“God, can you get anymore pathetic?” Maria asked with a sarcastic tone as she sat down next to him.

“Oh hey Maria. Did you just finish your shift?” He seemed distracted as he turned toward the Crashdown looking longingly at Liz who was waiting on a table nearby.

“Yeah...and I decided to come out here and bother your sorry ass since you’ve been permanently camped out here since 10 am.”

Max turned around with an annoyed look on his face, “I have not!!” as he tried to swat her in the shoulder.

Maria swerved to avoid the friendly jab,”Okay keep saying that to yourself....uh huh.....” she said as she started to giggle.

“Besides,” Max quipped, “I’m not the pathetic one butting heads with Courtney for the right to flirt with Michael.” He said with a smug grin on his face. “You two are just as bad as guys fighting over who has a bigger...”

“Max!” Maria screamed with embarrased surprise.

“Collection of legos.....legos, Maria” Max said with the most prudish look on his face. “Get your mind out of the gutter girl.”

“Not until you get your butt out of the gutter, waiting for Miss Parker over there to make the first move.”

Both of them turned back just as Liz had turned in their direction. She smiled and Max’s heart soared and was shatterred all over again. Maria, sensing his hurt feelings, thought quickly to change the subject, “So you heard from Michael lately?” She figured she might as well zoom in on her pain to spare Max the pain he was obviously feeling.

Ever since the summer, she had felt alot closer to Max, practically the only friend she had over the summer. In a way she knew exactly how he was feeling, because she was going through the same thing he was. Besides, Liz was away in Florida and Alex was still convinced that he and Isabel could work things out. *That boy!* she thought. He must be in love thinking he could pull off that pseudo-strip tease last night.

Max shrugged his shoulders “You’re guess is as good as mine. He and Tess are always off somewhere practicing their powers. He’s actually become really good at controlling them. And ever since last night’s encounter he has become hell bent on protecting everyone.” Max slumped his shoulders as he said this last phrase.

Maria noticed, “What, feeling a little upstaged by your second in command?”

“It’s not that. I just feel like there’s this gap between us. Ever since we were told our destinies, he’s been even harder to deal with.” Max could barely even talk to Michael lately without getting upset. He had always sensed this kind of competition with Michael, ever since they were little. Max was always bailing Michal out of one mess or another. Little did he know then that being Michael’s savior was not something new to him, at least not in this life.

Quietly thinking about all this Max turned to Maria. “Well, you know Michael.” Max said mindlessly.

Maria recoiled a little feeling hurt because she THOUGHT she knew Michael, but she obviously didn’t. She had called him all summer and he had not even acknowledged her presence even when they were on shift together at the Crashdown. After all they had been through this past year, he acted as if none of that mattered. But what should she have expected? She could barely get him to thank her for saving his sorry ass that night on the reservation. And now with this whole Courtney thing, she was feeling even worse, knowing that nothing had changed between them.

“Yeah well, I thought I did.” She shook her head as if to shake the thought out.

Turning to Max she said, “Look we have been pulling this whole Dawson’s Creek lost love attitude for way too long.”

“C’mon” she said as she pulled Max up by the arm, “We are going to have fun today.”

Max looked at her hesitantly, “What did you have in mind? Oh God, please no more yoga!” holding up his hands and backing away, “ I don’t think I could take another one of those abnormal sitting positions.”

“Ha ha, very funny Evans. No I had something a little more teenage in mind. Enough of this soap opera drama.” She reached into her bag and pulled out two tickets.

“What are those?” trying to figure out what the tickets were for.

“Duh, they’re tickets genius!” Maria responded.

“I can see that, I mean tickets for what?”

“Well....” Maria said taking his arm, “I figured you needed a little pick-me-up so I got my Mom to get me these Counting Crow tickets last week. They’re playing in Albuquerque tomorrow night.” She could see Max practically drooling over the tickets.

“Wanna go?” waving the tickets in front of him and teasingly smiling at him.

“Are you kidding?? I’ve been trying to get these tickets for two months!” He immediately tried to grab them like a little kid reaching for candy.

“Yeah I remember you couldn’t shut up about that concert at the beginning of the summer. So I figured you know” she shrugged her shoulders suddenly feeling a little embarrased at her generosity,”Well whatever, here” handing him the tickets.

“Wait a minute” scratching his head, “why are you giving me both tickets? Aren’t you coming with me?” He was confused and a little bit scared she would say no. He didn’t know why, but he hoped she was planning on coming with him.

“Well they’re your favorite group so....”

“So nothing. Maria, this is the nicest thing anyone’s done for me in a while. I’ve been so worried about this whole ‘leader of my alien race’ thing that I really haven’t had time to think about anything else.”

He looked at her with gentle eyes, a look usually reserved for Liz Parker alone, “I really appreciate this, and you ARE coming with me. We’ll make a night of it. We can get dressed up and I’ll pick you up and everything.” He was getting more and more excited making plans, feeling like a normal teenage boy.

Maria looked a little hesitant, “You mean like a date? Not a date right, not a real date anyway.” Of course he couldn’t mean a real date. Not for Maria Deluca. Liz was the one who got the flowers, the football players and the sensitive alien types, not her. But here he was standing in front of her with those incredibly deep soulful eyes and she found herself unable to say no.

“Great so I’ll pick you up at 6 at your house” Max said as he ran towards the jeep.

As he ran away Maria realized it would be a very long 26 hours. She got into the Jetta so giddy and so excited. It felt good, for the both of them to not think about their estranged significant others. But at the same time Maria couldn’t help but feel a little guilty. Why was she getting so emotional over a friendly outing with Max? Maria took one last look at the Crashdown and saw Liz wiping down the tables and waving goodbye.