Life is Strange: Another One to Love

Chapter 1 of my new Life is Strange story, enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own Life is Strange, or its characters.

Chapter 1

The sun was rising and the birds began their song, the light and noise streamed gently through the window of the dorm room. Max Caulfield wasn't really paying her surroundings any mind however, she was lost in thought, lying on top of her bed, her gaze fixed on the wall.

'I still can't believe she's gone...Chloe...' Max thought sadly.

She recalled that long dramatic week which now, never happened. After discovering she had the power to rewind time, she used it to save her best friend, whom she hadn't seen in five years, Chloe Price from being killed. However, she forget one principal rule regarding meddling with time, action and reaction, which almost had devastating consequences when Arcadia Bay was nearly destroyed by a tornado.

In the end, despite the pain it caused her, not wanting to cause the deaths of so many, Max agreed to a plan that Chloe herself suggested and used another of her powers to go back in time, to the exact moment she had saved Chloe.

Despite it practically tearing her heart out, this time she did nothing, let what was supposed to happen, happen.

She bit her lip. 'I let her die...time corrected itself, at the cost of Chloe's life...Friday came and there was no tornado, Chloe's funeral instead.'

She shook her head, it had been nearly a week since the funeral and while, for the most part, her grief was spent, there were still times when she mourned. That week had never happened to anyone else, for Max however, the memories would last forever, both the good and the bad, but it was worth it.

In the days following Chloe's funeral, it was all about recovery, slow, steady, but mostly slow, recovery. Some of the Blackwell students couldn't fathom why she was so affected, to them, she never reconnected with Chloe; thankfully however, nobody gave her any shit, confronting her about it and such. Then there were those who were more understanding, who accepted her grief and did what they could to help her, without being too cloying.

'Warren, Kate, Dana...They all stood by me, they all did their best to help.' She thought with a small smile. 'The teachers have all been understanding too, which is good, considering I've been sleepwalking through class this week.'

She sighed as she considered how the new events of last week had also had a profound effect, almost as much as the ones she remembered. Following Chloe's death, Nathan was arrested and confessed to not only Chloe's death, but the incident with Rachel Amber, Kate and the Dark Room.

Jefferson was also arrested once he had been exposed as the true culprit and Nathan was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. While his family, especially his father, objected, Nathan shut them down by insisting that his family's wishes in this regard be ignored.

Max pondered on what changed after that. 'Victoria took down that video of Kate, she was so...distressed by what happened to Nathan. All people could talk about was, that...It gave Kate the breathing space she needed and now, no one really cares about what happened with that video.'

Max groaned, so much changed naturally, yet despite everything, this wasn't helping her. She was supposed to be calming down, not getting more worked up.

Finally, she gave up, she had to escape her dark thoughts and lying here wasn't going to help that. So she got up and, after a brief pause to consider, she left the room. Truthfully she had no real plans, which was unusual for her.

She heard a familiar voice as she exited her room and looked down the corridor, smiling lightly as she finally spotted Dana, she was talking to Stella and Alyssa and seemed rather excitable about something. Stella and Alyssa were both smiling too as they replied, before finally leaving the dorms, Dana looked over and spotted Max, she smiled and began to approach.

Max smiled too.

"Hey Max, how, how are you?"

Max replied honestly. "I'm okay Dana, still...times where it's hard, but I manage."

Dana nodded. "I; I see. Well, I know if anyone can make it through something like this, it's you Max."

Max bit her lip, not quite sure how to respond to that. It felt strange, being complimented in that way, especially to her.

Deciding to change the subject; she asked. "So, what's been going on, I saw you looking pretty excited earlier?"

Dana brightened immediately; grinning and then replying.

"Oh, that's right. Listen, this weekend, I got permission to use the school hall for my birthday party." She explained. "You're more than welcome to come if you want."

Max paused at that; a little surprised.

The reason for her surprise was simple.

"Huh, I thought your birthday was last...oh." She trailed off as she realized she just answered her own question.

She had wondered why Dana was holding a birthday party now when her birthday was last week; but now it made sense. Dana not only knew about Max grieving for Chloe, Dana had attended the funeral too.

Dana nodded sadly. "I thought it best to give everyone a little time."

Smiling at the respect Dana showed to both the dead and the mourners, Max replied.

"That's, really nice. I'd love to come Dana, it'd be a good chance to finally get some, normality back in my life."

Dana smiled again and gave her enthusiastic reply. "Great Max, oh, and...maybe you should invite Warren too."

Max felt her face heat up, as it always did at the mention of that name. Warren Graham had been, for some time, in both timelines she experienced, her best guy friend. That had changed recently when, after discovering her feelings in the week where Chloe had lived, Max had finally found the courage, despite her lingering grief, to admit them to Warren properly.

Warren had been crushing on her for a long time she knew, in the end, what mattered to them now was they were together, they loved each other and had each other's backs.

Finally smiling she nodded. "That's a great idea, I'll tell him when I see him."

Dana nodded. "Cool, I'll see you there Max."

Max nodded and soon made her way out of the dorm building, now with a plan, to meet Warren. She smiled properly for the first time in what felt like an age. She was hopeful, she would never forget Chloe, but that didn't mean she'd have to mourn her forever, in fact, Chloe would probably tell her to snap out of it and do something wild to cheer up.

While considered tame to some, for Max, going to a party certainly qualified as just that.

End of chapter, hope you enjoyed it, read and review please.