Chloe checked her phone for the time. The train was running a few minutes late, and she was beginning to fear that maybe it wasn't coming at all. How else would she be able to play their nightly game of chicken, if the train didn't show up? She couldn't remember hearing about any delays with the train schedule - and that was one of the few bits of news she watched for. She'd spent enough time in the junkyard to know that it very rarely didn't speed through at 11PM.
She sighed heavily on the couch, looking around her hangout. A few years ago, she was proud of finding this place, of turning this little junkyard shack into a hideout. Now, all she could see was her and Rachel, making the room less of a hideout and more of a home away from home. But now it was only Chloe, and the room felt too big and too empty, even though all it was missing was one warm body.
Chloe hated being by herself, but there wasn't exactly a list of people lining up to hang out with her these days. No fucking way was she going back home to deal with her mother's disappointed glances and step-douche's bullshit. The handful of people she thought were still friendly with her from Blackwell had avoided her since Rachel decided to up and vanish. Frank, at least, would tolerate her when she came around, but even he was acting more aloof than normal for the last few months. Probably had something to do with the money she still owed him.
Not for the first time, she wondered how things might have been different if her father hadn't died. Or if Max Caulfield hadn't up and left at the worst fucking possible time. As socially inept as Max used to be, she at least would have always stuck by Chloe's side.
Maybe it wasn't Max's fault that she left. Maybe it wasn't even her parents' fault. But fuck them, fuck all of them.
And fuck Rachel, too. Chloe had been calling her every day for months, and she had received nothing but silence. Rachel's voicemail was full now, not even giving Chloe a chance to try to calmly apologize for whatever it was that she must have done. It was unnerving, unlike Rachel to just up and vanish for such a long time, but surely she had grown bored of Chloe. Everyone else seem to have.
"Something happened to her," Chloe forced herself to say out loud. Even Rachel's parents had thought the same thing, until they gave up searching for their daughter. Not Chloe, though. "She wouldn't leave me, not like this." She didn't know who she was talking to, but no one responded to contradict her.
No one was agreeing with her, either.
Finally, finally, she could hear the train's whistle in the distance. She groaned as she stood up, twisting her neck around to crack it. It might be worth risking heading back to her room for a night, if only to sleep in a real bed for once. Although that meant the odds of running into step-douche rose drastically, and she'd really rather not see his stupid fucking face ever again.
She made her way to the tracks quickly, standing in her usual place as the train came around the corner. She reached into her pocket to grab a cigarette, before bitterly remembering that she was all out. She grumbled to herself as she shifted her weight back and forth, clenching her fists as she watched the train barrel closer and closer to her.
For a moment, she wondered if it would be easier to just let the fucking train hit her.
But she jumped off the tracks with time to spare, feeling the rush of wind and adrenaline roll over her as she laughed nervously. The train kept speeding onwards, towards whatever stop was past Arcadia Bay. As Chloe watched it go, she felt the thrills leave her body, and the usual miserable feelings seeped back in.
"My best friend is a fucking train," she muttered to herself, shoving her hands in her pockets before stalking back to her hangout. She threw herself onto the couch unceremoniously, mumbling obscenities under her breath. The September nights were starting to get chilly - in a few more weeks, she wouldn't have the luxury of sleeping out here. And with Rachel AWOL, she'd have no choice but to go back home.
"It's not my fucking home," she irritably muttered out loud, rolling on her side on the couch to try to get comfortable enough to sleep.