"Okay, keep going straight, and we'll be there in a few minutes"

Max was definitely excited to get home again, even after such a short time, because of recent events. But what she was a bit concerned about, was how her parents would react to her girlfriend. She was, of course, hoping they would be understanding and welcome her properly, and not make a big deal out of it, but a part of Max, deep inside her, was still pretty worried they might not like her because of her looks or attitude, or that they would simply not agree to let her stay there. When Max had previously talked with them on the phone, she didn't say that Chloe was her girlfriend. 'How would one say such a thing on the phone? Hey mom and dad, I survived a rapist murdering photographer, his ready-to-kill helper, who was a fellow student at Blackwell, a freak tornado, and now I'm coming home with my girlfriend, Chloe. You remember her, right? From five years ago? My best friend whom I left after her dad died tragically? Yeah, her. We're an item now. You won't mind us staying at home for some time, right?' Yeah, that'd sit well, Max thought sarcastically to herself.

"Where to now, Maxaroni?" Chloe sounded excited as she uttered the words. But, of course, why wouldn't she be exited? She hadn't met Max' parents for a long time now.

"Take a left here. It's the first house after the turn".

Chloe slowed down. A lot. She was visibly nervous, but she tried to conceal it as best she could. To no avail.

"Hey, are you alright?"

Chloe nodded

"We can stay at a hotel if you'd rather want to, and visit here when you feel ready" Max suggested

"No, I'm fine. I just… I just need to mentally prepare myself"

Chloe took a few deep breaths, going over in her head a few game rules she'd set for herself

'Okay, Chloe. To remember:

-Be nice

-Keep swearing to a bare minimum

-Don't blaze in their house

-Don't hate them for taking Max away from me back then'

"Okay, I'm ready" Chloe said, as she started turning into their driveway.

Nobody was outside to greet them. Which was actually fine by Max, so they could take their time. She hadn't notified her parents when they'd be coming home, so it'd be a bit of a surprise.

As Chloe shut off the engine, Max leaned in for a kiss.

"If they ask, I'll tell them. But if they don't, I wanna wait until tomorrow. I don't want to or need to hide you from anyone, it's just that I want our first night here to be without prejudices. Is that okay with you?" Max asked the bluenette

"Of course that's okay, dummy", Chloe replied quickly.

They both got out of the car, and headed towards the house.

The house was very nice-looking, according to Chloe. It was a bit different than her house in Arcadia, though. This was a relatively large house, with two floors. The ground floor and most of the second floor had a brick texture, but half the second floor had white planks instead of bricks. The entrance was sort of in the middle of the first and second floor.

They both went up the stairs, took a few deep breaths and looked at each other. Chloe looked even more nervous than before, and Max was also a bit nervous, but both of them was sure. So they rang the doorbell.

A bearded man opened the door, and looked at the two girls.

"MAX!" he said, before he embraced her and gave her a tight hug, almost to the point here she couldn't breathe properly.

"Hey dad!" Max said in a bit of a squeezed voice. Her father loosened his grip on her, so she could breathe again. She gasped a bit.

"And this must be Chloe" he said, and looked over at her. "I haven't seen you in a very long time. You've certainly changed" he said, trying to get to know this new punk girl, who looked very different since last time they'd seen each other.

"Yeah… After dad died, Max moved, and my best friend disappeared six months ago, things happened…" Chloe said, trying extremely hard to restrain herself from blowing up with "Why did you take her away", and "This is all your fault". She didn't want to start that shit with the Caulfields.

"I can see that… I'm sorry we moved away with Max right after William died. I can't imagine how hard that must've been for you" he said.

Max feared that mentioning William was going to set Chloe off, and she'd start raging against Ryan, but she was relieved to find that what Chloe said next.

"Thank you. It was… It was pretty bad" Chloe said, with no anger or smart remarks in her voice.

"Where the hell are my manners?! Come in, come in!" Ryan said, closing the door behind them.

"Welcome to the Caulfield residence, Chloe" he said in a bit of a silly voice. Although Chloe was not familiar with this new environment yet, she said thank you, still without clever remarks.

'Damn, dad. Either you hit the right spot with Chloe, or you're a secret magician. I don't really care which one it is, as long as you keep this up' Max thought to herself.

The all moved into the large living room, where they sat down in the large sofa. Except for Ryan.

"Wait here, I'll get her" he said in a bit of a low voice. He then went into the kitchen to find Vanessa, Max' mother.

Both Chloe and Max sat in silence in the living room, trying to eavesdrop on the conversation between her parents

"Who was at the door?" said a female voice faintly

"Just Max and Chloe. I sent them to a hotel" Ryan replied. Max and Chloe giggled a bit.

"YOU WHAT?!". Max and Chloe couldn't hold their laughter in any more, and started LOL-ing

Vanessa came running into the living room, where all the laughter came from. There they were. Both of the girls, sitting in the sofa, having a good time.

"Oh my God. You're back." Vanessa said, before running over to hug Max. She didn't hug nearly as tight as her father, though. So she was able to hug back and say "Yeah, mom. We're back".

"And Chloe. It's been years since the last time I saw you!", she continued.

"Yeah. About 5 years" Chloe said a bit coldly. She couldn't help it. Ryan had been really nice and apologetic about William from the second he said hello, but Vanessa hadn't. That disappointed Chloe a bit.

"Five years. Time really flies. You… um… Look different" Vanessa continued. Now Max was getting a bit concerned that she might push Chloe's wrong buttons.

"Yeah, mom. Five years, lots of things happens in five years. So, how've you and dad been since I left for Blackwell?" Max injected, trying to avoid a scene and a fight between her mom and girlfriend.

"We've been pretty good. Not a lot of new stuff that's happened. The neighbors got a new car, and sold their old one. Other than that, everything's been pretty quiet here at home and at work."

"Well… Old news are good news, I suppose" Max said.

After a bit of chit-chat and catching up, and a delicately resolved situation, Vanessa had also apologized for taking Max away from Chloe at such a difficult time. Chloe had accepted her apology as well, but still kinda liked Ryan better. He seemed a bit more laid back and relaxed about a lot of things, yet still came out as a genuinely nice and caring father. Vanessa was also very caring and quite nice, but seemed a bit stricter and more tightly wound than Ryan.

"We put a mattress into your room, Max. I hope that'll be okay for you to sleep on, Chloe?", Vanessa said.

"Yeah, it's probably just fine", Chloe replied.

"How about we go get the bags from the car, Chloe? Then we can go check it out ourselves." Max suggested.

"Cool" She replied.

Max and Chloe got their bags from the car, and went up to Max' room. It was a lot neater than Chloe's. Which didn't really take an effort at all, Chloe realized. 'Maybe I should do something about that some time…' she thought to herself. Max' room had a bright color scheme, and was nicely decorated with various objects- From hockey posters, to movie posters, to pretty decorative objects. It looked a bit like Chloe's room, minus the messiness. They unpacked their bags, and Chloe was given the top-half of Max' closet.

"So, whaddaya think?", Max asked Chloe when she was done unpacking her stuff.

"It's nice. Hella different from my place, but… nice" She replied.

"I'm glad you think so" Max said.

"Your parents seem nice as well. I don't remember them all that well, but can I be honest?" Chloe asked.

"Always"

"Well, your dad is cool. He seems relaxed and still it seems like he really cares for you and accepts me for being… me. He's not all that different from my dad." She said.

"But your mom", she continued. "You mom is a bit…". She stopped.

"I know what you mean. I don't think she dislikes you, I just think she needs to get to know you, and to be able to see past your hard, punk exterior" Max said.

"Punk exterior?" She asked

"Okay, you're a punk on the inside as well, but you know what I mean"

"Yeah"

The rest of the afternoon and evening went pretty well. The entire family chatted, watched some TV shows and a film, and ate homemade pizza in the evening. Not a bad way to spend the first night at her girlfriend's parent's house, Chloe thought. Max was snuggled up with Chloe most of the time. Close enough that they were together, but not close enough to arouse suspicion from her parents, Max thought.

"Well, it's late, and we're going to bed. Don't stay up all night and watch TV, you two", Ryan said

"Okay, dad. Good night" Max answered, before her parents went upstairs to their bedroom.

After a few minutes, Chloe turned over to Max to give her a kiss.

"A small kiss is alright, but if we want to do something... more... We'll have to wait for about half an hour or so, so that we're sure my parents are asleep

"Okay. What'll we do in the mean time?" Chloe asked, smiling at the thought that Max had suggested they do something... more... as she'd put it.

"We can watch some CSI Miami, if you want to"

After about half an hour of CSI Miami, Max and Chloe turned towards each other simultaneously, as if by thought control. They took a few deep, passionate kisses, only breaking when the need of air become too large for them.

"Should we go to your bedroom and continue there?" Chloe suggested

"Nah, it's closer to their bedroom; They might hear us. Especially if previous experience with you has anything to say"

"Point taken. Let's just continue here on the couch, then"

A/N: Hey everyone. Sorry if time moves REALLY slowly in the story. I'll try to speed up to more than a day pr. chapter. Hopefully something exciting will happen soon...

Also, we've broken 1.000 views. Hurray! So proud and humble that the story has in total been read over one thousand times!