The Outsider (rh-1) by Melinda Metz

Author:Melinda Metz [Metz, Melinda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: sf
Published: 1998-03-19T05:00:00+00:00

***

"What's up?" Max asked as he trotted after Liz.

Liz didn't answer. She turned down a short hallway with a pay phone, a drinking fountain, and one bench. No one would bother them here.

She spun around and glared at Max. "How did you know about my cupcake dress?" she demanded. "Can you read minds? Is that one of your powers? If it is, you have got to find a way to turn it off because it's an incredible invasion of privacy."

Liz didn't even want to think about what Max could have seen in her head. All the embarrassing little things she'd never told anyone, not even Maria. The silly daydreams she let herself slide into when one of her teachers got so boring, she wanted to scream. The mean little thoughts she had about people sometimes.

But most of all she was afraid that Max had seen all the horrible things she'd thought when he told her he was an alien. Liz was ashamed of the mix of revulsion and fear that flooded her in that moment. If she'd felt those kinds of emotions directed at her, she'd be devastated.

"I can't read minds. At least not usually," Max told her. "But when I heal someone, I make a connection with them. I get this rush of images, so fast I can hardly take them all in. And somehow I just know things. Not thoughts, exactly. But like that dress-an image of it flashed into my mind, and I knew how you felt about it."

Liz folded her arms over her chest. "What else did you see besides the dress?"

"Um… I saw a stuffed dog with a chewed-up ear," Max said.

"Oh, Mr. Beans. He lives on my bed." Liz started to feel a little better. If Mr. Beans and the cupcake dress were the worst things Max saw, that wasn't so bad.

"Liz Ortecho sleeping with a stuffed animal. That's hard to picture." Max laughed. "You're always so intense and focused."

"I don't actually sleep with him," Liz corrected. "At night I put him on my dresser."

Max raised his eyebrows. "Oh, really?" he teased.

"Okay, every once in a while, like when I'm sick or something, I still sleep with him," Liz admitted, blushing. "But you already knew that, didn't you?"

"Lucky guess. You sounded just a little defensive when you said you put him on your dresser," Max explained. "It really bothers you that I got images from your mind, doesn't it?"

Liz looked down at her boots. Even though Max had only seen stupid little things from her childhood, it did bother her. What if he were just being polite, telling her the stuff that wasn't important? What if he really had seen everything, like how angry she felt at her sister for dying? He would think she was a horrible person-and she couldn't bear that.

Max wouldn't lie to me, she told herself. If he says he only saw the ugly cupcake dress, then he means it.

"Maybe I overreacted," Liz said slowly. "It's not like you were intentionally spying on me.

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