“Morning,” she said in a cheery tone. “Get up. Michael got over here early and made us pancakes.”

Max opened his mouth to speak but nothing came out. So, since he lost the ability to speak he figured a simple nod would do. He felt relieved when Tess made a move to get off of him. She stood up and grabbed both of his hands to help him sit up and then led him to the kitchen.

All during breakfast he kept feeling the impulse to tell them about the strange man he ran into the night before. But every time he opened his mouth to say it, he stopped himself. Why should I worry them? He thought, It was nothing. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that it was something. He decided that if anything like that happened again he would definitely say something.

“Max, are you okay?” Isabel asked, pouring syrup on her pancakes, “You’ve been awfully quiet.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Pass the syrup?” Isabel passed the Log Cabin Light to Max. “Hey Michael, what made you decide to come over here?” Max asked.

“Didn’t sleep much last night,” he stated simply, flipping a pancake.

“Why is that?” Tess asked as she got up to get some more juice from the refrigerator. Max couldn’t help but notice her very curvy body when she was wearing that particular choice of bed attire. Noticing her made him feel very guilty, but it was hard not to. He had never stopped being drawn to her.

“I don’t know. Had a lot on my mind,” Michael said. “Hey, what do you guys think of a job as a bus boy at the Flying Pepperoni?”

“Bright future there,” Isabel said sarcastically.

“Well I don’t have too many choices.”

“Can’t you find a cooking job?” Isabel asked.

“What restaurant do you know of that would hire an inexperienced cook still in high school? The only reason I got that job at the Crashdown was because Liz hooked me up.”

“I guess you’re right.”

A lot had changed. Not just the fact that Maria and Liz were now the “unspeakable” and that the Crashdown would no longer be their hangout, but other things as well. Michael used to be like a brother to her, as well as a best friend. Ever since they began having those dreams about each other, Isabel had started feeling a little…uncomfortable around Michael. They had continued on pretending like nothing had happened, but things had changed. She felt different around him now. She couldn’t quite put her finger on it, but she knew it was there. She couldn’t help but wonder if Michael felt the same way.

“We’ll all keep an eye out for a job for you, Michael,” Max said, bringing Isabel out of her thoughts.

The day continued without excitement. No evil aliens, no apparent murder plots, no mention of destiny. Max lay resting on his bed, thinking. He decided that he would go back to Liz’s that night. The hours crawled by in anticipation for his meeting with her. He prayed that she would be in her room this time so he wouldn’t have to torture himself for another day. There was a sudden knock on Max’s door.

“Come in,” Max said as he sat up on his bed. Tess entered his room. “Oh. Hey,” he said, surprised to see her.

“I hope I didn’t come at a bad time,” Tess said.

“No,” Max said, shaking his head.

Tess smiled. “You’ve been a hermit all day. Come out with me.”

“Come out with you?” He asked.

Tess smiled. She walked over to Max’s bed and sat down next to him. “We’re friends, right?” She asked him.

“Yeah, sure.”

“So let’s do the things that friends do. Ya know, talking, hanging out.”

Max did kind of want to get out of the house. And he would like to try to trust Tess more.

“Okay,” Max said finally. “Let’s go.”

Tess drove Max to a quaint little café that Max had never been to before. It was a lot like the Crashdown only without the alien theme. He wondered how he’d missed it. They sat down at a small, round table in the corner of the semi-busy restaurant.

“With all that’s been going on lately, it’s nice to just do something normal,” Tess said, as she opened her menu.

“Yeah, I know what you mean. But it’s hard to relax when you don’t know what’s coming to you.”

“Max, I—“

“Good evening, folks. My name is Rita, and I’ll be your waitress,” a blond, twenty-something woman said, interrupting Tess. “Can I start you off with something to drink?”

“Cherry coke, please,” Max said.

“Make that two,” Tess said, making eye contact with Max. His mind automatically drifted back to the night at the Crashdown when Tess ordered a cherry coke with lime and he had the flash of them together in the desert. That was the night he began feeling the mysterious connection with her.

“Isn’t that sweet?” The waitress said with a smile before she turned and walked away.

“You know, there’s a lot I don’t know about you,” Max said.

“Well maybe tonight we can get to know each other better.”

“And maybe I can also figure out why you felt like you needed to make me have those thoughts about you." He couldn’t believe he actually brought this up. He didn’t think they would ever discuss it. The words just flowed out of his mouth before he had time to stop them.

Tess didn’t look perturbed by the subject. “I guess I felt like I needed to get your attention, try to make you remember. But you have to admit, they were pretty creative, weren’t they?”

Max looked down in embarrassment, but he couldn’t help but to smile. “It wasn’t right, Tess.”

“I know, Max. And I am sorry. I really want you to be able to trust me.”

“We’re working towards that,” Max said.

Tess nodded as a small smile spread across her face. “Let’s order, shall we?”

“Alex, you don’t mind girl talk, do you?” Liz asked as she grabbed another hand-full of popcorn. Liz, Maria, and Alex were sitting in Liz’s room, talking. Maria and Liz got into a conversation concerning fashion and Alex was beginning to get the glaze over his eyes that expressed true boredom.

“Have I ever?” Alex answered.

“Yeah. You’re just too nice to say it,” Maria said.

“Maybe. But what are friends for, anyway?” Alex said.

“We’ll always be friends, right?” Liz asked.

Maria rolled her eyes. “Here we go,” she said.

“Whip out the tissues,” Alex added.

“No, guys I’m serious,” Liz said.

“Liz, for God’s sake. We are best friends. We will always be best friends. We survived this past year, right?” Maria said. “Now, shut up and eat more popcorn.”

Liz smiled and grabbed some more popcorn out of the big bowl.

Alex grabbed the remote control and turned Liz’s TV on. He passed through the channels, not staying on any one channel long enough to actually see what was on it.

“Wonder what’s on HBO,” he said. HBO had a movie on where a man was hijacking a woman’s car. Maria sighed. “Ah, memories,” she said. Liz laughed. Alex looked confused.

“What?” He said, confused.

“Michael took Maria’s car once while she was still in it,” Liz said.

“And he proceeded to drive it to Texas,” Maria added.

“And Max, Isabel, and I followed them.”

“And we ended up in some cheap motel room on some random highway because Michael screwed up my car.”

“When we finally found them Maria was on top of Michael.”

“I fell, okay?”

The two girls laughed at the memory. Maria’s face grew suddenly serious.

“You know, Michael was just as much of an jerk-off then as he is now,” Maria said.

“Okay, time to change the channel,” Alex said reaching for the remote again.

“Actually I should get home,” Maria said, standing up.

“Maria, why don’t you stay over?” Liz asked.

“I can’t. I need to catch up on some much needed sleep,” Maria said.

“I’ll drive you,” Alex said, standing as well.

“Okay, guys. See you tomorrow,” Liz said.

“Has Nasedo ever told you anything about…you know…home?” Max asked Tess as they turned on to her block.

“Yeah. He told me a lot about it. He even taught me how to remember what some of it was like,” Tess said.

“Remember?” Max asked.

“The memories of your other life are inside you, Max,” Tess said.

“I see,” Max said. They stopped walking as they approached her front door. “How did Nasedo teach you how to remember them?”

“He’ll teach you and the others some time.”

“What do you remember from your other life?”

Tess smiled, looking into his eyes. Max could sense that she was going to say something about the two of them. “I remember a life where we were happy together, Max.”

Max suddenly felt incredibly awkward. “You do.”

Tess nodded. She reached up to brush a stray hair off his forehead. “It was a life where…we were in love.” Tess leaned closer to Max, looking into his eyes, down at his lips, and back to his eyes. There was a pull there he had trouble resisting. But he wasn’t going to be weak like he had been before.

“No, Tess,” Max said stepping away from her. “I don’t know that life.”

“But you will---”

“And I am in love with Liz.”

The hurt was showing in Tess’ eyes. “Yeah, you told me that before.”

“Then please, Tess. Respect that,” Max said.

Tess looked down at the ground and nodded solemnly. “Okay, Max.” She got out her key and opened her front door. Before she entered, she turned around to face Max.

“But Max. Try to understand what it must feel like for me to have been in love with somebody and then not even have him remember you. It hurts.”