Chapter 11
Sunday came and went with nothing much happening. Max was out of the house most of the time except during the family dinner which Diane demanded that both kids attend every Sunday.
As the night wore on with the Evans family complete under one roof, Isabel was organizing the pictures she took of her friends at Maria's house, showing some to her mom. Unknowingly, Max came into the den where his mother and sister were.
"What are you looking at?" Max nodded toward the bunch of pictures scattered on top of the table.
Before Isabel could gather all the photos, Max managed to swipe some of them.
"Give those back, Max," Isabel demanded.
"Honey, Max was just looking at them," Diane told Isabel.
"Yeah, what's your problem, Iz?" Max smirked.
Isabel stood from the couch and went beside Max. "Give them here, Max," she told him through gritted teeth.
"These are pretty nice, Iz." Max continued perusing through them.
Isabel knew that Max wasn't going to give them back till he was done so she tried to swipe them away. Unfortunately, Max was much faster, moving them out of Isabel's grasp.
"Alright you two, cut it out." Diane started getting in between the two siblings.
"He started it!" Isabel yelled.
"I wasn't doing anything wrong, I'm just admiring these," Max said innocently.
"Isabel, let your brother look at those. He won't ruin them." Diane tried to pull Isabel away from Max who was still teasing Isabel by offering the pictures then taking them away just when Isabel almost had a hold on them.
"Look, I'll be done soon." Max smiled sweetly.
Isabel angrily stomped her way back to the couch knowing she won't win as long as her mother was in the same room.
A few more minutes passed, and Max was finally done, gracefully handing the precious photos back to Isabel.
As soon as her hands touched the edges, she grabbed them away from Max and furiously went to her room.
Max just watched her move up the stairs with a coy smile across his lips. What Isabel didn't know was Max had his hands behind him, holding a single picture.
A candid solo picture of Liz in the white bikini Maria gave her, smiling at something outside the frame of the lens.
Going back to the privacy of his own bedroom, he lied down on the huge bed. Then pulling something out of his jeans pocket, it was the picture he 'borrowed' from Isabel.
He stared at it, wondering what Liz could be smiling at. But more importantly, he was thinking about how scrumptious Liz looked in that white bikini. How he wished he was there to see it in the flesh, so to speak.
After about a half hour of doing nothing but gazing appreciatively at the picture, he made a decision. He was going after Liz.
He started formulating a plan as to how he'd manage to do that considering the fact that Isabel and Tess were already guarding his new girl like a hawk.
'Well, they can't always be wherever she was. I'll just catch her when she's all by her lonesome self,' Max thought.
As the week began, that was exactly what Max did. He'd show up wherever Liz was; at school, at home, in class, when she would be cleaning up the rooms. He was spending so much time at home that his mom was beginning to notice. But Diane never complained, she was happy that Max was spending more time at home.
At school, he would always manage to talk to her during the classes they shared even if it was just about nonsense. As long as he got some time with her, it would be okay.
Some of the people he hung out with started to notice too. They would ask Max about it, and his only response was, 'none of your goddamn business'. And they left it at that, coming to the conclusion that Liz was now Max's new prey.
On Liz's side, she was okay with the treatment Max was showing her, making her wonder more and more about the gang's warnings. Her only assumption was that maybe they were wrong. Or maybe Max had changed, but because of the huge gap that had formed between them, they failed to notice it.
She liked the conversations she had with Max. Though some were petty, others had some depth to it, confirming that Max was an intelligent person. She could only deduce that maybe that was the reason why Max had a lot of girlfriends. But there was also this nagging memory of her second meeting with Max where he utterly humiliated that girl, Courtney. She knew that there was something more to what everyone was telling her and what she was seeing with her own eyes. And she thought that maybe, with the chance of her and Max becoming friends, she could finally unravel the mystery surrounding Max Evans.
If one was to describe Max, everyone would say that he's a dream. Tall, dark, handsome, elusive, and mysterious. Those were the words to describe him when one meets him for the first time. With eyes that spoke unfathomable depths and emotions, one would know that there's more to it than meets the eye, if they knew where to look. Liz caught that when they finally got the chance to introduce themselves to each other in his bedroom. In a way, Liz knew they were kindred. On the outside everything was fine, Liz was happy, Max was cocky, and both presented determination and strength. But on the inside, there was something more, something that consumes them from the inside out until even the outside appearance can't hide it anymore.
Their encounters continued for the entire week, their meetings growing longer, their friendship growing closer. But as the week was about to end, both sets of friends knew something was up.
"Max!"
"Huh?" Max looked around the table wondering who was calling him. Then he felt his foot being nudged. "What is it, Pam?"
"I've been calling you for like the past hour or so. What's up with you lately?"
"Quit exaggerating, lunch only started 30 minutes ago, and we don't even share a single class." Max went back to his lunch, but every once in a while, he would throw a glimpse back to the table at the far end of the quad.
Pamela Troy, known to be one of the sluttiest girls at Winneman was in Max's group. She too wanted to belong with Isabel and their friends, but was denied every time. When Max finally got out and started hanging with other people, she invited herself along. She was about Maria's height and way busty, thanks to Daddy's money. She always bought the trendiest outfits, but whatever she wore, it always looked skanky on her. She was one of the girls that Max hooked up with when he left his group. And although she wanted more, Max did not. So she settled for being just a 'friend' rather than lose all that hard work of being in a popular group at last.
She followed the direction of Max's look and saw that he was staring at his sister and his old gang. Looking more closely, she noted that he was staring at the new girl.
"Are we eyeing our new victim?" Pam sneered.
Max immediately glared at Pam to shut her up which she complied with in a snap.
"FYI, Pam, she's not a victim."
"So you are going after her?"
"What's it to you?"
"She's in your sister's group."
"So?"
"Max, do you know what would happen to you if you go after her? Maria and Michael would bury you alive, not to mention Isabel."
"Well, I'm not going after her. Wait a minute, why am I even explaining myself to you?"
"Because you would need my help."
Max laughed evilly, "Are you serious? That was the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard."
"And why's that?" Pam huffed.
"One, because you're dumb, you wouldn't know how to plan anything even if your life was at stake. Two, because if you get anywhere near Liz, Isabel's gang would skin you alive."
Pam looked away. She was a little hurt about what he said. "You better watch your mouth Evans, you wouldn't want anyone backstabbing you."
Max grabbed Pam's upper arm and gripped it tightly. "Listen whore, you try doing that, and Isabel and Maria won't have anything left to injure 'cause I would do it myself. You got it?"
Pam was a little frightened by that, and she could only nod. She knew Max wouldn't hesitate hurting her to make sure that she doesn't get in his way. Somehow, she started to fear for the new girl as well.
On the other end of the quad, Maria, Michael, Isabel, Alex, and Liz were all laughing and having fun looking at the pictures.
"This is so funny." Maria laughed, pointing at a photo of Michael and Alex doing muscle poses.
"Hey, you're hurting our feelings," Michael exclaimed.
"You mean egos?" Isabel asked.
"Haha, your girlfriend's a real riot, Whitman," Michael told Alex.
"I know," Alex groaned.
"Oh poor baby, are you offended?" Isabel leaned over to wrap her arms around Alex's waist.
"Okay, stop with the PDAs," Liz groaned.
"Aww, you're only jealous. You know we should really find you a guy," Isabel told her.
"Uh-uh. No. No way." Liz strongly shook her head.
"Come on. I'm sure we can find someone for you, don't you think so Maria?" asked Isabel.
"What? I'm sorry, I didn't catch that." Maria looked back at Isabel.
"Are you okay?" Michael asked concerned.
"Uh, yeah I'm fine," Maria said distractedly.
"Well I was telling Liz here that we should find a guy for her. What do you think?" Isabel asked again.
"Um, yeah okay."
"Maria?" Liz spoke softly.
"What?"
"Are you all right?"
Maria shifted all her attention back to her friends. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just a little worried with a test coming up next week."
"Oh, well, I could help you study if you want," Liz offered.
"Thanks, Liz." Maria smiled.
Lunch lasted for another thirty minutes before they parted, each heading to their respective classes. But Maria's thoughts were somewhere else.
Back at the quad during lunch period, she saw Max staring at their table, more specifically, at Liz. She knew Max was up to something. She sometimes saw the two talking, laughing, and she also noticed how Max looked at Liz. She never saw that look before on her old friend, even when he was still a part of them. And because of that, she made a silent vow to watch over Liz.
As much as she would have liked for the two to get together, things were different now. Maybe if everything was back to the way things were, she would have done everything to help Max in his quest. But times change, people change. And for someone that she used to trust so openly, it was hard to accept Max's new attitude. And now, it was blatantly obvious to anyone who knew what they were looking for, that something was brewing between Max and Liz.
Unfortunately, she only had her own notions as to what was going on in Max's mind. So she decided that she was going to gather more proof. But as soon as she had that, there was no way in hell that she was just going to stand back and wait for everything to fall apart. She will do anything to get to the bottom of this, even if it meant going up to Max himself.