(7) Right Before Your Eyes


Maria started to walk home instead of waiting for Max. She was mad at him for making her come to the park today. She was mad at herself for letting him talk her into it. She was mad at Liz Parker for being such an evil, self serving bitch and most of all she was mad at… Well she was just plain mad.

“Maria!” Isabel called at she quickly paced after her. “Wait up!”

Maria kept on walking trying to ignore the girl behind her.

“Maria, stop! Right now.” Isabel ordered.

Maria found herself unable to resist the tone of voice Isabel used. She paused in her tracks but refused to turn around.

“Are you alright? No wait that was a stupid question. What was that all about back there?”

Maria shrugged. “Oh, well… only about the most embarrassing moment of my life. I was totally humiliated and the stupid bint loves to rub salt in old wounds.”

Maria started to walk off again. “Where are you going?”

“I need to be alone right now. I not in the mood to deal.”

“Well tough shit.” Isabel stated menacingly.

Maria stopped and looked incredulously at the girl before her. “What did you just say?”

Isabel stared straight into her eyes and began to speak. “You heard me. I’m not going to repeat myself… You know what your problem is Maria?”

Isabel cut her off before she could get a word in. “You’re so busy pitying yourself ‘til you can’t see what is staring right before your eyes. Do you know what I see Maria? Well…do you?”

Maria tried to turn from Isabel but Isabel started to poke one of her neatly manicured fingers into her chest to emphasis her point.

“What do you see Isabel?” Maria duly asked.

“I see a beautiful, intelligent, funny girl that has the potential to be whatever she wants to be.”

“Wow, all of that from knowing me one day?” Maria spoke sarcastically.

“It’s true I haven’t known you long.” At Maria’s smirk she grinned. “Okay, less than a day but in this day I have been watching and listening and I have learned that you hide a lot of yourself from others. I don’t know all that they’ve done to make you loose confidence in yourself but I plan to be your friend and make you see that you are better than what they think you are.”

Maria eyes held a glimmer of hope as well as confusion. “Why are you pushing this?”

“Why?” Isabel sighed and backed away from her. “I used to be like Liz Parker, back in Roswell.”

She sat down on the edge of the sidewalk curb and patted the spot next to her. Maria sat down. “I was self centered, vapid, mean, and hateful. My brother couldn’t stand my friends or me. He told me over and over that I was heading down a path of aloneness. I told him her was a stupid jerk or something along that effect. Anyway, there was this girl that I considered beneath me. Her name was Clarissa Carlton. My friends and I would do everything in our power to make her life a living hell. One day she got tired of it and tried to end her life.

Her friends found her asleep in her car a empty bottle of sleeping pills lay on the seat next to her. A suicide note filled with the painful thoughts of an outcast.”

Maria gasped. “Oh my God, did she live?”

“Yes, she was lucky, her parents were able to get her to the hospital in time.” Isabel looked up towards the darkening sky, tears slowly streaming down her cheeks. “Alex was a friend of Clarissa’s brother. He was able to read what was in the note and when he confronted me about it I broke down and cried. I became hysterical when he tried to comfort me. I felt undeserving of his comfort because he had warned me over and over again that my actions not only effected me but others around me as well.”

“So I’m to be your guilt relief? Is that why you’re hanging around me?” Maria asked starting to get angry.

Isabel shook her head. “I don’t pity you Maria. I’ve made peace with my guilt months ago. I apologized to Clarissa and not only did she forgive me but I forgave myself. I’m just trying to stop the past from repeating itself with you.”

“I don’t plan to stoop so low as to kill myself, Isabel. Liz does not hold that much sway over me.”

“I’m glad you feel that way because like I said her you have a hidden beauty that you need to let out. You’re your own person Maria and no Liz Parker can stop you from being the best that you can be.”

Maria nodded thoughtfully. “You know what? You’re so right.”

Isabel smiled. “Glad we’re at an agreement then.” She stood up. “Enough with the mushy. Let’s go back there and show the Liz Parker that she’s nothing but lowlife scum to us.”

“Okay, sounds like fun.”

They walked back to the park plotting out ideas to make Liz Parker’s life a living hell.