Tess looked up from her stool at the counter of the Coastside Cafe later that week, noticing that Michael had just entered the café. She smiled to herself when Michael’s eyes immediately fixed on Maria.

“He’s got it bad.”

“What?” Maria asked, turning from where she was mopping up a spilt drink.

“Michael,” Tess explained. “He’s totally fallen for you.”

Maria laughed slightly. “Yeah right.”

“Oh he has all right. I don’t know how he can stand being just friend’s with you. I mean, god, the lust in his eyes when he looks at you sometimes… What I wouldn’t give to be looked at like that.”

Maria gave her an incredulous look. “You have two boyfriends! And besides, he so does not look at me with lust.”

“Mmm-hmm.”

“I’m serious.”

“You’re serious about what?” Michael asked, dropping onto the stool next to Tess.

“Hey Michael,” Tess said, giving him a big grin. “What brings you to the Coastside Café this fine afternoon?”

He shrugged. “Same thing that brings you I guess. So you’re serious about what?”

“The new seafood platter,” Tess ad-libed.

“Seafood platter?” Michael asked, raising his eyes skeptically. Tess just raised her hands palms up in defeat when she saw Maria’s questioning look.

“Yeah,” Maria jumped in. “Do you want to try it?”

He grimaced. “Seafood? No thanks.” Tess sighed inwardly in relief, knowing Maria was probably doing the same.

“Michael here hates seafood for some reason,” Maria said with a smile, looking at him.

“Really?” Tess asked, surprised. “Why?”

Michael opened his mouth to speak but Maria beat him to it. “’Guess ‘cause he didn’t grow up on the coast. Poor deprived boy, doesn’t know what he’s missing.”

“Boy?” He frowned.

Maria gave him an innocent look. “What, so you’re trying to tell me you’re a man?”

“Of course.”

Tess laughed, shaking her head at their banter. Was Maria totally clueless? How could she not know that Michael had totally fallen for her?

Or did she know? Because Tess had to admit their banter often seemed to sound a lot like flirting.

***

“Do you think either of them realise?” Tess murmured to Liz as they made their way over to where Michael and Maria where sitting eating their lunch the next day at school. The two of them were fighting over the contents of a brown paper bag.

“Realise?” Liz turned questioning eyes on her.

“You know,” Tess replied, waving her hand slightly.

Liz frowned. “I do?” What was she not getting here?

Tess sighed in exasperation. “That they want each other.”

“Ohh,” she replied. So Tess had noticed it too. “Do you think they actually do? Maybe it’s just the way they act together or something…” she trailed off.

Tess raised her eyebrows. “Well he is your brother.”

Liz nodded. “Well, Michael likes Maria, I’m pretty sure of that. But Maria… I don’t know. She’s so hard to read. What do you think? You’ve known her longer.”

Tess shook her head. “I really don’t think that means anything. Never in my life have I seen her as social as she’s become since you two moved to town.”

That answer didn’t surprise her. It was obvious that Maria was a very private person, even now Liz knew barely anything about her besides the trivial details and the fact that her father had left.

They had almost arrived at the tree Michael and Maria were sitting under, but Liz had just one thing she needed to know and it seemed like a great time to ask.

“Do you know why Maria’s like this?”

All she got was a rolling of the eyes and a shaking of the head as Tess sighed. “I honestly have no idea.”

***

“Hey,” Michael said, sliding in beside Maria as she talked with Liz at the Coastside Café. “Shouldn’t you be working instead of yakking?”

She slapped his hand away from where it was reaching for her squid rings. “I’m on a break. But if you’re really annoyed that I’m not working then feel free to do my job for me.

Liz laughed. “Oh I would so pay to see Michael decked out in a waitress uniform.”

Michael scowled at her, giving her a ‘look what you’ve done’ look. “Maria.”

“Michael,” she said, echoing his tone.

Liz shook her head as she began laughing again. Both of them turned to look at her. “Oh, you should hear what you guys sound like,” Liz explained.

Maria turned to look at Michael, only to see that he’d stolen one of her squid rings while she hadn’t been watching.

“Hey!” she exclaimed. “Didn’t I warn you not to touch my squid rings?”

“Squid rings?” he said, making a face. “No wonder it didn’t taste like onion. What is with you people and squid?”

Maria shrugged. “We live on the coast.” Michael frowned. “And don’t say you didn’t like it, because you obviously did. Until you found out it was squid of course.”

“Of course,” Liz echoed. “I think Michael hates the idea of seafood more than he actually hates the food.”

“And more so I hate the idea of my sister always ganging up on me,” Michael said, giving Liz a meaningful look which Maria assumed was to make her shut up. Of course all it did was send Liz off into another bout of laughter. Maria honestly didn’t see why they amused Liz so much.

“I think this is your influence,” Michael said, smirking at her. Maria had to admit that when he smirked he looked so very gorgeous.

“My influence?” she asked, indignant. “How is this possibly my influence? If anything it’s probably being around you all her life.”

“Me? What’s so bad about me?”

“Well what’s so bad about me? You said it like I was trying to corrupt your poor innocent sister. In fact it’s probably the other way around. You two are corrupting me of my simple, free from nonsense life.”

“Nonsense meaning every person you came in contact with?”

She shoved him. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Nothing. What do you think it meant?”

She narrowed her eyes. “Oh you think you’re so special don’t you, able to-“

“Shut up!”

Both Maria and Michael turned to look at Liz, surprised by her sudden outburst.

“Look, as much as you guys seem to enjoy this whole arguing thing you have going most people in this world appreciate dining in peace.”

Maria rolled her eyes. Who needed peace? She sighed. “Okay then. What is a peaceful topic?”

“Uh,” Liz said, taking a huge bite out of her food so she could stall answering. “Well, what are you doing this weekend?”

Maria raised her eyebrows. That was certainly an exciting topic. “I don’t know. Mum’s away, again, so I guess I’ll just be home alone.” Nothing new there.

Liz frowned for a moment before an excited look crossed her face. “I know! Why don’t you stay with us for the weekend?”

Maria could barely stop her mouth from falling open in shock. Wow. When was the last time someone actually wanted her to spend a long period of time at their house? It would have been at least ten years.

“Yes,” Liz said, her eyes pleading. “Come on Michael, we both want her to, don’t we? It’ll be fun.”

She flicked her eyes in Michael’s directions, noticing that he looked just as shocked as her.

“Michael?” Liz pressed.

“Uh, yeah, of course.”

“Come on,” Liz pleaded. “You know you want to. What else is there to do at home by yourself?”

Maria sighed. Liz was right. And the idea of actually doing something like that, something normal, something good friends did…

Something that she’d missed out on all these years…

“Sure.”

Liz squealed. “Great!”

Maria stood looking out the bay windows in the living room that spanned across almost the entire beachfront side of the Guerin’s house that Saturday, watching the sea wash lightly against the beach in front of their beautifully manicured garden. Despite the times she had now been in their house it never seized to amaze her how huge it was compared to the simple little house she shared with her mother with its small section and no garden whatsoever. Not that she was complaining about it or anything. In all truth she preferred the way that their deck opened right onto the sand of the beach instead of a front garden separating it from the sand, as all the majestic houses down this end of the beach did. But despite her love of her own house and knowing she’d rather live there than in this house she still always felt out of place in this huge house. Like she didn’t belong.

She could hear Liz moving around in the open kitchen muttering about how it would be great if parents would actually arrive home when they said they would instead of leaving them to fend for themselves basically every night. Liz had told her that she didn’t mind her mother’s sudden absence in her life because it gave her the chance to be independent, but Maria could tell that it was upsetting Liz a bit. From what Maria could tell Liz and her mother had had quite a close relationship and losing both her mother and moving to a completely new place had unsettled her. Of course, Liz said she complained only because she hated cooking because she didn’t know how to, but Maria knew it wasn’t just that. Besides she’d tasted some of Liz’s cooking and it was actually pretty good.

“Watching the ocean again?” she heard Michael ask. Turning around she spotted him sprawled out on the couch, the smirk on his face barely concealing his slightly concerned look.

“Yeah,” she murmured, turning back to glance through the windows at it, noticing a girl of about seven rushing out of the house next door to go play in the shallow water, not worrying that it was splashing onto her rolled up jeans. She sighed wistfully. She couldn’t even imagine what it would be like to be young and carefree again.

“What is your endless fascination with it? I mean, I love the ocean but…”

She turned back around to look at him. “Endless?”

“Well I don’t know how many times I’ve stumbled across you on that beach around the point from your house…”

She walked over to the couch, leaning over so she was towering above where he was lying on the couch. “Well, I don’t know how many times I’ve seen you on that beach for no reason besides the fact that you were ‘just out walking again’ so I think you must have a fascination with it too.” She grinned at him, knowing he had no good reply to that.

“Well…” he started.

“Well what?” She smirked at him, shoving his feet out of the way so that she could sit down on the couch next to him.

“Maria!” he complained. “There’s two other couches!”

She just shrugged, leaning back against the armrest and pulling her legs up to her body. Turning her head to the kitchen she saw Liz giving them an exasperated look.

“Can’t you guys ever get along?”

“There’s two other couches,” Michael protested.

“You said that already,” she pointed out.

“Oh come on,” Liz said, walking over to them and flopping down on one of the free couches. “I was hoping this would be fun. I didn’t sign up to try and stop you two from killing each other all weekend.”

“Hey!” They both said it at once.

“You’re acting like two year olds.”

Maria rolled her eyes. “Fine. But I really don’t know what I did. All I did was sit next to Michael on a couch – which is supposed to seat three people by the way – so did I really do anything so bad?”

***

“Who wants to come with me to the Coastside Café’s annual party next weekend?” Liz asked as she relaxed in the armchair in Michael’s room later that night. The other two were sprawled out on Michael’s double bed with Michael leaning against the wall behind and Maria lying across the bottom of the bed near his feet. Thankfully they had gotten over their argument over the couch. She really didn’t understand why they looked like they were enjoying themselves so much when they argued.

Maria rolled her eyes. “Not particularly.”

Liz raised her eyebrows. “You’re not going to go?”

Maria bit her lip. “Well… yeah. But I’m only going because I work at the café,” she quickly added.

“Sure,” Liz said sarcastically, not believing her friend and wondering why she would try to make out that she didn’t want to go.

“You don’t believe me?” Maria asked, indignant.

“Nope,” she replied, grinning at her friend.

Maria pouted, turning to look at Michael. “Do you?”

He shook his head. “I know for a fact that you’ve been to parties in this town before.”

Maria rolled her eyes in defeat. “Okay, so maybe I like parties, but that doesn’t mean I like the people at them.”

“I don’t doubt that,” Michael replied, sharing a look with Liz. She had a feeling that the annual party was the only time Maria allowed herself to be out in public with the other teenagers of Roswell Bay, except for when she was working at the café.

“Okay,“ Maria said, obviously trying to change the subject. “I heard someone mention something about rented movies and I thought that’s why we moved into this room so…”

Liz nodded, moving to turn the movie on. They watched a couple before Liz noticed that Maria hadn’t commented on what was happening in the movie for a while. Turning her head towards Michael’s bed she noticed that both of them had fallen asleep. Getting up from the armchair quietly Liz turned the TV off and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

***

Maria woke up the next morning to find herself lying on a strange bed. Moving her head slightly she discovered that it was in fact Michael’s double bed and that she was only inches away from him. She was surprised to see that his eyes were focused intently on her.

“Hey,” she murmured sleepily.

“Hey,” he replied softly, smiling at her.

“So, uh,” she began as she stared back at him, trying to fill the silence. She broke off when she saw Michael’s face nearing her own.

Almost as if of its own accord her head tilted slightly, eyes half closing as she watched Michael’s lips getting closer and closer to hers. Her heart beat faster in anticipation.

“Hey guys!” The sound of the door creaking open and Liz’s cheery voice brought her back to reality. She rolled away from Michael and sat up, trying to ignore the warmth she felt creeping onto her cheeks. She rubbed her eyes sleepily, noticing that Liz’s gaze kept flicking between her and Michael.

“Sorry,” Liz said, biting her lip. “But I figured I better wake you up so that our parents don’t find out you slept in the same bed.”

“ On the same bed,” Maria clarified.

“Good idea,” Michael grunted.

Liz grinned. “I thought so.”

Maria just smiled weakly, suddenly aware of Michael’s close proximity to her. Running a hand through her sleep-tousled hair she asked, “Can I have a shower?” Anything to get away from Michael and whatever may have almost happened.

Liz nodded. “Sure.”

***

Michael watched as Maria and Liz left his bedroom in search of towels and other showering items. He smiled, stretching his arms behind his head.

He had to admit he’d enjoyed waking up next to Maria, her body pressed close to his. He couldn’t believe she even looked good first thing in the morning, but her hair, tousled from sleep, made her look even more gorgeous than usual.

One thing was certain. He’d fallen for her. Hard.

He wondered what would have happened if Liz hadn’t had interrupted them. He could see that she had wanted him to kiss her. At least now he had proof that she wanted him too, something he hadn’t been completely sure of until now.

“Sleep well?” Liz asked, reappearing in his doorway smiling.

He rolled his eyes, not liking the knowing look he could see in his sister’s eyes.

“So, I think Maria enjoyed staying the night here, don’t you?”

“Liz,” he said, a warning tone in his voice.

“What, you don’t think I’m stupid do you? Anyone can tell what you feel for her.”

“Yeah, friendship,” he replied, lying.

“So are you trying to tell me that nothing happened?”

“We slept, end of story. What did you want to happen?”

“Well you did seem awfully cosy when I entered the room only a few minutes ago. I saw her roll away from you.”

He sighed. “She’d just woken up, as had I. She was probably shocked to find that we were sleeping on the same bed. Ask her and I’m sure she’ll tell you the same.”

Liz frowned. “Fine,” she said, leaving the room.

He groaned, flopping back on the bed. His sister really was too nosy for his own good. And all these questions, when he didn’t know what was going on between him and Maria, especially when she looked like she was waiting to kiss him before Liz interrupted, weren’t helping matters.

And neither was the fact that at this very moment Maria Deluca was standing naked under a stream of water only a few metres away.

She was pacing back and forth along the beach around the point, desperately hoping that Michael wasn’t about to turn up here as he had so many other times since he’d arrived. She didn’t know what to do about him right now.

What had she been thinking that morning? She had almost let him kiss her. Thank god Liz had interupted when she did. She didn’t know what she might have done otherwise.

It had only almost happened because she was half asleep. That was all. The reason she had felt strange was because she had only just woken up and he was right there. Nothing more. When was the last time she had woken up to discover someone right next to her? It wasn’t as if she had actually wanted him to kiss her. She’d been half asleep, she hadn’t been thinking clearly, and she was sure he would have felt the same way.

She flopped onto the soft sand with a groan, running her hands through her hair. She hoped this wasn’t about to make things awkward between them. She hadn’t really known what to say to him this morning, but she supposed it was just because the shock of what she had almost let happen was still there. She wasn’t going to let something like this wreck the great friendship she had with Michael. She felt like she could trust him, and she wasn’t about to wreck that just because she had acted like an idiot when she was half asleep.

***

Maria walked along the pier in front of the Coastside Café with Michael and Liz on Saturday night. This week had been fine and she was relieved to see that the events of Sunday morning hadn’t made things awkward between her and Michael. She would have hated to lose Michael over something as trivial as that.

Loud music could be heard spilling out of the café and teenagers had crowded together all along the pier and beach. The party allowed the teenagers of Roswell Bay to have a party on the beach without annoying others or getting arrested in the process. Of course, anyone caught drinking did have a chance of getting arrested and Maria knew of people who had gotten caught in the previous years, but the owners and manger of the café tried to control the party and provided free non-alcoholic drinks to prevent that from happening.

The light breeze caught her skirt, ruffling it slightly as they walked. This party was really the only occasion when she dressed in anything but her usual outfit of cut-offs and a singlet top as she figured that once a year she might as well wear something different from what she usually did. But, by the looks she was getting, her knee length red skirt with its uneven length and her silky orange top with spagetti straps were getting as much attention, if not more, than her normal outfits did.

She heard a shouted ‘Maria!’ and all of a sudden Tess was rushing towards her and pulling her into a hug. “You look terrific!”

“So do you,” Maria replied sincerely as she took in her friends outfit. Although she was only wearing a pink top similar to Maria’s and a faded denim skirt Tess looked amazing. Her long curly blonde hair and radiant smile caused lots of male heads to turn her way in appreciation.

“You have to dance with me,” Tess said, grabbing her arm and pulling her in the direction of the café’s open front doors – the café itself was set up as a bar and a dance floor while couples and groups of people who didn’t want to dance were able to hang out outside. “It’s the one party of the year you actually show up to so I’m going to make sure you enjoy yourself!”

Maria laughed, letting herself be pulled along.

The music was even louder as they entered the café. Liz had followed them and she could hear her friend’s surprise as she saw the interior of the café. The lights had been dimmed and with all the tables having been cleared out of the way it looked more like a club than just a small town café.

They pushed their way to the centre of the crowd, moving their bodies in time to the music pulsating out of the speakers. Maria raised her hands above her head as she moved her body to the beat of the music. She loved dancing like this, it felt so freeing. It was a feeling similar to that she felt on her cliff, but instead it was as if she was free to do whatever she wanted as she let her body be moved by her love of the music.

She hoped Michael was enjoying himself. She didn’t really think he was the kind of person who liked to dance, but he’d wanted to come and surely he didn’t expect her to spend her whole night with him did he? Besides, it wasn’t as if she had excluded him, if he had wanted to he could have joined them, so it wasn’t as if she had dissed him or anything.

She grinned at Tess as she noticed Liz being pulled away from them by a guy with sandy blonde hair. “He’s hot,” Tess yelled to her over the music. Maria nodded in agreement, pausing her dancing as the song ended only to continue as a new song came on.

***

After the three girls had left him Michael had talked for a bit to a few of the guys he knew from school who were standing on the pier drinking non-alcoholic beer. One of them had told him quietly that a friend of theirs was bringing actual beer later but they were settling for this at the moment seeing they still had the rest of the night to get drunk, to which Michael had merely nodded.

But after a while he had gotten sick of talking to them seeing as he really didn’t know them, so he had made his way around to see what was happening at this party before ending up where he was now, in the shadows of the café watching Maria dance with Tess through the crowd.

He was pretty sure she couldn’t see him watching her, after all she seemed so absorbed in her dancing and there were quite a few people between him and Maria, although he did have a pretty good view of her through the gaps. An extremely good view, he thought to himself, swallowing hard as he watched Maria sway her hips in time to the beat as she moved her body to the music.

“Hey Michael.”

He turned to see that Isabel had appeared next to him, entirely too made up and wearing an extremely low cut black top. “Hey.”

She smiled as she twirled a piece of hair around her finger. “Enjoying yourself?” she asked, loud enough to be heard over the music.

He nodded his head. “Yeah.”

“Well,” she said, moving closer. “I’m sure you’ll enjoy yourself even more if you moved out of the shadows and into the dance floor. Or,” she added, licking her lips, “If dancing’s not your thing I’m sure there are many other more enjoyable things you could do.”

“Actually I’m-“

She placed a finger to his lips as she pressed herself against his front and he cursed the fact that she could feel his reaction to Maria’s sensual dancing.

She smiled up at him as she ground her lower body into his. “Well,” she said, licking her lips.

He pushed her away from him and he could feel her eyes burning into his back as he left the café.

***

Michael sighed in frustration. This night was not going well. As if the Isabel incident wasn’t bad enough he had accidently stumbled across Courtney and her boyfriend together. And, to his complete surprise, she had even told him that she would come find him after she had finished if she wanted. To which her boyfriend hadn’t even batted an eye. Michael really couldn’t understand that logic. If he had a girlfriend he certainly wouldn’t want Maria to be offering to hook up with other guys. What was the point of a relationship if you were going to do that?

He weaved his way through the marina. The piers seemed to be basically empty except for couples who had used them as a private place to escape to. The music was still quite loud out here though and as he made his way to the end of what he thought was a deserted pier he noticed a girl was standing at the end, alone, her body swaying to the music.

His breath caught in his throat as he neared her, watching as her long hair shimmered in the moonlight. Maria.

“What are you doing here?” he asked when he was only a metre away from her.

She turned around, surprise evident on her face even though she was barely visible in the moonlight. “Michael. You startled me.”

“I gathered,” he replied. “What are you doing out here all by yourself?”

“I could ask the same thing of you,” she replied.

He nodded, sitting down at the edge of the pier and dangling his legs over the edge above the rippling water. It was so calm tonight. “Just looking around. I’ve never been out on the marina at night.”

She sat down next to him. “Well, I was dancing with Tess,” she explained. “But she suddenly disappeared while I wasn’t looking and I couldn’t find anyone else. To think of it I haven’t seen Liz for a while either. Besides the whole thing’s just a bunch of teenagers getting trashed or hooking up or both.”

“You don’t approve of either?” he asked, looking at her.

“I don’t know,” Maria replied, her gaze focused solely on her hands. “I’m not a huge fan of drinking and…” she paused. “I don’t know.”

She didn’t know. What was that supposed to mean? She really was so hard to read most of the time. A week ago, that morning, it was obvious that she wanted him to kiss her, yet all week it was hard to tell if she even remembered what had happened.

And now… Now she had turned her head to meet his gaze and her eyes were staring into his. He watched as she nervously bit her lip.

“Maria?” he asked softly.

“Yes?” she asked, equally softly.

He was going to kiss her. He was going to catch her soft, full lips in his and kiss her like he had been dreaming of doing ever since he had first met her. He was going to run his hands through her silky blonde hair and over her shoulders and her back and he was going to cup her face in his hands and…

His heart was beating uncontrollably. She was just staring at him, waiting. Taking a deep breath he shifted slightly, leaning towards her…

He cursed as he heard footsteps thudding along the pier. Turning he saw a guy running towards them. He stopped when he noticed them.

“Oh, hey, sorry,” the guy called out to them. “I must have turned the wrong way, I thought this led back to the café.” He turned to go but then stopped and turned back to them. “Hey, did you hear the news? Max caught Tess making out with Kyle Valenti. Can you believe it?”

Michael heard Maria gasp and then there was a sudden flurry of movement beside him. And then suddenly Maria was standing up and running down the pier away from him.

He stood up, glaring at the guy who had interupted him and Maria. Why was it always when he was about to kiss her that they were interupted but never at any other time.

The guy raised his hands in surrender. “Uh, I’m really sorry dude,” he said, before turning and disappearing in the direction Maria had run.

Tess sighed as she buried her head into her pillow the next morning. “I can’t believe he found out like that,” she moaned.

“I know,” she heard Maria say soothingly as she stroked her back comfortingly. “But you knew he would find out eventually.”

She sighed, sitting up and turning to look at her friend. “I know,” she said. “But just not like that. I never wanted it to be like that. I never wanted him to actually catch me with Kyle.”

Maria just nodded and Tess knew that she was probably thinking that her making out with Kyle at a party she knew Max was at was an incredibly stupid thing to do. Well, no arguments there, Tess certainly knew it was a stupid thing to do now. She was grateful that at least Maria was choosing not to voice her thoughts.

“I was actually planning on telling him,” she continued, needing a place to vent her thoughts. She knew that if she kept them bottled up it would be worse and Maria seemed to accept that. She had been great at comforting her both tonight and now this morning. Tess had to admit she was surprised to see Maria show up this morning to see if she was okay, she had thought she had probably annoyed Maria to no end the night before.

“I know Tess, I know.”

“I’ve screwed up everything,” she moaned. “Max will hate me forever, as will Isabel too I’m sure, for screwing over her wonderful brother.”

“No great loss there,” Maria interjected.

Tess laughed, realising it was the first real smile she’d had since Max had caught her with Kyle the night before. “True, I guess. And Kyle… who knows what he’s thinking. I ran away from both him and Max as soon as it happened. Knowing my luck he’s probably now wanting to break up with me too.” She sighed. “And I love him! I know I do. What I felt for Max is nothing compared to what I feel for Kyle, and now I’ve probably screwed it all up too just because I was too scared of hurting Max. I should have listened to you in the first place. I should have told him straight away! Well, maybe not that I was cheating on him, but I should have broken up with him so I was free to be with Kyle. But no, instead I was too scared of hurting him. God, I bet he’s hurting far more now that he ever would have if I’d just broken up with him.” She sighed. “Maria, why didn’t I listen to you? You were right. Cheating is bad. Wrong. It always ends horribly.”

Maria nodded in agreement as she pulled her closer in a hug. “Yeah, it does."

***

She sat on her cliff later on Sunday watching the sea. She felt sorry for Tess and what had happened. Sure, it was Tess’s own fault that she was cheating on Kyle, but Maria knew that she had never wanted Max to find out like that. She knew that she was putting off breaking up with Max because she was scared of hurting him.

But cheating would always hurt the person involved. The deception, the lies, the suspicions… someone would always end up being hurt.

”You say I should believe you, that I should trust you! Well then, tell me the truth and maybe I will. Are you cheating on me?”

“Amy-“

“Are you?”

“I’m not having this conversation with you.”

“Like hell you aren’t. Tell me the truth, are you cheating on me or not? You say I should trust you, that you’re at work. You claim that I should believe you. Then tell me, are you cheating on me or not Brian?”

“I’m going to bed. There’s no point having a conversation when you’re as emotional as you are now and won’t listen to reason.”

She shook the memory out of her head, wrapping her arms tightly around her body, almost as a reflex.

She firmly believed that a relationship should be based on trust. Tess had lost both Max’s trust and her relationship with him, and she hoped, for her friend’s sake, that Tess hadn’t also lost Kyle’s trust.

She bit her lip as she stared out at the sea. She trusted Tess, she knew that. But she was also surprised to realise that she trusted Michael and Liz, who she’d barely known for a few months, so much.

***

Tess was sitting with Maria, Liz and Michael at lunch on Wednesday, as she had the past two days, ever since Max had found out. To her relief Kyle was talking to her and seemed to still want a relationship with her, despite everything, although he did tell her that it probably would be a good idea to take things slow considering. But still she didn’t really want to go and sit with Kyle and his friends quite yet, despite the fact that Kyle wanted her to, and she knew that it would certainly be a bad idea to join Max and his group of friends, even though many of them were her friends too.

“You know,” Liz said, a smile on her face. “Dave is pretty hot.”

“Yeah,” Tess said, agreeing with her new friend. She was glad someone’s Saturday night had gone well. She had a feeling that Maria’s wasn’t too great either because she had spent the end of it making sure Tess was okay, which she was feeling guilty about even though it was Maria who had come looking for her and not the other way around.

“But I don’t know if I want a relationship or anything like that. I mean, Dave’s great and fun and all that but I don’t want one just for the sake of having one you know?”

“Who needs a relationship anyway?” Maria asked. “They cause too many problems.”

Tess nodded in agreement. Right now, after what had happened with Max, she was agreeing with Maria’s relationship logic for once.

“I mean, of course, I don’t know if he actually wants a relationship, but he did ask me yesterday if I wanted to do something with him sometime.”

“Really?” Tess asked.

“Yeah, I was quite surprised actually, he-“ Tess tuned out as she noticed out of the corner of her eye that Michael was trailing a hand down Maria’s leg, watching her for a reaction. Flicking her gaze to look at Maria she noticed that she was looking slightly flustered but was determined not to show it. However Tess was certain that the goosebumps all over her skin weren’t from the cold. She hid a grin. It was obvious that whatever was going on between Michael and Maria was going to surface soon whether Maria wanted it to or not.

“So what do you think I should do?” Liz was asking.

Tess flicked her eyes back to her friend, feeling guilty that she hadn’t been listening. “Oh, I don’t know. Just do whatever feels right to you.”

***

Michael turned to Maria as they sat next to each other in silence watching the sun set over their little private beach. “It’s amazing how you can be so loud at times and yet at other times so quiet,” he told her. “Like now.”

Maria shrugged. “Just the way things are I guess.”

He nodded slowly. “Why do you hate them?”

She shrugged. “They’re bitches.”

He shook his head. “Not just them. Everyone. And there’s something more…”

“Michael,” she said, biting her lip as she shook her head slightly.

“Maria,” he replied, pressing her.

“It’s nothing okay,” she told him, suddenly defensive. She pulled her knees up to her chin as she glared out at the water. “Nothing at all.”

He nodded silently, deciding to let it go. It was obviously something more but he knew that pressuring her to try and find out why wasn’t going to work.

“So have you lived here your whole life,” Michael asked Maria as they sat on the wooden railing surrounding her front deck on Thursday afternoon, sipping hot chocolate.

“Roswell Bay – yeah,” she replied. “Not in this house.”

“Really?” he asked, surprised. He’d thought that she’d lived in this house her whole life. Although when he thought about it it was obvious that she hadn’t. After all, who would give their baby the master bedroom?

“We used to live in a house up on the hill until-“ She stopped.

“Until he left?” he asked softly.

She nodded her head, biting her lip.

“Do you remember much?”

He heard her draw in a breath. “Some things. I can remember my bedroom and the living room and most rooms of the house. And I remember there was a tree right outside my bedroom window that I used to play in.” She stopped there, pressing her lips together tightly, looking like she was lost in thought. But, by the looks of things, they weren’t good thoughts.

They sat there in silence. It was strange, really, how much time they spent together just sitting in comfortable silence, often looking out at the ocean. They talked about many different things as well, but when the conversation ended instead of the need to start talking about something else they both enjoyed the silence. He guessed it was probably to do with the fact that she was used to being alone and therefore the silence didn’t bother her, just like it didn’t bother him either most of the time because he wasn’t a great talker either. He knew that if it was Liz she probably wouldn’t just want to sit with someone in silence, but despite the fact that she could be really loud it was obvious that Maria liked the silence too.

Maria nudged his foot lightly before wrapping her leg around his. Michael’s breath caught in his throat at the action and he wondered if she realised what she was doing to him.

Then she leant against him, resting her head on his shoulder. “I’m so sick of this place,” she murmured softly. “I mean,” she clarified, “not this house, but this whole place. Roswell Bay. I’m just so sick of it all.”

***

“Exciting way to spend a Friday night, huh?” Maria asked Michael as she loaded the dishes into the dishwasher.

He grabbed her wrists. “Hey, it’s parent free and that’s always a good thing.”

She shrugged. Probably if your parents were normally around it would be, but she’d never had parents around so how would she know. “Are you gonna let me go?”

He looked down at where her hands were grasped in his, shrugging. “I don’t know. I was trying to stop you from doing the washing but actually it’s kinda good having you unable to move.”

She narrowed her eyes at him. “What is that supposed to mean?”

He smirked. “Nothing.”

She rolled her eyes in exasperation, lowering her hands a bit while still in his grip, so she could place the dishes on the counter. She growled in exasperation when he didn’t let her go. “Well?”

“Well, as I said, it’s good having you unable to move.” He grinned at her.

She glared back. “Really?” Then, before he knew what was happening, she raised her knee so that it was dangerously close to his groin. She smiled as she let go of her hands in shock and she quickly pulled away, dancing across the kitchen away from him.

“Hey,” he said, annoyed. “You don’t do that.”

“Don’t do what?” she asked innocently.

“Act as if you’re going to harm a guy’s most prized possession.”

“Most prized possession huh?” she asked, raising her eyebrows. “Humph. What is with guys and their…” she trailed off.

“Well-“

“Don’t answer that,” she said, ducking away from him as he went to grab her, knowing that he wanted revenge. “Besides, back to the earlier conversation, going out somewhere would mean you would be parent-free too you know.”

He shrugged. “Well I don’t particularly want to join Liz on her date with Dave.”

She groaned, dodging him again. “I didn’t mean go out with your sister. How about someone else?”

“Maybe I don’t want to.”

“Maybe,” she replied, dancing away from him again.

“Maybe I want to spend time with you.”

“May- what?” She stopped moving, surprised by his answer. Of course he’d said things like that to her before but she wasn’t expecting him to right now. It caught her off guard. Of course there wasn’t any reason for it to. Not at all.

He nodded, quickly grabbing her in his arms. She struggled against him, dreading his punishment for her almost attacking his ‘most prized possession’.

“Let me go!”

“Why?” he asked, smirking.

“Because!”

“Good argument there,” he replied.

His eyes darkened slightly and her breath caught in her throat as he pulled her even closer to him, his head bending towards hers. There was no mistaking his intention, as much as she had tried to write the other two times off as nothing.

Her eyes closed of their own violation and her body pressed itself against his. She could feel his breath on her lips now. Breath. Breath.

His lips touched hers in a very gentle touch.

“No,” she said, pulling away.

“Maria?” he asked softly, caressing her cheek.

“No,” she repeated, blinking furiously.

He stared at her, confused. “Mari-“

“No,” she whispered, pulling herself out of his arms and moving backwards. Shaking her head she turned around and began to run. She heard the thud of the door behind her as she slammed it shut as she left his house.

Her bare feet thumped against the sand as she ran down the long beach, past her house, round the point, across their beach and then round the corner and up the beaten track that led to her cliff.

She collapsed on the ground against her rock there and she pulled her legs tight to her chest, wrapping her arms around them, fists clenched tightly shut.

She couldn’t ignore it any more. Try as she might she couldn’t ignore the blindingly obvious fact anymore. Her feelings, her thoughts, everything he said to her…

She had fallen in love with him.

She shook her head desperately. How could it be possible? Why did he occupy her thoughts the way he did? Why did she dream about him? Why did she want to touch him, want to kiss him, more than anything?

How could she have possibly fallen in love with him?

She couldn’t have. She’d vowed that she never would.

But there was no other explanation for her feelings. No other explanation for the fact that only minutes before she had wanted him to kiss her. Desperately. More than anything.

It was that realisation that had sent her running.

The sea below was churning, getting more violent and ferocious as the seconds past. The wind was picking up and what was that afternoon only a gentle breeze was now becoming a fierce wind, whipping at her body as she sat alone at the top of her cliff. It was obvious a storm was coming.

She should move. She should run home, run for shelter away from the angry wind battering her body. She loved storms, loved standing on the beach and being a part of them, but she knew that she shouldn’t be up on the cliff during one. Especially a sudden one like this that had suddenly come on without warning.

She shivered involuntarily. The weather was taunting her. Proving that she couldn’t withstand the cold.

That she couldn’t withstand falling in love.

***

”How could you do this? To Maria? To me?”

“I never meant to hurt Maria-“

“You have.”

“I’m sorry. But that fact is that I don’t love you anymore.”

Her mother’s sobs echoed through the house. She couldn’t bare it anymore. Opening her window she climbed out onto the tree branch outside the window. But even sitting outside on her tree didn’t hide her ears from her mother’s desperate sobs. She never knew that two simple words could have such a huge effect.

‘It’s over.’

She leant against the trunk, her arms wrapped around her legs as the wind buffeted the tree. The wind was strong tonight but despite the cool air she wasn’t really all too cold. She’d spent so long out here at night that she’d finally willed herself to become immune to it.

She squeezed her eyes shut, trying to will away her mother’s loud sobs.

“I’m never going to fall in love,” she whispered to herself. A promise.

“I’m never going to fall in love.”

Liz awoke on Saturday morning to find the house completely empty. Pouring cereal into a bowl she decided that Michael had probably gone over to Maria’s, but it was strange that her mother wasn’t there. When she had first started dating Sean, and after all of the other dates she had ever been on, her mother had always wanted to hear about them. Not all the details of course, but the basic things, like where they had gone. This sudden absence of interest was unsettling.

It was as if by moving to Roswell Bay she’d lost everyone she cared about, except for Michael.

As soon as she thought it she shrugged it off. She was being stupid. It wasn’t as if her mother didn’t care anymore, she was just busy. And Liz was seventeen years old, her mother probably thought that she could take care of herself and therefore had decided not to take a personal interest in every little thing that happened in her daughter’s life. That wasn’t strange at all.

No. She was just being stupid. She still hadn’t entirely adjusted to the move and these feelings were probably just caused by that.

Not that she didn’t like living in Roswell Bay, she did. Maria was a great friend and the place wasn’t all too different from their old town, despite the fact that it was located on the coast. It was just having to leave all her friends, some that she had known basically her whole entire life. And Sean…

Which led her to what she was going to do about Dave. She was over Sean though. They had broken up when she’d found out that she was moving, knowing that a long distance relationship probably wouldn’t work. But still, she wasn’t entirely sure if she wanted another serious relationship right yet.

Finishing off her cereal and rising her bowl she decided she didn’t need to make this decision yet. Dave was fun, and who knew if he even wanted a relationship. Maybe he just wanted the same thing as she did.

Pushing the thoughts aside she headed towards the bathroom to take a shower before going to see Maria.

***

“Hey.”

Maria looked up from her position on the deck railing where she sat eating her toast, noticing Liz walking down the beach towards her. She waved at Liz as she walked closer to her. “Hi.”

“So Michael’s not here?” Liz asked. Maria gave her a confused look as she shook her head. “He disappeared a while ago so I figured he would be here,” Liz explained.

“He’s not.” She paused. “I think he’s ignoring me.”

Liz frowned, sitting down next to her. “Why?” she asked, looking concerned.

Maria rolled her eyes. “Because I acted like an idiot.”

Liz shook her head. “I seriously doubt that. What happened?”

She laughed slightly. “Nothing.” That was the problem.

Liz’s brow furrowed. “I’m not following.”
“Don’t worry about it. It’s nothing. I just did something to upset him, something stupid, but it’s okay.” She nodded reassuringly when Liz gave her a skeptical look.

It wasn’t really okay, but she really didn’t want to get into it all with Liz. In truth she was actually glad that Michael was ignoring her, as she was certain he was seeing as he hadn’t come to her place this morning as usual, because she really didn’t want to see him right now either. She was too embarrassed about what had happened the day before.

How could she have just run away like that? What must he be thinking of her right now? What girl lets a guy kiss them, acts like she wants him to kiss her, and then pushes him away as soon as he does?

Noticing that Liz was still looking at her curiously she quickly decided to change the subject away from her.

“So, how was your date with Dave?”

***

“Where were you today?”

Michael looked up from the book he was reading at the sound of Liz’s voice. “What?” he asked, confused.

“Where were you today?” she repeated.

That’s what he thought she’d said. He shrugged. “Around.”

“Well why didn’t you go to Maria’s?” his sister continued, placing her hands on her hips as she eyed him curiously.

He didn’t answer, instead turning to focus his gaze out the window towards the sea. He was definitely not going to get into this with her.

He heard her sigh in frustration as she moved closer but he ignored her, continuing to watch the sea as it frothed against the sand.

“You know, she told me that she acted like an idiot,” Liz said softly.

He tried to control his emotions before turning to look at his sister. “What?” he asked expressionlessly.

She rolled her eyes exasperatedly, giving him an annoyed look. One that he was certain she had picked up from him. “Could you have said that with any less enthusiasm? I think you know what I’m talking about.”

Had Maria actually told her? Great. Just what he needed. Liz knowing all about what had happened, or, to be more exact, not happened, between him and Maria. And he had thought that her gleeful knowledge about the fact that he liked Maria was annoying.

Liz sighed loudly, bringing him out of his thoughts. “What is with you people? Maria tells me she acted like an idiot but refuses to elaborate, and now you pretend that you don’t know what I’m talking about.”

He exhaled sharply with relief. Maria hadn’t told her. Thank god.

“Okay, so maybe I do know what you’re talking about,” he conceded. “So she told you that she thought she acted like an idiot?”

“Yes.” She nodded. “Didn’t I say that already? Twice?”

“I guess,” he replied, not really paying attention.

So Maria thought she had acted like an idiot. Then maybe that meant that she actually had wanted him to kiss her.

Or then again, maybe she thought she was idiot for letting him get as close to her as she did.

***

Lunch had begun only moments before but the hallways were deserted when Michael left the toilets. Well, almost deserted, he amended when he noticed Isabel sauntering over to him.

“Hey,” she said slowly, her lips curving into a smile. “I haven’t really seen you around since the party. You been busy?”

“Not really,” he said, trying to brush her off.

She shrugged. “Oh okay. Well anyway,” she said, moving closer. “You don’t seem to be good at detecting subtlety so I thought I’d just come out and ask.” She smiled again. “Do you want to do something together sometime?”

“Uh-“

She placed a finger over his lips. “What’s the harm? I mean, I’m single,” she trailed her finger from his mouth over his cheek, leaning in close to whisper in his ear. “And, may I point out, you’re single too.” She ran a hand down his body, her lips lingering near his face.

He was about to push Isabel away and tell her that he wasn’t interested when a gasp reached his ears. He turned to see Maria standing opposite, glaring at him, pain evident in her eyes. He vaguely heard Isabel mutter, “I’ll see you later,” and walk away as he made his way over to Maria.

She backed away from him as he neared her. “You should have told me all along you wanted someone popular”, she said angrily, turning and walking away from him into an empty classroom.

Michael followed her in confusion. He didn’t like Isabel and she knew that. And besides, why did she care? Over the weekend he had come to the conclusion that she didn’t like him. At first Liz’s comment had given him hope, but Maria had avoided him all Sunday so it was obvious that his second conclusion was right, that she thought she was an idiot for letting him get close enough to kiss her.

“She came on to me,” he said, defending himself. “I didn’t do anything.”

***

She didn’t answer, just folded her arms as she glared at him. She was determined to keep in the emotions she felt boiling just below the surface.

“And besides,” he continued. “You don’t want me anyway! So now I’m not allowed to be with anyone?”

“Not her,” she replied, pursing her lips.

“Not anyone you mean.”

She didn’t answer, just looked down at her hands. What could she say? He was right. She had acted like she didn’t want him, and now, when another girl did, it seemed as if she had decided he wasn’t allowed to be with her either. But geez, this wasn’t any other girl. This was Isabel. Isabel, the girl who had…

But dammit, she loved him. Despite herself, she loved him. And seeing Isabel all over him, it hurt. More deeply than she had ever imagined.

He grabbed her chin roughly, forcing her to look at him. “Why Maria? Why do you care who I’m with? Why do you act the way you do and then push me away? Why should it matter to you if I’m with Isabel, or Courtney, or, god, any other girl in this whole entire school? Or town for that matter. Tell me Maria, why do you care?”

She shook her head wordlessly. He glared at her for a moment and she couldn’t contain herself any longer.

Her arms wrapped around his neck as she pressed her body tightly against his, her lips searching out his. She pressed her lips against his, desperately trying to convey to him why she had acted the way she had.

The kiss was slow and tender at first. Two tentative mouths searching out the others. But then it deepened, grew stronger, more passionate.

She opened her mouth to his and his tongue probed her mouth creating sensations nothing like the time Doug had shoved his tongue down her throat. Moaning into his mouth she pressed her body even tighter against his as she allowed her hands to move from where they were wrapped around his neck to explore his back. One of his hands tangled in her hair while the other cupped her cheek, drawing her even closer to him.

They pulled apart when the need to breath became a necessity and she lent against him, her hands still rubbing his back lightly. “Oh god,” she breathed out.

“Maria…”

“You look so sexy when you’re angry.” She couldn’t stop the words from coming out.

He grinned, lightly caressing her cheek.

“I’m sorry for…” she trailed off, biting her lip.

“Don’t be.” He lightly kissed her forehead before bringing his lips back down to hers. She kissed him back tenderly before placing her hands on his chest and pushing him away. He looked at her in confusion.

“Uh, maybe we should stop,” she said softly. “Being in a public place and all.”

He frowned. “Yeah…”

She bit her lip. “This afternoon?” she asked hopefully.

He smiled. “Sure.” He quickly kissed her again before they left the room.

The long walk to her house was torture. She’d sought Michael out the second the bell had rung to signal the end of school for the day and her anticipation as she walked beside him through the streets leading to her house was getting to be almost unbearable.

All through her afternoon classes she hadn’t been able to get him out of her mind. The scene kept replaying over and over in her head. Her grabbing him, him kissing her back. The feel of his lips, his hands in her hair and lightly caressing her cheek, his body tight against hers…

Oh god. She exhaled audibly, trying to calm herself down. She was going to go crazy if they didn’t get there soon.

Obviously hearing her Michael turned to look at her, an amused look on his face. “What’s wrong?”

She glared at him, turning her head to the front as she continued walking. Damn him and his knowing smirk. It figured that she would fall in love with someone like him.

Maria almost cried in relief when they arrived at her house, fumbling with her keys as she tried to unlock the door quickly. How on earth had she managed to resist him for so long? She turned to Michael, thinking that he was going to make another crack about her impatience, and was surprised when he suddenly pushed her through the door and up against the wall, his lips attacking hers desperately.

The raw passion she felt from him was unbelievable and she would have crumpled to the floor if he hadn’t wrapped his arms around her tightly, drawing her closer to him.

They both moaned as they pulled apart for air and she was startled by the intensity of his gaze. Breaking away from it she bit her lip, disentangling herself from him so she could shut the door, something both of them had forgotten in their haste. She then walked to the living room, hearing Michael’s footsteps behind her.

“Maria.”

She turned to face him but kept her eyes focused on the floor. She loved him, there was no doubt about that, but she was also worried. It was obvious that whatever was going on between them had the ability to get out of control very quickly, and she wasn’t sure if she was ready for that.

“Maria.” He was in front of her, a hand tilting her head up so that her eyes met his. “Do you want this?”

“Yes,” she replied, her voice hoarse with emotion.

He nodded, his eyes probing hers for a second. Then his hands were on her hips, gently pulling her closer. A hand moved up to slowly caress her face and her eyes fluttered closed. She could sense the movement of his head down closer to hers, and then his lips touched hers as he kissed her slowly, tenderly.

Her hands moved to his hair as she opened her mouth to him, moaning and pressing her body tighter against his as his tongue entered her mouth. One arm was still wrapped securely around her waist and when they pulled apart for air she squealed in surprise and pleasure as Michael planted light kisses all over her face.

When he pulled back she framed his face with her hands, her eyes meeting his in an intense gaze that this time she didn’t flinch from. Her heart sped up even faster as she caught sight of what looked like love shining in his eyes.

“Michael…”

***

They’d moved to her bedroom and were now collapsed on her bed, legs entangled with each other’s. His lips were kissing her neck, but not enough so there would be a mark that would demand explanations the next day, as she squirmed under him. His hands were creeping up her sides under her top, slowly so that he would pick up on any indication that she might want him to stop. He kept his hands on her sides and moving slowly over her back, not wanting to rush her or in any way scare her off. And just being able to feel her skin under his was amazing.

“Mmm,” she murmured as he lightly nipped her shoulder. She shifted her body under his, moving so that her face was right under his. He moaned his appreciation as his lips met hers again.

They pulled apart reluctantly when they heard the door open and he saw Maria freeze momentarily when her mothers voice reverberated through the house.

“Maria? Are you home?”

She turned to him, a classic ‘deer caught in headlights’ expression on her face. Without having to think about it he quickly rolled off the bed onto the floor, pressing himself tightly against the bed so he wouldn’t be seen.

He heard Maria get off the bed and clear her throat. “Amy.”

There was a sound of displeasure before her mother replied. “So you are home. Have you started dinner or do you want me to?”

“I haven’t started it.”

“So do you want me to?”

“Whatever.” Michael was shocked at the dull tone of Maria’s voice.

“Maria,” her mother said warningly. “I’m starting dinner.”

“Okay.”

He waited until he could hear Mrs Deluca moving around in the kitchen before standing up, knowing better than to ask her about what had just happened.

She turned to him, biting her lip as a guilty expression crossed her face. “Michael…”

“Its okay,” he told her softly. “I know.” He knew she wasn’t ashamed of him, she was just uncertain and didn’t want anyone to know about them just yet. At least, she didn’t want her mother to know.

She looked at him pleadingly. “But-“ she started, but seemed unable to put what she wanted to say in words.

“I should go,” he replied softly, gesturing in the direction of the kitchen.

“This doesn’t mean-“ she whispered. “I still…”

“I know.”

She bit her lip and he watched her for a moment before pulling her to him, giving her a thorough kiss before leaving.

“See you tomorrow?”

She nodded. “You bet.”

***

Maria looked at herself in the mirror after Michael had left. She ran a hand through her long, loose hair, taking in her swollen lips, which, thankfully, her mother hadn’t noticed. She ran a finger over them before trailing her hands down her body.

She stared at the mirror, her own shocked face staring back at her.

It was amazing...

Michael made her feel beautiful.

Maria tuned Liz out as she lay in the sun shining through the large windows, her thoughts focused on Michael, who, unlike his sister, wasn’t at home at that very moment. Looking at her friend talking animatedly about Dave she wondered whether she should tell her about what had happened between her and Michael. After all, Liz was her best friend and she was telling her all about what had happened with Dave, and she also was Michael’s brother, but Maria wasn’t really sure if she wanted to share it with anyone quite yet. Also it appeared that Michael hadn’t told his sister so she didn’t really want to tell Liz if Michael didn’t want her to know.

“Are you okay?” Liz’s voice broke through her thoughts. “You seem kinda preoccupied.”

Maria felt guilt wash over her as she turned to look at her friend. “I’m sorry.”

“No, it’s okay,” Liz said with a wave of her hand. “If I was you I would have stopped myself from talking ages ago. Besides, it was good to get my feelings out in the open.”

“And you decided?”

Liz sighed. “I don’t know. I mean, I like him, but…”

“You don’t know if you really like him in that way,” Maria finished for her.

“Yeah.” She sighed, and Maria was relieved that at least she was certain about her feelings for Michael. “So what were you thinking about?”

Maria was startled. For some reason she hadn’t seen that coming. What was she supposed to say?

“Well?” Liz pressed.

“Uh, nothing really,” she replied, her words far from the truth.

Liz raised her eyebrows, obviously not believing her, but didn’t press the subject, realising that she didn’t want to talk about it. Maria was grateful that both of the Guerin’s usually seemed to sense when she didn’t want to talk about something and didn’t press her to know why.

“You know,” Liz said suddenly. “If it was because I was babbling on about a guy, well, you know, you can always get a guy of your own if you want. I know a guy who’s certainly interested in you.”

There was no doubt about which guy Liz was referring to. “Uh…” she said, not knowing what to say.

“Well I just thought you should know,” Liz replied with a grin, standing up. “Well I’m going to go do some homework now, but feel free to stay here if you want.”

“Nah, I think I’ll just go,” Maria replied, standing up as well.

Liz nodded. “Okay then. See ya.”

“Yeah.” She made her way to the door, waving to Liz as she walked through it. Closing the door behind her she leant against it for a few moments in thought.

Well, it was clear that Liz liked the idea of her and Michael getting together, she’d made that obvious.

But Maria wasn’t really sure if she wanted the whole town to know that she and Michael were together.

***

Maria rounded the point by her house after leaving Liz’s to find Michael sitting on the sand of their beach, staring out at sea. She walked over to him, dropping down on the sand beside him.

“Hey stranger,” she said with a smile.

“Hey,” he replied. “I had a feeling you’d come here.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Really?”

He cupped her face tenderly. “Yeah,” he murmured, his voice rough, as he moved in to kiss her.

“Mmm,” she whispered, returning the kiss wholeheartedly. She smiled at him when they pulled back for air, moving her body so that she was straddling him. She then leant forward, trailing featherlight kisses across his face from his chin to his ear and across his eyelid to his nose, pausing there for a moment before tracing a line back down to his mouth. Her lips hovered there for a moment, teasing him.

“Maria,” he groaned.

She gazed down at him for a moment, taking in his closed eyes, the slope of his nose, the shadow her body cast on his face in the afternoon sunlight. As if feeling her regard his eyes suddenly opened, their rich brown depths meeting her gaze, emotions swirling deep inside them.

“You’re amazing,” she murmured against his lips as she brought her mouth back down to his.

They stayed like that for a while, tenderly kissing and touching each other on the otherwise empty beach. Their beach. She smiled against his lips at the thought, startled when Michael shivered involuntarily in the cold. She noticed suddenly that the breeze had picked up.

Michael pulled his lips away from hers, wrapping an arm around her so that she was cradled against his chest. She felt the vibration of his voice through his chest before she heard it.

“Why don’t you get cold?”

She looked up at him in surprise. “I-“

His eyes were probing hers as one of his hands caressed her shoulder.

She took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment. “I’m used to it.”

A perplexed look crossed his face. “Used to it,” he repeated. “But you’ve lived here forever and it doesn’t get much colder than this, does it?”

She willed herself to keep calm. She could do this. This was Michael. She loved him. “Yeah. I, um-“

His eyes were locked on hers, silently encouraging her without pressuring her too much.

She took another deep breath, letting it out slowly. “I used to feel the cold, but now I’m immune to it.”

He didn’t say anything, just waited.

“Uh, yeah, because-“ She paused. “My parents fought a lot,” she told him, biting her lip hard at the memory. “They had problems. Um, I used to sit outside to get away from it. And because it’s colder here at night and I spent so much time outside, I guess I just got used to the cold.”

His mouth opened and he stared at her in what she thought was shock. “Maria…”

“Yeah I know, stupid.”

“No its not.” He was still staring at her. “Maria…”

She wasn’t expecting him to kiss her then, but he did. His lips sought out hers, capturing them in a sweet yet passionate kiss. His hands cupped her cheeks, caressing them in a soft but insistent manner, causing her body to melt against his with the sensations.

“Maria,” he said again as he rained light kisses all over her face. “I’m sorry. That’s not stupid, it’s sad. It’s horrible.”

She tried to shake her head. “No it’s not.”

“Yes it is,” he murmured, still kissing her. “No one should have to go through that.”

***

Isabel was on her way to meet Damion, a guy she’d hooked up with a few times in the past, on pier twelve on Saturday night when two people sitting on the end of a deserted pier caught her attention.

Their bodies were silhouetted in the twilight, but moving closer it was obvious that it was Michael and Maria. She shook her head, mumbling under her breath that Michael, an incredibly good looking guy, was wasting his time with trash like her, and was about to turn when she caught sight of something that made her blood run cold.

It was unbelievable, insane, and just wrong. She wouldn’t have believed it if she hadn’t seen it with her own eyes.

She saw Michael Guerin lean in and passionately kiss Maria Deluca.

By Monday morning it was all over the school and Isabel was still in a state of disgust. Sure, she knew that the two of them were good friends – a major error in judgement on Michael’s part, but one that still could have been redeemed. But the idea of Michael and Maria as a couple…

Courtney was standing by her locker, a triumphant grin on her face. The news of Michael’s attachment hadn’t upset her as much as it had Isabel, but then again Courtney was often seen going after another girl’s boyfriend. Of course, the news that Maria Deluca was actually seen kissing Michael had repulsed Courtney too. Just the idea of Maria with anyone in this town… Isabel shuddered, wishing that good for nothing piece of trash had left with her father.

“It’s all over school,” Courtney told her with a grin. “That little b-itch won’t know what hit her.”

A slow smile spread across Isabel’s face. At least there was an upside to it.

***

“Hey babe.”

“Get lost Doug,” Maria replied, trying to push him away from her. To her annoyance he wouldn’t let her.

“I hear you’re actually letting guys get close to you now,” he said, not noticing the shocked expression crossing her face. How did he know? “So how ‘bout we spend some time together and get to know each other more intimately.”

“Get lost creep,” she replied, venom in her voice.

“Babe…”

“Don’t call me that! And, for your information, I am in a relationship, and, unlike you and your slut girlfriend, I’m not about to sleep with every other guy I can find.”

“Come on babe. Isn’t this a bit too long to hold a grudge for?”

She snorted. Sure, most people had moved on, but there would always be some who hated her. Like his girlfriend. For god’s sake, she’d been seven years old, she hadn’t understood it much more than them.

She grabbed his collar, bringing her knee up so that it was only inches away from his groin. “I’m sick of you and your crap. Go back to your slut. Try anything on me again and you get it down there. And by ‘it’ I mean a knee.”

He stared at her, obviously shocked. Giving him a final smile she let him go and turned to make her way down the hallway.

***

Michael made his way through the busy corridors of the school, frowning in annoyance as yet another guy congratulated him, giving him a knowing look. He had no idea what the look was actually supposed to mean, and just why were people he had never spoken to before in his life congratulating him?

“Way to go man!” A guy wearing a football jersey said as he walked past. “I’m impressed. I didn’t think it was possible.”

He didn’t think what was possible? Michael merely nodded his head in acknowledgement, stopping in front of his locker and moving to open it.

“Hey man.”

Michael turned to see Alex, the guy who’d shown him around the school way back on his first day here, smiling at him. “Hey.”

Alex grinned at him as he leant back on the locker next to Michael’s. Michael stared at him in confusion, wondering what he was doing.

“I have to say I’m impressed,” Alex began, causing Michael to sigh inwardly. “I can’t believe you actually got Maria Deluca.”

He stared at Alex in shock as everything fell into place. They knew. Somehow everyone knew about him and Maria. And they were congratulating him for it?

“Good thing you didn’t take my advice eh?” Alex continued. “Honestly I didn’t think it was possible. I mean, basically every guy in this school, Max excluded of course, has tried to get her, to no avail. And then you come and-“ He shook his head. “It’s pretty unbelievable.”

Michael slumped against his locker, shocked. He knew she was gorgeous and that guys lusted over her, but the idea that it created this much of a response was insane.

“See ya man,” Alex said, nodding to him as he stood up straight. “Oh, and word of advice, Isabel and Courtney seem pretty pissed.”

***

“Michael,” Maria hissed, grabbing him and pulling him into an empty hallway during lunch that day. “What is going on?”

“You tell me,” he replied. “Suddenly its all over the school that we’re-“

“I know.” She stopped, looking at him directly. “Wait, so you haven’t told anyone?”

“No. Have you?”

“No.” She paused. “Not even Liz?”

“No. Have you told Liz?” he asked.

“No.” She sighed. “So then how do people know?” She sighed again as she began pacing back and forth across the hallway. “Dammit. I didn’t want this to happen. I mean, not that I’m ashamed of you or anything,” she clarified, “but I didn’t really want it to be the latest big news discussed all over the school. I mean, god, even Doug came up to me and insinuated that- god! It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

She stopped pacing when Michael moved in front of her, grabbing her arms, his eyes meeting hers. “Doug came up to you and insinuated what?”

She shook her head. “Nothing. Just the usual. Don’t worry, I sincerely doubt he’ll be annoying me any more.” She laughed humourlessly.

“The usual?” His eyes were probing hers. “Maria?”

“You know the way Isabel and Courtney are all over you? Like that.”

“Maria, why didn’t you ever tell me?”

She shrugged. “Its not to do with you. It started way before you even moved to town. Don’t worry, I’m used to it. And I told him that if he tried anything again that I’ll-“ she stopped, grinning. “Well, I’m sure he won’t be trying anything.”

Michael was watching her, an amused look on his face. She raised her eyebrows, grinning wickedly at him. “You know I can take care of myself, right?” Keeping her eyes focused on his she pulled her arms out of his grip, instead wrapping them around his neck. She smiled up at him as she pulled his face down to hers, standing on her toes as she pressed her body against his.

Her tongue dipped out to lick his lips before plunging into his mouth, exploring the contours of it with her tongue. His hands rested momentarily on her waist before creeping up underneath her top to caress her bare back. The kiss became even more intense and she suddenly realised it would probably be a good idea if they stopped.

She pulled away from him, taking a deep breath. Looking up at him and taking in his frustrated yet handsome face she smiled tenderly. “I figured we should stop before things got too out of control.”

He nodded, seeming to suddenly realise just where they were. “Yeah,” he replied. Taking her hand they headed in the direction of the outdoor eating area, only to bump into Liz as they did.

Her gaze flickered back and forth between them before dropping to their hands. Maria watched as a pained look crossed her face momentarily before quickly disappearing.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

She heard Michael swallow and bit her lip as she took in Liz’s hurt expression. “I’m sorry,” she said, dropping Michael’s hand and moving closer to her friend. “I wanted to tell you, I just had no idea how. I’ve never had to do this kind of thing before.”

“I know,” Liz said nodding. “But you knew I would be happy. I just, I didn’t expect you to hide this from me. I mean, I told you about Dave.”

Maria nodded guiltily. Liz was right, she had told her about Dave. And if Maria was in Liz’s position, if she had been used to good friends telling her everything, then she would probably have been hurt by not being told that her best friend and her brother had hooked up too.

“It did only happen less than a week ago Liz,” Michael pointed out, moving to join the two of them.

Liz’s face visibly relaxed. “Oh. But still, you have no idea what it was like to be told that by Isabel.”

Maria nodded sympathetically. No doubt Isabel would have rubbed the fact that Liz didn’t know in her face, especially seeing as Liz had chosen her over them.

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