"Figured you'd be here."
Chloe was sitting on a makeshift bench in her little junkyard sanctuary. It was the first warm Friday of the year - late April was generous on sunlight this time around. The reflections from the yellow wall carpet painted the room in a cozy golden shine, which resonated with occasional puffs of smoke coming out of Chloe's mouth.
Rachel's greeting snapped her out of some kind of deep thought, clearly induced by the lit joint she was holding. The blue haired dreamer gave her friend a short dumb smile as she walked into the room and crashed on the car seat next to her, leaving her handbag beside it.
"Wanna hit?"
Rachel reached out to grab the joint and took a what seemed like a stronger hit than she usually takes, straightened her legs and relaxed her head on the top of the seat, sending the smoke upwards into the air.
"Busy day at Blackwell, huh?" Chloe inquired, clumsily taking what's left of the joint back.
"Sometimes I really want to burn it to the ground... starting with a metric ton of bullshit homework I've yet to do." sighed Rachel, brushing the ash off of her ripped jeans.
"As if you do your homework." Chloe noticed with a smirk.
Rachel smiled, "Touche." and reached out for the joint again.
The room was filled with peace. It felt like another world compared to the one the girls have come from. And that was the reason why they came there. They both needed to escape from the everyday mundanity, whether it was a daily fight with the step-douche or preparations for yet another Vortex Club party.
Despite the said fight, Chloe was in a good mood today. She was anticipating something nice, but Rachel couldn't quite read it off of her face. Or didn't want to. Right now all she wanted to care about is the warm sunlight on her plaid button-up shirt and how comfy her seat was.
Few minutes of blissful rest later Chloe was already bored.
"We need some music up in here."
She got up from her bench and headed for an old hi-fi in the opposite corner.
"Let's see... Sparklehorse or Hollywood Undead?"
"DJ's choice." Rachel breathed out, lacking enthusiasm. After having to make similar choices for the upcoming Vortex party earlier she just really wanted not to think about it anymore.
As the hi-fi consumed the disc the air filled up with a rocky tune.
"Right sistah, it's time to celebrate!" Chloe announced, moving in flow with the music, "Come on! No rest for the wicked!"
Something about the music clicked well with Rachel's mind. Or was it Chloe's happy voice? She pulled herself out of her seat and started slowly treading towards her friend, movements becoming dance as she went on.
The two of them met halfway, dancing, not a care in the world. Their faces lightened up brighter than the sun. The grass was doing its work.
"What are we celebrating anyway?" Rachel asked a minute later, still unable to figure out what was this all about.
"What are we celebrating?" Chloe repeated, faking a funny insulted face, "Our first step in our grand plan to leave this shitty town for good!"
"I don't get it." blurted Rachel with uncertainty, smiling wide and trying as hard as she can to not explode in laughter.
Chloe grabbed her around her waist, lifted her up and spun around, "My truck will be ready tonight!"
"You're gonna break your spine you crazyface!" Rachel pleaded, finally giving in to the overwhelming desire to giggle uncontrollably.
The girl quipped back, "Crazyface? That's adorkable."
Matching a childish name with a more childish pun, Chloe found it a lot more funny out loud than she did in her mind. As she put Rachel down, the contagious laughter spread to her as well. The girls crashed back on the benches around the wooden "table", trying to recollect themselves.
A few moments of happy tears later, the rocky tune toned down its solemnity. Rachel made use of a nearby cushion and laid down on the bench. Chloe leaned against the wall on the bench perpendicular to Rachel's and put her feet on that wooden excuse for a table, so that they're kind of face-to-face.
"So how'd you get the shop dudes to repair my truck without paying in advance?" Chloe suddenly wondered.
"I... had help from a friend." Rachel answered without thinking. It came out more mysterious than she liked, so Chloe picked up on that real quick.
"Oooh, does he have a name?" she jokingly inquired.
The blonde sighed, "Chloe..." with a lighthearted 'please don't go there' tone in her voice, which was completely ignored by her friend.
"That's a strange name for a guy. Is he at least handsome?"
Rachel already knew that nothing can stop Chloe's prying other than a complete surrender, which is something she couldn't afford in this case. Not giving the question justice with an answer, she stalled with another sigh, "Here we go again..."
And Chloe just kept on going, "Too late to back off now, do I know him?" She was clearly enjoying herself.
Rachel needed a distraction. Or a redirection. The questioning was getting too close to the point of having to lie, and she really didn't want to lie to her punk companion. Especially because she was acquainted with the friend Rachel was trying to hide.
Taking advantage of knowing Chloe's witty mind like the back of her hand, she tried to steer the interrogation away from herself.
"You know, I don't ask you about every guy in your life..."
"Like I would tell you about them anyway." Chloe interrupted. Her face made a devious smile.
That was easy.
"Wha-hat?" Rachel asked with a chuckle, half-faking surprise in her voice.
Chloe looked away for a moment and playfully replied with a widening grin, "Nuthin'."
Amused with the response, Rachel took the next step, "Are you mocking me, Price?"
The question was met with an impish smirk and a gaze of pure provocation and mischief.
"You're going down!" she exclaimed, launching her cushion towards the blue.
The projectile brushed Chloe's cheek, bounced off the wall and landed beside her bench, making it easy to launch it back or use it as a melee weapon.
"You dare challenge me to a pillow fight?" she leaned to grab the cushion, "You just made a huge mistake, girl!" and threw it straight back at her opponent only to see it deflected by a swing of another cushion that Rachel grabbed from the car seat while Chloe was busy talking.
Now, standing up straight Rachel had the upper hand, but the blonde duelist honorably stalled her attack and gave her rival a chance for capitulation, "Surrender!" she exclaimed, holding her cushion ready to strike.
The tune blasting from the hi-fi turned into a sick guitar solo.
"Never!"
With a quick rolling motion towards the other cushion Chloe ended up on her knees right by the opponent's feet with a fluffy weapon in her hands. Somehow that move dodged Rachel's lunge and she was able to score a perfect hit on her friend's left hip. The quick shift of balance caused the blonde's arcing retaliation to swing higher than expected and sent Chloe's beanie flying across the room. Taking advantage of the situation, the punk ninja strategically sent her cushion towards the car seat behind Rachel and nudged her in its direction, "Now you're going down!", causing both of them to safely fall on the bag of softness while laughing their asses off. The blonde head fell perfectly on the bottom part of the seat while Chloe's ended up on her friend's freshly exposed abdomen, which was moving erratically due to now loose blue hair tickling the hell out of it.
A few moments of laughing later Chloe realized what her hair was doing and pulled away a bit, "You okay there, Ma-ahhah-Rach?"
Through tears of joy Rachel replied, "Your hair is a torture device!", pretending not to notice the name she tried to hide with a laugh.
The truth is that she didn't care. Or she did care about Chloe, but she also knew very well where her high mind usually goes, and with all the childish activities they've been participating in lately Max was bound to come out in one way or another. What Rachel didn't care about is taking offence to things like this. Besides, disturbing old wounds would only hurt. But even though Max abandoned Chloe, they still had a great deal of happy memories together. It's not something you can forget. It's not something you can replace. There will always be a Max-shaped hole in her heart that Rachel would fail to fill. And she knew that like any memory it will be a part of Chloe for the rest of her life.
"... and I think my foot is stuck in your suspenders."
Chloe kept smiling, "You wish. You'd want me to be stuck on top of you, wouldn'tcha?"
"Hah", Rachel lightly patted her friend's shoulder with the remaining cushion in her left hand and smirked, "Let's not forget who pushed me down in the first place.", pulling her undershirt back down with the other hand to avoid a possible overdose of tickle torture.
"I'll let that one slide this time" she winked and got back on her knees to check on her suspenders.
The spring sun started setting in the distance, adding a pinkish shade to the golden aura of the room. A beam of light reflected from an empty bottle next to the hi-fi and made Chloe catch it with her eyes. She winced and pulled her suspender from under Rachel's foot, now free to stand up and go looking for her lost beanie.
Bzzzzzt.
The noise came from Rachel's handbag as Chloe almost failed to stand up on the first try. She pulled herself up into the car seat and unzipped her handbag. The phone buzzed again.
[NATHAN: need to talk]
[NATHAN: come 2 my dorm]
Slightly annoyed, she texted back.
[RACHEL: If you want to talk then come and pick me up.]
[NATHAN: u still pissed?]
[NATHAN: whatever]
[NATHAN: where u at?]
[RACHEL: Junkyard.]
[NATHAN: b there in 10]
And that's how Rachel got herself a ride.
She put her phone back into her handbag and zipped it up. Chloe was still looking for her beanie across the room, probably grumbling curses inaudibly for letting herself get hit like that. The sight was amusing.
Rachel lingered on her seat to enjoy it.
"I need to go meet a friend."
"Another secret lover?" Chloe quipped, turning down the hi-fi.
"No, just Nathan."
"Ugh."
"Yeah. Anyway, you don't need me around to get your truck, right?"
"Nope, I got it."
"Cool."
Rachel got up from her seat and headed for the exit. Upon reaching the doorway a thought crossed her mind and she stalled, drawing Chloe's attention.
"Hey... come party with us tomorrow."
"What, with the Vortex snobs?" she turned back to her search for the lost beanie, "Nah, I think I have better things to do with my time."
"Since when does Chloe Price miss out on fun party times?"
Chloe pretended not to hear the question.
"Don't come for them, come for me."
"Well, when you put it that way..."
"Awesome, I'll text you tomorrow. And you better drive up in your fancy truck."
"Mhm." she mumbled, still unable to find her precious headwear.
As Rachel walked through the doorway, she added "I think it flew through the window by the way." A short annoyed groan followed from behind and made her chuckle.
The distant sun turned its color to a blend of pink and purple, causing the sky around it to become a shining net of soft clouds. The blonde put her sunglasses on and headed towards the road.
