Free The Outsider by Melinda Metz

until they almost blotted out the amber.
    Max knew she was lying. She didn’t stumble. She jerked away from him because she couldn’t stand for him to touch even a strand of her hair.
    We can both try to act normal, Max thought. We can both say the right things. But it’s never going to be the same between us again. Liz is afraid of me.

6
    â€œSo what kind of mood is
el jefe
in today?” Liz asked Stan, the cook on duty at the Crashdown Cafe.
    Stan grabbed a spatula in each hand and flipped two burgers in perfect unison. “The boss man has been listening to the Dead all day,” he answered.
    â€œCool.” Liz and everyone else at the Crashdown could tell how Mr. Ortecho was feeling by what kind of CDs he played. You couldn’t get better than the Grateful Dead on her father’s musical mood scale.
    Liz hurried into his office. She couldn’t help smiling at the sight of her papa’s compact beer belly pushing against his tie-dyed T-shirt.
    â€œI think for your birthday I’m going to have to replace that shirt with a bigger one. You know, eating Cherry Garcia ice cream isn’t the only way of expressing your love for Jerry, rdquo; she teased.
    â€œNot the only, just the best,” Papa answered. “And don’t even think about replacing this shirt. I bought it at the concert where you were conceived. Uncle John’s Band was — ”
    Liz slapped her hands over her ears. “I don’t want to hear any more, thank you.” She did not need the details of her parents’ sex life.
    Her father laughed. “What are you doing here, anyway? You’re not working today.”
    Liz lowered her hands. “I have to talk to you about something important.”
    His expression turned serious. “Is it something with school?”
    â€œNo, it’s nothing with school.” Liz sighed. “Why do you always think it’s something with school? It’s never anything about school, all right?”
    Sometimes Liz felt like throwing back her head and screaming, “I am not Rosa.” Because that’s what this whole thing was about. It was about Rosa. She’d been dead almost five years, but in so many ways she was still the most important member of Liz’s family. She was there in the things they said to one another and in the things they never said.
    Liz knew exactly why her father was always on her case about school. The year before Rosa died, her grades started slipping. Liz’s parents got Rosa a tutor and stuff, but they didn’t realize that the grades were only a tiny part of the trouble Rosa was in.
    Liz glanced over at Papa. He stared down at some invoices on his desk, but his eyes were blank. Liz knew that expression so well. He was doing it again. Wondering what if. What if he had paid more attention. What if he had put Rosa in private school. What if he’d read more about teenagers and drugs. What if, what if, what if.
    â€œI’m pretty sure I’m going to be valedictorian,” Liz said, trying to pull her papa out of his dark thoughts. “You’d better start thinking about what to wear to my graduation because everyone is going to be looking at you and Mama, parents of the gift making the brilliant speech.”
    â€œMake sure you mention the cafe,” Papa said. He shoved the papers away and looked up at Liz. “If it’s not about school, what is this something important?”
    â€œIt’s our uniforms. The seventies
Star Trek
rip-offs we wear have a certain kind of cool retro thing going, but Maria and I would really like to move into the future.” Liz held up a photo of Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in their
Men in Black
suits and shades. “We were thinking something like this.”
    Mr. Ortecho shook his head. “You want me to spend money on new uniforms when there is absolutely nothing wrong with the old ones? That’s not good business, Liz.”
    Liz