They talked more after that. Then they started hanging out. Then they were friends.
They laughed together. About what posers everyone else was. Everyone doing and saying what they thought they were supposed to, sucking up, putting out, doing whatever just to try to fit in. About what a shithole town this little piece of nowhere was. Everyone with their small lives, and their small dreams, and their small minds.
Rachel was from Los Angeles. Her family had moved against her will because her mom could work from anywhere and her dad thought the price of living out there was too high. They thought small town life would be "more stable" or so Rachel said. But she was going to go back to L.A. and be a model. With that face, it wouldn't be hard.
Chloe didn't care where she went, so long as it was out of Arcadia Bay. She just wanted to explore. Adventure. Like when she and Max used to play pirates as kids. So L.A. worked for her. They would go together. As soon as they could gather up enough money. They talked about it all the time. The things they would see, the places they would go, the things they would do.
It was during one of these heated discussions that they had their first kiss.
They had been talking about what they would do and who they would do (celebrities, agents, random hot guys), and Chloe realized that the only person she actually wanted to do was Rachel. She had slept with guys before, but always as a means to an end. To get drugs. To get money. To get into a show. But she had never much cared for it. It didn't thrill her the way just thinking about Rachel did. Rachel was her angel. So she took a leap.
"I love you."
Rachel had smiled at her. Eyes sparkling and full of excitement. "I love you too." But it was too easy. Too happy. It didn't have the depth of what Chloe was saying. So she took her hand and looked her straight in the eye.
"No, Rachel, I mean I love you."
They looked at each other quietly for a few moments. Then Rachel gripped her hand more firmly. "Yeah. I love you too." Then she kissed her. And kissed her again. And again.
After that their plans shifted. From what to do and who to do, to all the places they could do each other. They laughed as they talked about visiting Paris, eating at fancy cafés, then eating each other out on top of the Eiffel Tower. They meant it of course, but they also wanted to hold hands as they walked along the Siene, buy a padlock to carve their initials into and lock onto the Pont de Arts, dance down the streets in the city of lights. Rachel would walk the runway at Fashion Week, Chloe would get a motorcycle and take her out of the city for a picnic in Nice. And they would make love on every national monument.
They were on top of the world. In their own little bubble. No one else mattered. They were going to get out of this town and make all their dreams come true.
Then Rachel disappeared.
And that old sadness crept in. The loneliness, the despair, the rage. Chloe wanted to tear the world apart. Starting with Arcadia Bay.