Portland, Oregon

The Caulfield-Price Residence

2016

The blaring from her cell phone's alarm clock made the burly pair of bodies under the blankets shift around in annoyance. Chloe groaned in annoyance, sticking a lone hand from under the covers, desperately grabbing for the gyrating cellular device on the nightstand to her left.

Ugh, just one more day of this shit, She thought, rising up from her spot in the bed. Chloe yawned, stretched her limbs, grunting quietly in satisfaction as her sore limbs cracked into place. She could hear the gentle breathing from the body next to her. The soft sleeping face of Max Caulfield, brought a small smirk onto her lips. Chloe bent over to one side, leaning over her placing a quick gingerly kiss on her freckled forehead. Max's skin was cold to the touch, but still managed to warm Chloe up in all the right areas. She wanted to stay in this position forever if she could, but alas, money wasn't gonna make itself, work was calling.

Grabbing her phone and hastily checking the time, Chloe quickly rolled over into a sitting position, her bare legs dangling over the edge of the bed. Like usual, she was running late. Her boss was not going to be pleased. Chloe didn't really care too much though. Fucking guy had a stick up his ass on most days anyway. Mustering the strength to leave Max alone in their bedroom, Chloe drug herself into the hallway, nearly tripping over when she stubbed her toe on someone's carelessly discarded and heavy bookbag in the middle of the floor.

"Jesus Max would it kill you to not to put your shit in the middle of the damn hall?" She quietly muttered out loud to herself, grasping down at her sore foot.

Flipping on nearby the light switch and hobbling into the bathroom, Chloe quickly, and half-ass-edly set about brushing her teeth. While doing so, she caught a glimpse of herself in bathroom's mirror. Nearly all the blue hue in her hair had faded back into it's natural blond color. She had been too lazy to start re-dying it, plus she had liked to think she had outgrown her rebellious anti-authority phase for the most part...at least appearance wise. Of course, Chloe was always going be Chloe, but she felt that had matured quite a bit since those days. She still had her moments of course, but having had Max back in her life for the better part of these last three years had been a literal life-saving experience.

Spitting out the glob of saliva, toothpaste, and plaque into the sink below her, Chloe quickly threw on her dingy work outfit in a matter of seconds, not caring how about how wrinkled it was. Stepping into the living room, Chloe walked over into the kitchen, eyeing the mass of empty takeout boxes and wad of filthy dishes in the sink.

Coulda' swore that I said to Max that it was her turn to do the dishes this week.

Truth be told, She and Max hadn't been on the best of terms as of late, both of them where working like crazy, cutting into their spare time that had for each other. They hadn't spoken nearly as much, there was no sex, and things just seemed to be heading a generally unpleasant direction. Chloe swallowed a nervous gulp as thought of her and Max's relationship ending in heartbreak, crossed into her mind.

Could she do it? Could she function without Max? Her precious Max? it's not Max would leave her...would she?

She did for five years, what's to stop her from doing it again?

"Urgh.."

Before she was able to register or focus on those thoughts, her stomach audibly chimed in to remind her that she still hadn't eaten breakfast yet.

Fuck that was loud. Hopefully Max didn't hear that. She chuckled to herself.

Not in the mood to cook something, plus the fact that she was still currently running late for work, Chloe just grabbed the first thing she saw in the nearest cabinet. It was mostly empty, say for a few granola bars and other gross healthy shit that Max's liked.

When the hell's the last time Max went shopping around here? She pondered in slight annoyance.

Too famished to be in a bargaining mood, she hastily just grabbed two bars and called it a day. The granola and oat bars didn't stand a chance as Chloe devoured both of them in seconds. Quickly throwing back a tall glass of milk, she tossed it into the sink along with the rest of the dirty dishes. She was still pretty hungry, but it would have to hold her over until lunch or she and Max went grocery shopping again.

Slipping on her shoes, Chloe grabbed her car keys and went over to the front door of their apartment and threw on her signature blue beanie, that was resting on the coat rack near the door.

"I'll be back Maxi-pad, Auntie Chloe's gotta go and make that sweet mula." She said out loud, speaking more to herself more than Max.

Some Time Later ~

Chloe couldn't remember the last time she hadn't had something NOT go wrong on the way to work. Either her truck's ancient battery was being pain in the ass, she got stuck Portland's seemingly never ending traffic, or some careless dickbag in a beat-up hooptie would cut her off and nearly make her spin out into a ditch, or better yet some magical unforeseen circumstance would fall out of the clear blue sky and crap all over her morning.

But today...today was different. Or at least it had seemed that way.

Chloe had managed to actually make it to her workplace without something or someone fucking up. She was still roughly ten or so minutes late, but hey, beggars can't be choosers right?

So there she stood.

In the parking lot of "Marty's", the rustic diner and bar where she collected her humble paychecks from. Leaning up against the bumper of her old Chevy, she took cheap glances to and from her cellphone's cracked screen, silently dreading having to go inside and actually interact with other people who weren't Max. Finishing off the last couple of drags from her pre-work cigarette, Chloe scoffed a bit as she glanced up at the diner's silhouette a few feet in the distance.

Another day of wiping down tables and getting berated by a jerkoff with a superiority complex, hooray for me...

Being a waitress was something Chloe had never saw for herself, especially after growing up and seeing all the stress from the tiring work hours that her mother Joyce had gone through just to barely make end's meet.

Joyce. Memories of childhood came back flooding in an instant at the brief pondering of her mother's name. Although she never would outright admit it, Chloe missed her. Although It wasn't like she and Joyce weren't speaking or anything, in actuality, the first few months that she and Max had moved out on their own, Joyce would give them a call damn near everyday. David would too.

Oh yeah, David. Good ole' step-douche himself.

Chloe still felt a small tinge of unpleasantness surge through her whenever she thought about him. It didn't matter how old she got, she would never except him as William's replacement. Not as long as she breathed.

Never ever. Not in a million fuckin' years. She thought.

But still, Chloe couldn't bring herself to completely hate him anymore either. Not after seeing how surprisingly supportive he had ending up being of she and Max's relationship. Chloe could still remember the first time that she and David had hugged each other. It was the day before she and Max moved into out their apartment. From what she had remembered he had told her that he was "proud to see her making strategically efficient choices for once", or something weird and David-esque like that.

In a strange way, she guessed David was kinda right. Before getting back with Max, Chloe was a total mess. Not just any kind of mess, but a hella fuckin' mess. Her life was total and utter shit from the top and right to the bottom. Everything was absolute agony and rot. Well... almost everything.

Everything except for her relationship with Rach-

"Chloe Price! Is that you I see over there?" A sudden high pitched, yet masculine voice called out from a few few away, ripping the punk from out of her thoughts.

She titled her eyes upward, quickly flicking the butt of the cigarette over her shoulder. In the open back doorway of the diner stood, a glasses wearing, brown haired younger man who stood of a somewhat of a smaller stature. In his scrawny hands were two garbage bags of varying sizes. Upon closer inspection, Chloe recognized him almost instantly.

It was Arnold. One of her ever beloved co-workers.

Arnold was a "pretty okay lil' guy", Chloe had managed to conclude from the few times they had spoken. A goody two shoes who always played by the rules and took his job way too serious, but overall he was somebody that she could tolerate. "Tolerate" in this case meaning as long as he didn't bother her constantly, she wouldn't have a reason to dislike him. But today, things were already starting off on the wrong was no telling how long he had been watching her for. Chloe must've got caught up in her daydreaming for longer than she intended.

"Oh shit, my bad Arnie. Didn't mean to be clocking in so hella late, you...uh..know how hectic Portland's traffic can be." She quickly fibbed, gingerly walking over towards him with her hands in her pockets, secretly hoping that he wouldn't prod her for more cheap conversation.

Arnold gave her a simple shrug and tossed the garbage bags over to the rusty odorous dumpster to the left of him. "Get real sister. You've been standing there for like twenty whole minutes Chloe." He said, his tone coming more stern than usual.

Chloe's face almost immediately scowled up in response.

"And you've been watching me the entire time ya little weirdo? Got nothin' better to do besides stalking me and then bitching at me?" She scoffed, giving a cold shoulder as barged past him.

She was definitely not in the mood to hear one of Arnold's famous "Proper Employee Etiquette" lectures right now.

"Just trying to help you not get yourself fired Price. You're just making things harder on yourself." He called out from behind her.

Chloe didn't respond. She saw no reason to. Arnold was just Arnold. Always trying to give out some magical advice, even when it wasn't warranted or wanted.

Dude if this shitty ass job was paying me more than the bear minimum then I would probably be the best fuckin' waitress the universe has ever seen. She chuckled to herself as she headed over towards the wall to clock herself in and begin her shift.

All the while hoping just to get this day over with so she could get home to Max.

Her Max.

It hadn't even been an entire hour yet and she was already missing that freckled face.