Chapter 13

~*~Chapter Thirteen~*~

Maria batted at Michael’s wandering hand as she grabbed for the phone on the nightstand. The display read ‘Liz’ and she gave a little squeal as she answered, much to the eye-rolling amusement of her boyfriend.

“Chica!”

“Hey, ‘Ria.”

“Long time, no talk. The Czechs keeping you too busy to call your best friend?”

Liz’s snort echoed down the line, bringing a grin to Maria’s lips. “You’re one to talk. I bet your man is there with you right now, isn’t he? You’re probably still in bed, for that matter.”

Maria’s grin spread as she eyed her own special hunk of a man with a wink. “But of course. Where else would we be at this time of the afternoon.”

“Working?”

The blonde snorted. “Puh-lease. I’ll have you know that our shifts don’t start for another….three hours.”

“Dad has you working close still?”

Maria shrugged instinctively before remembering the other girl couldn’t see her. She leaned back, nestling her head into Michael’s shoulder. “Just this week, then its back to partying all night and working all day.” She toyed with fine hairs on Michael’s arm as she spoke, twisting them into little clumps before smoothing them out again. “So…speaking of men. Anyone new in your life? Please tell me you’ve finally met someone.”

“Uh –“

“You did!” Maria’s joyous exclamation and subsequent bolting upright in bed drew a curious look from Michael, which she promptly ignored. “So – what does he look like? Where’ you meet? Details, girl. Details.”

“Well, heh,” Liz laughed softly. Maria’s brow furrowed. That didn’t sound like the laughter of a woman in love. It sounded sort of…nervous. “Funny you should mention that.”

A feeling of déjà vu swept through Maria at her friend’s words, all too familiar after another conversation they had engaged in not too long before. “Liz, sweetie.. Isn’t that the same thing you said right before you told me you’d met –“

She paused, realization slamming into her like a bat to the head. “Tell me you didn’t, Liz. Not him…of all the men on Earth…human or otherwise…tell me you didn’t choose –him-!”

“Why not –him-?” Liz huffed, sounding very put out to Maria’s ears. “He’s a great guy, ‘Ria.”

“A great guy that just so happens to look just like the idiot you once had your heart torn out and stomped on by!”

“Whoa,” Michael cut in with a shake of his head. “She’s dating Zan?”

Maria threw him an ‘I know!’ look and rolled her eyes as Liz began to speak again.

“He’s different from Max,” the other girl sighed. Now she sounded like a woman in love, as worrisome as Maria found it to be. “You know how Max was always so…insecure…hesitant about everything – who he was, what he was going to do. He didn’t want to take any chances because it could upset that perfect little world he’d made for himself?”

“Sure, right up to the point he started banging Tess, apparently,” Maria growled under her breath. “So?”

“Zan isn’t like that… He’s more… confidant. Almost arrogant sometimes. He’s not afraid to take risks because he’s never had the perfect home or that perfect life, even if he wants them one day. He’s sweet and kind, but very protective and intimidating all at the same time. I feel safe around him…”

“And Max didn’t make you feel safe,” Maria sighed. “Because being with him was usually the reason you were in danger.”

Liz laughed. “It sounds bad when you put it like that.”

“It was bad,” the blonde frowned. “You guys had this special thing between the two of you…but to everyone watching it just looked like a train wreck. All blood and gore with no end to the horror in sight. It was like that right up to the point he left.”

Silence crept in after her last word and Maria bit back a sigh, wondering if she hadn’t said too much on the subject of one Max Evans and his ever-insatiable lust for making Liz miserable.

“I know,” Liz whispered. “But Zan isn’t like that. I promise you he isn’t. And…being with him for this past week.”

“Week!” Maria screeched. “You’ve been with him a week and I’m just now getting a call? You are in serious danger of having your best friend title revoked.”

More silence. Maria felt a sense of dread enter her heart. Whatever Liz had to say, whatever was on her mind at that moment, wasn’t something she was going to like. She just knew it. Without looking she reached for Michael’s hand. “What is it, chica?”

Liz sighed. “I’m not coming back to Roswell, ‘Ria. Not to live, anyway. Maybe for a visit one day… We’ve already started looking for apartments and I got a job working at this nice restaurant uptown.”

Her entire world was caving in on her, Maria decided. Firstly Liz says she’s dating the dupe of the slime bag that left her here, on Earth, crying her eyes out, and then she says she’s not coming home? “What about school?”

“I’m applying here…you know me, I’ll get in and might just get some kind of scholarship. If not, there’s financial aid. I’m not giving up on my dreams…just moving them out here where they actually have a chance to shine, if you know what I mean.”

“Yeah, sure,” Maria whispered, fighting back a sob. Liz wasn’t coming home. “I –“

She passed the phone off to Michael, fleeing the bed.

Only with the bathroom door shut behind her did she give into the tears that were burning her eyes.

~*~*~

“You’re not coming back?”

“Do you read minds now, Guerin?” Liz joked half-heartedly, the echo of Maria’s last cry ringing in her ears. She leaned back against the headboard of the bed, eyeing the hotel door. Zan and Ava would be back soon, hopefully with good news on an apartment for the three of them.

“Can it, Parker. Is you not coming home the reason she’s in the bathroom crying like there’s no tomorrow? You know how much I just love crying women.”

Liz snickered. “I do, actually. Remember? You stood in for Maria quite a few times after Max left. You took his place as honorary girlfriend and everything.”

He snorted. “As much as this lighthearted banter amuses me – can you just answer the question?”

How was he supposed to protect her from almost all the way across the country? She could hear the questions going through his head, imagining the tight, drawn look on his face, the coolness in his eyes. His brevity would be mistaken by anyone else as cruelty or anger…but not her. She knew that he was just worried. Their little group was spreading out, becoming impossible to watch over.

And that rankled against everything in him that had been and ever would be a protector.

“Yes,” she murmured quietly. “I’m staying in New York. Got a job and everything.”

“Great. Just fucking great. You’re shacking up with Zan?”

“I wouldn’t call it ‘shacking up’,” she bristled. “The apartment we’re looking at has three bedrooms. One for me, one for him and one for Ava. Hardly a house of sin.”

“Liz –“

“No,” Liz shook her head, the phone pressing tight to her ear as she gripped it white-knuckle tight. “This is what’s best for me. Living here…with them. I feel…like I’m home, Michael. Except there’s not so many of the bad memories and the pain is just barely there. I feel better than I’ve felt in a long time.”

Michael sighed and Liz felt the corner of her mouth tilt up in a smile. “Your parents are going to be pissed.”

“They’ll live.”

“What about me and Maria?”

“Well…you’ll just have to visit once we get settled in the new place. And then you’ll see that Zan’s a great guy. I think you’ll like him, Michael. He even likes hockey.”

“Metallica?”

Liz snickered, her shoulders easing as she relaxed. Everything was going to be just fine.

“I’m sure you can convert him.”

~*~End Part~*~