Rating: Suitable for all ages

Pairing: M/L

Spoiler/Notes: Pre-pilot

I meant to write a fluff piece but somewhere along the way it sorta became angsty. *shrug* What can you do?

MUSE #14 – Carrot – Choir – Seven – Season

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"Are you coming or not? This is the last bus!" Isabel turned to look at her brother who was standing awkwardly on the steps of the high school.

"You go on ahead. I’ll walk home," Max said, stealing a glance at a small group of students gathered near the door.

"You’ll walk home? Since when?" she questioned, putting a hand on her hip.

"I feel like some fresh air."

Isabel shook her head. Before she was able to comment, she looked at the closing bus door and quickly made her way there before she could be left standing on the sidewalk.

"Suit yourself!" she shouted over her shoulder. She barely made it aboard the vehicle before it departed.

Max watched the bus leave before walking down the last couple of steps leading to the quad. He casually walked over to a table and sat down, his eyes never leaving the group of students talking animatedly by the door.

He couldn’t hear what they were saying but it didn’t matter. He was content just to watch. Because in the midst of the small group stood the most beautiful girl he had ever seen.

Liz Parker.

Her long dark hair was shining in the early summer sun. She was talking to her two best friends, Maria DeLuca and Alex Whitman, gesturing with her hands to emphasise what she was saying. Max found himself smiling softly. It was one of the things he liked about Liz, how passionate she was about everything.

How he wished she’d be this passionate about him! But he knew without a doubt that there was no chance of that, so he squashed the thought as soon as it occurred to him. Sometimes it hurt to dream.

Max figured he should go home. But on this, the last day of their freshman year, there was no way he would willingly cut into his Liz time. Who knew how much of her he would see during the summer season? Of course, he planned to eat every possible meal at the Crashdown where she worked, but it didn’t matter. He would be crazy not to take every opportunity he had to look at her.

For the last seven years, she had lived in his dreams. Ever since his first day of school, when she had been the very first thing he saw coming off the bus, he had spent every second wondering what it would be like to be close to her. Like his own body, the nature of their fantasy relationship had changed over the years, from asking himself what it would be like to touch her hair when he sat behind her in the fourth grade, to speculating on what her fingers would feel like laced with his in the sixth grade, to wondering if her lips were really as soft as they looked all this past year in bio lab.

Sometimes at night he dreamed of more, but he would never admit it in the daylight. It seemed wrong somehow to think of such a perfect creature in that way. And it hurt even more when he’d come back to his senses and realize it could never be.

The light breeze carried her laughter to his ears and the sound filled him with joy, erasing the regrets that were threatening to darken his mood. He didn’t know what made her so happy and as much as he would have loved to share it with her, the truth was that it didn’t really matter. What mattered was that she *was* happy. The crystalline sound of her laughter made even the most heavenly choir of angels pale in comparison. There was not a sound on this world or any other he liked to hear more than Liz Parker’s laugh.

He noticed that her cheeks had turned bright pink, the way it so adorably did when she was blushing. Taking his eyes off her for a moment, he noticed the smirk on Alex’s face and the way Maria was waving the carrot stick she had been eating excitedly in the air.

Max’s curiosity was piqued. They were discussing something major and whatever it was made Liz’s face glow like he had rarely seen it. He had to find out what they were talking about.

Picking up his bookbag, he rose from the table and slowly made his way back towards the door. He avoided looking directly at the trio and stopped in front of the water fountain, where he could hear the discussion without it being too obvious that he was eavesdropping.

"Okay, okay!" Maria was saying. "Go back to the beginning. Did he just, like, come up to you and say ‘Can I talk to you in the janitor’s closet?’"

"Well, no, not really. He said he wanted to talk to me but all his buddies were around, so he asked if we could go somewhere private and we just happened to be in front of the janitor’s closet, so..."

"And you didn’t find it suspicious?" Alex asked. "You know, that you guys were so conveniently close to that door?"

"Well, it’s not like it’s the eraser room or anything," Liz pointed out.

"Yeah, Alex, it’s not like it’s the eraser room. You do know what goes on in the eraser room, don’t you?" Maria asked innocently.

Max felt the colour drain from his face. He didn’t hear Alex’s reply over the blood that was now rushing in his ears. Whether Alex had or not, Max had heard things about the eraser room. He had a fairly good idea of the kind of activities that went on in there. A lot of his night time fantasies of Liz had taken place in the small room that was used for a lot more than cleaning erasers.

He took a deep breath and forced himself to listen to the conversation. He hadn’t heard any stories about what kind of things happened in the janitor’s closet. Was it better or worse than the eraser room?

"And what did you talk about?" Maria asked, practically jumping up and down.

"He asked if it would be okay to call me over the summer. He said we could hang out together and stuff like that."

Max bent over the fountain, wondering who ‘he’ was and vowing to hate him for all eternity. His lips touched the water and he heard Maria ask, "And that’s when he kissed you?"

Max swallowed and was immediately gripped by a coughing fit so intense it made his eyes water.

"No. First I told him I would like him to call me. THAT’S when he kissed me," Liz’s cheeks were a deeper red now and she let out a giggle.

Max straightened up, still coughing. He slapped his chest a couple of times, as if it would help the water go down the way it was supposed to, and looked at his dream girl. Her image was blurry. He blinked a couple of times to clear his vision.

"And I’m assuming it wasn’t the kind of little peck on the cheek you and I share," Alex remarked.

Max turned his head sharply to look at Alex, unable to stop the irrational bout of jealousy coming over him. Of course Alex had kissed Liz’s cheeks, he rationalized. They had been friends for years after all. He shouldn’t be worried about Alex, though he had more than once envied his easy friendship with Liz. No. The intense hatred he was starting to feel should be directed at another. But who?

"Your assumption would be correct," Liz said, turning yet another shade of red. She was magnificent. If Max’s heart hadn’t been currently so tight that it made it hard to breathe, it would have soared at the sight of her so happy.

"So did he or did he not slip you the tongue?" Maria asked, barely able to hide her excitement.

Max felt his stomach drop and prayed that his whole body would follow the same path through the floor. He shouldn’t be hearing this. It was inhuman to have to listen to what this guy shared with Liz when it was all he had ever dreamed of doing.

"Guys!" Liz protested. "It’s private!"

"Since when do we keep secrets from each other, Liz? Come on, spill!" Maria prompted her.

Max held his breath. He knew he was staring and that if any of them looked his way he would be busted but he didn’t care. It was as though his entire future depended on Liz’s next answer.

Liz looked in turn at Maria’s and Alex’s eager expressions and finally nodded.

"Way to go, girl!" Maria exclaimed, taking Liz into a fierce hug.

Max’s hand shot out and he clutched the edge of the water fountain. Right now, he didn’t trust his knees not to send the rest of him slumping to the ground.

"Here comes your new boyfriend now," Alex whispered conspiratorially, only loud enough to be heard by his friends, and presumably not by the jerk who was stealing Max’s dream girl from him right before his eyes.

Liz turned to see who Alex was pointing at. Her eyes landed on Max and an unidentified emotion passed behind them before she looked past him to the boy Max was finding easier to despise by the minute.

Max knew there was only one thing to do: march over to where Liz was standing, cup her cheek in his hand and pour all the love he had ever felt for her in one single kiss that would make her forget whatever had happened in the janitor’s closet. His other arm would go around her waist to hold her up when her knees would get weak. Her arms would wrap around his neck and she would return his kiss with equal passion, leaving the other boy standing in the middle of the hallway like the idiot he surely was.

As if she had sensed what was going on in his mind, Liz’s eyes darted back to his and he turned back to the water fountain so she wouldn’t read his face.

He should go over to her. Whoever this other guy was, he couldn’t possibly love Liz the way Max did. How could Max be sure this jerk would treat her right? Whoever he was, she deserved better. She deserved to be worshipped the way only Max would.

His shoulders sagged as he reminded himself that she also deserved to live a safe, normal life, and that he could never give her that.

"Are you gonna drink the whole Gulf of Mexico, Evans?" came the voice of his new mortal enemy behind him. Now was the time to find out who was the guy that had everything Max Evans had ever desired.

He turned slowly, deliberately, and came face to face with Kyle Valenti. Jealousy surged and before he could stop himself, his hands had turned into fists and he had taken a step toward the shorter boy.

Kyle’s eyebrows shot up in mild surprise and he raised his hands. "Just wanted to know if you were done, man," he said, oblivious to the real reason behind Max’s behaviour.

Liz stared at the two boys silently sizing each other up. When Max backed down and moved aside he thought he saw fleeting disappointment in the pretty brunette’s eyes. But of course there hadn’t been; the smile stretched across her beautiful face was all the proof he needed.

Kyle took a drink of water and walked past Max to put his arm around his new girl’s shoulders.

"Ready to go?" he asked with a smile, the incident with Evans-the-Freak already forgotten.

"Sure," Liz nodded happily. The couple moved away, followed by Maria and Alex. When she reached the bottom step, Liz turned around one last time and looked at Max. Her smile wavered a bit and the same unidentified emotion as before flashed in her eyes.

If Max hadn’t been so busy staring at the remnants of his shattered dream on the floor of the high school, he might have seen that Liz Parker’s eyes were filled with a longing that matched his own at what they both knew could never be.

The end