PART 3
***
"We discover in ourselves what others hide from us, and in others what we hide from ourselves."
-Vauvenargues-
***
Liz just couldn't stop checking her watch. She was well aware of the fact that constantly checking your watch made time pass slower, but she couldn't help herself. Chemistry had never been this boring before. The last ten minutes had felt like an hour, not to mention the last hour, which had felt like a day.
And it was painfully clear how empty the seat next to her was. She had known Max wouldn't be there when she came to class, he had told her of his dentist appointment the night before, but she hadn't thought it would make such a difference to her. Now she couldn't wait 'til lunchtime when Max would be back and had promised to meet with her.
When the bell rang Liz shot up and was, for a change, the first person to exit the classroom. She was so set on getting to the cafeteria as quickly as possible that she in the midst of it all forgot about Maria and Alex. They reached her when she was halfway down the hall and Maria didn't hesitate to show her disapproval of Liz's speed.
"Geez, Liz, what are you, Road Runner?" she said with a frown.
"Sorry," Liz said with an embarrassed smile. "I just... I was just really hungry."
Alex raised an eyebrow and Maria turned to him. "By that she means hungry for some of that hot Maxwell lovin'," she said and Alex ahhh-ed to show he understood.
"Oh stop it," Liz said, blushing. "I just wanted to be on time... in case, you know... in case he had to, uh, go somewhere."
Maria smiled, amused. "Well, can we come, or do the star-crossed lovers want some privacy?"
"Oh, let's just go in," Liz said, wishing to escape Maria's comments.
When they came into the cafeteria there was no Max to be seen. Liz's heart sank. She started to think that maybe he'd forgotten. At that moment Michael came up to them, a glass of water in his hand.
"Liz, Alex," he said, looked at Maria and added, "...my project."
"Project?" Alex said, looking puzzled.
"Ignore the creature of repulsion before you," Maria said. "Let's just go eat."
Michael put out his hand to stop her as she tried to get past him. "Hold on." Slowly and provocatively he drank up his water, glancing at Maria to see her reaction. She gritted her teeth and narrowed her eyes at him, but didn't move. When he was finished he smacked his lips, lowered his hand from in front of Maria and turned to Liz.
"Max wants to see you," he said. "He's sitting outside. You should go there, he's been waiting."
In a second Liz was gone, leaving Alex and Maria with Michael. "Let's get something to eat," Maria said to Alex. "Although I've almost lost my appetite." She glared at Michael who firmly looked back at her, while Alex looked back and forth between the two, not understanding what was going on. Maria started to walk off, but was stopped by Michael speaking to her.
"You know, there's a lot more to come," he said calmly.
She turned around. "Figures," she said with a smirk. "I'm really looking forward to it."
With that she walked off, a bewildered Alex at her heels. "What was that about?" he asked.
She shook her head. "Nothing. Just a person with serious problems. Yuck."
*****
Liz's smile was unusually bright and broad as she approached Max, having lunch alone at an outside table.
"Hi," she said, and she tried to take the width of her smile down a few notches as she said it, but it was impossible, she couldn't help herself. Max looked up and a smile, although somewhat more modest, spread over his face too.
"Hey." She seated herself.
"No lunch?" Max said and at that moment she was suddenly aware of the fact that she hadn't brought any lunch with her. Which was rather silly and, as she now realized, a big fat sign that she hadn't been able to wait a minute before seeing him. And suddenly she felt pathetic.
"Uh, no, I... I wasn't all that hungry..."
He didn't seem to have a problem with that and now Liz just hoped that her indeed very hungry stomach wouldn't insist on growling.
"So... everything okay with your teeth?" she asked.
He nodded, and finished chewing before speaking. "All okay," he said. "I'm the dentist's nightmare: brush my teeth two minutes, two times a day. As ordered."
Liz smiled. Suddenly Max frowned. She looked at him questioningly.
"Liz..." he began.
"What is it?" she asked, suddenly worried.
He sighed and took a sip of his drink. "Valenti came to see me this morning."
Liz's heart skipped a beat. "Oh." Her voice was barely a whisper.
"He wants me to come talk with him. Today. After school."
Liz nodded. He went on. "I just thought I should tell you. You know, check with you, if..."
She nodded again. "You should go."
"You think?"
"Definitely. I mean... We wouldn't want to cause any suspicions, right?"
He nodded, slowly. "Right."
There was silence between them. Liz's mind was racing and she knew, she just knew, that Valenti had found some sort of proof to use against her. He wasn't stupid. Surely he'd figured it out by now. It had only been a question of time, really. And now the time had come.
Max was about to speak when the silence was broken by a female voice.
"Max!"
Tess came running up to them and threw her arms around Max's neck, startling him. Liz automatically shot up from her seated position.
"I, uh, I should... go," she stuttered. Tess took no notice of her, but Max got up, too.
"No, Liz, wait."
It wasn't until then that Tess noticed her presence. She lowered her fashionable sunglasses and eyed Liz critically. "Hi," she said, not letting go of Max.
Liz smiled insecurely. "Hi." She turned to Max. "I have to go. We can, uh... we can go over the chemistry notes after school, or... or maybe tomorrow."
Max nodded, and for some reason felt ashamed. He wished Tess wouldn't cling to him like that, he wished she wouldn't have interrupted him and Liz, who now was leaving the cafeteria, obviously rather uncomfortable. He sighed and, unsuccessfully, tried to loosen himself from his girlfriend's possessive grip.
"Who was that?" she said, completely failing in trying to hide her disapproval.
"My lab-partner, Liz," Max said. "And surely you've seen her, we've gone to this school for over a year."
Tess shrugged. "I try to keep away from the grass roots, so to speak," she said.
And Max hated her.
***
Valenti studied the young man seated opposite him. So far Max Evans hadn't shown any sign of being nervous, he just sat there waiting for the sheriff to start talking. So Valenti decided to oblige.
"So, Mr Evans..." he began, then checked the file which laid open before him. He looked up at Max again. "Were you at the Crashdown Café on the 24th of November this year?"
Max looked thoughtful. "Gee, I don't know sheriff, I go there quite a lot."
Valenti leaned forward, folding his arms on the table. "Let me clarify: Were you at the Crashdown Café on the afternoon when two men argued and a gunshot went off?"
"Oh," Max said. "That makes it a bit easier." He nodded. "Yes, I believe I was."
Valenti nodded, smiling. "Alright. Then that's clear." He leaned back in his chair. "Quite a commotion, wasn't it?"
Max politely smiled back. "Indeed, sheriff."
Valenti paused. It didn't seem as if this kid felt the urge to spill all of it to him. He had a feeling he could be in for a hard time when it came to this case. But he knew exactly which questions to ask. Without looking up at Max he spoke.
"What did your mother say about the shirt?"
He could almost hear how startled Max was.
"The shirt? What... What shirt, sheriff?"
Valenti looked up at him. "Your shirt. You spilled ketchup. Must've been hard to get the stains out."
Now, was it just the light or did Max Evans suddenly turn pale? Valenti smiled to himself. Now they were getting somewhere.
"The shirt..." Max began. "Uh, the shirt... No, it was ruined. I threw it away."
"I know."
Even more confusion spread over Max's face. "You... you know?"
Valenti nodded. Max's face turned from pale to a strange shade of gray. "Have... you been going through my trash... sheriff?"
Valenti didn't make a move. "When the company which takes care of the trash in our town finds something suspicious and seemingly connected to some sort of crime, they send it to us." He paused. "And in this case they found a shirt completely covered in something red, suspiciously similar to blood. Naturally they sent it to us."
He leaned forward, closer to Max. "But was there any blood on the shirt, Mr Evans?"
Max's brain was working frantically, trying to come up with an answer. "No?" he said uncertainly.
Valenti once more smiled that, in Max's eyes, creepy smile. "See, that's where you're wrong. We let the lab do some tests, and as it turns out, there was blood on the shirt. There was *your* blood on the shirt."
Max didn't speak. At this point he felt it was better to just listen.
Valenti continued. "And there was a bullet hole. In the shirt. Blood and a bullet hole. Now what do we make of that?"
Max continued to be silent. "Now, I ask you again," Valenti said, "Were you or were you not hurt on the day of the Crashdown shooting?"
Max sat silent for almost a minute. When he finally spoke, it was in a low voice, almost impossible for the sheriff to hear.
"I don't know what you want," he said. "And I don't know what you think happened. But I do know, that if you don't have any sorts of suspicions against me about anything, then you can't make me stay here. I want to go home."
Valenti could've slammed his fist in the table. 'Cause the boy was right, of course. He didn't really have any right to make him stay here, he had just wished that Max wouldn't see that, and just answer the questions instead.
"You're right," Valenti said. "You don't have to be here. You're most free to leave."
He got up to show Max that he really didn't have a problem with him leaving, and Max did the same.
"I just want you to know that you're free to come talk to me, any time you're ready. No matter how strange what you have to say is."
Max nodded. "I'll keep that in mind."
***
Maria placed the plates on the table in front of Michael and Isabel.
"There you go," she said. "Pay at the counter on your way out."
Isabel eyed her critically, while flicking a cigarette with her left hand. "Do you have a lighter?" she asked coolly.
Maria looked disgusted. "This is a no smoking zone," she said. "And even if it weren't, I wouldn't have a lighter, seeing as I do not feel the need to kill my lungs brutally and end up coughing my guts up."
Michael snorted. "She's a good girl, who loves her mama, loves Jesus and America too," he said matter-of-factly.
"Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers," she shot back. "Boring, boring song."
"Yeah, and seemingly dedicated to you alone," he said, making Isabel laugh scornfully.
Maria felt her face heat up, she hadn't expected him to respond, but she decided it would be best not to speak any further. She left the table just as Max entered the diner, flustered. He joined his friends at the booth.
"Where've you been?" Isabel asked, almost accusingly.
"Nowhere," Max replied, trying to sound at ease. It didn't work.
"Where's this nowhere place, then?" Isabel asked suspiciously. "You've been gone for, like, two hours, and Michael didn't know where you were." She glared at Michael before adding: "Or claims he didn't know."
Michael shrugged. "I didn't know."
Max's eyes automatically drifted off until they landed on Liz, standing by the counter talking to Maria.
"I swear," Maria said, "if that scumbag thinks I'm even going to let him come near me after all of this, then he's so outrageously wrong."
Liz shook her head. "I just don't get it, Maria. What's this bet really about?"
Maria felt her face flush. "Oh... oh, it's just some silly idea he got. He thinks he can make me go out with him within a week." She didn't want to tell her friend the full story quite yet.
Liz raised her eyebrows. "Wow," she said. "Sounds a bit stupid. Why would you go out with him after a bet like that?"
"Exactly what I said! But he insisted, and, well, I'm always in need of extra cash." She looked over at the table she'd just come back from. "Oh lookie, Max is back from his encounter with Valenti."
Liz's head shot up. "Oh," she said. "Maybe... maybe you should go take his orders?"
Maria looked at her, smiling. "Or maybe you should admit how desperately you'd like to go there yourself."
Liz blushed and quickly tried to cover it over. "I-I do not... desperately want to go there. And besides... I'm real busy. Not to mention it's your table."
Maria sighed. "Whatever, you creature of denial. I'll go. But don't come complaining when I puke all over the rest of the customers at the table."
Max smiled at her when she came up to them. "Hey, Maria."
"Hi, Max. What can I get you?" She felt proud of herself for managing to seem so at ease with coming back to that particular booth.
"Oh, just... Just a milkshake."
"Flavor?"
"Uh... Strawberry?"
"Is that a question or a demand?"
Max smiled. "Let's call it a request."
Maria offered him a sweet smile back. "You got it," she said and was about to walk back to Liz when Michael spoke.
"I'm all right, I'm all right, I'm just weary to my bones, still you don't expect me to be bright and bon vivant, so far away from home, so far away from home."
She froze. And found herself wondering if he knew. If he somehow knew that that was the song she used to listen to, the song that had kept her alive and perky ever since she was old enough to appreciate music, the song that had given her hope of someday and somehow fitting in and feeling at home. Memories of herself as a child and the indescribable loneliness that had always insisted on accompanying her hit her with such force that she felt the old, well known tears prick at her eyes, and she swore that the room swayed right there and then. For the first time in her life she saw the slightest bit of hope that someone, someone who wasn't Liz or Alex, could understand how pained she always felt, no matter how cheerful a facade she put on. And at the same time it stabbed at her insides and at her heart because she knew that nobody, nobody at all could ever understand anything. It was so incredibly unfair.
"Maria?"
Max's voice snapped her out of her whirring thoughts. She dared not look at them, fearing that they would see her eyes brimming with tears.
"Uh... yeah?"
"You okay? You looked kind of dizzy."
She shook her head. "No, I'm okay. I just... I have a bit of a headache. Sorry, I'll get your milkshake now."
"What about the song?" Michael said and she stopped again.
"The song?"
"Uh-huh. Or maybe you don't know it?"
She dared glance at him long enough to see his disgustingly satisfied grin and suddenly felt very stupid for even thinking that he could ever understand anything.
"Yeah, right. Umm... Paul Simon, "American Tune". Piece of cake." Not waiting for a reply, she rushed back to the counter.
*****
Isabel ran and ran and ran and still she was hardly getting anywhere. Her violator was right behind her, she could feel his breath against the back of her neck, and she could hear his panting. The road they were running on only went one way, she was aware of that, and she was also aware of the fact that it had no end, she would be running forever. And he would chase her forever. It was always the same. Always exactly like this. But she still hung on. Just to see if something would be different this time, if the end might be different.
The man was now reaching out to grab her hair. This was where the scary part began. She swallowed hard, and an instant later he grabbed her hair, full force. She opened her mouth to call out to someone but no sound came.
No big surprise there. It was a known fact that you couldn't scream in dreams, especially not in nightmares. They slowly halted to a stop and as he caressed her hair she shivered with fear. It was always like this. She was always so weak and vulnerable and small in here, she hated it. But she hung on. Every night. Until she woke up, drenched in sweat and breathing hard as she whispered to herself that it was only a nightmare, nothing more than a nightmare. And she was safe. Until the next night when the same thing would happen and she would still hang on, just to see if something would turn out different, if she this time could stand up to him.
It didn't look as if it would be any different this night. He stared down at her, his eyes dark with hatred and evil. He smiled, a crooked, sickening smile and she felt her teeth start to clatter, this was almost unbearable. She couldn't believe how an illusion of the mind could be so incredibly real and frightening.
Suddenly his eyes shifted emotion, he looked surprised. But not by her, by something over her left shoulder. Ever so slowly she turned her head to see what it was that had made him so astounded.
It was sort of an anticlimax, seeing Alex Whitman standing there. She'd been so excited and relieved over the change in her dream, and she'd turned around slowly, almost hearing the dramatic music building up, and then she saw him there. Plain, tall, dorky. As he always was. Isabel's heart sank. She'd so desperately hoped that it would be someone who was there to rescue her. Then she silently cursed her mind for taking such screwed turns. Alex Whitman? *Why* on earth was he here in her dream?
She didn't have time to react before Alex was beside her and speaking.
"I think you should leave her alone."
And Isabel found herself feeling strangely safe. Her violator stood there opposite them, jaw almost touching the ground, practically paralyzed. Alex repeated his words and suddenly the man flickered, like a light bulb about to give up. Within moments he was completely gone. Isabel could do nothing but stare at the spot where he'd stood. It took quite some time before she could gather herself enough to turn around and face Alex.
Only he wasn't there anymore.
*****
"Alex!!!"
Maria's shrill voice cut through the mellow conversation of the Crashdown. Quite a few heads turned towards her and Alex, standing by the cashier, so she lowered her voice.
"Alex, I thought we agreed: no dream-walking! And then you go and do it again!"
"No, you and Liz agreed no dreamwalking. I never promised not to do it again."
Maria shook her head and narrowed her eyes at Alex. "God, can't you see the risks? I mean, you don't think Isabel Evans finds it somewhat strange to suddenly find *you* standing there in her dream?"
Alex smirked at her. "I'll try not to feel insulted by that. And by the way, I'd hardly call it a dream. More like vicious nightmare."
"Dream, nightmare, I don't care!" Maria was getting really fired up by now.
"Look, Maria, the point is that I went in there and I didn't like what I saw. She was really scared."
"Oh, poor thing," Maria said, her voice dripping with sarcasm. "I sincerely hope she didn't get her feathers all too ruffled."
Alex shook his head. "You wouldn't understand."
He waited for his snappish friend to deliver another harsh comeback, but found that her attention had been drawn away from him and was now directed at something over his right shoulder. Slowly, trying to be discreet, he turned his head around and spotted sheriff Valenti entering the diner. Alex furrowed his brow. He never had liked that man. The way Alex saw it, he was totally overdoing the whole bad ass southern sheriff act, what with the hat, boots and sunglasses (and way too tight pants), not to mention the fact that he found pleasure in psychologically tormenting his enemies with tricky questions that would leave them giving themselves away.
"Morning, sheriff." Maria's smile was a thousand watts. He nodded back at her, not for a moment letting go of that grim look. Alex smiled weakly, feeling like a cornered animal. The sheriff looked around the place before looking back at the two.
"Got everything back in order after the shooting?"
Maria nodded, pulling her smile up a few notches. "Everything's fixed, sheriff. I mean, not that there was really any mess to clean up."
The sheriff nodded, looking thoughtful. "I'd still like to talk to the two of you. About what you saw."
"Gee, sheriff, is that really necessary? I think we've told you everything already." Maria got the words out through gritted teeth.
The sheriff smiled at her, a smile that made Alex shiver. "Yeah, I know, but just to make sure," Valenti said. "How about I'll come by your house this afternoon?"
Maria nodded, cheerful, but after the sheriff had left the diner her smile faded. "Oh great," she said, sounding depressed. "Now I have to watch him flirt with my mother again. Every time he comes over I practically drown in their drool."
Alex, who knew how tough her mother's fling with the sheriff was for Maria, gave his friend a quick hug.
"You'll cope," he said. "You always do."
*****
"And what do you think is the main reason to why Steinbeck wrote this book?"
The teacher's hawkeyes searched the classroom, as usual looking for the person least likely to know the answer. Her eyes stopped on the young boy in the back, who was seemingly oblivious to the fact that a class was being held in that particular room.
"Mr Guerin?"
Michael did not even flinch at hearing the teacher speak his name. Without in any way changing his laid back position in the chair, he answered.
"I'd think it has something to do with the care-taking of tiny animals."
A few scattered laughs were heard, but the teacher's eyes narrowed even more than they'd been before.
"Mr Guerin, why do I get the impression that you haven't even done the reading?"
Michael smirked. "Oh dear, I don't know. What could make you think that?"
The class laughed again, all save Max and Maria. Max was too busy gazing out the window and Maria was determined not to laugh at anything that person said.
The teacher sighed. "I think it's time for one of your conversations with the principal again," she said. "Your grades are dropping, no exceptions, and I will not tolerate any more of this behavior. Off you go."
Michael gathered his books together and rose from the chair as the teacher turned to the blackboard and wrote down keywords while telling the class the actual reason to why Steinbeck had written the book. When Michael passed Maria's desk she stared straight down at the books before her, not about to let go of the promise she had made to herself about not looking twice at that person, but to her dismay he stopped next to her desk and leaned down closer to her ear.
"Shoot her for me, will you?" he said lowly before continuing out of the classroom. His words had only been audible enough for a few people surrounding her to hear, and some of them giggled quietly at the remark. Even Maria smiled, but immediately caught herself. She shook her head. She had not been amused by his words, and she had most certainly not thought that he smelled great when he passed by. Stop it! She cursed herself silently and squeezed her eyes shut, trying to remove the image in her head of Michael exiting the classroom.
"Could you perhaps give us the answer to that, Miss De Luca?"
Maria's head shot up. "Uhhh... what?"
The teacher looked coolly at her. "Never mind. Maybe somebody else knows."
Maria sighed, and she felt as if she actually could see her grade dropping further and further down, until it landed on something around a D-.
And her mother was going to kill her.
Damn.