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Maria ran straight to the bathroom and locked herself inside. She entered a
stall and leaned against the wall and began to cry. "This is not happening."
She repeated to herself through tears.

Liz gave Michael a sad look and hurried after Maria. She looked around the
back room and heard the loud sobs coming from the bathroom. When she tried to
get in the door knob wouldn't bulge.

"Maria? Please open the door." She asked

"Just leave me alone!" Maria yelled, she sank to the floor and pulled her
knees in close, hugging them.

"Come on...open the door." Liz pleaded.

Michael came to the back minutes later and leaned up against the wall
observing Liz talking with a door. He didn't know what to do, what to say
actually. He was still wondering if what just happened out there was legit or
if he just imagined it. 'Did Shane really read those words? Maria don't
actually have those feeling for me, Nah couldn't be.' He thought to himself.
'Well then why would she be upset if it wasn't true Sherlock?' Michael
wanted to be the one to comfort Maria but he didn't know the right words to
say.

"Maria open this door this instance!" Liz shouted banging her fist on the door. She was starting to get frustrated.

"No Go away!" Maria yelled louder. 'Don't they understand I just want to live
the rest of my lonely life in this stall?' Maria thought miserably.

"Don't make me get the keys." Liz said getting no response.
"Maria?...Maria?..thats it where the hell are those keys?" Liz went into her
father's office and started searching the drawers. She had no clue as to
where that key was, the last time she used it was to get a bratty kid out of
the bathroom when he accidently locked himself in. She found a ring of keys
hidden under some papers and made her way back to the bathroom but stopped
short when she seen Michael standing at the door tapping lightly.

"Maria can you open the door please?" Michael asked pleasantly.

Maria stood and left the stall going to look in the mirror, her eyes were all
red and puffy and she had mascara tracks down her cheeks. 'So much for
waterproof mascara.' She thought getting upset again. 'I can't face him
looking like this.'

"Maria please open the door?" Michael waited but got no response.

"Excuse me this is a restaurant...I'm supposed to be able to buy food in an
establishment like this. So can I please get some service?" An angry woman
yelled tapping the bell at the kitchen counter. She just kept tapping away
waiting for someone to eventually answer her.

"That lady is lucky i'm dealing with something else right now or I'd shove that bell right up her...You better go help her, your the one around here who can cook." Liz told Michael, he had never heard Liz talk like that. He was about to argue but seen the look on Liz's face and thought she could probably calm Maria down more than he could. So he went into the kitchen.

Liz tried key after key until she got to the middle of the ring and finally
the lock opened. "Its about time. Dad probably doesn't know what half of
those keys are for." She came inside and looked at Maria who went and sat
down on the floor again. Liz went and sat beside her and instinctively pulled
her into a hug. "Don't worry everything is going to be okay Maria."

"Don't worry?...Everything's going to be okay? Hellloooo..Liz were you out
there 10 minutes ago? My life is ruined." Maria brought her hands up and
covered her face feeling more tears approaching.

"Maria, calm down this could be a good thing." Liz said smiling.

Maria looked up."What?? Liz are you on some sort of medication and not sharing? An asshole just read my private thoughts in front of the guy those thoughts were about...How can
that be good? I have never been so embarrassed in my life." Maria stood up
and walked to the mirror gazing at her reflection.

"Maria do you remember the time in the 8th grade when we were coming in from
lunch and you were running so fast you fell up the stairs and cut open your
chin in front of almost everyone? I thought that was you, but I could be
mistaken. Or how about the time when you came out of the bathroom and the back of your skirt was tucked up into your pantyhose! Everyone seen your days of the week underwear. The boys kept asking if it was Friday all of the time. Liz smiled at the memory and Maria started laughing.

"See its not that bad, but like I said this whole situation could be a good thing." Liz
said smirking.

"Good how?" Maria asked.

"Well before Michael worked here whenever he was in the Crashdown haven't you
noticed him staring at you?" Liz pulled some tissues out of her apron and
handed them to Maria.

"Well no...I mean yeah, but I thought that was because of Max staring at you.
We all know he has this major thing for you, and since I'm around you almost
all of the time here, I thought he was just looking to see what the hell Max
was staring at." Maria wet the tissues and started cleaning up her face.

"No Michael was looking at you, and since he started working here I see him
looking threw the kitchen window at you making sure your still around, I
think he has the hots for you. So maybe this whole thing can lead to
something bigger and better if you catch my drift." Liz smiled and continued.
"Maybe you can actually live out that little x-rated fantasy of yours." Liz
nudged Maria with her elbow.

"God your such a slut." Maria said and giggled "Sometimes I wonder how far
you and Kyle actually got."

Liz walked quickly to the door avoiding that question. "Well Maria I got to
get back to work. You come out whenever, just make sure its before my Dad
gets back you don't want to talk to him about all of this do you?" Maria
shook her head and Liz gave her another hug. "Bye I'll C-ya out front. Hang in there girly." Liz
closed the door behind her.

Michael looked away from the grill as Liz entered the kitchen. "Is she ok in there?" He said
quietly.

"Yeah she's ok, just give her some time." Liz whispered fixing the antenas on
her head.

"Should I go in there and talk to her?" He whispered back to her gripping the
burger flipper nervously.

"Michael why are we whispering?" They both looked around threw the door and into deserted back
room. "Just wait for her to come out, she's fixing herself up in there." Liz pulled out her order pad and went back to work. Michael walked to the door and looked towards the bathroom, wanting to go to her yet not knowing what to say.

----------------------------------------

After about 15 minutes of pacing a dozen times between the door and the
stall, Maria siked herself up one last time. "Come on you can do this, go out
there..Its as easy as 1-2-3!!" Maria smiled and started humming the Jackson
5 song to herself.

"Go out there Maria you have to be a Macho Macho man I want to be a Macho
Man." She started singing the Village People's hit when she immediately
stopped.

"What the hell is this a 70's song reunion? I better get out of here before I
start dancing like John Travolta in Saturday Night Fever." Maria placed her
antenas on her head and peeked out the door hoping Michael wasn't around.
When the coast was clear she ran threw the swinging door and started taking a
customers order. Liz smiled at her friend and Michael's ears picked up on her
voice.

Maria walked slowly to the window and put the order down on the counter. "I
need an Alien Blast and some Saturn Rings." She hoped Michael wouldn't
mention anything about earlier, she didn't even want to hear what he was
thinking, 'Liz could be so wrong, but maybe she could be so right.' Maria
smiled and Michael took that as a good sign so he began talking.
"About before with the whole...Uh you know." Michael said.

"Um..yeah?" 'Great here it comes Maria...I wouldn't be caught dead with you,
I'm flattered but not in this lifetime.' Maria's smile started to fade.

"Well i'm flattered...but I uh...I..." Michael panicked " I just got out of
another relationship." he said almost stuttering. 'There ya go lie threw your
teeth Michael..she'll never know the difference, go ahead ruin your one
chance at something possibly great.'

"Its kinda to soon..Ya know? I just don't want things to get weird." He
looked down and flipped a burger.

"Yeah I totally understand...things aren't weird they are as normal as can
be." Maria put on a fake smile. 'Relationship, I wonder who the little skank
was. Oh god what if they get back together and she comes in here?' "Are my
saturn rings done yet?" Maria asked. ' Thats It change the subject..real
smooth.'

"Yeah here." Michael poured them onto a plate and handed them to her. "Your
blast should be ready in a couple minutes." Michael wiped his brow and Maria
smiled. "So how do you like working in this sweat shop anyways?" She asked.

"It definately has its Ups." Michael looked at her and smirked.

Maria almost dropped her plate of rings. 'What was that all about?'
"Well I gotta get back." She said casually.

"Wait here's your Alien Blast." He handed her the plate with the burger his fingers grazing hers. At that exact moment something flashed inside of Maria's mind causing her to intake a sharp breath.
"Are you ok?!" he looked at her strangely.

'What the hell?' Maria tried to remember what just flashed in her memory. It went by so fast she could hardly picture it. "Yeah i'm fine, thought i saw a mouse or something. Its gone now." she turned quickly and left with the food.

'God you are such a chicken shit, can't even admit your feelings, when it
could have actually turned out good. Now she's going to be awkward around you, way to go.' Michael slammed his fist down onto the hot stove and burned himself. He looked around and waved his hand over the burn, the flesh healing immediately. He moved his fingers around. 'She
wouldn't understand anyways.' Michael thought dejectedly.

~¤~¤~¤~~¤~¤~¤~~¤~¤~¤~

"Hey Liz I'm going to scoot now, Call me tomorrow we should plan something
since we are both off." She put the ketchup bottles on the counter.

"Sure thing call me when you get home so I know your ok." Liz walked over and
hugged her quickly before going into the back room with the sugar jars.

Maria walked to the kitchen window and hunched over the counter. "Bye Michael
have fun cleaning the grease traps." Maria laughed when Michael turned
around, his face was smudged with some grease.

"I'll have a swell time sure you don't want to help?" Michael advanced
towards the counter and held his hand out trying to get her dirty. Maria
retreated.

"Nah I'll leave it up to you, Have a good night." Maria smiled and started
walking to the front door.

"Hey Maria be careful alright?" He asked seriously.

"Sure thing you know me, Ms. Safety, Bye". She called back, waving to him. Michael
started scrubbing the over again. He looked up at the clock, '15 more
minutes and I'm done.' Michael started to whistle a tune then abruptly stopped. He looked towards the door Maria just left threw. "Nah" He shrugged and went back to work.