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Zia: Thanks for taking the time to feedback! I know how hard that is to find the time sometimes. Life is busy and hectic.
Sarah: Yeah, Michael and Maria's connection is definitely strong and undeniable. They're this close, and they're "just friends," so imagine what they'll be like when they finally start to be more than just friends.
Steffi:

what is February to mid-April in count of updates?

Mag asked me the same question, and to be quite honest . . . I have no idea. I'll PM you with the page number.
Lume: I'm glad you liked the last part. The scenes where Michael and Maria are just talking or joking are my favorite to write, too.
Luluzita: You're in agony waiting for this kiss, aren't you? Not yet!
Laura: You're right. Michael is the kind of guy who will try to deny his feelings until the very end and maybe even pass off romantic feelings as pure sexual energy. I'm going to PM you with the page number of the kiss, too, so that you can know.
Nicola: Yep, this fic is definitely a slow build-up rather than a bang. Cute smilies in your last post! Although I must say, the mooning smiley is a bit disturbing! lol
Misty: Hang in there!
mmluver89: Ha ha ha, no Michael's not cheesy enough to say "don't say that about the woman I love!" But obviously he does love her. One of these days he'll realize that, and I promise that Liz will get burned, but it won't happen anytime soon.
meredith1010: I know, I'm so mean, prolonging the kiss like this. So what are we going to do until then? Keep building it up, keep having some lol moments, hopefully. And just think, when they actually do kiss, you guys will be so happy!
emadaps:

i think Maria should stay low for awhile and take her studies seriously

You must be psychic or something, because Maria is going to start making an educational effort! As much of an effort as Maria can, at least.
Lysee: Yes, Michel telling Maria that she is his best friend is the closest he can get to saying he loves her right now. It's a big thing for him to say. He's growing . . . slowly.
Dee: Mag described Maria's sudden drop in popularity really well over at Fanatics: She said that it was like Hollywood. One minute, you're on top. The next, no one cares about you and all they can think about is the new starlet (AKA: Liz.) And about the pics . . . well, those were just test shots, so unfortunately, Liz isn't going to flip through and see them in a magazine.
maji343: Yep, Amy's gone now, and they're all going to try to get back to normal. But the problem is, they're not really sure what normal is these days.
mezza911: Oh, a new reader! That makes my day! I'm glad you enjoy M+M's relationship. Stick with Michael. He'll come around . . . eventually. Thanks!


Okay, guys, remember our little warning smiley? Well, I hate do this to you, but he's back. Nothing too graphic, though, so just read fast. lol








Part 45









The next day was Maria's first day back at dance team practice, and she wasn't happy with what she saw. She stood there, watching in disbelief as the team struggled through a relatively easy dance with music. She understood that these girls were all new at collegiate level dancing, but they had all shown talent-or at least semi-sobriety-during tryouts. Where was that talent now?

She reached down wordlessly and pressed the 'stop' button on the CD player. The girls all stopped dancing and seemed to recognize her dissatisfaction immediately, because no one could look her in the eye.

"You guys," she said, forcing herself to not yell. "You realize that you're performing this in ten days, don't you? It's not ready. It looks bad. In fact, it looks worse than it did a week ago. What happened?"

No one said anything.

Maria turned to Liz for answers. "Liz, I thought you said you guys drilled this with music."

Liz just looked at her feet, but her silence spoke volumes.

"You didn't drill it with music, did you?" Maria guessed. She shook her head, disappointed in her friend, upset that she had lied about it. She'd have to talk to her about it later. "Great," she said. "What did you guys do while I was on bed rest?"

"We . . . had a team meeting," one girl in the front said.

"About what? Liz's boyfriend?" No one had to answer for Maria to know it was true. All of the girls on the team were either freshmen or sophomores. They all thought Michael Guerin was the ooh-la-la cutest boy on the planet. Which he was, but it didn't matter. "You guys are a whole day behind now," she informed them, "and in addition to that, you're a whole week behind because you haven't been working hard." She grunted angrily and threw her hands in the air. "I just-I don't get this. When I was on this team, it was the most important thing in the world to me. Hell, it's still the most important thing in the world to me, and I'm not even on it anymore. But I do more work than all of you combined. Tell me, does that seem fair?"

No response.

"Somebody answer me," she said, "or I'll make you run laps."

"No," a girl in the back piped up. "It's not fair."

"You're damn right it's not fair. Now you guys could be really good, because you have talent and you have me; and I am willing to do anything I can to help you. But if you don't put in the effort . . ." She trailed off and sighed. It didn't matter what she said. She could see it happening already. Her dance team, the one she had led to three consecutive state championships . . . it was dissolving, just like her popularity. Only this was worse. This meant more to her.

"When I was a freshman, I practiced for three hours a day, even on days when we didn't have practice," she informed them.

"Not everyone's like you, Maria," the girl in the front said.

"I'm not asking you to be like me. I'm asking you to treat the team I worked so hard to build with a little respect." She glared at each and every one of them, even Liz, letting them know how unhappy she was. "From the beginning with counts," she said. "Five, six, seven, eight."

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria lay sprawled across Max's chest that night, struggling to keep her eyes open. She was tired not only because they'd just had sex (twice), but also because of the dance practice that morning. She'd had to go over every part of the dance over and over again for those girls to get it. She'd practically re-taught the whole thing. It had been a strenuous workout even for her.

"I meant to ask you how your day went," Max said, running his fingers through her hair, "but then you started taking your clothes off and I just . . . forgot to ask."

She smiled at his sweetness. "It was okay," she told him.

"Just okay?"

"Yeah. Dance team drama. But I guess it could be worse. My mom could be here. I could be not breathing."

"Way to put things in perspective."

She trailed her fingers down his chest to circle around his belly-button, absentmindedly trying to remember if she had ever cuddled and talked post-coital with anyone besides Max. She didn't think she had.

He was a really nice guy.

"What about you?" she asked, trying to reciprocate the conversation even though she wasn't good at it. "How was your day?"

"Ah, boring," he replied. "Until you came home."

"Hmm."

He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead and said, "I've never been happier than when I'm with you, Maria."

She sighed, thinking of Michael, of all the fun they could have simply looking through an old yearbook or playing a game of Go Fish. As much as she acted like she hated him, she liked him. She really liked him.

She closed her eyes and pretended as though she fell asleep for awhile, but she was wide awake. Wide awake and thinking about one person. One person who wasn't Max.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

As Liz's boyfriend, Michael felt it his duty to make-out with her as much as possible. Besides being physically satisfying, it also served a purpose. The more they made-out, the better she got. And the more daring she got, which was always a good thing.

She lay on top of him that night, kissing him, in just her bra and jeans. She had begun dressing sexier and sexier every day. Good. He smoothed his hand down her back to dip inside the back of her jeans, shocked to feel what he felt.

"Liz!" he said, halting the kiss-action just for a moment.

"What?" she asked innocently.

"Since when are you goin' commando?"

"Since tonight," she said. "This girl on my floor and I were talking. She said guys think it's a big turn-on."

"Oh, it is," he assured her, leaning in for another kiss. He just briefly brushed his lips against hers, though, when he felt himself starting to get hard. He closed his eyes and dug his head back into his pillow.

"What?" she asked him.

"Why'd I ever make that bet?" he wondered aloud. It'd been a stupid thing to do.

"Oh, spur of the moment decision." She giggled a little. "It's okay."

"No, it's not okay." He was so sexually frustrated; sometimes he jacked-off so fast and hard, he didn't think he'd have a dick left in the morning. "I mean, don't get me wrong. I think we're both really good with our hands," he said, interlacing his fingers with hers. "But I've never gone this long without sex."

"Yeah," she said. "And I'd just gotten started and then it was like-boom! No sex for Liz."

"It was a stupid bet," he admitted, pushing his erection up into her just slightly, just enough for her to feel it. He would give anything right now for sex with anyone. Didn't matter who. He just needed sex.

She closed her eyes and gasped at the contact.

"How long do you think it's been?" he asked her.

"What?" she asked dazedly, opening her eyes to look at him again.

"Since we started the bet."

"Oh, I don't know," she replied. "Three and a half weeks?"

"Three and a half weeks," he echoed. "Yeah." He shook his head, knowing that couldn't be true. "No."

"Okay, more like two weeks," she conceded.

"Two weeks?" He groaned. It was impossible. He couldn't do it. He just couldn't do two more weeks. "We should just give up now," he suggested, rubbing himself against her jean-clad cleft suggestively.

"Yeah," she agreed breathlessly. "We should just . . . give up now."

"Yeah." He kissed her almost violently and immediately flipped them over so that he was on top. In a matter of seconds, he was already tugging off her pants. No sense wasting any more time. He was horny as hell.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria found it hard to concentrate on her psychology homework while Isabel was watching America's Next Top Model. She didn't ask her to turn it off or even turn it down, though, because truthfully, she was engrossed in it, too.

"Oh my god, this show is so unnecessarily dramatic," Isabel commented. "Maria, in your professional opinion, is modeling that hard?"

Maria shrugged, thinking back on the total of two experiences she'd had thus far. "I don't know. It's definitely harder than it looks, but it's not like it requires some great intellectual talent."

"Maybe I should do that," Isabel pondered. "But I probably can't. My boobs are too big."

"Oh, I think Victoria's Secret would love your boobs," Maria informed her. "You could be the next Giselle."

Isabel shut off the TV, declaring, "It's a stupid show."

"But addictive."

"Yes, very addictive." She got up off the couch and joined Maria in the kitchen. "Oh my god," she said in astonishment. "Are you doing homework?"

"Shocking, isn't it?"

"Well, yeah. I've never seen you do homework before."

"That's because I used to be on the A-list here at Santa Fe. Now I might as well be on that reality show with Kathy Griffin."

"Oh, not true," Isabel said, sitting down across from her at the counter. "You're still popular."

"Not as popular as my Frankenstein Liz."

"Frankenstein?" Isabel frowned. "You've created a monster?"

Maria sighed, realize that she was still a little bitter. "No, she just pissed me off a little bit today. I found out she lied about dance team practice, and you know how I am about that."

"Hmm," Isabel said. "Well, honestly, I don't know her very well. She seems nice, you know, and I'm sure everyone's all about her right now 'cause she's Michael's girlfriend, but you're the real deal, Maria. You're gonna graduate in a couple of months, and people are still gonna be talking about you years later."

"Yeah, talking about my alcohol poisoning," she mumbled. "That was really embarrassing. I can actually hold my liquor. I just . . . couldn't that night."

"Don't be embarrassed," Isabel said. "And who cares if people talk about you? People used to talk about me and Kyle and Tess all the time, especially at first. We just ignored it, and eventually it passed."

Maria smiled at the younger girl and said, "You're way too wise to be a sophomore, you know that?"

Isabel laughed. "Wise? Okay, sure. Why not?"

Maria laughed a little, too, and then asked, "So where are Kyle and Tess anyway? You guys are usually all together."

"Usually," Isabel agreed, "but once in awhile, we do two-person stuff."

Maria raised an eyebrow. "Stuff?"

"Listen closely," Isabel instructed.

Maria shut her mouth and did just that. It didn't take her long to hear a mattress squeaking downstairs, accompanied by a couple of moans from Tess.

"It'll get louder," Isabel assured her. "Sometimes I have to get away from it or I'll go deaf."

Maria set her pencil down, thinking how, in a very weird, very subtle way, Isabel, Tess, and Kyle were very much like herself, Liz, and Michael. Where Max fit in, she still didn't know.

"Isabel," she said, "doesn't it ever both you when Tess and Kyle go off and do something on their own? I mean, don't you ever just feel like . . . I don't know, excluded or pushed off to the sidelines or something?"

"Oh, I'm not sidelined," Isabel assured her. "I love Kyle."

"I know you do," Maria said. "But, do you ever get . . . jealous, I guess, that he sometimes does things with Tess that he doesn't do with you?"

Isabel thought about it for a moment and shrugged. "Not really. I mean, my relationship with Kyle means a lot to me, but I know it means a lot to Tess, too, so what right do I have to screw it up?"

"Huh," Maria nodded a little, thinking about that. Her relationship with Michael was so important, but it was obviously important to Liz. She had no right. She had no right. Especially since she had been the one to set them up together in the first place.

"You okay?" Isabel asked.

"What? Oh, yeah. It's just . . . all this studying. It's not good for my brain."

Isabel laughed a little, just as Tess let out a ferocious growling sound from downstairs. "Oh, Kyle, yes!"

You da man, Valenti, Maria thought, smiling.

A moment later, the bed squeaking stopped.

"Wait a minute," Isabel said. "They'll start up again."

"Don't they always?" Maria picked her pencil back up again, and merely a second later, the squeaking had indeed begun again. But it sounded different this time.

"Wow, that was a quick recovery," Isabel commented. "Go, Kyle! Woo!"

Maria frowned skeptically, trying to differentiate the sound. "No, Isabel," she said. "That's not Kyle."

"What?"

She held up her index finger, signaling for Isabel to be quiet. She was, and Maria listened closely. The squeaking wasn't even coming from downstairs this time. It was coming from . . .

That bastard.

"No way," she said, slowly starting back towards Michael's bedroom. He wouldn't, she thought. Oh, who am I kidding? He so would. "Michael Guerin!" she roared, stomping down the hallway. She threw open the door to his bedroom and walked in on quite a sight. Michael was on top of Liz, going at it full-force beneath the sheets. Liz gasped and pulled the sheet tightly against herself, accidentally exposing some of naked Michael in the process. But he didn't seem to care.

"Go away; we're busy," he said, never breaking stride.

Liz placed her hands on his shoulders and gently pushed him off of her. He lay down on his back beside her, obviously disappointed.

"I knew it!" Maria shouted. "I could hear your kinky sex sounds from the kitchen!"

"It's not kinky sex," Michael said. "Although we should probably start lookin' into that, Liz. I think you'd be surprised how much you'd like it."

"What's--"

Before Liz could ask what kinky sex was, Maria belted out, "Ha! Ha, ha! Oh my god, I'm so excited."

"'Cause you got to see the goods?" Michael guessed, gesturing towards his erection.

Well . . . partly, she thought reluctantly. "You lost the bet," she said emphatically. "You are a wimp. You couldn't hold up your end of the deal. You are a loser."

"Maria, I'm a guy. Did you honestly expect me to go a whole month?"

She made a sound of disbelief. "It's not like you weren't getting any. You were free to masturbate, which I'm sure you did. I already know you guys took the term 'handling' to a new level. Just admit it, Michael. You suck."

He grinned. "Not as good as you."

She gasped in mock outrage and said, "Okay! That's it! I win; you lose. You know there's gonna be consequences."

"Worth it," he decided as he climbed back on top of Liz and immediately resumed what he had been doing a minute before.

"Oh!" Liz gasped again. "Michael . . ."

Maria made a face of disgust and shut the door. Consequences, she thought to herself. Punishing Michael Guerin was a once in a lifetime opportunity. She had to get what she wanted out of it.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Maria sat on the couch that night, waiting until things had quieted down in Michael's bedroom and until she had an idea in her head. It was a good idea, one that would hit him where it hurt most.

She flipped open her cell phone and called him. He answered gruffly.

"What the hell, Maria? We live in the same house. Do you have any idea how annoying my ringer is? You just woke Liz up. Aren't you gonna say anything? I'm goin' back to bed."

"Get your ugly ass out here, Guerin," she said. "I got a bone to pick with you."

"Yeah, I got a bone, too."

She rolled her eyes and closed the phone. He was going to freak out when she revealed what punishment she had in store. She couldn't wait to break it to him.

He walked out of his bedroom a few short moments later, wearing nothing but a pair of sweat-pants. Oh, he is insanely hot, Maria thought, struggling not to stare at him. It was the shoulders that got her more than anything. She was so attracted to great shoulders on a guy, and Michael's shoulders were broad and encompassing . . .

"You smell like sex," she commented.

"So do you." He took a seat beside her, rubbing his eyes tiredly.

"That's different. I'm supposed to," she reminded him. "I wasn't on sex probation."

"You're lookin' at it all wrong," he said. "See, the way you see it, you won and I lost. But the way I see it, I won, 'cause no joke, that was the best sex I've had in my life."

"Really?" Maria found that hard to believe. The best sex of his life, with someone who had been a virgin three short weeks ago? Uh-uh. "It's just 'cause you went you through a drought," she rationalized.

"No, Liz is gettin' really good, Maria. You'd be shocked, but it's like they say . . . always the quiet ones. Plus, she's got a really good teacher."

"Oh, she wasn't quiet," Maria informed him. "I was actually trying to study. Yeah, that's a little hard when you have a chorus of, 'Oh, Michael, oh, Jesus,' in the background."

He smirked. "I'm Jesus."

She rolled her eyes in annoyance.

"Well, that's what you get for studying, Maria," he said.

"Okay, shut up," she said. "I called you out here to discuss business."

"Business?" he echoed. "Okay, Miss Mafia Don. Give me all you got."

"Oh, I'm about to," she assured fervently. "You see you . . . couldn't hold up your end of the bet. Led around by the dick. Big surprise."

"Hey, I held out pretty long."

"Oh, yeah, two weeks? Big hand, Michael." She clapped sarcastically and shook her head. "You lost."

He opened his mouth to protest, but she didn't let him get a word in edgewise.

"You totally lost, and I win and I rock."

"So that's what this is about, gloating?"

"Oh, no," she said. "No, no, no. You fucked up majorly, Michael. Now you have to pay the price."

He stared at her for a moment and said, "Is this like a whip kind of paying the price, or . . ."

"Oh, you wish."

He wet his lips, looking a little nervous for the first time since they'd started that conversation and tried to appeal to her emotional side. "Okay, the way I see it . . ."

"Is wrong," she filled in.

"The way I see it," he repeated calmly, "is that I saved your life."

"Oh my god."

"I-I sacrificed, Maria. I put my mouth on yours, which, now that I think about it, your mouth has been around a lot of cocks, so . . . like I said, sacrifice."

She rolled her eyes.

"And I endowed you with some of my precious, holy, Jesus-breath."

"Jesus-breath?!" she shrieked. "Oh my god!"

"So . . . obviously it negates the whole bet."

"Oh, it negates nothing!" she promised him.

"Lose the bet; save your life. See how it balances out?"

"You saving my life had absolutely nothing to do with the bet," she reminded him. "Don't try to weasel your way out of this, Ugly Boy. I won't let you."

"Maria, it's common logic. I--"

"Zip it," she commanded.

"Maria . . ."

"Michael Guerin, prepare to suffer the wrath of Maria DeLuca, 'cause here it comes: you're giving up your bedroom," she blurted.

After a moment of silence, all he said was, "What?"

She smirked. "Yeah. I thought about putting you on another celibacy period, but the chances you'd follow through with that are slim to none. So . . . yep, your bedroom. You know, the one that was always supposed to be mine all along . . . yeah, it is mine now. We're switching."

"No, we're not," he said.

"Oh, yes we are," she said confidently. There was nothing else she wanted more in the world than Michael's bedroom. Well, besides Michael himself. "And since I almost died, as you pointed out, I don't think I'll be doing any heavy lifting," she added happily. Oh, yeah. Where's your snappy argument now, you jackass?

"You're insane," he said.

"Thank you."

"No, I mean it. This is . . . it's unlawful, Maria."

"Oh, unlawful?"

"Yeah. It's the master bedroom. I'm the master of the house."

"Yeah, right," she said, rising slowly to her feet. "I've always been your master." She grinned mischievously at him, then smiled pleasantly and said, "Goodnight."

He said nothing as she pranced down the hallway. She felt so good about the punishment she was inflicting on him. And he'd give in. He always did. As pissed off as he was, he wouldn't take much convincing. Somehow, whenever she asked him to do something, he always did it. He was sort of adorable that way.








TBC . . .

-April

(I know, I know, Michael couldn't hold up his end of the bet, so let me have it!)