| Maria woke up the next morning in a fairly good mood. It lasted for about 5 seconds until the events of last night came rushing back to her. After leaving Liz's she had walked home dragging hard on her third and fourth cigarettes, lighting one off of the other. She just wanted to get inside and relax; take a bath and go to bed. When she opened the front door she knew that wasn't going to be likely. Her mother was on the couch, straddling her new boyfriend. 'Jake' had been coming around a lot lately. Her Mom said he was a "nice man" and that Maria should be nice to him. Maria saw right through his act to the horny middle-aged boy inside and just knew he would eventually break her mother's heart. Anyone who was 40 years old, had never been married, never held a steady job, and still found time to hang out at the local pub every evening was not exactly a prize catch in her eyes. Maria swore under her breath as her mother fumbled to button her shirt and detach herself from Jake's claws. "Maria," she gasped, managing to bring herself to a standing position. "What are you doing here?" "I live here," Maria responded. Her mother was not impressed with Maria's attitude lately. She didn't know what her father had done to her but she had no intentions of putting up with it. "Well I've got company, make yourself scarce." Amy looked back at Jake with lust in her eyes. He rose up to grasp her about the waist and lift her onto him. Carrying her, he walked into Amy's bedroom and slammed the door shut. Maria turned at the spot where Jake had been sitting and threw a fireball at the cushion. The couch erupted into flames, which she immediately extinguished with a wave of her hand, erasing any traces of her rash actions. She went into her bedroom, turning her stereo up loud to drown out the sounds seeping through the walls from her mother's room. She kicked her shoes off and reached into her dress pocket to remove the guilty pleasure she had stopped to buy on her way home. The guys at school weren't the only ones she knew who could fix her up, and she sat back against her open window to savour the joint. Maria wasn't against trying anything once; cocaine had been the flavour of the month in L.A. She tried it but found it left her with no control over her powers. She had given the other kids quite a light show with brilliant flashes emanating from every orifice of her body. Luckily they were all stoned at the time and didn't remember any of it the next day. She'd also dabbled in LSD and some other pills to make her feel happy or sad, whatever the order of the day was, but she kept coming back to marijuana. It wasn't as easy to get in Roswell but she had a source and used him frequently. Cigarettes were usually enough to get her through the day but if the pain got particularly bad she turned to weed. She thought about her mother in the next room, giving herself over to that piece of filth completely. There was no love lost between Maria and her mother. It was hard to believe now that before she left for L.A. she had actually cried for her. That had changed quickly the night her Mom abandoned her there. Maria reasoned with herself that it wasn't really her Mom's fault. She had no idea of what Maria's father was going to be like. But that was her job, wasn't it? She was responsible for keeping Maria safe from things like that, even if she was 17 years old. No, Amy hadn't acted like the responsible parent when she had left Maria in Los Angeles, even though she had begged to come home. It wasn't until she returned at the end of the summer that she found out that her Mom wasn't out of town on a cruise, as she had told Maria she would be, but rather busy entertaining Jake for two months. Maria brought herself back to the present, shaking her head and getting out of bed. Thoughts of her Mom combined with the attack that Liz had orchestrated were enough to keep anyone down, but she felt strangely drawn to school anyway. She showered and used her powers liberally to slick her hair into a whip-straight look, with bangs just hiding her eyes. She dressed in black jeans with large cuffs and her standard boots. She topped it with a vintage long-sleeve Megadeth T-shirt that she had left over from her old life. You just couldn�t knock vintage, no matter what look you were shooting for. Passing up her chains and bracelets, she fastened a dog collar with little spikes around her neck and adorned her fingers and ears with a liberal amount of hardware. She grabbed an apple on her way out the door, finishing it and starting in on her last cigarette as she approached her street corner. She saw the figure standing against the light pole but didn't pay him any attention - until he fell into step beside her. She looked up in surprise at the boy from yesterday. Smiling she looked straight ahead again and took another puff on her cigarette. He cleared his throat and she threw it to the ground, snuffing it out before she even knew what she was doing. Maria's eyes widened at her own actions and she tried to put her finger on what impulse had made her do that. She still felt a craving for a smoke yet she had wasted it. Weird, she thought, shaking her head. They walked along in silence until they reached the school. He stopped at the bottom of the stairs to let her pass, turning to walk in another direction. Maria took a few steps and then stopped turning around to catch Michael looking at her as well. "Later, Mikey," she said, repeating her move from yesterday and hurrying away before he could respond. Michael stood silently at the bottom of the stairs, his eyes fixed on her back. A small smile formed on his lips and he turned to go to his class. She was a mystery that one - an intriguing, all-consuming mystery. And he was determined to solve it. TBC |
| Part 4 |
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