"When you feel all alone,
and the world has turned its back on you,
Give me a moment please,
to tame your wild, wild heart
I know you feel
Like the walls are closing in on you
It’s hard to find relief
and people can be so cold
When darkness is upon your door
and you feel like you can’t take anymore

Let me be the one you call
When you jump I’ll break your fall
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash, then crash and burn
you’re not alone.

Because there has always heartache and pain
and when it’s over you’ll breathe again
You’ll breathe again

And when you feel all alone
and the world has turned its back on you
Give me a moment please
to tame your wild wild heart.

Let me be the one you call
When you jump I’ll break your fall
If you need to fall apart
I can mend a broken heart
If you need to crash then crash and burn you're not alone..."

-Savage Garden "Crash and Burn"

***

Isabel stared at herself in the mirror. She saw the ever-perfect girl that everyone saw. The most popular girl in the school. Isabel the Ice Princess. The one that Alex saw.

Except not today, She thought. Max and Liz were still at the Crashdown negotiating their punishment. Her mother had called her when Max had walked in the Crashdown hand in hand with Liz. She was pretty sure that they would be forbidden to see each other for a while.

To tell you the truth, Isabel had been pretty proud of her brother when she found out that he had snuck off. And with Liz no less. She knew her brother well enough to know that they hadn’t had sex. But it was nice to know that Max had taken a walk on the wild side.

She couldn’t believe that she had gone to Alex’s. To generate information, she had said. Bull crap. She knew as well as anyone that Max was fine. And if Liz was with him she would be fine too. She just had to know.

After she had gone into Alex’s dream she had convinced herself that that dream was one out of a thousand. How did she know that Alex liked her like that? Who can understand the sub-conscious anyway?

But Max had told her about the fireworks that he had seen when he kissed Liz. He had told her about the weak knees and fuzzy brain. She had never felt that. She thought it was just movie bull crap. But when Max had come home through the window that night after the heat wave and she had seen that deliriously happy look on his face, she knew it wasn’t Hollywood hype.

So she had to see if Alex was really who she thought he was. If he was really the sensitive, goofy guy that she had half-fallen for in his dream. If he was really interested in finding out about her, not just having wild, freaky circus sex with her.

The fireworks were real. So were the weak knees. So was the fuzzy brain. So was her love.

Oh god, she thought, cupping her face in her hands. That sounds way too corny. Me? In love with Alex Whitman? Impossible. I never believed in that whole love-conquers all crap.

Before she knew it her hand were covered in black mascara. Crying? Isabel the Ice Queen? Over a guy? Man, Michael would have a field day if he saw me.

She quickly touched up her eyes with a quick wave of her hand. She had to stop thinking about this. She heard the door next to hers open and slam loudly. Max was home. Time to get on board the cheer-up train.

She opened the door to his room silently. Counting Crows was playing softly in his tape deck. Oh yeah. He got it bad.

"Hey, Max."

"Don’t want to talk about it."

"Yes you do, or else you wouldn’t of slammed your door so I could hear. What sentence did you get?"

"Grounded. Two months," he said weakly. "They were pretty upset."

"Ouch. No Romeo and Juliet forbidden love thing, huh?"

"Nope, thank god. Mrs. Parker was the only one pushing for that. I have never loved anyone more than Mr. Parker at this minute."

Isabel chuckled softly. "What story did you give them?"

"Oh god, it was the lamest lie I could come up with. Something about a school project that we forgot to do."

"So. Did you find anything?"

"Portaining to our origin? Yeah." Max reached into his bag and pulled out a stone. It was smooth and oval and it glowed slightly at his touch. When she looked closely at it she could see a marking similar to that at the caves.

"What is it?"

"Got me. Listen, I’m tired. Would you mind if I took a nap?"

"Okay, sure, I’ll leave you alone so you can day dream about Liz," she said with a teasing smile. He grabbed a magazine that was sitting on his bed stand and smacked her with it. She dodged the blow and skipped out into the hall. She turned around to go back to her door only to find Alex, with his hand in mid-air about to knock on it.

"Alex!"

He smiled his sheepish smile. "Hi, Isabel."

"What are you doing here?"

"Well, I heard the sentencing was over and came over to see how everything went."

"Two months."

"Brutal," he grimaced. Then he noticed the smooth rock n her hand. "What’s that?"

She walked over to him and pulled him into her room. She gave him the stone.

"That’s from the cave drawings isn’t it?"

"Yeah."

He gave her a look. "You know what it is?"

"No."

"Well, come on," he said, grabbing her arm.

"Where are we going?" she said laughing.

"To find out. Mescalero reservation, here we come!"

She just stared at him in amazement. Sure, he was goofy and sometimes said things that he shouldn’t. But he would always be there. No matter what. That’s what made him Alex.

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