Max is nosey (rad_max) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2015-11-03 18:57:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, chloe price, max caulfield |
Who: Max Caulfield and Chloe Price
what: Toking up, preparing to paint a truck, messing with the time stream and kissing. You know. Teenager stuff.
when: Recently
Where: Chloe's place
Status: complete
Rating: PG-13 for drugs
Chloe kept dying. Usually in the dreams (how many times had she seen Chloe shot before she got her to shoot the right thing in the junkyard? And then the train? Fucking hell, the train.). Twice now while awake, though she had decided not to actually tell Chloe. To protect her. Max felt incredibly protective of her friend. From a relative outside observer’s perspective Max could see her feelings coming like a runaway 18-wheeler but had chosen to ignore them. Multiple counts of emotional trauma weren’t the kind of thing to build a relationship on.
Not that that stopped her from being close to Chloe every chance she got.
“I’m still kinda surprised your junker made it all the way from Oregon.”
Grinning, Chloe pulled the beatup pickup into a parking spot by her apartment. “Hey, don’t underestimate her. Dad taught me how to keep her in shape.” It was something her stupid stepdad had tried to help her with too, but she refused and worked on it by herself. “My boss lets me tune her up at his garage, so hey, free oil changes.”
“I’ll pretend that made sense,” Max said. She snapped a picture of Chloe grinning at the wheel. “We should paint her. Like the murals we used to do.”
“Pretend what made sense? You know what a tuneup is, right?” The blue haired girl winked, then her eyes went wide. “Max, you are hella smart, that’s perfect! I’ve got paint upstairs, let’s do it!”
“Of course I know what a tune-up is. For a guitar, anyway.” Max found her cheeks warming up at the wink, so she started to slip out of the clunker. “Really?” She turned around and backed up a few steps. “I better get a few before shots.”
“You still play? Rock on.” Max hopped out of the car, her boots thunking on the pavement. She idly picked at a fleck of rust on the hood, hoping that her favorite possession comes out looking better than it went in.
“Think we should wash it?” Satisfied with multiple angles, Max came around to join Chloe. “And yeah. I’ll never be a rock star, but I can still play hipster trash.”
“I washed her yesterday, she should be fine.” Chloe wrapped an arm around Max’s shoulder, amused that she was still shorter. “C’mon, you pick out the colors, art girl.”
Grinning, Max leaned into the hug as they entered the apartment. “Gotta have blue. Your hair looks too good not to have some blue. And we’ll need the right kinda red. And we can paint a jolly roger on the hood!”
“Genius. This basically is my pirate ship. I slept in it on the way here.” Chloe tossed her keys onto the counter, then moved toward her room and flopped on the bed. “Art stuff is in the closet, if you wanna.”
“She’s your baby and we’ll take good care of her.” Max opened the closet and leaned in, poking around for the art supplies. “Have you done anything lately?”
“Like what? Breathe?” Chloe grinned at her own joke before rolling over and pulling out a baggie, a lighter, and rolling papers from her nightstand.
“Artsie.” Max glanced at Chloe, then rolled her eyes. “Know what’s crazy, Chloe? I wouldn’t know where to begin to get that stuff.” As long as there was no Frank like person involved, she didn’t mind.
Chloe’s slender fingers were quickly rolling a joint. She looked up at Max as she tongued the paper to wet it, pressing it to the joint to seal it off. “I just asked a guy on the Valarnet. Nice dude. Kinda cute, but not for me, y’know?”
“Yeah. Guys are dumb anyway, no matter how cute they are.” Art supplies in hand, she sat on the edge of the bed. “And sometimes they don’t take a hint.”
“Oh, I meant that he’s gay.” Chloe leaned back as she inhaled, exhaling toward an open window. “Want me to sit on the fire escape? I know you hate the smell.” Chloe worried about Max all the time.
“Oh.” Max waved her hand, wrinkling her nose. “That’s okay, this is your place.” And maybe a contact high would help the art. Or something.
“You sure?” Chloe moved to sit in the window, straddling it so one leg was inside her apartment and the other on the fire escape. “Here, best of both worlds. It’s fucked up how I still get so stressed even after moving so far.” She didn’t know if she should tell Max that Rachel had run away in her waking world too.
Max fidgeted with a paint brush. Hanging out with Chloe since they’d reconnected had been a highlight of moving to California, but she still felt like there were things left unsaid. She still felt like shit about not calling or texting or anything. “My mom started doing yoga to help with her stress. I blame Cali.”
Chloe’s laugh came with a bit of coughing, as she’d been inhaling when she got the giggles. “Seriously? She aligning her chakras too?”
“We haven’t started eating tofu… yet. I think that’s a threat she’s saving for if dad gets out of line.”
“Tofu’s not horrible if you cook it right. Rachel was way into the health junk, no meat, blah blah.” Chloe, on the other hand, liked burgers and fries. They’d been an opposites attract couple.
Max tried to stop an involuntary nose wrinkle at the mention of Rachel. She couldn’t be mad at Chloe but she was jealous. Rachel had clearly affected Chloe on a deep, fundamental level. She’d been replaced, and it had been her fault. “I don’t think I could live without a burger.”
“Same. I had to sneak them and brush my teeth afterward.” Rachel had always said she could taste the meat on her, and Chloe had thought it was adorable. But the memory stung, and Chloe took a deep inhale to help herself forget about the girl she’d lost while awake and asleep.
Wanting to ask about Rachel but also able to tell that it was a sore subject with Chloe. She wondered if Rachel was missing here too. She wanted to meet her. Rachel seemed like a really awesome person. She considered rewinding their conversation, but didn’t go through with it. “We should do the jolly roger last.”
“Yeah, so it’ll stand out against the hood. Do you dream about ... I don’t know, do I die so much in the dreams? Did I get hit by a car there too?” Chloe turned to look at Max. “Do I get to save you back?”
Max wrung her hands, nearly causing paint to leak out of a tube. “Uhm. Not a car. There’s a train...you got stuck on the tracks.” She decided to skip the part about the gun. The train was traumatic enough.
Chloe’s eyes went wide and she nearly dropped her joint. “We were at the junkyard?” Fuck. She hated the idea of getting hit by a train. Not that she’d been afraid of it before, but now, it seemed reasonable to be scared of.
“Yeah.” Max nodded. “You wanted a safe place to test my powers. So we goofed around a lot.”
“Some safe place,” Chloe snorted. “There’s all sorts of scrap metal. I probably got tetanus too when I almost got hit.” She minimized her fear by making jokes. God, she hoped this dream life didn’t happen in her own dreams.
“It wasn’t so bad. It was like bonding.” She’d liked the part after the train. She’d probably held Chloe’s hand too tight but it had been so close. If she hadn’t had powers… “Not the train part. Talking.”
“I assumed,” Chloe smiled.” She stubbed out the joint and then moved to shut the window. Once the roach was safe inside her nightstand she sprayed some Febreeze and smiled at her best friend. “You’re a better friend than I deserve, Mighty Max.”
“You’re not wrong.” Smirking, Max nudged Chloe in the shoulder. “I’m just so happy you took me back that I could kiss you.”
“Woah, wait, what?” Chloe laughed, shaking her head. “Why did we make out?”
“What?” She shook her head, waving a hand. “No, we didn’t make out!”
“Why not?” Chloe grinned. “If you’re gonna kiss someone, kiss ‘em right, you know?”
“No I mean we didn’t kiss at all. It’s like a saying. You know?” Max mumbled something after that sounded suspiciously like she’d never kissed before.
“Wait, have you not kissed anyone?” Chloe moved closer to Max, wrapping an arm around her shoulders. That meant her friend was a virgin, which made Chloe blush for some reason.
Making a panicked squeaking sound, Max shrank in Chloe’s arm. Face red, she shook her head. “No, never.”
“Want to?” Chloe grinned down at Max, pulling her closer again. “That way since it’s with me, your first time won’t be awkward.” It wasn’t like Max liked girls, so Chloe was safe.
“I … uh….” Well she could always rewind if this went bad. Trying to regain her cool and sounding way less casual than she’d intended, she said, “Sure.”
Smiling, Chloe leaned down a bit and cupped Max’s cheeks gently in her hand. She was as experienced as Max wasn’t, so she made the kiss light. First kisses should be gentle.
It was… it was…. “Wowsers…” Max whispered the word after the kiss ended.
And then she rewound. And she rewound again. And again.
“Wowsers,” she said, for probably the sixth time, then ducked her head and blushed.
“Okay, Inspector Gadget.” Chloe smiled, blushing a little herself. “See, now you’ve got it out of the way, so you don’t have to be shy with other people.”
“Uhm.” Max laughed nervously, unaware of a sudden light nosebleed. “I remember when your dad made us marathon that whole series.”
Chloe noticed, and her eyes went wide. She looked around her nightstand for Kleenex, then reached out to dab at Max’s nose. “Are you okay?”
“What? Oh. Shit.” She let Chloe dab at her nose. “Uhm. Probably from using my powers lately. That happens sometimes.” She was more embarrassed than anything.
“Why were you using your powers?” Chloe blinked. “Did I freak out or something?”
“No,” Max said, slowly. She felt her nose to see if it had stopped. “You didn’t freak out. I uhm…”
Realization swept over Chloe slowly, and she bit her lower lip to fight back a blush. “You like me? Really? You like girls?” Chloe hadn’t had any idea, and knowing Max liked her changed so many things.
Max looked like she was considering rewinding again. This wasn’t at all how she’d wanted any of this to go, but Chloe’s blush was just so cute that she couldn’t stand it. “Yeah. I like both, but mostly girls.”
“You like ... me?” Chloe blinked and bit her lower lip as she smiled. “You could have told me, I’ve only liked you since we were kids, you jerk.”
“Where did you get that… wait..” Max flailed her hands. “You like me? You like like me? Why would you like like me?”
“Because you’re you? You’re awesome and funny and you’re ... Max. What other reasons would I need?” Chloe facepalmed. “Are we really this stupid?”
“Maybe not stupid. But…” Max couldn’t help but think about the dreams. About how much it had hurt to see Chloe hurt and how important she’d become to her again. She’d do anything for her. anything. “You’re so cool and chill and awesome.”
“What, and you’re not?” Chloe moved to sit on the bed, motioning for Max to sit down by her. “I don’t hang out with people who suck, Max.”
Max looked at the spot on the bed, then sat down next to Chloe. She left space for Jesus, as Kate would say. She looked down at her hands in her lap, then over at Chloe. “This won’t fuck us up? I can rewind if this will fuck us up.”
“Why would it fuck us up? We kissed, we didn’t get you pregnant.” Chloe leaned forward, lips close to Max’s again. “I mean, I can try again if you wanna.”
“I meant our friendship, we only just…” Max trailed off, then suddenly closed the remaining distance to kiss Chloe again and hoped she could figure out what she was doing.
Chloe smiled when Max leaned forward, hoping that Max wouldn’t rewind this and make it where they had to have this conversation all over again. “I’ll always be your friend, Max,” Chloe murmured when they had to breathe. “I always have been. I don’t think I know how not to.”
“Kissing is hella nice,” Max murmured, then blinked her eyes. “They always tell people that friends get messed up if they get all more.”
“Only if they break up because they’re dicks to each other. Mom and dad were best friends before they got married.” They’d been soul mates, but Chloe knew that Max knew that and it didn’t bear repeating.
Nodding, Max took Chloe’s hand and threaded their fingers together. “I kind of think that maybe there’s a little destiny in play here too. Between the dreams, and me getting powers and us finding each other again.”
“You think?” Chloe moved to lay down, hand still twined in Max’s. “That makes sense. I was mad you didn’t write back, but I just always knew you’d find me again.”
“I really really should have.” Max laid down next to Chloe, unsure what she was supposed to do, but wanting to scoot closer. So she did. “That was shitty of me. All I have is excuses.”
“It’s okay.” Chloe rolled over and wrapped her arms around Max. “You’re here now.” And she was warm, and smelled like perfume, and Chloe could feel her heart beating faster.
Max’s heart was beating faster too. She curled into Chloe, holding onto her like she was worried that something or someone would take her away. “Not gonna go anywhere, that’s a promise, Price.”
“Good.” Chloe smiled against Max’s hair, running her fingernails lightly over the skin of Max’s shoulders. She’d wormed her fingers under the neck of Max’s t-shirt, but she liked the warmth. “Wanna get a pizza and watch a movie?”
Unable to trust her voice, Max nodded. She scooted even closer, because Chloe’s fingers felt amazing. After a moment, she managed to say. “Netflix?” and chill?
“Sure, I’ve got that.” It was one of the luxuries that Chloe could afford; she made enough money to pay for her apartment, pot, the internet, and Netflix. That was about all she needed.