"Maria, come on. Seriously. An ice cream sundae just isn't a sundae without the whipped cream."

"Hey, I'm just saying, if your parents cut the cream out of the sundaes it'd really save them some mula, and besides, people would be able to taste the ice cream easier. It's pure logic."

A laugh resounded from Liz as she rolled her eyes. "I didn't know this was so important to you."

"Yeah, well, now you know," Maria added nonchalantly as they came upon her locker. Her fingers guided the padlock to the proper coordinates and the locker door swung open. "Where the fudge is my math book?" Maria cried out in dismay as she peered inside.

But Liz wasn't paying attention. Her eyes were riveted on the handsome boy walking towards them from the other end of the hall. As he passed the two girls, Max Evans gave Liz a warm, genuine smile before continuing on his way to biology.

"Oh, woops, it's in my hands," Maria observed, giggling at her stupidity. Sighing with laughter she slammed the locker door shut and turned to her friend. "Liz? Hello?"

Rapidly Liz blinked, startled as Maria's fingers were snapped in front of her face impatiently. "Oh, sorry. Max walked by."

"Gee, I'll inform the newspaper. I swear Liz, I've never seen two people more infatuated with one another... It's disgusting."

Liz only shrugged and headed for her next class.

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

"I think it's clean," Maria stated a bit louder than usual in an attempt to get her friend's attention. Liz had been washing the same table for five minutes straight now, circling the sponge in a monotonous pattern over one particular area, staring off into space.

"What?" asked Liz, her thoughts abruptly interrupted. She looked down at the top of the table and stopped her hand. "Oh, yeah.."

Maria shook her head. "My God, you are beyond sad."

"Maria, don't have a cow, I just have some things on my mind," stated Liz, a bit irritated, as she grabbed the mop from a corner of the room.

"Some things? Oh please, you've only had one thing on your mind for the past year," said Maria knowingly as she counted the bills in the cash register. "And the really pathetic thing is I don't think Max has been able to take his mind off you since forever either."

Liz stopped soaking the mop in a bucket full of soap suds for a moment to give Maria a well-conjured puzzled look. "Max? Why would I be thinking about Max?" she asked in as nonchalant a voice as possible.

"Don't even try to kid yourself, Liz, it's more than obvious."

Liz shrugged and got back to mopping. "It's not like you don't think about Michael just as often you know."

"Alright, you know what? This self-pity has got to stop. You're no fun with your eyes glazed over all the time." Maria closed the register drawer assertively. "Tomorrow's the last day in the year 2000. I say it's time we made a resolution to forget the boys."

Liz's eyebrows were raised in question.

"Well, maybe not FORGET the boys.." Maria admitted, grinning to herself, "But we DO need to get them out of our minds once in awhile. Come on, I mean, when's the last time we had a girls' night out? Just you and me? Those were the days."

"A girls' night out? Maria, please, for us that consists of sitting in front of the tv, shoving ice cream into our mouths."

"Yeah, but that can be fun.." Maria concluded lamely. "And besides, there's plenty more things we can do together. We'll just have to think for awhile."

"You hate thinking," Liz teased.

"Fine. You'll just have to think for awhile."

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

"So what's all this about exactly? I'm kinda busy," Michael said as Maria paused in her speech. Being dressed in only a t-shirt and worn jeans, he was beginning to feel the chill of the winter air as he slouched against the doorframe.

"Can I come in? -- It's cold," came the reply from Maria, rather than answering the question.

"Yeah, okay." Michael stood up straight and moved to the side, gesturing with his arm into the apartment. Maria sauntered past him and made her way to the couch.

"So Liz was thinking we'd throw this New Year's Eve party at The Crashdown tonight," she began.

"I hate New Year's."

Shifting her weight slightly on the cushion, Maria's face twisted into a bit of disgust. "Do you realize how uncomfortable your furniture is? You need things that are softer. Girls like that."

"Girls don't live here."

"Yes, but a certain girlfriend likes to come over once in awhile and when she does she'd like for her ass to be comfortable while she's supposed to be relaxing." Maria bounced on the cushion twice, then gave up and decided to stand once more when it didn't get any softer.

Michael kicked the door shut and stood with his arms crossed against his chest. "Are you just here to hound me about my taste in stuff to sit on or do you actually have something to tell me? This party, I'm guessing you want me to come?"

"Oh, right, the party. Yeah I want you to come."

"If I agree, then will you go? I have stuff to do," said Michael, his voice starting to sound irritated.

"It must be hard being such a grouch all the time," Maria mused aloud. "But if it means you're coming I'm satisfied. As long as you don't wear that," she added, surveying him up and down.

Michael frowned.

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

"Maria, help me understand your logic here, hmm? We're going for a girls' night out and the first thing you do is invite Michael..."

"Well, you see, it's like this," Maria began, dropping a few of her fries onto Liz's plate, "if the boys aren't there, we'll be wondering the entire night what they're up to. Imagining them sucking face with some Cindy Crawford look-alike when the ball drops at midnight. This way, we'll have them under supervision. We'll know what they're up to."

Thoughtfully Liz chewed her lunch, swallowing before saying, "Maria, they're not five."

"Yes but they're guys, Liz. It's the same thing. They can't help themselves when they're away from the scrutiny -- they'll jump into anyone's pants if given the opportunity. That's what women are for. We train them to be loyal."

"Max isn't like that," said Liz in defense. And then she sighed. For that was the truth. He'd follow her around all night with his heart in his eyes, pleading for her to surrender to his love once more. And she feared she didn't have the strength to resist again.

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

"Max... can I talk to you?" said Liz in a bit of a hushed voice as she approached Max in the hallway.

Stopping to face her, Max swallowed over the lump in his throat as he couldn't help but to notice the soft tap Liz had placed on his shoulder to get his attention. She was always touching people she loved like that, with tenderness. As if she was afraid that to use more strength would insult someone.

Trying to decide whether he should be angry or delighted to see her, he forced out a casual, "Sure."

"Max, I'm sorry I haven't been more availible to talk to lately," Liz began, shifting her biology book to her other arm, "... I guess I just wasn't sure if I was a person you wanted to be talking to right now..." And here she paused and searched Max's face for a hint as to the answer. What she saw seemed to satisfy her because she went on, "Anyway, Maria and I – Well we were sort of thinking about having a New Year's party, tonight at The Crashdown."

"Oh... that sounds nice," Max said politely, his eyes on anything but her.

Tucking a few strands of hair behind her ear, Liz continued with uncertainty, "So anyway, I just thought I'd ask if you'd like to come. I mean if you don't have any other plans.." She faltered and stopped, waiting for an answer.

There was a slight pause that was just long enough to make the silence awkward before Max cleared his throat. "Actually, I kind of do have plans."

Liz's heart sunk to the bottom of the ocean, although she tried not to let it show in her face, or let it be heard in her voice. "Oh, okay – that's fine, I just, you know, wanted to ask... But hey, have fun with whatever you'll be doing tonight, Max."

She offered a weak smile before swiftly heading down the hall and retreating into her next class.

---- ---- ---- ---- ----

"Alright, black, or red?" Maria asked with her back turned to Liz while she surveyed herself in the body-length mirror in her bedroom. "I think black," she declared, answering her own question as she held that one in front of her. "Red's too 'hey-I'm-planning-on-getting-lucky-tonight.' That might be a bit much to get past my mother."

"I like the black one better anyway," offered Liz, looking up from the homework she was completing on Maria's bed.

Maria fitted the dress around her body a bit better while she shot silly smiles into the mirror. "Yeah, you're right." Tossing both dresses aside, she threw herself onto the bed, thoughrally jumbling Liz's neatly laid-out homework in the process. "So what're you wearing, babe?"

"This," Liz answered, gesturing to what she was wearing, without looking up from her books.

"But you wore that all day. Liz, sweetie, it's a party. Nobody parties in jeans, and trust me on this, alright?" Maria tilted her head, looking closely at her friend's distracted face. "You'll want to look nice for Max, won't you?"

"Oh, um, Max isn't coming." Now deciding it impossible to finish her work, Liz carefully put the top back on her pen and dropped it, giving Maria her full attention.

"But I thought you were going to ask him."

"I did. He said he had plans already." Liz's efforts to keep the disappointment out of her voice failed miserably.

"Oh, Liz, I'm sorry," Maria said sympathetically.

"No no, it's okay. If I were him I wouldn't even want to be around me right now. After all, I only broke his heart into a thousand pieces for a reason that he'll never know." Sighing with frustration, Liz laid back onto the pillows. "It was wrong of me to even ask him, Maria. If he came the temptation would do me in, I'd confess! And I can't do that. I CAN'T do that."

"Do you want me to call Michael and tell him not to come?" asked Maria, reaching for the phone.

Smiling with gratitude at her best friend, Liz shook her head. "Thanks, but no. There's no reason why both of us have to be alone tonight."

"You won't be alone! I'll keep you company," Maria promised. "Oh, and Alex. Kyle will be there, he can tell you all about Buddha until you want your ears to rot off."

Liz laughed. "Yeah, okay."

"Okay then," Maria said, standing up once more. "So, NOW, which dress are you gonna wear?"