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tell me what you think! It means a lot to me, and often has this weird
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Chapter 5
She felt a prickling sensation down her spine and a feeling of dread was seeping into every cell of her body. Slowly turning her head her eyes searched the hallway. She could not find anything different or unusual. The hallway was slowly starting to fill up with the regular high school students preparing themselves for their first class of the day.
Liz shakily drew inhaled and turned back towards her locker. Setting the feeling that she was being followed apart, she had not felt this good in months. No headaches, no nausea. She had actually been able to eat a steady breakfast for the first time in a very long time. The edges of her mouth started to turn up into a smile when she could feel him coming closer.
"Hi, Max," she greeted softly with her back still turned against him.
His strong arms encircled her small waist and she automatically leaned back against him - drawing strength and warmth from him. Her heart started to beat faster when she felt his warm moist lips on her neck and she bent her head more to the side to give him more freedom to explore. He was making his way from the top of her neck to the juncture where her neck met her shoulder (where the hem of her shirt became an obstacle). His bottom lip was slightly dragged along her skin leaving it wet from his assault. The cool air hit her skin where his lips had touched her and the contrast of the cool air against his warm lips did the most incredible things to her. She was fast become lost in the feeling and scent of Max Evans. But as fast as it had started, it was over again (at least it seemed too short time to Liz) and Max's lips left her craving for more. He rested his chin on her shoulder and lightly touched the skin of her stomach where the hem of her shirt had ridden up.
"Hi," Max said.
"I could really get used to this, you know," Liz said softly. Both were completely lost to their surroundings, neither noting the fact that they were in fact standing in the middle of a high school with students talking loudly to each other around them.
"Ditto," Max said breathing in her scent and feeling completely content. Liz was like a drug and he was an addict. She was as important to him as oxygen. They still had some things to discuss, like for instance that he was certain that she was hiding something from him. But for the moment, Max was too happy to be let into Liz's life again. Every time the thought had struck him that he should talk to her, he had been distracted by the memory of her soft hair, her soft lips, her taste... and yeah. You get the picture. Max Evans had big concentrations issues when it came to Liz Parker.
"Hey guys! What are you up to?"
Maria eyed Max and Liz suspiciously when they broke apart from an embrace that looked.very intimate.
"Oh, hay Maria," Liz said, her voice a little higher than usual.
"Caught in the act," Maria thought and started to smile as she saw the guilty antics of her friends. Max stepped away from Liz, but he still held onto her hand. Liz licked her lips and pulled down her shirt to once again completely cover her flat stomach.
"So, did you do that history assignment?" Max asked while he scratched his head.
Maria had now a large smile on her face, silently laughing at them for even trying to cover this up - in such a bad way too!
"Oh, stop it!" Maria said. "You two are sooo bad! Don't even think for a second that you can fool me that you were not doing what I thought you were doing."
"Uhmm, what did you think we were doing, Maria?" Liz asked still acting innocent.
"Yeah, like you were not standing here in a very intimate embrace and doing God knows!" Maria said in her best you-most-be-kidding-me voice. Before Max and Liz knew what hit them, Maria squealed and started bouncing up and down, not able to contain herself anymore.
"Oh, this is sooo great! I just knew you couldn't stay apart from each other too long. You were both so miserable - you just can't live without each other! Oh, I gotta tell Mi.."
With a shocked expression on his face (and Maria's babbling in the background) Max met Liz's eyes. She just shook her head and smiled.
"Maria, Maria.Calm down!" Liz said.
"Oh, Max! I'm so happy for you!" Maria squealed again and attacked Max trapping him in a big bear hug.
Liz could not help but giggle at Max inability to free himself from Maria. Alien king or not - when dealing with Maria Deluca - and especially her over-excited state - one needs all the help one can get. Liz felt a little sorry for Max when his eyes begged her to help him. Maria finally released her poor victim, turning to Liz.
"Liz, babe! You and me. Tonight. Ice-cream." she said, her voice leaving no room for objections.
"Okay, Maria," Liz said feeling up to a girls' night herself.
Maria couldn't hide her triumphant smile. "See ya!" Maria said and headed off down the corridor.
"Wow," Max whispered. "What was that?"
"Just Maria...being Maria," Liz said and stretched up to lightly brush her lips over his. That light kiss did not keep it's lightness for too long.
A tap on Max's shoulder (unnoticed by the couple) and then a clearing of a throat (which was noted) broke them apart.
Mr. Seligman, the biology teacher, stood behind Max and eyed them with an amused expression, raising one eyebrow.
"I believe you two should be in my class in about two minutes. Maybe you should get ready." he pointed out.
Max and Liz's faces went red and Liz lowered her head to hide her embarrassment in Max's shoulder.
"Yeah," Max said and then had to clear his throat. "We'll be right there."
"No visits to the Eraser Room instead, okay?" Mr. Seligman said. He witnessed how Max face turned blazing red and chuckled for himself when he began his walk towards his classroom.
"Okay, that was embarrassing," Max mumbled.
"Uh hu," Liz nodded and left Max warm embrace.
"We should probably..."
"Yeah."
When they started to walk towards the biology classroom their hands were automatically gravitated towards each other and an unseen sparkle was emitted at their touch when their hands were laced together.
Following from a distance was a pair of cold ice-blue eyes.
"You just wait, Your highness. Playing time will soon be over."
"Do you have the spoons?!" Liz yelled.
"Yup!" Maria called back, grabbing two spoons from the kitchen drawer as she followed Liz up in the apartment.
"Ice-cream?!" Liz yelled and grew silent when Maria stepped out in front of her.
"Don't worry, Liz. We're only eating ice-cream - not planning an alien attack." Maria winked and swished past Liz, dropping down on Liz's bed.
"Ha ha, very funny." Liz positioned herself beside Maria, strething out her legs on the bed, crossing them at the ancles.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" Liz asked pulling off the lid of the ice-cream.
"Uh hu, nice try," Maria laughed. "I suspect that no one in the entire school have missed how you and a certain unearthly Max Evans have been all over each other all day. Well, perhaps my cranky non-boyfriend has missed it. Anyway, don't think I don't have my ways to get information. I've had hourly updates on the whole Max-and-Liz situation - as it nowadays is referred to, by the way - in our own lovely" Liz giggled at Maria's sarcastic tone "ladies' rest-room... So, what happened Liz? Less than a week ago you two were miserable and as I recall you were absolutely convinced that it was completely and utterly wrong to get involved with Max romantically again. God, you even yelled at me over it! So, give me all the tasty details!"
Liz could only laugh at her friend. Maria was so excited and curious you had to be dead not to be smitten by her emotions. Her excitement was coming off her in waves, she was almost bouncing in Liz's bed - reminding Liz of a child on Christmas Day.
"Well, you know my nightmares..." Liz started.
"Yeah..." Maria prompted.
"They are really scary, Maria," Liz said her voice becoming low.
At first Maria was about to start accusing her for trying to get away but then she saw how serious Liz turned and Maria became worried for her friend.
"Lizzie, are you okay?" she asked.
"You know, Max is always there for me. I feel safe with him," Liz continued not noticing the tears sliding down her face. "When I woke up I was so scared and all I could think about was that I had to get to Max. Like my life depended on it or something, isn't that stupid!"
Maria smiled a sad smile but Liz didn't notice - she was looking down at the ice-cream in her hand where she absent-mindedly smoothed out the ice- cream with her spoon.
"What happened, Liz. In your dream?" Maria asked. Liz looked up and Maria's heart broke for her friend. She could see that just thinking about the dream again was scaring her.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to Liz. We can talk about something else," Maria said, hating to make her friend upset.
"I really think I need to talk about it and you are probably the only person I can talk about it with," Liz said, her voice thin. Maria reached out and took Liz's hand and Liz gave her a grateful smile.
"I have been having the same dream...nightmare for about a month now, but last night it was really...horrible," a small sob ripped through her throat but she continued. When she finally had started talking she had to get it all off her chest. "I am being followed, Maria," Liz said and looked Maria straight into her eyes. "It is dark and really cold and then suddenly Max is there..."
"Max?" Maria repeats surprised. "It should be a good thing that Max is in her nightmare, right? Maria thought. "He would save her from whatever monster there might be...why do I feel like he is the monster?"
Maria's suspicions are confirmed when Liz with a trembling voice continues.
"I know that it isn't Max. I can't feel him."
"You can't feel him?" Maria asked in disbelief.
"You know that Max and I have this...connection," Liz said.
"Yeah right, the connection," Maria nodded, thinking that she never really understood just what their connection meant.
"Since Max healed me, or perhaps even before that, I can feel him...sense him...when he's near. In my dream I couldn't sense him Maria and I knew it wasn't Max." Liz grew quiet, her movements of the spoon growing still. Maria patiently waits for her to continue, without wanting to rush her. When Liz felt ready to continue she would.
"Max...or his look-alike...wants to follow me home," Liz draws a trembling breath, "I let him follow me home, because I think that if he believes that I don't suspect anything he won't do anything. Suddenly he is dragging me inside this...alley and he tries ki...kissing me. I push him away and then I'm on the ground and he's trying to... I don't know what he's trying to do. But I get away and start running. But he is so fast, Maria, he is so fast," Liz is openly crying now, "and I fall and then I'm being burned alive. He's killing me and I'm... dying. I'm dying."
"Oh my God Liz," Maria said feeling her own tears start to pool in her eyes. She puts the ice-cream away and put her arms around her best friend to give her the best comfort that she can.
"Perhaps you should tell Max," Maria whispers softly.
Liz's head jerks up and to Maria's surprise Liz looks terrified.
"No Maria! I can't tell Max. He is already so worried. I probably scared him even more when I showed up outside his window in the middle of the night."
"You did?" Maria asked softly.
Liz nodded.
"And he was great... But you know Max. He puts everything on his own shoulders and I don't want to worry him anymore."
"But didn't he want to know what was wrong?" Maria asked.
"I told him....but only the end of the dream. I don't want him to know that he was in my dream - because it really wasn't him in my dream."
"You know, you two are so much alike. You too put far too much responsibility on yourself, Liz - you two are so afraid of hurting everyone else. But when you try to protect the people around you from the horrible naked truth you're only hurting yourself. Liz, I'm glad you told me, you need to get it off your chest. But Max... I have this feeling that he needs to know, for him to be able to help you. And knowing Max he will probably be more hurt if you don't tell him because you wanted to spare his feelings, than if you do tell him and make him more worried. Let's be honest, Liz. It's Max - he will always worry. We can't exactly make him stop doing that!"
"But telling him will only add to his worries, Maria!" Liz said with a sigh. She wanted to tell him - not just about her nightmares but also about everything that had kept them apart since she had left him on that cliff with his destiny in May.
"He worries because he cares, Liz," Maria said. "He loves you."
Liz looked down at her hands neatly folded in her knee.
"I know he does," Liz whispered.
"Good, and you love him. So tell him! It's as simple as that."
"Maria, there are more issues to deal with here than my nightmare, you know."
"You haven't tol....," it suddenly dawned on Maria what Liz was imlying, "Liz, you haven't told him about future Max yet?" Maria said shocked and watched as Liz shook her head.
"You mean, he still believes you slept with Kyle?"
Liz nodded her head, her facial expression masked with complete misery.
"But-but...you have to tell him, Liz," Maria said, like doing anything else was out of the question.
"Maria...I can't tell him. What if everything I have done this last months to keep the end of the world from happening, is gonna happen just because he knows."
"Liz, I hate to break it to you. But you two are already getting involved with each other again, wasn't that what you were trying to prevent?"
Liz covered her head in her hands and whispered, agonized. "I know Maria! I screwed up. I can't stay away from him and now all those innocent people are going to die and it will all be my fau-"
"Liz, stop it. Stop it!" Maria said, bending Liz's hands away from the act of covering her face so that she could look at her friend.
"I know that Future Max probably had gone through his options thoroughly before deciding to deprive his younger self from a life with you, a life he got. But I'm certain that you Liz was right there with him, the future version of you, and decided to do it as well. You have to cut yourself some slack! I have never met anyone - and then I mean anyone - who is more right for each other than you and Max. I have not met anyone who is more in love with each other..."
"Maybe it's just not meant to be," Liz interrupted.
Maria sighed. Liz was the smarter one of them, that Maria was certain of. But when it came to Max, Liz's intelligence could really be questioned.
"I mean, first of all we have the basic problem that we are of different species..."
"Which just makes it even more incredible that you work together," Maria insisted.
"Yeah, if it just have been that easy. But then he happens to be an alien king as well and he is already married. And even if he decides to don't give a damn about his destiny, like the future version of him did, he will probably marry me and the whole world will come to a screeching halt."
"God, and I thought I was the drama queen!" Maria said. "You can't go saving the world every day, Liz. Not if it's breaking you down in the process. Think about yourself for a change - I think that would be good for you. And God, tell Max that you didn't sleep with Kyle. If I know Max at all, he will be more pissed at himself than at you, since it was in fact he that told you to 'sleep with Kyle'."
"No, actually. It was my idea to 'sleep' with Kyle," Liz said.
"Whatever," Maria waved her off. "You can't pursue something with him without letting him know the truth. It would be like basing your relationship on a lie."
Liz nodded. She knew that Maria was right. Even though she feared what she knew she had to do, she would try to talk to Max as soon as possible. Maria watched all the different emotions transpire over Liz's face and decided that they had had enough of world problems for the night.
"Okay Lizzie, so what do you think about that new guy at school?" Maria's eyes suddenly glittered with excitement and Liz couldn't help but giggle. Maria was good - Liz could feel her worries slowly sliding off her (for now anyway) and she settled back against the headboard of her bed, folding her legs in Indian style and with a small smile grazing her beautiful features, she listened to her best friend going on about this and that, leaving all alien-related topics out of it. Liz was grateful to have such good friends. Sometimes the clouds dissipated and the sun shone through.
Chapter 5
She felt a prickling sensation down her spine and a feeling of dread was seeping into every cell of her body. Slowly turning her head her eyes searched the hallway. She could not find anything different or unusual. The hallway was slowly starting to fill up with the regular high school students preparing themselves for their first class of the day.
Liz shakily drew inhaled and turned back towards her locker. Setting the feeling that she was being followed apart, she had not felt this good in months. No headaches, no nausea. She had actually been able to eat a steady breakfast for the first time in a very long time. The edges of her mouth started to turn up into a smile when she could feel him coming closer.
"Hi, Max," she greeted softly with her back still turned against him.
His strong arms encircled her small waist and she automatically leaned back against him - drawing strength and warmth from him. Her heart started to beat faster when she felt his warm moist lips on her neck and she bent her head more to the side to give him more freedom to explore. He was making his way from the top of her neck to the juncture where her neck met her shoulder (where the hem of her shirt became an obstacle). His bottom lip was slightly dragged along her skin leaving it wet from his assault. The cool air hit her skin where his lips had touched her and the contrast of the cool air against his warm lips did the most incredible things to her. She was fast become lost in the feeling and scent of Max Evans. But as fast as it had started, it was over again (at least it seemed too short time to Liz) and Max's lips left her craving for more. He rested his chin on her shoulder and lightly touched the skin of her stomach where the hem of her shirt had ridden up.
"Hi," Max said.
"I could really get used to this, you know," Liz said softly. Both were completely lost to their surroundings, neither noting the fact that they were in fact standing in the middle of a high school with students talking loudly to each other around them.
"Ditto," Max said breathing in her scent and feeling completely content. Liz was like a drug and he was an addict. She was as important to him as oxygen. They still had some things to discuss, like for instance that he was certain that she was hiding something from him. But for the moment, Max was too happy to be let into Liz's life again. Every time the thought had struck him that he should talk to her, he had been distracted by the memory of her soft hair, her soft lips, her taste... and yeah. You get the picture. Max Evans had big concentrations issues when it came to Liz Parker.
"Hey guys! What are you up to?"
Maria eyed Max and Liz suspiciously when they broke apart from an embrace that looked.very intimate.
"Oh, hay Maria," Liz said, her voice a little higher than usual.
"Caught in the act," Maria thought and started to smile as she saw the guilty antics of her friends. Max stepped away from Liz, but he still held onto her hand. Liz licked her lips and pulled down her shirt to once again completely cover her flat stomach.
"So, did you do that history assignment?" Max asked while he scratched his head.
Maria had now a large smile on her face, silently laughing at them for even trying to cover this up - in such a bad way too!
"Oh, stop it!" Maria said. "You two are sooo bad! Don't even think for a second that you can fool me that you were not doing what I thought you were doing."
"Uhmm, what did you think we were doing, Maria?" Liz asked still acting innocent.
"Yeah, like you were not standing here in a very intimate embrace and doing God knows!" Maria said in her best you-most-be-kidding-me voice. Before Max and Liz knew what hit them, Maria squealed and started bouncing up and down, not able to contain herself anymore.
"Oh, this is sooo great! I just knew you couldn't stay apart from each other too long. You were both so miserable - you just can't live without each other! Oh, I gotta tell Mi.."
With a shocked expression on his face (and Maria's babbling in the background) Max met Liz's eyes. She just shook her head and smiled.
"Maria, Maria.Calm down!" Liz said.
"Oh, Max! I'm so happy for you!" Maria squealed again and attacked Max trapping him in a big bear hug.
Liz could not help but giggle at Max inability to free himself from Maria. Alien king or not - when dealing with Maria Deluca - and especially her over-excited state - one needs all the help one can get. Liz felt a little sorry for Max when his eyes begged her to help him. Maria finally released her poor victim, turning to Liz.
"Liz, babe! You and me. Tonight. Ice-cream." she said, her voice leaving no room for objections.
"Okay, Maria," Liz said feeling up to a girls' night herself.
Maria couldn't hide her triumphant smile. "See ya!" Maria said and headed off down the corridor.
"Wow," Max whispered. "What was that?"
"Just Maria...being Maria," Liz said and stretched up to lightly brush her lips over his. That light kiss did not keep it's lightness for too long.
A tap on Max's shoulder (unnoticed by the couple) and then a clearing of a throat (which was noted) broke them apart.
Mr. Seligman, the biology teacher, stood behind Max and eyed them with an amused expression, raising one eyebrow.
"I believe you two should be in my class in about two minutes. Maybe you should get ready." he pointed out.
Max and Liz's faces went red and Liz lowered her head to hide her embarrassment in Max's shoulder.
"Yeah," Max said and then had to clear his throat. "We'll be right there."
"No visits to the Eraser Room instead, okay?" Mr. Seligman said. He witnessed how Max face turned blazing red and chuckled for himself when he began his walk towards his classroom.
"Okay, that was embarrassing," Max mumbled.
"Uh hu," Liz nodded and left Max warm embrace.
"We should probably..."
"Yeah."
When they started to walk towards the biology classroom their hands were automatically gravitated towards each other and an unseen sparkle was emitted at their touch when their hands were laced together.
Following from a distance was a pair of cold ice-blue eyes.
"You just wait, Your highness. Playing time will soon be over."
"Do you have the spoons?!" Liz yelled.
"Yup!" Maria called back, grabbing two spoons from the kitchen drawer as she followed Liz up in the apartment.
"Ice-cream?!" Liz yelled and grew silent when Maria stepped out in front of her.
"Don't worry, Liz. We're only eating ice-cream - not planning an alien attack." Maria winked and swished past Liz, dropping down on Liz's bed.
"Ha ha, very funny." Liz positioned herself beside Maria, strething out her legs on the bed, crossing them at the ancles.
"So, what do you want to talk about?" Liz asked pulling off the lid of the ice-cream.
"Uh hu, nice try," Maria laughed. "I suspect that no one in the entire school have missed how you and a certain unearthly Max Evans have been all over each other all day. Well, perhaps my cranky non-boyfriend has missed it. Anyway, don't think I don't have my ways to get information. I've had hourly updates on the whole Max-and-Liz situation - as it nowadays is referred to, by the way - in our own lovely" Liz giggled at Maria's sarcastic tone "ladies' rest-room... So, what happened Liz? Less than a week ago you two were miserable and as I recall you were absolutely convinced that it was completely and utterly wrong to get involved with Max romantically again. God, you even yelled at me over it! So, give me all the tasty details!"
Liz could only laugh at her friend. Maria was so excited and curious you had to be dead not to be smitten by her emotions. Her excitement was coming off her in waves, she was almost bouncing in Liz's bed - reminding Liz of a child on Christmas Day.
"Well, you know my nightmares..." Liz started.
"Yeah..." Maria prompted.
"They are really scary, Maria," Liz said her voice becoming low.
At first Maria was about to start accusing her for trying to get away but then she saw how serious Liz turned and Maria became worried for her friend.
"Lizzie, are you okay?" she asked.
"You know, Max is always there for me. I feel safe with him," Liz continued not noticing the tears sliding down her face. "When I woke up I was so scared and all I could think about was that I had to get to Max. Like my life depended on it or something, isn't that stupid!"
Maria smiled a sad smile but Liz didn't notice - she was looking down at the ice-cream in her hand where she absent-mindedly smoothed out the ice- cream with her spoon.
"What happened, Liz. In your dream?" Maria asked. Liz looked up and Maria's heart broke for her friend. She could see that just thinking about the dream again was scaring her.
"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to Liz. We can talk about something else," Maria said, hating to make her friend upset.
"I really think I need to talk about it and you are probably the only person I can talk about it with," Liz said, her voice thin. Maria reached out and took Liz's hand and Liz gave her a grateful smile.
"I have been having the same dream...nightmare for about a month now, but last night it was really...horrible," a small sob ripped through her throat but she continued. When she finally had started talking she had to get it all off her chest. "I am being followed, Maria," Liz said and looked Maria straight into her eyes. "It is dark and really cold and then suddenly Max is there..."
"Max?" Maria repeats surprised. "It should be a good thing that Max is in her nightmare, right? Maria thought. "He would save her from whatever monster there might be...why do I feel like he is the monster?"
Maria's suspicions are confirmed when Liz with a trembling voice continues.
"I know that it isn't Max. I can't feel him."
"You can't feel him?" Maria asked in disbelief.
"You know that Max and I have this...connection," Liz said.
"Yeah right, the connection," Maria nodded, thinking that she never really understood just what their connection meant.
"Since Max healed me, or perhaps even before that, I can feel him...sense him...when he's near. In my dream I couldn't sense him Maria and I knew it wasn't Max." Liz grew quiet, her movements of the spoon growing still. Maria patiently waits for her to continue, without wanting to rush her. When Liz felt ready to continue she would.
"Max...or his look-alike...wants to follow me home," Liz draws a trembling breath, "I let him follow me home, because I think that if he believes that I don't suspect anything he won't do anything. Suddenly he is dragging me inside this...alley and he tries ki...kissing me. I push him away and then I'm on the ground and he's trying to... I don't know what he's trying to do. But I get away and start running. But he is so fast, Maria, he is so fast," Liz is openly crying now, "and I fall and then I'm being burned alive. He's killing me and I'm... dying. I'm dying."
"Oh my God Liz," Maria said feeling her own tears start to pool in her eyes. She puts the ice-cream away and put her arms around her best friend to give her the best comfort that she can.
"Perhaps you should tell Max," Maria whispers softly.
Liz's head jerks up and to Maria's surprise Liz looks terrified.
"No Maria! I can't tell Max. He is already so worried. I probably scared him even more when I showed up outside his window in the middle of the night."
"You did?" Maria asked softly.
Liz nodded.
"And he was great... But you know Max. He puts everything on his own shoulders and I don't want to worry him anymore."
"But didn't he want to know what was wrong?" Maria asked.
"I told him....but only the end of the dream. I don't want him to know that he was in my dream - because it really wasn't him in my dream."
"You know, you two are so much alike. You too put far too much responsibility on yourself, Liz - you two are so afraid of hurting everyone else. But when you try to protect the people around you from the horrible naked truth you're only hurting yourself. Liz, I'm glad you told me, you need to get it off your chest. But Max... I have this feeling that he needs to know, for him to be able to help you. And knowing Max he will probably be more hurt if you don't tell him because you wanted to spare his feelings, than if you do tell him and make him more worried. Let's be honest, Liz. It's Max - he will always worry. We can't exactly make him stop doing that!"
"But telling him will only add to his worries, Maria!" Liz said with a sigh. She wanted to tell him - not just about her nightmares but also about everything that had kept them apart since she had left him on that cliff with his destiny in May.
"He worries because he cares, Liz," Maria said. "He loves you."
Liz looked down at her hands neatly folded in her knee.
"I know he does," Liz whispered.
"Good, and you love him. So tell him! It's as simple as that."
"Maria, there are more issues to deal with here than my nightmare, you know."
"You haven't tol....," it suddenly dawned on Maria what Liz was imlying, "Liz, you haven't told him about future Max yet?" Maria said shocked and watched as Liz shook her head.
"You mean, he still believes you slept with Kyle?"
Liz nodded her head, her facial expression masked with complete misery.
"But-but...you have to tell him, Liz," Maria said, like doing anything else was out of the question.
"Maria...I can't tell him. What if everything I have done this last months to keep the end of the world from happening, is gonna happen just because he knows."
"Liz, I hate to break it to you. But you two are already getting involved with each other again, wasn't that what you were trying to prevent?"
Liz covered her head in her hands and whispered, agonized. "I know Maria! I screwed up. I can't stay away from him and now all those innocent people are going to die and it will all be my fau-"
"Liz, stop it. Stop it!" Maria said, bending Liz's hands away from the act of covering her face so that she could look at her friend.
"I know that Future Max probably had gone through his options thoroughly before deciding to deprive his younger self from a life with you, a life he got. But I'm certain that you Liz was right there with him, the future version of you, and decided to do it as well. You have to cut yourself some slack! I have never met anyone - and then I mean anyone - who is more right for each other than you and Max. I have not met anyone who is more in love with each other..."
"Maybe it's just not meant to be," Liz interrupted.
Maria sighed. Liz was the smarter one of them, that Maria was certain of. But when it came to Max, Liz's intelligence could really be questioned.
"I mean, first of all we have the basic problem that we are of different species..."
"Which just makes it even more incredible that you work together," Maria insisted.
"Yeah, if it just have been that easy. But then he happens to be an alien king as well and he is already married. And even if he decides to don't give a damn about his destiny, like the future version of him did, he will probably marry me and the whole world will come to a screeching halt."
"God, and I thought I was the drama queen!" Maria said. "You can't go saving the world every day, Liz. Not if it's breaking you down in the process. Think about yourself for a change - I think that would be good for you. And God, tell Max that you didn't sleep with Kyle. If I know Max at all, he will be more pissed at himself than at you, since it was in fact he that told you to 'sleep with Kyle'."
"No, actually. It was my idea to 'sleep' with Kyle," Liz said.
"Whatever," Maria waved her off. "You can't pursue something with him without letting him know the truth. It would be like basing your relationship on a lie."
Liz nodded. She knew that Maria was right. Even though she feared what she knew she had to do, she would try to talk to Max as soon as possible. Maria watched all the different emotions transpire over Liz's face and decided that they had had enough of world problems for the night.
"Okay Lizzie, so what do you think about that new guy at school?" Maria's eyes suddenly glittered with excitement and Liz couldn't help but giggle. Maria was good - Liz could feel her worries slowly sliding off her (for now anyway) and she settled back against the headboard of her bed, folding her legs in Indian style and with a small smile grazing her beautiful features, she listened to her best friend going on about this and that, leaving all alien-related topics out of it. Liz was grateful to have such good friends. Sometimes the clouds dissipated and the sun shone through.