Saying Goodbye

Wednesday morning, and still no sign of Max in school. But of course, everything carried on as normal.

Too normal, perhaps?

Remember his alleged girlfriend, Danielle? Well I'm not so sure that she remembered him.in any case. Last time I saw her, she was holding hands with some other googly-eyed hot guy and making out with him against the lockers.

Goddamit, why did nobody care?

"Hey, Lizzie! Earth to Lizzie!"

I jumped back as Kate waved her hand in front of my face. "Why you so spacey, huh? What's on your mind?"

"Oh, nothing, I guess." I mumbled, playing with my pasta.

"I guess?" She echoed. "You haven't talked all day!"

"Yeah Liz, I've got to admit, you've been acting strangely." Rose stopped eating to look me in the eye. "You're not on your period, are you?"

I rolled my eyes. "Oh come on you guys, I'm fine, seriously. Just hungry. And no," I said, looking at Rose. "I'm not."

Kate's eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh man, you're not..." She leaned forward. "Pregnant?"

"As if! Honestly Kate, whaddya take me for?"

"Well... Didn't you and Tom spend the night?" Kate tried her best to look innocent, but her guilt gave way as she looked away.

What did Kate take me for? She knows that Tom and I are just friends! I'm still a virgin, for crying out loud!

Thankfully, Rose saw my look of panic/disgust and intervened for me. "Really Kate, you know they're just friends as well as I do. Besides, pregnancy tests are inconclusive until about two weeks in anyway."

I narrowed my eyes. "How do you know that?"

"Common sense, of course, don't you have any?" She said, and I mentally slapped myself. Of course. But wait, was she reddening?

"Oh Rose, you're blushing! C'mon, what happened?" I grinned, to let her know that whatever it was, was okay.

She reddened even more, looking down at her food. "Alright! Geez..." She turned to face me and Kate. "I missed a period, about three months ago, and I honestly thought I was pregnant."

"But you weren't?"

"No, I wasn't." She smiled, relieved. "The doctors told me it was all fine."

"So why'd you miss it?" Maybe at this point it felt more like prying than being considerate, but I couldn't stop myself.

Maybe I was right for feeling guilty about asked, because I saw Rose's smile fade completely. "Stress, I suppose," She said, looking away.

Kate's eyes met mine and I knew we were thinking the same thing: time to change the subject!

"Tom's still cool though", Kate smiled widely at me, mischief darkly illuminating her face.. "Why haven't you? I mean come on, he's gorgeous, he knows how to cook, and he knows you inside out! What's stopping you?"

I froze. "Because..."

Why? Am I too afraid? Distracted?

"Because I've never thought about it." I lowered my gaze and carried on eating. Hopefully they won't notice how afraid i am to answer.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rose and Kate exchange glances, smiling. "Is it because of-"

"Max!" I spluttered.

Kate actually punched the air! "Praise the lord, I never thought I'd live to see Confession Day!"

"No dammit, I mean, Max! He's in the parking lot!"

"Really?" Kate and Rose both said at the same time, and turned to look out the window behind them.

Since I'm the one facing the window, I saw when Max got out the passenger seat of his car - driven by his mother - and when she escorted him through the parking lot to the entrance of the school.

"What's he doing here?" We all said together.

As he sauntered through the main entrance to the building, I noticed how much Max was leaning on his mother for support. He looked ill.

"Well he would look ill if he had alcohol poisoning." I wondered aloud. "But he's supposed to be in hospital for a week, why is he at school?"

Just as Kate was about to offer a trademark witty reply - probably - the school bell rang, signifying the end of lunch break. I would have to wonder later.

"Bye!" I waved to Kate as she hurried off, and started walking in step with Rose, since we had the same class. I ended up walking too fast because I had shorter legs than hers. As usual.

Somewhat out of breath because of the stupidly fast pace, I said to Rose "Save me a seat, I'm going to the bathroom."

"Wait Liz, I thought you already-"

Walking faster, I left Rose's voice behind me and ran up the stairs to the second floor of the building. I'd actually left the bathroom behind me, but I hope that Rose didn't notice that, and I kept walking in the directing of the headmistress' office.

I was right that Max would be heading here - I stepped behind a locker to avoid him noticing me. I saw that he and his mother were waiting in the seats outside of the office. I wonder what they needed to talk about? Was Max being pulled out of school? Did he get detention? No, seeing as he wasn't here, that can't have been possible. Maybe I could listen in, I thought.

"...really have to?" I heard Max say. "I'm in the top set. This is embarrassing!"

"Stop whining Max, I wouldn't have to do this if you didn't get insanely drunk, you know that?" Mrs Rivers said. She didn't sound strict, but gentle. "It's for your own good."

"Mum, I told you already, it was one time! The last time! It won't happen again, I swear!"

"Sure honey, but just be thankful you were helped. Not many people would."

"Yeah yeah, whoever it was, can we just not do this? Please?"

Whoever it was? Did his mum not tell him that it was me that saved him?

"This whoever it was saved your life. Don't count on them again."

And she looked straight at me.