Significant
Others……
Isabel stared at a picture of Jesse after getting ready for
bed. Smiling she remembered the movie they went to that the night, and the talk
they had afterwards. Lying back, she touched the picture of herself and Jesse
and entered Jesse’s dream. In his dreams, Jesse was proposing marriage to her.
“Oh, my god! Oh, my god!” Isabel cried, shocked at
Jesse’s dream. It was hard to say what startled her the most, that he proposed
to her, or that she actually said yes.
Unable to shake the dream she intruded on, the next day
while shopping, Isabel stopped to stare into a store display of diamond
engagement rings.
“I go away for a couple of days, and you're looking at
wedding rings.” Alex said next to her.
Isabel glanced at him, her eyes softening. “Alex. Where
have you been? I've missed you.”
“If only you loved me this much when I was alive,” said
Alex remorsefully.
“Alex.”
Alex scoffed holding up his hands. “I'm kidding. I'm
kidding.” Alex followed Isabel down the street. “You've only known this guy
a few months, Isabel.”
“Alex, I can’t really talk to you about guys.”
“I'm dead. I'm beyond getting jealous.” Alex pointed
out.
“All right,” Isabel turned to him. “Well, I guess the
truth is I’ve never felt this way before. This is the first time I’ve met
someone I can see being with for the rest of my life.”
“Ouch, that stings a little bit.” Alex admitted. How
soon they forget. Sniffing, Alex the ghost wondered if his hair was standing
straight up.
~~~
Liz came up to the window. “Chili and a hot dog,” she
snapped at her father. Maria made a slight gagging noise. What some people ate
for breakfast was disgusting. Now a hamburger? That she could understand.
“No fries?” Jeff asked his daughter.
“Did I say fries?” Liz’s voice was hard and
sarcastic.
Maria quickly put in her order for another table to diffuse
the situation. “Scrambled, bacon, buttered toast.”
“You got it.” Jeff went to work both orders.
Maria sighed at Liz. “You know, I work here, too.”
“Good.” Liz said bitterly. “Maybe we could stage a
revolt, burn down the kitchen, and free the slaves.”
“You're making life impossible.” For everyone, Maria thought.
“Well, he could fire me.” Liz suggested.
“Or I could kill you.” Maria offered helpfully. Hey,
she was a friend. Mercy killing wasn’t beneath her. She could happily
Kevorkian Liz in a heartbeat.
Liz snorted. “See, you're too late for that, because I'm
working, like, ninety hours a week, which means I can’t go anywhere or do
anything. And you know, I'm probably gonna be dead from grease fumes by the end
of the week.” Liz’s face turned dark as her voice became bitter. “And I'm
under constant threat of being sent to boarding school.”
Maria grabbed her order. “Could it possibly be that you
and Max robbed a convenience store? Or maybe it was going out on a forbidden
date?” Maria suggested as she took the cups, coffee, and an order for another
table.
“We didn't actually rob it.” Liz called after her.
Maria gave Liz a look. “I don’t know? Holding a gun on
a man, even if all that was taken was a bag of Cheetos, sounds like something
serious, Liz.”
“Maria, you know …” Why was she being this way? Maria
knew she and Max weren’t really robbing the place.
“Yes, yes, I do. But,” Maria gestured to Liz’s
father, “he doesn’t. He just knows what he knows. His once near perfect
daughter started wearing biker clothes, bad makeup, and holding up convenience
stores with her boyfriend. You think he’s happy to see his little
princess now a cheap rip-off of Bonnie and
“The makeup wasn’t bad. I thought I looked good.”
“How about sneaking out after
“He can’t tell me how to live my life!”
Maria laughed. Unreal! “Yes, yes he can! You’re
seventeen. You live under his roof, and believe it or not, he is the parent. He can tell you exactly what you can do or cannot do,
because it’s his job to raise you and keep you safe.”
“You’re not being helpful here, Maria.” Why wasn’t
Maria on her side? She always supported her. “It’s easy for you. Your mom is
gone, and Michael doesn’t have to ask anyone’s permission to do anything.
You go wherever you want, whenever, whether it’s
“First, my mother knew about Vegas, because I told her. I
told her about
Maria walked away. Liz bit her lip. “Maria...”
Maria sighed as her working conditions deteriorated into a
complete nightmare. Glancing at the doorway, she smiled when Michael came into
the Crashdown for breakfast.
“Good morning.”
“Good morning.” Michael kissed her cheek before she
shoved him into the booth.
“Late night?”
“Endless.” Michael admitted feeling too tired. “Am I
on the schedule here today?”
“No, you have school today.” Michael moaned. School.
“Are you still okay for Saturday?”
“Sure. What's Saturday?”
Maria lifted smiled shaking her head. “We had plans.
Concert, outside.
“Just you and me?” Michael asked remembering. Date
night. It was a date he made in his clandestine campaign to get her into
thinking of him as a date. Sort of commando romance … just without the
romance. “Right, and what -- what day is this?
“This is Thursday.” She reminded him. His week was so
chopped up, she wasn’t even sure he knew what month it was. “You need
sleep.”
“I need pancakes.” Michael stretched when Maria stroked
his cheek leaning down to kiss him. He needed food. He needed a little time
alone with Maria. Sleep. He wanted sleep, with her.
The rest of the graveyard shift finally caught up with
Michael and his bike.
“You’re late, boys.” Maria told them moving aside so
they could slide into Michael’s booth.
“Maria!” They all greeted her in unison, except Michael
who actually stole the menus from her hand. Michael quickly moved out of the
booth to let Fly and Steve in before sitting down so he could be on the outside.
“Sit! Lots of coffee coming up. I’ll be right back.”
Maria went to grab the cups and a pot, but Michael pulled her back real quick
before she took off. He stood up again to put himself between her and the guys.
“How bad is it?” he asked, gesturing to Liz and her
father.
“I’m feeling suicidal.”
“Wow, that bad, huh?”
“Uh-huh.” Maria pushed him into the seat. “Sit.
I’ll get coffee and warn the kitchen to start making pancakes.”
“Right.”
Maria went up to the window to order from Mr. Parker who
was on the grill. “The boys are in from the night shift, Mr. P. You wanna toss
on a ton of bacon and start some pancakes and at least two orders of French
toast? I’ll have the orders up in a minute.”
“Gotcha, Maria. Hey, push the blueberry syrup. It’s
getting old.” Maria nodded and took the cups and coffee back to the group. She
quickly poured and set them down in front of the boys who were all talking at
once.
“Hey, pancakes sound good. Make mine the same as Mike’s
with lots of coffee, black.” Fly told Maria staring at her with adoring eyes.
Michael elbowed him. Fly was being a real bug.
“Hey, sweetie, how you doin'?” George said smiling at
Maria. “Give me eggs over easy, side of wheat, and the biggest glass of milk
you got. Same with no butter, side of bacon, thank you.”
Monk didn’t even look at the menu. He knew what he wanted
after eating breakfast there everyday for the last few months. “French
toast.”
“Me, too, with sausage and bacon.” Steve told Maria
handing her the menus.
“And, uh, orange juice for the table and water.” Monk
asked politely.
Maria shook her head at the silly boy. “Who you talking
to, Monk. I even put on an extra pot just for you guys.”
Michael caught Maria’s apron tie. “And keep the coffee
coming for me. I need it.”
“You know, if you're planning on sleeping, you probably
shouldn't have coffee.”
“If I’m going to make school, I’m going to need it
intravenously.” Maria gave his tired face a serious look. “With cream,
please?”
“You bet, Spaceboy.” Maria took all the menus back.
“Okay, guys give me a few moments to have your orders and I’ll be right back
with the water, juice and coffee.” She leaned over conspiratorially. “Give
the blueberry syrup a miss. It’s old.”
Steve watched Maria take the orders and put them up as she
began to put together the beverage tray. “Mike, any luck on getting her to be
your girl officially?”
Michael shook his head. “I’m working on it. My work
schedule between two jobs and school is killing my efforts. I went from
practically sleeping with her every night to hardly seeing her but a few times
during the week. Heck, she’s not even staying over at my place anymore. I
think I’m going backwards.”
“You need help.” George concluded though in truth, he
didn’t see what the matter was. Mike and Maria acted closer than he did to his
girlfriend. Maria, she was great. “Look, maybe you need to turn on the old
romance.”
“I’m taking her to an outdoor concert.”
“How are you getting there?” Fly asked.
“My bike. Michael groaned, “God! I can’t even
remember if I bought the tickets. I better ask Maria to take care of it.”
Steve shook his head. “That’s a strike. When she has to
do everything in the ‘date’ department, then it’s not a date. It’s two
friends hanging out together.”
Michael watched Maria for a few moments as she was
delivering an order to another table before coming back to pick up their drinks.
“No, I don’t want that. I’ve got that down to an art form, and it’s what
is making the transition so hard. I want her to stop thinking of me as her
buddy, and you know … step it up a bit.”
Maria came back. “ETA on food is about five more minutes.
I brought extra cream for coffee, refilled sugar for Fly, OJ all around, and
water. Oh, and extra napkins for when you spill everything.” Maria checked the
table out. “Anything else?” The men quickly and politely thanked her before
she went of to serve other customers.
Fly watched her walk away checking out her legs. “Did you
ever ask her to wear that uniform off duty?”
Michael hit the other guy upside the head. “Stop ogling
my girl.”
“Hey, technically she’s not …”
“Yes, she is. She just hasn’t figured it out yet.”
~~~
“Hey,” Maria said to Isabel. “Can I help you?”
“Yeah, I'm just here to pick up an order.” Isabel
glanced over when she heard men laughing, seeing Michael in the middle of the
group.
“Is Michael laughing?”
“Apparently,” Maria said making a face. “He does that
a lot. I think it starts in his stomach and just jumps out … startling.” She
checked the early lunch order. “Do you want a drink with that?”
“No.” Isabel gave Maria a long look. Then she glanced
over at Michael and then Maria again. “Um, can I ask you …?”
“A question?” Maria guessed.
“Mm-hmm.” Isabel said quickly looking at Michael before
lowering her voice. “If Michael proposed, would you say yes?”
“Oh!” Maria dropped the plate she had been holding as
her face paled. Michael's friends applauded, calling to Maria, and the crazy
goofballs they were started doing the wave for her. Michael told them to cut it
out, his eyes watchful of Isabel and Maria talking. “Is there something I
should know?” Maria’s heart was beating erratically in her chest, and she
was … yeah, she was having a heart attack.
“No. No, no, no.” Isabel quickly tried to cover her faux
pas. God, if Michael found out, he would freak. Isabel frowned at Maria’s
pale face. “It's just a survey for my sociology class at school,” she
quickly lied.
Maria visibly relaxed. “Oh, so community college wants to
know if I’d marry an alien?”
“Well, forget about the alien thing. Pretend it's not an
issue. How long do you think the courtship should last before it's socially okay
to get married?”
Maria seemed to give it some thought. “Well, is the
couple in true, true love?”
“Well, let's say they hypothetically were.”
“Ok, well, did they know from the first time they met
that they were supposed to be together?”
“Say they hypothetically did.”
Maria gave the entire scenario some real thought. “Ok,
well, then my opinion is that, um,” taking a deep breath, “from the first
second of the second minute, they're free to tie the knot.” Michael and the
guys were laughing again and Maria glanced over at their antics. “But then
again, I'm just a hopeless romantic.”
~~~
Michael caught up to Maria before leaving. He had a few
hours to go take a nap before his afternoon classes. Thank god it was Thursday,
and not a Monday, Wednesday or Friday. He would’ve been missing a class as he
stood there.
“Hey, you okay?” Michael asked, his eyes moving over
her. It felt like he hadn’t seen her in weeks.
“Sure, why wouldn’t I be?”
“You dropped that plate earlier and Isabel seemed to
upset you.”
“Oh, that! It was nothing.” Maria pulled on his
uniform. “You going home to change and nap?”
“Yeah, in a second.” He didn’t let her get off that
easy. “So what did Isabel want?”
“Some sociology survey for college. She wanted to know if
you asked me to marry you, what would I say.” Maria said, much calmer than she
had been.
It was Michael’s turn to lose his color a bit. His voice
was strangely hoarse. “That made you drop a plate, the thought of me
proposing?”
“Nope.” Maria lied. “The thought of anyone proposing.
I’m still seventeen. Give me a couple of months when I turn eighteen, then all
hell breaks loose.”
“Right,” Michael smiled, but there was no amusement in
his eyes. He was right, he was going backwards. He needed help.
~~~
Jesse Ramirez and Philip Evans walked back to the law
offices from an early morning court session. Philip was curious about his newest
and youngest law associate.
“Isabel.” Jesse said startled, and he quickly covered
up his mistake. “Nice to see you again,” he said politely.
“Mr. Ramirez,” Isabel’s voice practically sang
his name suggestively, “it's nice to see you again. Hi, dad.”
“Hi, Isabel,” Philip smiled somewhat confused. “Hey.
What are you doing here?”
“Well, I had some time to kill, so I thought I’d bring
you lunch.” Isabel held up the takeout order she brought from the Crashdown.
“Oh, Iz, that's wonderful. Oh, my little angel.” Philip
was more than happy to break his diet his wife had him on.
“Um, cheeseburger and …” Isabel glanced in the bag
faking surprise. “Oh, no, they screwed up the order.”
Philip’s face fell as his unexpected fatting lunch fell
through. “What is that?”
“I think it's cucumbers, sprouts, and hummus on pita
bread.” Isabel gave him the bad news.
“Oh, god, no.” Jesse swallowed a smile at Philip’s
look of horror. He understood completely. He ate at the Evans house a few times,
and Mrs. Evans newest health kick was in a word, disturbing.
Isabel made a face of sympathy. “Yeah, and lentil
soup.”
“Oh …” Philip couldn’t take it. His taste buds were
already revved for a cheeseburger or unhealthy fats. “Oh. I'm gonna go next
door and get chicken wings. Huh, you guys want anything?”
Jesse motioned to the lunch Isabel brought. “I'll take
that if you don't want it.”
“Ooh, you're a brave, brave man.” Philip was already
practically out the door as chicken wings and deep fried mushroom called to him.
“Ok, back in a minute.”
“That was clever.” Jesse told Isabel as soon as the
door shut behind her father, his hands taking the lunch bag and putting it
aside, as his arms went around her.
“I needed to speak to you alone.”
“In your father's office?” Jesse smiled lifting a brow.
“It's risky. Sexy,” as he kissed the side of her neck.
“Jesse, I need to speak to you.”
Jesse pulled back his eyes moving over her beautiful face.
“Yeah, me, too.”
“Jesse,” Isabel breathed in a long calming breath,
“what I wanted to say is just that, you know, if we're gonna continue in this
relationship, it needs to be about now. I can’t promise you tomorrow, and I
just need you to understand that.”
“Oh.” Jesse’s eyes lost their smile.
“What were you gonna say to me?”
“Pretty much the opposite. Miss Evans, I want to-- I want
to love you with the lights on.”
“Kinky.” Alex said. Isabel glanced at her friendly
“Metaphorically speaking. Look, even though we've only
known each other a few months, I feel I really know you. I feel I know
everything about you.” Jesse was serious, unshakably honest, he couldn’t lie
to her that this wasn’t important to him, that he wasn’t seeing a definite
future, and not just today. “And the thing is, I'm proud to know you. I'm
proud to love you, and I want the world to know about it.” He didn’t know
how else to get through to her except with the truth. “I don't -- I don't want
to hide this anymore.”
“This guy's good.” Alex admitted wishing he had half of
Jesse’s confidence in life.
~~~
“I’m cursed,” said Isabel tragically from where she
sat with Alex on a bench waiting for the cross town bus.
Alex sighed, “Isabel.”
“I am. I am this cursed person.”
“You are not.”
Isabel made a sound of derision. “Look what happened to
you-- you were killed by an alien. And then there was Grant, the only other guy
I was semi-involved with, and he was killed by that ridiculous alien jellyfish
thing.”
“It's like you said. Jesse had a dream, and dreams aren't
real.” Alex should know since he was nothing more than a specter of her own
dreams only held here by her memories and thoughts of him. “He isn't going to
propose to you. It was just a thought passing through his head, so let it
pass.”
~~~
Liz and Max were outside late. Liz once again was
disobeying her father by sneaking out despite her being grounded, and seeing Max
against her father’s expressed wishes.
“I want to move out.” Liz told Max as they walked
together holding hands.
“And then what?”
“Move in together?” Liz suggested to him, upset that he
wasn’t more enthusiastic about it. “Don't you want to?”
“I want to for the right reasons.” Max told her. He had
gone this route once before, with Tess when they were expecting the baby. He
looked for apartments, but even in that instance, it was still wrong. Choices
should be made out of adult choices, real reasons, such as love, forever and a
real future. They shouldn’t be made off the cuff out of desperate necessity.
“How 'bout being together?” Liz stopped and faced him.
She needed this. She needed someone on her side, someone that would at least try
to understand how she felt. “You know, we could just leave tonight and find
someplace.”
“The cost's just too high.” Max said shaking his head.
He wasn’t walking this road, not now, and not for Liz. She wasn’t thinking
with her head, just with her heart and her anger.
“We'll get jobs.” Dammit, Michael and Maria did it
every day, and they weren’t even together that way. Sure, they were in love,
but it would take something earth shattering to wake them from their comfortable
happy dream.
“Your family, Liz.” Max tried to explain to her. It
wasn’t money. The cost was her relationship with her parents. “It would
destroy your mom and dad.”
“They're destroying us.”
Max couldn’t believe he didn’t agree with her, that he
saw her impassioned plea nothing more than an unrealistic teenage girl’s
understanding of the world. No one could destroy them, no would could take their
dreams, not if they didn’t want them to. “Liz …”
“They are, Max. Well, my father is, anyway.” Liz
changed tactics. She couldn’t have Max against her too. “How am I supposed
to help you find your child if I can’t even be with you?”
Max closed his eyes for a moment. He never wanted it like
this. “You are with me … All the time. All the time.” Max and Liz
continued to walk, and Max stared off into the night. He needed to find his son,
but that was something that he should’ve never involved Liz in, or made her so
unsure and insecure that she felt it was the only connect they could find. He
made mistakes with Liz. He didn’t want to make any more.
~~~
Alex and Isabel were pacing in front of the theatre at
“If he pulls a ring from his pocket, you can’t get all
weak in the knees.” Alex told her. He needed to go. Some journeys in life were
a solitary thing. This was one of them, as was death.
“Don't go.” Isabel begged him.
“No, you're on your own.” Alex told her meaning in more
literal than she could imagine. “Eye of the tiger. You can do this. Just say
no.” Alex looked beyond her at Jesse coming towards them. Isabel followed his
glance, and when she looked back, Alex was gone.
“I thought we were supposed to meet in the balcony.”
Jesse said confused by the expression on her face. “Aren't we being a little
risky?”
“Hey.” Isabel greeted him shaking her head. “I
can’t do this.”
Confused Jesse tried to understand to make sense of what
was looking to become a highly irrational conversation. “Look, did something
happen? Did someone find out?”
“No, and they never will.” Isabel started to walk off.
“Wait, wait.” Jesse hooked on her pulling her back.
“Hold on. Hang on a second.”
“We're done.”
Oh that was not true. “Isabel we're just starting.”
“Don't call me.” She told him, “Don't try to see
me.”
Jesse refused to let her go. “I need to know what
happened. What changed?”
“Let me go.” Isabel hated that her voice was
practically breaking, begging him to set her free. She wanted to be stronger
than this. She needed to be strong.
“Just wait. Whatever happened, listen to me. Whatever
happened, we'll get through it.”
Isabel was on the verge of tears. “We'll get through it
if we're apart.”
“What does that mean, Isabel?” Jesse took her other arm
and forced her to look at him, to look him in the eyes. “Look, you have to
give me an explanation, ok? You owe me an explanation.”
“All right. Fine.” Isabel stiffened in his arms. She
called on all the years of being the Ice Queen to do what she knew had to be
done. “This is going nowhere. We are going nowhere, ok? I'm eighteen. I want
to go to college. I want a life. And you, what are you doing here, Jesse? You
came to visit your mother, and you've never left. You graduated with honors from
Jesse let her go, his face a study of misery. “I love
you, Isabel.”
“You can’t, so don’t.” Isabel walked off. “Just
don't.” She walked away, across the street until she saw Alex waiting for her
leaning against a building. Going to him, she walked into his arms and hugged
him as she cried.
~~~
Kyle opened the door to leave for work and literally walked
into a crying Isabel. “Whoa, jeez! Did you knock?”
“No,” sniffed Isabel through the tears.
“So you're lurking now?” He could live a thousand years
and no understand women, but alien women … he suspected they were a breed of
their own completely unfathomed.
“No.”
“What--what's wrong?” Isabel shook her head and started
to leave. This was a bad idea, but she had no where else to go. “Wait, you ok?
Here, come on. Come on in.” Kyle nabbed her before she could run away. He led
her to the sofa. “What happened? Do you want some water or something?”
“No.”
“Sit …” She just stood there, so he helped her with a
push. “Down. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No.” She continued to cry.
“Ok, ok.” She just wanted to cry. He could handle that.
Isabel noticed his uniform he wore to the garage. “Aren't
you late for work?”
“Oh, screw that. That's …” Kyle waved it off as
something he rather not do anyway. “What happened?”
Isabel wiped away her tears. “I broke up with Jesse.”
“Why?”
“Because there's no way. I can’t. I can’t drag him
into this. I can’t.” She had too many black marks on her soul. Grant. Alex.
Especially Alex.
“What are you afraid of? What do you think is gonna
happen? He's gonna run away?” She didn’t answer. “Isabel, Has anyone
you've shared this with ever run away from you? Name one person.” Isabel
couldn’t. They all stayed. They all gave up everything to protect her. Alex,
Maria, Liz, Kyle and Sheriff Valenti. They walked through fire for the aliens,
and yet, they were still there … except Alex. Isabel started to cry again.
“Let him in. Let him deal with it.”
“I can’t.” Isabel blew her nose in her tissue wiping
away the smudged makeup. “Max and Michael and I, after Alex died, we made a
pact to never let anyone else in, ever.”
“Well, just talk to 'em. I'm sure they'll understand.”
“Yeah, right.” God,
becoming a Buddhist made him such an optimist. Someone just shoot her now.
~~~
Michael was digging around in his kitchen for food. He
needed to cook dinner for Maria. The boys were helping him and they all wrote
out long detailed suggestions for stepping up his courtship of Maria, most of
which he burned due to graphic adult materials unfit for Maria to view. Dinner
was Steve’s suggestion. Dinner, low lighting, conversation and music. That he
could do. Once he got Max to shift his butt somewhere else. It was already
three, and he didn’t have much time.
“Well, you can’t move in with her. You'd have to move
out of state to avoid her father.” Michael scratched his eyebrow. “Do you
still have to cross a state line to be a kidnapper?”
“I don't know.” Max shrugged. “You tell me. You spent
years dragging Maria over state lines.”
“Though,” said Michael ignoring Max’s comment about
Maria, taking it to be jealousy, “maybe armed robbery would be ahead on the
syllabus.”
“Slow down.” Max said more to himself.
Michael stopped sniffing a green pepper to stare at Max.
“Am I speaking too fast?”
Max waved that off. “Me and Liz. Calm things down a
little. Turn down the heat.”
There was heat? Michael made a face. Okay. “Back on the
throttle. Sounds good.” He nodded hoping that was the last of it as far as
details went. Michael went back to digging around in his refrigerator as Maria
came into the apartment.
“You want a Snapple?” Michael asked Max.
“Where were you?” Maria asked.
Michael’s head pop up from out of the refrigerator
noticing his girlfriend … soon to be girlfriend. “Where was I supposed to
be?”
“We were supposed to have lunch at school today.”
“We’re having dinner tonight.” Michael pointed out.
“Today's Saturday.”
“No, today's Friday. We’re scheduled to have dinner
tomorrow night before we take off to the concert.”
“Then why am I making you dinner right now?”
“Hello.” Maria grabbed his confused head. “Where are
you?”
“I'm right here.” Michael scratched his eyebrow.
“Where's Saturday?”
Maria shook her head at her poor confused friend.
“Michael, you big teddy bear, you need to get some serious sleep.” She
glanced at Max realizing she had interrupted a conversation. “What, are you
guys saving the world from alien invasion?”
“Would that keep you from kicking my ass?” God, he
missed lunch with her? Stood her up? Damn, the more he tried to go forward the
faster he went backwards.
“I gotta get going.” Max told the couple, not sure he
could handle their dysfunctional dating techniques. It was warping to his own
affairs.
“Good luck.” Michael called to Max turning back to see
Maria’s ironclad pout. “Don't do that.”
“What am I doing?” Maria asked innocently.
“Uh-huh.” Michael shook his head. “You want something
from me. You got the look, so spill it, DeLuca. What do I have to pay to fix
standing you up at lunch?”
Maria took the green pepper from him shoving it back into
the refrigerator. Taking his hand she led him into the bedroom. Turning him
around so his back was to the bed, she slowly unbuttoned his shirt.
“You really want to know,” she asked in a low seductive
voice.
Michael gulped hard, his mind racing with all the
possibilities and a few offered to him from the guys, that even though were
physically burned, since remained burningly alive in his mind.
“Yes.” This was it. Finally.
Maria slid the shirt off his shoulders and pushed him
backwards on the bed. “Sleep. I’ll wake you for dinner.” Michael lay there
stunned as she turned the light out on her way out of his bedroom. Groaning he
put an arm across his eyes shutting them. What? So now she was a tease?
~~~
Isabel was in the kitchen with her parents having an early
dinner so they could make the early movie. She suffered through their usually
Max obsessing.
“So, Max is living with Michael?” Diane Evans asked,
needing to understand what exactly was going on with her son.
“More like crashing.” Isabel explained through bites.
“Crashing?” That sounded so transient. Diane frowned.
“Does he have his things there? A bed? Is he paying rent?”
Isabel put down her fork. “Can we just try not to talk
about Max? For just this once, just tonight. Is that possible?”
Philip agreed. He had told Max to leave, and his wife was
still having a hard time dealing with it. “So, you're not gonna believe this,
but I have to look for another lawyer.” Philip handed his wife his empty
plate. “Again.”
“Someone's leaving?” Diane asked as she gave her
husband another serving.
“Jesse.” Philip told her as he took his plate smiling
at his wife.
“What? Honey, you said he was the best lawyer your firm
has ever had.”
“Apparently, too good for my firm. He's moving back to
“
Philip shook his head between bites. “That's the thing.
He just walked out on me this afternoon. Totally uncharacteristic.”
Isabel, who had been listening, suddenly stood up. “You
know, I actually forgot some books at school. I'm totally-- I'm not--I’m
sorry. I'll be right back.”
“Isabel? Honey, what about dinner?” Diane called to her
daughter.
“I'll be back.”
~~~
“So you got caught again?”
“The eraser room. We weren’t doing anything and the
teacher, he was so nasty asking us if we were planning a bank heist. Of course,
who do you think he calls immediately?”
“You dad?” Maria guessed.
“Bingo! The worse thing is, Maria, that Max, he wants to
come talk to my father, try to explain, but it’s not going to work. My dad,
he’s totally unhinged right now.” Liz glanced at her quiet friend. “Why
are you working? I thought you were going to a concert in
“That’s tomorrow. I left a confused Michael, who is not
sure which year it is, sleeping. So after this shift, I need to go wake him,
feed him, and get him into his uniform for another fun graveyard shift.” Maria
frowned at what Liz was doing, her mind obviously not on Maria or what she was
doing. “Are you ok?”
“Yeah. Why?” Liz asked distractedly.
“You're making a cottage cheese milk shake.” Maria saw
Liz’s face change as she looked at what she was doing. “Sweetie, what? What,
what, what?”
“Nothing.” Talking to Maria about Max wasn’t the
easiest of things to do. “I just don't know if I’m, like, mad or insane or
what.”
“Mad as in angry mad?”
“Yes.”
“Well, I don't know.” Maria leaned a hip against the
counter. “You said ‘insane.’ I thought maybe you were expanding on mad as
in crazy. Ok, fine. You're mad. What are you mad about?”
“Impotence.”
Maria lifted an eyebrow in surprise, her mouth opening.
“Is Max …”
“No.
I just-- I feel powerless. I don't know if I should pull the plug or what.”
“Suicide?”
“Please stop. Stop it, ok?” Liz begged Maria, needing
it more from other people namely her father and Max. “I need all of you to
stop it so I can take a breath.” She looked over as Max walked into the diner.
Maria followed Liz’s horrified gaze and whistled under
her breath. “Oh, here we go.”
Liz and Maria weren’t the only ones to see Max. Jeff
Parker saw him immediately from the kitchen, and he quickly came out from behind
the counter to intercept Max. “No, you don't! No, you don't! Max, get out of
here.” Jeff threatened.
“Mr. Parker, I need to speak with you for a second.”
“Get out before I throw you out.”
“Dad...” Liz joined them begging her father to be
reasonable.
“Mr. Parker, I think that if we just talked …”
Jeff was ready to physically hit the young man. “I said
go.” He pointed the way out emphatically, not bothering to talk or compromise.
“No, Dad. Stop.”
“It's ok.” Max told Liz. “I'm leaving.” Liz watched
Max go and turned to her father.
“I hate you.”
Maria’s tense body suddenly went limp. “Well, that went
smashingly well,” she said to no one. She wrapped an arm around her stomach,
bending slightly to the pain. Her stomach was really hurting.
~~~
Isabel knocked on the door of the Ramirez house. She was
nervous with a lovely older Latino woman opened the door. “Mrs. Ramirez? Hi. I
… I need to talk to your son. Suddenly very unsure of herself, Isabel
stammered. “I'm Isabel.”
Mrs. Ramirez eyes moved over the beautiful young girl’s
face, and suddenly a lot was clear. “Come on in.”
“Okay.” Isabel looked around in interest as Jesse’s
mother went to get him. Smiling, she looked at family pictures, many of them
younger versions of Jesse.
Jesse and Isabel went into the backyard to talk. Isabel
wandered around the garden, amazed at the incredible workmanship and gardening
skills involved.
“This is beautiful.”
“It's my mom's pride and joy.” Jesse took the pruning
shears and made a few snips at the rose bushes.
Isabel glanced at him. “I thought that'd be you.”
“No, I don't bend easily enough to her wishes.” Jesse
was a lawyer, he didn’t do prevarication too well. He liked thing honest and
direct. “So we should talk.”
“You want to put down those shears first?” Isabel said
jokingly, but she really preferred he didn’t have something sharp in his
hands. “I don't want to lose you, Jesse.”
Jesse made a face. “Isabel, you broke up with me.”
Maybe she didn’t know what that meant?
“I know.”
The indecision was evident on her face. Jesse felt a tinge
of encouragement that not only that she came, but that she didn’t want him to
leave. “Maybe we should go out to dinner tomorrow night.”
“Dinner?” Isabel felt a slow trickle of fear down her
spine. She was going to ruin this.
“I think we both need to lay our cards on the table.”
~~~
“Michael.”
“Hmm?”
“Michael.” Maria said softly, her hand gently pushing
him. “You need to wake up. Dinner. You’ve only got a few hours before
work.”
Michael rolled over to blink at her as his sleep fogged
brain cleared. “Maria.” He reached out and ignoring her squeak, pulled her
down beside him, to roll over and trap her against his warm body still heavy
with sleep. “You talk too much. Sleep.”
Maria sighed contently and rested against him for a moment,
her hand moving up and down his arm. “It’s
“Hmm?”
“The time is
“I needed it.”
“You did.”
Michael rolled over and glanced at his clock. It was late.
Sniffing the air, he could smell Maria, her favorite scent, and something else
… food. “What did you make?”
“Lasagna, extra cheese the way you like it.”
“I didn’t have cheese.”
“Do now. I went grocery shopping, went to work … on a
Friday no less, cleared the pigsty of an apartment you call home, which meant
shoveling Max stuff from one side of the room to another, and then made
dinner.”
“You’ve been busy.”
“I have.” Maria pinched his side lightly. “C’mon,
you need to eat and shower. You’ve got tomorrow night off, so you can have fun
then. The concert!” She reminded him.
“Right, the concert,” Michael frowned. Did he even
remember to buy the tickets? He got up and pulled Maria out of the bed. They
went into the other room to eat, and sitting there at the counter, Michael got
through two servings of lasagna and a salad before glancing up at the
refrigerator.
“Can I have a Snapple?” Maria asked when he went over
to read the note he left himself.
“Sure.” Michael stopped and read the note. Bowling
league on Saturday night. Oh damn. This Saturday. Groaning he hit his head
against the refrigerator. He had double booked his limited free time.
“What’s wrong?”
“I don't know if I have a cold one, but I'll check.”
Michael said cursing himself. “Oh, I do.” He handed her the Snapple.
Maria took a drink thanking him, and sitting back staring
at her plate that still had too much food, she glanced his way. His jaw was
clenched, and he had that look, the concentrated look he got when he was having
a conversation with himself in his head.
“So now you really want to tell me what’s wrong?”
Michael rubbed his eyes. “I …” He laughed at himself.
At this rate, he would be a fifty year old geezer chasing her about the
apartment still trying to convince her to go out of an official date. “I
double booked tomorrow night.” Maria went still. “I know the concert was my
idea, but I think I forgot to get the tickets, and somewhere, somehow I promised
to bowl with the guys in the bowling league.” Michael pointed to the note on
his refrigerator.
“Okay.” Maria swallowed her disappointment. She was
losing it. Losing him. Between his two jobs, school, and his new friends, she
was finding herself back in the same position she had when Liz started dating
Max. Outside. Alone. Smiling, she shrugged. “It’s okay. Since you didn’t
get the tickets, don’t worry about it. Go bowling.”
“It’s not okay, Maria. I wanted to … it’s just
I’ve never been this busy, and …”
“Michael, it’s okay. You don’t owe me anything.
It’s not like we’re dating or something.”
That was the problem. Michael sighed. At this rate, they
never would.
~~~
“So you double booked your date with Maria, and now
you’re going bowling with us, and not her?” Steve asked, needing a little
clarification. “And dinner? What about the dinner I told you to make her?”
“I
sort of messed that up too. Guess I don’t have to make her dinner since
we’re not going to the concert.” Monk, Fly and George shook their heads at
how bad Michael was at dating.
“Damn,
“What other girlfriends? Maria is it. For over two years,
she’s the only girl I do things with.” Michael made a face. “I mean there
is Isabel, but she’s like my sister, you know, plus, what I consider fun, and
Isabel considers fun is two extremes. I guess I haven’t had much ‘female’
exposure.”
Fly sat back interested in seeing a guy with worse skills
with women than his. “So ask this sister girl you have. Does she know Maria?
Maybe she can help.”
Michael remembered the last time he asked for Isabel’s
help and the price tag that came along with the earrings. It took him three
months to pay them off. “Nah. That wouldn’t work. Isabel has no clue to what
makes Maria happy or tick. Isabel’s solution would be something involving
money I don’t have, like buy her a country or something. Isabel isn’t
practical in the sense of real world expenses. For her, affection and worth
usually does have a price tag. Her dad is a lawyer.” Michael explained.
Aww, the guys nodded knowingly. Rich chicks.
“Well, you definitely need help,” said Steve. “At
this rate, she’ll be married to another guy pushing out babies before you
remember to notice.” Steve picked up the phone.
“Who you calling?” Michael asked.
“An expert.”
~~~
Max and Michael were playing table soccer, as Isabel
knocked. Max had been telling him about the humiliating fight he had with
Liz’s father. Michael made some asinine comment about Max needing to define
what ‘slowing it down’ really meant, and Max calmly asked Michael how his
campaign to win Maria was going.
“Come in. It's open.” Michael called to the knock.
“You're going down,” he said to Max.
Isabel shut the door leaning against it for a moment. “I
need to talk to you guys.”
“All right.” Michael glanced at the clock. “Make it
quick. I got a big night ahead of me.”
Max sneered at Michael smacking the ball towards
Michael’s goal. “What's up, Iz?”
Isabel took a deep breath and dived in. “Ok, I'm just
gonna make it simple. And I don't really think it's that big of a deal anyway
so, you know, I'm just gonna say it, and you can react. There's … there's
someone I want to tell about us.”
Michael stopped playing. “Well, I'm glad you don't think
that's a big deal,” he said sarcastically. “Who?”
“His name is Jesse Ramirez. You both know him. He's
…”
“The lawyer who works for Dad?”
“Yeah.”
“And why do you want to tell him?” Max asked, not
liking this already, his back stiffening.
“Because we've gotten close.”
“Close?”
Isabel glared at the cold matter of fact voice. “Yes,
close.”
“Meaning you and he are, uh …” Max knew he didn’t
like this.
“Involved.”
Michael wasn’t as involved as obviously Max was. To him
it was simple. “Are you pregnant?”
“No.” Isabel looked at Michael in shock that he would
ask such a personal question of her. “We haven't even slept together.”
Michael kept on his list of important questions. “Has he
seen you use your powers?”
“No.”
Michael put his hands back on his game already bored with
the conversation, seeing no real need to tell this Jesse person a damn thing.
“Then why are we having this conversation?”
Max wasn’t as simplistic as Michael. “Well, then why do
you need to tell him?”
They were the two most irritating brothers a girl could
have. “I don't need to. I want to. I want him to know because I want to be
honest with him. I love him, and I want him to know me. I don't want to hide.”
They both went back to the game considering it a closed subject. “Do you guys
know how humiliating this is for me? To have to come here and ask your
permission to have an open conversation with my boyfriend? Can you just imagine
it for a second and put yourself in my position?”
Michael stopped playing again after slamming another shot
into Max goal, and scoring. “I'm gonna put this as simple as possible. Isabel,
I'm happy you have a boyfriend. Congrats. That said, lie about the alien
thing.” Michael swore as he glanced at the time. He needed to leave now or he
wouldn’t intercept Maria at work. He didn’t even bother to say goodbye. He
had said all he needed.
“He's gonna leave, Max.” Isabel told her brother
needing him to understand, to feel how important this was to her. “If I’m
not honest with him, he's gonna leave.”
“How long have you two been, uh …”
“Three months. But I know him. I know him. This is the
first time I’ve ever felt this way. I'm in love with him, and if I lose this,
I don't know what the hell I’m doing here on earth. I mean, you have Liz,
Michael has Maria. This is the first time I’ve had someone.”
“Isabel, what if in three months from now or even six
months from now, you two break up?”
“We won't.”
“How do you know?”
“How did you know to tell Liz?” Isabel easily turned
the tables on Max. He and Liz weren’t even friends when he told her. He
trusted his instinct that said they had a connection or would if they could get
past his alien side. “I just do.”
“Right now, I'm not so sure it was the best idea to tell
Liz. It's screwing up her entire life.”
“No matter how much it screws up her life, you still have
each other.” She couldn’t believe that after all he and Liz had been
through, all the pain and hard times, that he was now questioning the choice he
made to tell her … to involve her in all their lives. “Isn't that the most
important thing?”
“Think about Jesse, Isabel. We agreed not to tell anyone
else after Alex died because we didn't want to put anyone else at risk. The
second you tell Jesse, his life changes … Forever. He becomes a part of a
secret he didn't ask to be part of. You can’t tell him, Isabel. For his sake.
~~~
Maria came out of the Crashdown and was walking towards the
Jetta when she saw Michael leaning up against it. Pausing, she rolled her
shoulders and went to meet him.
“Hey.”
“Hey. What are you doing here?”
“I came to get you.” Maria tipped her head. “I have
this big bowling thing tonight, and I promised some guys to be there. I was
hoping that you’d be free to come along … maybe cheer me on and all that.”
“You want me to cheerlead? For you?”
“No. Yeah. Well, only if you want to. See we’re taking
on the losers from Kyle’s garage, and I have it under good authority that you
had plans that didn’t pan out because this big jerk you know stood you up for
something else.”
“You heard that, huh?”
“Yeah. So if you haven’t made any other plans, I was
hoping that you would spend it with me. I can’t promise you much. Loud rude
guys, crashing pins, and maybe a tuna melt and a Snapple.”
Maria smiled and shook her head at his invitation,
actually, she wasn’t sure what she felt, but whatever it was, it was warm.
“The thing is, Maria,” said Michael. “The thing is
that I’ve been so caught up lately in this whole living on earth idea. I never
… I never bothered to try to … I mean, I was always leaving, and so making
friends, human friends, it was … you know …”
“Something you didn’t do.”
“Right, except for you. You’ve always been the
exception, then the example, and finally the idea.” Michael grabbed both of
her hands and drew her closer. “I’ve spent around two years having you be a
friend, and then becoming my best friend. I mean, I had the others, you know …
Max and Isabel, Alex, Liz and Kyle, but in truth, they don’t compare to my
friendship to you.”
Maria smiled.
“So suddenly I found this group of guys, and they became
friends too. They don’t know anything about me, except what I tell them, and
that’s okay. They’re very accepting. Now, they will never be you, but there
are things I do with you, things I love to do. But with them, I do …”
“Guy things?”
Michael laughed. “Yeah. Guy things. Like what you do with
Liz and Isabel.”
“Girl things.”
“Right.”
Maria stared at the ground for a moment. “You know the
other morning Isabel came to the Crashdown, and she saw you laughing with the
guys. She was so surprised that you were laughing. I didn’t think much of it
at first, but then I realized it was true. You never laugh like that.”
“Yes I do. I laugh with you all the time.”
“No. I mean, yes, you do. You laugh with me. But,
Michael, this was the first time I ever seen you laugh that way with someone
else, not me.” Maria put her hand on his shirt front to pull at the material.
“I never realized how selfish and jealous I am over you, over having you all
to myself. And now, now you have other friends.”
“I’m not giving you up, Maria … I’m not replacing
you.”
“I know that.” Maria looked in his eyes. “I guess
what I’m saying is, I love seeing this new phase for you. I don’t think I
really ever believed that you were staying here, on earth until this very
moment. You making connections with others it’s …” Maria searched for
words. “Always, you were a visitor here, waiting to go home. Now you have
friends, and you’re happy, and I love to see you happy. This is a good
thing.”
Michael pulled her close. “I am happy. There is one thing
you have to understand, Maria. I like my friends, but I love you. You are my
best friend, and wherever I go, whatever I do, I plan to take you with me.”
Maria hugged him hard. “I missed you,” she whispered to
him.
“I miss you too.” Michael mated his forehead to hers.
“So you are coming to cheer me on? If you do, I’ll have the guys buy you a
beer.”
Maria pulled back. “Are you offering to get me drunk, Mr.
Guerin?”
“It’s that alien thing. Since I can’t drink I was
thinking we could start this new phase in our friendship were I get to live
vicariously through you.”
Maria let him lead her to the bike. “Hmm.” So he wanted
to live vicariously through her? “How do you feel about a bikini wax?”
Michael waited until she was on the bike behind him.
Handing her her helmet, he glanced back. “Let’s not get too carried away.”
~~~
Liz entered her room to find her mom waiting there. It was
strange that in this conflict her mother was the voice of reason the bridge
between her and her father. Maybe it was too easy as a youth to forget that not
all things were about you, and that perhaps your parents had demons too, but
Liz’s mother brought that truth home.
She told Liz a story about her father, who in his youth was
responsible for his first love, his high school sweetheart’s death. It was
during a bout of wild irresponsible behavior on his part, but the end result had
been the girl’s death. Her father, a man she thought she knew, had once
written love poetry to a girl long since dead. He had dreamt dreams of another
life, one very different from the one he lived.
Listening, really for the first time, listening to her mom,
she was coming to understand how terrified her father was of losing her to a boy
whose irresponsible behavior placed her at risk. He was terrified of losing
someone he loved once again.
Liz found her father downstairs in the closed diner doing
the daily accounting. She watched him for a moment before approaching.
“Do you need help with those?”
Jeff glanced up at his daughter in surprise. It was perhaps
the first time she offered to help or said a civil word to him since forever.
“Thanks.”
Liz worked on the accounts with her father sorting the
daily receipts. Gathering her courage she asked, “Do you have any poems that I
could read?”
“What?”
“Poems. Yours.” Liz explained. “I would like to read
one.”
Jeff didn’t know how she knew, but he suspected his
wife’s input. “I, uh, I threw 'em away. It was a long time ago.”
“Well, maybe you could write a new one.” Liz put the
receipts aside. She owed him a lot, but mostly an apology. “I don't hate you,
Dad.”
Jeff looked up and smiled at his daughter with tears in his
eyes. “You're the poem, Liz. You're the poem.”
~~~
As nervous as she was, Isabel met Jesse for dinner. All
their cards on the table? That sounded ominous, but not as ominous as the ring
she found in Jesse’s dinner jacket. They were at Senior Chows, but the lines
were too long. Jesse went to check, giving Isabel his jacket first to keep her
warm. She put her hand into the pocket and found the ring. When Jesse came back,
Isabel was stiff and a little distant distracted by the thought that Jesse was
planning on proposing to her. The skipped Senior Chows for a new French
restaurant. Isabel excused herself to go to the ladies, and there she tried to
calm herself.
“He's gonna propose. He's gonna tell me either I'm with
him forever or he's leaving forever.” Isabel told Alex’s ghostly reflection
in the mirror.
Alex leaned against the wall. “And what will you say?”
“I don't want to ruin his life.”
“You didn't ruin my life, Isabel. You made me alive.”
“I also killed you,” said Isabel.
“No, you didn't.” Alex told her, needing her to release
her guilt, to release him. “You didn't kill me, Isabel, and you didn't kill
Grant either. We were victims of circumstance. That's all. And you need to
forgive yourself.”
“I can’t.” Isabel shook her head staring at her
reflection. How could she? Alex was gone, and nothing could ever make that
right.
“Well, I forgive you, and since I'm part of you, you just
did.”
Isabel and Jesse ate dinner, and when Jesse tried to talk
to Isabel he admitted that he couldn’t go on with their relationship the way
it was. He did want to lie or fake his way through being together. Isabel showed
him the ring he took from his pocket and asked him if he was going to chicken
out of asking her to marry him. Much to Isabel’s embarrassment, the ring
actually belonged to Jesse’s mother, and we merely getting it cleaned. Seeing
how disappointed Isabel was in an unguarded moment, Jesse followed his own
advice and asked her to marry him.
Jesse admitted that he should leave
“Jesse, I … I can’t. I really, really want to. I
really want to, but I can’t.”
Jesse sat back having the wind knocked out of him.
“Oh.”
“I'm so sorry.”
“No. It's ok. I just feel … really … stupid.”
“I didn't mean for you to …”
Jesse got up from the table. “I … I think I should just
go. Good-bye, Isabel.”
“Go … go to him.” Alex told Isabel.
Isabel sunk her head in her hands. “I can’t.”
“Isabel, will you look at what you're doing to your life?
You're stopping it. You're killing it. You're … you're sitting at a table with
no one. I'm not really here.” Alex needed to her to release him, to live her
life. His was over, and staying was only hurting her. “You need to move on.
You need to move past me, and you need to start now.”
Isabel looked at him and smiled sadly. “If I ever have a
son, I'm going to name him Alex.”
“What? … Thank you that’s truly … thanks … now
go!”
Alex watched as Isabel ran after Jesse and accepted his
proposal. Watching them kiss, it was like a release. Isabel hugged Jesse and
over his shoulder, she saw Alex standing there next to the tree and she could
almost hear his words in her head, the words she had from him at his grave the
night before they tried to leave earth. “I know how scary it is, to have to
leave … leave this world, but as it turns out, it's not so bad. Your heart is
your heart, your soul is your soul.
That doesn't change.” He waved, and faded away.
“I love you, Isabel.”
“I love you, too, Jesse.”
~~~
Michael was laughing at Maria, as she sat at the scoring
table with George who was intent on teaching her how to score. He frowned when
he noticed that George actually bought her a drink … a beer and she was
sipping it. He laughed when she shriveled up her nose at the taste.
Fly punched Michael’s arm for the second time trying to
get his attention away from Maria. “Hey, do you want to win this or not?”
“Yeah,” Michael told Fly. Sure he did. Was that her
first beer or second?
“Hey, how's date night going?” Monk asked.
“You tell me. She’s spending it with us.” Michael
frowned when Maria drank again. “I'll be lucky if she ever talks to me again
if George gets her drunk.” Steve was quietly laughing next to him. “Hey,
Steve, tell your wife thanks for her advice. It helped.”
“She’s a pro!” Steve said about his wife who
suggested that Michael invite Maria to join them. “Knows exactly what a woman
would want.”
Michael watched Maria again talking to his friends,
laughing with them. Steve’s wife Cheryl had been right. The best way to make
Maria feel comfortable with him was to make her part of his friendship with the
others. That way she wasn’t losing his attention, just altering it to include
a few more people.
“She’s good. I could’ve really messed this up.”
“Well you’ll like this then. Next weekend, she wants
you to bring Maria to dinner at our place. She said nothing makes a couple feel
like a couple until they start socializing with other couples.”
Michael paled. “Is that like a double date?”
“Speaking of doubles,” Kyle said holding two blue
bowling balls at his chest for Michael. “Oh. These yours?”
“Funny.” Michael made a face. His blue balls were not a
subject for levity. “Hey. How we doing?”
Kyle smirked. “You're losing.”
“All right,” Michael stood up to take his turn.
“Final frame, baby!” Fly told Michael encouraging him
to be great. “You get a strike we win this mother.”
“Right.” Kyle snickered. “Like that's gonna
happen.”
“Hey, don't look over there.” Fly told Michael making
an obscene gesture at Kyle and his grease monkey pit crew. “You don't need
none of that psych-out crap.”
“But if you screw up, I still love you, man.” Steve
reassured him.
Michael made a face. The pressure was on. “Thanks.”
Maria called to him from the scoring seat. “Do it,
Spaceboy! Do your thing, take them out!” She was cheering him on. Michael
frowned. Okay, it was official. Maria cheering meant she was definitely drunk.
Kyle, hearing Maria’s orders, pulled Michael to the side
a little. “Hey, hey. Remember, uh, no alien funny business.”
“Hey! Back off.” Michael lined up the shot, his eyes on
the prize, ten little pins at the end of a long lane. He released and got a
strike as his friends cheered and congratulated him. Maria rushed up to him
throwing herself in his arms hugging him tight and he swung her around in a
circle. Having friends was nice, but it was even better having them and Maria.
After
the game, Michael and the guys tried to teach Maria how to bowl, and as terrible
as he was at dancing, Maria was worse at bowling.
When
they got back to the apartment, they were both laughing and making too much
noise. Max glanced over when Michael and Maria came through the door, Michael
practically carrying a clinging Maria.
“Is
she …”
“Yep,
drunk as a skunk.”
“You
got her drunk?”
“Technically,
no.” Michael put Maria on her feet, but she immediately began to lean.
“I’m underage, so Steve and the guys bought the beers.” Michael picked
Maria up again before she collapsed into a pile on the floor at his feet.
“Whoa, there partner!”
“You
didn’t …”
“Drink?
Nah. I was tempted, but someone had to be the designated driver. That bike has a
mind of its own otherwise.” Michael saw the look Max gave him. “Hey, don’t
give me that look. Maria drinks at Raves and parties. Not a lot because she’s
a light weight. One beer, and she’s at her limit. I’m not trying to get her
drunk or anything, and if we could drink … I would.”
Maria
was leaning into Michael humming to herself feeling no pain. She had fun. Who
knew bowling could be fun, and that George was a real cute guy.
“What
are you going to do with her?”
Michael
glanced at the dishrag in his arms. “Put her to bed. She’ll hate me in the
morning when she wakes up with a headache. It’ll be my fault then for not
stopping her at one beer.”
“How
many did she have?”
“Two.”
“Two?”
Max looked at the toasted Maria. “She is a light weight.”
“Yeah.”
Michael picked Maria up. “Uppsy Daisy. It’s bedtime for you, Ms. DeLuca.”
“That’s
Maria to you, Skippy.” Maria told him laughing at her own humor. Max laughed
and went back to reading when Michael took Maria into the bedroom shutting the
door behind him. He dumped her into his bed swearing because he hadn’t changed
his sheets in a week. Maria loved a fresh bed to sleep in, and since he started
working nights she hardly spent any time at his place so he wasn’t as self
conscious.
Michael
quickly stripped her to her slip, taking off her shoes and folding her clothes
neatly across a chair. Picking her up to push her higher up on the bed,
Maria’s arms went around his neck.
“You
coming to bed?” She asked huskily.
“In
a little bit.”
“Come
to bed. I hate sleeping alone, and I’ve missed you.”
Michael
looked at her, and in her condition, that was probably not the best idea he
could come up with. She was too pliant, too … sexy. “I will in just a little
while, I promise.”
“Promise?”
“Absolutely.
Here, you go to sleep and hog all the space and covers.”
“’K.”
She pulled his head down and kissed him goodnight. Their mouths touched, and
both of them opened their mouth, breathing each other’s breath. Michael
groaned when he felt her tongue on his lip, and Maria breathed softly, “I
really love you.”
Michael didn’t hesitate. His mouth found hers and this
time he didn’t hang back or stop at just the brush of lips. Their tongues met
in hunger savoring the taste of the other. Maria moaned into his mouth as he
moved into her. Maria pulled Michael's tongue inside and the kiss deepened and
became their world. Michael's hand curved around Maria’s neck as his hand
buried in the silky strands of her hair and pulling her head back. His other
hand went down her body to wind his arm around her small waist, pulling her body
hard into his. Pulling slowly back his lips tugging on hers as he breathed in
her taste, he glanced down to see her reaction.
She was asleep.
Letting her go, Michael rolled over on his back on the bed
beside her. Shit. She was drunk and wouldn’t remember ever kissing him. He put
an arm over his eyes, but a slow smile moved over his face. But she did. She
kissed him. Getting up, he watched her for a moment, loving everything about
her, as his eyes studied her face. “I really love you too,” he whispered
before kissing her lax sleeping lips and nuzzling his face against hers.
Going into the other room, he closed the door softly.
“Is she asleep?”
“Unfortunately,” Michael headed for the bathroom.
“What are you going to do?”
“Take a damn cold shower.”
~~~
Maria
smiled loving the warm feeling as it lapped at her body. It was a hot feeling
inside, trembling and new, something that was more than a place, but was so
ubiquitous it moved through cell to cell flooding them, becoming. Sighing, she
felt it like a tingle in her spine, a delicious thirst. “Michael...,” she
breathed softly.
“It’s
about time.”
Maria
turned, still lulled by the warm waters holding her. “Alex?” She stared at
him, and he gave her that lopsided smiled she loved. “Alex!” Maria shook off
the lethargic feeling in her bones and hugged him hard, laughing and crying at
the same time.
“Hey,
funny face.”
“Alex,”
she cried. “I’ve missed you, every day! Every moment of every day. My life
is so pale without you here.” Maria’s eyes moved over him. “I can’t
…”
“I
know.” Alex held her kissing her forehead. “You make me live, Maria. Inside
you, I live as long as you remember.”
“As
if I could ever forget!” Maria felt the tear on her cheek as her hands moved
over his body, needing to feel him firm in her hands, real and substantial. “I
hate that my last time I saw you … I didn’t know. All the things I never
shared with you, all the days I would walk alone, and you wouldn’t be there.
God, forgive me, Alex. All I think about is myself, and how my life is less
without you.”
“I’m
here.” Alex pushed her away to look at her, his eyes penetrating. “Aw! There
she is! There is my girl. So you tasted desire. So you feel …”
“Come
back to me.”
Alex
shook his head. “I can’t. I’m already gone. I’m only held here by those
who can’t forget, who live to feel me near. I’m here for you, Maria, but you
really don’t need me anymore. Let me go.”
Maria
shook her head. “What if I can’t?
“Then
I’ll stay until one day I’m a thought, then another day I’m merely a
smile, and another day I’m merely a shadow that pulls a frown of what you
forgot. I’ll stay until you can go on.”
“I
wish I was as strong as you always were. I wish …”
“You
are. Where it counts, you are Herculean.” Alex held her humming, the music a
bond unbreakable between them. “Don’t fear love. Don’t.”
“Don’t
go!”
Maria
stood on the edge of the sea, turning in a twirl, she searched the shoreline for
the meeting of sea to earth screaming, “Alex! Alex!”
“Maria!”
She
made a sound of distress.
“Maria,
wake up … you’re dreaming.”
Crying,
she sat up in the dark wiping away the tears that never seemed to go away.
Sitting up in Michael’s bed, breathing in harsh pants, she wiped the sweaty
hair from her face, and out of the shadows emerged Alex.
~~~
Michael
almost fell out of his chair at Maria’s scream. Rushing to his feet, he and
Max burst into his dark bedroom to find a hysterical Maria in the middle of the
bed weeping uncontrollably.
Jumping
on the bed he pulled her into his arms while she talked wildly, incoherent.
Thrashing about, he could feel the pounding of her heart, the sweat covering her
body in a filmy sheen while her skin was deathly pale.
“Max,
hot tea!” Michael ordered as he began to rock her in his arms talking to her
in low soothing sounds. Max watched as they slowly got Maria calmed down enough
to talk. Michael listened as Max turned lights on in the room. It took a little
time to decipher what happened, but finally Michael looked at Max.
“Get
Isabel.”
~~~
The
room behind her was quiet. Isabel stood in the door way watching the quiet girl
wrapped in a blanket holding a cup of tea. She was so small in the middle of the
bed hugging herself. Closing the door behind her, she leaned against it. Maria
looked up at her with a pale face.
“Isabel?”
Isabel
cleared her throat. “I … I think I owe you an apology.” Isabel came and
sat on the bed facing Maria. “Michael told me about the dream inside a
dream.”
“I
don’t understand.”
“I
know you don’t.” Isabel licked her lips. “I … I’ve been having a hard
time lately. I found someone … someone I love.”
“That’s
bad?”
“No.
Yes.” Isabel laughed. “No. It’s … wonderful. Wonderful, and terrifying,
and so much I can’t even describe it. I love him, and I can’t tell him about
me. Max and Michael won’t let me. That’s not the only problem.” Isabel
glanced at her hands in her lap. “There was Alex.”
“Alex?”
Isabel
nodded sniffing. “I don’t know what it is, or how, but I think my gift …
of dreams, it makes me able to bring Alex back.”
“Alex,”
Maria said softly her eyes filling with tears again.
“He’s
not real. He is like my conscience. He’s there when I need him, and until
today, I haven’t been ready to let him go. I needed him to forgive me, to tell
me it was alright for me to find love … to go on. In the last week, he’s
been my constant companion, so strong in my mind.”
“He’s
not here?” Maria asked, her voice so quiet and small.
“No.
He’s long since been gone, except his memory that I keep alive in my mind. I
think because I have invaded your dreams a few times, and tonight I said goodbye
to Alex, that you were weaker than usual, your defenses were down, and in our
dreams we were both dreaming of Alex, and I pushed him into your mind.”
“Then
he’s not … I can’t have him back?”
“No.”
Isabel shook her head tears moving down her face. “No.”
“But
he was here. I saw him. I felt him, and …” Maria looked at Isabel and saw
the truth. It was a dream. A dream they shared … Alex. Maria breathed in a
shaky sob.
“I
didn’t mean to scare you or upset you. I just needed Alex a lot lately. You
have to understand, he is always with me, in my heart. Alex is like my first
love. I barely touched the idea that I could have him when he was taken.”
Isabel took one of Maria’s cold hands. “I never … I don’t know about my
past life, because I know that I never felt love, not like this in my life. I
couldn’t recognize it, but that was what Alex taught me. He taught me to
understand what I was feeling. He taught me how to love, so when I met Jesse I
knew. Alex taught me, and I knew that I was in love.”
“Will
he ever come back?” Maria asked holding her breath.
Isabel
let go of her held breath. “No.” She said softly. “I finally found the
strength to let him go. He won’t be back.”
Maria
put her hand across her eyes and started crying again. Isabel moved in closer
and she and Maria hugged both of them crying.
Max
and Michael stood in the other room listening to the soft sound of the two girls
crying neither of them moving. They stared out Michael’s open back door at the
night.
“I
can take a lot, Max, but I can’t take seeing Maria in pain.” Michael told
the quiet man next to him. “She’s live through a lot in the last year. If
ever you treat Liz the way you did last year again, I will find you, and you
will pay.”
“I
didn’t think you liked Liz.” Max was shocked by the threat.
“I
don’t. Maybe it isn’t so much like or dislike, just she doesn’t really
register with me. But, I love Maria, and she loves Liz, and when Liz hurts …
Maria hurts. And that I can’t have.”
Max
merely nodded.
The
vicissitude of life was generally a gradual event, slowly altering just below
the surface of awareness. Most people hate change more than they hate anything.
It was tumultuous and bounding out of reasonable control. The mere chaos was a
disturbing rush of reality, that this was it … this was moment that changed
everything, and the future was now uncertain and unknown. Even when a normal
life was bad, and pain was a constant companion, at least it was familiar in its
unchanging form. And if you changed, it might actually get worse. So staying the
same, no matter how bad it was, was better than the alternative … the unknown.
Alex’s
death was a swift fast change, hard and desperate, cutting cleanly like a
surgical blade. There was no preparation or gradual adjustment along the way.
Alex, gone, was an echoing wave that moved through their lives. As was the
nature of most people, the reluctance to change held them captured.
The
more things changed, the more they stayed the same. Maria had stood still for so
long, absolutely still, hoping that if she did not move, that change would pass
her by. Even when her life was horrible, it didn’t matter, because she had
learned to live with the pain of it, and it was nothing if not familiar.
Life
had a way of throwing zingers to them.
Isabel
fought the desire to change, drawn into the fear of losing again. Maria held the
only body that felt ever unchanging close, Michael, but then he altered before
her eyes she was slowly awaking to a realization that to be with him, she would
have to change too.
Liz’s
father was fighting a fate, a rerun of tragedy that marked and made his life, as
Max and Liz struggled to return to a time that was so much simpler. And Michael,
the most unchangeable of them all, found that for him to go on, to make his own
future, he needed change, because static life trapped as only Maria’s friend,
he wasn’t really living. He needed his relationship with her to become
something more.
So
they all fought in a sea of viscosity weighing and troublesome, slowly pulled
down by the undertow, accepting the changes, as a blind jump into an uncertain
future. It was strange to realize that when change came it was quiet and
unassuming, leisurely altering along the course, until one day they woke up, and
thing had altered without them realizing it. There had been no loud explosions
or bursting realities along the way, just a gentle shift in the spectrum.
Standing
there, at the edge of awareness, they all saw the changes that had gradually
entered their lives, and suddenly they were different people. The gradual ambush
of nature, taking away the pain of a sudden departure, lulled them in a security
that maybe this would be the last time they had to change. That this would make
them be who they would be forever. They prayed that they would never have to
change again, and never again, so violently.
