“When’s Kyle coming over?” Alex asked Michael later that evening. Both boys were playing Tony Hawk ProSkater 3 on Michael’s new PlayStation 2 while waiting for their new friend. Michael had invited the new guy over after football practice. “He said he’d be over in like an hour,” Michael said as he cursed under his breath at the game. “Of course that was like forty-five minutes ago, so who knows.” “Well…” Alex said with a devious grin as he stole the area Michael had just won on the game. “Then that means that you have time to answer a question for me.” Michael shrugged, oblivious to the look Alex was giving him. If he had seen it, he would have run for cover. “What’s up with you and Maria?” Michael choked on the sip of Coke he’d just taken and glared at Alex in warning. “I don’t know,” he finally sputtered when Alex just waited patiently for an answer. “It’s not defined yet.” “What do you mean it’s not defined yet? What the hell kind of answer is that?” Alex stole another section from Michael on the game. “Do you want to define it?” Michael paused the game, he hadn’t been able to concentrate to begin with, and now with Alex bringing up Maria, he knew he wouldn’t be able to concentrate at all. Besides, Alex had been kicking his ass at it any way. “I think you need to ask Maria that,” Michael said pointedly. “I defined it a long time ago, she’s the one that slow on the uptake, not me. Why don’t you go ask her, and if she tells me, would you let me know, cause I’d really appreciate it.” Alex looked at his friend closely. This was definitely a sore spot with his friend, which was good. Michael needed things to bother him, it made him feel, it made him react with something other than reserved coldness. Alex mentally nodded his head, it was time to get Michael all worked up. “So what’s your definition of it then?” “Maria’s mine,” Michael said firmly. “That’s all the definition I need. She’s been mine all along. She just won’t admit it. I’ve been patient, waiting for her to realize it, but damn it Alex, she’s taking too long. I don’t know how much longer I can wait for her to come to her senses. Not after Prom.” “Since you brought it up,” Alex said seriously. “What the hell was that at Prom? One minute the two of you were fighting like it was WWIII, then you were dancing and staring at each other entranced, then you were devouring each other on the dance floor, and then you both left and ignored each other for months. And now this whole thing in my yard the other day and school today…you two are confusing as hell.” “I don’t know how you saw it,” Michael said with a superior smirk. “You were too busy drooling on my sister to notice much of anything.” “I may have been a little preoccupied with Isabel,” Alex said with a blush. It was true, at the time, Isabel had been slow dancing with Alex, something that usually would have made him oblivious to anything but his own personal goddess, who usually only saw him as a brother. “But I’m not dead, which I would have to have been in order to have noticed what was going on between you two. If it could have broken my attention away from dancing with Isabel it must have been intense. So what the hell was going on, then and now?” “I can’t explain the other day, or even today,” Michael said as he scratched his eyebrow with one finger. “Those were just…well…I couldn’t seem to help myself. Prom was different.” Alex looked at him patiently and Michael sighed…he knew he couldn’t keep it to himself anymore, well not all of it any way. “I went with Courtney and she went with Doug because we both knew that would annoy the other the most. It’s always been like that with us, one giant annoy contest. You know that.” Alex nodded and Michael continued. “Well, I was annoyed and she was annoyed, so mission accomplished on both parts, but then I got a little more than annoyed with I saw Doug dancing with his hand on her ass. I mean,” Michael voice began to rise in renewed outrage at the memory, “his hand was groping her ass, and if anyone’s hand is going to grope Maria’s ass it’s going to be mine.” “And, I might have said something to her along the lines of… ‘if you act like his whore he’s going to treat you like one’.” Alex’s eyebrows rose in shock at that one, even he didn’t think Michael had that kind of nerve. “Yeah,” Michael said ruefully at the look, “she was pretty shocked that I said that too. And then she started in on me Deluca fashion and I had to defend myself…thus the fighting. But then we really started hashing it out, bringing in stuff that we really shouldn’t have been talking about in public.” “Please don’t tell me that you two started insulting each other’s power control,” Alex said in a lecture-toned voice. It never failed, Michael and Maria, when they really got into, always had to insult the other’s prowess as a witch. Michael nodded sheepishly. “I started it,” he admitted with a scowl. “And she was the one who pulled me out on the dance floor, she evidently thought that if we were going to get into it, we’d better do it away from Doug and Courtney.” “But you guys didn’t fight on the dance floor,” Alex interrupted. “That’s when you were staring at each other like buffoons.” “Well, we were going to fight,” Michael said in exasperation. “But, when she placed herself in my arms, I kinda forgot why I was so mad to begin with. Evidently she did to because when I started to just look at her, she was doing the same to me. I know we looked stupid out there like that, but well…it was the first time I’d ever held her and I couldn’t help it OK. Stop laughing at me,” Michael growled at Alex who was indeed laughing at him. “I can’t help it,” Alex gasped out. “You’re starting to babble on like Maria.” Michael scowled and silently vowed not to tell Alex the rest. Not that he would have told him much more anyway, the rest was too personal to share with anyone but Maria. Plus, what guy talks about one kiss that changed his entire world? What guy tells his best friend that sort of thing? Michael didn’t even know how to put it into words. All he had was the memory of it. ****Flash**** He was dancing with Maria. He couldn’t get his mind away from that simple fact. Vaguely he remembered that he was supposed to be fighting with her about something, but at the moment he couldn’t really remember what it was that made him so mad to begin with. All he could think about was that she was perfect. Her eyes, which seconds before had been flashing in repressed anger at him, were now liquid pools of emerald staring right back at him. Her whole expression had softened, just like her body once he had put his arms around her. Why hadn’t he ever danced with her before? He’d been in love with her for years and had never once asked her to dance. He should have, it was heaven after all. He closed his eyes reverently and just breathed her into himself. It seemed as if her entire essence had melted into his. They were no long Michael and Maria, best friends and arch-nemeses in one. Now they one nameless entity, a Michael and Maria mixture that somehow would never be completely separate again. He was her, she was him…he knew that now. If he concentrated he could see her aura, or part of it, combined with his in a vibrant harmony unmatched by anything else in creation. Artist spent whole lifetimes striving to create what Michael was experiencing right here, at his Junior Prom, with Maria Deluca. His eyes opened again and met hers. He looked at her and saw that she felt it too…the inevitability of this one single moment. He couldn’t have stopped himself at that moment anymore than he could have stopped the earth on its axis. He leaned down and kissed her, and in the process, he changed his very existence forever. ****End Flash**** Michael shook his head to clear it. He still didn’t remember leaving the Prom with her in his arms. All he knew was that they had ended up by the creek later that night, and it was there; again, that everything had changed. But these weren’t things that he wanted to remember or dwell upon at the moment. He’d spent eons since April doing that. “Thank you very much Alex,” he mumbled to himself, “now I’ll be depressed for months…again.” “So,” Alex said helpfully, he’d stopped laughing five minutes earlier, but Michael hadn’t noticed…he’d been off in Maria-Land again. “What did you think of those new kids in class, Max Evans and Liz Parker?” “Seems a little odd that two high school seniors are living together and moved here from Roswell, New Mexico out of the blue,” Michael responded, relieved that Alex had changed the subject for now. “But they seemed like two huge dorks. Completely harmless if you ask me.” “Yeah,” Alex said as he looked out the window. “You’re probably right about that.” What Alex left unsaid was that he didn’t feel like Max and Liz were harmless at all, he felt like they had a big secret. And it had bothered him that the two new comers had spent the entirety of English staring intently at Isabel, Tess, and Maria. Liz had been looking at them like a mad-scientist with her telescope. Alex’s eyes narrowed. Nobody looked at his girls like that. He knew something was up with those two, but if the others didn’t see it, he’d just keep it to himself. He’d watch them until he knew something concrete, and then he’d go to Michael. The two of them could take care of it together, after Alex had more to act on than funny feelings. He shook his head to clear it and opened his mouth to ask Michael were Isabel was tonight, but Michael cut him off. “Are we going to sit here all night and gossip like little girls or are we going to get back to the game?’ “I vote the game,” Kyle said as he entered the room. “I’ve been wanting to try out TH3 since it came out last month. Soon as I learn how to play, I’m going to kick your ass at it.” “Not that hard,” Alex said with a grin. Michael scowled as he leaned over and hit the reset button on the PlayStation. “Here,” he said as he handed his control over to Kyle. “You try to beat the computer geek. He’s slaughtering me.” Kyle took the control and Michael got up, offering the boy his seat. “Where are you going?” Alex asked absentmindedly as he started to play the game. “I’m just going for a walk,” Michael said with a shrug. “I’ll be back. I need to think about some things.” With that Michael left the room. “Was it something I said?” Kyle asked Alex as they continued to play. “Nope, it was something I said,” Alex laughed. “He’s gone to contemplate the mystery of Deluca. He’ll be back. It won’t take him long to realize that women, especially women like Maria, are a mystery meant to remain unsolved.” Kyle laughed and nodded. He’d come to the same conclusion a few minutes before about one confusing Tess Harding. Now all he wanted to do was play some mindless game to keep his thoughts away from her and the sparks and emotions she invoked in him. TBC

Part 11