Never Underestimate Destiny

Part 20

(Friday November 10)

Liz clutched the note that Max carefully passed to her in the hallway.

It wasn't smart for them to be seen together too much, but she hated pretending. She wanted to run into his arms and kiss him like normal people in love do. Instead she was left feeling cold.

And the contents of the note didn't make her feel any better.

Max called her last night and told her how Tess used her powers on him again. She must be getting desperate. Liz suggested he call Zan and tell him before they went to practice, and he must have done, because then he gave her the note.

Quickly she scanned the contents again.

Zan wants to meet for lunch to talk.

I'll pick you up behind the school at noon.

The first thing that had gone through Liz's head was that something was wrong.

Last night, she had actually felt Max's surprise and then revulsion, when he was talking to Tess, but she hadn't felt any strong emotions from Zan after she'd talked to him. So what could this urgent meeting be about?

The second thought she had, was it would look really suspicious if she and Max were both gone at lunch.

Lately the eight of them had lunch in the quad together, and there would definitely be questions if she and Max didn't show up.

Occasionally she did skip lunch to study, or sometimes two or three of them went out for lunch, so she figured that was the best cover. She went in search of Maria, and asked her to disappear for lunch. If she and Maria were gone, everyone would assume they were together.

Maria asked a lot of questions that she couldn't answer, and she tried to convince her they just needed to talk. But in the end, Maria was still assumed she and Max were sneaking away for a romantic tryst.

Liz really didn't see the point in correcting her, and simply swore her to secrecy.

Now she was nervously waiting on the nearly deserted street behind the school. It was just noon, and she was wishing Max would hurry, when his Jeep swung around the corner. He stopped next to her and she scrambled inside.

"Max," she said urgently, "what's going on?"

"I don't know," he said, taking her hand and giving it a reassuring squeeze. "Zan just asked us to meet him, but I'm sure it'll be all right."

She nodded. "Where are we going?"

"Zan said we couldn't go to his place because Ava would be there," he said, putting the Jeep in gear, and pulling away from the curb. "So he suggested a restaurant on the other side of town, where no one would know us"

"Good idea," Liz said. "I asked Maria to disappear for lunch to give us a cover."

Max smiled. "I asked Michael to do the same thing."

Liz grimly smiled back. "We really need to get our lies straight."

The smile disappeared off of Max's face. "I hate sneaking around and lying. And I really hate playing this part for Tess. It's giving her hope that there can be something between us, when it's impossible. It's not right. It's cruel, and it will make the truth that much worse when it comes out."

"I know," Liz agreed with a nod. "I've been thinking about it too."

She put her hand on his leg. "I felt what you did last night when you were with her. I had no idea you disliked her so much."