“I mean, after all the resolving I did? After all the lectures I gave her? She’ll think I am the biggest hypocrite ever!”

“Most likely.”

Maria DeLuca stopped ranting and turned to look at Michael Guerin. While she paced back and forth on the sand, cedar oil vial up to her nose, he was leaning lazily against her mother’s new Jetta, not flustered at all.

“Michael? Do you even realize what we’ve done?” Maria asked, incredulously.

“Hmm, we cut a few classes, took a hike around the desert, and made out for a few hours. A normal Friday afternoon for me.” “Maybe so, but…” Maria trailed off, understanding what Michael had been hinting towards. “Yeah, right. A normal Friday afternoon for you is cutting a few classes alone, taking a hike around the desert alone, and dreaming about making out with me,” she said, waiting for Michael to contradict her. Instead, he grinned. “What, have you been spying on me or something?”

“Not as much as you’ve been spying on me.” Instantly, Michael’s grin disappeared. It was a well-known fact to most of their friends that he had a tendency to look at her without her knowing it, but he obviously hadn’t realized she knew that.

Maria knew she’d gone too far, and she quickly changed the subject. “Michael, come on. I have told Liz for weeks and weeks to forget about you people. To live a normal life. To not spend her afternoons making out with Max. And now look at me!” Her voice rose to a wail as she took another huge sniff of oil and continued pacing.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"And what about you, spaceboy?” she added. “I seem to remember all this crap about not getting connected… not getting intense. Or am I hallucinating?”

“You must be. I don’t remember anything of the sort. I’m a born and bred romantic.” replied Michael, sarcastically, annoyed that she’d brought it up.

“Michael! Max is going to be all over you for this!” Maria insisted.

“Yeah, he probably would be. If he found out.”

“You are suggesting we keep this a secret from our best friends?” “That seems to be the idea.”

Maria considered this for about half a second before she shook her head. “No, bad idea. I mean, even if I wanted to hide us from her, I am the worst liar ever. Liz, she can read me like a book. She’d know in a second what I was out here doing.” “Don’t you mean who?”

“Wha-Michael! You… you…”

“Pervert? Pig?” supplied Michael, amused.

“Typical male is more like it…” muttered Maria.

Michael grinned. Any time he could get Maria to forget he was an alien was a good minute in his book. And if it took Max getting furious at him for that moment to happen, it was well worth it.

“Look. You have a choice. Either you get both of us in trouble, or you lie to Liz. I could go either way.” he said, hoping she’d choose the latter. Just because he wasn’t afraid of Max getting mad, well, that didn’t mean he had to like it. “Maria… Maria?

Hello?” he asked, realized she wasn’t listening, but instead staring past him with an intent look on her face. Frustrated, he grabbed her arm. What was the girl up to now?

“Michael… look. What is that? The thing the light is bouncing off of,” she explained, sensing the question before he had a chance to ask it.

Michael sighed. There went any hope that Maria was thinking of him as a regular guy. Before she knew he was, well, different, she would have written off the glare as just that, an unusual glare. However, now that she knew aliens existed, she was always thinking of everything as a clue. She was worse then he was in that way. Sometimes, he wished she would just drop the search. He decided to humor her, though. No use getting on her bad side two hours after winning her over.