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West Roswell High

Liz was struggling with some books in her locker when a familiar voice said, Well, well, well, isn’t it our very own young scientist who was so busy disecting frogs the whole summer that she couldn’t call her best friend at least ones in three months.”

Liz turned around smiling to see Maria standing behind her trying to look angry.

“Hey, Maria”

“’Hey, Maria.' That’s all you have to say for yourself? ‘Hey, Maria?' Oh, no, you’re not getting off that easy.”

“Ok, how about this, ‘I’m sorry’,” Liz said hoping that would do the trick. She knew Maria had every right to be angry, “I’m a horrible, awful person who doesn’t deserve a wonderful, amazing friend such as you are.”

“Ok, Ok,” Maria said still trying to look angry, “I just missed you so much.”

“I know, I’m sorry…I just…”

“Was busy,” Maria finished for her, knowing exactly why Liz didn’t want to call her.

“Yeah,” said Liz.

“I understand,” Maria said as she gave her best friend a hug.

“Thank you. I don’t deserve you.”

“Yeah, I know. But, I still love you,” Maria said smiling.

Liz finally got the books she needed and they started walking down the hall.

“So, how was the camp?”

“It was ok. Lots of work, but it was nice. Chicago’s great, especially the lakefront.”

“Any guys?” asked Maria

“Maria!”

“What? There must have been a few cute “young scientists” guys there” Liz pretended not to know what Maria was talking about.

“Oh, come on!” Maria said

“Well…”

“Yeah…”

“There was this one cute guy there…”

“And…”

“And…I fell hard for him…”

“Really? Oh, my God! Come one, details”

“And then he turned out to be an alien who was out to destroy the world,” Liz said jokingly.

Maria slapped her arm, “I’m serious.”

Liz stopped laughing and looked straight into Maria’s eyes. And Maria understood. The pain was still there.

Those three months away from HIM didn’t make it go away. Suddenly Maria hugged Liz again, as if trying to take the pain away. She knew she couldn’t but she wanted to so badly.

Liz whispered, “Thank you”

Maria gave her an understanding smile and they started walking to the class again.

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Liz held her breath as she walked into each of her classes, afraid that Max might be there; hoping that he would be, wishing that he wouldn’t.

For the fourth time today she held her breath as she walked into the Chemistry class. She scanned the room and sighed in relief when she didn’t see him, but as she walked by teacher’s desk, she heard Mrs. Collin say, “Oh, Liz Parker?” Yeah, ah, you are gonna be partners with Isabel. You know Isabel Evans?” Liz turned around as she followed Mrs. Collin’s gaze. She met Isabel’s eyes.

“Yeah, thanks,” she said to her teacher trying to smile as she started walking towards her new lab partner. “Well, at least it’s not the other Evans,” she thought to herself as she walked to the back of the room.

“Hi,” said Liz to Isabel as she said in her seat.

“Hi,” Isabel answered, “How was Chicago?”

“It was Ok, thanks. How was your summer?”

“It was…boring. Nothing interesting.”

“Wouldn’t that be a good thing?” Liz asked. After everything that happened, boring was probably the best thing for all of them.

Isabel looked at Liz understanding exactly what Liz was syaing. “Yeah, I guess it is”, she said as the bell rang and Mrs. Collin started the class.

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Liz was getting her Calculus book from her locker as Kyle came up to her. “Hey,” he said

“Oh, hey, Kyle,” said Liz when she turned around, “How’s it going?”

“It’s great. How was that scientists thing in Chicago?”

“It was good.”

“That’s good…Listen I was wondering…”

“Yeah…” she said as she closed her locker.

“Well…remember that conversation we had…you know…about being friends…”

“Yeah,” she answered.

“Well, I was just thinking…we never actually did anything, you know, as friends. I mean, so many things happened and then you left and well…I just thought that…”

“I would love to, Kyle,” Liz said getting what he was trying to say.

“Great. That’s good…Wait, you’d love to what?”

“Hang out together…as friends.”

“Oh, good, ‘cause I thought that maybe you were talking about something else”, he said smiling.

“Like what?”

“You know,” he said teasingly.

“Kyle!”

“I’m kidding, I’m kidding. God, don’t they have any sense of humor in Chicago? I’m not stupid. I know I don’t have a chance in hell. At least, not with Evans around”

Liz stopped smiling. She tried so hard not to think about Max the whole day today. She had just one more class left and then she would go home and be able to breathe again. But now, as Kyle mentioned Max’s name, the pain was back. This pain in her chest that felt like somebody was squeezing it.

Kyle saw the change on her face. He wasn’t sure why all of a sudden Liz got so sad, but he knew it had something to do with Max. It always did.

“I’m sorry, Liz, did I say something?”

“Oh, uhm…No…I have to get to my Calc. Class…that’s all. Uhm, stop by the Crashdown. We’ll talk.”

“Ok, see ya.”

“Bye, Kyle.”

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Liz was still trying to get a grip on herself as she walked into the math class. As she looked up she stopped breathing. He was here. Max was here. He was sitting in the back of the classroom and he was looking straight at her. Their eyes were locked on each other. Liz felt that thing inside of her…that pain again. As the bell rang she told herself to get a seat. There was one next to Max…”No, bad idea,” she thought to herself. She sat in the front row…something she hated…just so she would be able to get out of class as soon as the bell rang, so that Max wouldn’t be able to catch up with her…so that she wouldn’t have to talk to him, stand close to him, feel him…

“Snap out of it, Liz,” she told herself as she tried to concentrate on what the teacher was saying. But how could she concentrate? She felt him looking at her. It was like his eyes were burning a whole in her and the pain was growing.

As the bell rang Liz practically flew out of the classroom. She heard him call her name, but she just ran even faster.

She finally got to the band room. “Bad choice,” she thought to herself as she was trying to catch her breath. This is where she found out the truth about him…that’s where her life changed forever…

“Liz!”

Liz jumped up startled. “Alex! God, you scared me. What are you doing here?” she asked as she was giving him a hug.

“I left my guitar here earlier. What are you doing here?”

“Oh, I…uhm…hiding,” she finally said honestly.

“Max?” Alex asked understanding

“Yeah. I just…”

“You know you will run into him sooner or later. Roswell is only this big,” he said as he showed with his fingers how big.

“I know. I just hope it’s later rather than sooner,” she answered

“Really?”

“Yeah…I don’t know…A part of me really wants to talk to him, but the other part is just terrified.”

“Of what?”

“Not being able to stay away from him.”

“So, what are you gonna do?”

“I haven’t decided yet. So, until I do, I’ll…”

“Hide,” Alex finished.

“Bad idea?” she asked him hoping he would tell her what to do.

“It’ll be Ok, Liz,” was all he said.

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Crashdown- Closing

Liz and Maria are the only ones there cleaning up.

“Let me tell you, I did NOT miss this,” said Liz as she mopped under one of the tables.

“Tell me about it. You should have been here on the Forth of July. It was like suddenly everybody in the universe had a craving for a Will Smith burger. It was horrible. The man should definitely stop making movies about aliens,” Maria said while she was pouring the left-over coffee.

“How are things with Michael?” asked Liz

“What things? The whole summer was this on-and-off thing going on. I felt like a light switch”

Liz started laughing, “That bad, huh?”

“No, it wasn’t all bad…”Maria smiled to herself, “but there were some moments. It’s ok. Sadly enough I’m actually used to it by now.”

“So, you’re ok.”

“Yeah.”

“Good, then go and do some inventory,” said Liz trying to sound bossy.

“Whatever you say, boss,” said Maria as she was walking out the back door.

Liz was finishing moping when she heard a slight knock on the door. She looked up and froze…It was Max. Her heart started to pound like crazy. She thought it was going to jump out of her chest as she was opened the door for him.

They stared at each other for a just a short moment, but to Liz the moment felt like an eternity. She finally squeezed out a “Hi.”

“Hi,” Max answered as he walked in.

“How are you?” she asked trying to sound casual

“I’m good. How was Chicago?”

“Oh, it was great. Yeah, the lake and the city, it was very beautiful.” She knew that if she talked about this, she wouldn’t have to talk about them, so she went on, “Yeah, and the camp, it was great. I learned a lot of neat stuff and the people…” She trailed off as her eyes locked on his again.

They sat silent for a moment, then Max said, “Isabel said that you guys are lab partners in chem class.”

“Oh, uhm, yeah, we are”

“I guess you’re under some kind of Evans curse…you know for lab partners,” he smiled as he said it.

“Yeah, I guess…maybe I am,” she tried to smile back to show that she got the joke

“I wanted to talk to you after math class today,” he said suddenly.

“Oh, God, here we go,” Liz thought to herself as she felt her heart jumping out of her again.

“Yeah, I’m sorry. It’s just that I had to…”

“Run?” he finished for her.

Knowing exactly what he meant, but trying to pretend she didn’t, Liz said, “Yeah, I had the early shift, so I had to get home right after…” She looked at him and she couldn’t lie to him anymore, “I was just…”

“Avoiding me?” He finished for her again.

“Uhm, no…Yes,” she finally admitted.

“Why?”

“I was afraid”

“Of what?” Max asked as he walked up closer to her.

She looked up at him. “Of this.”

She started to feel like she was drowning in his eyes, so she walked over to the counter and started wiping it when suddenly Max walked up to her and put his hand over hers.

They stood like this for a while, neither one daring to breathe. Then…Liz pulled her hand away and looked up at him. She knew exactly what he was waiting for. He wanted to know if maybe, just maybe she changed her mind. But she knew she couldn’t. It wouldn’t be right…for anyone.

“Nothing’s changed, Max,” she finally said

“I know,” he said and then started to leave.

With all her being Liz wanted to scream “Don’t go!” but she knew she couldn’t. So, she just stood there watching him leave.

Max walked up to the door and stopped. He stood there for a moment hoping that maybe she would say “Stay,” hoping for a miracle.

He opened the door and then without turning around he said, “I missed you,” and with that he walked through the door.