Liz's best friend, Maria Deluca, caught sight of Liz and walked over to her. A bemused expression crossed her cute features. "Liz, you okay?"

Liz's eyes snapped open and she nodded anxiously. "Yep. Just fine."

"Sure? Because you look like you're about to hyperventilate."

Liz grabbed Maria's wrist. "He's here, Maria."

"Who's here?"

"Him." Liz's dark eyes were wide, excited. "You know, him."

Maria disentangled herself from her friend's grasp and looked out of the diamond-shaped window into the dining room. Max Evans, leather jacket and handsome features, was sitting leafing through a menu in Liz's section. Maria smiled.

"Want me to wait on him?" she asked Liz, knowing what the response would be.

"No!" Liz answered a bit too quickly. "I'll go. I just…I just needed to catch my breath first, that's all." She cleared her throat and straightened her uniform, then marched into the restaurant.

Max looked up as Liz stopped at the end of his table. Liz felt her throat tighten and her knees weaken. He didn't smile at her, but looked away quickly instead, his eyes darting nervously. Liz scratched her head with the end of her pen and produced her order pad from her apron.

"Uh, hi, Max," she said softly. "Have you decided?"

"Can I just get an order of fries? And a Coke?" he asked so softly she could barely hear him.

Liz scribbled the order on the pad. "Sure. Be right back with that." Stuffing her order book into her apron, she walked away and sighed. This was so hopeless. So pointless. Now he couldn't even look at her. Once upon a time they'd been able to talk, laugh, kiss. But now…forget it.

With a bang, Liz kicked open the kitchen door. Maria's head jerked up, her face creasing with a frown. Not again.

Liz stopped before the sink, then her shoulders sagged and she started sobbing. Maria approached her and pulled her into her arms.

"What now, Lizzie?" she asked sympathetically.

Liz sniffled, squeaked out something incomprehensible and continued to sob. Maria slid her hand into Liz's apron and pulled out the check - it read "Fries, Coke, Asshole." Maria snickered, then ripped the page off the book.

"Let me take care of him," she volunteered, pitching the offending paper into the trash and writing a new check without the obscenity. "Go clean yourself up."

Liz nodded meekly, swiped her hands under her eyes. The action only served to smear her makeup more. She sniffled as she retreated to the bathroom.

Maria got the soda from the fountain, then grabbed a plate of fries from the cook. She walked into the dining room and slid into the booth across from Max as she put the plate on the table.

Max looked up, surprised to see her and smiled. "Hi, Maria."

"Hey, Dude."

Max turned his dark eyes to the kitchen door. "Where's Liz?" he asked, looking confused.

"Not feeling well," Maria lied. Well, it wasn't really a lie considering the fact that Liz felt like hell right now. Not physically, sure, but mentally she was a train wreck. Maria rested her chin in her hand, her elbow planted on the table. She didn't break her gaze with Max.

"Is she okay?" he asked, not liking the way Maria was staring at him.

"Probably." She wrinkled her nose. "Probably, you know, girl stuff."

Max reddened slightly. He glanced at his fries but took a sip of the Coke instead. "Do you want some fries?" he asked her, wishing she'd get to whatever it was she wanted.

"No - feel free to douse them with as much Tabasco as you'd like." She watched as he did just that.

Max chewed slowly, watching Maria the whole time. He wasn't going to give in first. Max could be stubborn that way.

"So," she finally began. "How's it going?"

"Fine."

"Seeing anyone lately?"

"No."

"Hmm."

Hmm? What did Hmm mean? Max stopped eating the fries and pinned her with a gaze. Maria felt her stomach do a little flip - he'd actually managed to intimidate her. Damn!

"What do you want?" Max finally asked, his voice low, his eyes never leaving hers.

"I want to issue you a warning."

Max arched his eyebrows. He almost laughed. Was she threatening him? "A warning?"

Maria leaned across the table toward him. "Now, I like you, Max. I always have. I thought you were one of the good guys. And maybe you still are." Her voice dropped low as a deceiving smile crept across her attractive features. "But if you mess with Liz, if you hurt her again, I will personally make sure you wish you'd never been hatched."

Max swallowed. Her face was only inches from his, her blue eyes unwavering. She meant it.

"Do you understand me?"

Max nodded.

Maria straightened, her voice returning to normal. "Good." She grabbed the check. "This is on the house."

As she walked away, Max glanced at the fries - for some reason he wasn't hungry any more. He glanced up and saw Liz emerge from the kitchen. She wasn't sick - she'd been crying. She had a brief conversation with her father behind the bar, then she removed her apron and disappeared again. She never even glanced his way.

Max heaved a sigh. It was wrong for him to come here and watch her like a stalker. It wasn't fair to her. Not if it was going to make her cry and have to leave work. He'd seen what she'd written on that order pad - maybe he was an asshole.

______________________________________________________________________

"December 1 I'm Liz Parker and I am so confused…"

Liz put her journal down and rubbed her eyes. She couldn't even put her confusion into words. Usually she could pour her heart and soul out on paper and feel 100 times better. Not tonight. Tonight the words escaped her and she had no release.

Maybe she could leave town, she thought irrationally. Then she wouldn't see him all of the time. She sighed - why did she see him all of the time? School was unavoidable, of course, although she'd gotten pretty good at dodging him. But why did he keep coming into the Crashdown? What kind of message was she supposed to get from that? He wanted to watch but not be involved? God, that was so unfair.

Certainly breaking down and crying for an hour and a half wasn't going to help the situation. All she felt now was drained and confused. She couldn't wait forever. She couldn't sit around and wait for him to come to his senses and admit the way he felt about her.

Okay, maybe she would. Deep down she knew that she would wait 20 lifetimes for Max to come to her. She would wait until the end of the world. She would sacrifice her future for him. She would grow old sitting on her rooftop waiting for him to get a clue. She snorted. Didn't the future look just wonderful?

Liz sighed and pushed herself to her feet. She crawled back through her bedroom window and went into the bathroom. In the mirror, her face had returned to its normal state. No red eyes, no tear streaks. She smoothed her hair and decided to go down to the restaurant to see if her dad needed help since she'd blown off most of her shift.

The café was nearly empty. Liz found her father in the kitchen flipping a burger for himself.

"Hey, Dad."

Jeff Parker glanced up at his daughter and smiled. With the spatula, he motioned to the burger. "Hungry, puss?"

Liz smiled. Her dad hadn't called her "puss" since she was five. She shook her head.

"You look like you feel better," Jeff commented.

"Yeah, I do. I took a little nap." What she meant was that she cried herself to sleep, but he didn't need to know that. "Do you need help down here? I could put on my uniform and put in the rest of my shift."

He waved the spatula in the air. "No, Sweetie. You take it easy."

Liz pecked him on the cheek and started to retreat back to her bedroom. Through the kitchen window, she spotted Kyle Valenti sitting alone in one of the booths. He was flipping through the newspaper. A small frown creased Liz's features. Kyle seemed to be alone a lot these days.

Liz pushed open the door and walked toward Kyle's booth. They hadn't talked much since the events of the spring; in fact, they hadn't talked at all. She wasn't sure how she'd be accepted, if Kyle even wanted to talk to her. For some reason she felt like she had to try.

"Hi, Kyle," she said tentatively.

Kyle looked up, his blue eyes settling on Liz. He didn't smile, but he didn't frown, either. "Hey."

"What're you reading?"

"Movie listings. Thinking about catching a flick."

Liz looked at the empty booth. Normally, there would have been five jocks jostling for a seat beside the football captain, basketball captain, and all state wresting champion. It had always been that way as long as Liz could remember. Kyle was the most popular boy at school. Guys wanted to be him, girls wanted to date him. Liz herself had been a little shocked that he'd singled her out last summer as the one he wanted to be with. Now he sat alone. Looking to go to a movie alone.

Liz slid into the booth, hoping he didn't mind her company. "What are you thinking about seeing?"

Kyle glanced down at the paper. "The Revival Theater is running all of the Airplane movies. It's an all night marathon kind of thing."

Liz nodded.

Kyle looked at her, his expression grim. "I don't sleep much these days."

Liz looked down at the tabletop, at her folded hands. She drew in a deep breath. "Kyle, can we talk?"

"About what?" He blinked, his eyebrows furrowed. His expression said it all - he did not want to talk about Max Evans or the fact that Max had healed Kyle's gunshot wound or that Max was an alien.

Liz shrugged, returned his grimace with a smile. "Anything." Her cheeks reddened. "I kind of miss it."

He was still looking at her, motionless. Liz remembered with an internal smile that Kyle had the most deadpan expressions of anyone she knew. He finally spoke. "Really?"

"Well, only if you want to. Maybe we could go for a walk…" Her voice trailed off as her confidence waned in the wake of his blank expression.

Kyle abruptly folded the paper. "Okay."

Liz was a little surprised at his response so she didn't move right away. "Oh, uh, all right. Just let me go tell my Dad."

She started to walk away but Kyle's voice stopped her.

"Tell him you might be out all night."

She looked at him, confused and a little worried.