Author's notes: Just wanted to put a few quick warnings here to spare you the trouble of reading if some of these things throw you off.

1) While Max's appearance will be the same, Chloe will look quite different for the majority of this story. Rest assured that the changes to her are necessary for the plot. The changes will be mentioned very early in the story.

2) Since this is an Alternate Universe (AU) story, some characters will not appear from the original story and some characters will have slightly different roles, while retaining their personalities, given that I know how to write said characters well enough. The biggest thing, however, is that Max can't control time.

3) Lastly, since I am not from the United States, my knowledge about it is limited, so please forgive any errors when it comes to things related to the customs, places etc. unique to America.

I do hope you enjoy!

XXXXX

Chloe woke up when she heard her mother leave her room. She lazily searched for her phone with her hand and tapped the screen to see what the time was.

7:34… Shit…

Chloe was supposed to meet Frank in an hour, but her head was still aching slightly.

Maybe that third bottle was too much…

Mustering her strength in an attempt to get out of bed, she got to a sitting position, allowing her to look for some relatively clean clothes laying somewhere on the floor. After seeing her favorite jeans close to the mirror, she finally got out of the bed entirely and slumped over to them.

As she picked up the jeans from the floor and put them on, she saw her reflection from the mirror. She winced at the sight of herself, like she had for the past year or so. The reasons were clear on her body; a deep scar ran down her left side, from her armpit all the way to the beginning of her leg. It was a reminder of a surgery done after a car crash, one that Chloe couldn't remember clearly. She only knew what the doctors had said about her ribs nearly puncturing several organs after being fractured. Apparently it had been a miracle that she survived.

Another scar ran between her breasts, starting from near her neck and ending just below her breasts. It was an old knife wound, given by her drug dealer in a rather confusing fight that neither could remember. They had swept it under a carpet for that reason, but Chloe still carried the marks of it on her.

The third and last reason Chloe hated looking at herself in the mirror was the fact that her right eye was gone. It was so spooky to her to see an empty hole where her eye should be. At least she had lost it in a "cool" manner, like Frank always told her. In a drug deal gone bad, an addict had pulled a gun on her, but luckily his aim had been shit, only scraping her eye with his shot. Unluckily, it had destroyed her eye. Frank knew a doctor who could do "simple" surgeries and such and had managed to take the remains out without damaging anything further.

Of course Chloe's mother and most other people knew a different story about her falling off a bed and hitting her eye against a sharp edge of a nightstand. It didn't sound that cool in comparison, but it saved her a lot of trouble.

Chloe sighed as she picked up her eyepatch from the nearby table. It was a simple eyepatch, made of black leather and it only covered the eyehole and the surrounding area, like her eyebrow. The two small black straps that held it tightly in place were joined together at the back of her head. The straps themselves were mostly invisible, disappearing into her hair and under the beanie she often wore.

As Chloe left the mirror to put on the rest of her clothes, a simple T-shirt and a black vest plus her beanie, she heard her mother turn on the shower in the bathroom. It was the perfect time to sneak out of the house. Chloe slowly opened and closed her door so that it wouldn't make too much noise. She waited until she had gone down the stairs to put on her shoes. Lastly, before exiting the house, she picked up her keys and her wallet from the table next to the front door.

When Chloe finally stepped outside, she was greeted shyly by a girl she hadn't seen in years.

"Max!" Chloe shouted in surprise as Max smiled at her coyly.

"Hi Chloe." Max greeted.

An awkward silence ensued as the girls simply stared at each other in disbelief. It was obvious that Max had come looking for Chloe, but it seemed that had been the extent of her plan. Chloe saw Max look at her worriedly and maybe questioningly. She probably looked a lot worse than five years ago, but Max on the other hand looked as good as ever.

"Wow, you haven't changed at all. Well, maybe you look a little older and you're probably slightly taller too, but other than that… It's good to see you Max." Chloe stumbled with her words more than she would have liked, but made up for it by wrapping her hands around Max and embracing her tightly. Max swiftly returned the embrace, relishing in the feeling of finally seeing her old friend again.

They stayed like that for nearly a minute, until Chloe finally began to loosen her grip. Max did the same and once the girls were separated again, Chloe pointed towards her car.

"We have a lot of catching up to do, right? Let's find a nice, small restaurant and grab some breakfast?" Chloe suggested, and Max was more than happy to agree. As they climbed into Chloe's car, Chloe sent a text to Frank.

No time for business today, I'll explain tomorrow. Don't text back!

"So, what do you think? Left or right?" Chloe asked as she began to reverse out of the yard. Max chuckled a little and pointed to the left with her hand.

"Roger that, ma'am!" Chloe said in a military-like tone, which amused Max.

"You're going to make me choose a direction at every turn, right?" Max spoke in an amused tone and Chloe nodded with a grin.

Some things never change… Max thought happily as she chose another direction.

They had a lot of catching up to do, things to discuss and reasons to give, but Max was confident that they could return back to their old routines in time. Although judging by Chloe's changed… look, she might have had a harder life than Max expected. Hopefully she could help her friend like she had before, a long time ago. But only time would tell.

XXXXX

End notes: It is a rather short chapter, but the other ones will be longer. The story will truly kick off in the next chapter, as Max and Chloe are together again.