Chloe rushes to the wall in which the poster is held up by. She rips it off the wall, tears streaming down her face. Her lip quivers as she crumples up half the sheet, getting a good look at Max's face.
"This… can't be…" She throws the cup she had to the floor and runs outside and leans against a wall. Victoria calls out after her, but she ignores her.
Slumped against the wall, she cries and puts her head in her arms. She's still gripping the poster, and looks up to read it.
Max's happy looking face covers a fourth of the page.
MISSING
MAXINE CAULFIELD
AGE:18
LOOKS:BROWN HAIR IN A BOB, WITH BRIGHT BLUE EYES AND FRECKLES. LAST SEEN WEARING A GREY HOODIE WITH PINK 'JANE DOE' SHIRT AND JEANS.
IF FOUND, PLEASE CALL XXX-XXXX-XXXX* OR 911
Please find our friend. Reward of $200.
It's exactly the Max that left Chloe five years ago. Her looks, her style, her name. It's exactly the same. Where is Max? Chloe always said that she'd take her back in a heartbeat, but now, could she even take her back? There was always the chance of her being dea-
"Chloe! What the fuck? You just started looking at Max's missing poster and started crying. Don't tell me you feel bad for that twee hipster."
Chloe looks up through her blue bangs with angry and sad tears. Victoria looks away, realizing she's serious about this.
"The fuck is your fucking problem?! My best fucking friend since birth basically who left me five years ago is apparently back, but fucking missing?! I'm losing my shit over here! Max was my… best friend, she helped me through so much… and she's gone!" her tears are rattling her body and hiccups escape in waves.
Unnerved with how much this is affecting Chloe, and how much information she gave, she finally talks with a shaky voice. "Listen, I didn't know. I thought you just felt bad that someone went missing."
She grabs the poster from Chloe's hand, and she deflates even more.
"She's been missing since April. A whole five months." Despite a date not being given, Victoria's secretly been keeping track.
"Five fucking months." She whispers. "I just- I want to see her again." She cries and sobs and they're both not sure when she'll stop.
"Let's take you somewhere else, how about your house or- my dorm room?"
"Your place. It'll raise a lot of questions if I come home crying with a Chase next to me."
"Good point, Price." The dorms would be empty anyway, everybody in school is partying.
_._._._
"How do you know Max?" Victoria breaks the silence that filled the room for about ten minutes now. They've just been sitting across from each other silently, staring at the missing poster that lay on the carpeted floor of Victoria's room.
"She was… the best thing that ever happened to me. She was my best friend for pretty much my whole life. We did everything together." She pauses. "But, after my dad died. It just so happened that she had to move to Seattle because her dad got some job. Never wrote me. Never called."
Victoria just looks up to Chloe, but their eyes do not meet.
"Why is she missing…?" Chloe asks to nobody, but Victoria answers anyway.
"I heard the best ones are taken first." Whatever that means.
"Is she…" Chloe doesn't finish that sentence. As if it'll open her eyes and realize, maybe Max isn't coming back.