"Max?" she asked worriedly and when he didn't respond she called his name again. "Is something wrong?" Liz sat down next to him and in a gesture of closeness reached across the table for his hand. He drew back immedietly and she looked at him peculiarly.

"I um - I have to go," he dismissed, quickly edging out of the booth, seeming disturbed by her last action.

"Is something wrong?" she repeated, stepping out of the booth with and Max snapped his head around quickly.

"No I just...I have to - have to go," he stuttered, backing towards the door.

"Okay," she responded softly as she stood rooted to the spot and watched him go.

When Maria stepped out of the kitchen and saw Liz in much the same state that Liz had found Max she immedietly abandoned her work.

"Liz what's up?" she stepped over to the booth where Liz was resting her head in her hands. "You're supposed to be work..." she noted the look on Liz's face and stopped herself midsentence. Neither spoke and there was a silence between them. Liz who didn't want to say anything and Maria who didn't know what to say. "So I thought I saw Max come in here," Maria finally said smiling hoping to draw some details out of her friend. "Any uh...you two gonna go out this weekend?" she grinned widely, but the comment only made Liz's face drop more. "Oh my God, Liz what?" Maria grew worried, more than protective of Liz. She'd seen her with Max throughout the day and they'd both seemed so incredibly happy. Her mind raced as to what could cause such a change in her friend.

"Nothing, nothing happened," Liz mumbled. "That's sorta the problem."

"What?"

"He just..I came over to go see him and he - he just left. Like the minute he saw me." Maria looked at her strangely, almost disbelievingly. That didn't sound like Max at all. Max stayed in the Crashdown until it closed. He helped Liz finish her shift, clearing dirty plates, sometimes delivering a milkshake or soda to an impatient customer. Max stayed after class just to say hello to her, to ask her how her day was going. "It was like.." Liz paused, seeming troubled at the thought that entered her mind, "it was like he didn't want to...like he wanted to get away from me."

"Okay Liz," Maria cut her off before she could continue with any more ideas. "I saw you two in the parking lot this morning." Liz's face flushed at the comment and Maria just grinned. "The last thing that boy wants to do is be away from you." Liz opened up her mouth to protest, but Maria raised her hand - shutting her friend down. "I was watching him in English - he didn't take his eyes off of you," Maria informed her friend and Liz gave a tiny smile at the comment. Liz ran her hands through her hand quickly, walking out of the booth.

"You're right, I'm just overreacting," she sighed. "I guess it's just the price I have to pay when I'm dating an al-" Liz caught herself before she could continue, but Maria just looked at her strangely.

"Dating a what?" she looked curiously at her friend.

"Dating..." Liz paused, "someone like Max," she said slowly.

"What do you mean?" Maria shook her head slightly, confused by her friends statement.

"Someone...who.." Liz wracked her mind for something to say, "someone whose like Max." She repeated, cursing herself in her mind, unable to come up with anything. She didn't know what she meant. Well she knew what she meant - she meant an alien - but she couldn't think of a cover story for Maria.

"Who's like Max - you said that. But what do you -"

"Miss, my Alien Blast please?" a customer demanded of Maria and she just walked away, leaving Liz standing, for the moment relieved, in front of the booth and Max's untouched meal.

His trigonometry book was open on his desk, his pencil and calculator were out but Max dould hardly get past the first problem. Whenever he started his mind just began to drift to the way that he'd left Liz in the Crashdown that afternoon. He'd seen the look on her face, the hurt. And the last thing he wanted to do was hurt her, he'd done enough of that already. She'd just gotten to trust him again and he'd gone and blown it. He couldn't help it. When he was with Isabel or Michael or anybody but Liz all he could think about was her and when he was with Liz all he could think about was Isabel and Michael and his guilt about being with her. Again his mind rested on the memory of Liz reaching tenderly for his hand at the booth this afternoon and him pulling away. All she'd wanted to do was see how he was doing, to see if he was okay. And he'd been a total jerk to her. But he couldn't tell her what was bothering him. He couldn't tell her how Kyle had thrown a cheap elbow at him underneath the basket during practice. He couldn't tell her about Michael and Isabel, about how upset they were at him. He couldn't tell her. He'd told her enough already. Yes, he'd told her enough - he made up his mind and began work on the second math problem. No sooner had he figured out the cosecant of Angle B than he dropped his pencil on the desk, letting out a loud sigh. But what was the use of hiding it? What good came out of lying to Liz? She already knew about him. She trusted him, she believed him, she had promised not to tell anybody. And he believed her, he trusted her.

A knock sounded on his door and he invited whomever it was in.

"Hey...can we talk?" Isabel's voice sounded and Max stood up out of the chair and sat down on his bed. Isabelle stepped over to lower the sound of the Goo Goo Dolls on Max's stereo, but she could hear the quiet acoustic music. *What's the point in all this screaming? No one's listening anyway* sounded the lyrics.

"What's up?" he asked civilly, having no desire to stir up any of the conflicts that had emerged in the eraser room earlier that afternoon.

"Strangely enough you and Liz," Isabel spoke honestly and Max grimaced.

"I don't want to talk about it," he mumbled.

"Then just listen, okay?" Max just nodded, he was never one not to listen to anything his sister had to say. "I'm not...happy that you're together," she hesitated, "I really don't like it - at all...but I think if you'd just told me. If I didn't have to hear about it from Janine Packard and Paulie McKinley I might've..might've maybe accepted it...a litle better." Isabel paused for a moment. "We don't talk anymore, Max," she said honestly. "Talk to me about her," he just looked at his sister curiously.

"About Liz?" he actually laughed slightly at the comment. Over the past few months every time he brought up Liz's name she turned the conversation to something else.

"Tell me why you're so in love with her, why you felt the need to tell her about us." Max was quiet despite the fact that he wanted to tell her how she and Michael were safe. That he really hadn't put their lives at stake, contrary what she thought. " 'Cos I don't understand it. I don't see how one person can..can just change your mind -"

"My mind was never made up," Max suddenly spoke.

"What? Max we all agreed -"

"We agreed to never tell anybody - but you know just like you've thought about telling mom...I've thought about telling her. So many times." Max hesitated. "Since I first saw her, I wanted her to know. I wanted her to be in my life -" Max stopped himself. He never talked about stuff like this with Isabel. It felt awkward. "I couldn't lie to her anymore, Iz - I just..."

"What about the visions that you mentioned? I mean Michael hasn't shut up about it since you mentioned them." Max smiled at the comment, just picturing Michael rambling on about discovering their language and who they were. "He almost started talking about it with Maria - pretty funny," Isabel actually smiled at the memory.

"How is he about uh..." Max paused and Isabel knew what he was trying to say.

"Pretty pissed," she replied honestly and then the hostility returned to her, "not like I can really blame him." The same frustrated look that he'd had this afternoon appeared on Max's face.

"You wanted to know why I told her, I -" he began to defend and Isabel looked down to the floor, then back up to her brother.

"But that still doesn't make it right, Max," she paused. "It doesn't make it right."

Arriving to school with less than two minutes until first period meant that getting to the lockers was always an adventure. The hallway was crowded with students and practically everybody headed to their locker at that time.

"Excuse me! Move please. Thank you," Maria yelled to her classmates as she and Liz made their way to Liz's locker through the mass of students.

"Hey Liz, where's Max?" someone called slyly and Maria couldn't help but smile at the comment, looking over at her friend. The reaction that the entire school had had to Liz and Max in the past day was ten times more than the response she'd gotten being with Kyle. She didn't know why either. Max got it too. Maybe it was the dramatic fashion which they'd revealed themselves to the school. Mabye it was because such an action wouldn't be expected from someone like Max, or Liz for that matter. Maybe it was because gossip had been spreading about them for the past two months. And then there was Kyle. Kyle who since his and Max's fight in the Crashdown had made his dislike for Max evident.

"I don't get this? Why is everybody going so crazy over you and Max?" Maria looked towards Liz, who merely shrugged as she opened up her locker. "I have my reasons, I mean I should be the most excited. I've been waiting for years for you to admit you had feelings for him. And him, I never thought he'd -" Liz rolled her eyes as Maria continued to ramble and she reached in to pull out her books for the day when she noted a ten dollar bill resting on top of her biology textbook. Beneath it was a small note and Liz smiled when she read it. Sorry about last night. Please don't think it was you. Liz suddenly held the note to her chest, shielding it from her inquisitive friend's view.