Disclaimers: I don't own the F4 characters, any claim I have made was purely in the sense of humour.
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It was almost 1am before Maria finally reached her destination. She got out of the cab and faced the 24 hour diner that was situated about 10 miles outside of New Orleans.
She pushed open the door and looked around, it was empty save for the a truck driver that was sitting drinking coffee, and talking on his mobile in table in the corner.
She walked up to the counter and rang the bell, sitting on a stool while she waited for a worker to arrive. She smiled as she saw a familiar face emerge from the kitchen.
"Marie!" shrieked the dark haired girl, running out from behind the counter and throwing her arms around her friend. "Annie! Come out!" she called loudly into the back.
"What?" a red head girl, who could only be Annie, asked emerging from the stock room. "Oh my God!" she shrieked when she saw Maria, and ran to hug her. "What are you doing her?" she asked.
Maria smiled a sad one, "Right now, I'm gasping for a coffee," she half joked.
Annie smiled, "Of course," she said going to make her one.
The dark haired girl, whose name was Maddie (Matilda), sat on the seat next to her. "You didn't say in your last e-mail you were coming down," she said as Annie placed three coffee cups on the counter and poured them all out some coffee.
Maria shook her head, "No…" she hoped she could get through the sentence without crying, but she couldn't even get to the second word. Tears she'd been holding in for the past two hours could not be contained any longer, and they fell like a waterfall down her face.
Maddie and Annie both moved to comfort their friend. One hugged her, and the other stroked her hair as she cried.
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Maria, Maddy and Annie had been friends for as long as Maria could remember. She had moved from Ireland to Roswell, in New Mexico, when she was five years old, and had met them both on her first day of school. They were inseparable, and only ever had three major fights. One was over a colouring book, another was over Zack Tyler, and the third was over who was going to Stacey Carter's birthday party when Maddie and Annie were invited, and Maria wasn't (Stacey Carter didn't like foreigners). They always called Maria 'Marie' so her name would rhyme with their when they were shortened.
When Maria was ten and her parents were killed, she moved up to New York with her Uncle Ben, before he adopted her. Yet, she still kept in touch with the two girls, visiting them as often as she could and having three way conversations once or twice a week. That was what happened for a few years until they all discovered IM's and e-mail. Staying in touch was easier than it had been.
They listened and comforted her during her rants about how much she hated Debbie, and they were there for her when she father had changed. They never pressed her when she didn't want to talk, and they never pestered her about anything.
Just over a year ago, Maddie and Annie decided that they had, had enough of Roswell, and they had both taken on, buying a train ticket that cost them both $20 each. They'd been inspired by a British film that Maria had sent them. They didn't remember the title, and they didn't care, it had Joseph Fiennes in it, and that's all that counted. The ticket they bought was to New Orleans, and that's where they decided to live. Maria was all set to join them, but then the whole fiasco with Cosmic storm occurred and she felt it wasn't the right time to leave her father. But still, the three kept in touch, e-mailing each other as often as possible, and chatting on the phone now and again.
In fact Maria hadn't been to visit for over six months, and they two weren't prepared to see her so unhappy.
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When Maria's weeping has subsided a little, and the Truck Driver had left (but not before squeezing rubbing Maria's shoulder saying a few words of comfort), did Maria opened up and tell the two of them what happened between her and Johnny on the club.
"You want us to and put him out?" Annia asked, "we got a fire extinguisher," she joked.
"And a hose," Maddie offered, hoping to make their unhappy friend laugh.
But Maria didn't laugh, she just cried some more.
"Awww, can you please stop crying?" Maddie asked, she wasn't used to seeing her this unhappy, and to tell the truth, Maria didn't know of a time when she felt this unhappy.
"I…can't…" she stuttered, "What do you do…when the only person… who can stop you… from crying…is the one who made…you cry to begin with...?" she asked finally.
Maddie and Annie looked at her, neither knew what to say. Then they looked at each other, realising something. "You're in love with Johnny," said the dark haired girl.
Maria just stared at her, "No I'm not," she said quickly.
Maddie smiled, "Yes you do," she said, "Why else would you be here?" she asked. "Apart from the obvious like me and Annie, you ran away…" she said.
Maria shook her head, "No, I just wanted to leave there, get out of the city, away from everything," she said.
"Away from him," Annie pointed out.
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a/n That's settled. I'll use other Maria for the x-men story. I'm kinda excited about it now, but do you want her to have powers? Or just human?
