steal the stars, stealing my heart
One of the last things in the world Sam expects when entering a bar is to be tackled with a hug, but she has long since stopped having expectations for anything. They only seem to leave her in a permanent state of anxiety.
Luckily for Sam, the girl almost instantly let's go, looking a hint apologetic but mostly just delighted. "Oh, I'm so sorry! You just — well, you just looked sad and I couldn't help myself and my mom says I have no self-control but… wait, I forgot to introduce myself. I'm Chloe. Chloe Turner."
Sam just gapes at her. What kind of person just talks like that and what kind of a person hugs strangers just because she thinks they're upset? Just because it's true doesn't make it any less invasive.
"You scared me," Sam whispers, accusingly. Her words are lost to the music and chatter of the bar, but Chloe nods as if she heard it perfectly.
"I'm sorry," Chloe speaks matter-of-factly, raising her hands up in an apologetic gesture. "Can I make it up to you? Let me buy you a drink, Sam."
Sam almost nods in agreement, but freezes as something hit her. She could swear she had never introduced herself, there had simply never been time. "How do you know my name?"
At that, Chloe freezes too, looking caught in between something. "I can explain that, I promise. Just please don't run away right now, I'll explain everything to you. I'm not crazy, I promise."
Debatable, Sam thinks and in front of her, Chloe laughs a little, causing Sam to flinch. It's just a coincidence probably, but every nerve in Sam's body is screaming that something is off about both Chloe and this entire situation.
"Okay." Sam begins walking towards the bar and Chloe relaxes, her body language easing up. "You have five minutes and then I'm leaving."
As soon as they sit down, Chloe flags down the bartender. "Two diet sodas, please."
Sam stares at her. She doesn't drink, still afraid of how the alcohol would mix with her time travel powers. The last thing she needs is to end up drunk out of her mind and stuck in another long past war. Still, there's no way Chloe could know that.
The bartender brings their drinks, and as soon as he's gone, Chloe turns to Sam. "I can hear the voices of angels."
Sam spits out her drink onto the bar. "Excuse me?"
Chloe winces at her reaction. "Sorry. I got ahead of myself, please don't leave. The angels though, they tell me things. I can images, thoughts, of others, and then when I saw you, it was like the world stood still. You can time travel and you're… you're like me. I knew from the moment I saw you that we were meant to be friends and I know you're scared now, I can read it, but I promise I'm not here to hurt you. I just want to be your friend."
Sam shakes her head, digging her nails into her palms. What Chloe is saying sounds mad, but she herself can travel through time. Plus, it just makes sense: Chloe's reaction to seeing her, the way Chloe always know what to say, the way Chloe is so connected to her every thought.
"Prove it," Sam says. In her mind, she conjures up an image of the fields of Greece in the 1800's, as detailed as she can possibly remember from so many years ago. "What do you see?"
"A field with wildflowers and a stream running through it," Chloe says, scrunching up her eyes. It makes her look even more innocent and kind, almost childlike in giddiness. "Do you believe me now?"
Sam doesn't know what to say. If Chloe can read minds, then it means she knows the answer: Sam believes her, but she doesn't know if she can trust her. Their meeting, it just seems too sudden.
"I promise, it was a coincidence," Chloe says and Sam startles. She doesn't think she'd ever get used to how Chloe can read her minds, with her 'angels' help. "I would never hurt you. I just thought you could use somebody who wouldn't be scared of you."
The thing is, she really could. She wants a companion like she wants freedom. It tugs at her long since forgotten hope of someone who could accept her insane definition of normal, of someone who could love her regardless.
"Promise me," Sam says, wincing at the way she sounds like a pleading child.
"I promise, I promise," Chloe says and Sam, despite everything, believes her.
"Okay. Okay."
"Do you want to come home with me?" Chloe suggests gently, weaving her fingers through Sam's own. Sam puts her drink down gently, marveling at the ease of their physical contact. Chloe's eyes are painfully earnest, her smile blinding. Sam doesn't think she's ever felt like this before: hopeful and fascinated and dazzled by somebody.
"Yes," Sam whispers and Chloe pulls her up, dropping a bill down onto the bar to pay their tab. It's crazy: even as soon as an hour ago, she could never have imagined leaving with a stranger. They exit the bar and Sam can barely breathe from the fact that Chloe has not yet let go of her hand.
The rest of the trip passes in a blur. All Sam can remember is the back of a cab, traffic lights and the blur of buildings as they go. Too quickly (too slowly), they're exiting. Chloe puts a hand on the back of Sam's back and Sam almost trips over her own feet. It's ironic: she can travel through all of time and space, but the moment a pretty girl looks her way, she's toast.
They walk past the doorman, into the elevator, and then Chloe is fumbling cheerfully with the key and flicking the light switch on. The apartment feels like Chloe, with the windows all open and scatter and bright colors.
"Sam?" Chloe begins to ask, turning to her in concern. "Are you — "
Sam feels herself disappear as soon as the panic attack starts. It comes quickly as if the ground had swallowed her whole, and then she's screaming and crying and begging and it's as if ten years worth of emotion has hit her at once. She's in a dark field and it's dark and then… and then she's not.
And then, she's back in Chloe's apartment, shaking.
"Oh my goodness," Chloe says, looking shocked but fascinated. Nobody has ever looked at her like that before: like she's more than an antisocial orphan, like she hung the moon.
"Did you just do that? You disappeared! Sam, you were incredible. Are you okay? No, you clearly aren't. Where did you go?"
Sam smiles, shy again all of a sudden. "No idea. It was just an empty field."
"I can see it!" Chloe declares, looking happier than ever before. "The angels are showing me it! Sam, do you know what this means? The angels have blessed us both… I'm not actually schizophrenic and you're a time traveler!"
Sam lets herself be captured in the flow of Chloe's emotions, her heart still beating nonstop. She may not believe in angels, but she sort of believes in Chloe, this strange mind-reading dork who blabbers too much and looks at her like she can change the world.
"We're quite a combo," Sam dares to say, and Chloe nods like it makes sense, like they're missing pieces of each other's puzzles.
She could get used to this.