Author: Valerie Y. (indiana266@hotmail.com)

Rating: PG

Pairing: M/L

Disclaimer: Still not mine. It belongs to Regency Television, 20th Century
Fox and Jason Katims Productions, among others.

Spoiler/Notes: Pre-pilot

I meant to write a fluff piece but somewhere along the way it sorta became
angsty. *shrug* What can you do?

Sorry this is so late - and thanks Becky for the extension. I have one for
Muse 15 too, wanna bet it'll be late as well? ;)

MUSE #14 – Carrot – Choir – Seven – Season

"Are you coming or not? This is the last bus!" Isabel turned to look at
her brother who was standing awkwardly on the steps of the high school.

"You go on ahead. I’ll walk home," Max said, stealing a glance at a small
group of students gathered near the door.

"You’ll *walk* home? Since when?" she questioned, putting a hand on her
hip.

"I feel like some fresh air."

Isabel shook her head. Before she was able to comment, she looked at the
closing bus door and quickly made her way there before she could be left
standing on the sidewalk.

"Suit yourself!" she shouted over her shoulder. She barely made it aboard
the vehicle before it departed.

Max watched the bus leave before walking down the last couple of steps
leading to the quad. He casually walked over to a table and sat down, his
eyes never leaving the group of students talking animatedly by the door.

He couldn’t hear what they were saying but it didn’t matter. He was content
just to watch. Because in the midst of the small group stood the most
beautiful girl he had ever seen.

Liz Parker.

Her long dark hair was shining in the early summer sun. She was talking to
her two best friends, Maria DeLuca and Alex Whitman, gesturing with her
hands to emphasise what she was saying. Max found himself smiling softly.
It was one of the things he liked about Liz, how passionate she was about
everything.

How he wished she’d be this passionate about him! But he knew without a
doubt that there was no chance of that, so he squashed the thought as soon
as it occurred to him. Sometimes it hurt to dream.

Max figured he should go home. But on this, the last day of their freshman
year, there was no way he would willingly cut into his Liz time. Who knew
how much of her he would see during the summer season? Of course, he
planned to eat every possible meal at the Crashdown where she worked, but it
didn’t matter. He would be crazy not to take every opportunity he had to
look at her.

For the last seven years, she had lived in his dreams. Ever since his first
day of school, when she had been the very first thing he saw coming off the
bus, he had spent every second wondering what it would be like to be close
to her. Like his own body, the nature of their fantasy relationship had
changed over the years, from asking himself what it would be like to touch
her hair when he sat behind her in the fourth grade, to speculating on what
her fingers would feel like laced with his in the sixth grade, to wondering
if her lips were really as soft as they looked all this past year in bio
lab.

Sometimes at night he dreamed of more, but he would never admit it in the
daylight. It seemed wrong somehow to think of such a perfect creature in
that way. And it hurt even more when he’d come back to his senses and
realize it could never be.

The light breeze carried her laughter to his ears and the sound filled him
with joy, erasing the regrets that were threatening to darken his mood. He
didn’t know what made her so happy and as much as he would have loved to
share it with her, the truth was that it didn’t really matter. What
mattered was that she *was* happy. The crystalline sound of her laughter
made even the most heavenly choir of angels pale in comparison. There was
not a sound on this world or any other he liked to hear more than Liz
Parker’s laugh.

He noticed that her cheeks had turned bright pink, the way it so adorably
did when she was blushing. Taking his eyes off her for a moment, he noticed
the smirk on Alex’s face and the way Maria was waving the carrot stick she
had been eating excitedly in the air.

Max’s curiosity was piqued. They were discussing something major and
whatever it was made Liz’s face glow like he had rarely seen it. He had to
find out what they were talking about.

Picking up his bookbag, he rose from the table and slowly made his way back
towards the door. He avoided looking directly at the trio and stopped in
front of the water fountain, where he could hear the discussion without it
being too obvious that he was eavesdropping.

"Okay, okay!" Maria was saying. "Go back to the beginning. Did he just,
like, come up to you and say ‘Can I talk to you in the janitor’s closet?’"

"Well, no, not really. He said he wanted to talk to me but all his buddies
were around, so he asked if we could go somewhere private and we just
happened to be in front of the janitor’s closet, so..."

"And you didn’t find it suspicious?" Alex asked. "You know, that you guys
were so conveniently close to that door?"

"Well, it’s not like it’s the eraser room or anything," Liz pointed out.

"Yeah, Alex, it’s not like it’s the eraser room. You do know what goes on
in the eraser room, don’t you?" Maria asked innocently.

Max felt the colour drain from his face. He didn’t hear Alex’s reply over
the blood that was now rushing in his ears. Whether Alex had or not, Max
had heard things about the eraser room. He had a fairly good idea of the
kind of activities that went on in there. A lot of his night time fantasies
of Liz had taken place in the small room that was used for a lot more than
cleaning erasers.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to listen to the conversation. He
hadn’t heard any stories about what kind of things happened in the janitor’s
closet. Was it better or worse than the eraser room?

"And what did you talk about?" Maria asked, practically jumping up and down.

"He asked if it would be okay to call me over the summer. He said we could
hang out together and stuff like that."

Max bent over the fountain, wondering who ‘he’ was and vowing to hate him
for all eternity. His lips touched the water and he heard Maria ask, "And
that’s when he kissed you?"

Max swallowed and was immediately gripped by a coughing fit so intense it
made his eyes water.

"No. First I told him I would like him to call me. THAT’S when he kissed
me," Liz’s cheeks were a deeper red now and she let out a giggle.

Max straightened up, still coughing. He slapped his chest a couple of
times, as if it would help the water go down the way it was supposed to, and
looked at his dream girl. Her image was blurry. He blinked a couple of
times to clear his vision.

"And I’m assuming it wasn’t the kind of little peck on the cheek you and I
share," Alex remarked.

Max turned his head sharply to look at Alex, unable to stop the irrational
bout of jealousy coming over him. Of course Alex had kissed Liz’s cheeks,
he rationalized. They had been friends for years after all. He shouldn’t
be worried about Alex, though he had more than once envied his easy
friendship with Liz. No. The intense hatred he was starting to feel should
be directed at another. But who?

"Your assumption would be correct," Liz said, turning yet another shade of
red. She was magnificent. If Max’s heart hadn’t been currently so tight
that it made it hard to breathe, it would have soared at the sight of her so
happy.

"So did he or did he not slip you the tongue?" Maria asked, barely able to
hide her excitement.

Max felt his stomach drop and prayed that his whole body would follow the
same path through the floor. He shouldn’t be hearing this. It was inhuman
to have to listen to what this guy shared with Liz when it was all he had
ever dreamed of doing.

"Guys!" Liz protested. "It’s private!"

"Since when do we keep secrets from each other, Liz? Come on, spill!" Maria
prompted her.

Max held his breath. He knew he was staring and that if any of them looked
his way he would be busted but he didn’t care. It was as though his entire
future depended on Liz’s next answer.

Liz looked in turn at Maria’s and Alex’s eager expressions and finally
nodded.

"Way to go, girl!" Maria exclaimed, taking Liz into a fierce hug.

Max’s hand shot out and he clutched the edge of the water fountain. Right
now, he didn’t trust his knees not to send the rest of him slumping to the
ground.

"Here comes your new boyfriend now," Alex whispered conspiratorially, only
loud enough to be heard by his friends, and presumably not by the jerk who
was stealing Max’s dream girl from him right before his eyes.

Liz turned to see who Alex was pointing at. Her eyes landed on Max and an
unidentified emotion passed behind them before she looked past him to the
boy Max was finding easier to despise by the minute.

Max knew there was only one thing to do: march over to where Liz was
standing, cup her cheek in his hand and pour all the love he had ever felt
for her in one single kiss that would make her forget whatever had happened
in the janitor’s closet. His other arm would go around her waist to hold
her up when her knees would get weak. Her arms would wrap around his neck
and she would return his kiss with equal passion, leaving the other boy
standing in the middle of the hallway like the idiot he surely was.

As if she had sensed what was going on in his mind, Liz’s eyes darted back
to his and he turned back to the water fountain so she wouldn’t read his
face.

He should go over to her. Whoever this other guy was, he couldn’t possibly
love Liz the way Max did. How could Max be sure this jerk would treat her
right? Whoever he was, she deserved better. She deserved to be worshipped
the way only Max would.

His shoulders sagged as he reminded himself that she also deserved to live a
safe, normal life, and that he could never give her that.

"Are you gonna drink the whole Gulf of Mexico, Evans?" came the voice of his
new mortal enemy behind him. Now was the time to find out who was the guy
that had everything Max Evans had ever desired.

He turned slowly, deliberately, and came face to face with Kyle Valenti.
Jealousy surged and before he could stop himself, his hands had turned into
fists and he had taken a step toward the shorter boy.

Kyle’s eyebrows shot up in mild surprise and he raised his hands. "Just
wanted to know if you were done, man," he said, oblivious to the real reason
behind Max’s behaviour.

Liz stared at the two boys silently sizing each other up. When Max backed
down and moved aside he thought he saw fleeting disappointment in the pretty
brunette’s eyes. But of course there hadn’t been; the smile stretched
across her beautiful face was all the proof he needed.

Kyle took a drink of water and walked past Max to put his arm around his new
girl’s shoulders.

"Ready to go?" he asked with a smile, the incident with Evans-the-Freak
already forgotten.

"Sure," Liz nodded happily. The couple moved away, followed by Maria and
Alex. When she reached the bottom step, Liz turned around one last time and
looked at Max. Her smile wavered a bit and the same unidentified emotion as
before flashed in her eyes.

If Max hadn’t been so busy staring at the remnants of his shattered dream on

the floor of the high school, he might have seen that Liz Parker’s eyes were
filled with a longing that matched his own at what they both knew could
never be.

The end