An Ordinary Life

by Amouse16

M/L AU fic. No aliens, folks. Still Roswell and the basic breakdown of characters. LONG fic, but worth your time. R&R. New chapter will be added every few days. SO keep checking back!!!

6. The Date

CHAPTER 6: THE DATE

Max pulled the car to a stop in front of Liz's house. God, he couldn't believe this was happening! He was amazed that he had actually asked her out and even more amazed that she said yes. Max stepped out of the car and walked up to the door. This had to be a dream.

Liz was waiting for Max on the bench next to the entrance of the bookstore. She wanted him to come to the door, but she didn't want him inside. Her parents were working hard with the books and she was sure if she had told them she was going out with a boy they would have dropped everything to meet him and embarrass her. So she told them she was going out with friends and slipped out without them noticing. She stood up when she saw him step out of the jeep. He looked great. Max had on worn khakis and a blue polo shirt; Liz thought he was amazing.

Max sucked in his breath sharply when Liz stood up to greet him. He knew she would look beautiful. But she seemed to get more so every day. She had on a simple skirt and a small man's shirt with a crotched vest. He kissed her on the cheek, "Hey."

"Hey, yourself." She smiled at him, "Where are we going?"

"Sweet Tomato. Is that ok?"

"That's great! Italian! Yummy!" Max grabbed her hand and led her to his car. This was all too much. Liz hadn't realized how important this would all be, it was just a date. She had been on a few dates, nothing exciting happened; she didn't care too much about it. But that it was Max who came to pick her up made it all more. More everything, more exciting, more scary, more fun. She wondered if it was all a dream.

Liz took a big bite of lasagna and chewed it happily. Sweet Tomato made the best lasagna; Liz came as much as possible and ordered lasagna every time. A long strand of cheese was still connected to the lasagna, so she twirled it around on her fork until it broke off and ate that as well. Max was watching her, an amused smile on her face.

Liz grinned sheepishly. "Maria always gives me a hard time about how I act on dates. She says I should eat nicely and leave plenty of food on the side of my plate." She looked guiltily at the mostly eaten lasagna. "I suppose I should. But this is lasagna. All rules are off!"

Max was a little taken aback by her casual manner. Not that he minded, he was just amazed that she could treat this dinner like any other. Max hated to admit it, but he was scared out of his mind. He had no idea what to say or do or how to act. She looked at him questioningly. He realized she was nervous, too. She was just better at hiding it. He smiled "I agree. It would be a shame to waste a perfectly good lasagna." She smiled at him.

"Here!" She said, shoving a forkful in his mouth "Taste!" He coughed and she laughed. "Good?"

Max took a long sip of water, "The best!"

There was a moment of uncomfortable silence. Liz knew that there would be at some point, she was relieved that most of the date had gone well, filled with happy conversation. But the air was filled with…something. They were both expecting something but neither knew what it was. "So…" Liz said.

"So…What?"

There was something to say! Liz knew there was something they could say that would make the weird feelings go away. She just had no idea what that was. She was filled with this strange, scary need. What made it even more peculiar was that the need was for Max. How had things all of a sudden gone out of her control? It was too much. There was something, her brain was trying to tell her something, what was it? Oh, it hit her.

She leaned over and Max leaned in, too. It was so strange that their bodies knew what to do when their minds were so blank. The only other person Liz could do that with was Maria. And Maria had been her best friend forever! It had taken them years to be able to understand what the other wanted or needed without words. Their lips met softly, sweetly. Something went off in her brain, some understanding exploded. She pulled back and looked at Max and they both blushed lightly. Silly, a voice in her head said, that's what love is.

When they were in the car Liz felt more relaxed. Her dad always said she was like a puppy on car rides, excited about everything and happy out of her mind. She had grown out of it a little, but something about feeling the wind in her hair, about being in a vehicle as powerful as a car seemed exciting. She couldn't help letting out a little sigh of happiness. Max looked over at her quizzically and she smiled "I love cars."

"That's…that's kinda strange, Liz."

"It's a quirk. Quirks make people interesting."

"Whatever you say," he rolled his eyes at her and she punched him softly. She leaned over and cranked up the radio.

"Fine, be that way. Christina Aguilera, Joe, and NSYNC will keep me company." Liz said, haughtily and stuck out her tongue when Max just laughed. A Back Street Boys song blared out and Liz sang along at the top of her lungs. Max watched her, slightly horrified.

"What are you doing?" He asked

"Singing!" Liz cried, "But if you can't even recognize it then I should really work on my voice!"

"No, it's not that," Max protested, "It's just…"

"What?" Liz demanded. "Doesn't Isabel do this?"

"Sing NSYNC songs at the top of her lungs in my car? No." Max answered

"Ok, first of all, this is not NSYNC this is Back Street boys—"

"Like there's a difference!" Max interrupted her.

"Ok, so Max is not the biggest fan of boy bands. Check." She smiled at him "And second of all, I am sure that Isabel, at some time or another, has sung along loudly to a boy band."

"Not in this car." Max said, "Thank God for that!"

"Oh, that's mean. Look, this is something girls have to do. Just like we have to paint nails at sleepovers and pig out on ice cream while we watch beauty pagents." Liz explained, turning down the radio.

"Really?" Max asked.

"No," Liz said "I just said that to throw you off. At sleepovers girls talk in intimate detail about boys. Like for example, I know that right now you are wearing black socks even though you are not wearing any black. How do I know this? Isabel called ahead before you arrived and told me little unimportant things." She was joking, she hadn't talked to Isabel since school. But it would probably make Max laugh. They pulled up to a red light and Max pulled up the cuff of his pants, revealing black socks. Liz tried not to laugh.

"That is so weird."

"What you want to know is, am I a good witch or am I a bad witch?" Liz joked, playing on The Wizard Of Oz, her favorite movie, though everyone she knew grew out of it long ago.

"That was dumb luck," Max said. "Isabel didn't call you, you just guessed right." He paused, "Didn't you?"

Liz put on her best poker face, "I'll never tell!" She cranked up the radio again, and sang along to the last chorus of the song, "Cuz I want it that way!" She flipped through the stations absently, trying to find a good song. "It wasn't me" by Shaggy came on. "I love this song! It's degrading to women, but I love it anyway! Max, I dare you to sing along."

Max laughed, "You dare me?"

"Yes!" Liz answered, "She caught me on the counter, saw me banging on the sofa, I even let her in the shower, she even caught me on camera!" Max rolled his eyes. "She saw the marks on my shoulder—"

"It wasn't me!" Max said.

"Heard the words that I told her."

"It wasn't me."

"Heard the screams getting louder," Liz laughed

"It wasn't me," Max proclaimed innocently.

"She stayed until it was over," she informed Max, "I tried to keep her from what she was about to see, why should she believe me when I told her it wasn't me?"

Max surprised Liz by continuing to sing. After the final it wasn't me the Shaggy sang very quickly and in a weird voice, but Max kept up and said every word. "make sure she knows it's not you and lead her on da right prefix whenever you should see her make da gigolo flex as funny as it be by you, it not that complex seein is believin so you better change your specs you know she not gonna be worrying bout things from the past hardly recollecting and then she'll go to noontime mass Rik-boy your answer: go over there but if she pack a gun you know you better run fast" He stopped singing when Liz cracked up. "What's so funny?" He asked

"That was awesome! I only know, like, 3 words from Shaggy's part! I'm like dum da da dum, specs, dum da da dum, answer. But you knew all of it, and you even got Shaggy's voice down! I'm so impressed!"

"Yea," Max said sheepishly, "Alex downloaded the CD for me off Napster. I listen to it a lot."

"That was too cool. No one I know knows Shaggy's part." Liz Simpson's high, breathy voice burst out from the speakers. "Oh, this is Irresistible!"

"That's the name of that song, or that's what the song is?" Max asked.

"You don't know the song Irresistible? My God! What is Isabel doing?"

Max shrugged, "We usually listen to my music or country with mom."

"Ok, well, listen to it! It's a great song!" She started singing along to the radio, "But he's irresistible, Up close and personal, Now inescapable, I can hardly breath, More than just physical Deeper than spiritual, His ways are powerful, Irresistible to me. Oh, I can hardly breathe."

"Wow," Max breathed, Liz was sitting next to him, eyes half closed, swaying as much as she could to the music with her seatbelt on. Her voice was low and breathy as she sang along to the music.

"Don't you think I'm trying to tell my heart what's right? That I should really say goodnight, but I just can't stop myself falling. Maybe I tell him I feel the same, That I don't wanna play no game, Cuz when I feel his arms wrapped around me, I know I'm meant to say no. But he's irresistible!" She glanced at Max who was looking back and forth between her and the road. "So on a scale of 1 to 10 how would you rate this date?"

"What kinda question is that?" Max demanded

"Well, what kinda answer is that?" Liz retorted

"Why do we have to rate it?"

"I like a tangible answer." Liz said.

Max rolled his eyes, "As Isabel would say, 12." He pulled to a stop at Carvels, "Want some ice cream?"

"Yea! I can always go for icecream."

"Noted." Max said and smiled at her. They walked into the store and Liz hurried to the rows of ice cream. She stooped down so she could easily read all the flavors and examined them all carefully. Max grinned, she looked like such a little kid.

"I don't know," Liz said when Max approached her. "Do I want double fudge chocolate chip or pralines and cream?"

"Double fudge chocolate chip?" Max guessed.

"Hmm." Liz looked thoughtful, it was as if her outfit was too grown up. Max was sure she belonged in overalls to go with her attitude. "No, I want pralines and cream." She walked up to the counter. "I want a large sundae with pralines and cream, whipped cream, cherry, nuts, sprinkles and lots of chocolate fudge!"

The guy at the counter smiled, "You got it!" He turned to Max, "What about you?"

"Small sundae, pistachio ice cream, fudge and whipped cream." Max answered. The guy made the sundaes and placed them on the counter.

"Mine's cooler," Liz said happily. She took the ice cream and a bunch of napkins.

"That's $6.75"

Max reached for his wallet, but Liz stopped him, "I'll pay." She said.

"I'm the guy, Liz, I'm supposed to pay." Max said

"No, you paid for dinner, let me get this." Liz insisted.

"Liz—" Max said.

"Please?" Liz said, teasing him, "Come on! Let me, please?"

"Fine!" He threw up his hands and got the sundaes and got a booth.

Liz smiled and pulled out the money. She knew Max didn't have a lot of money, she wasn't going to let him pay for her huge sundae. Maria would yell at her if she could see this. Liz wasn't good at being an ordinary girl.

Liz ate her ice cream quickly; she always ate ice cream quickly- as if she was so amazed she had her hands on something that delicious she had to consume all of it before someone took it away. Max ate slowly, picking at his sundae, uninterested in it. Liz popped the cherry in her mouth with the stem intact and a minute later pulled out the stem with a perfect knot. "Check that out!" She bragged.

Max laughed, "That's great. My mom can do that, but Isabel and I could never figure it out."

"Want to know my secret?" Liz asked, leaning in.

"Is a magician never supposed to divulge his secrets?" Max teased.

"Ah, this isn't magic." Liz grinned, "but if you would rather keep it a mystery, that's cool."

"Ok." Max said, "I like the mystery."

"Ok," Liz said, coolly. She sat there for a minute, tapping her fingers against the table. Then her control burst. "Come on, let me tell you! It's no fun if it's a secret!"

Max grinned, "Fine, tell me."

Liz smiled broadly. "It's easy." She picked up the stem, "All you do is get the knot started," She formed the stem into a circle and poked on end in the circle, "And then when you pull it out of your mouth you just grab the end and pull that out so the knot forms and tightens," She pulled the stem into a knot to demonstrate her point. "Like I said, easy."

"That's great, Liz," Max said, tolerantly. She could be such a little kid sometimes. She went back top her ice cream and Max looked at her, absently. She peeked up at him and looked at him in that special way that always shot waves of electricity all through him, she gave a small sexy smile and Max felt his heart constrict. Half little girl, half temptress.

"So," Liz joked, "We're at the door, the moment of truth."

"You already kissed me. I think it's OK." Max responded

"So, you're saying I took away all the uncomfortness?"

"Is that even a word?"

"Oh, yea, Evans, that's the point. Hmm, I was looking forward to that will I, won't I moment. It's not a real date till the guy is really uncomfortable." Max rolled his eyes and Liz became serious, "It was fun, Max."

"Yea, it was."

"We should do it again," Liz said timidly. She knew Max had fun, but she was a little nervous about brining up a second date.

"Yea, I'll call you." Liz rolled her eyes, "No, I actually will."

"Ok, goodnight, Max."

"Goodnight."

Liz turned to go inside, but at the last second turned around and kissed his softly. Her lips brushed over his and as soon as the kiss began it was over. "Good night."

Liz walked inside the empty store. Her parents were waiting up for her, of that she was sure. But she reveled in the serenity of the empty bookstore. She was so happy, her blood was still pumping from the brief kiss and it made her dizzy, like she had spun around too many times. But it was a nice dizzy. It started to fade and Liz spun in circles, laughing, trying to keep the feeling alive. She collapsed in her favorite chair in the corner of the store, it was an ugly brown color but so comfortable. She curled up in a tiny ball and sighed in contentment. She kicked her shoes off and let her purse fall to the floor.

She planned on staying there for only a moment to collect herself before going to say goodnight to her parents, but she was so content and happy she fell asleep before she knew what happened.

At midnight Mr. And Mrs. Parker were getting worried. Liz's curfew was 11:00 on weekends and she rarely stayed out that late. She had even told them she would probably be home a little early. They tried to convince themselves that Maria had dragged her somewhere to explore something or other. But Liz was never late, and she would have called if she knew she wasn't going to be home. They were becoming more frantic by the second. They finally went downstairs to wait for her, that way they could see her as soon as she walked in, and if she wasn't home soon…Mr. Parker shuddered at that thought. They would have to start calling people.

When they got downstairs they were greeted by soft snoring. They searched the empty store until they found Liz, curled up in a ball in her favorite chair. Mr. And Mrs. Parker exchanged relieved looks. Mr. Parker bent down and picked her up. She snuggled into his chest. "Daddy," she murmured. And he did something he hadn't done in a long time. He carried her upstairs and put her to bed.