Pt 7

Liz, Max, Alex, Maria, Michael, and Isabel sat around a table in the Chinese place. There was an uncomfortable silence, no one really willing to talk to anyone else.

Liz sighed. Once again she was reminded about how different this world was from hers. Back home, the six of them were becoming friends, and could sit around a table together and have a good time, cracking alien jokes, and being completely open with each other, but here… Well, Maria and Alex didn’t know about the aliens, and none of them were comfortable with the six-some, except for Liz.

She couldn’t help but feel a little lucky. They all seemed to be trying to have a good time together for her, but the group as a whole had nothing in common.

Liz frowned. What was up with Alex and Maria? They were acting really strange. Both of them were dead silent, not even conversing with each other, and they kept fidgeting, and passing strange looks to each other. Liz wondered what was up with them.

Everything was just different here. Max wanted to be with her here, no matter what obstacles stood in their way. Liz couldn’t suppress her giggle. That was something that she wished that she could take back with her!

Liz’s giggle broke the silence, and everyone looked up at her curiously.

"Sorry. I was just thinking about how different things are here."

"Different how?" Alex asked her.

"Well, the fact that the six of us can’t even seem to carry a conversation for one thing. We hang out together in my world. And there always seems to be something to talk about, some mystery we have to figure out."

"Like what kind of mystery?" Maria asked pointedly. Maybe she could get Liz to bring up the aliens so that they didn’t have to. She glanced nervously at Michael and Isabel across the table. Who knew what kind of secret powers they had? If she brought it up, they could probably kill her without a second thought.

Maria swallowed hard. God they made her nervous the way they sat over there silently. They were glaring at Liz she noticed. What was that about? Liz had better be careful or they might kill her first!

"Oh, never mind. It’s not important." Liz dismissed. "Mostly I was wishing that I could take some parts of this Max home with me," she went on, dropping a shy smile towards him. Max grinned, and took her hand, squeezing it gently.

"Oh God," Isabel groaned. "Must you two get all mushy on each other right in front of us all? We really don’t need to see it."

"Yeah, save it for later," Alex put in. Isabel grinned at Alex from across the table, and he gave her a shy smile in response.

Liz couldn’t help but grin, "Hey, we finally found something that you guys can agree on." Everyone laughed, and for a brief moment, Liz felt right at home once again. But then she noticed Maria’s pale face across the table. She didn’t notice before how nervous her best friend looked.

"Hey Maria, you okay?" Liz asked, her voice shadowed with concern.

"Liz, why don’t you go ahead and tell us the truth. Alex and I already know that they’re aliens."

The laughter across the table died out in an instant.

"Excuse me? What did we…I mean, how did you find out?" Liz stammered

"We could tell something was up when we left Max’s house this morning." Alex stated

"So we came back and spied on you guys from outside the window when you talked about it later." Maria finished.

"You did what?" Liz gasped angrily.

"We needed to know what was going on! I mean, you were our best friend in the world, and you’re dead. Then you suddenly show up, and all you seemed to want to do was hang on Max Evans, who you never paid the least bit of attention to before. We couldn’t help but be a little curious to what was going on."

"Maria, you should have trusted me. I mean, it’s still me, Liz. When have I ever lied to you?"

"It’s just…life was really tough without you in it. I hate to be overly blunt with you here, Liz, but you have no idea how hard it is when your best friend dies. You’ve never had to deal with that. And then for her to reappear again…it’s just tough."

Liz stared at her friend in shock. "You’re right. I don’t know what it’s like."

"Excuse me," Michael burst in, "But whenever you girls are done with your little best friend moment, we still have to deal with the fact that they know."

Liz nodded. "This is true. I never meant for you guys to find out about this."

"You guys can’t talk to anyone about this," Max told them. "And you can’t talk to each other about it in public. You don’t understand what will happen if the wrong people find out about us."

"And how are you sure that we’re not the wrong people," Maria asked.

"Yeah, how do we know that they’re not going to go blurt this all out to the first person who asks them if they know any aliens?" Isabel whispered angrily.

"Because."

"Because why?" Alex asked.

"Because Liz told me that in her world you both are in on our secret too, and that you are both trustworthy."

"This is true. Maria, I know you’re freaked out right now. In my world you freaked out too, but I can assure you that they will never hurt you, and in the long run, I’ll bet you’ll benefit from their friendship. I know you probably find that hard to believe right now, but I can assure you that they’ve done nothing, but made our lived more exciting since they became a part of our lives."

Maria nodded. "I guess we’re going to have to learn to be friends then, won’t we?"

The others nodded in agreement.

TBC...