~A/N~ I want to thank the reviewers a hundred times over for your generous
and kind reviews. You guys rock! You have NO IDEA how much you helped me
and urged me to finish this chapter to be able to put it up on the site.
I hope you enjoy this chapter and I ask you to please, again, review if you read it. For some reason this story has been harder for me to write without encouragement and reviews will help beyond belief. Thank you SO MUCH!
Disclaimer: Roswell ISN'T mine but various unrecognizable characters are.
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~ One week or so later ~
It had been about a week since Maria had spent the day with Liz and her friends and she had seen them multiple times over the past week. She seemed to fit in so well with them, almost like they were all meant to be friends all along.
She had seen the least of Michael, the one that seemed to be the most mysterious. The couple times she had seen him he had kept to himself and always seemed to be lurking in the shadows and observing the ones around him. He joined in the conversation only when necessary and at certain times Maria would look over and see him watching her before his eyes would quickly flick away in slight embarrassment for being caught looking at her.
Earlier that day Liz had invited Maria to come over and hang out at her place with her and Isabel so Maria had borrowed the keys from Maggie and taken the beat up truck into town and over to Liz's. They weren't doing much, just talking and reading old beauty magazines from the stash under Liz's bed.
"So Liz what marvelous plans do you have to keep our interest today?" Isabel asked from her spot sprawled on the bed as her eyes peeked above the YM in her hands.
Liz let out a bored sigh, "I have no idea. I'm sorry Maria but girl, we've done pretty much everything Roswell has to offer. UFOnics, the bowling ally, all that stuff. We've covered every square inch of our boring town."
"Hey, I though you told me Roswell WASN'T boring!" Maria kidded letting out a small giggle as she flipped through a magazine.
Liz rolled her eyes, "yeah well I lied. I always put that act on for new people, especially the tourists at the restaurant. 'Oh sure Roswell is just swell. No boring times here sir we're just a fun ol' town with old fashioned ways about doing things.'" Liz said imitating what she always said to the tourists.
Maria laughed again. "Well don't worry about it Liz. When it all boils down, Chicago wasn't that interesting anyway."
"Oh YEAH RIGHT!" Isabel said laughing, "you can NOT lie to me and tell me Chicago was boring!"
"OK, so maybe you're right. But Izzy you have to remember there is only so much to do in every town. 17 years in Chicago and I pretty much did everything," Maria said using the nick name the group called Isabel.
Suddenly Liz sat up from her spot lying on the floor quickly and looked at both of them, "you guys I have an amazing beyond amazing idea!"
"What Liz? What could possibly be your 'amazing beyond amazing idea' this time?" Isabel said sarcastically with a smile on her face.
"Oh Iz, lighten up! Here' s my plan. So you two know that my parents are out of town today and tonight and all and I always get so freaked out when they go away. I was thinking that you two could come over for like a sleepover tonight. I know that's kind of middle school and all but it would be fun! My parents won't care if you stay the night. So what do you think? We'll vedge and watch movies and stuff."
Maria nodded liking Liz's idea. "Sounds good to me. I haven't been to a sleepover in ages and it sounds like a lot of fun."
Liz looked up toward Isabel for the final decision.
"Although I do agree that yes, it is a sort of middle school thing to do I think it will be fun. Let's do it girls, a night of fun for us all." Isabel said and a bright smile lit up Liz's face when she finished.
"GREAT! You guys can come over at five and we can order pizza from Flying Pepperoni and it will be great."
~ That night ~
Maria climbed the wood steps up toward the back entrance to the Parker's house carrying her small bag that held her clothes for tomorrow and various other things and rang the bell. The door opened and Maria was greeted by Liz and even Isabel had showed up before her.
"Ria!" Liz exclaimed using her uncle's nick name for her that Liz had quickly adopted the second day she had spent with her. "Come on in. Izzy and I already ordered the pizza. Cheese good for you?"
"Cheese sounds wonderful," Maria said as she entered the house. The three laughed and told jokes as they waited for the pizza came. When the doorbell rang they all eagerly went and retrieved the pizza from the pizza boy as Liz paid him and shut the door.
"To my room. We can hang in there and eat the pizza while we watch some TV," Liz decided and the others agreed and headed back to their room.
They ate pizza for awhile and flipped channels until they finally settled on Fox where they were showing re-runs of Friends.
"You know, Joey is so hot," Liz commented as she took a bite of her pizza.
Isabel let out an incredulous laugh, "Joey is sooo NOT hot! I'm sorry but they boy is like 30! Liz, I didn't know you had an eye for the older type."
"Hey now," Liz said holding up her hand defensively, "Joey IS hot. Of course I go for the younger type but still. You can't deny his good looks."
"You know, I have to agree with Liz," Maria said laughing. "The boy is kind of hot. And anyway-"
"Wait!" Isabel said suddenly dropping her pizza onto the plate in her lap and holding up her hand to silence Maria as she glanced toward the window. "Did you guys hear that?" She asked, alarm evident in her voice.
"Hear what?" Liz asked fear peaking through her words as she too looked toward the open window of her bedroom.
"That noise," Isabel said setting her pizza aside and slowly inching her way toward the window.
At that moment both Liz and Maria did hear the noise that came from the patio outside of Liz's window. A fairly loud thud.
"Wh- who's there?" Liz called through the window as she nervously glanced back at Maria.
Instantly a face popped into the window and Maria felt the breath she had been holding whoosh out in a sigh of relief at the amused look on the familiar face in the window.
"What, did we scare you girls?" Kyle asked innocently unsuccessfully trying to suppress the snicker that followed his statement.
"KYLE!" Liz exclaimed slapping him playfully, "how could you DO that?"
"Oh Liz calm down, it was just a joke!" Kyle said laughing again.
Isabel rolled her eyes, "did you say 'we' Kyle?" She asked curiously peering around the boy into the darkness of the night.
"Of course he said we. Like he would ever forget us," a voice said from behind Kyle and Alex emerged through the black night. Behind him Maria watched as Michael too appeared and instantly she felt her heart quicken for reasons she couldn't explain.
"Lizzy how could you get pizza and not invite us?" Kyle said as the three of them one by one climbed through the window and into the room as he eyed the half empty pizza box. "We can have some right?"
Liz laughed and sat back down on the bed next to Maria obviously accepting the boys' arrival and relaxing. "Of course, we were done anyway. Stuffed full, right girls?"
"Stuffed full alright," Maria agreed holding her stomach to show that she was done. Each boy instantly grabbed a piece and began eating as they took their places around the room. Kyle slid on the bed next to Liz and wrapped his arms around her protectively as Alex took the bean bag chair in the corner and Michael sat on the floor leaning against the wall in a place, Maria noticed, where he could watch everyone.
After one more whole pizza had been demolished and five re-runs of Friends had been watched in, what they had figured out, was a marathon of old Friends shows, the gang had gotten sick of the show so Liz flicked off the TV.
"So what do we do now? We're out of conventional ways of entertaining ourselves," Isabel said with a sigh as she leaned back on the beanbag she had decided to share with Alex halfway through the third episode of friends. From the looks Alex constantly darted toward Isabel Maria had concluded there was more to that relationship than had been previously stated also and Maria was somewhat anxious to know what it was. She mentally told her self she would ask Liz about that later.
The room was silent and when someone finally did speak Maria was surprised at who it was.
"I think we should learn more about Maria," Michael said giving her a side glance before he looked at the others in the room.
His statement surprised her and she wondered what had inspired him to decide on that.
"WE know about her butt head. If you had been around the last few days you would too," Isabel said as she examined her nails only half paying attention to the look Michael shot her.
"Well I would like to know more about her now," He said glaring at Isabel before giving his full attention to Maria for the first time. "So Maria, tell me about yourself."
"Well, uh, what exactly do you want to know Michael? There is a lot of stuff I could say so could you be a little more specific?" Maria asked her eyes never leaving his gaze.
"Tell me about your parents, your friends, where you come from."
The others looked at her, obviously somewhat curious to find out more about the past that Maria had cleverly hid from them for the last week. Whenever asked Maria would subtly changed the subject or do something so they wouldn't know that she was avoiding the topic of her past. Now, with everyone staring at her expectantly, Maria had no escape but to share brief tidbits of her disturbing past.
"Well, I'm from Chicago. It's big and it's loudly but I love it. I like the feeling of living in a city where whatever you want there is somehow a way to get it. If you want- oh, I don't know- a big pink accordion you can somehow find it," Maria paused as the others laughed at her example.
"My mom is great, I love her and she can always make me laugh. We live in a small brownstone in downtown Chicago close to my high school.
"As for my friends I never really had too many close ones. For awhile I was really good friends with this guy Adam and these two girls Lisa and Alexia. That was freshman year though and as the years of high school wore on us we began to change and separate slowly," Maria said smiling as she finished. She knew she had lied to them about her friends. High school had not worn them down, Cancer had. Her "friends" couldn't stand being around someone who was always in the hospital. Sure, they had stuck around for awhile but near the end, when it really counted, they had gone on with their lives and left Maria behind.
Maria could tell Michael wasn't satisfied with her answer. "What about your father?" He threw the question at her and she felt her breath catch in her throat. She hadn't expected him to pick out the one thing she least wanted to talk about right away.
"What about my father?" Maria countered trying to side step the conversation away from where she didn't want it to go.
"Just what about him? You didn't mention him at all and I just want to know why," Michael's gaze was cold and Maria felt small under his watchful eye.
"Geez Michael will you let up?" Liz muttered and Michael instantly shot a dirty glare at her.
"Oh can it Parker, I just want to know more about this girl that we're going to be spending the summer with. I think we all appreciate knowing everything we can about the people we choose to be our friends," he said giving them all a knowing look that Maria quickly forgot about when Liz suddenly jumped up from the bed surprising not only Maria but everyone in the room.
"No Michael I will not can it!" She said as her usually pale complexion grew red hot with anger as she defended herself. "I am sick of you trying to tell me what to do! You're not the leader over me! I don't care what THEY say Michael you will NEVER be the leader!" Maria watched as tears began to brim Liz's eyes and her angry glance pinned on Michael.
"Will you quit right now Liz?" Michael asked no quieter than Liz was, "you have NO idea what you're talking about here."
"Oh don't I Michael? I've been here the past years too you know! I've watched it all and now you say that I have no IDEA what I'm talking about! You know for a fact that I know exactly what I am talking about." Her voice was icy as she continued to glare at him.
Maria watched in silence as the two glared at each other. All eyes were pinned on them and she knew that everyone had forgotten that she was even there. She knew they were close to revealing the one thing Maria had seen lurking in the shadows of their expressions. The one bit of sadness that she always saw in Isabel at certain points in the conversation.
"The truth is Liz you DON'T know what you're talking about! Yes, you've been here but YOU haven't been here!" Michael shot at her with a venomous tone and his eyes quickly darted toward Kyle sitting on the bed.
"What the hell are you talking about Michael? If you're talking about what I think you're talking about then just back off alright?" Liz asked as she too glanced back at Kyle sitting on the opposite side of the bed from Maria.
Isabel quickly jumped up out of the protection of Alex's arms and from the tears on her face Maria could see that she had also been greatly affected by their fight. Maria was surprised because the whole time she had been here she had never seen Isabel openly show her emotions.
"Of course Michael is talking about what you think he is talking about!" Isabel exclaimed taking a step closer to Liz. "We all know what Michael is talking about! Don't you DARE deny what you did was wrong!"
"What I did wasn't wrong Isabel so just stay out of this!" Liz screamed and the noise level in the room raised a notch.
"It was your fault Liz," Michael screamed, "you practically KILLED him and YOU know it! He died for you and you are so extremely ungrateful!" She saw the anger and a visible fire in his eyes that she had never seen before. She also saw the hurt that whatever they were talking about caused him. Deep and immense pain that had been there for awhile.
"I can't believe you would say that Michael," Liz said her voice barely a whisper and her lip quivering, "you know I didn't kill him and you know that I am so grateful for- for everything!"
"You may not have killed Max Liz but I can't BELIEVE you moved on to Kyle so quickly after the DEATH of my BROTHER!" Isabel screeched her voice raising into a high squeal as she said the last word.
It was as if the mute button on a blaring TV had been hit. The noise in the room ceased and it was like someone had sucked all the air out of the room. Liz staggered backward as if Isabel had physically hit her and Maria darted her eyes over toward Isabel and saw her standing there, her face as white as chalk, with her hand clamped over her mouth as if she couldn't believe what she had just said.
"Oh my God," Isabel said in a shaky voice, "oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I can't believe I just said that," she muttered her voice wavering as she saw the hurt expression on her friend's face. "Oh Lizzy I am so sorry. So sorry, you have no idea. I didn't mean it, you know I didn't mean it."
Liz looked her over the hurt expression slowly easing off her face. She nodded, "Oh Iz I know. I know you didn't mean it." She glanced over at Michael. "I'm so sorry Michael. I- I never should have started this. It's just been so hard lately with- with everything," she let her sentence trail off and she gazed at Michael.
Michael nodded slowly, "I should have never said what I did Liz. We all got carried away and I'm sorry."
Liz quickly wrapped her arms first around Isabel and then around Michael and they formed a tight circle, slight sobs still being heard from Isabel as they slowly rocked back and forth.
Maria couldn't understand any of it. The small bits of information that they had given out only led her on a trail of unanswered questions. She slightly shifted her weight and accidentally knocked the remote control onto the floor and it hit with a thud.
Every pair of eyes quickly shot in her direction and she felt their stares burning holes through her. They all realized that she had heard every word of what they had just said and she definitely knew more than she should about a topic that they never talked about.
I hope you enjoy this chapter and I ask you to please, again, review if you read it. For some reason this story has been harder for me to write without encouragement and reviews will help beyond belief. Thank you SO MUCH!
Disclaimer: Roswell ISN'T mine but various unrecognizable characters are.
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~ One week or so later ~
It had been about a week since Maria had spent the day with Liz and her friends and she had seen them multiple times over the past week. She seemed to fit in so well with them, almost like they were all meant to be friends all along.
She had seen the least of Michael, the one that seemed to be the most mysterious. The couple times she had seen him he had kept to himself and always seemed to be lurking in the shadows and observing the ones around him. He joined in the conversation only when necessary and at certain times Maria would look over and see him watching her before his eyes would quickly flick away in slight embarrassment for being caught looking at her.
Earlier that day Liz had invited Maria to come over and hang out at her place with her and Isabel so Maria had borrowed the keys from Maggie and taken the beat up truck into town and over to Liz's. They weren't doing much, just talking and reading old beauty magazines from the stash under Liz's bed.
"So Liz what marvelous plans do you have to keep our interest today?" Isabel asked from her spot sprawled on the bed as her eyes peeked above the YM in her hands.
Liz let out a bored sigh, "I have no idea. I'm sorry Maria but girl, we've done pretty much everything Roswell has to offer. UFOnics, the bowling ally, all that stuff. We've covered every square inch of our boring town."
"Hey, I though you told me Roswell WASN'T boring!" Maria kidded letting out a small giggle as she flipped through a magazine.
Liz rolled her eyes, "yeah well I lied. I always put that act on for new people, especially the tourists at the restaurant. 'Oh sure Roswell is just swell. No boring times here sir we're just a fun ol' town with old fashioned ways about doing things.'" Liz said imitating what she always said to the tourists.
Maria laughed again. "Well don't worry about it Liz. When it all boils down, Chicago wasn't that interesting anyway."
"Oh YEAH RIGHT!" Isabel said laughing, "you can NOT lie to me and tell me Chicago was boring!"
"OK, so maybe you're right. But Izzy you have to remember there is only so much to do in every town. 17 years in Chicago and I pretty much did everything," Maria said using the nick name the group called Isabel.
Suddenly Liz sat up from her spot lying on the floor quickly and looked at both of them, "you guys I have an amazing beyond amazing idea!"
"What Liz? What could possibly be your 'amazing beyond amazing idea' this time?" Isabel said sarcastically with a smile on her face.
"Oh Iz, lighten up! Here' s my plan. So you two know that my parents are out of town today and tonight and all and I always get so freaked out when they go away. I was thinking that you two could come over for like a sleepover tonight. I know that's kind of middle school and all but it would be fun! My parents won't care if you stay the night. So what do you think? We'll vedge and watch movies and stuff."
Maria nodded liking Liz's idea. "Sounds good to me. I haven't been to a sleepover in ages and it sounds like a lot of fun."
Liz looked up toward Isabel for the final decision.
"Although I do agree that yes, it is a sort of middle school thing to do I think it will be fun. Let's do it girls, a night of fun for us all." Isabel said and a bright smile lit up Liz's face when she finished.
"GREAT! You guys can come over at five and we can order pizza from Flying Pepperoni and it will be great."
~ That night ~
Maria climbed the wood steps up toward the back entrance to the Parker's house carrying her small bag that held her clothes for tomorrow and various other things and rang the bell. The door opened and Maria was greeted by Liz and even Isabel had showed up before her.
"Ria!" Liz exclaimed using her uncle's nick name for her that Liz had quickly adopted the second day she had spent with her. "Come on in. Izzy and I already ordered the pizza. Cheese good for you?"
"Cheese sounds wonderful," Maria said as she entered the house. The three laughed and told jokes as they waited for the pizza came. When the doorbell rang they all eagerly went and retrieved the pizza from the pizza boy as Liz paid him and shut the door.
"To my room. We can hang in there and eat the pizza while we watch some TV," Liz decided and the others agreed and headed back to their room.
They ate pizza for awhile and flipped channels until they finally settled on Fox where they were showing re-runs of Friends.
"You know, Joey is so hot," Liz commented as she took a bite of her pizza.
Isabel let out an incredulous laugh, "Joey is sooo NOT hot! I'm sorry but they boy is like 30! Liz, I didn't know you had an eye for the older type."
"Hey now," Liz said holding up her hand defensively, "Joey IS hot. Of course I go for the younger type but still. You can't deny his good looks."
"You know, I have to agree with Liz," Maria said laughing. "The boy is kind of hot. And anyway-"
"Wait!" Isabel said suddenly dropping her pizza onto the plate in her lap and holding up her hand to silence Maria as she glanced toward the window. "Did you guys hear that?" She asked, alarm evident in her voice.
"Hear what?" Liz asked fear peaking through her words as she too looked toward the open window of her bedroom.
"That noise," Isabel said setting her pizza aside and slowly inching her way toward the window.
At that moment both Liz and Maria did hear the noise that came from the patio outside of Liz's window. A fairly loud thud.
"Wh- who's there?" Liz called through the window as she nervously glanced back at Maria.
Instantly a face popped into the window and Maria felt the breath she had been holding whoosh out in a sigh of relief at the amused look on the familiar face in the window.
"What, did we scare you girls?" Kyle asked innocently unsuccessfully trying to suppress the snicker that followed his statement.
"KYLE!" Liz exclaimed slapping him playfully, "how could you DO that?"
"Oh Liz calm down, it was just a joke!" Kyle said laughing again.
Isabel rolled her eyes, "did you say 'we' Kyle?" She asked curiously peering around the boy into the darkness of the night.
"Of course he said we. Like he would ever forget us," a voice said from behind Kyle and Alex emerged through the black night. Behind him Maria watched as Michael too appeared and instantly she felt her heart quicken for reasons she couldn't explain.
"Lizzy how could you get pizza and not invite us?" Kyle said as the three of them one by one climbed through the window and into the room as he eyed the half empty pizza box. "We can have some right?"
Liz laughed and sat back down on the bed next to Maria obviously accepting the boys' arrival and relaxing. "Of course, we were done anyway. Stuffed full, right girls?"
"Stuffed full alright," Maria agreed holding her stomach to show that she was done. Each boy instantly grabbed a piece and began eating as they took their places around the room. Kyle slid on the bed next to Liz and wrapped his arms around her protectively as Alex took the bean bag chair in the corner and Michael sat on the floor leaning against the wall in a place, Maria noticed, where he could watch everyone.
After one more whole pizza had been demolished and five re-runs of Friends had been watched in, what they had figured out, was a marathon of old Friends shows, the gang had gotten sick of the show so Liz flicked off the TV.
"So what do we do now? We're out of conventional ways of entertaining ourselves," Isabel said with a sigh as she leaned back on the beanbag she had decided to share with Alex halfway through the third episode of friends. From the looks Alex constantly darted toward Isabel Maria had concluded there was more to that relationship than had been previously stated also and Maria was somewhat anxious to know what it was. She mentally told her self she would ask Liz about that later.
The room was silent and when someone finally did speak Maria was surprised at who it was.
"I think we should learn more about Maria," Michael said giving her a side glance before he looked at the others in the room.
His statement surprised her and she wondered what had inspired him to decide on that.
"WE know about her butt head. If you had been around the last few days you would too," Isabel said as she examined her nails only half paying attention to the look Michael shot her.
"Well I would like to know more about her now," He said glaring at Isabel before giving his full attention to Maria for the first time. "So Maria, tell me about yourself."
"Well, uh, what exactly do you want to know Michael? There is a lot of stuff I could say so could you be a little more specific?" Maria asked her eyes never leaving his gaze.
"Tell me about your parents, your friends, where you come from."
The others looked at her, obviously somewhat curious to find out more about the past that Maria had cleverly hid from them for the last week. Whenever asked Maria would subtly changed the subject or do something so they wouldn't know that she was avoiding the topic of her past. Now, with everyone staring at her expectantly, Maria had no escape but to share brief tidbits of her disturbing past.
"Well, I'm from Chicago. It's big and it's loudly but I love it. I like the feeling of living in a city where whatever you want there is somehow a way to get it. If you want- oh, I don't know- a big pink accordion you can somehow find it," Maria paused as the others laughed at her example.
"My mom is great, I love her and she can always make me laugh. We live in a small brownstone in downtown Chicago close to my high school.
"As for my friends I never really had too many close ones. For awhile I was really good friends with this guy Adam and these two girls Lisa and Alexia. That was freshman year though and as the years of high school wore on us we began to change and separate slowly," Maria said smiling as she finished. She knew she had lied to them about her friends. High school had not worn them down, Cancer had. Her "friends" couldn't stand being around someone who was always in the hospital. Sure, they had stuck around for awhile but near the end, when it really counted, they had gone on with their lives and left Maria behind.
Maria could tell Michael wasn't satisfied with her answer. "What about your father?" He threw the question at her and she felt her breath catch in her throat. She hadn't expected him to pick out the one thing she least wanted to talk about right away.
"What about my father?" Maria countered trying to side step the conversation away from where she didn't want it to go.
"Just what about him? You didn't mention him at all and I just want to know why," Michael's gaze was cold and Maria felt small under his watchful eye.
"Geez Michael will you let up?" Liz muttered and Michael instantly shot a dirty glare at her.
"Oh can it Parker, I just want to know more about this girl that we're going to be spending the summer with. I think we all appreciate knowing everything we can about the people we choose to be our friends," he said giving them all a knowing look that Maria quickly forgot about when Liz suddenly jumped up from the bed surprising not only Maria but everyone in the room.
"No Michael I will not can it!" She said as her usually pale complexion grew red hot with anger as she defended herself. "I am sick of you trying to tell me what to do! You're not the leader over me! I don't care what THEY say Michael you will NEVER be the leader!" Maria watched as tears began to brim Liz's eyes and her angry glance pinned on Michael.
"Will you quit right now Liz?" Michael asked no quieter than Liz was, "you have NO idea what you're talking about here."
"Oh don't I Michael? I've been here the past years too you know! I've watched it all and now you say that I have no IDEA what I'm talking about! You know for a fact that I know exactly what I am talking about." Her voice was icy as she continued to glare at him.
Maria watched in silence as the two glared at each other. All eyes were pinned on them and she knew that everyone had forgotten that she was even there. She knew they were close to revealing the one thing Maria had seen lurking in the shadows of their expressions. The one bit of sadness that she always saw in Isabel at certain points in the conversation.
"The truth is Liz you DON'T know what you're talking about! Yes, you've been here but YOU haven't been here!" Michael shot at her with a venomous tone and his eyes quickly darted toward Kyle sitting on the bed.
"What the hell are you talking about Michael? If you're talking about what I think you're talking about then just back off alright?" Liz asked as she too glanced back at Kyle sitting on the opposite side of the bed from Maria.
Isabel quickly jumped up out of the protection of Alex's arms and from the tears on her face Maria could see that she had also been greatly affected by their fight. Maria was surprised because the whole time she had been here she had never seen Isabel openly show her emotions.
"Of course Michael is talking about what you think he is talking about!" Isabel exclaimed taking a step closer to Liz. "We all know what Michael is talking about! Don't you DARE deny what you did was wrong!"
"What I did wasn't wrong Isabel so just stay out of this!" Liz screamed and the noise level in the room raised a notch.
"It was your fault Liz," Michael screamed, "you practically KILLED him and YOU know it! He died for you and you are so extremely ungrateful!" She saw the anger and a visible fire in his eyes that she had never seen before. She also saw the hurt that whatever they were talking about caused him. Deep and immense pain that had been there for awhile.
"I can't believe you would say that Michael," Liz said her voice barely a whisper and her lip quivering, "you know I didn't kill him and you know that I am so grateful for- for everything!"
"You may not have killed Max Liz but I can't BELIEVE you moved on to Kyle so quickly after the DEATH of my BROTHER!" Isabel screeched her voice raising into a high squeal as she said the last word.
It was as if the mute button on a blaring TV had been hit. The noise in the room ceased and it was like someone had sucked all the air out of the room. Liz staggered backward as if Isabel had physically hit her and Maria darted her eyes over toward Isabel and saw her standing there, her face as white as chalk, with her hand clamped over her mouth as if she couldn't believe what she had just said.
"Oh my God," Isabel said in a shaky voice, "oh my God, oh my God, oh my God. I can't believe I just said that," she muttered her voice wavering as she saw the hurt expression on her friend's face. "Oh Lizzy I am so sorry. So sorry, you have no idea. I didn't mean it, you know I didn't mean it."
Liz looked her over the hurt expression slowly easing off her face. She nodded, "Oh Iz I know. I know you didn't mean it." She glanced over at Michael. "I'm so sorry Michael. I- I never should have started this. It's just been so hard lately with- with everything," she let her sentence trail off and she gazed at Michael.
Michael nodded slowly, "I should have never said what I did Liz. We all got carried away and I'm sorry."
Liz quickly wrapped her arms first around Isabel and then around Michael and they formed a tight circle, slight sobs still being heard from Isabel as they slowly rocked back and forth.
Maria couldn't understand any of it. The small bits of information that they had given out only led her on a trail of unanswered questions. She slightly shifted her weight and accidentally knocked the remote control onto the floor and it hit with a thud.
Every pair of eyes quickly shot in her direction and she felt their stares burning holes through her. They all realized that she had heard every word of what they had just said and she definitely knew more than she should about a topic that they never talked about.