Many of the characters within this story, and the universe they inhabit, are the intellectual property of Jason Katims Productions.
Roswell: Re-Imagined
Written by Horatio Jaxx
Chapter 41: You Too?
It was just a few minutes passed nine in the morning when Isabel took her mother's car out of the garage and sped off towards the north side of Roswell. Diane was reluctant to give her the keys, but Isabel's insistence proved too much for her to hold off. So instead, she secured a promise from Isabel that she would return within two hours. Isabel left the house seconds after agreeing to her mother's terms, and she took off with the car in a hurry.
Isabel was on a mission, and it was her belief that timing was important. She suspected that Tess would have left the house if she waited too long before taking this trip, and she desperately wanted to catch up to her before she did. She chose not to give Tess a call as she usually did in the mornings. She had reason to believe that Tess would not agree to her visit. Determined to see her new friend despite her excuses, Isabel elected to forgo the formality of a forewarning that she was coming. A surprise visit was much more to her liking anyway. What Isabel wanted to talk about she felt needed to be done face to face. She raced up Main Street at a speed just within the limit. She arrived outside of Tess's home ten minutes after leaving her own.
"You're dating Kyle?" Isabel nearly shouted an instant after Tess opened the front door.
Tess was shocked by the abrupt question and said nothing for several seconds as she stared back at Isabel. She then invited Isabel in rather than produce an immediate response to her query. Tess had no concerns about bringing this discussion into her home. Her father had left for work nearly an hour earlier.
"I was going to tell you," Tess reported defensively as they moved into the living-room. "I just didn't know how, or when," she continued with a somber expression.
Isabel's mind had been tumbling through numerous explanations for Tess's actions ever since she first heard of it. She could not help but feel that she had been betrayed or lied to. This was the one explanation that best explained why Tess had bonded with her around the subject of avoiding close relationships with others who were not like them. But even in this she asked herself why she would befriend her in this manner and then blatantly do the opposite of what they agreed not to do. It was the feeling of deception that was driving Isabel's theatrical response more than anything else. She had accepted Max's and Michael's relationships with Liz and Maria along with the relationships that Jason, Julie and Aaron kept, without liking these connections. It was the fact that Tess had sided with her on this and then flipped on the issue that was so aggravating to her. Isabel rationalized that she could have accepted this predisposition if Tess had she confessed it from the beginning.
"Was everything you ever said to me just a lie?" Isabel queried in a demanding tone.
"No," Tess insisted with a pleading tone and outstretched hands. "I meant what I said I. I don't know what happened," she continued in a hesitant speech.
"How am I supposed to believe you, Tess?" Isabel challenged in an angry tone. "How am I supposed to believe anything you say anymore?"
"I'm sorry," Tess pleaded back to her. "I didn't mean to deceive you, Isabel. I'm sorry."
Isabel showed no indication that she heard Tess's apology. She immediately went into another rant regarding a related issue.
"Why Kyle," Isabel nearly shouted with a shocked expression? "I mean, did you want me to find out. Did you get some kind of amusement out of my finding out from one of my friends that you were just stringing me along?"
"I like Kyle," Tess roared back with a desperate expression. "I liked him from the first moment that I saw him," she continued in a softer tone. "I didn't know how much until I met him."
Isabel paused in response to something she heard for the first time. She took note of the impression of sincerity in Tess's demeanor.
"I didn't mean to hurt you, Isabel," Tess continued to implore. "I knew how disappointed you would be when you found out and I was afraid to tell you."
"Afraid to tell me," Isabel mimicked back angrily. "So, you let Sara Lange do it for you. Yeah, that's much better," she finished with a heavy inflection of sarcasm.
"I was going to tell you," Tess lamented with a shake of her head. "I wasn't sure how or when, but I was going to tell you." She briefly paused to toss her hands in the air with a look of bewilderment and then she finished with the remark, "I just waited too long."
Once again Isabel was surprised by something she heard. The inflection of remorse in her voice sounded too sincere to be a deception. She paused to consider that, but her anger got the better of her and she brusquely questioned Tess on that.
"What was stopping you?"
Tess was a little annoyed by the question. She thought it was bizarre for Isabel to be asking her that question since she was so greatly a part of the answer. She took a second to marshal her vexation into a response.
"You, Isabel, you were stopping me," Tess insisted tersely. "You were so happy to have an ally in this resistance of yours."
"You agreed with me," Isabel argued back.
"I supported you," Tess quickly countered. "I never had your passion for this cause. I understand the need, the want, to be close to someone."
"Then why didn't you say something?" Isabel argued back. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"Because you're my friend," Tess fired back with finality. "I was alone," she continued with a hint of desperation. "When Julie began dating Jeremy, I suddenly had no one," she insisted. "For almost a year I've been quietly moving about, unattached to anyone, waiting and hoping for Julie to give me bits and pieces of her attention. And then you came along, and I wasn't alone anymore."
Isabel listened to her explanation with a growing awareness that Tess was confessing the truth about what had transpired within her.
"I'm not like you," Tess continued to explain. "I never learned how to make false friends and keep them at a distance. I had Julie. There was never any need for me to learn how to cultivate pretend relationships. And when I suddenly found myself without anyone to share my time with, I became scared. I didn't know if I could do what Julie did, risk exposing myself to have a real relationship with someone not-like me. And I didn't want to be alone. And then you came along, and I wasn't afraid anymore."
Isabel was convinced by that declaration that there was no malice or deception behind Tess's action. A feeling of sympathy washed over her halfway through Tess's explanation. She knew that everything that she was saying about her was true. In the back of her mind, Isabel knew that her objection to romantic entanglements with normal humans bordered on the obsessive. She also knew that the reason behind her extreme behavior was identical to Tess's need to become her ally in this. Isabel knew that her greatest fear was the idea of losing Max and Michael to these outsiders. As she came to terms with this reality, she softened her expression towards Tess. After a handful of seconds, she asked the only question that remained unanswered for her.
"Why Kyle," Isabel inquired with a slight smile and a shake of her head.
"You don't think he's good looking?" Tess queried with a look of surprise.
"Yes," Isabel responded with near to a laugh. "He's very good looking. I'm just wondering why you didn't choose someone who went to Goddard."
"I thought about doing that last semester," Tess confessed with an introspective expression. "And I might have done that when school started again. But I met Kyle," she continued with a hint of a smile. "And there's no one at Goddard as attractive as him."
"Wow," Isabel responded with a large smile. "It sounds like slim pickings at Goddard."
Tess briefly laughed at this along with Isabel before giving a response.
"They're not that bad," Tess countered with a large smile. "But I really do like Kyle, Tess. I like him a lot," she continued with an affirmative nod of her head. "I wouldn't have gone out with him if I didn't."
"I know that now," Isabel responded with a soft smile.
She and Tess stood there for a few seconds and exchanged smiles. At the end of that moment, Isabel stepped over to Tess and threw her arms around her. As they hugged Isabel gave her blessing to her romance.
"And we'll always be friends."