Summer Solstice (Roswell Fanfic)

Summer Solstice (Part Two)

PART TWO

Kyle sits beside me on top of a picnic table. We’re inside the dark gazebo, right in the middle of the park. Not really a gazebo, actually, more like a covered picnic area; we’re cloaked in shadow and somehow, strangely, we’ve both gotten really quiet. I’m not sure what to say to my good friend, here in the night, watching fireworks illuminate the sky on the other side of town.

“That’s a good one,” I venture, when an explosion of pink and purple fills the desert night.

“Won’t be long until the big finale,” he says, nodding as he takes a gulp of water from our shared bottle. Again, we fall silent and I try and think of something useful to say. I arrive at, “How’s Tess?”

His eyebrows cock upward, quizzical. “Why?”

Shrugging, I reply, “I don’t know. Just how’s Tess?”

“She’s doing good. Wishes you didn’t avoid her so much,” he chuckles. “I just tell her the truth—you avoid everybody but me.”

“It’s definitely not personal.”

“Well, she kind of wishes,” he hesitates, and I know he’s trying to be diplomatic with whatever’s coming next, “well, that you’d go see Liz. They got to be really close when she was sick, you know.”

Something knots hard inside of me. “I can’t go see Liz, Kyle.”

“You saw her last December.”

“That was different. She needed me.”

“I think they both need you now.”

I nod, staring at my hands, extending my fingers and studying my fleshy palms. I hear Liz inside of me, last winter, hear her voice, as she whispers, I’d have known these hands anywhere. As if they hadn’t changed so much.

“Something’s wrong with them, Kyle,” I answer, staring up at the inky sky. “With Liz…or Michael. I’m not sure which one.”

“They seem good. If you’d just go see them--”

“I don’t have to see them,” I snap, feeling electricity mount in my chest. “I feel it, Kyle. All the time, don’t you understand?”

“No. Explain it to me.”

Closing my eyes, I command the power to settle down inside of me. I have to be careful, back here in Roswell. Years away spoiled me too much—without the others, my energy dimmed. Back here, in such close proximity to Michael and Isabel and Tess, the slightest provocation can ignite it unexpectedly. Especially living on the edge like this.

“I-I don’t know how to put it in terms that will make sense,” I say, raking a hand through my hair.

“Try me.” Kyle laughs. “I’m pretty used to all the alien psycho babble, remember?”

“Okay.” I nod and decide to give it my best shot. “Okay, after I healed Liz, that day in the Crashdown, things began changing between us. This…awareness formed, linked us. I felt her all the time, and that didn’t go away until…until…”

I don’t think I can possibly tell him the next part, it’s just too painful—thank God he finishes for me.

“Until that night you thought she got together with me?” His voice is quiet, heavy. I just nod, and feel jittery and restless and wish I could leave this town. Maybe I will leave after the race in the morning. “Evans, we didn’t, you know,” he confides, motioning his hand between the two of us significantly. “Didn’t get together.”