Max stood up from the computer and stretched, finally happy with her response she had held her breath as she sent it. She wasn't sure where it would lead, if it would lead anywhere. Nor was she sure what would happen if there was a legitimate response. But trying was better than nothing, and she most certainly had to try if she wanted any sort of normalcy in her life. If she wanted any remanence of a normal life she would have to fight for it. And fight hard was something she was willing to do.
Closing her eyes she ran her fingers through her long brown hair, in the back of her mind thinking that it was time for a haircut. She shook out the tingle in her right hand before walking over her drawers to fetch her clothes for the day. The weather was warm so it didn't take her long to settle on a tank top, red plaid shirt and black stockings with black shorts. She was very much a hipster after all. She began to pull on her shirt but again, she attempted to shake out the nagging tingling feeling in her hand that was moving up her arm. Failing, with a sigh she put on her tank top and shirt.
With a frown she picked up her phone, reading her unread messages. The first being a reply from Chloe. That aspect of the morning brought a smile to her face.
"Get up, Hippie!
Come on, Super-Max. You can't still be sleeping."
Max smiled bigger, feeling a small pang in her heart as she typed her message. She wouldn't be able to see Chloe today.
"The super hero is awake. Sorry, I got caught up in some stuff.
I can't hang out today. I promised Warren we'd do something.
So no bro-ing down today.
):"
Closing that message thread she clicked the next one from Warren.
"Mad- Max! We still on for tonight? I'm so looking forward to it."
She began to type her reply.
"We're on, Warren. If we're going to be nerdy, you could say like 'Donkey Kong'?"
Max chuckled to herself knowing how lame that line was. There was an immediate reply from Warren.
"Yes! We'll get so nerdy. I'll come get you after school."
As Max stuffed her phone in her pocket, she was startled by a knock on her door.
"Come in!" she yelled, busying herself with her back pack, trying to cram all her text books in it.
There was a small creak as the door opened and whomever was there stepped in to her room. There was silence as no one spoke. Unsure Max looked over her shoulder to see none other than Victoria standing there. A sight she thought she would never see. Standing up straight, she turned around to face her.
Rubbing at her arm Victoria nervously stared at the ground. A slight blush was painted across her cheeks. The normally confident and never embarrassed Victoria Chase was in her room being the opposite of those things. It took Max a second for her to figure out that she still hadn't put her pants on yet. Regardless, being a girls' dorm Victoria would have seen so many girls in this way. She should definitely be used to it by now.
"Sorry…" Max breathed with a sigh as she grabbed her shorts and stockings off the couch and quickly threw them on.
"No… it's okay." Victoria finally mumbled. "Is this okay? I mean, is it okay if we talk? That I'm here?" her words were shaky and unsure.
When Max woke up this morning, this is not how she saw her day going. "Yeah, Victoria. It's okay. What's up?" she sat down on the side of her bed and stared at the girl only in that instance realising that she seemed as frail as herself.
Victoria looked up and stared Max in the eyes. "Max… do you think…" she paused, obviously having trouble with her words. "Do you ever think about it? Nathan and Mr Jefferson. Rachel Amber… Everything."
Max stared back at her, unsure if she even wanted to be having this conversation. She had kept it bottled up for too long and she wasn't quite sure if she should let it go now, or even if she could let it go now. Especially to someone like Victoria Chase.
Regardless of their past, Max felt some sort of bond with the girl. They had been through a lot together, even if not in this time. Max saw something when she looked in to her eyes, something that they both shared but she couldn't quite put her finger on it.
There was a long pause and something flickered behind Victoria's blue eyes. Fear and uncertainty was the only thing Max could deduce.
"Sorry, Max. I shouldn't be here. I'll go." She muttered, turning to grasp the door handle.
"No. Stay." Max finally choked out. There was no time like the present to face her fears.
Victoria turned and Max gave her a small reassuring nod. She shook her head before taking a seat on Max's small, quaint couch. "Do you?" she asked again.
There was an audible sigh as Max searched for the words.
"Yes. Every day." Max studied the girl before her. Obviously there was something eating her up. The same fear Max felt, the same isolation. They were more alike than she had realised. "I think about it every day. There's… There's a lot more to the story than people realise, Victoria, and I… I have to deal with that every day. So yes. I think about it every day. All the time."
Victoria gave a small curt nod. "Max." she began in that way that makes people's heart stop, as if they're preparing to say something terrible that will crush someone. "I've been having these dreams lately…" she paused, realising in her head just how crazy she was going to sound but she had to continue. "Like, crazy weird messed up dreams. I know we're not friends, but there's something… something there." She looked up to Max for validation.
Max shook her head. "Victoria, I…"
"Max." she was cut off. "I know they're dreams but they're far too real to be just that. Every night, Max. You're there. I never even went to that fucking bunker but every night I'm there and you're there Max… you're there. I know exactly what it looks like." Victoria buried her face in her hands.
Max knitted her brows together and studied the distressed girl on her couch. How could she even know that? It never happened. None of that ever happened in this time line. Max had never gone to the bunker either. She only remembered because –she- had changed it.
"I'm not crazy, Max." she whispered quietly as if trying to convince herself of that fact.
Max looked sympathetically at the short haired girl. "Victoria, you're not crazy…" she began, rising to her feet to sit beside her. "You're not." She rested her hand on Victoria's thigh reassuringly. She was unsure what to say. More so what she could say to comfort her. Surely she couldn't tell her the whole thing. Then Victoria would think she was crazy.
"I don't know what's going on anymore, Max." Victoria sobbed. "And Nathan… I visited him, Max. He's so fucked. They have him on so many meds."
Max pursed her lips. "You went and saw Nathan?"
"I know. I know what he did. How he helped…" she looked down. "I know okay… But he was… and I had to know. I had to see for myself. I wanted answers, but he couldn't. It was a mistake."
"Victoria. It's okay, you know? It is." Max turned her attention to the blonde and studied her carefully.
"It's not though, is it? Ever since then, everything has been fucked up. I'm not the same person anymore. I couldn't ever be that person again." Her words were quiet and almost inaudible.
Max thought hard, trying to figure how best to approach the situation. She needed to figure out just how much Victoria knew without pushing her too far. What if everyone else she had affected also had these memories?
"Hey Victoria, these dreams, do you remember much of them? Can you tell me about them?" she asked in a soothing tone, giving Victoria's thigh a squeeze. "Please?"
"Everything. I remember every god damn part of them." Victoria balled her hand in to a fist. "You know something too Max. I see it in your eyes some times."
Max gave a small nod, knowing now why she often caught Victoria staring at her. "Your dreams Victoria, please tell me about them." She couldn't let her ask any more questions, she had to keep her on topic. She wouldn't know what to say if Victoria started bombarding her with questions about what she was seeing.
"It all feels too real, Max. There was a vortex club party and… Nathan drugged me. He actually drugged me. I… We were in Mr. Jefferson's bunker. He killed you, Max. I watched as he killed you. I saw it. And then me. Time and time again. And then I watched as you stopped him. I don't know how, but I saw you die. But then you were also alive and you and Mr. Madsen stopped him." Victoria stopped, her words beginning to fail her.
Confused, Max looked down. It wasn't just one time line Victoria was recalling, it was many. All the times she had to rewind to get it just right, Victoria recalled. She somehow knew.
"It all happened so many times. But it can't have happened. Can it have, Max?" Victoria looked at Max hopeful.
"Victoria, I…" she began, wanting to break down and tell her everything. Tears welled in her eyes as she looked back in to Victoria's. "You're not crazy Victoria. Don't ever think you are. I don't know how to explain it all and I need to figure it out. I know you have questions, but I need time. Please accept that. I'll always be here if you need to talk." She paused, fearing she had said too much. "We need to get to class though. We can talk more later?"
Victoria gave a slow nod. "Max, I'm sorry… For everything. How I treated you. I mean, I remember things I'm not entirely sure happened, but if they did I'm so sorry." Swallowing the lump in her throat, she softened her voice. "Truth is, I always thought you were pretty cool. Always so carefree, you never cared what anyone thought of you. I wanted so much to be like that but I didn't know how to be. And I guess I took that out on you."
Max smiled and waved her hand dismissively. "It's okay, Victoria. There are no hard feelings. I think we both just misunderstood each other before. It happens. I like you though, Victoria. We should hang out more often."
Victoria gave a smile to match Max's, the first genuine smile Max had ever seen from the girl. "Thank you, Max. You don't know how much that means to me."
Max just continued to smile lazily back. "Come on you, we've got photography first. Let's head over together."
Max relaxed back on Warren's couch, her arms resting behind her head as she stared at the ceiling. Today had been strange and she couldn't wait to get home and sleep it off. She watched the ceiling fan whirl round and round, hypnotising her attention. While she was excited to hang out with Warren, there were too many other things on her mind to thoroughly enjoy it and that definitely was not fair to him.
"Soda, Max?" Warren called from the fridge.
"Yeah, why not." She called back. "Snacks too. I'm starving."
Warren gave a laugh and walked over to her with two sodas and some chips. Handing them to her he took a seat beside her, leaning as far back as he could. "Man, I'm beat." He sighed, picking up the T.V remote to turn it on.
Max gave a nod. "Me too. This week has been so long."
With his neck resting on the top back of the sofa, he turned his head enough to look at her. "Oh yeah? Fill me in on the going on's of Max. I feel like I haven't seen you in the longest time. Well, talked to you I suppose."
Max gave a groan and wiggled childishly on the spot. "Waaaarreeenn. Come on, let's not talk about such boring things."
Warren nudged her with his foot. "You're so childish sometimes. Just fill me in, Mad-Max. I wanna know the happs."
"Fiiine." She gave a highly audible sigh in the most dramatic of fashions. "Victoria and I have entered a stale mate. We've declared a truce and may even be friends. If you had have told me that was going to happen this week, I probably would have bet a million dollars against it." She rubbed at her forehead, remembering their conversation this morning.
There was no way Victoria was going to drop it. She needed to seriously think about how much she was going to tell her. More importantly how she was going to deflect all her questions.
"Whoa, what?" Warren questioned, sitting up. "You and Victoria? Man, what is the world coming to? An end?"
Max gave a laugh, louder than she had intended it too. He was probably right. "Potentially. I mean I guess the end is inevitable right?"
Max looked down, reaching in to her jacket pocket to pull out her phone. She had been waiting all day for a reply from Chloe but had received nothing. Her stomach was in knots over it as her mind went to every possible conclusion. Chloe can't have left her again. She refused to believe it. Or that for some reason Chloe was mad at her. She hadn't replied since Max had told her she couldn't hang out today. Was she jealous of her spending time with Warren? Or even just angry that she wasn't hanging out with her?
To ease her anxiety she settled on the only reality she could accept. Chloe was busy. Max wasn't her only friend, so the only possible conclusion Max was ready to accept was that.
That and it was the most logical.
Warren shrugged, flicking between television channels. "If you want to get technical than sure. The world will one day end, let's just hope that it's not sooner rather than later. I'd really enjoy living out my life. Especially if I get to hang out with you, nerd."
Max took a deep breath as Warren settled on a horror movie on T.V. "Well, right now I'd rather not be gone either, 'if we're getting technical'" she jested, a small smirk tugging the corner of her lips. "Hey, super nerd. I have a question for you." The playfulness from her tone dissipated as she turned to face him.
"Shoot." Warren stuffed a handful of chips in his mouth awkwardly, a few falling on to his lap and he tried to quickly brush them away hoping Max had not seen.
"Time travel. For or against?" she turned to face him, trying to study his face and realising it was relatively expressionless.
"Way to throw me a hard question." He chuckled. "I wouldn't expect any less from you. Well, it definitely would have its merits. I mean, given the opportunity anyone would go back in time and stop any of the terrible things that happened in the past. Take the Holocaust for example, sure I would go back and attempt to stop that from happening, do you know how many millions of lives would be saved?" he paused, thinking hard for a moment. "Morally would it be right though? No, definitely not. Well… I don't think so at least."
"Why?" the brunette questioned quizzically.
"As much as I would love to save the world, Super-Max, the implications for changing such things would be too great. Consider the grandfather paradox- while the name suggests it just covers the aspect of someone changing the past just slightly enough to the point where someone's grandparents never met thus meaning that in the future they technically haven't been born, it actually covers a wide range of theories in this regard."
"So… if someone did go back, even the most minor of changes would have serious repercussions on the current or future time lines?" Max looked down.
Warren gave a nod. "Yeah, as cliché as it would, let's say I did go back in time and stop Hitler, the fact that I did that would change the world as we know it today- maybe not for the best. So many inventions were invented in that time. While all those lives potentially would have been saved, without that moment in history too much would be affected. And if I did manage to stop him, who is to say that someone wouldn't have succeeded him, someone much worse?" he tapped his chin. "And at what point do I stop him? When he's a child and hadn't done anything monstrous yet? When he started the Reich? Regardless, I don't think I could murder anyone… let alone a child. I guess I could always attempt to go back and be nice to him as a child?"
There was a brief silence that fell over the room as Max contemplated his words.
"No one has ever built a time machine so it's sort of hard to say but there is a valid argument that goes like this; suppose you did have a time machine and you could travel back to an earlier time. As I said earlier, your actions in that time might prevent your grandparents or even your great grandparents or whatever being born or ever having met each other. Or potentially they did, just under different circumstances meaning they didn't end up getting together. This would mean that you were never born, thus you never would have created, or stepped in to the time machine. So the claim that there would be a time machine is self-contradictory. Or, if you did go back in time, you could simply change something that would maybe mean a certain piece of technology wasn't invented, or that you did something different in life, meaning that the time machine wasn't invented by you and you would be trapped in the past."
Max sighed audibly, beginning to understand the implications that her actions have had on the time line. Fully understanding for the first time why the storm would have happened due to her changes in time. It was a lot to take in, and the information sat with her, making her feel increasingly guilty with each passing second.
Warren looked over to his friend, giving her another nudge when he noticed her contorted face. "However, there is another theory that we could go back in time, change something and then come back and that our reality would simply revert to its original state as the time rippled created by the changes in a way sort of even out. I guess that sort of means our reality would be artificially created because it could not be changed." He laughed. "I guess that's sort of scary in a way to think about. It would mean that no matter what we did, we couldn't change our future. We were on a predetermined past, whether it be to fail or succeed."
Max closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Okay. What about if there was no time machine? What if a person just happened to have some kind of powers?"
"Like a super hero?" Warren smiled kindly.
"I wouldn't exactly call them a super hero..." she shook her head. She would never consider herself that. This was a curse if anything.
"Honestly, I don't know. If there was no question of technology being an issue then I suppose the only repercussions would be the changes they made to people's lives. They wouldn't have to worry about their technology disappearing on them and being stuck. With that being said, I guess they would have to worry about their powers stopping working or I guess the fact that they had super powers." He laughed, placing his feet up on his coffee table. "A modern day super hero. The world would eat that shit up."
Max rubbed the bridge of her nose, a headache rushing over her. Not too much could have been changed, right? Everyone seemed the same. Everything seemed the same. Other than Chloe being back. When she rewound back to before she changed anything, she theoretically fixed all the mistakes she had made.
"Max, why do you ask?" he blinked slowly, sounding genuinely concerned.
Max forced a laugh. "No reason. I'm just curious about time travel. It would be a… cool super power. You could immediately fix any mistake you made! I could rewind this conversation and pretend it never happened. It would save me ten minutes of my life…" she attempted to joke, making Warren feel more at ease.
Max pulled out her phone, mindlessly playing with it momentarily to fill the silence. She could feel her heart pounding in her chest and her breathing quicken. She needed to get her mind off it before she had some kind of panic attack. "Hey, have you got any new video games? Let's play some."
"Oh yeah! I got this really cool one the other day. Two player too." Warren began, getting up to turn on his console as he continued gushing about his new games.
Max was half listening as she opened her messages. She wanted to stop but couldn't, she needed to message Chloe. She wouldn't feel right until she did, until she got a response.
"I'm hanging out with Warren right now. :(
But if it's not too late do you want to hang out afterwards?"
Warren had handed Max the controller and they both started shit talking as they began playing. Warren, having more practice at his own game was slightly better than her, but the more she played the better she got. It wasn't long until she was beating Warren and his frustration was showing. However, as competitive as it was getting they were still enjoying each other's company.
Between deaths she kept checking her phone, there was still no response. She began to worry but she couldn't let it show. She decided to send another.
"Chloe.
Come on.
I want to hang out later tonight. So let me know, okay."
She felt herself becoming angry. She didn't mean for it to consume her, but she could feel it rising in her chest. She put her phone face down on the coffee table and picked up the controller, ready to crush Warren. She didn't know why she was letting it affect her so much, but there was no point in letting it ruin her night. Pushing it in to the back of her mind she focused on the game and Warren.
"Hey techno-nerd, who are you texting? Your boyfriend?" he half joked, half asked seriously wanting to know the answer himself as he continued to stare intently at the screen.
Max blushed, mashing buttons aimlessly. "No…"
Warren gave a slight frown before hiding the expression from his face. "That was convincing."
"No, I mean like, I'm not texting anyone, Warren. Not like that anyway" she replied, trying to brush it off. This wasn't a conversation she wanted to be having with him.
He was in fact the last person she wanted to be talking about her feelings with.
"If you say so, Max…" he paused. "So, who're you crushing on hard then, Max?"
She mentally cursed him for not dropping the subject. "Uh, no one really. I mean, there is someone but they're more of a friend than anything else. I don't think it would be anything more." She paused much like Warren had, realising her own words and she didn't like them.
Warren smirked. "Oh. Are they handsome?"
"I wouldn't say handsome…" she threw the controller down in frustration at her death. "They're really beautiful and, I don't know, cool I guess. Like, they don't even have to try."
Warren smiled a content smile, turning his attention towards Max.
When Warren and Max finally finished hanging out it was quite late and she had definitely missed curfew. However, despite everything, she had actually had fun hanging out with him and it took her mind off her lack of conversing with Chloe and Victoria, as well as the time tripping issues. Well, other than the extremely awkward goodbye. Warren had lingered like he was waiting for something, even insisting on walking Max back to her dorm. It took a lot to convince him that she didn't need him to and he finally settled on her texting him when she was home safe.
She did her best to briskly walk to the girl's dorms, making sure to hide in the shadows in case security was roaming. She never saw anyone but she convinced herself it was because she was being super stealthy.
The darkness didn't scare her, she had had enough darkness in her life that was far more terrifying than night.
With the entrance to the dorm in site she finally saw the first signs of life. A tall, slender and dark figure was leaning against the wall, their arms folded and in the darkness Max could see the glow of a lit cigarette in their mouth. She approached cautiously, unsure of whether or not this person would be friend or foe.
It was only when she got closer that she saw the shine of the tell-tale blue hair bathed in the moon light.
Chloe looked up as she approached, her face expressionless. She took one last inhale of smoke from her cigarette before shifting it in her fingers and flicking the butt away.
Max didn't say anything, she couldn't. The over whelming urge to burst in to tears took her but she wouldn't allow herself to succumb to it. She wouldn't appear weak in front of her. She stopped in front of Chloe and looked up at her for a moment before dropping her head and leaning forward in to her body, tightly wrapping her arms around her torso and resting her head on her chest.
Chloe's body was at first tense before a deep breath was exhaled and she relaxed, pulling Max tighter to her.
The brunette relaxed, feeling her friends nose nudge the side of her head as she buried her face in her hair.
Max wanted to yell at the girl for ignoring her all day, for not even letting her know she was going to come but she couldn't. She had no right to, and even though she wanted to, she couldn't find the words. Chloe's embrace was warm but still Max shivered against her. It was cold out tonight.
Chloe rubbed her back slowly before taking her by the shoulders and pushing her back.
Dejected, Max looked up at her with a pout.
No words were spoken as Chloe turned from her to step in to the door and Max followed.
Max entered her room and closed the door behind her, resting back against it. She watched silently as Chloe took a seat on her bed and began to unlace her boots. No words had been spoken between the two, but they didn't need to be. The silence felt natural. As Chloe began to remove her shoes, it was Max who chose to talk first, no longer being able to hide her confusion.
"How come you didn't text me back today?" her voice wavered, but she had to ask.
Chloe didn't speak, confusing Max further. She instead kicked off her shoes and sat back on Max's bed, resting her back against the wall. Max was frozen to the spot, unsure whether or not she could move, despite it being her own room. The silence was killing her. She felt a fear consume her, one she had only felt a handful of times before.
"Well, I'm here." Chloe finally spoke softly, breaking the silence between them. "I'm pretty beat though, Hippie." Her voice was cold and despondent. "Are you just going to stand there?"
Max furrowed her brows and pushed off from the door, closing the distance between them. She paused in the middle of the room, deciding not to approach the bed, instead she took a seat on the couch. Chloe was acting strange and it scared her. As close as she wanted to get, she couldn't get any closer. Not when it was like this. The room was dark and Max could barely make out Chloe's face. The only light came from the moon shining through the blinds and on to her face.
Max looked down. "Do… do you want to go?" she asked in a voice that was barely louder than a whisper.
She of course didn't want Chloe to go but what else could she do? She didn't seem like she wanted to be here, and she most certainly didn't seem interested in speaking with Max.
"Can we sleep?" Chloe asked, completely ignoring Max's question.
This only made Max angrier.
"You want to stay here?" she asked shortly.
"Yeah, if that's cool with you. You wanted to hang out tonight and stuff. So, yeah. It's pretty late though." She said nonchalantly as if she couldn't care less.
"Well, okay…" Max replied. She wanted to confront her, but confrontation definitely wasn't her strong point. Instead she clenched her fists at her side.
Max took off her own shoes before getting up and walking to her bed. Chloe had already laid down and was facing the wall. With a sigh Max laid down beside her. She turned her face to look at the back of Chloe's head. She wasn't sure what had happened or what was happening.
Max didn't like the silence that had fallen over the two, but at the same time she had no idea what she was meant to say. As far as she was aware nothing had happened to cause such a cold response from her friend. As far as she was aware everything had been fine.
They had had the most amazing day together yesterday, and Max thought that Chloe had felt the same. She realised she should never just assume though. As much as this confrontation had pained her, there was nothing she could do to change it. And at least Chloe was here. Max now knew that she was okay, that was something. At this point, she would take that something over nothing.
Even though she had done nothing wrong and knew that, part of her couldn't help but rack her brain for that one little thing she had done wrong. She went over every conversation in her head. Every word spoken, yet still couldn't find one single thing. Max sat there tearing herself apart. Her self-esteem was already low, and being ignored for something she wasn't sure she did wasn't helping.
The pain in her chest returned and she clenched her fist at her side willing with everything she had for now not to be the time it happened. Her hand was cold, she could feel it as she curled her fingers to her palm, and more cold than it ought to have been. However, she couldn't go back and relive this moment. She didn't need to hear Chloe's cold tone or expressionless face. She didn't know if she could bare it.
Thankfully her body listened just this once.
With a sigh, Max finally turned over, her back to Chloe's just close enough to barely be touching. That slight touch was enough comfort.
Max closed her eyes as she drew her knees to her chest and hugged them tightly, portraying how small she felt in that moment.
"Chloe… I missed you." She whispered quietly, just loud enough so that she knew she was heard.
She was ignored.
Chloe stared at the wall in front of her before closing her eyes.
Thanks so much for the reviews guys, especially the people who are constantly letting me know they're enjoying the story. It's very motivating and I hope you sincerely are liking where it's heading.
I actually really enjoyed writing this chapter with Warren in it. And building Victoria in to more of a character and sort of the catalyst for future issues. I wanted to try and capture Chloe's bratty side in this chapter also, though I sort of lost motivation towards the end there... Oops.
As always, let me know what you guys think or if you have any ideas you would like to see put in. Thanks heaps and I'll hopefully have the next chapter up in the next couple of days, granted I actually get a day off from work. I guess my time difference makes it a bit difficult also, considering I'm sure most of the readers will be American. I however do try to update so you will have something to read when you wake up!
