25
At the end of the day, Liz was walking on air as she changed for work. The day had gone by better than she had originally expected it to.
Even though it had been pleasant waking up in Michael's arms, it had also been a moment of sheer terror, as she had very nearly gotten caught by her father, who would have never let Michael near her again had he found the two of them out on the balcony.
But then, when she had run into Michael at her locker, everything had changed.
She had surprised herself when she had propositioned him, but, for some odd reason, it had felt instinctive, as though it was something that she had done a thousand times before.
And at lunch…well, they hadn't eaten anything, that was for sure.
She flushed as she thought about it, her fingers fumbling for a moment as she tied her apron around her waist. Michael was certainly…uhm, adept to say the least. During sixth period it had taken all of her effort to keep from turning around every chance she had to simply stare at him. Did he not know how gorgeous he was?
She loved all of him…but his hair. God, his hair! He had the most amazingly thick and gorgeous hair and she loved to run her fingers through it.
But what was affecting her the most was the fact that he had called her his girlfriend in front of Alex and in front of anyone else who may have been nearby to hear it.
She flushed again as she thought about it, but forced herself to put it to the side as she grabbed her notepad and antennae.
After she had slid the pad into her apron and slipped the antennae on her head, Elise walked into the back room, looking slightly harried and distraught, her usually neat and almost perfectly combed hair in a tangled mess as she threw her purse and bag into her locker and pulled out a brush.
"Hey, sorry I'm late!" she said, wincing as she hit a bad tangle.
Liz was unsure of what to say as she stared at her in surprise. There was a scar on her right cheek…two marks that looked like claw marks going down and over her jaw, and she'd never seen it before. It was strikingly similar to the one that she had seen in the drawing, but it had several distinct differences. It wasn't quit as long or as deep and the marks weren't nearly as wide.
How had she not…?
Elise saw Liz's look and then ducked her head and muttered, "Sorry. I haven't put my makeup on, yet," and reached for a small black bag from her purse, pulling out a thick foundation and layering it over the scars until they couldn't be seen.
Liz, unsure of how to react, decided to be straightforward about it.
"How'd you get those?"
Elise glanced over her shoulder and said, "When I was fifteen my dad and I were on a camping trip and, well, we woke up to a coyote trying to get into our tent at our food. We forgot to put the food up in a tree. It, uh, it scratched me. I was fine except for, well, you know," she finished, gesturing to the now covered up scars.
"Oh," was all that she could say, and she gave her a look, but then covered it up by pulling out her pad of paper and heading out to the floor.
They had to tell her…but how were they going to do that without scaring her? They had originally had both Kyle and Maria as the ones who would talk to whoever they found, but now Maria was out of the question and that only left Kyle.
But he was about to found out that he was one of them as well…maybe that would help him talk to her, after all.
Just as she thought of him, he stepped through the back door and motioned to her, and she walked over to him, knowing she only had a small amount of time before her dad got on her case for not being out on the floor taking orders.
"Hey, Kyle…what are you doing here?"
He gave her a look, an eyebrow raised.
"Oh, I don't know, Liz," he said, his voice sarcastic. "Maybe to find out if anything is going on? I mean, it's not as if no one's told me anything in over twenty-four hours. It's just my fate that's on the line."
Her eyes widened and she placed an apologetic hand on his arm.
"Oh my god, Kyle, I am so sorry…I meant to talk to you. I wasn't trying to leave you out."
He shrugged, trying to brush it off, but it was obvious to her that he was pretty upset. It shouldn't have surprised her, and she was actually upset with herself for forgetting to talk to him about what Michael had shown her just the night before.
"Yeah, well. There's, uh…some big news," she said, trying to remain obtuse. Now was not the time to tell him. "Maybe, maybe we can get together after my shift?"
Kyle nodded.
"Your room or the balcony?"
She thought for a moment and then said, "Uh, I think my room would be best. So, see you around eight thirty, then?"
He nodded again.
"Sounds good. But Parker, you better tell me everything, got it? I don't want any of those weird half-truths that you're so good at telling everyone else. I know you, and I don't want to constantly feel like I'm being left out of the loop. Understood?"
Liz nodded.
"Okay, you got it."
"Good."
With that, he left, and she went back out on the floor. When she saw Elise, she immediately saw the image of her on the page of the book next to Kyle. She was going to have to talk to Kyle about talking to her, and she was hopelessly confused as to how to do that.
Oh, well. She would deal with it when she came to it. Right now, she had to bus tables before…
"Liz!"
…Her dad noticed that she wasn't. Too late.
"Coming, dad!"
She headed for her first table and pulled out her yellow steno-pad, and plastered on a broad smile. She started taking a couple's order, and then she heard the front door open…and out of the corner of her eye she saw that it was Sean DeLuca. She ignored him, despite his pointed looks in her direction, and she continued to take orders, and then made her way back towards the kitchen and put the paper on the metal contraption and turned it in Javier's direction, casting her eyes over to Sean, who sat on one of the stools, absently tapping his fingers on the counter.
"Hey, Liz…what's up?"
She shrugged, not sure what to say.
"Nothing, really. I was looking forward to a relaxing evening busing tables, but now it looks like I'm going to have to deal with you, instead."
He gave her a look.
"Oh, ha ha, Parker, you're a riot. Seriously, though. I haven't seen or heard from you since last Friday. That's seven days; a whole week. I thought after prom best friends spend nearly all of their free time together talking about everything that happened and getting all of their pictures developed, and what not. Maria just seems pissed about something and you've been nowhere."
She visibly deflated in front of him and he knew that he'd hit a sore spot. As soon as he'd said his cousin's name, she had flinched. Something was wrong.
"Liz? Is something wrong?"
She turned away and started to fill cups with drinks, focusing on filling the order.
As she put the drinks onto a tray and was about to walk away, she turned to him and said, "Maria and I…we, uh…had a falling out. I'm giving her space for now, and, hopefully, we'll patch things up, but…don't expect to see me around for a while, okay?"
He nodded, but as she walked over to the table and handed the couple their drinks she saw the look in his eye.
He wasn't going to let it go.
He was going to find out what had happened between the two of them, and Liz knew that if Maria told him first it would make her seem like the bad guy. And maybe she was. But she didn't want Sean to think worse of her because he was a good friend, so she was going to have to tell him about her and Michael.
Great. Just great.
She groaned in her mind and made her way to the next table, plastering on another fake smile.
Only four hours to go.
Part 25/?