*11*

Max, as it seems, is without words.

And his driving is shotty, if you ask me.

"Ummm..." He says.

"W-Wha..ummm." He says.

"Yes?"

"Did you...are you..." He says.

"I didn't tell anyone, I'm not going to tell anyone."

He lets out his breath, "This is so...weird."

I chew on my fingernail and stare out the window, my headache has been replaced with that sinking stomach feeling of nervousness.

"Are you okay?" He asks.

I'm confused.

I'm nervous.

"I'm fine."

"God," he says, smiling at the steering wheel, "You don't know how long I've wanted to tell somebody."

Bet you didn't want it to be me.

But maybe he did. I mean, he told me, last night. Why did he tell me?

"Why didn't you tell anybody?" He asks.

"Nobody needs to know."

Max is practically jumping out of his seat. I bet he's just dying to tell me the details of his remorseful little life.

And you know what? I'm just dying to hear them.

"So." I say, "You do any tricks?"

Probably not the best thing to say, 'cause by the time we get to his house my sweater no longer matches and the beanie on my head is now too small. My house key has been turned into a miniature replica of the statue of liberty, I've been surrounded by some sort of force field.

And I'm Max Evans' new best friend.

And I almost forget that I'm supposed to be hating him.

He locks his door and runs around his room showing me meaningless alien artifacts.

I call them meaningless because when I ask, "What does this one do?" He just smiles and says, "I don't know!"

He pulls a poster out of his closet and shows me the glowing orb that he's supposed to live on.

He doesn't know who he is, he says. He doesn't know why he's here or what he's supposed to be doing. He tells me that he's starting not to care.

He tells me that he just wants to be human.

And that is definitely sympathy that I'm feeling.

"I can't believe you know," He says, "I can't believe your being so cool about this."

That's me, cool as a cucumber.

"You told me last night, when you were drunk."

"Huh?"

"You told me you were an alien, when I was hanging out with Eddie, I already knew, but you told me."

He smiles, "Yea okay."

He thinks I'm lying. That's the thing about being a liar, when you tell the truth, nobody believes you. Kind of like crying wolf. "You did, you said my head was really small and that you were an alien and that you were leaving with Tess."

"I did?"

"Yea."

"Weird," He says, "Maybe I just thought....that you were like...the kind of person I could tell."

"Kind of person?"

"Yea," he says, "It doesn't seem like a whole lot of things scare you."

That's me, fearless.

"Yea," I say.

"I said that your head was really small?"

"MmmmHmmmm."

He furrows his brow "Okay..."

And for the first time in about an hour, Max shuts his trap.

He walks to his bookshelf, lost in thought, and skims through his books.

"Are you still mad at me," he asks, "For liking Tess."

How off topic was that?

He pulls out a book.

"No, I just think your gonna get hurt."

He nods, "Yea I probably am......but I have to try, don't I?"

"Guess so," I say.

What a load of crap.

"She's just got these eyes, you know?"

Yea, she does have nice eyes.

Mine couldn't get any more boring.

"Yeah, they're great."

Is this what being Max's friend means? Hearing him worship Tess?

"Ever been to nowhere?" He asks.

Is this one of those cryptic questions?

I say, "Ummm."

"Nowhere, New Mexico, there's a book signing there on Tuesday, we should go."

"Why don't you ask Tess."

"I don't wanna go with Tess," he says, "She wouldn't like it."

And I say, "Only if you change my house key back to normal."

Somebody tell me why I keep putting myself in these positions.

Okay, yea, we all know it's obvious that I have some twisted preoccupation with him.

So maybe I.....

Maybe I......

Like him.

A LITTLE.

Not like it matters anyway, with all the Tess worshipping going on.

And you know, friends, isn't that bad, I guess.

You know what? Friends is fine. Friends is perfect.

Oh god, I need therapy.

There is no way I can wait until Tuesday.

As soon as I get home I run to the phone. Dr. Amos has an emergency home phone number.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Amos this is me Liz I need to change my appointment to Monday I can't wait until Tuesday please please please say you have an opening this is an emergency pleeeaaassseeee."

"Liz?"

"YES, Liz."

"Tomorrow?"

"TOMORROW."

"Calm down, I can fit you in after school."

"Ohhhhh good."

"Is everything okay?"

"NO."

"Okay, we'll talk about it tomorrow okay?"

"Okay, bye."

And I can only hope that Dr. Amos can fix me before I get to Tuesday.

Part 12