******
It was the last day of their senior year of high school. It was really just a formality. They had graduated the night before, and today everyone was drifting to different classrooms, talking to friends, and signing yearbooks. Michael Guerin was among them, but he had a mission. He was looking for a specific person. Someone who he hadn't talked to in two years. Maria Deluca.
I would like to visit you for a while
Get away and out of this city
Maybe I shouldn't have come, but someone had to be the first to break
We can go sit on your back porch
Relax
Talk about anything
It don't matter
I'll be courageous if you can pretend you've forgiven me
Finally he spotted her, and shoving through the masses of people, he shouted her name. "Maria!"
She stopped and turned. Her carefully controlled mask slipped of for a moment, and Michael saw the myraid of emotions float across her face, suprise, confusion, sadness, hurt. They were all there. "What do you want?" The vulnerbility was gone, and she had once again slipped on the cold, hard, mask she had hid behind for the past two years.
"Look, can we just talk?"
"About what?"
"Just stuff. About the last two years."
She turned to face him, and he saw the tears glittering in her eyes. "You're still the same, aren't you? You expect the last two years to just disappear. They can't disappear, Michael. You let me go."
"I had to. Our enemy--"
"You haven't had any trouble with them. You've managed to do just fine without us 'lower humans.' "
Because I don't know you anymore
I don't recognize this place
The picture frames have changed, and so has your name
We don't talk much anymore
We keep running from the pain
But what I wouldn't give to see your face again
Michael was staring at Maria. She had changed, and for the first time, he realized that he had lost the last two years. They were gone. Years that he could have spent with Maria. He didn't know her anymore. He had to get to know her again. He needed her.
"We had to protect you. It was too dangerous."
"Protect us? As if it wasn't dangerous for you?" She wasn't yelling. The old Maria would have yelled, but this one was too tired, too sad. "Look at us. Liz is barely there. Alex hasn't lost hope, but he's just pining away for somthing he can't have."
Springtime in the air
Always such a relief from the winter freeze
The snow was more lonely than cold, if you know what I mean
Everyone's got an agenda
Don't stop, keep that chin up you'll be alright
Can you belive what a year it's been?
Are you still the same?
Has your opinion changed?
"Maybe we were wrong," Michael said. "But it's done. It's over."
"Just like that, we're supposed to take you back?" Maria shook her head. "It's not that easy."
"I don't even know you anymore," Michael whispered. "You're so different."
"You told me that you loved me, and then left me for two years. You didn't even talk to me." All the pain and anger that she had kept locked up inside were slowly leaking out.
"We had to deal with what we found out."
"You didn't have to do it alone."
Because I don't know you anymore
I don't recognize this place
The picture frames have changed and so has your name
We don't talk much anymore
We keep running from the pain
But what I wouldn't give to see your face again
"We didn't know that then. We thought it had to be just the four of us. We thought it was somthing you couldn't deal with. We were just trying to protect you."
"You keep saying that. Don't you know how much your hurt us?"
Michael closed his eyes in pain. "Yes. It wasn't easy for us either, you know. Do you really think we enjoyed cutting you off like that?"
"I knew the answer to that once," Maria answered. "But I'm not sure anymore."
I know I let you down
Again and again
I know I never really treated you right
I've paid the price
I'm still paying for it every day
"I still don't understand," Michael said.
"What's there to understand?" Maria asked bitterly.
"Why you stuck with me, why you were always there by my side, no matter what. I was about the worse boyfriend ever."
"I knew the answer to that one once, too. But now I guess I don't know anything about you."
So maybe I shouldn't have called
Was it too soon to tell?
Oh what the hey
It doesn't really matter
How do you refine something that never really had a name
Has your opinion changed?
Michael slumped back against the wall. "Maybe we shouldn't even be talking after all that's happened, but we can't go on like this."
Maria sighed. "I know. It's just not that easy to forgive."
"I wish...." Michael didn't finish the sentance, but Maria knew what he meant.
Because I don't know you anymore
I don't recognize this place
The picture frames have changed, and so has your name
We don't talk much anymore
We keep running from the pain
But what I wouldn't give to see your face again
Maria suddenly stood up straight. "Give me your yearbook."
"What?"
She sighed. "Michael, it's been too long. I can't say it out loud."
He handed her the yearbook, and she wrote in it. It wasn't until she had disappeared into the crowd that he opened the book and read what she had written.
"I can't forgive you. Not yet. But I *will* be able to. I promise you that. So don't give up on me. Don't let me go again, because there's somethin you need to know. I love you spaceboy."
Michael closed the yearbook with a rare grin. He still had hope, and that was all he needed.
I see your face
I see your face
End
