Max's POV
You know when a grown up tells you to always keep a secret and leave it be? Well, I would love to live up to that motto. To just let secrets slide and move on with life with nothing to worry about. Sadly, I got plenty to worry about. Time travel, missing friend, and now to add to that, Chloe's tendency to get into things that really are none of her business.
I know she's change ever since I've left her for what felt like many years, but that was the one trait that she always had. Whether it was a fight at Blackwell, a near death experience there, or just gossip, many students will say, "I heard Chloe Price is going to jump in and mess shit up." Which sometimes make me think. Is that the reason why she keeps on dying ever damn day of the week? If so, then I should put a stop to it before it gets really serious.
I know my powers won't stay any longer, but I should at least take advantage of it for her sake. But for right now, I should relax. Just read some books in my dumb excuse of a dorm, probably wait until I find the perfect moment for a picture or sleep the day away. Besides, it is a Sunday after all. What could possibly go wrong that would make Chloe want me to go on a wild goose chase with her?
"Hey, Maximus! Open the door, man! I got a vid to show you!" I heard a female voice yell from the other side of my dorm out loud following a bang on the wooden door covering the figure. I knew who it was and I sure as hell didn't feel like opening the door for her, but if I didn't she would've probably kick it and my ass in. So with a low grunt, I flopped off my bed and opened the door to guess who.
Chloe Price, smiling that devilish smile she would always have when something juicy would happen. I expected her to tell me from where she was, but instead, she just barged into my room and slammed the door shut again like there was a zombie Apocalypse happening outside. Wait a minute. "What's up? Are there undead in the school?" I asked with a sudden grin appearing on my face.
"No way. But that would be pretty cool," The blue haired punk replied, bringing my hopes back down into the imaginary dump of a brain I have. As I tried to find out what was happening through other questions, the older teen closed my blinds and made sure that no one saw her enter the building. After checking, she continued, "I saw Victoria doing something so I recorded the scene on my phone and it was weird."
"Please tell me she isn't making a sex tape or I'll have some serious nightmares."
"You think a bunch of naked pictures from Sexy can I will give you nightmares? Yeah, you really are a scary cat... Have you seen the bitch today?"
"No. She walked out of the building a few hours ago."
"That just amps up the suspicion. Anyway, you wanna see the vid so I can interrogate you?"
"Why me-."
"Just look at it." Before I could ask anymore, Chloe put the phone right in front of me without hesitation as the video started to play. It showed a man in a coat and a hat of course, looking impatiently around for something. He seemed to be in a hurry as well since he lightly jumped up and down. That was until a female figure in designer's clothing walked towards him and handed the man money. His straight lips suddenly tugged to a frown when he gave the girl a plastic bag secretly then the two parted ways. By the end of the video was where I finally got a look of Victoria's face for a brief second. She looked kind of tensed up and a little afraid. It kind of caught my attention, but not enough of it.
"Is this real?"
"Of course it's real! You think I would ever lie to you, Max?!"
"Well, you have lied your entire life."
"Touche. But this time, I am hundred percent serious about this manner! I'm wondering who that man is and what he has with Bitchtoria. Not that I care about her or anything."
"Then why the hell are you looking into the matter?"
"Because this might have something to do with Rachel! I am not slipping up this opportunity, dude. Now tell me, what do you think that guy was giving her? I think it was drugs."
"It can not be drugs. She's never done it and promised not to ever since the incident with Kate... Chloe, I think you should drop this before things get out of hand."
"Come on, you're supposed be my partner in crime. Not my mom! For once drop the good cop shit and join the dark side~!"
I was so close to telling her that this was always the cause her losing a limb until my phone vibrated in my pocket, meaning I got a message. I thought it would be from Kate, who would want me to know that church was over, but it was Victoria to my surprise. And the weirdest thing of all was that she was texting me to ask the simplest question,
"What do animals hate?"
I was sort of confused about the matter that I had to ask myself. Should I answer or not. Well for starters, the question didn't seem to be threatening in a way, it was just so out of nowhere. Maybe she needed to know for homework and one of her stupid minions of hers didn't know. Either way, I decided not to text only because one, she's a asshole. Two, I don't give out answers. And three, she's a asshole. So I stayed quiet until she text back, "Please, Max, this is serious." That alone made me freeze right where I stood. She said please. To me! How crazy is that?! This had got to be a dream! I needed someone to pinch me.
But instead of a pinching myself, I replied, "The cold," then ended the conversation to start a new one. "She just text me something weird." I told Chloe in a murmur.
"Really? What?"
"She asked what do animals hate."
"And... What did you reply?"
"That they hate the cold... Is animal another word for something or is she just being mean?"
"Sometimes people like to call men beast or animals," Before she could continue, both of our eyes went wide at the idea that was circling in our minds. Then we connected the small details together. Plastic bag, weird looking dude, the text. It just couldn't be! She wasn't actually doing something that inappropriate right? Sadly. There was only one way to find out. And I wasn't fond of it, but we had no other choice.
"Partners in crime, right? So that means we're going to investigate?"
"You bet yo ass we are now that we are! So, let's go?"
"Let's go." With that, we both left the dorm, out of the building and into the rusty car Chloe owned, heading straight into the town to see what was up. I just hope I didn't screw up and that nothing will happen to my hard-head of a friend. But sadly, hope doesn't help. So all I could do was this point was pray. Pray a lot...
When we got into the middle section of the small town of Arcadia Bay, me and Chloe quickly searched around the area to find Victoria. Lucky for us, she was standing in front of a clothing store. Buying some really high shit for herself maybe. If it was me, I would've just left her be to that, but instead, I stayed with my partner in crime since this could might be a huge clue to our investigation. After what felt like a hour of staring at the dull colored building, the blonde walked out of the place with two bags in her hands filled of clothes. One piece down, I guess more to go.
The young teen made her way back to school, so we followed her only to stop and see her walk into yet another store, but this time, she never came out. And that pissed my blue haired punk off a little... Okay. Maybe a lot. So she ran right into the store to find out it was a hair salon and got kicked out for acting like a idiot in there. Luckily if I wasn't there, she would've got arrested. But to our surprise, the bitch wasn't in there. Maybe she decided to sneak out or something. Either way, it was yet another piece to this puzzle.
Our last stop was the school again since that could be the only place she would go back to. When we got there, Chloe decided to piece things together as we walked up to my room. "Okay," She blurted out. "So she probably got a bag of drugs from that weird looking man, she texted you about animals which could be men."
"She also went into the clothing store to buy maybe more slutty clothes," I added. "And also went to get her hair done. What does it all mean?"
"Open your eyes, Max! She's definitely trying to get into someone's pants and play with their python!"
"I don't think she would do that, Chloe."
"Come on! It's the only thing that makes sense at this point! We got all the proof and my little video. Now all we have to do is just go in her room and catch that bitch!"
"Okay then, what exactly do you plan to do when we get her?"
"Easy. Tell everyone what a fraud she is and then all of the students here will see her as the little slut she is!"
"I know this will be payback and all, but don't you think you're going a little too far with this?"
"We, Max. Don't forget. You signed up for this too. And don't worry! This will all work out perfect for us and her! Promise. Now quit second doubting yourself and get ready for shit to be real." When we finally reached the room, the blue haired punk didn't even bother to knock on her door. She just kicked it wide open, causing a loud bam to be heard and for me to jump in surprise before she dashed in and yelled, "We finally caught you, Victoria Chase!"
I was waiting for the blonde to just yell what the fuck we were doing in her room, but what I heard instead was just complete silence and we found was a empty room with the plastic bags from the clothing store from earlier on the ground crumbled up and the window propped wide open with the white curtains dancing with the wind lightly. The scene alone made Chloe upset as she made her way down the stairs with her pulling me by the arm the entire time until we ended back into the truck.
"What do you think she went to," She asked me in anger and frustration.
"I-I don't know. Maybe she went back to the stores to get a refund?!"
"Or to get her some taste of a big stick. Either way, we can't lose her! Not when we are so close to making her look like the biggest loser in the school!"
"Chloe, what if she really isn't doing anything? What if we are just jumping to conclusions?! Maybe she's doing all of this for someone else! Maybe this really isn't our business! We should really stop before things get out of hand!"
"Should've told me that earlier before it got to this point, man! Now, it's not even about tricking her or hurting her. Or even Rachel for that matter! Let's just say I want to play a fun game of cat and mouse with the one that's making my best friend's life a living hell."
Before I could stop her, the car stopped itself due to the sudden hit from her foot to the brakes. Suddenly, she pointed to another familiar figure from afar that was standing in the middle of the park. And that figure was none other then Kate Marsh. I guess church was done and she just felt like breathing some fresh air or something like that. But knowing Chloe, she thought the girl could be the key to ending this little game. So without any words, she dashed towards the girl for answers. Me? I just followed her for the heck of saying hi to my friend.
But before we could get any closer, both of us noticed that her pet bunny, Alice, was jumping away from her. It was a weird sight until it got even more weirder as Kate took out a carrot from her jacket and started to wiggle it around lightly, catching Alice's attention. As the bunny started to bounce lightly to her, the dirty blonde started to whisper in a somewhat funny tone that wasn't normal in a way, "That's it. Come here, Alice. Come here, you mangy bunny..."
It was unusual to hear her call her beloved bunny a mangy one and it was unusual for her to have a somewhat pretty high tone for a voice. Did she drink a lot of tea or eat something that wasn't right? Before I could ask myself anymore questions, Alice jumped into the arms of Kate and ate the carrot she offered. Everything was back to normal I guessed. Well, that was until something out of the norm happened. Chloe decided to call out to Kate again only for her to turn and reveal that the person wasn't even Kate.
It was Victoria Chase, disguised as her! In unison, we both questioned while also yelled out, "Victoria!?"
"Ugh, what the hell do you guys want?!"
"Um, the real question is why are you dressed up as Kate?"
"Forget about it, Mad Max," Chloe jumped in after me, still confused as to what was going on but was trying so hard to keep her tough guy act on. "We caught you red handed, Victoria!"
"What are you talking about?"
"Don't act dumb! We know what you've been trying to do and you can't hide the fact anymore because all of the school is going to know."
"G-Going to know about what?!"
"That you're trying to be a toy for men, a duh!"
"... Excuse me?!" Victoria exploded before pulling up the bunny in her hands in front of us like it was a statue in anger. "I was trying to get Kate's stupid bunny back! Stupid. And cute little bunny... Wait a second. Please don't tell me you guys were sneaking on me!"
"Uh, we. Um... Well-."
"Yeah," Chloe interrupted quickly before I could make a logical excuse for our asses. "To see if you were doing drugs and stuff! I mean you would since you got that fucking mystery bag from the guy with the trench coat!"
"The hell-. I was getting carrots from Nathan's gardener! He wasn't supposed to be giving me them but thanks to my money, I was able to broad him for them."
In a cold sweat, the blue haired punk countered back, "Well, what about the clothes and the hair salon you went to?! Huh? And what about sneaking out of your room?!"
"I was going to look like Kate so Alice wouldn't think I was a complete stranger, duh! And I only sneaked out of my dorm because I didn't want anyone to see me in this awkward getup! Also because Courtney texted me at the last minute and told me Alice was here all alone!"
"Then, um... H-How about that weird text you gave Max earlier? Yeah, I bet you can't explain that, huh?!"
"I was texting Max about the animals because I thought it might have helped me find the bunny easier! And it kind of did since all I had to do was search at warm to hot places instead of freezing ones! But why the hell am I explaining myself to you two when you guys were spying on me like the little creeps you are!"
"Uh... Max, back me up here?"
Before I could think of anything to say to back up Chloe's ass, my mind went wondering. Why was she so serious about finding Alice in the first place? I mean, I always had a feeling Victoria never liked her for some odd reason, but I guess I was wrong. Then again, why would she go to the extremes to find her? She couldn't care about Kate or Alice so much, could she?... Well, I hope it doesn't hurt to ask.
"Um, Victoria, why were you so serious to finding her anyway? In that text you sent me, the second one, it almost sounded like you were serious about this matter. Mind telling me why?"
"Yeah, Icky Vicky," Chloe chimed in next to me with the devilish smirk back on her face and her arms crossed like she was a evil boss from a video game. Not to mention, she kind of looked like one as well at the minute. "You got feelings for Kate or something. Don't be shy to tell, I promise I won't tell a soul."
"Chloe, how can you say that when you already said you was going to tell all of Blackwell she was doing drugs and trying to bang strangers? You shouldn't know about this. If anything, I should."
"Come on, this shouldn't be anything that serious like drugs. If it is, then I'll consider telling the school, but until then, tell me Vic. You got a thing for Kate?"
Out of nowhere, the blonde slowly started to blush hard like a tomatoe to our surprise and held on the small black and white bunny in her arms as she whispered, "Let's just say... She's. Special in a way, okay? She's... Very special..." Her blush suddenly disappeared and was replaced with narrow eyebrows and gritted teeth of anger. "I can't believe I'm saying this, but I care about Kate a lot! And if you tell a single soul, I will make sure you feel like garbage for the rest of your precious little lives, you hear me?! Now if you excuse me, I got a fluffy bunny to give to her. Begone!" With that, she left both of us dumbfounded by what had just happened.
I never actually knew Victoria had it hard for Kate. I always thought she was just some stuck up bitch, don't get me wrong, I still think that. But I'm kind of happy I got to see her in a different light and that she's not doing anything bad outside of school. Is that weird? Maybe. But then again, life can be weird. And I guess I can deal with that. As for Chloe...
"Chloe," I whispered to the right of me at her, getting her attention.
"Yeah, Max?"
"Don't ever get me into one of your shenanigans ever again unless it's serious."
"But this was-."
"That wasn't serious, that was embarrassing. I don't ever want to be in that kind of situation again..."
"You know you can always go back in time and stop it, right?"
"I'm trying so hard not to fuck with time and space. So just please promise me that you will stop snooping into things that are none of our business, okay?"
"Promise, Maximus... After we see what's causing that monstrous noise at my house!"
"It's probably your dad-."
"Let's go investigate somemore!"
"...
Yeah. Let's just. Do that, Chloe..."
Poor Max. Can never catch a break. Anyways, that was the first one shot of Life can be strange. Before you start criticizing this, I want you to know that I never wanted this one shot to be all in depth and stuff, just a fun little chapter. And maybe soon the future, we will get more of those, it depends if you readers loved this or hated it. But other then that, if you have any request for a one shot or a idea of sort, feel free to tell me or pm me and I will so try to make those things come true. Again, I hope you guys liked this and I hope to see you all later!
