She had heard from Cassie, that Kyle was still picking her up and meeting them at the Crashdown at 6:30, and that he had told her he would talk to her tonight. Cassie had agreed, but told Liz she wondered what he wanted to talk about, and that she didn’t know if it sounded good.

Liz hurried up in the shower and ran around throwing her clothes on. She didn’t know why she was jumpy, but she felt something and she didn’t know what. She was anxious and nervous but couldn’t figure out why. She frowned wondering if it was just another pregnancy symptom. She had had the nightmares again last night. She didn’t know what it had been about, just that there was trouble or something coming. Then she shook the thought off, realizing it was probably just the strange combinations of food she’d been eating lately that were probably giving her nightmares.

There was a knock on Liz’s door and her mom peeked her head in. “Liz, Max is here.” She said with a hesitant smile. She had agreed not to tell Liz that she couldn’t see Max, but she was a little apprehensive for them, because she remembered being a teenager as well.

“Okay, can you tell him to come on in?” Liz said, brushing her hair.

Her mother hesitated again, but then nodded and left the door wide open. Liz exchanged smiles with her mom and then sighed when her mom left. She guessed she couldn’t blame her mom. If only she could tell her mom it was too late.

“Hey.” She heard from the doorway.

Liz spun around and her face lit up when she saw Max standing in the doorway in his black top and black jeans. He looked so sexy and yet he made her feel so safe at the same time.

Liz dropped her brush and met Max as he came into the room. She put her arms about his neck and played with the hair at the back of his neck, as Max pulled her closer and lightly caressed his hands down her back. “Hey yourself.” Liz finally answered and then Max leaned down and closed his mouth over hers.

When they heard moving around in the living room, Max lifted his head and smiled knowing that was their hint that the kiss had lasted long enough. And he had to agree, because as usual, within seconds of being near Liz, he was fully aroused.

Max’s warm eyes lovingly looked Liz over, and then met her eyes. “How are you feeling? Better?” He asked softly, reminding her of this afternoon at lunch.

Liz blushed and nodded. “Yeah, sorry about that. I don’t know why I do that. I…I hate it.”

Max laughed and gave her a squeeze before he released her with a sigh. “We’ll see what Jordan says next weekend.” And then he took her hand and laughed once again as she looked him over and let him know she hadn’t missed his reaction to her.

He squeezed her hand and winked. “Behave yourself. We have to get past your parents.” He said and watched as Liz nodded and walked a little ahead of him to hide his problem.

Once they were down the stairs Liz headed for the outer restaurant. Max pulled her back for a minute and captured her mouth again.

She loved the taste of Max, and had already missed him from just this afternoon. She moaned when he sucked her tongue into his mouth and caressed it with his. Then he nibbled at her bottom lip and sucked that into his mouth as well.

Liz nudged herself between Max’s legs and he shifted to give her more room to snuggle in between. Liz sighed when she snuggled her heat up against Max’s hard arousal and pulled him closer.

Finally Max pulled his mouth from Liz’s and brushed back a strand of her hair. “I missed you last night.” He whispered. Talking about his not having stayed the night last night like he had been lately.

“I missed you too.” Liz said breathlessly, and started to pull him down for another kiss.

“I’ll be over tonight.” Max promised as their mouths melded again.

“I knew we’d find them back here.” They both heard Maria say with amusement in her voice.

They lifted their heads and smiled over a Maria and Michael who stood in the doorway from the front of the restaurant.

“Come on Romeo, everyone else is here.” Michael teased and winked at Max and then at Liz.

Liz was happy to see Cassie was there, and that she looked great. But she did sense a tension between Cassie and Kyle, and finally she saw Cassie just pull Kyle over to a booth. Liz didn’t blame her for wanting to get the talk over with so she knew where she stood.

Cassie walked over to another booth farther away from the couples and stared at Kyle as he sat also.

He looked uncomfortable and tried to look around. But Cassie just waited and Kyle had to look back at her sooner of later, so he chose sooner. Might as well get it over with he thought.

“You said you had something you wanted to talk to me about.” Cassie got right to the point. Kyle just stared for a minute, drowning again in her eyes. Then when he saw her eyes narrow with impatience, he shook himself and cleared his throat.

“I guess you’re wondering why I was talking with Susan Altman this afternoon.” He started.

Tina raised an eyebrow. “No. I am just curious why you practically ignored me all day, and then barely looked at me this afternoon. I don’t care who you talk to.” Cassie said calmly. Kyle was not going to get to her. If this wasn’t going to happen she wanted to know now. She hadn’t been surprised when she’d realized that Kyle had probably already lost interest in her in a romantic way. He probably saw her as a friend since she was such a good listener, but had come to his senses about his romantic feelings for her. And she couldn’t blame him really. Even her mother couldn’t love her enough to stay. And her father certainly couldn’t stand being around her too much. But she was not going to let this guy see her cry, or feel sorry for her.

“Ah, I didn’t mean to ignore you It’s just…I think we should just take this dating a little more casually. You know, you can see others if you want, and so will I. But I’d like to still see you once in awhile, like tonight. You know? Just take it slower.” Kyle blurted out and then sighed that he had gotten it out, but then held his breath when he saw Cassie’s almost too calm look as she stared back at him.

“I see. Well, that’s fine. If you want to date others that’s your business. However, I’m not into group dating. So I will have to excuse myself from your list of dates. But we can still be friends, and I don’t want to ruin tonight, so we will just have fun tonight… as friends.” Cassie managed and swallowed past the lump in her throat. She was proud of herself however for being able to keep her composure. She had expected something like this. It had been too good to be true for Kyle Valenti, the captain of the football team and basketball team to be interested in her for long.

Kyle felt sick to his stomach. She was taking it really well. He should be happy. Heck they could be friends and just hang out together and he could even still talk to her about things he guessed. But yet the thought of not being with her romantically at all…he knew he hadn’t even kissed her yet, but he was missing it already. He wouldn’t be able to kiss Cassie if they were just friends. And how close would they be if he was dating others. But it’s what he wanted and needed he reminded himself.

He started to speak, trying to organize his thoughts, when Cassie got up suddenly and walked over to the group waiting over at another booth.

Kyle got up and followed, not as relieved as he should be. Had he just blown even his friendship with Cassie? And could he live with just being her friend? He remembered how Liz and Max had tried to be just friends, and how miserable they had been. He cringed. He would not be like that.

“Okay, are we ready?” Isabel asked looking around and smiling at Cassie, and then narrowing her eyes at Cassie’s pale, pinched looking face, and then she turned to Kyle who looked uneasy. She gave Kyle a dirty look figuring he had taken the smile from Cassie, and she let him know it.

Kyle shifted and looked away from Isabel Evan’s hard stare. That girl could give the deadliest looks. And he really couldn’t blame her this time though. He too could see that even though Cassie had said she was okay with just being friends that she was looking a little upset as well. “I say we take only two cars. Cassie and I will sit in the back of mine and chat, while Michael and Kyle sit up front.” Maria said taking hold of Cassie’s arm and also throwing Kyle a dirty look.

Kyle cringed remembering how territorial girls could get when one of their own was hurting.

Michael looked at Kyle with pity knowing Kyle was not in for an easy night with the girls.

Kyle looked to Alex and Max and they just shrugged as if saying… you got yourself into what ever it is. We aren’t going to try to get in the way of the girls’ wrath.

Kyle looked to Liz who was frowning at him. At least she didn’t look like she wanted to kill him, not like Maria and Isabel had.

But Liz’s look of disappointment was almost worse. A guy couldn’t win around here. Why couldn’t he do what he felt like? If he wanted to keep it cool with Cassie that was his own business.

Then Liz noticed his finger for the first time. “Kyle what happened?” she frowned at the splint.

Kyle shrugged. “Broke it at practice today. Didn’t watch the ball when I tried to catch it. My own fault.”

“You’ll be able to play next Friday though won’t you?” Alex asked. They were all looking forward to beating their rival team.

“Yeah. Definitely. No more stupid mistakes either.” Kyle assured them.

Cassie looked at the splint and remembered how angry Kyle had seemed earlier when she had asked him about it when he’d picked her up to bring her here. He had told her the same thing and had said he didn’t want to talk about it.

Liz looked around the restaurant to make sure things were covered, and noticed Alice and Tanya were working tonight. One good one bad. But they could manage. The crowd was light tonight. Just a couple of small groups at two different tables.

“Ready?” Max asked near her ear as he placed his hand on her back lightly.

Liz looked up at him and grinned. “With you? Always.” She teased. And then laughed lightly when Max’s jaw hardened with desire and his eyes burned into hers.

They all heard the sound of sirens in the distance and just looked toward the door when it opened and two men came in with guns and started waving them around and shouting.

“Get down everyone, get down now!” One of them screamed as the other one pulled the blinds down on the café to keep the people on the outside, and the now three cop cars from looking in.

Max’s hand froze on Liz and then he pushed her down and behind him. He was trying to think quickly but met Michael’s look and they knew they would just have to see where this went.

Kyle swore and when he saw the gunman come in, he grabbed for Cassie and threw her down as Michael grabbed Maria and Alex grabbed Isabel. The other people in the café also got down and were crying or whimpering.

“Shut up! No one say anything either!” The same gunman who had called out before said again. “Jamie, get the people toward the back of the room. Away from the door.” The man ordered again to the other one who had been closing the blinds.

“Get up and get to the back! You heard Will!” he yelled at the two tables with people who were now on the floor, but still too near the door.

One of the older woman whimpered and her husband tried to shush her.

The man called Will went behind the counter and grabbed Alice up and placed the gun against her head.

“First person who moves will get this lady’s head blown off. We have nothing to lose by taking one of you out. We’re already wanted for murder, so don’t try anything heroic.” He said and glared specifically at the four healthy looking teens.

Max, Michael, Alex and Kyle exchanged helpless, angry looks. Michael looked at Max and Max knew he was asking if they should use their powers, but Max motioned him that there were too many people around. Michael nodded but looked even grimmer.