A/N: Thanks so much for all the wonderful reviews. Anyway, here's the next chapter. Hope it doesn't suck
Disclaimer: Same as first chapter.
Chapter: 11 Brave
I think I'll be brave
Starting with you
But I'll fall away if you tell me to
I'd rather be wrong
Than hope that I'm right
Cause I can't go on with this all inside...
Max felt uneasy as he stared into Liz's chocolate brown eyes. He had no idea what she was about to say, but judging by the look in her eyes, and the solemn tilt of her mouth, it was not going to be good. Max tried to smile reassuringly, while squeezing her hand softly. But when she began to speak in halting, sometimes whispered sentences, Max's stomach bottomed out.
She talked about having a crush on the most popular guy in her high school. She talked about being the quintessential class nerd, only without the glasses. She talked about the jocks bitchy blonde cheerleader girlfriend, her former friend and arc nemesis since junior high. She talked about how said jock and nemesis had broken up the summer before senior year, or so she was led to believe. She talked about how the jock, aka Tommy, had come to her for SAT tutoring, and about how she herself had be 'tutored' by summers end.
Her voice never broke once, until she talked about the following September.
She talked about arriving at school the first day of senior year, to find jock and nemesis suddenly reunited. Not just reunited, but distributing a video chronicling the summer tutoring habits of one Elizabeth Parker. And just like the infamous Paris Hilton video, hers had a title too, 'Adventures in Tutoring'.
For the rest of the year, Liz explained, she was subjected to countless whispers and snickers whenever she walked by. She told Max that the whole thing had been a setup from the very beginning. A cruel hoax perpetrated by her nemesis Pam Troy, just because Liz had had the audacity to make cow eyes, as she'd put it, at her man.
By the time she was finished speaking, Max felt physically ill. He wanted to commit murder. Not just ordinary murder either, but slow, premeditated, agonizing torture. How could anyone be that malicious? So cruel? To Liz, of all people. Springing up from the bed, Max paced angrily back and forth while running an agitated hand through his hair.
"Max?" Liz whispered unevenly. He had yet to say a word. Had she done the wrong thing by telling him? He'd been so open, so honest with her, she felt obligated to do the same.
No.
Obligated was the wrong word. She'd wanted to tell him. She'd needed to tell him. But maybe it had been a mistake. Maybe…he thought less of her now, not that she could blame him.
"God Liz," Max finally whispered as he stared into her anxious eyes. "You had to put up with that for an entire year?"
She nodded in tearful confirmation.
"No wonder you don't trust…easily."
"Can you blame me?"
Max shook his head in palpable disgust. "And where are these people now?"
"She," Liz couldn't bear saying Pam's name, "still lives in Roswell. He received an athletic scholarship to Harvard." Liz laughed bitterly. "I mean can you imagine it. He wasn't exactly the brightest bulb in the lamp, but then I guess my brand of tutoring paid off."
"That's why you don't go home," Max guessed. "And, why you didn't go to Harvard, when they're known for having one of the best debate teams in the country."
Liz paused. She was about to flat out deny his claim, and wondered why. What was the point in lying anymore, to herself or anyone else? It was time to stop running from the truth. She'd run halfway across the country, and what had she achieved? Nothing, because she'd carried the past with her, and it had gotten heavier with time. But staring into Max's compassion filled eyes, Liz felt—safe, like she could finally lay her burden down, even if only for a little while.
"You're right," she said hoarsely, her eyes full of regret. "Kenmont was my second choice. Harvard was my dream. But there was no way I could go there after what happened. Not with him being there, it would have been like senior year all over again, only this time four years of it."
Max visibly flinched at the sorrow radiating from Liz's body. He wanted so badly to hold her, hug her, something, but he feared that in her current state of mind she would reject any attempt. This made him even angrier.
"What about your parents and school officials? Didn't any of them put a stop to what was going on?" How could they let something like that happen to someone as bright and beautiful as Liz?
Liz smiled ironically. "Who said they knew?"
Max's eyes widened in disbelief. "How is that even possible, Liz?"
"As someone once told me, people see what they want to see." Small towns were often touted as being breeding grounds for rumors. However, they could also, when they chose to, keep a secret like nobodies busy. And no one had been brave enough to dethrone the school's reigning king and queen, not even Liz.
"I'm sure my parent's suspected—something," she continued. "After all, they run a busy Café that's always full of teenagers. Did they ever question me? No. Of course not. My parents live in a place I like to call Denial Land. As for school officials," she shrugged, "the guy was the star quarterback."
Max found the truth to be unbelievable. But it was the hurt in Liz's voice that he found the most unbearable. Walking over to the bed, Max sat down and enfolded Liz in his arms.
"Shh," he whispered as she began to cry. "It's alright. Everything is going to be alright."
