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Max is nosey (rad_max) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-09-01 02:35:00

You just wrinkled your nose
Who: Max and Chloe
What: A coffee date
When: Late August
Where: A coffee shop
Status: Complete
Rating: PG



Coffee seemed like a safe bet, even if a coffee date was rarely actually just a coffee date. Max fiddled with her camera, music in her ears. She hadn’t touched her drink yet, and when she wasn’t look at at her camera she was looking around at the other people in the coffee shop. Studying them, making up stories in her head in a couple of cases.

Chloe couldn’t afford the coffee, but it wasn’t a big deal. She grabbed a water with extra ice from the barista and tipped her a dollar instead of paying for the drink, a sure way to keep the free ice water coming. Looking around, Chloe could feel her heart fall into her stomach when she saw Max. Well, dawdling wasn’t going to do anything. So Chloe just swallowed hard and walked over.

Max looked up when she heard something approaching. She wasn’t sure how she was supposed to react, except she really liked the blue hair. Chloe looked way different. Not like Max. Max thought that she probably looked the same, and she wondered if she should change up her look sometime. She smiled awkwardly. “Uhm. Hey.”

Sitting down by Max, Chloe just took her in. “How is it you haven’t changed at all? You’re still Mad Max, huh.” The shorter hair really suited her, though.

“Only with less vehicular homicide.” Max self-consciously pushed some of her hair back out of her face. “You look….wowsers.”

“Marginally less vehicular homicide, but hey. The day is young.” Moving so her legs were curled up underneath herself, she laughed at Chloe’s use of the young slang word. “Oh, man, didn’t a cartoon say that? Inspector Gadget, right?”

“It used to play on the rerun channel.” Max wriggled her fingers on the table, then shifted around in her seat. She wasn’t sure what to say. Sorry I was a shitty friend? That was probably a good start. “I think I started saying it ironically and then it stuck.”

“Sounds like you,” Chloe smiled. “You’re a wowsers girl.” Her chipped blue fingernails drummed lightly on her water container. “So. Uh. What’ve you been up to?”

“School. Taking pictures. I really like polaroids, but I picked up an old Canon 35mm for college.” She tapped her camera, then lifted it up to take Chloe’s picture. It flashed, and out churned a picture. Max shook it out and looked at it. She really liked how the blue came out. She held it out to Chloe. “I just like how the pictures come out. What about you? I mean what made you up and leave?”

“You? Taking pictures? No, never.” Chloe couldn’t help but tease her friend even then. She smiled at the photo, then shrugged. “There wasn’t anything left for me in Arcadia Bay, so I figured I’d find a place that wasn’t used up.”

“It’s hard to use this place up. It seems like something strange happens every other month.” And ever since she’d gotten onto that network life had gotten really strange. “So…” Max sucked on her lower lip, and couldn’t finish what she was going to say.

“Strange is better than boring,” Chloe replied. She took another sip of her water, waiting for Max to spit out whatever she was saying. “So?”

“I know I was a shit friend. Real bad about keeping in contact.” She could have called. Emailed. Texted. But adjusting to a new school, not knowing what to say...of course all of those sounded like excuses so she sipped at her drink instead.

Chloe shrugged. “You get used to being the girl people don’t know what to say around. Everyone’s scared to talk about their dads, so it’s all good. High school sucks no matter what, right?”

“I guess.” Fitting in hard been hard. She’d made a few friends but none of them had been as close to her as Chloe had been. “It was all kinda shallow. I wish I could have made a statement, like you did.” She gestured at Chloe’s hair. “It’s gorgeous.”

“Oh, the hair? I did it because the color cheers me up. It was Rachel’s idea.” Saying Rachel’s name around Max felt weird, and Chloe shifted anxiously in her seat.

“Rachel? Friend of yours?” Though Max was soft spoken she still felt a twinge of emotion at the name. Jealousy? What did she have to be jealous of? Or even deserve to be jealous of?

“Yeah.” Chloe smiled a little, knowing it had been more than that on her behalf, but she didn’t know if Rachel had thought it was that way. So she just didn’t say anything beyond them being best friends. “I don’t know where she is now. She moved to LA to be a star actress, but I haven’t heard from her in a while.”

“Well, I’m sure you’ll see her on TV or something,” Max assured her. She just hoped Rachel was better at keeping in contact than she had been. “She has a good eye for color though.” Max wanted to touch it, but she stopped herself before she could.

“I’m sure,” Chloe murmured. She just hoped Rachel was okay; she’d settle for a text or a phone call first. “Artists. She designed my tattoo too.” Max sounded weird, but Chloe figured it was just being nervous about seeing her for the first time in a long time.

Max was nervous. She felt like she deserved some kind of chewing out, and she couldn’t explain why. “Cool.. cool. I wish I had the guts to do something like that.”

“What, dye your hair? It’s not hard, just a bitch to keep up with. Well, it’d be harder for you, you’d have to bleach your hair first.” Chloe reached out to tuck some of Max’s hair behind her ear.

Heat colored Max’s face and she tried to cover it by bring her drink to her mouth. Instead she managed to miss her mouth and nearly poked herself in the eye with the straw. “It would look pretty weird. Bleach blonde Max.”

“Only for a minute, then you’d put whatever color in afterward. Maybe dark purple or something.” Chloe noticed Max’s cheeks and smiled to herself. Max blushed over everything, it was just as cute then as it was when they were kids.

Max tried to picture herself with purple hair and couldn’t really see it. But if it would be cute (and Chloe liked it) she might try it. She could imagine her parents’ reactions and that might be funny. “Remember that wig I wore one halloween? The orange one?”

Chloe’s nose wrinkled. “Orange isn’t hot on anyone, but you looked cute. But you’re always cute.”

“I’m not cute.” Max’s nose wrinkled right back. Like a cute little chipmunk.

“You just wrinkled your nose. You’re adorable,” Chloe laughed. “I’d tickle you if we weren’t in public.”

“Thank you for leaving me with some dignity,” Max replied. She smiled and laughed with Chloe, relaxing again. It was like falling into an old routine, and she didn’t know why she hadn’t ever called or even texted.

“Hey, it’s just because I’m gonna tickle you until you pee later on,” Chloe grinned. It was weird, it was like they’d never had any sort of gap in their friendship. Things were simple between them.

Max ducked her head. “I’ll have you know I have the ultimate anti-tickle defense. I won’t be as easily defeated as you remember.”

“And what’s that?” Chloe made hooky gestures with her fingers. “Because I’ve had way more tickling practice.”

She pointed at Chloe, a big dorky grin crossing her face, “If I tell you the defense it won’t be much of a defense, now would it.”

“Fair.” Chloe sighed and leaned against the wall. “You have me there, Mad Max.”

Unable to keep the smile off of her face, Max studied Chloe, then picked up her camera to get a picture of the blue-haired girl leaning against the wall. She shook out the polaroid and looked it over. “...You’re really photogenic.”

Chloe smiled at the photo and shrugged. “You think I am because you’re a photographer. You have this ... awesome way of seeing the world, Max. You always have. But thanks.” She handed the photo back over. Photos of herself just made her sad.

Max held her hands up like a frame to look at Chloe through. “Yeah but you’re…” She trailed off, dropping her hands and shrugged. She didn’t know how to say it without making the wrong impression. Or what that impression might be.

“I’m what?” Chloe just raised an eyebrow.

“Uhhhm.” Max picked up her drink, sucking at her straw to buy more time, but it only made a loud, obnoxious slurping sound.

“Oh, so I’m slurpy.” Chloe nodded. “That makes sense.”

“Yeah, totally!” Good save, Max! She gave herself a mental thumbs up, retreating to the land of denial.

An eyebrow went up, and Chloe shook her head. “I was joking. Because that makes no sense at all.”

“Anyway are you going to take classes? Maybe we’ll have some of the same ones!”

That subject change was super subtle, and Chloe couldn’t help but laugh at the absurdity. “I can’t afford a place to sleep, how am I gonna pay tuition, Max? Maybe someday, but not anytime soon.”

“You shouldn’t have to sleep in your truck,” Max replied, frowning. “Maybe I can get you a tent or something. Those camp parks are pretty cheap, aren’t they?”

“I’m crashing with this guy and his brothers. Don’t worry, it’s all good, I’m used to sofa surfing.” Chloe smiled and beeped Max’s nose. “Why, you worried about me?”

“Are they good guys?” Max worried her lip nervously. “And of course I’m worried, Chloe! You’ve been sleeping in your truck!”

“They’re nice, yeah. I mean, they made ‘oooh, girl at my house’ jokes, but I just told them that if they touched me I’d rip their dicks off and now we’re cool.” They were respectful of her bathroom time, too.

“Good…” Max fiddled with her camera. “Chloe? I’m sorry. About being such a shitty friend before.”

“You’re here now,” Chloe smiled. “I thought I’d be mad, but I can see you feel bad about it. Just don’t do it again, or I’ll find you.”

Max folded her arms. “What are you going to do, spank me?”

Chloe just raised both of her brows. “Do you want me to? Not really a punishment otherwise.”

She wasn’t supposed to roll with it. Max made an exasperated sound, but there was no more coffee left to save her.

Giggling, Chloe took a sip of her water. “So, besides finding out you’re into kinky shit, what else has been up with you?”

“Nothing exciting, until you showed up! My life is so boring.” She waved a hand. “Maybe we can get into trouble, like we used to.”

Get into trouble, Straight-Edge Max?

Chloe laughed. “I don’t think you’ll want to get into trouble with me, Max. What kind of trouble would you get into, not turning your homework on time?” She grinned and gently poked Max in the shoulder.

“We could always do street art,” Max suggested. “Kind of like we used to do, only you know in places we’re not supposed to.”

It was almost daring!

“You wanna tag shit?” Chloe’s eyebrows went up. She could dig that.

“Artistically,” Max replied. Then she straighted up. “And I could take pictures of it!!”

“Yes. Let’s preserve our felonies for posterity,” Chloe laughed. “Thug life, yo.”

“That sounds so wrong coming out of your mouth.” But it gave her an idea for an art project. She furrowed her brows as she thought about it. Kind of like tagging, but instead of writing on the walls, she could take pictures of the urban landscape.

Chloe just laughed, her fingers itching for a cigarette. She took a last swig of her water, leaning back. “So. Wanna go do something?”

“Lets do whatever you want. I kinda owe you that.”

Rolling her eyes, Chloe reached out to give Max a noogie, then hugged her. “I wanna go hang at your place. See a wild Max in her natural habitat.”

Hugging Chloe back, Max sighed. “Okay, that sounds cool. I’ll warn you, I’m really boring. But at least I got a nice tv?”

“We could watch some movies.” Chloe liked how easily they’d just fallen back into being best friends, and she let the hug linger. “C’mon. Your chariot awaits.”