“What happened?” she asked, following him as he began to walk briskly away.

He didn’t answer or even acknowledge her.

Tess sped up and tugged on his shirt to get his attention. He turned slightly and she noticed for the first time the blood stains. “Michael, are you hurt?” she cried.

“I’m fine,” he said coldly, still walking.

“Talk to me, tell me what you say,” Tess said, reaching for his shoulder.

“I didn’t see anything.” He shrugged and brushed her away.

*************

“An hour? A whole hour?”

“It wasn’t a big deal, Maria.”

“You talked to him for an hour, Liz!”

“And I talk to you for hours a day. It’s nothing.”

“You just had an involved conversation with your ex-boyfriend, which half the school thinks you slept with, and you tell me it’s nothing?”

Exasperated, Liz moved the phone from one ear to the other and shifted her position on her bed. “It was just nice, you know? We just talked and I remembered why I liked him last year. I remembered what it was about him that attracted me to him. And I also realized that he’s changed a lot this year. He’s more mature than he was before. Kyle would never blow up about something now, he just…takes it in stride. Last year, he would throw tantrums and now… I don’t know, Maria, it was just a nice conversation.”

“I never said it wasn’t nice,” Maria replied. “I just think that you’re avoiding the issue. You and Kyle.”

“There is no me and Kyle,” Liz insisted.

“Maybe not now.”

Liz sighed. “Maria—“

“No, it’s okay, Liz, I understand. But I just want to make sure that if you get involved with Kyle—“

“I’m not getting involved with Kyle!”

“—Well if you do, I want to make sure you’re not using him,” said Maria matter-of-factly.

“Why would I use him?”

“Because of Max. I know how it is, I mean, look at this ongoing saga between Michael and I. These aliens are hard to get over. And I just want to make sure that you wouldn’t be seeing Kyle, you know, on the rebound.”

“Maria! I’m insulted that you’d even think that about me.” Liz sat up, threatened to tune out the speech she was sure Maria was about to give her. There was a tap on the window. She could hear Maria talking through the phone, but for some reason it seemed very quiet and far away.

Liz went to the window and almost gasped as she realized it was Michael sitting there, looking earnestly at her. She tried to forget about that brief pang of disappointment when she’d realized it wasn’t Max and opened the window.

“We need to talk,” Michael said as he climbed in.

Liz nodded dumbly.

“Wait, did I just hear Michael’s voice?” Maria cried from the phone.

“Um…yeah. Look, Maria, I need to go.”

“Hold on, explain to me what he’s doing at your house.”

“I’ll call you later.” Liz hung up abruptly before Maria could reply.

Liz turned back to Michael but stepped back quickly. There was something on his shirt that looked like blood. It was all over him, dried on his pants, drops of it on his hands. Liz put her hand to her mouth. “Michael, what happened?”

“I used the granilith,” he said.

“Are you alright?” Liz wasn’t sure what to think. He looked so unnerved, just as though he had taken a stroll through the park. But something had to be wrong for him to show up here.

“I need to ask you something.”

“What?”

“You have to tell me everything. Everything Max told you, Max from the future.”

Liz looked up. “It changed, didn’t it? It worked. It was different.”

Michael nodded. “It was.”

She paused, trying to remember those few days. “He didn’t talk much. We mostly talked about what we were going to do about Max. But sometimes…sometimes he would talk about his life. He told me about how hard it had been since Tess left. I guess everyone was fighting all the time, all blaming each other. He reminisced a lot, about you and Isabel. He missed you guys so much, it was so hard for him to lose you.” Liz paused, looking down thoughtfully. “I felt so sad for him. He had been through so much. If it hadn’t been for that, for that look in his eyes, I don’t know that I could’ve gone through with everything. He talked about you. He said that you’d always been his best friend, that he thought you were the bravest out of everyone. He said that sometimes he wished he wasn’t the leader. He trusted you, Michael. He would’ve done anything for you.”

“Did he talk about how we died?” Michael asked.

“Briefly. It was the Skins. He didn’t elaborate, I don’t think he wanted to talk about it. He’d seen you die. He didn’t even know how he was still alive. The Skins were everywhere.”

Liz looked at Michael, at his set face and wondered what it was he wasn’t telling her. “Are you okay, Michael?”

“What if…what if none of it mattered,” he said. “What if what he told you, about making Max fall out of love with you, what if that had nothing to do with it? What if it didn’t change anything?”

“But it did,” Liz insisted. “He disappeared. He’s gone. That reality doesn’t exist anymore.”

“I’m not saying things would happen the same way. What if we’re supposed to die in ten years? What if it has nothing to do with you and Max and Tess? What if us dying depends on something completely different?”

“What are you saying?” Liz asked. “You mean, you went to the future and you and Isabel were dead?”

Michael sat down on her bed and Liz, for a reason she couldn’t quite understand, sat beside him and placed a hand on his back. “I went to the future. Isabel was alive, I talked to her. She told me a lot of stuff. Tess stayed, but she was dead. And I was, too. The Skins killed us. I went to find Max later. And I found him. He died right in front of me.”

“What?” Liz gasped, feeling her stomach twist.

“This blood, it’s not mine. It’s Max’s.” Michael paused and looked Liz in the eyes. “And yours.”

“Mine?”

“I must’ve found you two right after they left. You were next to each other in some alley.” Michael shook his head. “Max must’ve done something stupid. He probably tried to defend you, let his guard down. Max is too sensitive. He doesn’t think in those situations.” He was rambling. Liz had the feeling that if he stopped talking he would cry, so she didn’t stop him. “They probably got him when he was with you because they knew it would be harder if he was alone, only protecting himself. They’re not stupid, they know he’s hopeless when it comes to defending the innocent. They got him bad, he didn’t even know what was going on. When he saw me, he didn’t realize who I was, he thought I was me in the future, that I wasn’t really dead. And then he was just gone, right there in front of me.”

“You’re lucky they didn’t kill you, too,” Liz said.

Michael ignored her. “No, I’ve got to go. I’ve got to warn them.”

“Wait, Michael, you can’t tell Max about this. I already told you. He can’t know.”

“It’s okay,” Michael said, rising to his feet and moving to the window. “I’m going to find Isabel. I need to talk to her.”

He was gone too quickly for Liz to stop him. He’d said he was going to see Isabel and not Max, but Liz didn’t believe him. She had the distinct impression that if Michael saw Max, Max would find out everything. And she couldn’t let that happen. Liz stood for a while, not knowing what to do. The ring of the phone startled her. She picked it up immediately. “Hello?”

“Two things.” It was Maria. “One, what is Michael doing at your house? Two, did he say anything about me?”

*************

Isabel was in her room, Mrs. Evans told him, and Max was studying at the library. She seemed surprised when Michael told her he’d go up and talk to Isabel. She looked as though she didn’t think such a thing were possible. He remembered Max had told him about Isabel’s silent streak lately. Now Michael thought he knew the reason for it.

“You need to tell Max,” he told her, before she could turn her head to see him.

“Tell Max what?”

“You know.”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” she said. But her eyes betrayed her.

“Do you need me to say it? Do you need me to tell you what it is…Vilandra?”

She cringed, he thought for a moment she might cry. “How do you know about that?” she asked angrily.

“It’s a long story. But you have to believe me, Isabel. You have to tell Max. He needs to know.”

“I will tell Max,” she insisted. “I’m just waiting for the right time.”

“And you’re gonna keep waiting for the next 10 years,” he said. “Just do it, Isabel. You can’t hide something like this from him. If you keep this inside of you, it’s just going to fester, it’s going to gnaw at you. Talk to Max.”

Tears filled her eyes. “I can’t, Michael. I can’t tell him. Do you know what he would say if he knew? Can you even imagine what he would think of me? He trusts me, he loves me, and I don’t want to lose that. If I tell him, it’ll kill him. He’ll never trust me again.”

“If you tell me what?” It was Max, in the doorway, looking suspiciously at the two of them.

Isabel groaned, this wasn’t how she wanted it to happen. It would come out, it would have to, with Michael forcing her to do it.

“Nothing,” she said quickly.

“Tell him, Isabel,” Michael said, glaring at her.

She glared back, feeling courage rise inside of her. She managed a half-smile. “I don’t know what you’re talking about, Michael.”

“Don’t think I won’t tell him,” Michael threatened. “It’s your secret, but that won’t stop me.”

There were footsteps coming down the hallway and all three of them froze.

“Hey, what’s going on?” Mrs. Evans called casually. She came up behind Max and put a motherly hand on his shoulder.

Smiles immediately appeared on all their faces.

“Nothing, Mom,” Isabel said. “We were just talking about our test for History next week. Max was telling us we needed to study more.”

“Well, you know Max and studying,” Mrs. Evans said. She turned to Max. “Honey, your friend Liz Parker is here to see you.”

Max hesitated. “I don’t know if it’s the best time—“

“Of course it is, tell her to come up,” Isabel said, anxious for a distraction.

Mrs. Evans parted with a smile and Liz appeared seconds later, out of breath. “Michael, did you—“ She looked at him knowingly, searching for information.

Michael shook his head. “Not yet. There’s other things involved here, Liz. There’s stuff you don’t know about.”

“But still, you can’t just tell them everything.”

“How does she know?” Isabel cried.

Liz stared at Isabel, suddenly realizing that she shouldn’t be discussing this with Michael in front of the others. “No, I just—“

“I think we need to get this settled,” Max said, shutting the door. He sat down and looked at them. Liz noticed that he wouldn’t look her in the face and she felt that soft sadness she’d had around him for so long now.

Michael gave Liz a smirk. “Sure, Maxwell. Why don’t we have Liz start?”

Liz looked at Michael pleadingly. “It’s your story, Michael. I don’t have anything to do with it.”

“Sure you do,” he said, appearing to take some pleasure out of tormenting her. “You’re the one who found out that the granilith is a time travel device, remember? Max came to see you from the future, didn’t he? He told you he needed your help. Isn’t that right?”