Turning By Natalie (obriens@recoder.ca)
Turning (continued from previous)
* * * *
Liz awakened slowly, savouring the soft feel of Max's cotton shirt. She had curled up even closer to him during sleep and her head was against his chest, listening to the comforting sound of his very human heartbeat.
Mmm.... this is heaven.
But Liz was a practical girl and felt the need, on an early Thursday morning to check the time. She brought her watch to her face, trying to make out the two little hands in her sleep fuzzed brain. It was 8:07.
"8:07!" She sprang off the couch, stepping on Isabel's hair as she did. "Wake up, guys! We are going to be late for school!"
Isabel pulled her blanket over her head. "Somebody shut her off!" She could not deal with little Miss Future Valedictorian at eight in the morning. "Lateness does not kill, regardless of what you've heard, Liz."
Max was waking up now and he had the sweetest sleepy little boy look on his face. Liz wanted to smooth out the hairs that were sticking up on the back of his head. But since that wasn't allowed she instead spoke. "I'm going to wake up Michael and Maria."
Isabel realized she had fallen asleep before even seeing them. "When did they get back? Are they okay?"
Liz was already up the stairs and had not heard her. Isabel grumbled as she extracted herself from her blanket and padded barefoot up the stairs after Liz.
* * * *
"Maria?" Liz whispered through the wooden door. "Are you awake?"
A soft snore answered.
"Obviously not."
That was weird, Maria didn't snore. Liz should have been warned then but she was sleepy and she opened the door anyway....
..... To find Maria and Michael in a comprising position for the second time in as many days. Maria lay half sprawled over Michael's body. Her top half was naked except for a dark blue bra. Her lower half was covered by her cloud sheets. Michael was worse, clad only in short black boxers, making it very obvious that, alien or not, he shared every teenage guy's morning, um, problem.
"Liz?"
Liz closed Maria's door quickly. "Isabel! Hi!" She spoke brightly. "What are you doing here?"
Isabel gave her a strange look. "I was going to check on Maria. How is she?"
"She's, um... sleeping! We really should let her sleep!"
Isabel's brown eyes narrowed suspiciously. "What are you hiding?"
"Nothing!" Liz exclaimed loudly. "Nothing." She repeated a more calmly. Nonchalantly she rested her arm across Maria' door, effectively barring Isabel's way.
"Okay, then. Well, we better get some breakfast then. Big day." Isabel started slowly down the stairs.
Liz followed cautiously. They went down a few steps when Isabel made a break for it, racing past Liz into Maria's room. Liz readied herself for an explosion. She was not disappointed.
"Michael Guerin and Maria DeLuca! Get up immediately and explain yourself!"
"Five more minutes, Mom." Maria mumbled, gripping Michael firmly. She bolted up. "Mom?!? Oh God, Iz, you scared me. Wait! Isabel! Get out!"
Max rushed in. "Isabel-"
Maria shrieked. Max yelped. Maria dived under the covers, only her feet showing. From under the blanket she shook Michael.
"Michael, wake up! Isabel is going to turn me into a popsicle!"
Michael opened one eye to find a very angry Isabel towering over him. Uh oh.
"Michael, how could you? Maria was upset and we- we made a promise! We don't even know what could happen. What if she gets pregnant?" Isabel's face was flushed and upset.
Maria peeked her head out from under her comforter. "Wait, you think we...?"
Isabel crossed her arms over her chest, defensively. "Well, didn't you?"
"No!" Michael stated loudly. "Our pact is not broken, okay? We just slept together, okay? We didn't sleep together."
"Yeah, what kind of girl do you think I am?" Maria spoke angrily from beneath the blanket. Her head popped out again. "Wait, you have a pact?"
Liz looked at Max and his ears turned bright red.
Michael had managed to pull his jeans up by this point. "Don't you all have somewhere to be?" He looked pointedly at Maria's beside clock. "It'll look suspicious if we are all missing."
Isabel glared at of him, keeping her anger or else she might have to apologize. "And what will you be doing?"
Michael could stare down anyone, even Isabel Evans. "I'm going back to bed." He laid back down on the bed, shutting his eyes.
Isabel huffed one last time and then she, Liz and Max filed out of the room.
"Are they gone?" Maria's voice was muffled through the thick comforter.
"Yeah." Maria slid out from under the blanket. "Good, Isabel's scary."
Michael chuckled, still lying relaxed, one arm swung over his eyes.
"So.... what are we going to do now?"
Michael removed his arm from over his eyes. "I was planning on going back to sleep, why?"
"I can't sleep now. Too much adrenalin from my almost close encounter with Isabel. I though we could..."
"What?" Michael tried not to sound too eager but he was suddenly wide awake.
Maria's face lit up mischievously. "Play."
* * * *
Maria and Michael sat fully clothed on her living room floor staring at an apple. Max had given Michael his green gym top to go with his jeans and Maria was dressed in her normal attire, a red, tight tank top and flared blue jeans.
"I can't believe you dragged me out of bed for this."
"Stop complaining. "She chided. "You've finally got your super powers working, so let's see what they can do. Turn it into... chocolate." She licked her lips eagerly.
Michael still didn't look happy but he took her hand into one of his and grasped the apple with another. He didn't need to picture her face in his mind this time, he was looking into it. "There."
The apple was now a milky brown and he offered it to her silently, his lips curving into a smile. She took a large bite out of it from his hand but didn't spit it out instantly like he expected. She rolled the bite around in her mouth, licking her lips, her face full of pleasure. "Mmm... Tabasco sauce and chocolate."
She moved in for another taste and his eyes widened. "You liked that?"
She nodded, licking at the chocolate apple. "It's perfect. Satisfies two cravings."
She took another lick, this time letting her tongue touch both the apple and Michael's palm.
He shivered. "Which two?" He asked, mesmerized by Maria's kittenish ministrations.
She looked up, her eyes as mysterious as a cat's. "Yours and mine."
She pounced, pushing Michael on to his back, pressing both her hot mouth and body on his. He opened his mouth in surprise and her tongue entered, filling him with the sweet and spicy taste of her mouth. Her legs werearound his hips and she shifted against him in the most delicious way. He spread his hands over her ass, pulling it tighter against him.
Soon all he could feel was the friction of their lower bodies as they moved against each other in an instinctive rhythm. He groaned with the pressure she was creating between their bodies. Her tongue plunged into his mouth and he mimicked the movements with his body, wishing that all the clothes between them would just melt away.
He felt something wet against his leg... "Oh, shit!"
He closed his eyes tightly because he didn't want to see what his brain had already realized was the truth. The only thing that separated Maria Deluca's naked body from his own was a thin layer of liquid.
"What?" Maria sat up and realized something was dripping down her front. It was her tank top. She hit Michael in the chest. "You better keep your eyes closed!"
Moving back, Maria realized she better shut her eyes too. Slapping her hand over her eyes quickly, she reached a hand out, walking blindly toward the stairs. "Now, I'm going to go... wash my clothes off and change. You better not move."
She turned around and raced up the stairs the safety of her bathroom.
"I don't think I could move if I wanted to." Michael sighed, destroyed.
* * * *
Liz knocked on Maria's front door loudly. She wasn't taking any chances. Michael opened the door. He was wearing Maria's terry cloth housecoat. It was oversized but not enough. It stretched tightly across Michael's shoulders and hit his leg at mid calf.
"She's upstairs." He said, answering Liz's unspoken question. Well, one of them.
Maria's door was slightly ajar and Liz peeked inside. Maria was standing in front of her full length mirror, clad only in a towel, examining her upper chest. The towel was short and Liz couldn't make any sense out of what she was seeing.
"Maria, why are you blue?"
Maria yelped and twirled around quickly, almost losing her towel. "Liz! Don't do that to me!" Maria clutched her towel to her chest.
"I repeat, Maria why are you blue?"
"And red. Don't forget red, I think there's a little green somewhere too." She made a face at Liz. "Michael turned me into pretty colours."
"He practised his powers on you, Maria?" Liz was shocked.
Maria shook her head, her blond hair a darker shade from the shower. "No, nothing like that. We were working on an apple, like yesterday. I asked him to turn it into chocolate..."
"Yes?"
"And he did and then just offered it to me, right out of the palm of his hand. It was just too tempting. Very Garden of Eden. I couldn't help it, so I took a bite. But he had tried to play a trick on me and it was laced with tabasco sauce but that was so perfect because I'd had been craving it all morning, so well...."
"Yes?!?" Liz's voice was just a little too interested. She could admit it, she was living vicariously through Maria.
Maria flopped down on her bed, head in hands. "I jumped him. I know, Iknow I'm so weak. It was the chocolate, it's an aphrodisiac!"
Liz sat onthe bed beside her friend, placing a comforting arm around her. Liz wasn't going to be the one to warn Maria off her alien. Not when she couldn't follow her own advice. "That still doesn't explain why you're blue." Liz was a scientist in the making after all.
Maria blushed. "Well, we were making out and it started to get.. Hot and well, ourclothesmeltedoff."
Liz, trained through years of friendship with Maria, could understand whatshe was saying. "You mean metaphorically, right?"
Maria shook her head and pointed to her legs. "I'm Levis blue, Liz!"
Liz couldn't help it, she burst out laughing.
Maria socked her in the arm. "It's not funny!"
Liz's olive skin was reddened by her giggles and her hair was flying madly around her face.
"Okay," Maria admitted. "It's a little funny." She snorted, looking at her multicoloured body.
Liz continued to have her fit and Maria joined in. Liz was right, it was a lot funny.
Downstairs, Michael groaned as the sound of two hysterical female giggles reached his ears. "I'm never going to live this down, am I?" He asked the empty room.
Maria and Liz's laughter answered him.
****
Liz had gone back to school and Michael and Maria were alone in the house. Maria knew that she had to face Michael again. She wasn't really that angry about the clothes, even though the blue puddle in her bathtub had been her favourite pair of jeans.
Maria looked at herself in her mirror. She examined her face for emotions. No, it wasn't anger... It was fear. And sadness.
Fear at how far things could get with Michael so quickly. His hands moved with a familiarity he could not possess over her body. Within seconds Maria couldn't think. She was an animal, instinctive with only the most pure and simple of feelings and thoughts. Want, have...
And sadness because she knew Michael wanted to ask her if she remembered the dreams and Maria still couldn't... Maria didn't want to feel the hurt that she knew wouldn't show on his face.
She sighed at her reflection, not happy at all with what she saw. The Maria in the mirror had too many thoughts. Time to go downstairs.
"Hey."
Michael looked up from his cereal bowl of Rice Krispies. Maria could see a thing of tabasco sauce beside him on the newly cleared counter and had to catch her breath at her own lust.
"You cleaned."
Michael shrugged. "Something to do."
He wanted to laugh at what she wore. Her baggy grey t-shirt had paint stains all over it and her sweat pants weren't much better, there was a ragged tear over one knee. The knee was a very nice blue colour. "Not taking any chances?" He gestured to her outfit.
Maria blushed and tried to cover with anger. "Your outfit is so much better. I hope my robe turns you purple." She huffed. Then took another look. "How come you're not a rainbow??"
He shrugged. "I cleaned myself up."
"But how? Soap and water don't work. I tried."
"Not like that." He got off the kitchen stool and move towards her. "Like this."
He ran one hand over the naked skin of her arm where some of her red tank top had dripped down. His fingers were close enough to feel the tickle of her short arm hairs but he didn't touch her skin. Like a whisper, he moved over her.
"It's gone." She whispered in awe.
He took her other hand in his and rolled up her sleeve, repeating the motion slowly down her left arm. Then he knelt before her for the third time in so many days.
Maria shook her head. It was the second time, not the third. He wasn't even touching her and she couldn't think straight! Her sweat pants had an elastic around the cuff and he pushed it up as far as it could go, over her knee.
He was mesmerized by the dimple in her knee for a moment, he wanted to taste it with his tongue but he had a task to do. He was saying sorry. But he did let one finger trail down her skin to her little toe.
The blue came off and he could see the light sparkly nail polish she had put on her toes. He had never noticed how adorable toes could be till then. Yep, he was gone. Waxing poetic about her toes in his own mind. He was turning into Max.
Maria thought her knees would buckle as he ran his finger teasingly down her leg. She looked down but all she could see was the top of his head. She reached out and ran her hands through that incredibly soft mess of brown hair.
"All done."
But Michael didn't move, not when she was touching him. He didn't want to scare her into stopping. Why was it that he could kiss this girl a dozen times and be just as frightened at every touch as he had been at the first time he had grabbed her? Frightened that she'd stop, push him away. Frightened that she wouldn't.
He rested his head against her leg, his breath warming the flesh of her knee. He flicked out his tongue to taste her salty skin. She let out a shuddering breath and tugged on his hair, not hard but enough to convey her message.
He raised himself up to her kiss willingly, let her invade his mouth like she had invaded every other part of him. She took her time with the kiss, licking his lips, sliding her tongue against his. His hands stole under the thin material of her shirt to run over the smooth skin of her back. The shirt was baggy enough that he could reach up to her neck, gripping her shoulder tightly while his thumbs lightly massaged her neck.
Michael's hands were keeping Maria's head in place, attached to his kiss, but her fingers moved everywhere, his hair, dancing down his neck, resting on his hips, then finally, tentatively cupping his ass. He moaned into her mouth as she pressed him tightly to her. Maria wanted to feel what she was doing to him, know that it was she that had this affect on him.
When they first met, the only way she had been able to get his attention, to make him acknowledge her existence was to get him angry. So she did it all the time. She learned exactly what drove him nuts; her incessant talking, her fidgeting, her cracks about his origin, and she did them all the time till one day she annoyed him so much he kissed her.
It was the natural progression. The heat wave hit and Maria had found another way to catch Michael Guerin's attention. She loved everything they did, knowing that it was all a first for him, knowing that she was the first girl he had felt enough desire for to finally act on his urges.
And now that she could feel his emotions tangled in with hers she knew why. She was the first girl he had ever felt more then just physical urges for. That knowledge caused a great clamp around Maria's heart to loosen. She was more than darkened closet rooms and stolen kisses to him, and that's why he couldn't resist her. She wanted to be all of his firsts.
Their lust fed off each other in a never-ending cycle, neither knowing what would be enough but not caring where it would end. Luckily for Michael and Maria (and unluckily for the government, who probably would have loved an alien-human hybrid) Amy DeLuca walked through the door.
She blinked for a moment and then realized that yes, that was her daughter heavily making out with a boy dressed in Maria's purple's housecoat. Maria's hair was still wet from the shower and they both looked way too comfortable playing tonsil hockey in Amy DeLuca's living room at one pm on a school day. She dropped her box of alien-themed party favours with a loud thud.
The couple broke apart quickly as if burned. Please be Liz. Please be Liz. Please be Liz. Or Max. Even Isabel would be preferable to the person Maria knew, in her sinking heart, had just walked through the door. Her mom.
"Oh, God! Mom!"
Michael's face turned white while Maria's turned red. A day ago Michael would have said he didn't care what any family members of Maria's thought of him, but now that he was in Amy Deluca's house all over her daughter, Michael suddenly realized he wished for a very different first impression.
"It's not what you think!" Even Michael had to give Maria a incredulous look at that. "Okay, it is what you think but I can explain."
Amy crossed her arms over her chest, her head cocked to one side, looking deceptively sweet. "You can explain why I come home from a incredibly long and boring buying convention to find my daughter making out with a boy who I didn't even know she was dating at..." She looked at her watch. "1:37 on a Thursday afternoon?"
"Mom, we're not dating-" Maria began.
Amy's eyebrows shot up. Not the right tactic.
"Mrs. DeLuca, I'm sorry we had to meet this way." Michael broke in, holding his hand out to Maria's mother. She looked at it for a second and then shook it. "I'm Michael Guerin, I go to school with Maria. She was just doing me a favour."
Amy gave Michael a look straight out of Maria's pages: Is that what you'd call it? The look said.
He looked down at his bare feet. "We were playing football in gym class. You know the one when you have to grab the tag from the back of the other person? Well, Maria had the ball and I went to grab it and, being the klutz I am, I knocked us both into this huge mud puddle and well, we had to get cleaned up so we came here. I'm so sorry for the inconvenience." Michael smiled his best charm-the-older-woman smile.
Amy DeLuca gave him the look over. He was trouble, that she could see, but her mother radar wasn't going off as loud as she would have expected. She had to accept that Maria would someday find a guy she liked and because her daughter was genetically linked to her, that guy wouldn't be class president.
This guy didn't seem to be too bad. Amy had seen him around and he was pretty quiet and polite in a gruff way. She just wished he wasn't so cute. The good looking ones could get you into trouble.
"So, then I assume your clothes are in the washer and as soon as they are clean you will be leaving?"
"Yes, ma'am." Michael replied meekly.
"And you're going to go check on them while I talk to my daughter?"
Maria shot him a panicked look but Michael ran away as quickly as he could and not be in Superman's realm. He was not coming between a daughter and her mother's scorn.
* * * *
"Mom, I can explain." Maria started.
"So you said. Well, I'm waiting."
Maria wracked her brain. What was she going to say, she tripped and fell on Michael's tongue? She had no excuses left. It had been a very long week.
"I was making out with a boy in your living room when I should have been in class."
"Amazingly enough, Maria, I had figured that out myself."
Amy couldn't help it, her eyes were twinkling. Her baby girl had always been so cautious around boys, something Amy had always blamed herself for. And of course, Maria's father.
Maria hadn't had the best example of male-female relationships in her life and Amy worried that her own mistakes had permanently turned Maria off the male gender. She had never gone through the boy crazed stage, never had a steady boyfriend. Her date to her junior high prom had been Alex Whitman, someone who Amy could see Maria had as many romantic feelings for as a chia-pet.
But now she realized her little girl had just been saving all her mom points up until she found the appropriate spiky-hair-tortured-puppy-dog-James-Dean-vibing-purple-robe-wearing challenge. Well, all those mom points had to add up to something.
"Okay Maria, this afternoon's... *interlude* better have been worth it because this is your one and only get out of jail free card."
Maria was speechless.
Amy took her hand and sat her down on the couch. "Honey, I was 16 once too, not that long ago. I understand what 16 feels like. So, I'm not going to ground you or embarrass you in front of your new boyfriend."
Maria opened her mouth to speak and then (wisely) closed it again.
"*But*," Maria's mom spoke, and Maria had the feeling this was going to be a big ‘but'. "If I ever catch you cutting class or kissing an unclothed male again you will never be let out of this house without a police escort. I could do it, I have connections."
Maria sat, shocked for a moment, and then flung herself into her mom's arms, blinking back tears. "I love you, Mom."
Amy DeLuca smiled sadly. "You're still my little girl, you know that,right?"
Maria nodded silently against her mother's comforting shoulder. When your best friend was in love with an alien and you found yourself in... Something with another guy that was out of this world, it was nice just to let your mom hug you for a while.
* * * *
Meanwhile, upstairs... "Uh, Isabel, can I talk to Max?"
"It's important."
"No, I'm not going to tell you."
"Isabel, you're pushing it."
"No, I'm not going to tell you!"
"Fine. I need a change of clothing."
"None of your business."
"In two seconds I'm going to hang up this phone and leave a message at Alex's place telling him how you- Hi Max."
"It's a long story but the condensed version is that I'm stuck in a house half naked with Maria's mom unless you come over here with a change of clothing. Max? Max! It's *not* funny!"
* * * *
Maria slid into her seat just in time for her last class, biology. She avoided Max and Liz's curious looks but Alex, her seat buddy, was a little harder to ignore.
"I never knew you were a bodice ripper, Maria."
She shot her friend a death stare. "There was no ripping of bodices, Alex. You should stop reading all your mom's Harlequin novels."
"Poor Michael, soon he'll be forced to wear nothing but boxers to school."
Maria meant to think of a snappy comeback but she found herself distractedby the mention of Michael's boxers......
..... Causing a very innocent Michael to shift uncomfortably in his art room chair. Wasn't it enough that he already thought of sex two hundred and forty two times a day? And they say boys have one track minds.
* * * *
The gang met in the school's parking lot by Max's jeep. All except Maria, who had to track down all her teachers to get the assignments for the day. Getting zero on homework checks the next day would not help with her mom's suddenly cool approach to parenting.
"So, what's the plan?"
Michael tried to look relaxed, leaning against the jeep, but he was wound so tight he thought he'd soon implode. What were they going to do about this... connection? What did he want them to do?
Isabel and Max exchanged a long glance. "Isabel and I have been talking about that, Michael. We think we can break the connection."
Michael's insides clenched. Across the quad Maria had to fight the urge to throw up all over Mr. Summer's desk. "Break it?" His voice didn't even shake.
Mr. Summer grabbed Maria's arm to keep the girl up as her knees buckled under her.
Max nodded, his dark eyes watchful. "When Isabel connected the two of you she could feel the link, almost like a physical thing. It was too much for her alone but we think, together, we can break it."
"Yeah, sure, sounds good." Michael spoke.
Maria took a deep breath. Her head was pounding as her body revolted against something she didn't even know she was fighting.
"Uh, Michael, can I talk to you for a moment?"
Max pulled Michael away from the other's concerned looks. Evidently he wasn't hiding his feelings as well as he thought he was. "Michael, you know we have to break this, right? We can't just be invading people's minds, it's not right."
Michael brushed him off. "Of course, Maxwell. You think I want to be stuck sharing head space with Maria? The girl's a walking ad for Midol. I can't handle her mood swings. Up, down. I'm just lucky mind reading isn't one of our capabilities, she'd drive me to suicide within an hour if she thinks like she talks."
"So, then you're okay with it?" Max's tone was tinged with disbelief.
"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" Michael could do this, he could. He didn't need Maria in his head, his arms, whatever. Deep breaths, deep breaths...
"I just thought..." Max faltered. "I just thought maybe you'd like having the powers, you know, working properly." He finished lamely.
Michael shrugged. "I've gotten this far without them. And now we at least know I can use them. We'll find another way. We can rid of this thing." He spoke to himself now. "I'll just stop...." Michael almost choked on the words as he swallowed down all he felt, drowned every part of him that was screaming out in terror. "I'll stop thinking about her."
Maria fainted.
* * * *
Alex and Liz walked back towards the school. They had promised to meet Maria after she was done begging forgiveness from all her teachers.
"I can't believe Michael was so okay with breaking the connection." Liz had wanted to smack the blank look off his face and she was usually a pacifist.
"Liz, this has got to be tough on the guy. It's hard enough to handle your own emotions and then being thrown someone else's? Especially with the lust thing they have going on. You're lusting over this girl, but that's cool, you can handle it, you just tell yourself that she doesn't want you or something but then suddenly you know what the girl you're lusting over is feeling and she's lusting for you! No wonder their clothes keep on combusting. I mean, schwing!"
Liz stared at him for a second.
"What?"
Liz giggled like a normal sixteen year old girl. "I just can't believe you said schwing." More giggles. "Garth."
"Hey! The sequel might not have been up to par but Wayne's World was a really goo-"
Liz's gasp cut off Alex's tirade. "Maria, are you okay?"
Maria was sitting in Mr. Summers' chair while the nervous teacher fanned her with his mark book. Her face was completely devoid of colour.
Liz touched Maria's lip and her hand came back bloody. "Must've bit my lip." She smiled weakly.
"You should be in bed, young lady." Mr. Summers fretted over Maria like a mother hen. "I do not want to see you in my class tomorrow, get some rest."
"We'll make sure she does." Alex promised, wrapping his arm around Maria's shoulder, hurrying the girl out of the classroom.
Liz picked up her fallen books. "I'll help her with anything she misses, Mr. Summers."
She quickly followed Alex and Maria into the hall. They were only five steps down the deserted hallway when Maria stopped.
"What happened?"
"Shouldn't we be asking you that?" Alex inquired.
Maria gritted her teeth, "What. Happened. To. Michael?"
Alex and Liz's eyes widened simultaneously.
"Oh my God." Liz's hand flew to her mouth.
Alex looked almost as shocked as Liz. "Guess he didn't take it as well as we thought."
* * * *
She would not cry. She would not cry, Maria promised herself as she curled up in the backseat of her small Jetta. Alex drove silently with Liz beside him, deep in thought. But tears kept on escaping from behind her closed eyelids and she cursed each one.
Liz glanced up into the passenger side mirror, sneaking a glance at Maria. She was sitting as still as death except for the silent tears running down her white face.
"Maria?" Liz turned herself around in her seat, twisting so that she could take hold of Maria's hand. "Maria, is this because of what you're feeling from Michael?"
"No." She didn't even open her eyes.
"Because if he's feeling this bad-"
"It's not Michael's feelings." Maria's eyes opened and they were red, filled with anger and hurt. Then she started to laugh, short hysterical bursts that hurt her chest. "Like always it's his lack of feelings."
"What? I don't understand, Maria."
"He's cut me off, last drink at the bar, it's closing time. I'm being sent home in a taxi cab."
Liz's eyes filled with tears as she desperately tried to keep a hold on her friend's hand as she had her fit. "Maria, you're scaring me."
"He's shut off, he's a stone wall." More giggles but they were hard and embittered.
She finally locked her eyes on Liz's face, really seeing her friend for the first time. "I can't feel anything off Michael. He's been this low hum, this vibe in the back of my head for months, even when I didn't know, even when it was just a little thread from Marathon, Texas, he was there."
Maria's face crumbled and Liz thought maybe she'd finally let real sobs out, but Maria quickly covered. Her voice was dead when she spoke. "Now, I'm alone."
* * * *
"Hello, may I speak to Max Evans, please?" A sweet, girlish voice inquired politely.
"Of course." Diane Evans placed her hand over the mouthpiece. "Max, phone for you!"
"Thanks mom!" She heard him call from upstairs.
She smiled slightly. So, her little boy was finally getting calls from girls. She wondered what took them so long. She had been expecting to deal with girls chasing Max around a long time ago, but it never happened. Sixteen year old girls could be idiots sometimes, never being able to pick out the good ones.
"Hi."
"Hi, Max, it's me, Liz."
"Hi, Liz."
Max turned his body away from where Michael was sitting on the floor, not wanting his friend to see the happiness filling his face.
"Did you and Isabel break the connection already?"
Max's forehead wrinkled, confused. "No, why? We figured we needed both of them to do it and since Maria had to be home right away-"
"Then-" Liz stopped.
"What is it now?" Michael's gruff voice demanded from across the room.
"Nothing. I just need to talk to Liz. In private."
Michael made a move for the window and Max held his hand up. "No, you stay. I'll go to Izzy's room."
He entered Isabel's room without knocking. She was painting her toenails. "Hey, Max, can't-"
He put a finger to his lips and she quieted. "What is it, Liz?"
"Well," Liz's voice dropped to a whisper and Isabel, who had leaned close to the phone, could barely hear her. "It's Maria. She's, she's a wreck. She fainted in front of Mr. Summers and when we got her out of the school all she could ask is what we had done to Michael. Then she started crying, then laughing... Max, I don't know what to do."
Max felt like he had been punched in the stomach. He knew Michael kept a lot of feelings locked up in himself but enough to cause Maria to pass out? He felt a flicker of doubt. Was breaking the connection the right thing to do?
Isabel grabbed the phone. "Liz, where is she now? Is she all right?"
"Yeah, I put her to bed. I'm on her downstairs phone. Are you sure you didn't try breaking the connection because Maria was freaking out, saying that she couldn't feel Michael anymore."
"If she can't feel him anymore, it's not because of us, Michael must have gotten control somehow."
"So, he's purposely shutting her out?"
"Sounds like Michael." Isabel answered. "Thanks Liz, for telling us. We'll deal with it. Just tell Maria to meet us tomorrow after school at our house, okay? Thanks."
She pressed the off button on the cordless phone.
"So, what do we do now?" Max asked.
Isabel busied herself with putting her nail polishes in order. "What do you mean, what do we do now? We do what we planned. Break the connection."
"How can you say that? You heard how it's affecting Maria!"
"Exactly, Max!" Isabel turned to face her brother. "First she thought she was turning into Michael, then she was sharing his feelings, now she's fainting! It can't be good for her."
Max looked down and the bed cover and Isabel knew he was letting his romantic side get the best of him. "Listen Max, I've felt this connection. And it is amazing. But it's scary too. Both Maria and Michael are frightened of it, neither know what to do with the other's feelings. I doubt they have even been able to talk about it. They keep on taking the easy out by running away or making out. They aren't ready for this, Max. I don't know how a person could be!" She sighed. "It's going to be hard for them but we have to break it off. We have enough problems in this world without making more."
Max ran his hands over his face. "I know, I know, you're right. It was just.. Nice, you know? To see Michael acting this way. You know, no nightmares, no taking off without telling us, going to class..."
"Buying salads." Max and Isabel shared a grin.
"You should see him now. It's like before, worse then before. He's barely spoken to me since we left the school. He just keeps staring at the wall, tossing that stupid orange ball up and down."
Isabel knew the stupid orange ball. Michael had a thing for repetitive motions when he was upset or nervous.
"Still talking about me?" Michael stood just outside the door.
Max smiled weakly. "No, we're done."
"Good. I'm going to bed." His face was blank.
"But it's-" Max's fingers dug into her arm and Isabel stopped.
Looking up at her closed off second brother, Isabel fought the urge to hug him and promise him everything was going to be okay. "Goodnight, Michael."
He nodded and left her room, returning to his sleeping bag on the floor of Max's bedroom.
"Isabel-"
"I know, I didn't mean to. He deserves this last night. Why don't you sleep in here tonight? Give him some privacy."
Max nodded. "Good idea."
Max wondered what he was going to do with the next two hours with his room off limits. It was only 8:30.
* * * *
Michael tried to sleep but couldn't relax. His hold on his emotions was so precarious that he knew sleep would destroy his control. But would that be such a bad thing? This was his last chance to share a dream with Maria. Soon her dreams would be just as off limits as the rest of her.
Michaelcould let them break his connection to her, he could hold his feelings in so tightly that she couldn't even sense him, but he couldn't keep himself from seeing her one last time in their dreamscape. He started his nightly ritual for what he knew would be the last time.
First he saw her eyes. They shone with life and fire and never had been clouded by worry or fear or absentee fathers or other guys that could never be what she wanted. Then it was her skin, which was always warm and smelled like good things that grew in spring. Of peaches, grass and daisies. Then it was her mouth, obscene in its lushness. Her voice was low and spoke words that surprised him. It was soft and always touchable.
By the time he was remembering the texture of her hair and the curve ofher hip, he was already asleep and dreaming.
* * * *
She sat quietly on the dark red bedspread in a little, by the hour, motel room off a quiet and dusty highway.
"So, this is where it ends." She spoke sadly to a little tear in the cloth.
Michael looked around himself, uncomprehending. "Why are we here?"
She curled her arms around her legs, turning herself into a small bundle on the double bed. "This is where it all began, right? It is fitting that it should end here. I'm not without a sense of irony, Michael." She did not look at him as she spoke his name. "You stared at me as I slept."
He nodded, remembering the night that he had been lonely enough to spend half the night staring at the sleeping features of a girl he barely knew. He had stared at her, trying to remember the last time he had been touched by someone other then Max and Isabel, trying to remember the last time he had human contact.
He bit his lip against a buried cry when he realized he couldn't remember, except for Hank's drunken swings, he couldn't remember. He wanted to touch her and had gotten as close as putting his fingers in front of her mouth, letting her slow in and out of breath tickle his skin.
He pictured waking her up with a touch and she would gaze at him with eyes that understood everything. He toyed with the idea of crawling into bed beside her. He wouldn't even have to get under the covers, just mould his body a hair's breath behind her, not even touching. He pictured this and more and it scared him.
Fantasizing about a girl was okay, normal. He had fantasized about girls before, about their legs, mouths and breasts, but this scared him because he was just imagining her as separate body parts to be enjoyed. This girl had a name and a voice that kept echoing in his head, and he moved to cover her left foot because it had escaped from the blankets and looked cold. He touched the rough blankets slowly and let them fall softly over her foot, careful not to make a noise or let his skin touch hers.
He imagined so many things that he would do if he wasn't an alien and she wasn't so annoying. The things he would do if he wasn't trailer trash and she wasn't a princess. Things he would do if he wasn't Michael Guerin and wasn't oh so scared of the girl that slept peacefully above him.
Maria crawled under the covers in her blue jeans and light pink t-shirt,the same clothes that she had worn the day he had abducted her and started all this. "Lie down." She said, pointing to the ground by her side.
Michael didn't know whether to laugh or cry, even in his dreams he was sleeping on the floor. The lights turned off with a thought and they could see only by the moonlight the crept through the thin curtains.
"What are we doing?" He whispered and didn't know why.
Maria looked at him from a moment and then deliberately, slowly, closed her eyes.
It hit him like all the truths of the universe. She was allowing him to fix his mistakes. Because now he knew that she wasn't a princess and didn't see him as trailer trash. She didn't even see him as an alien. He was just Michael, and she was Maria and she wouldn't scream in fear if he touched her or if she opened her eyes to find him contemplating the perfection of her face.
But he was still afraid. She sighed from her still place on the bed and as she exhaled she let all her feelings from that night reach him. Her nervous anticipation, her instant regret at refusing to share the bed, the laugh that she had been forced to give at his intimate words because if she didn't laugh, she'd cry because the first person to ever really understand her was an alien and it just figured.
Then he felt her lust, which surprised her then as much as it surprised him now as she sneaked a peek at his sleeping body and found herself transfixed by the small patch of skin that showed between his shirt and jeans as he lay back, resting his head on his arms. The curve of his hip bone intrigued her. She wondered if the skin would be as warm as it looked if she licked the salty skin with her tongue. She forced herself to turn away and look up at the ceiling because these feelings scared her, because men were the enemy and only wanted one thing.
Then his mouth was on hers and she wondered at her own sense of irony, that she, a girl that so desperately needed to be told she was beautiful and loved, had picked a guy that communicated best by touch. She ignored the thought and relaxed into the kiss, letting his tongue and hands tell her what he could not.
I need you.
I want you.
I think I love you?
Goodbye.
* * * *
Maria awoke from her slumber to the sound of even more imbecilic babbling from her radio. That's it, she was getting a rooster. Anything would have to be better than two nasal announcers talking about what Jennifer Lopez wore to the Grammy's.
Maria did not feel well rested at all, though she knew she had been asleep since Liz and Alex took her home the day before. All she could think about was the emptiness inside her. All the places she had left open for Michael to fill were uninhabited yet again.
She had thought maybe in the morning he would open up to her again, let them have this last day... But no, he had a barrier up so strong that nothing could break it, not her tears or screams. So, she wouldn't cry. Or yell. Or show that this mattered at all to her. She was getting her body back, no more weird tabasco sauce cravings or putting the toilet seat up, she would be back to normal.
Except that somewhere in between her fear and annoyance on Monday and her pain now, on Friday Maria had started to consider this connection as a... a good thing. That maybe a relationship with Michael could survive now that she could feel what he felt. Now that she knew that no matter what his mouth and eyes were telling her, telling her to shut up, go away, not help him, his heart never agreed.
And now Isabel and Max were going to tear that away from her and she wasn't strong enough to believe Michael cared, not without some proof. He couldn't say the words that she so desperately needed to hear. She didn't know if she could stay with him without those words. She was too weak.
Maria pulled off her old gray shirt that Liz had helped her change into and reached for her towel. It wasn't until she stepped under the shower's warm spray that she realized that the green, blue and red splotches that Michael had not gotten to yesterday that had been on her chest and legs last night were gone, and her cries were muffled under the water because now she knew that she had dreamed last night but still could not remember.
* * * *
School passed in a daze. Liz and Alex seemed to have a secret pact to never let Maria be alone and it was just as well, she doubted she would have been able to find her classes without them.
She looked for Michael everywhere. In class, in the halls, in other people's faces but she never found him. She doubted he even came.
Mr. Summers looked at her with concern and at Liz and Max with annoyance. Maria knew they were talking about her but she didn't have the energy to eavesdrop.
Liz glanced at her friend. Maria looked lost in her own world, but it wasbetter to be careful. She carefully ripped a page out of her notebook. She scribbled on it for a moment and then passed it to Max under the table.
‘Did you tell Michael?' It asked.
He shook his head at her and wrote something in reply. ‘We didn't know how he'd take it. He might feel guilty.'
Liz chewed on her lip. How to say this? ‘What if it meant that you shouldn't break the connection? What if it was a warning?'
Max shrugged, a lost expression on his face. He had no answers.
The bell rang. Last class over.
Liz lightly touched Maria's arm. "It's time."
Maria looked up at her with startled eyes and Liz couldn't help herself from lacing her fingers through her friend's, holding her hand down the hallways like when they were five and fathers lived at home and mothers laughed and Liz and Maria were best friends forever.
* * * *
Isabel was already waiting at the jeep. Her arms were crossed impatiently over her chest but her face softened as Maria came into view. She was holding Liz's hand so tightly she was turning her knuckles white. She looked like she was walking to her execution.
More than the rest of the group Isabel could understand what Maria was feeling. Isabel was more than a little embarrassed by her reaction after connecting with Maria and Michael. She couldn't stop smiling and giggling. The rush of emotions felt so good... Like a drug. Maria was already going through withdrawal.
Isabel wondered if Michael was doing any better. They hadn't heard from him for the rest of the night and when Max finally went back to his room in the morning Michael had refused to get up, saying that he was too tired. A strange comment from a guy who had just slept for eleven hours.
Isabel took Maria's other hand in hers, squeezing it gently, helping her into the jeep. The blond goddess' tenderness seemed to break through Maria's daze and she squeezed back. "Thanks." She said softly.
Max turned on the car. Maria's eyes looked frantic. "Aren't Liz and Alex coming?"
"Shhh... Shhh, Maria. They are following us in Alex's car, okay?"
Maria relaxed once more and did not jerk away when Isabel smoothed down her hair. Her touch was hesitant and a little awkward, but Maria understood.
The trip to Max and Isabel's was much too short. "We're here." Isabel announced, a bit redundantly. She looked at Maria. "You ready?"
Maria smiled weakly. "Just give me a second, okay? I'll be right in."
Isabel nodded and Maria closed her eyes, leaning her head against the seat's back. She concentrated on breathing, keeping a steady rhythm, not letting any sobs escape her.
This was obviously what Michael wanted. Hewasn't one to just go along with whatever Isabel and Max said. If he really wanted to keep the connection, he would have fought for it. She had to go in there and be tough. It would all be over soon.
Opening the car door, Maria stared at the ground in front of herself determinedly, concentrating on each step, never seeing Michael's face, half covered by Mrs. Evan's soft blue curtains, never seeing the anguish that hid itself in his eyes as he watched Maria build a stone wall around herself.
* * * *
Isabel and Max sat on the soft, carpeted floor, facing each other. Maria and Michael sat the same way, their knees touching Max and Isabel's as they refused to look at each other. Max and Isabel each took one of Maria and Michael's hands in their own, completing the circle. Alex and Liz sat quietly on the couch, not wanting to intrude.
The connection wasn't instantaneous like Isabel had expected. She couldn't feel Maria at all and she realized that it was Michael that was keeping her from Maria's head. They had to go through Michael's connection to get to Maria and he was blocking them by keeping her out of his own head.
Isabel dropped the hands she was holding. "Michael, stop it."
He opened his eyes. "Stop what?"
"Blocking Maria. I can't get to the connection."
Max, who was still holding Michael's hand, felt a river of fear wash over him and goosebumps ran over his flesh. "Michael, what's wrong?"
Michael looked into Max's eyes and he was terrified. Max was reminded of a panicked horse, twitching, the white of his eyes showing. He bolted, tearing himself out of the room.
Max quickly followed. Isabel and Maria were left staring after them.
"He doesn't even want to be part of me long enough to get rid of me."Maria spoke and even scared herself with how defeated she sounded.
* * * *
Michael was pacing around Max's room like a caged animal. "I can't do it,I can't do it, Max."
Max felt a burst of relief. Finally Michael was admitting his feelings. "Can't break it, right?"
Michael shook his head quickly. "No, no. I just can't let her in again, please, Max. I can't. Can't we find another way?"
"Michael, what are you so scared of? It'll be just be for a moment, we just need to get through to Maria."
Michael held himself so taut all the muscles in his neck stood out. "You don't understand. You can't. If I let her in again..." All of Michael's carefully won control was crumbling.
Max grabbed his friend's arm and understanding flashed in his brain. If Michael let her in again, he didn't know if he could ever let her go.
Michael pulled away roughly, angry at Max. Angry at himself for being so weak.
"Michael, you can do this."
He couldn't believe the turmoil going through Michael's mind. Max was ashamed of himself. How could he not have realized how much Michael cared? He had been so involved with his own feelings for Liz he had just ignored whatever Michael was going through.
"I'm sorry, Michael." He said softly.
"Don't be. Just help me."
Max chuckled softly. "Mud's just not going to cut it this time, huh?"
Michael nodded. "No, it never did."
"Michael, you just have to think of her, this is the best thing for her.We can't just have a human connected to an alien, we don't know what it could do to her long term."
Max took a deep breath, wondering if he was making the biggest mistake of his life. "She fainted yesterday."
Michael's head shot up. "What?"
"In Mr. Summers class. We think it was when we told you that we were going to break the connection. She just passed out."
Michael moved so quickly Max couldn't even process it. Just suddenly there was a hole in the wall and Michael was clutching his bleeding hand to his chest.
"Oh my God, Michael, why did you do that?" Max moved to Michael to heal the damage but Michael brushed him off.
"Distraction. Let's go."
* * * *
The four other teenagers were still sitting in the spot where they had left them. Maria stared silently at the floor as the two alien boys came in. Max and Michael sat back on the floor. Max placed his hand over Michael's so that his fingers covered the damage. They settled in comfortably and Isabel took Michael's hand back into her own.
Max looked at Maria a bit fearfully, knowing now that if he touched her he would complete the connection. He was frightened, both of and for Michael. What would he do?
Isabel glanced at her brother and saw something dripping from his and Michael's clasped hands. It was running down slowly onto the living room floor, turning the carpet a dark shade of brown? Red? Isabel gasped as she realized it was blood, but Michael caught her eye, giving her a hard stare and she didn't speak.
Max and Isabel took a deep breath simultaneously and Max grabbed Maria's hand, taking the plunge into the abyss. Immediately their eyes flew open and backs straightened.
Liz moved to do something, anything, but Alex held her back. They were not a part of this, as much as that killed Liz to admit. She sat back down.
* * * *
Michael was floating. He let himself open completely and realized as he did that he had always been holding back, that it was him that was keeping Maria from remembering the dreams. He had been too honest in them, too vulnerable and so every night he took them back into himself, locking their secrets deep in his brain where no one could reach them or take them away.
But he wasn't scared anymore. He had Isabel's courage and Max's passion and he could do anything. He could let Maria in. The images hit her one by one, staying only long enough for Maria to get a taste of their beauty and then they were gone.
*FLASH* He was peering at her through the Crashdown window while she talked to Liz, but this time she didn't shudder in horror, instead she smiled and invited him in.
*FLASH* They were in a dream world of painted images and flowers that sang and she was tickling him with the pussy willows that grew under their feet until he begged for mercy.
*FLASH* He was grabbing her arm outside the party at the old soap factory, telling her that he was sorry and that he lied and please don't leave him because he had tried to find Nasedo that night and he never came and no one ever came for him and they were outside the library and in the stars and she laughed at him because he was being silly and he should know that she'd never leave him.
*FLASH* He held her as she cried and let her work out her frustrations against the sand, kicking and screaming at Men and why they never stayed once they got what they wanted and when she asked him, eyes full of tears, why her dad had left, he couldn't answer her because he had no idea why anyone would willingly give her up.
*FLASH* The sky was full of stars as he knelt before her and it had been three times she just hadn't remembered...
*FLASH* Now there was a cloudy English sky....
*FLASH* Then a playground but there was always Michael and Maria was never scared.
Sometimes the dreams were sexual and Maria now understood why he knew what she liked, because she had taught him and all the knowledge of his body she had learned filled her and she could hear the sound of her name on his lips as he came.
Sometimes they just talked and she stroked his hair and told him Hank was an idiot and was too broken inside to ever realize how much Michael deserved love.
Sometimes they were young and Michael would approach the sunny little girl like he always had wanted to and pulled on her springy blond curls and Maria would chase him until they were both out of breath and laughing.
Then they were back in that fateful motel room off Route 285 and Maria realized that this was what she had dreamed last night and after Michael kissed her he had told her that he loved her and loved how she touched him and how she didn't let him become a shadow of a person and how when she said ‘Michael' there was no trace of a freak in the Michael she saw and he felt like he maybe could be that Michael for her.
He said these things because it was their last night and because she would never remember them. And he said them because they were true. Maria felt all this and more and wanted to cry at the wonder and beauty ofit all and how this stubborn idiot from another galaxy somehow managed to be everything to her.
Then she felt it. A tear in the connection. An enemy. Everything came rushing back and she remembered Max and Isabel and what they were trying to do and her whole body revolted against it.
NO! Her mind cried silently. MICHAEL! DON'T LET THEM! She screamed but no one was there to hear her, just dreams that couldn't be touched.
* * * *
Michael was floating. He was protected. Max kept him isolated in a warm sea but he could see Maria, just out of reach, as all their dreams came back to her and through her. He relived them and all their perfections with her.
Then he felt it. A tear in the connection. It killed him but he had been expecting it. It had to be this way. For Maria's sake. No one deserved to be in his head but him. No one else should have to deal with his shit, all the alien stuff but also all the crap that came along with just being Michael Guerin, a stupid piece of trailer trash who had wet his bed until he was seven and believed that all the boogey men were real and were out to get him. The Michael Guerin who had never told anyone that he loved them except in dreams that he would not let them remember.
Then he couldn't think because pure terror and agony were ripping through him as she screamed and he couldn't believe that after everything he had done she was screaming for him.
NO! MICHAEL! DON'T LET THEM!
Now he didn't bother to think, he just acted because Maria was right, he was selfish. He was lonely and tired and scared and he couldn't rip her outof his life. Every time he had done something strong and smart, told her that she was too intense, that her feelings were just tactics, he had to do something to take it back because he was selfish and he couldn't bear to let her go.
Just when he had her at the breaking point where she might have been able to turn her back on him, forget him and be glad he would make her a stupid napkin holder with his own hands or wrestle an insane giant for her mother just so she would look at him again with those eyes that understood everything. He couldn't bear to exist outside of her life.
Isabel and Max found themselves pushed out of Michael's head so fast they couldn't breathe and the world was black. They collapsed against the floor and Alex and Liz were there in an instant, cradling their limp bodies in their arms.
Max's eyes fluttered open slightly and couldn't see, but that was because Liz's sweet smelling hair was covering his face and he smiled.
Isabel awakened in the same instant but let herself enjoy Alex's warm hand against her face for a moment before she spoke. "Did it work?"
Alex and Liz looked at each other and then at Max.
Max struggled to sit up. "I don't know, it felt like it was... It all happened so fast."
He looked over at the sleeping couple. "I guess we'll just have to wait and see."
The other three followed Max out of the room to the kitchen, and never saw Michael's eyes open and his hand reach out to caress the side of Maria's smiling face.
* * * *
Maria and Michael stayed like that for hours or maybe days. Time felt elastic as they explored their unbroken connection, the strength and stability of it. By mutual agreement they sat up and walked to the kitchen where the others were, not touching but attached never the less.
Max looked up from his seat at the kitchen table. Liz was making some soup and Alex was trying to get Isabel to lie down and rest even though she said she was fine.
Michael had entered the room with Maria slightly behind him. They weren't looking at each other, which is what Max would have expected. She was angry, he was scared, but something about them... They didn't feel like two people that had just rejected each other.
"So?" Max asked.
"So?" Michael sat, taking a swig of Max's water. "It worked, we're free."
Liz winced at his flippant words and went to Maria. "Are you okay?" Shewhispered.
Maria smiled and it was tired but not as sad as it had been an hour ago. "I'm fine. Just glad not to be sharing head space with this alien in men's clothing anymore." She opened the refrigerator door. "I'm starving."
She set about making herself a turkey sandwich and put only Maria things on it like alfalfa sprouts and tomatoes.
Michael continued to eat chips off Max's plate and no one said a word, their eyes full of questions.
* * * *
It went on like that for days and then weeks and they started to try to forget Maria ever thought she was turning into Michael, tried to forget that Michael admitted that when he thought of Maria everything else went away.
If they had doubts they didn't express them. The whole group got very good at self control. Liz didn't mention the sudden upturn in Maria's woodshop grade. Alex did not tease Michael about his sudden affinity for Lilith Fair musicians.
If Maria sometimes reached for tabasco sauce instead of ketchup, Isabel kept quiet, and Max did not ask where Michael was when the sleeping bag on his floor went unused for weeks.
For Michael had started to smile and then laugh, and when they saw the joy it caused light up Maria's face, they each concluded in their own way that certain questions were better left unasked.