55. A Brush with Adulthood

The Parkers' Residence

(2003) Max is 17, Liz is 16

"Elizabeth, go and wash up. We're having someone over for dinner."

Liz let her school bag slide off her shoulder and drop to the floor with a thud. "Who?"

"Some acquaintances of ours," Mrs. Parker answered fleetingly.

Liz narrowed her eyes. Her mother's evasive behavior immediately raised her suspicions that she was not going to like this. "I have a lot to do for school."

"You have to eat," Nancy said.

"I'm not that hungry."

Nancy's eyes grew colder and she fastened her eyes in her daughter. "Elizabeth. This is not an option. You're having dinner. End of conversation."

Liz sighed. "Fine."

As she walked upstairs to take a quick shower, she was certain that she was going to regret that she hadn't put up more of a resistance against her mother. It wasn't really the fact that her mother's dinner parties were about as much fun as pulling out teeth that bothered her. It was the nagging feeling that her mother was going to play another game of matchmaking.

Over the last year, her mother had been adamant at trying to find a suitable boyfriend for Liz. Liz never really understood why there was such a hurry to start with since she was only sixteen, but her mother was almost frantic in finding a proper future husband for Liz.

And her mother didn't disappoint.

As Liz walked downstairs to the dinner table one hour later, William Stanwood rose from his seat, together with his parents, to greet her arrival.

Liz sighed internally. William didn't attend Roswell High, but had been shipped off to boarding school at a quite early age. That didn't mean she didn't know who he was. His family was extremely wealthy and Nancy had made sure that Liz had met William already when he was a little boy. Liz was sure it was an attempt to get Michael and her to play with the rich kids instead of low scum like Max Evans.

Truth be told, she hadn't like William when he was six, she probably wouldn't like him now either.

"Oh, Elizabeth," Mrs. Stanwood gushed. "You've grown up into an exceptionally beautiful woman." Turning to Nancy, Mrs. Stanwood continued, "You must be so proud, Nancy."

Nancy smiled warmly, seeing her daughter through Mrs. Stanwood's eyes. "I am. I am."

Liz felt the heat rise on her cheeks. She was not used to being complimented. Especially not in front of the watchful eyes of a boy.

"Isn't she gorgeous, Will?" Mrs. Stanwood continued and Liz felt her cheeks grow even hotter as she ventured a glance in William's direction.

There was an almost smug expression on his face. As if he knew that this was a set up by his mother, which inadvertently meant that the beautiful woman his mother was talking about was meant for him.

Like she was a trophy or something.

A cold chill passed through her body as his eyes raked down her body.

"Very beautiful," William agreed in a low tone.

"Marvelous," Mr. Stanwood said with finality, pointing towards the seats. "Shall we eat? I'm starving."

"George!" Mrs. Stanwood erupted with an embarrassed smile before addressing Nancy. "My sincere apologies about my husband."

This was followed by some good-natured laughter around the table, which had Liz fighting nausea spells. Oh God.

An evening of bad polite jokes and fake laughter awaited.

Her mother pointed to the seat next to William and Liz blanched. "You are to sit here, Elizabeth."

Knowing that she would be making a scene if she asked to sit somewhere else, Liz nodded quietly and took a seat.

His aftershave was empowering as she discreetly, in the process of pulling her chair in, scooted the chair as far away from him as possible.

As the conversation continued around them, William leaned in towards her and said in a low voice, "You certainly grew up nicely, Elizabeth."

Not even attempting to give him a smile, Liz merely glanced at him and mumbled, "Thank you."

Noticing her aloof behavior, William's tone shifted from seductive to polite, "Look. We both know what our parents are trying to do here. I just want to let you know that I'm very much against this stuff. I actually have a girlfriend already, even though my mom doesn't acknowledge her."

Feeling an odd sense of relief wash over her, Liz looked over at her seating partner with warmth in her eyes. "I so know what that's like."

Seeing that he was getting through to her, William served her a dazzling smile. "Yeah? You have a boyfriend?"

Not realizing he was fishing for information, rather than innocently sharing facts, Liz shook her head. "Nah. But my mom is…" her voice lowered to a whisper so that her mother wouldn't somehow hear, "…extremely controlling when it comes to guys."

He nodded, understanding on his face. "Which is why we're here."

"Exactly."

Liz had no problems talking to William after that. There was still something about him that rubbed her the wrong way, but she kept telling herself that it was his private school aura that was annoying her and not the fact that he at one point brushed his hand against her thigh or that when he leaned in to whisper in her ear, she could feel his hot breath against her skin.

For one evening she wanted to give up her paranoia that all guys had a secret agenda and just talk to someone that wasn't Michael or Max. She needed some variation in life, really. That's what was going on here.

Variation.

As the evening was getting closer to the end, Liz excused herself to go the bathroom.

Walking out of the bathroom, she really hadn't expected William to be standing there. "Oh hey. Did you need to use the bathroom?"

He looked at her intently, not saying a word, and Liz felt her heart automatically speed up. For some reason, she suddenly felt threatened.

"Let's be honest, Elizabeth," William said.

When he didn't elaborate, Liz frowned, unconsciously pressing up against the wall to increase the distance between them. "About what?"

"There's this attraction between us," William continued.

Liz looked at him incredulously and a nervous laughter passed her lips. "Come on…"

He took two steps and closed the distance between them, pressing his body up against hers.

"What are you doing?" she snapped, the break in her voice revealing her fear.

His breath was sickeningly warm against her face as she tried to pull to the side to get away from him. But his hands came up to grab her by the upper arms, stopping her.

"Let me go!" Liz growled, trying to sound as menacing as possible.

Using his body to keep her trapped against the wall, he released his grip on her left arm and instead pushed his hand between their bodies.

"Nooo," Liz whimpered, struggling with everything that she had to get free.

"You're a fucking tease, aren't you?" William ground out, an excited shallowness to his voice as his hand moved down the front of her pants. At her struggling and his intrusion, the button at the front of her pants fell out, falling to the floor unnoticed.

Liz gasped, tears rolling down her face. She wanted to scream for help, but something stopped her. Maybe it was the fear that her mother would take William's side when she tried to tell her what had happened. Or maybe it was an aversion to disappointing the Stanwoods when they had just hours ago complimented her on her beauty.

Either way, there was not much rational thinking running through her head at that moment as William's fingers brushed down inside her panties, touching her in a way no one had been allowed to before.

"Nooo!" she erupted and got her leg loose enough to jam her knee up his groin.

He yelped, quickly pulling his hand out of her panties. That second of distraction was all she needed and she turned to the bathroom where she quickly locked the door.

Her hands were shaking as she back away from the door, slowly sitting down on the edge of the bathtub.

She waited for a sound outside the door, even expected him to try and break in, but there was nothing. And with a part of her innocence lost, she started crying.


"William."

William turned, surprised at seeing Nancy Parker on the second floor. He had just been close to getting a little something from her daughter, seeing Mrs. Parker right now was like getting hosed down with cold water.

"Mrs. Parker," he offered with a polite smile.

"Could I have a word?" Mrs. Parker said, a tenseness to her mouth that sent William clear warning signs.

Looking around him, as if to see if Elizabeth would step out from the shadows somewhere and tell her mother what he had done, William's eyes settled on Nancy's face a couple of seconds later.

With an easy smile, he answered, "Of course, Mrs. Parker."

Stepping up to him, Nancy Parker's eyes were cold as she took a closer look at the young man. "I guess you know the reason why I invited you and your family to my house."

Trying to read her face, William started to feel very uncomfortable when he was completely unsuccessful. Swallowing deeply, he tried his best to act casual, adding an easy polite laughter for good measure. "Well, I presume the reason was to pair up Elizabeth and I."

"Precisely," Nancy agreed. "Now, what gave you the idea that me introducing you to Elizabeth gave you the right to assault her?"

William blinked. "Excuse me?" He couldn't have heard that right.

"I saw you, William. I saw you forced my daughter up against the wall and touch her against her will."

William paled. "No…no. With all due respect, Mrs. Parker, you must be mistaken."

Her face hardened another degree as she narrowed her eyes. "Are you calling me a liar?"

William was very close to becoming a stuttering fool. "No…no, of course not. I would never- Of course not."

"Do you realize what this could do to your family if this got out?" Nancy asked.

"Please, Mrs. Parker. I thought she had feelings for me too-"

"Don't you even try to pull that crap on me!"

William took a step back. He had never been so scared of a person in his whole sheltered life.

"I want you to stay away from my girl," Nancy said in a low tone. "I don't want you to speak of her or what you did to any of your friends. Because believe me, I will find out."

"Mrs. Parker, I'm really sorry if-"

"Shut your mouth!"

William swallowed, took another step backwards and nodded.

"I will have a chat with your parents and I'm sure we can-"

"No, please don't, Mrs. Parker. I promise I won't get anywhere close to Elizabeth again-"

Nancy looked at the polished boarding school student incredulously. "Do you really believe that I will just let you go after how you treated my daughter?" Gesturing down the hall, where Liz was still in the bathroom, Nancy continued, "That's my baby in there. That's my flesh and blood. You just forced yourself on her and you think I'm going to let it go unpunished so that you can go and treat other young women the same way?"

"I assure you, Mrs. Parker, this is just a big misunderstand-"

"Now," Nancy interrupted. "This is what we're going to do. We're going to walk downstairs and then you are going to tell your parents what happened. You're going to apologize for what you did and then you're going to leave. Is that clear?"

William looked like he was about to faint at any moment and with his last strength he nodded.

As Liz was crying in the bathroom, Nancy and William walked downstairs. As Liz carefully unlocked the door and peeked down the hallway to ascertain that she was alone, a shocked Mr. and Mrs. Stanwood apologized to Nancy for their son's behavior. As Liz made her way to her brother's room, which was the only place she felt safe, an embarrassed Mr. and Mrs. Stanwood said goodbye to Nancy and led their chastised son out the front door.

As Liz hugged her brother's pillow to her chest, lying curled up in the middle of the king sized bed, her mother poured herself a gin and tonic.

Liz would never find out what her mother had witnessed and had done as a result of it.

Maybe if she had, their relationship would have improved.

Nancy Parker never went to comfort Liz. She never went to tell her that she had thrown that guy out. Turning of the lights downstairs, Nancy Parker instead went to bed.


One hour later

Clink.

Liz almost jumped out of her skin at the sound. Her eyes flew open and she blinked in the darkness that greeted her. The night's events slammed into her like a train and she quickly realized where she was.

Michael's room.

Clink-clink.

On shaky legs, she got up from the bed and walked up to the window. Pulling the curtain just enough to the side to look out it was with very mixed emotions she saw Max's shape outside the window, his arm positioned to throw another pebble on the window.

She only looked out for a second, but it was enough for Max to spot her.

"Shit," she murmured and let the curtain fall back in place as she started walking back towards the bed.

Another two pebbles connected with the window pane and Liz pulled her knees higher up towards her chest as she rolled herself into a tight fetal position in the middle of Michael's bed.

"Go away," she whispered to the darkness surrounding her.

The pebble rain stopped and for moment Liz thought her prayers had been answered.

But then she heard shuffling sound outside the window, getting louder and louder, followed by a knock on the window.

"Fuck," she murmured.

She had forgotten that it was very easy to climb up to Michael's window and that's how Michael had escaped curfew on more than one occasion.

"Liz!" came a soft hiss through the window.

She squeezed her eyes tightly together and tried to telepathically send him images of death and gore so that he would leave.

But either she wasn't very good at telepathy or Max wasn't very responsive, because he kept calling her name and knocking on the window.

With a groan, she pulled herself of the bed and pulled the curtain away with a sharp tug, revealing Max's face on the other side of the window.

Smiling at her lightly, he looked at her expectantly.

With anger in her eyes, she unlocked the window and pushed it upwards.

"Hey Mike," Max said. "You've changed since I last saw you."

She grimaced. "Funny. Now could you please go away?"

Before she had a chance to close the window again, he pushed a leg through and with practiced ease he was inside the room within three seconds.

She looked at him with a 'you've got to be kidding me'-expression on her face. "Mike's not home yet. How about you guys use your cell phones? That way you would know if the other was home before you go breaking into their house."

"Are you okay?"

His question came out of nowhere and Liz froze. In her frustration to get him to go away she hadn't noticed how the triumphant Max-smile had slipped off his face while she spoke or how worry had entered his eyes as he scanned her red eyes and her flustered cheeks.

"I will be if you leave," Liz got out, proud over herself for not breaking down. She had the strongest impulse to bury her face in his chest and let him comfort her.

"Did something happen? Are your parents okay?"

Her laughter sounded fake even to her ears. "Of course they're okay."

Unconsciously, he put his hand on her shoulder in some act of comfort and didn't realize he had touched her until Liz jumped away from him. "Don't touch me."

He looked at her oddly. "Sorry, I-"

"Could you just leave? Please. Just leave."

He observed her carefully, his eyes running down her body, unconsciously looking for any physical injuries . Just anything that could explain why she looked scared to death right now. His eyes fell on the broken button to her pants and a chill went through him.

But a broken button didn't mean anything, right? He had lots of pants with missing buttons.

Although, the difference here was that Liz had servants to fix her buttons and why would she put on a pair of pants with a missing button when she was otherwise pretty dressed up? It looked like she was going out for dinner. Except for the fact that her hair was in a mess and her eyes were swollen.

"Did you go somewhere tonight?" he wondered.

"Max?" Liz said, looking serious.

"Yes?"

"Go away."

"Kitten," he said softly, seriousness in his face. "There's obviously something wrong here. And I get if you don't want to talk to me about it. But you…you look scared. And I don't want to leave you here when you're scared."

She laughed humorlessly. "I'm not scared."

He huffed. "You're terrified."

"Maybe I'm scared because someone climbed through the window in the middle of the night."

He shook his head. "No." Cocking his head to the side, he observed her closely. "That's not it."

"You're freaking me out, Max," Liz mumbled.

"You don't have to tell me what's wrong, but if you want me to stay, I will."

God, how she wanted him to stay. Desperately so. Even though he was an ass to her most of the time, she knew that he wouldn't hurt her. And he would beat William to a bloody pulp if he decided to return and claim his trophy.

But she was too proud to admit weakness to Max. "What part of 'go away, Max' didn't you understand?"

"Why are you in Michael's room?"

"I got tired of my own room."

"He approves of you just changing rooms like that?"

"He doesn't mind."

"So if he comes home with a girl right now, he would still let his baby sister stay in the room?"

She scrunched up her nose at the mention of another girl and the thought of what it meant that her brother would bring one home. "Ew."

Max shrugged. "I'm just saying. It's Friday evening. He's probably on the prowl."

"He doesn't bring girls home. He wouldn't have sex here."

Max raised an eyebrow. "How'd you know?"

Liz folded her arms defiantly across her chest. "I just do."

"Aha," Max said unconvinced.

Looking back at Michael's bed, Liz didn't really feel like laying down there anymore. Turning to face Max's smug face, she was infused with a sudden anger. Max had just destroyed her one and only secure zone.

"I'm gonna go back to my room now. You can let yourself out."

Max grabbed a hold of her hand and her breath caught in her throat, the memory of being trapped not too long ago being too fresh in her mind.

"Let me go," she whispered, the fear coloring her voice.

At the sound of her voice, he did just that. Immediately. "Are you sure you don't want me to stay?"

"My mom would kill you."

She couldn't believe she was actually considering letting Max stay, but the fear of being alone again was making her heart beat so fast she thought she might faint.

"She won't know," Max said to her back.

Swallowing her pride, Liz turned to face her brother's best friend. "Could you stay for just a little while? Until I've fallen asleep?"

The concern in his eyes was achingly clear this time as her words confirmed to him that something had happened. "Of course, kitten."

A tear of relief slipped down her cheek and she nodded. Straightening her back to not lose all of her self-pride, she said, "Only until I've fallen asleep."

"Yeah," he agreed.

Liz took one long look at him before she walked towards the door. She could hear him following her as she quietly walked down the dark hallway towards her room. As she entered it, she realized that she still needed to change into her pajamas and brush her teeth.

Standing awkwardly at the entrance to her room, Max watched in silence as Liz picked up a tank top and some shorts from her chair and disappeared into the adjoining bathroom.

He stood there until she reappeared five minutes later.

There was a sharp ache in his chest at the sight of her, dressed in what she normally slept in, looking so small and unLiz-like as she tentatively looked at him standing at the door.

"Uhm…I've got a sleeping bag."

Max nodded. "Okay, sure."

"Sorry, there's an extra mattress in the guestroom, but it's next to my parents' bedroom so-"

Max smiled at her. "That's okay. A sleeping bag is perfect. I'm not staying too long anyway."

Fear flashed in her eyes until she realized that only staying until she had fallen asleep had been her own condition.

He saw the shift in her eyes and he took a couple of steps into the room. "I could stay longer if you-"

"No," she said quickly and then attempted a light laugh. "No."

He shrugged, trying to act unaffected. "Okay."

Taking a deep breath, Liz pulled the covers off her bed and buried herself underneath the layers of protective sheets. She heard Max unroll the sleeping bag next to her bed and looking down in the soft glow of the nightstand lamp, she watched him lay down on top of it.

"Where is Michael tonight?" Max wondered.

Happy for the distraction, Liz said, "I thought he was with you."

"Obviously not."

"Don't you have any communication with each other? You, as his best friend, should know where he is, shouldn't you?"

Max looked at her incredulously. "Note there, best friends, not his mother."

"I'm sure Mother doesn't know where he is either."

"I hope not."

Liz folded her elbow under her head and positioned herself on her side to look down at him. "You really think he's out with some girl?"

"Are you trying to tell me that you think your brother is some innocent romantic guy that takes girls on several dates before asking them to come home with him?"

Liz swallowed. Considering her own brush with the reality of horny boys earlier that night, this conversation had a different effect on her than it normally would, realizing that her own brother might be very similar to William in his behavior.

"He wouldn't…I mean, if she didn't want to, he wouldn't…" Her voice trailed off as the memories took a hold of her.

"What do you mean?" Max asked, feeling that their conversation had taken a dangerous turn.

"If she said 'no', he wouldn't…continue, would he?"

Max felt his heart skip a beat. "You mean, force her?"

Liz turned on her back so that Max lost the connection with her face and he watched her pull the sheet up to her chin. "Yeah."

"No," Max whispered. "No, he would never do that. Mike's a good guy. He likes to have fun with girls, but they're always in on it."

She nodded. Her voice was thin as she asked, "Like you?"

He sat up, causing her to look in his direction. With fire in his eyes, he replied, "Yes, I like to have fun with girls too. But I would never touch them if they didn't agree to."

She seemed relieved by this. "Okay."

"Liz…" his voice was unsure, but determined, "You know I wouldn't hurt you, right?"

"Why do you say that?"

"Whatever…happened…to you earlier… I would never force you."

She laughed lightly, a tinge of fear and hysteria in the laughter. "Why would you want to force me to do anything?"

She couldn't imagine Max thinking of her as anything else than his best friend's little sister. Why would he even mention ever doing anything remotely related to anything but that?

Steering away from the direction the conversation had taken, Max pulled himself together. "I'm just saying."

She sent him an odd look, but his facial expression was hidden in the shadows. "I'm tired. I'm gonna go to sleep."

He nodded. "Yeah. Okay."

"Uhm…" she said haltingly. "Thanks for staying."

He smiled softly. "No problems, kitten. Just stay on your side, huh? Don't try anything."

She rolled her eyes, his light words dissipating the previous conversation. "I can't promise anything."

Surprised by her flirtatious words, knowing that they were mostly used to save face and return the joke, Max reached out and turned off the lamp.

In the darkness that lowered itself over them, Max watched Liz's profile until he could hear her breathing even out.