parker was not happy when Max dragged Tess over to the apartment and she could hear the blonde's giggles echo down the corridor to her room.

It didn't please her to see them making out on the couch as she went to get a glass of water.

Liz Parker was annoyed.

If Max Evans wanted to tickle his girlfriend, he should do so at his own place.

If Max Evans wanted to suck on his girlfriend's face, he should do it somewhere else.

Hearing Tess' laugh, Liz pressed firm hands over her ears and filled her head with 'la la la la' as she walked to the bathroom.

"Gaaah," she pressed out as she slammed the door shut, not caring if the couple had heard her.

It was just rude. It was just fucking rude to go to someone else's house and make out with your girlfriend on their couch.

She angrily pulled off her shirt and threw it on the floor. At the back of her head, she knew that she was probably acting like a five-year-old throwing a tantrum, but she just had the urge to stomp her feet and scream.

"Fucking idiot," she mumbled, his face clear in her head. "I hate him. I hate him. I hate him."

She pulled her pants and panties down her legs and stepped into the shower. The water dials, shampoo, conditioner, yes everything, were treated like they had cheated on her. She angrily turned the dials, kicked the shampoo bottle around on the tiled floor, hit the conditioner bottle repeatedly into the wall and stepped on the bottle of shower cream, which spurted the product out into the water, fumes of strawberry-scented cream filling the air.

She felt much more relaxed after the shower. Some people needed to go outside and scream. Some people got drunk. Liz Parker abused her cleaning products and she felt rejuvenated.

After towel-drying her hair, she wrapped the towel around her petite body and opened the bathroom door. Only to be faced by The Girlfriend herself.

"Oh," she said, looking at Liz's freshly cleaned face and wet hair with a glint in her eye. "Hello."

"Hey," Liz mumbled, her eyes darkening as she took a firm grip on the top of her towel so it wouldn't – for some odd reason – fall off.

Tess slowly raked her eyes down her towel-clad body, a condescending smirk on her face. "Little Lizzie. Didn't know you were here."

Oh, and did Liz mentioned how much she hates his girlfriend? Especially this quality of hers to look down at Liz and make her feel like an insignificant ugly ant.

"I live here," she said, trying not to be too affected by her tone of voice. She could handle this girl. It was just another blonde.

But it wasn't. It was the blonde Max had chosen to be his first girlfriend. There must be something about this girl to have Max sacrifice his playboy status and that intimidated Liz.

"Yeah, I heard," Tess said slowly and cocked her head to the side, as if talking to a child.

Liz squinted with her eyes, focusing on the girl's face hard. Maybe her anger could disintegrate the blonde on the spot. That would be cool.

"How's school?" Tess wondered with a smirk.

Oh yes, blondie. Rub it in. You're in college. I'm still in high school. Yes, you are the cooler person here.

Liz covered the sarcastic voice in her head with a tight smile. "Marvelous."

"You know," Tess said, a thoughtful expression on her face. "I've always wondered something."

Liz sighed in frustration. "What?"

"Max and you spend a lot of time together, don't you?"

Liz rolled her eyes. Here we go again. The Assumption with a large A.

"Have you two ever…" she left the question hanging, looking at her with a smirk that had Liz suspect she already knew the answer.

Of course Blondie knew the answer. That was probably one of the first things she had asked Max about.

Liz donned a bored expression and said in a monotonous voice. "Yes, actually. He's my fucking buddy. Whenever he gets tired of the likes of you, he comes to me. He always comes back to me."

Liz had to struggle not to laugh as Tess' eyes widened in shock. It was actually a really funny expression.

The shock passed quickly and the blonde's face darkened. Almost spitting the words out, she looked down at her (even though Liz was an inch taller) and said, "He would never be interested in you. Just look at you." She waved her hand across Liz's chest, which had Liz shrinking into herself. "You've got absolutely nothing to offer him. You're flat as a plank, your face is plain, your hair is boring and your personality is awful."

Okay, so Liz had kinda set herself up for that defensive reply. Didn't mean it didn't hurt.

"Max has told me the truth, okay," Tess said darkly. "He's told me that you are just Mike's annoying little sister who won't leave him alone."

Liz felt hot tears burn her eyes. Tess' earlier words were not nearly as hurtful as her last words. She pressed her lips together and took a step to the side to step around the girl when she bumped into something.

She already knew who it was without having to look up. His smell surrounded her in a protective cocoon. At least it had symbolized safety a couple of seconds ago, now with Tess' latest words ringing in her head, it was only suffocating her.

"Hey," she heard him say and she squeezed her eyes shut, not being able to move because he had grabbed a hold of her arms, probably to steady her. But that didn't explain why he hadn't let her go yet. "Is everything alright?"

Just peachy, Liz thought.

Liz heard rather than saw the sugar sweet smile on Tess' face as she answered, "Everything's fine. Liz was just showing me to the bathroom."

"Oh," Max said and his hands let go of Liz's bare arms.

She immediately started walking to her bedroom, as if she was a captured animal just let free. She could feel Max's eyes at the back of her head and as she shut the door to her bedroom behind her, she could hear Max ask Tess what had happened.

She leaned her head against the door and squeezed her eyes tightly together, willing herself to take deep breaths.

She could hear them moving around outside her door, so she turned and twisted the key in the door in case Max decided to walk in.

She let the towel drop on the floor and pulled out her body lotion. Tears running down her cheeks, she methodically massaged lotion into the skin of her legs, biting her tongue to stop herself from sobbing. A sob caught in her throat as she heard Tess laugh loudly in the living room and she heatedly wiped the tears off her cheeks with the back of her hand.

Why was she letting that girl get to her?

She pulled out some underwear, a pair of pajama pants and a T-shirt from the wardrobe, and quickly dressed.

As she pulled the T-shirt over her head, there was a knock on the door.

She froze and stared at the door, soundlessly willing the person on the other side to go away. The handle moved but, to her relief, the voice drifting through the door didn't belong to the guy that only seemed to cause her grief.

"Why's your door locked?"

Wiping her eyes clear of any tears, she turned the key and opened the door.

Her big brother looked at her oddly. "Have you been crying?"

She shook her head, "I'm just tired," and turned her head away.

"What are you doing in here? We're gonna watch a movie."

"I have to study," Liz lied.

Michael looked at her suspiciously. Liz was a smart girl. She rarely needed to study.

"It's 'The Ring'," Michael said, knowing perfectly well that Liz had a weakness for horror movies. It was her closet obsession. He also happened to know that she had wanted to see that movie when it was running in the cinemas but never got around to.

"You rented 'The Ring'?" she asked, hoping that he would say 'no' even though she really wanted to see that movie. She just knew that she would have to go out there to see it.

"Yep," Michael smiled. "You never saw that one, did you?"

She shook her head, her shoulders sloping. She was going out there, wasn't she?

Sighing deeply, she resigned with an "Okay."

"Cheer up, squirt. You're not going into war."

"I'm just tired," Liz mumbled as she switched off the light in her room and followed Michael down the hallway.

Tess' laughter bombarded her eardrums as she approached the living room. Without looking at them, she sank down in the bean bag next to the couch.

"Oh, you're joining us?" Tess asked so sweetly it made Liz's teeth ache.

"Uh-huh," she answered.

"How about we convince the boys to watch something funny instead," Tess proposed.

Liz sank further into the bean bag, wondering why Tess was talking to her. She was just her for the movie. Why couldn't Max's new girlfriend just leave her alone?

"I actually prefer horror movies," Liz mumbled.

Tess laughed like she had said something funny and Liz looked over in her direction, for the first time looking at Tess – and inadvertently Max. She quickly wished she hadn't. Tess was curled up against Max's side, her head resting on his shoulder. Max had one arm wrapped around her shoulders, his fingers playing with her curls, while the other hand was resting on her thigh.

Liz intentionally avoided looking at Max and directed her eyes firmly on Tess' face. If she just focused on Tess' face, she could block out everything around. "What's so funny about that?"

Tess' face fell at her cold tone and Max shifted slightly. With a hint of warning to his voice, he spoke for the first time since she had joined them, "Liz…"

"Yeah, yeah," Liz mumbled, turning her head away. "I'll be nice."

"So, what's this movie about?" Tess asked and Liz rolled her eyes. This was going to be a long night.

Tess lasted for about thirty minutes before she was hiding her face in Max's chest, talking loudly about how scary the movie was.

Liz put up with her monologue for about ten minutes, her jaw clenched and her hands squeezed into tight fists, before she turned to Tess and snapped, "Could you shut up?"

There was a second of silence as everyone stared at Liz and then Max spoke, "Fuck Liz. What's your problem?"

She really didn't want to cause a scene, she just wanted that stupid person to not talk during the movie, so she sank further into the bean bag and said, without looking at him, "It's just a bit annoying when people talk during the movie."

"She's just asking questions," Max answered, his voice tense.

Liz crossed her arms tightly across her chest. "Fine. Whatever. Just do it quietly."

"Why are you being such a bitch?" Max asked, anger coloring his voice.

"Hey," Michael intervened, but Liz had already straightened and was staring at Max heatedly.

"I'm being a bitch?" she questioned with dark eyes.

"Yes," Max answered. "Tess is my guest and you're treating her like shit."

"Oh," Liz huffed, his tone cutting into her. She wanted to explode with the unfairness of the situation, but she found herself at a loss of words as the pain in her chest numbed her. So instead of informing him of every single word that Tess had said to her earlier, she rose from the bean bag and walked away without another word.

"Lizzie, come on," Michael yelled after her, but the tears were already rolling down her cheeks. There was no way she was going back there.

Then she heard Tess' voice, which had her quickening her steps, "Max? Max, where are you going?"

He reached her just outside of her door, his fingers digging into her arm as he spun her around. "What the fuck is wrong with you?"

She closed her eyes as he yelled into her face and missed the look of confusion cross his face as he noticed her tears.

She hit out with her arms, removing his hands from her arms and walked away from him. "Fuck you!"

He caught her again, his voice softer now, "Hey. She's really a nice girl. Just give her a chance."

Keeping her head down to hide her tears, she said tightly, "Yeah, whatever." She was at the point where she would say anything he wanted to hear, just so he would let her go.

She was very close to breaking down and she really didn't feel like doing so in front of him.

"She was trying to be nice to you and you just-"

"Nice," she repeated, her voice hitching on an uncontrollable sob. "She was not…" Her voice failed her as another sob ripped through her.

His grip on her arms loosened and she pulled an arm free to press a hand against her eyes.

"Why are you crying?" he asked softly, confusion in his voice.

A teary laugh squeezed past the sobs. "You just screamed at me and you're wondering why I'm crying?"

"You don't cry…" Max said insecurely.

Liz looked up at him with wet eyes and said, "Yes, Max. I cry. And before you start accusing people, maybe you should get your facts straight."

With that she stepped out of his hold and walked into her room, slamming the door behind her and leaving Max staring at the wooden barrier wondering what had just happened.

TBC...