Part 3

Walking into Michael’s apartment, Maria went directly to his closet and dragged out some board games that the others didn’t even knew existed.

Michael saw their looks of surprise and told them with a defensive edge in his voice, “Hey, don’t look at me. Maria brought them over here a few days back ‘cause she thought this place needed some entertainment.”

“Yeah right,” Kyle mumbled under his breath sarcastically.

Maria kicked him lightly in the shins as she was walking by to set the games on the floor. Kyle’s eyes glazed over in a brief flash of pain.

Kyle wanted to say more but Maria’s sharp throwing dagger eyes quickly made him re-decide.

“What do we play first?” Isabel asked; shuffling through the many games lay out before her.

“There’s Twister, Limbo, Monopoly, and oh! Look, he even has Scramble!” Tess pointed out, trying to hold in her laughter.

“Let’s play naked Twister!” Alex yelled out, jumping off the couch.

He sat back down when he realized that the rest of them were looking at him as if he had grown a second head.

“Never mind then.”

“How about playing Monopoly in teams?” Kyle said.

“Why Kyle,” Maria said, looking in mock surprise, “that’s by far the most intelligent thing you have said the whole day.”

“Stuff it DeLuca.”

“Stuff this,” Maria threw a cushion into his face.

Kyle threw it back and it wasn’t before long that a full-fledged pillow fight broke out. Tess was at his side, helping him shower the others with explosion of feathers. Alex grabbed a bunch of pillows from Michael couch and launched it at anyone who came near him or Isabel. Maria picked up pillows fallen on the ground and would hurled it back, ducking behind Michael whenever an unsuspecting pillow is coming her way. Michael scowled at her but his lips twists into a playful grin as he attacked her with pillows of his own.

“Traitor!” Maria squeals, returning his attacks.

Max smiled devilishly and pounced on Liz with pillows attached to his hands. Liz forced her body to relax and play around with them.

While they were still caught up in the game of Pillow War, Liz managed to disengage herself from the group and asked Tess to follow her into the kitchen.

Tess walked behind her without question.

“What is it that you want to talk about Liz?” she asked, fingering her tight blonde curls.

Liz opened her mouth, but words failed her. She took some deep breaths, and began her well-rehearsed speech from the night before.

Few hours later…

“Hey guys,” Liz yelled over the noise, “I’m going to be heading home now okay?”

They nodded, but didn’t seem to acknowledge her words. They were now playing Play Station, a motor racing game. Michael was in the lead, but Kyle’s vehicle was catching up to him fast. The rest of them were cheering them on, occasionally throwing in some joking insults.

Hearing Liz’s announcement, Max and Maria stood beside Liz, and walked her to the door, hoping to persuade her to stay for a little longer.

“Want me to take you home?” Max asked.

Liz turned around fast, her eyes flashing with a strange glinted in it. If he didn’t know better, he could’ve sworn that he saw a small dose of fear in her brown doe eyes.

*Nah. It must’ve been the lighting.* He dismissed lightly when he noticed that it was gone a short second later.

“Don’t forget to call us when you get home,” Maria’s cheerful voice said.

Liz nodded, turning to her one time boyfriend.

“It’s okay Max,” Liz told him, praying that her voice didn’t betray her nervousness that was evident in her stomach, “stay here with Maria and them. Enjoy yourself.”

Max nodded, having nothing to say. She gave him one last small sweet smile, and closed the door. He wanted to chase after her, tell her that he knows that there was nothing between Kyle and she, tell her that he still love her. He felt a hand on his arm and sees Maria, shaking her head no.

“Let her be,” Liz’s best friend said, “She’ll be all right. You’ll get to see her tomorrow.”

Tomorrow. But tomorrow’s a lifetime away. Tomorrow. His stomach dropped to his knees. He could feel it in his bones. Something was going to happen. Something big. Another shake of Maria’s head forced Max to refrain from doing something drastically, like tackling Liz and hauling her back into Michael’s apartment.

Outside the Apartment…

Liz hugged herself in the cold, shivering and breathing out icy air. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea to walk home by herself. She wanted to feel Max’s warm arms wrapped around her, to feel safe and that time was standing still just for them. But she knew that it would never happen again. He had a destiny to fulfill, and maybe she had one set of her own to fulfill too.

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