Play It Cool

Author: Bennie
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: Forsooth! I own them not.
Summary: Missing scene from HoM, Kyle POV.

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Okay, so when did my life become Twin Peaks?

Oh yeah – when Max Evans stole my girlfriend.

And don´t think I never got over that. Hey, I´m only human. (I think.) I mean, I stopped being angry at Liz a long time ago. She´s smart, and she´s nice, and I´ve always known that she would never do anything manipulative on purpose. If for no other reason than the fact that she is simply the world´s worst liar; she can´t pull it off.

Even when I was feeling sorry for myself and trying to make her as miserable as I was, I knew that if it was so important that she had to try, she must have had a good reason.

Kind of like when she set it up to make it look like we slept together. There was just something about the look on her face, like she was asking me not to make her lie to me, because we´d both know she was doing it.

I just … trusted her.

It took a while, but I got over the pain. Even before that night, I´d gotten over the humiliation, and the shock, and the hatred, and the general need to wipe that “oh, I´m Mr. Sensitive” look off that smug little face of suburban royalty.

Mostly.

I thought so, anyway. Until tonight.

Forgive me Buddha, but I never questioned reincarnation until I realized that with a karma like his, Max Evans – or Zan, or whoever he is – should´ve come back as a locust or something.

Maybe next life, huh? I have faith.

Of course, he gives me so much to work with, how could I not have faith in his ability to incur a karmic debt of such proportions that it´ll take fifty lives as an insect of some kind to make his way back up the food chain?

Crap. It just ticks me off.

What does? Why, going to see where “sis” had gotten off to, and getting there just in time to watch Evans rip Liz´s heart out by kissing Tess. While he was still Liz´s date, even. I tell, you, if Liz hadn´t thrown that damn corsage (and it didn´t match very well, either) out and left, I would´ve … I would´ve …

Well, I don´t know what I would´ve done. I mean, I already knew Tess was totally into Evans. Anyone could see that. And if he makes her happy, he might actually be good for something.

If she can keep him away from Liz, then I say, more power to her.

Dammit, if I don´t do something, I swear I´m gonna throw this stupid cup at his head when he makes his royal freaking appearance back here. With or without the punch in it.

The dance is almost over. Tess won´t even miss me.

I´m out of here.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Well, this is great. It´s prom night, and I´m walking around downtown Roswell – about three blocks either way – because I just realized I *can´t* go home yet.

I should´ve remembered that Dad had a date with Ms. Deluca tonight after the dance. It´s probably the only reason why he told us to enjoy the night out, not to come back til we´d seen the sun rise and had breakfast. He said it´s some kind of prom tradition. Even gave me money.

So I can´t go home.

Maybe I can catch Liz.

Now she had to have gone straight home. Where else would she go? She certainly –

… Wouldn´t be running down the street with her fancy shoes in one hand and heading for the … isn´t that the bowling alley Dad goes to?

I wonder what she´s up to. Knowing Liz, there´s probably some unbelievably boring and rational reason why she´s cutting across the Roswell Lanes lawn when it´s been closed for 2 hours.

I have to laugh, though, because that´s one thing about Liz: she may seem like the most strait-laced and stable person in the world, but if there´s something exciting going on, you can count on finding her right in the middle of it.

Wait -- she just … went in. Like she knew the door was going to be open.

I thought I already belonged to the secret club. Is there another? What´s the initiation? It can´t be any worse than being shot and healed by the one guy in the universe you despise.

And now I´m wondering if someone spiked the punch without telling me, because I just followed Liz inside and if I didn´t know better, I could swear that she is … yes, she would be sliding down a bowling lane, in socks, with Sean Deluca.

Of course, watching them together, I notice a few things right away. (Contrary to popular belief, I´m no dumb jock. Well, not about people, anyway.)

First of all, she´s relaxed. And smiling. When´s the last time she smiled like that?

And … I like the way he touches her. When Evans touched her, my skin crawled. You could just tell he felt way too comfortable being all touchy-feely. But Sean … he´s close to her, but he doesn´t invade her personal space.

Actually, Sean´s not bad. We talk sometimes when Amy and Dad put us through ‘family time´, and he seems pretty decent. I think we could be friends. Not the “put my life in constant danger” kind that Liz and Maria find for me, but the kind to just hang out, grab a beer or … go bowling.

Damn, but that looks like fun. I bet these silk socks Tess made me buy would slide like grease down that lane …

I wonder if they´d still smile if they knew I was here. If they´d ask me to join them. If, someday soon, I´d find myself sitting with them, and maybe Deluca, she´s decent too when she´s not mooning over Guerin, and we´d just laugh and talk like normal people over coffee or something.

Only one way to find out.

Play it cool, Kyle.

“Hey guys. What´s up?”

The End