Max lay in the girls' queen-sized bed, her dreams gradually conceding to reality. She lethargically opened her eyes, allowing the morning sun to slowly paint a picture of the day. Lying next to her was her blue-haired friend, still soundly asleep. Max soaked in her friend's serene beauty and smiled. Her thoughts drifted slowly back to last night. Oh...Holy mother-of-shitballs, she panicked as the memories of the night before started to crystallise. No! Shit, no! What did you do? Idiot! Max kept staring at Chloe's impassive, sleeping face, waiting for her to wake up. Now though, there was trepidation in the younger girl's thoughts. Do I rewind or something? No, too long ago now. Would I really want to anyway? Maybe...Shit! Max's apprehension continued to plague her until her best friend woke up.
Chloe woke with a long, lazy stretch. "Morning...girlfriend." she teased, not even looking over at Max. Oh for fuck's sake, Chloe! Max thought to herself.
"Oh for fuck's sake, Chloe!" she replied, continuing awkwardly, "Sorry. I was a bit drunk...again! I just...the moment. I wasn't thinking straight. I didn't mean to do that."
Chloe feigned chagrin, "Wow, Max! Way to let a girl down gently, hey?"
"No I...I didn't mean it like that. Sorry, shit! I... just-" Max back-pedalled furiously. The older girl grinned impishly before quickly leaning in and interrupting her friend with a peck on the lips.
"Relax, Max. It was just a kiss," she smiled. "A nice one though," she added coyly.
Max wasn't sure what to think, or what she thought. There was no way she would have rewound that kiss, even if she could. But she'd never really been close to anyone before. When she was growing up in Seattle she had made a few friends, but she still always felt like an outsider somehow and none of those bonds were the lasting kind. Max hadn't been in touch with anyone from Seattle since moving back to Arcadia Bay, although to be fair, it was an eventful time. And here was Chloe, her best friend. One whose bond survived five years apart, only becoming stronger. She found her older friend stunning. The way she looked. The way she dressed. The way she moved. The way she spoke. But they were...best friends. She didn't want to ruin that somehow.
Max tried to cover her speechlessness in the best way she knew how, reaching for her camera on the bedside table. Her slender arm outstretched, she pointed the camera towards herself. "Photo bomb!" her best friend yelled, resting her head on Max's shoulder and looking up, grinning.
"I was gonna frame you in it anyway, dumbass." Max smiled. The camera made it's familiar click and whir. The younger girl plucked the photo as it exited, shaking it and placing the camera back on the nightstand.
"You know you don't have to shake them, don't you?" the older girl mocked her friend's little quirk. "It's only been that way for like, twenty years now, so I guess you're still not there yet," Chloe tormented.
Max became defensive of her eccentricity, "Well it feels like it helps! It feels...it's just...relaxing, ok?"
The photo grew slowly to life on the film. At first glance it mirrored the one Max had taken in Chloe's room, so long ago. The setting was different this time. It was their own place. Their own bed. But upon closer scrutiny, the girls themselves had changed so much too. Chloe had contentment in her smile now. Max looked wiser and more savvy, and also happier. It was a warm and poignant picture which would happily surround Max's 'Chloe' centrepiece. "Nice shot," Chloe said smiling at the picture of the two.
"Thanks. I've been practising." the younger girl grinned, admiringly.
~oOo~
A little later in the day, Chloe grabbed her young friend's hand, "Come on. We're going out." Max had no idea what the older girl had in mind but she was happy to go along for the ride.
"Um...ok, sure," she said complicit to her friends demands, before being led to the truck. They'd been driving for about twenty minutes when the surroundings became familiar to Max. She took a moment to remember where she'd seen these sights before. Soon after, they were pulling in to the parking lot of the Portland Art Museum. It was one of her favourite places to go with her parents when they travelled to Portland and she hadn't been back since the move to Seattle. "Oh, Chloe! How did you know?" she asked excitedly. Her friend had remembered the times Max came back from Portland, talking excitedly about the museum.
Chloe smiled, "Lucky guess. Let's go."
Max walked the path which had again become familiar to her, upstairs, straight to the photography display. Memories came flooding back to her of those happy, more innocent times. Before she could have even imagined what was to come. She smiled, bathing in the nostalgia and the fact that she was in one of the places she'd found the most inspiration from. With the person who inspired her most of all. She spent a long time standing in front of the works by Lily White and Sarah Ladd. Two of her favourite local photographers. Best friends who lived together on a houseboat in Oregon, the 'Raysark', before separating and marrying, only to meet up many years later to spend the rest of their lives with each other. She took a photo of Chloe, the punk with the blue highlights, standing in front of an old black and white picture of the 'Raysark' on the Columbia river. The deeper meaning behind the photo was something only Max and Chloe understood. Two girls re-united, on a boat defiant of the waters around them.
They spent a few hours wandering around the museum. Max took numerous photos of Chloe, some posed and some natural. All beautiful. When they were done they hopped in the truck to drive home. Chloe started the engine and turned to her friend, "So...ok for a first date?" She asked playfully.
"A first what?" Max blurted, taken aback a bit hearing the words. I guess it kinda was, she mused, smiling.
"Relax, dork. Just messing with ya," the older girl chirped as they pulled out of the parking lot.