The bustling of working people, incoming phone calls being answered, papers and keyboards being worked upon. Walking, pacing, a glass of coffee. Discussions across the room, chairs rolling across the floor. It was all too perfect but so out of place.
Where the hell am I? Chloe wondered, her vision a blur as if awakening from years of slumber.
"Really need to redesign these drop shadows." A man passing by.
"You're still on about last week's column." A woman following.
"I'm not even joking." The man sipped his coffee as the two voices drowned away into the working crowd.
Office. The first supportable hypothesis Chloe could come up with as she picked up another conversation to her right.
"We got Maxine Caulfield on cover, shit sells now." A gruffy middle aged man, Chloe imagined as another younger voice chimed in.
"The next generation is doing well."
"The next generation is an entitled joke thinking they're the next enlightenment."
"Hey if it sells, it sells."
"Pay for my funeral would'ya?" The two walked further away in chuckles.
Maxine Caulfield. A familiar name. Maxine Caulfield.
"I can't make this choice for you ma'am. If you want to pull records…"
I can't make this choice. Chloe's vision cleared, woken up by thunder, before her a fully functioning office room. Movement, files, computers and glasses. White fluorescent lights seemed almost too cliché, along with the messy desks and nonstop printers. Chloe briefly analyzed her surroundings and to her surprise, the room turned out to be a giant lobby office floor. Catching up to the echoes bouncing off the three-story high ceiling, the enormous glass panes to her left and the massive similarly glass building across the street filling up every inch of the view.
"Where the fuck am I?" Chloe whispered, trying to get an estimate on how high up she might be as a formation of birds flew past outside. The seconds ticked on when the memories started trickling down. A parking lot, a beach, a storm. Chloe tried to put any pieces she could recall together, revealing one person's name.
"Max. Max!"
Feeling her feet on the ground sent an uncanny tingle up her entire body, she looked around and found her balance again. The sense of awkwardness creeping up her shoulders seeing everyone around her dressed in business casual, khakis and plain blouses. Not the boots and ripped jeans, nor the tank top and black beanie.
Then she heard it, the name "Maxine Caulfield" was being sprinkled around the office way too common for her preference, a name she felt was privileged for herself to be one of the only ones to access the girl's full name. Yet now it seemed to be becoming the next social trend amongst the office workers and Chloe simply could not deny the unease as she began to explore her first steps.
It did not take too long for Chloe to notice the strange looks she should be getting dressed in her punk garb, rather the lack there of, she was fitting in too well. Several men in glasses and chiseled jaws raised an innate animosity within Chloe but she did not know why. Why was she here? Where was here? Or maybe the better question. When?
Despite being completely lost in her current situation, Chloe was drawn to something, with each step she took she felt a need to take another in a certain direction. So, she followed it.
I am really tripping balls now. Chloe found an interest in the confusion, curious to where her subconscious compass was taking her. At the same time, she couldn't stop thinking about Max. Why are people saying her name? How long has it been? How did I just wake up here? Where is Max? I need to see her.
The more she thought, the more of the memories leaked back into her conscience. The disbelief of suddenly seeing Max after almost getting shot in the bathroom, the disbelief of seeing Max after getting shot, the relief to see a long-lost friend who became so adorable reemerge into her arms.
Oh Max are you here? Chloe's curiosity grew desperate bit by bit as she remembered more.
The obsession after Max saved her from the train, the obsession when she and Max snuck into the swimming pool, the regret that she pulled away when Max kissed her.
Chloe what were you thinking? You asked for it and blew it. Chloe frowned and smiled at the same time, bittersweet in the past but hopeful for the future, fading out the miscellaneous office noises. I need to ask her again.
When Max defended her before David. Max you're such a badass. When Max gathered clues with her about. Oh no. When she and Max found Rachel.
Chloe now anxious, being alone getting increasingly unbearable as she increased her pace, trying not to circle herself around in the maze of an office. Nearly shouting Max's name out loud but the nervousness imbued on her by the strange environment still restrained her.
I'll always love you. I will always love you. That's it.
"Max! Where…" Chloe stopped in her steps, just across the room a girl was working at the reception desk. Her short brunette hair with a streak of pink on the left to frame her pale face, intent in her task. Chloe smiled, the intensity dropped instantly. Without realizing the grin on her face she made her way towards the young woman, whose head still hung low at whatever documents she might be sorting. Chloe thought of calling out to her but chose to savor the slow walk before the surprise.
Almost the same as I left you. Chloe snuck to only a few feet before the desk and looked at the pink highlight in the girl's hair. Wowser time does change people. Did I just say wowser?
The wait was over, Chloe took a deep breath and jumped in front of the working girl, resting her cheek on the table with the biggest grin she could manage. The brunette though, did not even bat an eye.
Is she really playing hard to get? Did I not surprise her?
Chloe took her hand forward and brushed the pink highlight in the girl's hair, that got her attention. The brunette looked up at Chloe, her blues eyes sending shivers down Chloe's back, her smile dropped.
"Can I help you ma'am?" The receptionist asked awkwardly, still with Chloe's finger in her hair.
Oh shit.
"Oh shit. I'm sorry, I thought your hair looked really cool." Chloe pulled back, and closed her eyes trying to find a save, "I thought you were a friend of mine."
"Sorry." The girl smiled and tried to find her customer service tone, "and thank you very much."
Goddammit Chloe, should have checked for freckles, but they look so damn alike.
"So sorry, that must have been really strange." Chloe chuckled as she rubbed the back of her neck and took a few steps back.
"It's okay, does your friend work here?"
Chloe looked back at her soft blue eyes, almost getting lost in them she came to her senses again. "Right, um, maybe. I'm looking for someone named Max, Max Caulfield."
"You mean Ms. Maxine Caulfield?"
Chloe's eyes lit up and slammed her hands on the table, startling the girl a bit.
"Yes! Maxine Caulfield! Yes! Her! Do you know where she is?" Chloe ecstatic at the confirmation of Max's existence, was almost hopping in place before the uninterested woman.
"She just left the building through that door behind you a few minutes ago."
Chloe looked at the door behind her and back to the girl, nodded in appreciation.
"Thank you so much!"
Without waiting for a response she bolted out the door to a seemingly endless descent of stairs, despite the weird looks and gasps from people around her she slid down the railings as fast as she could without falling. It must have been at least five or six floors until she got to the bottom into the main lobby of the building. Scanning the room for any sign of her friend she ran for the glass front doors. From across the street outside she could immediately catch a glimpse of the face she would never mistake to be most certainly her Max, except maybe a few minutes ago. Her brown hair was longer and straighter, she wore a gray coat over formal attire, a book bag across her shoulders. But her face, the timid look in her eyes asking to be alone registered as absolutely only one person. Freckles, check.
Chloe dodged through the crowd after Max, who was now advancing down the street out of Chloe's vision. When Chloe finally charged through the glass door of the office building, immediately hit by a wave of chilling cold, but she didn't care. She looked left to search for what she hoped to god was Max, a way to common hair color as her only clue.
"Max!"
The brown-haired girl a block down the road stopped, looked back in search of something. Chloe grinned as she caught the sight of those unmistakable blue eyes as she ran towards her, but losing someone was all too easy in the gray scaled tone of the big city. The brown-haired girl turned back around and continued her original route.
Chloe was slowly catching up, or at least that she hoped, sinking into despair when she thought she had lost her, then regaining strength and surge of joy when she saw the brunette again. She called out.
"Max! It's Chloe! I'm alive! Please!"
It was now that a deep voice rumbled from an unknown direction. "Are you now?"
As if the world around her had suddenly slowed down, the original monotonous color of the city now completely unsaturated. Chloe looked around the strange spectacle and just now processed the world around her.
"What the hell? Holy shit." Chloe whispered, confusion and fascination colliding into one emotion that just left a worried smirk on her face.
"Are you alive?" The deep voice asked rhetorically, from somewhere above but also below and everywhere else.
Chloe looked at her hands, her bracelets, her blue painted nails, the intricate tattoo on her right arm, everything seemed perfectly sane. The voices and hustle around her came back to her ears as the world around her returned to motion. Coming to her senses, Chloe blinked and almost had to appreciate the coloration of the city after a brief moment of monochrome, the orange sunlight in particular, the green of the nearby Starbucks sign, the brunette.
"Max." Chloe said to herself as she raised her head and remembered where she was and considered herself lucky enough to find the back of Max's head again, one that she made sure to engrave into her memory at the cost of her sanity.
Gotta get to her, gotta get to her, gotta get to her. Chloe tried to go fast but sifting through the crowd can only allow so much. A sense of reprieve when Chloe saw Max stopped waiting for a stop-light at the intersection, her break was short though as the walk signal lit up and she was on the run again.
Come on, almost there. The tunnel vision did not pay her benefits as Chloe ran face first into a large man walking past her, almost knocking them both over.
"Ah shit," Chloe rubbed her nose, "Watch where you're going!"
The man however paid no attention to Chloe and just walked around her.
Damn, someone's in a hurry, fuck, I'm in a hurry.
The tiniest stall cost her distance with the woman she's after. The white walk-light switched to the orange wait-light just as Chloe was about to enter the intersection the brunette had crossed. Chloe in the moment decided to run across the street despite the passing traffic, but the bus said otherwise as it grazed mere inches from Chloe's face.
Dammit I can't be stopping right now. Chloe made two more attempts to run across, but each time intercepted by another vehicle forcing her to back off to the sidewalk. The long brown hair was getting further away and Chloe decided to just be ready and haul as soon as she could. The seconds felt like days, and thirty days just felt way too long for a stop-light for Chloe.
Godspeed be with Chloe when the walk-light switched back on, like an Olympic competitor in the across-the-street dash she raced for the other side, grateful the oncoming wave of people took caution and made some room for her to pass.
"What the fuck is she doing?" Chloe heard someone say, adding a smile to her to frustration and self-approval of her speed.
She's close, very close. Chloe once again brushed past the pedestrian center, the skyscrapers around her channeled the wind through her blue hair as the piercing cold into her sweat tested her endurance.
She's right there! Chloe reached her hand out, just a few feet away.
"Max!" Chloe's hand caught the woman's shoulder and spun her around and was about to drag her into her own embrace when the brown eyes stared back at her in surprise and fear.
No.
Chloe let go, the brunette woman gave Chloe an uncomfortable glare but decided not to press, only turned around and kept walking. Chloe stood as the stream of people proceeded around her.
Max.