~~~~~
Chapter One
Liz POV
~~~~~
Portland was nothing like Roswell. It wasn't quite as popular, but it wasn't small, and the tourists that it did get didn't ask a thing about UFOs. It had scenery and stores. It was a balance, and, as Max had explained to me once before, I needed to find my balance again. I found it too, and it fell right on its ass as soon as we saw each other.
I didn't notice all of the things that that night had in common with the last night that I had seen Max. It was a mix of both of my homes. It was raining. It rained for about three weeks every year in Roswell, and the day I left it poured. In Portland it rained everyday, but not like that day. It poured, but it was a couple degrees warmer, and the sun lingered until six or seven o'clock that night, unlike its normal passing at around five.
The night was just what normal had come to become. Jerry asked what we were going to have for dinner and I found myself at the store. I went straight to the poultry section, wanting to leave as soon as possible. I didn't even hear my name being called until his hand fell on my shoulder.
"Liz, is that you?"
~~~~~
Max POV
~~~~~
I think that the only thing that I could say about Liz Parker as I saw her in that store was that she had changed. She was no longer the innocent girl that I had known. The innocence was all but gone, replaced by a maturity that I knew had come with years of trial and painful mistakes, and in place of a girl there was a beautiful woman. She had blossomed into something wonderful, and I had not been there to see her through it.
I would have liked to think that I would have just known that she was there, like it was something in the stars, and they were making sure that we would find each other. Unfortunately, I had long ago given up on any aid from anyone from outside of the group, and it was only through many hardships that I had come to place true faith in them. As for Liz, I honestly think that, had the rain not brought me to think of her, I may have walked right past her, never knowing how close I had been to finding the one that I had looked so hard for.
She didn't look like she had on the last night that I saw her, the last night that she saw Roswell. Her hair was slick with rain, which I had remembered from that night, but now it was cut to just above her shoulders. I could still remember the feel of it, dripping from a mixture of her own tears and the rain that fell heavily from the shy, from the last time I wove my hands through it. I could still remember the feel of her lips against mine, salty with her tears, as she pressed herself against me, her only way of really saying goodbye. I shook my head and refocused on the present. It was Liz! It was my Liz! The thought had become almost unbelievable.
I walked up to her slowly, unsure of how she would react to me. "Liz, is that you?" She turned, and I knew that she recognized my voice. Her eyes looked over me, gauging just how cruel the years had been to me. Her eyes finally met mine and for once I couldn't read her. I felt a muffled pain at that thought, but I squashed it quickly, knowing that no matter what, Liz could still read me.
"Max? Oh, my God, it's you isn't it?" She threw her arms around me and for that moment things all felt right. Liz Parker was back in my arms, we were sixteen, and in the end we knew that we would be together. She pulled back slowly, as if she wanted the illusion just as much as I did, but we forced ourselves back into the lives that were now ours and stood staring at each other under the harsh glare of the supermarket lights. "How have you been? How is-everyone?" I could tell that she wanted to ask about Maria and Alex, but she couldn't bring herself to mention them.
"They're good. Almost everyone's in Roswell for the holidays. God Liz, what have you been doing all this time?" I wanted to pretend. I wanted to pretend that it was normal to just run into her after all these years. I wanted to pretend that she still didn't have such a strong effect on me. I wanted to convince myself that I wasn't pretending.
She smiled at me, and opened her mouth to answer, but her eyes turned past me for only a moment and her entire persona changed. "I'm so sorry Max, but I have to go." She pulled a chicken from the rack behind her and placed it in the little basket that she held. She turned back to be before she left. "Listen, there is a little coffee shop on sixth and market. It's right by where I work. Meet me there tomorrow around noon and we can catch up." She gave me another quick smile and then rushed away. As she walked up to the counter I turned to see what had lit such a spark in her. A clock sat on the far wall.
~~~~~
When I got back to my hotel room the phone was ringing. Only Isabel and Maria knew my number, so I knew that it was someone from home. I rushed in and picked up. It was Isabel.
"Isabel, I was just about to call you. You won't believe what happened to me today," I began, but I didn't get to finish.
"No, Max, listen I've been calling you for an hour. We need you to come home right away. It's bad. It's really bad." I could hear her start crying and Maria's voice came to replace hers.
"Maria, what's going on?" I asked, overcome by an image of legions of alien armies attacking Roswell and holding my sister and friends captive.
"You need to get back here right now Max. It's your dad. He's really sick. They don't know what's wrong. We need you here. Isabel thinks he's dying." Maria lowered her voice at those words and I could hear Isabel nearly choke on a sob.
My breath caught. "I'll be on the next flight in." I didn't remember my date with Liz until I was flying over Nevada.
~~~~~
Liz POV
~~~~~
I couldn't keep from smiling as I approached my house with dinner in the back seat of my car. I knew that Jerry would want to know what had taken me so long, but he always thought that I took to much time. He always said that I dawdled too much at the store. In the beginning I had thought that it was cute. I had taken it to mean that he didn't like to be away from me. Slowly it became apparent that it was not at all about me. It was about him not getting what he wanted the instant that he asked for it.
I gathered the groceries and started up the path to my door. There were only two small steps separating me from the door when I realized that something was missing. With my spare hand I reached into my pocket and pulled my ring out, slipping it back into its place on my left hand. I tried to figure out why I had done it, but nothing would add up. The only answers that I could come up with didn't work with the life that I now possessed. They lead to feelings that were supposed to have passed years ago. Finally I entered my house, still battling the solutions that were forming in my mind.
The first thing that passed my eyes was the bottle. It took mythic proportions in my mind, over sizing the small coffee table that sat in front of the little brown couch. The TV was on, and the six o'clock anchorwoman was reading off the headlines of the day. It all barely registered in my mind though. All I could think of was the bottle, for I had come to learn that it was the true source of all evil in the world.
I had dared to hope. After seeing Max again, I had let myself hope. It was the first thing that he made me remember, but it was in vain. I had forgotten to fear, and sometimes fear is more useful than hope, because fear depends on no one else.
Next came to footsteps, as they always did. Their origin was always new, but they always came at the sound of the door, like a dog to the beep of the microwave. His were clumsy and booming, beating hard against the soft white of the tile. He stumbled into the wall, knocking something to the floor, and a curse word broke free from his mouth. I closed my eyes, knowing what was to come, and knowing that there was no way to stop it.
He staggered into the living room a moment later, and I could see that whatever he had broken had put up a fight. Blood was slowly oozing from a long gash across his hand, his left, the dominant. I stepped back into the corner between the door and the wall, cornered. The knob bit into my side, but I knew that by the time I got it opened again he would be on me. I couldn't run.
"Where have you been?" His voice was crude, harsh. I clutched the groceries more tightly to my chest as he advanced, using them as my shield.
"I-I went to get dinner," I stuttered, slightly gesturing to the bag in my hands. He stepped closer and looked into the bad. He lifted his face to mine and I could smell the beer on his breath.
"You know that I don't like chicken," he bellowed, and suddenly the groceries were no longer in my hands. I hear them crash into the far wall, but I did not dare turn away from him. "Why the hell did you get that shit- and what the hell took you so long? What the hell were you doing at the damn store?" His eyes narrowed on mine as if he could read them for the answer, and I stood, silently willing my body not to shake.
"You don't even go to the store, do you?" he screamed; my hands reflexively grasped the doorknob. "You're whoring yourself off to someone, aren't you?" I briefly thought of Max but still managed a tiny movement in the negative. He paid no attention though, and his hand, smeared with his own blood rose into the air and, in the tiniest piece of a second, came down upon my tender cheek. My head whipped to the side and slapped harshly against the wall as my hand rose from the knob to protect my cheek. He instantly tore it away though, taking pride in marking me with a bruise. He threw my hand back to the door.
"Get your ass in the kitchen and make dinner," he boomed. I shrunk into the door a little more as he walked back to the couch and threw himself down. I took what I could of the groceries, all the while keeping my distance, and went for the sanctuary of the kitchen.
~~~~~
Max POV
~~~~~
Isabel, Michael and Maria were waiting for me when my plane landed. I looked out at them with jealousy. Michael and Maria stood together, with Michael's arm draped protectively over Maria's shoulder as they looked at me with worried smiles. Isabel stood slightly to the side with her arms crossed and her head aimed at the ground. Her wedding ring shone proudly from its place on her finger. I still couldn't believe that she had been the one to settle down first, and, even odder, she had fallen for Alex. They had been married for almost a year, and I had never seen Isabel happier. I was glad for her, but I still could not help the fact that it hurt to see that other people did get the happy ending, and, somehow, it always seemed to be just a couple inches out of my reach.
"Thank God you're back Max," Isabel said, throwing her arms around me. "We need to get back to Dad." Isabel pulled back and started to lead us from the gate.
"So Maxwell, how was the great Northwest?" Michael asked as we went for the baggage claim. It was obvious that he was trying to lighten the mood. I could tell he had no doubt that, no matter what the problem turned out to be, I could fix it. Sometimes their faith in me scared me, and, I knew, sometimes my lack of faith scared them.
"It's definitely got some treasures," I said, knowing that I had not answered him at all. I looked at Maria. "I need to talk to you when we get back. I found something that I think you'll really like."
Maria smiled broadly as we all tried to keep up with Isabel's hurried pace. I could see the wheels in her head turning, and, for the moment, she wasn't thinking about whatever waited for us back in the innermost part of Roswell. "You got me a present? What is it? Will I like it?"
Michael looked at me pointedly. "Are you trying to upstage me Max?" he asked, but there was a smile on his face by the time he finished the question.
I looked back to Maria. "I guarantee," I said, "you'll love it." ~~~~~ The years since Liz had left had not been easy for any of us, and we were just finally getting back to normal. The skins were off our backs, and Khivar was a world away. In the end, we had decided that our human lives were more important to us than a place at the throne. We never looked for him, and, as far as we know, he has never bothered with us either. We let Zan, Rath, Ava, and Vilandra rest. Their time was over.
After we defeated the skins, the group fell apart. Everything had been chaotic when Liz took off, and no one had had time to think about it. We felt it, but we didn't really let ourselves think about it until we were safe enough to break down. When it came down to it, Kyle didn't want to be one of us anymore. He is a loyal friend, but we have not spoken since we graduated, and I am really not sure how much we talked even when we did share a school. As for Maria and Alex, they drew inward, and pulled back from the group. They never left though, and I know that they will always be here for us. Tess up and left one day, and we haven't seen her since. I think that she came to see that she just wasn't one of us, and I think that she realized that she didn't need to stay with us anymore. She could find a real home.
The balance came after college. We all split up with Alex in California, Maria in New York, Michael working in Roswell, Isabel in Boston, and me in Las Cruces. We needed the time alone to realize who we were again away from the group. In the beginning being in "the group" was like being a puzzle piece. We all had to work to find our places and how we fit together. Over the years our unique-ness, our designs, had faded into one. We were squares, and we needed to find our shapes again. College let us do that, but in the end we all came home. Alex came back with offers from all kinds of tech companies, Maria returned as a burgeoning vocalist, I was finishing med school, and Isabel was taking up the torch our parents had passed and becoming a lawyer.
We made a new puzzle then, but even with all of our changes, something- someone-was always missing. Liz never found her way home.
~~~~~
Liz POV
~~~~~
Darkness finally fell, veiling the house with its shadowy claws. Jerry had passed out on the couch as soon as he ate, and I went to our room to go to bed. As I stepped in front of the mirror, I turned to look at myself. There was no sign of the seventeen-year-old girl that Max was expecting to see tomorrow, and if I had changed, I could only imagine how he had.
My thoughts turned to my ring. I really didn't know why I had taken mine off and I didn't want to think about it. All answers lead only to more questions, and most were questions that I didn't want to answer. I couldn't help thinking about Max's life though. Who was to say he didn't have a ring that held claim on him? Who was to say that he hadn't fallen to the snares of destiny after all? Who was I to think that my ring could fall to the depths of my pocket, and his was bound to his finger? For all I knew, the boy that I had loved was now the man who held another's heart.
I shook my head, not wanting to think of Max's new life. I wanted to be Liz again, his Liz. I wanted to be the seventeen-year-old that he knew so well. I looked at my face which was already starting to bruise. I had yet to wash away the blood from Jerry's hand and I could not help thinking back to the last time a handprint had branded me. This was far different though. This print screamed of pain and burned blood red, so unlike the healing touch of silver that had marked me once before. Max's touch I couldn't keep from fading, and Jerry's I would have scrubbed away, had it not been entombed by the darkened purple that so often claimed my skin.
That wasn't the real difference though. The true difference could not be seen. The true difference lay with in me, and it was an unchangeable face.
The truth was that Max's touch was forever embedded onto my soul. Jerry's couldn't be forced past my skin.
Chapter One
Liz POV
~~~~~
Portland was nothing like Roswell. It wasn't quite as popular, but it wasn't small, and the tourists that it did get didn't ask a thing about UFOs. It had scenery and stores. It was a balance, and, as Max had explained to me once before, I needed to find my balance again. I found it too, and it fell right on its ass as soon as we saw each other.
I didn't notice all of the things that that night had in common with the last night that I had seen Max. It was a mix of both of my homes. It was raining. It rained for about three weeks every year in Roswell, and the day I left it poured. In Portland it rained everyday, but not like that day. It poured, but it was a couple degrees warmer, and the sun lingered until six or seven o'clock that night, unlike its normal passing at around five.
The night was just what normal had come to become. Jerry asked what we were going to have for dinner and I found myself at the store. I went straight to the poultry section, wanting to leave as soon as possible. I didn't even hear my name being called until his hand fell on my shoulder.
"Liz, is that you?"
~~~~~
Max POV
~~~~~
I think that the only thing that I could say about Liz Parker as I saw her in that store was that she had changed. She was no longer the innocent girl that I had known. The innocence was all but gone, replaced by a maturity that I knew had come with years of trial and painful mistakes, and in place of a girl there was a beautiful woman. She had blossomed into something wonderful, and I had not been there to see her through it.
I would have liked to think that I would have just known that she was there, like it was something in the stars, and they were making sure that we would find each other. Unfortunately, I had long ago given up on any aid from anyone from outside of the group, and it was only through many hardships that I had come to place true faith in them. As for Liz, I honestly think that, had the rain not brought me to think of her, I may have walked right past her, never knowing how close I had been to finding the one that I had looked so hard for.
She didn't look like she had on the last night that I saw her, the last night that she saw Roswell. Her hair was slick with rain, which I had remembered from that night, but now it was cut to just above her shoulders. I could still remember the feel of it, dripping from a mixture of her own tears and the rain that fell heavily from the shy, from the last time I wove my hands through it. I could still remember the feel of her lips against mine, salty with her tears, as she pressed herself against me, her only way of really saying goodbye. I shook my head and refocused on the present. It was Liz! It was my Liz! The thought had become almost unbelievable.
I walked up to her slowly, unsure of how she would react to me. "Liz, is that you?" She turned, and I knew that she recognized my voice. Her eyes looked over me, gauging just how cruel the years had been to me. Her eyes finally met mine and for once I couldn't read her. I felt a muffled pain at that thought, but I squashed it quickly, knowing that no matter what, Liz could still read me.
"Max? Oh, my God, it's you isn't it?" She threw her arms around me and for that moment things all felt right. Liz Parker was back in my arms, we were sixteen, and in the end we knew that we would be together. She pulled back slowly, as if she wanted the illusion just as much as I did, but we forced ourselves back into the lives that were now ours and stood staring at each other under the harsh glare of the supermarket lights. "How have you been? How is-everyone?" I could tell that she wanted to ask about Maria and Alex, but she couldn't bring herself to mention them.
"They're good. Almost everyone's in Roswell for the holidays. God Liz, what have you been doing all this time?" I wanted to pretend. I wanted to pretend that it was normal to just run into her after all these years. I wanted to pretend that she still didn't have such a strong effect on me. I wanted to convince myself that I wasn't pretending.
She smiled at me, and opened her mouth to answer, but her eyes turned past me for only a moment and her entire persona changed. "I'm so sorry Max, but I have to go." She pulled a chicken from the rack behind her and placed it in the little basket that she held. She turned back to be before she left. "Listen, there is a little coffee shop on sixth and market. It's right by where I work. Meet me there tomorrow around noon and we can catch up." She gave me another quick smile and then rushed away. As she walked up to the counter I turned to see what had lit such a spark in her. A clock sat on the far wall.
~~~~~
When I got back to my hotel room the phone was ringing. Only Isabel and Maria knew my number, so I knew that it was someone from home. I rushed in and picked up. It was Isabel.
"Isabel, I was just about to call you. You won't believe what happened to me today," I began, but I didn't get to finish.
"No, Max, listen I've been calling you for an hour. We need you to come home right away. It's bad. It's really bad." I could hear her start crying and Maria's voice came to replace hers.
"Maria, what's going on?" I asked, overcome by an image of legions of alien armies attacking Roswell and holding my sister and friends captive.
"You need to get back here right now Max. It's your dad. He's really sick. They don't know what's wrong. We need you here. Isabel thinks he's dying." Maria lowered her voice at those words and I could hear Isabel nearly choke on a sob.
My breath caught. "I'll be on the next flight in." I didn't remember my date with Liz until I was flying over Nevada.
~~~~~
Liz POV
~~~~~
I couldn't keep from smiling as I approached my house with dinner in the back seat of my car. I knew that Jerry would want to know what had taken me so long, but he always thought that I took to much time. He always said that I dawdled too much at the store. In the beginning I had thought that it was cute. I had taken it to mean that he didn't like to be away from me. Slowly it became apparent that it was not at all about me. It was about him not getting what he wanted the instant that he asked for it.
I gathered the groceries and started up the path to my door. There were only two small steps separating me from the door when I realized that something was missing. With my spare hand I reached into my pocket and pulled my ring out, slipping it back into its place on my left hand. I tried to figure out why I had done it, but nothing would add up. The only answers that I could come up with didn't work with the life that I now possessed. They lead to feelings that were supposed to have passed years ago. Finally I entered my house, still battling the solutions that were forming in my mind.
The first thing that passed my eyes was the bottle. It took mythic proportions in my mind, over sizing the small coffee table that sat in front of the little brown couch. The TV was on, and the six o'clock anchorwoman was reading off the headlines of the day. It all barely registered in my mind though. All I could think of was the bottle, for I had come to learn that it was the true source of all evil in the world.
I had dared to hope. After seeing Max again, I had let myself hope. It was the first thing that he made me remember, but it was in vain. I had forgotten to fear, and sometimes fear is more useful than hope, because fear depends on no one else.
Next came to footsteps, as they always did. Their origin was always new, but they always came at the sound of the door, like a dog to the beep of the microwave. His were clumsy and booming, beating hard against the soft white of the tile. He stumbled into the wall, knocking something to the floor, and a curse word broke free from his mouth. I closed my eyes, knowing what was to come, and knowing that there was no way to stop it.
He staggered into the living room a moment later, and I could see that whatever he had broken had put up a fight. Blood was slowly oozing from a long gash across his hand, his left, the dominant. I stepped back into the corner between the door and the wall, cornered. The knob bit into my side, but I knew that by the time I got it opened again he would be on me. I couldn't run.
"Where have you been?" His voice was crude, harsh. I clutched the groceries more tightly to my chest as he advanced, using them as my shield.
"I-I went to get dinner," I stuttered, slightly gesturing to the bag in my hands. He stepped closer and looked into the bad. He lifted his face to mine and I could smell the beer on his breath.
"You know that I don't like chicken," he bellowed, and suddenly the groceries were no longer in my hands. I hear them crash into the far wall, but I did not dare turn away from him. "Why the hell did you get that shit- and what the hell took you so long? What the hell were you doing at the damn store?" His eyes narrowed on mine as if he could read them for the answer, and I stood, silently willing my body not to shake.
"You don't even go to the store, do you?" he screamed; my hands reflexively grasped the doorknob. "You're whoring yourself off to someone, aren't you?" I briefly thought of Max but still managed a tiny movement in the negative. He paid no attention though, and his hand, smeared with his own blood rose into the air and, in the tiniest piece of a second, came down upon my tender cheek. My head whipped to the side and slapped harshly against the wall as my hand rose from the knob to protect my cheek. He instantly tore it away though, taking pride in marking me with a bruise. He threw my hand back to the door.
"Get your ass in the kitchen and make dinner," he boomed. I shrunk into the door a little more as he walked back to the couch and threw himself down. I took what I could of the groceries, all the while keeping my distance, and went for the sanctuary of the kitchen.
~~~~~
Max POV
~~~~~
Isabel, Michael and Maria were waiting for me when my plane landed. I looked out at them with jealousy. Michael and Maria stood together, with Michael's arm draped protectively over Maria's shoulder as they looked at me with worried smiles. Isabel stood slightly to the side with her arms crossed and her head aimed at the ground. Her wedding ring shone proudly from its place on her finger. I still couldn't believe that she had been the one to settle down first, and, even odder, she had fallen for Alex. They had been married for almost a year, and I had never seen Isabel happier. I was glad for her, but I still could not help the fact that it hurt to see that other people did get the happy ending, and, somehow, it always seemed to be just a couple inches out of my reach.
"Thank God you're back Max," Isabel said, throwing her arms around me. "We need to get back to Dad." Isabel pulled back and started to lead us from the gate.
"So Maxwell, how was the great Northwest?" Michael asked as we went for the baggage claim. It was obvious that he was trying to lighten the mood. I could tell he had no doubt that, no matter what the problem turned out to be, I could fix it. Sometimes their faith in me scared me, and, I knew, sometimes my lack of faith scared them.
"It's definitely got some treasures," I said, knowing that I had not answered him at all. I looked at Maria. "I need to talk to you when we get back. I found something that I think you'll really like."
Maria smiled broadly as we all tried to keep up with Isabel's hurried pace. I could see the wheels in her head turning, and, for the moment, she wasn't thinking about whatever waited for us back in the innermost part of Roswell. "You got me a present? What is it? Will I like it?"
Michael looked at me pointedly. "Are you trying to upstage me Max?" he asked, but there was a smile on his face by the time he finished the question.
I looked back to Maria. "I guarantee," I said, "you'll love it." ~~~~~ The years since Liz had left had not been easy for any of us, and we were just finally getting back to normal. The skins were off our backs, and Khivar was a world away. In the end, we had decided that our human lives were more important to us than a place at the throne. We never looked for him, and, as far as we know, he has never bothered with us either. We let Zan, Rath, Ava, and Vilandra rest. Their time was over.
After we defeated the skins, the group fell apart. Everything had been chaotic when Liz took off, and no one had had time to think about it. We felt it, but we didn't really let ourselves think about it until we were safe enough to break down. When it came down to it, Kyle didn't want to be one of us anymore. He is a loyal friend, but we have not spoken since we graduated, and I am really not sure how much we talked even when we did share a school. As for Maria and Alex, they drew inward, and pulled back from the group. They never left though, and I know that they will always be here for us. Tess up and left one day, and we haven't seen her since. I think that she came to see that she just wasn't one of us, and I think that she realized that she didn't need to stay with us anymore. She could find a real home.
The balance came after college. We all split up with Alex in California, Maria in New York, Michael working in Roswell, Isabel in Boston, and me in Las Cruces. We needed the time alone to realize who we were again away from the group. In the beginning being in "the group" was like being a puzzle piece. We all had to work to find our places and how we fit together. Over the years our unique-ness, our designs, had faded into one. We were squares, and we needed to find our shapes again. College let us do that, but in the end we all came home. Alex came back with offers from all kinds of tech companies, Maria returned as a burgeoning vocalist, I was finishing med school, and Isabel was taking up the torch our parents had passed and becoming a lawyer.
We made a new puzzle then, but even with all of our changes, something- someone-was always missing. Liz never found her way home.
~~~~~
Liz POV
~~~~~
Darkness finally fell, veiling the house with its shadowy claws. Jerry had passed out on the couch as soon as he ate, and I went to our room to go to bed. As I stepped in front of the mirror, I turned to look at myself. There was no sign of the seventeen-year-old girl that Max was expecting to see tomorrow, and if I had changed, I could only imagine how he had.
My thoughts turned to my ring. I really didn't know why I had taken mine off and I didn't want to think about it. All answers lead only to more questions, and most were questions that I didn't want to answer. I couldn't help thinking about Max's life though. Who was to say he didn't have a ring that held claim on him? Who was to say that he hadn't fallen to the snares of destiny after all? Who was I to think that my ring could fall to the depths of my pocket, and his was bound to his finger? For all I knew, the boy that I had loved was now the man who held another's heart.
I shook my head, not wanting to think of Max's new life. I wanted to be Liz again, his Liz. I wanted to be the seventeen-year-old that he knew so well. I looked at my face which was already starting to bruise. I had yet to wash away the blood from Jerry's hand and I could not help thinking back to the last time a handprint had branded me. This was far different though. This print screamed of pain and burned blood red, so unlike the healing touch of silver that had marked me once before. Max's touch I couldn't keep from fading, and Jerry's I would have scrubbed away, had it not been entombed by the darkened purple that so often claimed my skin.
That wasn't the real difference though. The true difference could not be seen. The true difference lay with in me, and it was an unchangeable face.
The truth was that Max's touch was forever embedded onto my soul. Jerry's couldn't be forced past my skin.