Anger and Betrayal

It was one thing to forgive her for her distance as she made new friends. She was free to do that, after all. New friends were one thing, what they led you to do was quite another. Alex had long felt that he was being excluded from something with Liz and Maria. They could not be talking about cramps every time they clammed up when he was in hearing distance. He knew enough to know that at least. Then there was the general caginess where Max Evans was concerned. Clearly something had happened that day in the Crashdown.

He did not think twice when Maria came to him and told him that Liz and Max had been in a car accident and he was needed at the hospital. Liz was his best friend; of course he would be there for her. He just had no idea what she would ask him to do when they got there. That was when he first began to have serious doubts about Liz and her new friendships. Why else would they need a sample of his blood unless drugs were involved somehow?

He could not believe that Liz Parker would ever be involved with drugs, but the evidence was there; and it certainly explained the changes she had undergone. And even if she was not actually taking them herself, she was covering up for Max and Michael Guerin’s use, and that was just as bad. Her caginess about it was such that when she finally admitted it was drugs, he did not quite believe her somehow, and he got the feeling that it was something else. Talking to Kyle Valenti was no help—the sheriff’s son seemed even more paranoid than he was. Something odd was going on with Max Evans.

However, despite all misgivings he had, Alex trusted Liz enough to cover for her with Ms Topolsky, even though he had no idea why she distrusted the Guidance Counsellor so vehemently. The worst part was that Ms Topolsky was really making sense, casting doubt on Liz and her motives. Who should he trust: his best friend who had been acting strangely, or the teacher whose job it was to protect them? Nevertheless, when Liz came in to distract Ms Topolsky, he sprang into action and hacked into her laptop. That was when he discovered that things were far more dire than he’d been led to believe. Ms Topolsky’s promises of keeping the police out of it made more sense now, given that she was from the FBI. But that also meant that Liz was involved in something a hell of a lot more serious than drugs.