Author: X_tremeroswellian
Email: [email protected]
Disclaimer: Not mine. The song, "I Have Nothing," is by Whitney Houston. Appears on The Bodyguard soundtrack.
Rating: R for language, violence, and sexual content
Spoilers: Up through "The (UFO) Convention" and possibly the first five books of Roswell High by Melinda Metz.
In the Presence of Evil (Part Five)
Maria was walking to her car that afternoon, when she heard a voice behind her shout her name. She recognized the voice without turning around and she chose to ignore it.
"Wait! Would you just wait a second!" Michael caught up with her.
"What do you want?" she asked flatly.
"I just--I want to talk to you for a minute. That's all."
"Fine. Start talking. You have exactly one minute," she replied, looking at her watch.
"I just wanted you to know that it's okay. That you guys are staying away from us. It's for the best."
"Is that what you chased me down to tell me? Because you wasted your time. We have every intention of pretending you three out of existence. Starting right now," she said furiously, storming away from him.
"Damn it," he swore under his breath. He followed her again. "Would you just hear me out! The reason it's good that you're staying away is because I think you're in danger. I don't from what or who, but I feel it. And it has to do with us."
"Why are you talking to me?" Maria spun around to face him, pure rage in her eyes. "Why aren't you thinking about mud? Why the hell do you even care what happens to us? In your opinioin, Max should never have saved Liz in the first place. Well, guess what. We'll pretend that the shooting never happened. That we never talked, any of us. We'll just go back to the way things were before. Now if you'll excuse me, your minute is up." She turned on heel and without giving him a chance to respond, she walked to her car and got inside, starting the engine.
Michael sighed as he watched her back out of the parking place and drive out of the lot. Then he shook his head and looked up at the sky.
Liz had managed to avoid Max, Isabel and Michael all day. She skipped biology and sat in the girl's locker room all hour instead. She had skipped lunch and gone with Maria and Alex to sit in the band room. She wasn't sure they could keep up the routine. She knew it was only a matter of time before she ran into one of them.
She sighed as she hurried down the hallway and headed toward her locker. As she rounded the corner, she ran directly into someone and her books went flying. "Damn," she muttered as she dropped to her knees and started collecting her things. "Sorry."
"It's okay."
Liz jerked her head up at the voice and swallowed hard as she met Max's eyes as he stooped down to help her out. She pushed his hand away. "I've got it," she told him.
His was stunned by the coldness in her voice. He offered his hand as she started to stand up, but she refused it and did it by herself. His heart ached in his chest. She looked so...hurt, so angry. So lost. "Liz," he said softly.
"Max, please. Don't make this any harder than it already is." She started to move past him, but he caught her arm.
"Liz, wait. I don't want things to be like this between us." His voice was pleading.
She was faced away from him, and she was glad. She closed her eyes and tried to ignore the vulnerable sound of his voice. "This isn't about what you want anymore. This is about what I need."
"I know I've messed up your life, and I'm sorry for that," he said softly.
She turned to face him, shaking her head in disbelief as tears clouded her brown eyes. "You don't get it, do you? You never messed up my life until you decided that loving me was too scary and then you walked out. You walked out, Max. And now you want to walk back in? I'm sorry, but I can't do it anymore. I can't pick up the pieces of my life just so you can come back and break them again."
"Liz, I want-"
"Max, you don't know what you want! And even if you did, I don't think I could trust you to not walk out when things got intense again. Because that's not love. Love is when you stay and you fight for what you have, not walk out when things get bad or scary." She turned away and started walking to her locker.
He stared after her. "Liz," he whispered. "I do love you." But Liz didn't hear him.
Isabel was driving home from school that day by herself. Max had decided at lunch that he wanted to walk home to help him clear his head. She was still sniffling and wiping at her eyes as she drove. That's when she saw the wreck.
She blinked and slowed down as she saw the ambulance and the police cars surrounding the car, that had crashed into a telephone pole.
She stopped her car and waited impatiently for the traffic to clear up. She turned the radio on and leaned her head back against her seat.
"Share my life, take me for what I am
Cause I'll never change all my colors for you
Take my love, I'll never ask for too much
Just all that you are and everything that you do
I don't really need to look very much further
I don't want to have to go where you don't follow
I won't hold it back again, this passion inside
I can't run from myself, there's nowhere to hide..."
Isabel thought about Alex. About all the times since fourth grade that she had seen him sneaking glances at her, and making up any reasons to just be near her. The truth was, she had liked him long ago, even back in elementary school. But she never admitted it to anyone, not even Max or Michael. She had walked into many of his dreams before, but they used to always be about him hanging out with Maria and Liz, or him playing in a band.
Until December when the heatwave rolled around. And she'd gone into his dream and saw that he, amazingly enough, was dreaming about her. And it hadn't been a nasty dream like the dreams that most guys had about her. It had been sweet, and romantic, and Isabel had known from that moment that her heart was in serious trouble.
"Don't walk away from me
I have nothing, nothing, nothing
If I don't have you..."
And from then on, it had all been a steady five hundred foot fall with nothing to grab onto. She hadn't fallen slowly like Michael had for Maria. When she let herself realize it, there was no going back. She could push him away, but she couldn't push away the feelings. And she had fallen head first off the love-cliff.
Isabel sighed and sat up as the ambulance sped away. The traffic started to clear. Then she put the jeep back into gear and something about the car caught her eye. It was a small, red car that was completly bashed up into pieces. She frowned. Then she caught sight of the license plates that were barely hanging on the car and she gasped as she realized the car was a small, red jetta.