*Luck,* Maria thought to herself as she pulled out behind Max’s jeep. She’d just consider herself lucky if she made it to Colorado without losing her mind. She and Michael had driven in complete silence the entire journey except for Michael’s grumblings when he didn’t like what she played on the radio.

“Do you want to drive?” Maria asked. She personally didn’t think that was the best idea in the world- she could still clearly recall their cross state trip to Texas and how Michael had “fried” her car- but she had to say something to break the silence. No answer. She looked over at Michael and saw that he was once again staring blankly out the passenger side window, focusing his attention anywhere but in her direction. A quick frown flitted across her features. God, he was impossible. Fine then, screw him, she didn’t care if he wanted to be antisocial anyway.

With a last glance at Michael’s impassive face, she leaned down and turned the radio on. The reception on the top 40 formatted radio station they had been listening to when they pulled into the diner was now fuzzy at best, and Maria hit the search button on her radio. The first station that came up was rap and making a face Maria hit the search button again. The radio stopped on another station and Maria heard the vaguely familiar sounds of a slow, soothing song coming through the speakers.

“It’s been a long time since you left me,
I didn’t mean to make you cry.
I didn’t mean to disappoint you,
I didn’t mean to tell you lies.”

Michael felt pained as the lyrics filled the car. He remembered the night of the rave and his harsh words to Maria. “Maybe we should have never started this.” The look on her beautiful face that he’d been able to only glance at for a split second because he knew if he actually looked at her, at the pain on her face that he had caused, he would run after her and tell her he didn’t mean what he had said, it wasn’t true, he was scared, and please don’t walk away. But he hadn’t. He had forced himself not to look and not to feel and he had lost her.

“And after all that we have been through
Won’t you let me tell you why?
One more try
I didn’t know how much I loved you
One more try
Let me put my arms around you
Living all these lonely nights without you
Oh baby can we give it one more try?”

The nights Michael had lain awake staring at the ceiling. Or the times he couldn’t stay still anymore and had climbed out of his bedroom window and gone for a late night walk. He always ended up in the same place. Always in the shadows of the house next door to Maria, watching her and wishing that he could go back to that night and change what had happened between them. Wishing he could just wrap her in his arms and make things all right again.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve kissed you
It always used to feel so good
And if you knew how much I missed you
You’d forgive me if you could
And now that we have found each other,
Can’t we give it one more try?
One more try
I didn’t know how much I loved you
One more try
Let me put my arms around you
Living all these lonely nights without you
Oh baby can we give it one more try?”

Maria felt tears burning behind her eyes and she forced them back with some difficulty. She was not going to cry. Just because this song was making her think of Michael and their failed not-really-a-relationship relationship. *I hear that, Timmy,* she thought sadly to herself. *I didn’t know how much I was really beginning to care for him until he decided it was over.*

“And after all that we have been through
Won’t you let me tell you why?”

Being abducted by Michael and heading to Marathon, Texas with him, scared out of her mind yet strangely exhilarated at the same time. Evading the FBI and Sheriff Valenti countless times. Michael kissing her in The Crash Down that first time to “calm her down,” when the kiss had done anything but. The passionate makeout sessions they’d shared during that freaky December heatwave. Standing in that circle with her best friends in the world, kissing Michael in the dream plane and bringing him back to life. Her anger at Michael for not thanking her, and then her happiness at the gesture of the napkin holder he had made for her. His excuse that he had to be a “stone wall,” and she kept him from feeling that way. Rapid-fire images of what she and Michael had been through since that crazy night in September ran through her mind as she tried to ignore them and concentrate on the road in front of her instead.

"And now that we have found each other,
Can’t we give it one more try?
One more try,
I didn’t know how much I loved you.
One more try,
Let me put my arms around you.
Living all these lonely nights without you,
Oh baby can we give it one more try?
Oh girl, you know I love you.
I just want you to know
Our love I’ll always treasure
So please, just don’t let me go.”

As the second the song ended Michael practically dove for the radio, quickly hitting the tuning button and praying that whatever God of the radio that was seriously messing with him right now would see fit to stop torturing him with sappy love songs. His prayers were seemingly answered as the radio stopped and Cowboy Mouth’s “Whatcha Gonna Do?” filled the car. He glanced over at Maria quickly, but her attention was focused intently on Max’s jeep in front of them, and he doubted she even noticed he had changed the station.

“Whatcha gonna do
About your lover?
Whatcha gonna do
About your friend?
What’s it gonna take
To find another
Another one to break your heart again?”