All Wounds - 6 (Pt.2) (Life is Strange)

Life is Strange
All Wounds
Chapter 6 - Price
(Part 2)

-

Chloe watched the last wisp of smoke drift along, disintegrating, fading...

Nothing lasts. Nothing beautiful, anyway...

Chloe's vision was a little blurred. The shit she'd just finished smoking hadn't been quality, but...it'd hit the spot good enough. As it turned out, her 'emergency joint' was more like an 'emergency stump.' Past Chloe had been greedy. And probably flying high when she'd fancied herself so smart to save it for later. Hadn't tasted too good, either, but...fuck it. She'd barely hit that first little 'step,' that phase, she'd wanted.

Everything was just...a little surreal. Her head buzzed just a little. The setting sun felt warmer then it should've against her cheeks. That golden glow across everything? It was fucking magical to her eyes. She could stare at this shit for hours, felt like. Her nose felt funny, her thighs felt a little tingly. She felt a little dizzy. It was fan-fucking-tastic.

The air was salty and humid. The setting sun cast a golden sheen over Chloe's vision. Like that time she and Rachel had done a sleep over at their hideout in the junkyard. They’d set down a picnic blanket to mellow out on, medicate…Chloe had sat backwards on a folding chair she’d brought, leaning against the metal panel, gazing down at Rachel. Rachel had laid herself out on the blanket, her river of golden hair flowing upstream toward Chloe’s feet. There’d been a magical moment in there – Chloe staring down over the edge of the chair, gazing down right at Rachel, staring back up at her. They were both high as kites, and Chloe had…said some stupid shit. Couldn’t even remember.

Whatever she’d said, Rachel had found it hilarious. Her face had lit up so fucking brightly. The glow of Rachel’s laughing, serene face, her hair flowing around…It was like looking at an angel.

Chloe giggled to herself, just from the memory.

She caught herself staring at the ember from her puffed out joint, below her feet. She stamped it out with her boot.

She could hear footsteps. Crossing that rickety bridge by the beach.

“Chloe,” came Max's voice in the distance.

Chloe sighed, dipping her head, scratching her scalp, closing her eyes, trying to regain some fucking composure.

“How'd you find me?” Chloe wondered.

“I guessed,” Max replied bluntly.

“Good guess...”

“You walk all the way the fuck out here?”

“No, I, uh-...Brooke's family came to pick her up, I asked them to drop me off here.”

“...Huh.”

With her hands in her pockets, Chloe finally turned. Max was nearby now. She slowed, her face scrunching up.

“Augh, Chloe, you smell...-”
“Like pot?”
“Chloe...”

Aaaaand there was the disappointed sigh, complete with disappointed name-drop and disappointed crossing of arms and shaking of head. Yea. Fine. Whatever, Max. What happened to 'no judging,' huh?

“I'm...in a shitty mood, Max, OK? I just had a little, don't freak out on me...”

Max's hands seemed to tighten against her own elbows as she closed to the distance.

“You said you were gonna quit,” Max pouted, glancing sideways. Adorable little grump.

“And I'm gonna,” Chloe testily assured. “Just don't...don't fucking rush me, all right? Last time I tried quitting, I got hella rushed, and it-...I just slipped back, so don't...rush it.”

“OK, I'm not rushing you, I'm...I'm just saying.”

“What, Max? What are you 'just saying?'”

Chloe was eyeballing her now, hands on her hips, leaning a bit with expectation. Were they gonna talk shit out, or were they gonna roll on?

Shrugging at Chloe, Max murmured, “I guess I'm a little annoyed that you bailed, just to...smoke.”

Chloe's eyes started to roll, but she made them halt, her lips squirming awkwardly.

“You were preoccupied, I needed time to just, fuckin'...vent out my system.”

Max nodded thoughtfully. Actually believing Chloe's lie.

What she needed was Max's attention. Max's reassurance, Max's apology for focusing on all those little Blackwell dickweeds who didn't treat her right.

“Fair enough,” Max conceded. She took Chloe's hand and gave Chloe a brief side-hug. Chloe kissed Max on the hat. Plugh. It was knitted and woolly and...kinda gross. She got wool strands in her lips.

Max broke the hug apart, but their hands remained connected.

“Wanna take a walk on the beach?” Chloe offered, eager to just move the fuck on and...get somewhere private.

“Uh...Sh-sure, yea.” Max was clueless. Chloe's brain sighed.

Chloe took the lead until Max's pace kept up.

The pair walked in silence for a bit, coming off the little worn out bridge – which was still standing, somehow.

The silence felt fucking great. Max's hand in Chloe's felt so warm. She felt light-headed, each step a small challenge, her legs weak at the knees, but everything was warm. Whether it was the brief smoke or Max herself, Chloe was certain that their sensations were mixing fucking wonderfully.

“So...” Max said. Awkwardly. “You need to, like...talk?”

Chloe shrugged. She took a deep breath through her nose and thought. Her brain seemed to absorb ideas from the ether of the universe or some cosmic bullshit, haha. Hohh...Man. This felt strange, but in a nice kinda way.

Chloe replied after letting her brain float for a moment.

“It's...weird...hanging out with you again.”

“...Huh?”

“Juh...-” Chloe's chest stiffened. She felt like a sob and a laugh were both fighting with each other inside. A cough came out, instead. “Haugh, just, this past week and a half...you. Being here. Back in my life, so...suddenly, and-and just...all of this crazy ass shit, and now we're, ya know, fucking dating?...I-I dunno, it's just fucking insane how much has changed in two weeks.”

“Yea,” Max sighed out sheepishly. “When I stop to think on it? This is all...unreal...”

“It's been nice that you've...actually spent time with me. Like, consistently.” Chloe scratched at her eyelashes, avoiding Max's turned gaze. In a wistful mumble, she added, “That's more than any of my other friends have done...”

Max's lips opened. Chloe knew they did. She could hear just the slightest intake of breath that came before Max would say something...controversial.

It hurt a little when Max didn't speak. It hurt to see Max still being so unsure of speaking her mind. Like she was afraid to say what they were both thinking.

'More than any of your friends? What about Rachel?'

Chloe wasn't really sure how to answer that question. The, uh, question Max hadn't actually asked. Chloe's feelings for Rachel had become so warped and twisted in this hella scary way over the past few days. This fucked up mash of nostalgia and longing and desperation and anger and betrayal and melancholy, and...-

Chloe had to brush the past off so she could focus on the present right then.

“Probably easier to...focus on all those other people than...deal with me right now...” Chloe's tone had turned sour. She quickly tried to lessen the sting by adding, “I-I don't mean that in a bitchy way. Not...not totally.”

Still struggling to shake off those fucking adorable eyes gazing at her profile, Chloe kept staring off at the sunset before them.

Chloe then decided, “You've...probably been trying to avoid awkward conversations like this.”

“Uhh...-” Max's voice quivered a bit. “Puh-...Pretty much, yea.” At least she was being honest. Chloe much preferred that over...some bullshit fake attempt at sympathy. Like fucking Victoria, ugh. “Chloe, I know you're going through...so much right now, I...I don't even...know what...-” Max trailed off uncertainly.

Chloe was loving Max's hand in hers, their thighs brushing against each other with each step.
But she was hating Max's wishy-washy words...

“Look,” Chloe sighed. “The worst thing you can do is treat me like a baby. I still want to laugh, and...talk shit with my best friend. Pff.” Chloe met Max's timid expression, her lips pursed. “I mean, my girlfriend. OK? You don't gotta treat me like all of those people back there, dude. I'm...different from them. Or, I mean, I should be, to you, anyway, amirite?”

Max swallowed, and nodded. Courteously. Respectively. She was acting a little strange.

Trying to work around this, Chloe's gaze averted back to the ocean. To the radiance refracting against the shimmering surface of the waves. To the glorious glowing orb, hovering just above the horizon.

“Can we, uh, hold up a sec?” Chloe requested, pulling the duo to a pause.

She clamped her fingers against Max's tightly as they both turned to look over the torn up beach. Chunks of debris and wood still littered the sand. A couple of rotting whale carcasses remained, having without the tornado, it seemed. Contrasting this was the fucking pretty ocean, lit up by the setting sun. Chloe was aware enough to realize her stoned senses made everything fucking glow into her brain more than it really did...But damn.

“This is seriously the best view of the sunset,” Chloe mumbled, rubbing her thumb against Max's wrist. “What do you photographers call that?” Chloe turned to Max, who looked...pale.

Damn, what the hell was up with her tonight?

“Uhh...-” Max seemed at a loss. Not like her with this sorta shit.

Chloe swallowed the unease in her throat as her memory suddenly sparked.

Snapping her fingers, she recalled it.

“Nah, I got it, I remember: 'The Golden Hour.'”

Max seemed a bit startled.

“Y-yea, that's...that's it,” Max whispered. “How did you know?”

Chloe smirked smugly at first. But then she could feel her expression wither.

“...Rachel.”

“...Oh.”

Shit. Awk-sauce. The very fucking topic they were both trying to avoid...Fucking damnit.

“Y-yea, because she...was...-”
“She was into photography, too,” Max said sullenly. “I remember...”

Of course you do. With how much you've put up with me fucking blabbering about how amazing she is. Ugh, fuck. How amazing she was. Goddamnit...

“I-I, umm...-” Chloe cleared her throat, swaying Max's arm back and forth gently. “I seriously think you two woulda got along, you, uh-...Bet you two would take some amazing shots of this shit, right here...”

“Mm...” Max's head bobbed and she stuck her left hand in her hoodie pocket. Chloe squeezed Max's right hand within her own and tried to figure out what the hell strange shit was going on in Max's head.

She hadn't seen Max so much as snap a selfie with her phone. Not a single photograph since before all the crazy crap had gone down.

Chloe couldn't figure out what to say to Max's silence. She gazed around their more immediate surroundings. Away from the sun, and the sea.

“Those beached whales look so sad,” Chloe quietly and solemnly lamented. “I...kind of know how they feel.” Chloe sniffed in the salty air and rubbed her sleeve against her nostril. Damn, so much for a change of topic. It was like her brain wanted to stay stuck in this depressing shit. Optimism, man, optimism! “At least...I'm alive, here with you. Wish we'd spent more time out here tonight, instead of...dickin' around with whats-their-bitches.”

“Stella,” Max mumbled. There was a...weird bitterness to her tone. “And Victoria, and Brooke. Chloe...They're not that bad.”

“I'm just saying, Max, you left me fucking hanging for, like, a hour and a half. And then dragged me though an obstacle course of brats who obviously don't give a fuck about you, when we could've been chilling like this. Together. Alone. But, no, they were more important. Not fucking cool.”

“'Not fucking cool?'” Max seethed in an furious whisper.

Shit. Chloe had maybe picked the wrong moment to get crap off her chest, huh?

“Chloe, most of the people I knew from Blackwell are either dead or I'm probably never going to see them again. We are together because this town is broken. We owe them.”

“We don't owe anyone shit, Max!” Chloe snapped in a whisper. “Maybe this town deserved this, I mean-”
“You stop right there, Chloe Price.” Max broke their hand hold. “You take that back.” Max jabbed her index finger toward the sand. “Right now.”

Chloe's eyes were getting damp. Ugh, fuck. She was careless with her words again. As-fucking-usual. Seeing Max upset seemed to be bringing out all of this...crap. She'd just spew thoughts out, thinking that there was some way to talk Max out of feeling like shit. The past few days, it just seemed to be making things worse.

“O-OK, I'm hella high-strung right now? My home is fucking gone, my mom is disfigured, Rachel is dead, my entire fucking life – which, by the way, was already dipped in shit – just got set on fire. A'ight? So...-”

Max, who had been nodding – a bit impatiently – through Chloe's rumbling, squeezed Chloe's hand fiercely. Chloe felt a pulse of arousal swell through her from the intensity on Max's voice, in her body language, in her voice.

“But like you just said – at least you're alive, at least you're with me.”

“Y-yea...” Chloe was a bit stunned. Mad Max, with the ocean breeze tussling her hair a bit, it was...kind of a lot to take in right that moment.

But Chloe couldn't let herself get distracted. Maybe Max was a bit annoyed, but Chloe was fucking pissed, come on, now. How could Max not understand how much she was hurting? Was Max really so occupied with all her Blackwell flunkies?

“Ffff-Fine, whatever,” Chloe spat, grabbing Max by the arm. “I'm not cool with all this shit, either, OK? I'm just talking shit 'cuz I wish you'd stop fucking overthinking it and we could just...be us.”

“Chloe, I under...thinked – thought – all of this. That's how we ended up here. I kept fucking with shit, and got to a point where I couldn't fix it.”

“Know what you coulda fixed? Me being stuck, alone, staring at my half-burned mother for like, an hour.”

“Wh-...? Chloe, she's your mom...”

“And there's abso-fucking-lutely not a goddamn thing I can do for her right now! I was losing my shit sitting in that room while she fell asleep. I've caused her enough bullshit for right now, she...she should be with David, at least...at least he fucking seems able to make her feel better...”

“Dude, Joyce loves you, you don't need to...to do anything to help her right now, just to be there.”

“Case you haven't caught onto the running theme here, Maxie, I'm kinda shit at being there for people, because I've never had anyone to teach me how.”

Max's eyes flickered with this awful, hurt look, and this slight eyeroll, and Chloe knew she'd, just...fucked up again. Damnit. She was just trying to be honest! Come on...

Yea. No, yea. Fuck it if it made Max mad.

Chloe had to get this shit out. Besides, like, as Max's girlfriend, she was, like, totally obligated to be honest, be open, communication, discourse, all that, right?

“Chloe, Joyce has been there to-”
“You sure fucking haven't been there for me.”

“What...?”

“For five fucking years, I wasn't worth the effort, was I?”

“Stop.”

Max tore her hand out of Chloe's. Chloe tried to re-grab it, but she was just high enough where her reactions were sluggish.

So...Chloe promptly did as she'd just been told. She stopped. She stared. She couldn't remember when she'd last seen Max with so much ice in her expression.

“Chloe?” Max's nose was wrinkled with some disgust. It hurt to look at. “Ever since we...got back together, I...I could tell how much you were dealing with. I felt like fucking shit that I hadn't been there for you. And you let me feel like that. You've been making me feel like...like garbage off and on, and...and off and on again ever since we reconnected. Like the shitty way you treated me after we found out about Frank and Rachel? That was not OK! That was...toxic. I keep...I keep pushing it back, telling myself...'Chloe can't help it, she's just got a lot going on right now.' But, no. You don't get to...to keep saying that crap to me, Chloe. This 'five years' bullshit? Did I ever call you, or write you? No. You-...I moved, my whole life was rearranged, I lost touch with everyone back here, because I had to bust my ass off to keep up with my new life. How do you think I even got into Blackwell? Because it sure as hell wasn't by...by playing hookey in a fucking junk yard, treating guns like toys, hanging out with...with drug dealers and 'self-medicating.' I didn't have a step-dad working for the school to get me in, I had to earn it. I basically had no social life because I was...in some hurry to grow up. I disconnected from everyone in Seattle, in Arcadia...I felt like I didn't matter, not unless I made something of myself. Do you know how sick I am of everyone telling me 'how mature' I am for my age? Being with you, Chloe, it made me realize...I don't want to be some mature grown-up, I want to be...Max. Just Max, you know? And I am so grateful you've helped me figure that out. But this 'five years' shit? This has to stop. Chloe, you didn't fucking write me, either. Not once.”

Max paused. Let that ugly truth simmer.
And Chloe felt selfish again.

She was afraid to just...swallow, with the way Max's eyes burned into her own.
Max wasn't done yet.

“Shit goes both ways. And it is fucking selfish of you to pin all that on me, as if I am any more to blame than you. We both let our friendship fall apart. We both chose to...to bring it back. And if this – us? – if it's going to work, we both have to put in the effort, which means you have to stop this fucking...projecting, this crap where you refuse to accept responsibility. Where you refuse to accept consequences. The past ten days of my life have been so fucking twisted, but I am fully aware that every single thing I do? It has consequences. So instead of wasting what I'm doing on...on-on...fucking petty shit, I'm going to be there for people. I'm trying to be there for you, too, Chloe, I am, but I have been for days now, and other people need me, now, too! I owe them everything. You owe them everything. But...So-...So...this...-” Max's face was damp with tears by now, her cheeks red. She sniffed and rubbed a sleeve across her face. “This is all I can do for them, Chloe...You have to let me do this...I need to...do something, any fucking thing, to...at least try to make up for all the damage I've caused. I can't live in a...in a fucking vacuum with you, I need...people.”

Chloe's heart felt like a hundred needles had just been jabbed through it.

The last one hurt the most.

Max needed more than Chloe? Chloe wasn't enough.

Of-fucking-course not.

Chloe was never enough...

“Muh...-” Chloe's mouth was sluggish. “Max...” She tried to take a step toward Max. Max took a step back, her brows contorting in this weird way that made Chloe ache.

Fuck. No...Wh...-?

“Max...I-I get it, I get it, OK? You-...You're pissed, and...and that's my fault, and...I'm fucking sorry, OK? But...but I needed you today, and...you just...bailed on me, but I needed you. You just...spent all this time with all these other bitches, like...like you being nice is gonna change something. And-and you keep fucking guilt tripping me about David, like he's some...misunderstood fucking hero. And fucking Victoria? You just totally blew me off around her! Right in front of her! Made me look like an asshole. Fucking kept...kept holding her hand! What the hell, Max? That chick is a fucking whore, she treated you like shit, she killed your friend. And...and I'm the asshole?”

Chloe's rant drizzled to a stop. Max's face had somehow turned even more angry, with these wide eyes of disbelief.

“Are you fucking serious right now?” Max seethed. “Did everything I just said go in one ear, out the other?” Max's hands found their way up to the sides of her head. She pushed them beneath her hat, clawing at her temples and shaking her head. “This is exactly what I am talking about, Chloe, oh, my God.”

“I-I'm trying to explain where I'm coming from, here.”

“I know where you're coming from, Chloe!” Max spat back, bumping the volume up a notch. “You spent a whole fucking week making sure I knew where you were coming from, OK? I understand, you're dealing with shit. So is everyone else. I am trying to balance all of this shit and it's like all you can see is what's in front of you...”

Chloe's hands were starting to shake.

“Wh-...? N-no, dude, I am doing my best, here. Like, like, I am trying, OK? I spent time with my mom and David, and-”
“And you're whining about it!”
“Nnnn...-! No! I-I wasn't whining, I just...-”
“You act like doing one half-decent thing is, like, this big deal! Like you deserve a gold-fucking-star!”
“Maybe it is for me, OK?! Maybe I'm so fucked up that doing whatever good-fucking-deeds you think I should be doing is fucking difficult for me!”
“Well, it shouldn't be! It...it should just be common fucking decency, Chloe.”

“Oh. Oh, yea? Yea? I ain't exactly decent, or common, so...so maybe I need some fucking examples, Caulfield.”

“Uhhh,” Max's head jerked to one side with offense at the notion. “Well, since you brought it up, how about Kate? You think it was all on Victoria? 'Cuz no, it wasn't. That's on everyone. Including me. You remember the morning before she died? She called me, Chloe. She needed someone to talk to, and...and for whatever reason, she thought that someone was me, but...-” Max tossed up her arms with self-loathing, her head lulling up toward the sky. “She was fucking wrong, apparently! My friend was hurting, and you wouldn’t let me answer the fucking phone! And I let you not let me answer the phone. She killed herself, Chloe. Fucking killed herself. I was too busy dicking around with you in a goddamn junk yard because you didn't trust me about my powers, even when I'd just proven it to you! You couldn’t even fucking wait five minutes…Believe me, I saw it, I answered that phone call, and I saw you throw a fucking tantrum, and it hurt, it hurt too much seeing you in pain, seeing you disappointed with me, seeing you get into an argument. So I Rewound. And I gave you what you wanted. But looking back? It was selfish. You were selfish, and I let myself be selfish with you when we both should've put poor-...God. Fucking Kate-...We should've put her before ourselves. I should’ve told you to grow up and have some fucking patience for once. But…I couldn’t,” Max’s intonation weakened at that last word and she sniffed, biting her lower lip. “Can never say ‘no’ to Chloe Price…and look what keeps happening…" Max savagely tossed an arm out up the hill, toward the debris of Arcadia Bay. Max puffed out in a desperate whisper, “Fuck...”

Chloe's legs were feeling weak. Her stomach felt...awful. She couldn't even describe it right, like she wanted to puke, but wouldn't be able to even if she tried?

“Max,” Chloe squeaked out, coughing on her own pent up sob. “Wh-...What are you saying?”

“My choices aren't the only...ones that matter, Chloe...Even from the start...in the bathroom? That my choice to save you. It was Jefferson's choice to...to manipulate Nathan, and...and Nathan's dad was an asshole to him. And it was Nathan's choice to...bring a fucking gun in there, and it was...-” Max swallowed, giving Chloe a glare that Chloe feared she'd never forget. “It was your choice to get involved with him in the first place. To...get involved with that kind of life...To sink to that level...To get in so bad you needed to...fucking steal from the handicapped to get out of dodge? Jesus. Chloe, any of those choices...All of us. If any of us had chosen differently, just one of us, that moment in the bathroom wouldn't have happened the way it did. Wouldn't have happened at all. All of our choices fucking matter. They all have consequences. Not just mine. Fucking...Chaos Theory? We live it, every goddamn day. The smallest fucking thing we do is going to ripple. It's going to matter, somehow, somewhere. Even if we never see it. I want...-”

Max's breath escaped her, and she clamped her palm against her lips, her eyes squinting as a well of emotion boiled like a volcano.

Max's wrath seemed to wither and melt in the face of what Chloe expected was a really pathetic, hurt, stunned kind of look on her own end. Max took in a long, ragged breath through opened lips, then expelled through grit teeth.

Max then replied cautiously, in a whimper, “I-I need...a minute...”

And then Max turned around, shoving her hat back straight on her head. She pulled her hood up over it, going to march off on her own.

What the...-? No! Fuck that noise! Max couldn't just...just call Chloe out like that and just...leave. Fucking leave. What the shit?!

“Hey!” Chloe growled, stomping toward Max. “Where the hell are y-?”
“Leave me alone!” Max hissed, spinning her abdomen around, shoving her palm out at Chloe.

Startled by Max's sudden gesture, Chloe's whole body flinched, her eyes squinted shut. Her knees felt weak all of a sudden, her stomach queasy. She felt sick, dizzy...

When she opened her eyes, Max was...gone.

Like, gone gone. Like, literally magicked out of sight.

No. No way. No fucking way! For real?!

This was like the door at Blackwell when they'd been busting in. Max could, just, like, fucking teleport with her Rewind somehow. That was so...-! That was out of line, right? Totally unfair. Chloe wasn't crazy to think that was out of line, was she?

Max had swore she was done Rewinding. Promised. Pinky-swore.

Pinky-swears had used to mean something between them.

Puh. Apparently, not anymore.

Apparently, Chloe had pissed Max off that much that she was willing to break promises.

Ouch. That realization hurt so much...

And then allllll of the realizations crashed at Chloe, all at once. Everything Max had just said. How solid her case had been. How right she was.

OK, OK. Yes. Max was...totally, like, in her right to call Chloe out. Fine.

All of that anger, all of that built up shit, Chloe could tell so much of it had been, like, bottled up. Stored. Like all this time, Chloe was annoying Max, and...and Max was just being quiet about it. Mostly, anyway.

Suddenly, everything was starting to feel...like a lie, of sorts. Max had broken her promise. She'd been, what, pissed off this whole time, or...-?

Everybody lies. No exceptions.
Everyone pretends to care until they don't.
Even you, Max.

Chloe couldn't just stand there. Waiting. She just couldn't. No way. She noticed the footprints in the sand, there was an extra set of them – heading back where they'd come from. Three sets when there shoud've been only two. Chloe's line of vision turned toward the lighthouse in the distance. Yup. That was exactly where Max was heading. Chloe was damned sure.

With nothing but the ocean waves and a million regrets to keep her company, Chloe shoved her beanie down over her head, covering her ears to keep them warm. On the way toward the lighthouse, her mind was reeling with so many thoughts. Too many thoughts. Too many feelings. Her tears lost their meaning for a few minutes. Everything was tears, a state of existence – sobbing uncontrollably but in small, steady spurts.

Chloe tried checking her phone to take her mind off of everything for a moment.

But there were no new messages.

Max's phone had been going fucking crazy all this time. But Chloe's had barely had any activity.

And then it dawned on her.

Maybe the reason you feel so fucking alone is because you keep pushing everyone away?
Maybe you keep trying to fill this gaping fucking hole all with one person, but one person can't live up to your expectations. Not even Max Caulfield. She's not perfect. And you're so fucking far from perfect...no wonder Max needs more. Needs other people...You're doing a shit-ass job of being what she needs right now. She has been there for you, through all of this crazy shit. She gave you both things you wanted most, both things you needed: an answer to Rachel, and what you wanted from Rachel in the first place.

Now she needs you, Chloe Price.

Maybe try to step up your fucking game?

Staring at her lock screen of a darkly dreaming Maxine, Chloe pondered what to do with her phone, her hand flexing and relaxing with it between her fingers. She could think of something else she'd rather be flexing her hands around. A couple somethings.

Erh, shit, now was not the time for that, huh?

But, c'mon, it would seriously help them both feel better, right?
Ehhhhh?

Mmm?

Hehh.

Ugh.

Your game. The 'being a fucking adult' one. Step it up. Like, for real.
I mean, I don't know what the actual fuck I'm doing, but I sure as hell ain't trying hard enough.
It's time to start.

Chloe swiped her phone to unlock it. Thunder rolled in the distance, jarring her a bit. She glanced upward, wary of rain. But the clouds were distant, off across the sea. Whew.

Chloe sent a string of texts as she crossed the beach's humble bridge and made way for the pine-riddled cliffside.

[To: Maxine <3 ]
[that was so not fair.]
[but guess i haven't been fair to u either.]
[thought we're supposed to talk shit out tho rite?]
[i'm on my way.]
[i'm really fucking sorry i really mean it.]
[for everything.]
[ xoxoxo ]

Chloe didn't receive a reply, but that was expected. Chloe dropped her phone back into the pocket of her brand new cargo pants Max's mom had snagged the day prior. You could buy new clothes, but not second chances. Hopefully by the time Chloe found Max, they'd both have cooled off a bit and try this again.

All the same, Chloe still felt...fucking annoyed. Infuriated at, just, like...everything. If that goddamn bitch had just kept her hands off Max, stayed in her own fucking lane...-

Gragh. There Chloe went, trying to pin it all on one person. Some other person.
Some other person beside Chloe...

Goddamnit, Max, fucking hate how right you are about me...

Step up your goddamn game, Chloe Price.
Try harder.
Be better.
Maxine deserves it.