Note:Yea it's been a while and I apologize. I had different ideas about this fic in the beginning but as I continue to write it I'm veering towards another type of fic. The big difference will be a lot less GZ as I am writing more of a Candy story but that doesn't guarantee a happy ending. So for those that are still interested, thanks a lot.

Chapter 7- Secrets, Lies and Best friends no more…

"Isn't murder what got you into this situation to begin with?"

Silence fell over the room as Liz descended the stairs.

I felt my blood begin to boil and opened my mouth-

What? Oh! You're confused? Okay let me rewind this a bit so you can agree with me when I seriously lay it into Liz.

I woke up to another bright and sunny New Mexico morning. The birds were chirping in the trees and there wasn't a single cloud in the sky…

Too slow? Okay, okay I'll skip ahead.

I had lunch with the guys and Liz who has been badgering me about Max at every chance she gets. I've been doing my best to avoid the discussion but that'll only hold her for so long. That girl is determined and a determined Liz is a scary Liz.

So I'm on my way to class when suddenly a pair of hands drag me into a dark room. I'm seriously about to lay it into this jerk Deluca style when a hand covers my mouth from behind.

"Don't yell, it's me Michael"

So I relax myself as quickly as I can as he flicks on the light bulb (which incidently was the only source of light in the janitor's closet) and pulled his hand away from my mouth. I turned around and kicked him as hard as I could in his shin.

"Don't you ever do that again, Michael Guerin! I almost had a heart attack", I whispered as loudly as I could, not waiting to draw any attentionto us.

He grabbed onto his shin and uttered a curse before he said, "Yeah, well I figured that asking you to meet me in a dark closet at school would be a bad idea"

I glared at the idiot that was not my ex-boyfriend. It figures that he would choose manhandling me over a conversation. I closed my eyes and counted to ten before turning towards him. "What do you want?" I asked as calmly as I could manage.

He narrowed his eyes and watched me warily. Michael raised his hands in surrender and said, "You promise not to hurt me?"

I shook my hand in disbelief, guys could be such babies. "I promise. Now get to a point before I really lose my temper"

He stood up straighter, after patting his sore knee, cleared his throat. "It's Max. And you. What were you two discussing?"

Bitterly I asked, "What does it matter? You have Courtney to occupy your time now. I was just some girl"

"You were never some, girl. Not then, not now"

"Well you have a weird way of showing it. I mean, my God Michael. You barely wanted us to be anything to begin with. And after everything we've been throug, including the alleged pregnancy of your alien fiance/ human sister, you dumped me and ignored any attempt at communication all summer" I could feel the tears building up behind my eyes and I fought for control not wanting to cry anymore, "What else is there to say? I don't know what you want from me"

Not wanting subject myself to anything else he had to say I groped for the door and had it barely opened before he slammed it close, blocking my way out.

I looked into the eyes of the only person who could make me the happiest girl in the world but always seemed to make me sad.

He stared back pleading with me to...I don't know, understand why we were both in this situation. "I just need time, to figure out something and than we can be together"

I wanted to believe him, I really did but my head was telling me that it owuld be a waste of time and that I needed out before I got sucked in again. So I pulled on the door as hard as I could not and bolted out as quickly as I could.

I didn't stop until I had reached the privacy of a bathroom stall in the female bathroom. I was so sick and tired of everyone doing the wrong thing. Michael was probably doing something stupid and instead of talking to me and letting me help he's willing to throw away everything we had in order to what? Save the day?

Liz leaves and comes back expecting everything to be the same? Max has been through so much. He's been having nightmares about the white room while she was busy lounging on some beach having the time of her freaking life. I needed my best friend, so did Alex. Kyle needed to speak to another person who was healed so he wouldn't have been so freaked out with fear that he was going to become one.

But no Liz needed out so Max could embrace Destiny while Michael dumped me for fear that he was becoming a murderer. If there's anything I hate more than ignorance is that whole fucking matrydom syndrome that seems to be permanently imbedded in Michael and Liz's physche.

At the sound of a bell ringing I managed to clean myself up and put in an appearance at class. It seemed that with each passing minute I could feel my anger building. How dare they decide what's best for the rest of us?

It wasn't until, Alex caught up with me after school was over that I felt normal again. That is until he mentioned that we had a mandatory meeting after school at the CrashDown to discuss the "bones". I had been hoping for some "Maria time" tonight and instead we were going to have another meeting. I was so not looking forward to it.

Fast forward to our meeting. I'm sitting on the couch between Kyle and Alex. Tess is sitting on the couch arm next to Kyle. Max is standing by the door leading to the diner itself. Isabelle is sitting by the stairs that leads to the Parker's house. And lastly Michael is standing by the door leading to the back alley.

Max had just finished explaining about he situation concerning the bones and was waiting for some suggestions on how to get them and destroy them before anyone found out they belonged to the real but extremely dead Agent Pierce.

"I don't know why we had to invite them", Michael muttered loudly.

"Well because we couldn't form an actual plan, Michael" Tess shot back.

Michael crossed him arms defiantly and responded. "They're not a part of this. They're lives are not at risk and they don't have a planet that's waiting for them to return. So once again, I don't know why we had to invite them"

Before us lowly humans could defend ourselves Ed Harding aka Nacedo came strolling through the front door. "That is correct Michael, on all three"

Max sighed and rubbed his temples. The poor guy had so much pressure put on him right now and neither Michael nor Nacedo were making it any easier. Michael was being his usual jerk self while Nacedo, who should have been somewhere being Agent Pierce, was bothering hiself with our recent crisis. I wondered if maybe there was more to this than we all thought.

"Look, we need to figure out something to do that will get us the bones without drawing any attention to us" Max said.

Nacedo shrugged, "Done. How many humans have seen this? I'll take care of them and you'll get the bones"

I put up my hand, "Wait, whoa, what do you mean by "take care of" and are present company excluded?"

Nacedo smiled and stared straight into my eyes and I felt this shiver go down my spine due to the utter creepiness of his gaze. "I mean I'm going to kill them. They are a threat and they will be terminated".

I opened my mouth but only managed a small "Oh"

Nacedo nodded, "Good"

"Isn't murder what got you into this to begin with?" Liz descended the stairs staring down at all of us.

Now Liz may have been my best friend for years but she has this way of acting like a superior judge. It's always been annoying but I love the girl so I never said anything. Lately she'd been pissing me off. And add that with Michael's jerkdom and Nacedo's creepy happiness at killing humans I was at my breaking point.

"No I'm pretty sure it was your almost dying and Max bringing you back to life that did it"

A shocked silence descended on the room and I had to look around at the stares to be sure that I had said what I was pretty sure I'd merely been thinking.

I got up and couldn't stop myself from continuing. "Or were you referring to Michael killing the human and alien killer known as Agent Pierce. Because I'm pretty sure you benefitted from both actions. Look, I'm not for the killing either but it seems that there is some sort of alien war going on right now and" I turned to glare at Michael" by association we're apart of it" Turning back to Liz, "So maybe you should keep your comments to yourself. Especially since you ran away to seperate yourself from everything and everyone alien related. No you know what, I've been feeling really horrible lately and I've just realized the reason. It's all of this, alien stuff. I need out so I can be sane again and so I can be me again. I have given a lot to this cause and you all take advantage the fact that we are here to help but as soon as something new occurs you lock us lowly humans out. You don't appreciate the things we've done and given up for you. So you can all decide what your next step will be but I'm out" And with that I grabbed my stuff and left the meeting feeling a sense of freedom I hadn't felt in a long time.

I had stopped to take a breath of fresh air outside when I felt hands on my shoulder. I turned to see Alex and Kyle smiling behind me.

"You should have seen their faces. It was priceless" Kyle laughed.

"Guys, you can still be apart of that, I just needed out. Don't let me stop you"

Alex scoffed, "So I can continue to pine over Isabelle? I'd rather be free from it than go through another year of that. Besides, it wouldn't be the same without you"

I smiled, happy that we no longer had our lives dictated by alien events.

I made plans with the guys for tomorrow but I owed myself some alone time and God knew I needed it. I took a long soak in the tub and read a bit. It was nearly 10pm when I heard a knock on my bedroom window. Thinking it was Michael I already had the word "no" forming on my mouth as I opened the window. The "no" slipped away as I came face to face with Max Evans, King.

"Hey"

"Hey"

I stood back to let him in and sat down on my bed awkwardly wondering why he decided to pay me a visit. It's not that I didn't want to see Max, it's just that I had made a vow to stay away from all alien-related business which included their king.

Max grabbed a chair and sat down, "I just wanted to let you know that I understand why you want out and I'm sorry for dragging you into this craziness. And...I'm sorry I caused extra stress with my feelings for you. The more that I think about it the more I realize how doomed it was from the start. There's too much going on right now for another complication for either of us. I'm just, sorry"

This is why I can never be mad at Max. He's honest and he doesn't mean to harm anyone. I don't think anyone else around him realizes how much he simply wants to be a normal guy, living in Roswell. And everyday something more crazy and outrageous happens which he has to deal with as king. "It's okay Max, I know you. You're kind and would never hurt me"

"So can we still be friends? I don't know if I could survive if I didn't have you as a friend anymore?"

"Of course" I replied.

Max sighed and smiled for the first time since he appeared at my window. "I'll go in a couple of minutes if that's okay. We just finished fixing the bones and I'm still feeling weak.

So for the second time in my life I welcomed an alien into my bed. Both times had nothing to do with sex, though. Max was tired so I got him to lie back in my bed with me adn we passed the time as he told me all about how Isabelle had distracted the guard while Tess and Michael combined powers in order to allow for enough time for Max to age the bones. He didn't know where Nacedo had gone but they had been able to work together and on their own to solve a problem. We then discussed our major problems of right now: Michael, Liz, Courtney and Tess.

"So do you still love Liz?" I asked, wondering if they still had a chance.

"I think I always will. Similar to you loving Michael. Should me and Liz be together? I don't know. I still have issues and unresolved feelings that I'm dealing with and so does Liz" Max answered honestly.

"She wants you back"

"Then she'll have to fight for me. She left after I told her nothing else mattered but the two of us being together"

I nodded understanding where he was coming from. "I don't know if I can see a future with Michael. I dealt with a lot when it came to our relationship but I don't know if I'll ever be able to get over him being with Courtney. No matter what the reasons"

"I can't tell you what to feel. I can only tell you to follow your heart. I used to think that too, but thinking about Liz while she's in another state and actually seeing her all the time are two different things. I like you, Maria but seeing Liz everyday reminds me of how much I love her. Maybe Michael has some reason for doing what he's doing and when he comes crawling back to you, you might not be able to say no"

I laid there, thinking about what Max said. He was probably right, as I have a hard time saying no to Michael Guerin. Maybe he had a good reason for being with Courtney and maybe I would be able to get over this with time.

"Do you think we would have worked?" I asked Max, wanting his honest answer.

"I think we would have been spectacular", he said smiling.

I placed a light kiss on Max's lips for memories sake and placed my head on his shoulder. I took great comfort in the fact that someone else wanted me. It may not be true love but it did erase some of the doubt I had felt when Michael dumped me. Before I knew it I felt myself start to drift off to sleep.

CRASH

"What the fuck is going on here?"

"Maria? Max?"

I opened my eyes to see a starled Max, still struggling to wake up. I may not have seen who had interrupted us but I could tell those two voices anywhere.

Liz and Michael.

TBC