Pricefield - Time Warriors

Chapter 3: An Overdue Conversation

Everything around me turned into a blur as I forced time to a crawl, then to a hard stop. Taking a deep breath, I pulled once more so that time began to rewind. I watched, fascinated, as the violence of the past couple of minutes reversed right in-front of my eyes. Victoria and her minions sat back down on the stairs. The blood ran back up into her nostrils. Chloe's bruised fist re-connected with her nose and was instantly healed and reversed course as Chloe stepped back into her usual 'don't mess with me' stance, a mere few seconds before Victoria caused her to lash out. Thankfully I couldn't feel my own nosebleed coming on just yet but this would have to do for now. I don't want to push myself too hard on the first rewind in this new timeline. I began to gradually slacken my grip on time until everything froze to a stop. Taking another deep breath, I let go of the rewind completely and waited for my moment.

Victoria was glaring at me again. "Why look, if it isn't Max Caulfield, the selfie-ho of Blackwell-" then she once again noticed Chloe and was just about to open her mouth to attack her when I decided to strike.

"Victoria you better shut your mouth right now before I shut it for you."

The clack of Victoria's teeth crashing together as she whipped her head back around to look at me in shock was priceless, pun intended.

Victoria's eyes had narrowed into slits. "Your hipster ass wouldn't dare touch me, don't try to act-"

I cut her off mid-sentence with my own retort. "Honestly, you're probably right. Victoria, you can insult me all you like, but if you so much as breathe in the direction of my childhood friend here, you WILL regret it. That's assuming she doesn't deck you first. After-all, Chloe here has been known to defend my 'hipster ass' from bullies like you ever since we first met each other. So for once in your life shut up and listen if you don't want this to get violent."

Victoria was clearly too busy looking back and forth between me and Chloe to consider formulating a response, so I took a breath and softened my voice. "I'm going to be real with you for a second Victoria, so listen carefully. You are a good photographer. I've always admired your work. Despite all your harsh words and underhanded tactics, I enjoy being your photography rival. I don't hate you, hell I don't even dislike you. I'm sure we'd get along fine, for two photography rivals, that is, if you dropped the constant insults. In-fact, I'll even come by your room tonight at midnight so we can continue this talk in private. See you later, Victoria."

And with that done, I nudged my way past, dragging Chloe up the stairs with me, while Victoria and her minions sat there and stared after us with their jaws practically hitting the floor.

Once we reached the dorm floor, Chloe turned to me and asked, "What the hell was that all about?"

I simply smirked and replied, "Well Chloe, didn't you say something about me being a rebel? Besides, I told you she wasn't as bad as she acts. If she isn't in control of what's happening, it throws her off balance. As you just saw, she's still probably trying to pick her jaw up off the floor right now."

Chloe laughed and shook her head in amusement while we continued walking down the hallway.

Glancing towards Kate's room, I spotted her room slate and frowned at the same-old graffiti from the last timeline. Stamping down on the rising bubble of anger, I swiftly erased it and decided to make sure people knew it was off-limits. Uncapping the board marker, I wrote 'This slate is under the protection of Max Caulfield. Deface this in any way and you shall pay the Price. You have been warned.' then drew an image of my Polaroid camera in the style of a surveillance camera, recapped the marker and continued towards my dorm room where Chloe was already waiting with her arms crossed.

I pulled the door key out of my pocket when I suddenly realized - Chloe already knew where my room was, even-though I never told her which one was mine. Raising an eyebrow at Chloe, I asked, "So how'd you know which room was mine? Stalker much?"

Chloe opened her mouth to reply, then promptly shut it again. She looked from my door to my keys and back to me, turned a slight shade of pink then muttered something unintelligible under her breath. I whacked her in the shoulder and told her to speak up.

"You've been at Blackwell for what, a month now? Yet you never came to see me, not once. I may have gotten a little frustrated and curious, so one day I asked a few people around campus about you and learned which room was yours. That's all. I didn't steal one of step-douche's ladders and peep through your window, I promise."

I huffed and rolled by eyes at her, then unlocked my door and shoved her through it before stepping in and quickly closing it behind me.

Chloe stood in the middle of my room, turning in a circle trying to take everything in. She half-laughed half-groaned before muttering, "I'm so not surprised. It's very hipster. Not my style but I like it. It suits you perfectly."

I giggled and dragged her down to sit on the bed with me. We sat there in silence for a good 30 seconds before Chloe turned to me with a serious expression on her face and said, "Why did you show up out of nowhere, for the first time in years, and use our old pirate code to stop me from going into that bathroom? I came, no questions asked. I figure I'm out of immediate danger here so I want to know what the hell is going on. Talk to me, Max."

My mind began to race. "I can't tell her yet. She wouldn't understand or believe me with a power demonstration which would probably scare her off this early on. I'll have to wait until tomorrow, at-least."

Swallowing the lump in my throat, I looked down and mumbled, "I can't, Chloe. Not yet. It's too long to explain and you wouldn't believe me anyway. I'll tell you later, I promise."

Chloe frowned and was about to retort when her eyes landed on the photo wall next to us and she leaned closer to inspect it. Her expression was one of sheer admiration and... sadness? Why would she be sad? I followed her line of sight and saw that she was looking at the spot I'd dedicated to our childhood. Oh.

I slowly placed a hand on her arm before whispering, "I never forgot, Chloe. Never."

She whipped her head around so fast I thought she'd snap her neck. Her eyes burned with rage. Again. "Bull-fucking-shit, Max. You abandoned me when I needed you the most!"

I flinched.

"You told me you were moving, right before my Dad died, then you stuck around just long enough to attend his funeral and left before it had even finished, for fuck sakes!"

I screwed my eyes shut tight.

"You left me a stupid tape-recorded message because you couldn't be bothered to say goodbye properly, and that was it. You were gone. When I needed you the most!"

The tears began to fall regardless.

"You weren't there, Max!"

I clenched my fists so hard that my nails dug into my palm.

"Some fucking best friend you turned out to be, huh? Remember how you said 'we'll always be Max and Chloe' right before everything turned to shit, then you only replied to a couple of my text messages before giving up and ghosting me completely?"

My heart felt like it was in my throat.

"You were perfectly happy to forget that I ever existed and moved on with your fancy new life in the big city of Seattle without me."

It was becoming harder to breathe properly.

"You clearly only came back to this shit town for Blackwell Academy, not me. Not once did you try to contact me or come see me until today, so don't you dare pretend you care about me now."

I felt like I was dying. I was clearly in the middle of an anxiety-panic attack. Quite possibly the worst one I've ever had. Chloe was too angry at me to notice and my brain was too busy repeating "I deserve this!" to even attempt to stop her ranting. With no end in sight, I simply curled up into a ball and sobbed while my heart broke and threatened to burst out of my body.

All of a sudden, Chloe stopped, seemingly mid-sentence. I forced one eye open to take a peek at her, and saw that she was now sitting up straight. As if she was standing at attention, except sitting. Hey jaw was slacked open and her eyes appeared to be glazed over. It was like she'd just been hypnotised. Then, as if some imaginary hypnotist had snapped their fingers, her nose started bleeding. Then she blinked. And blinked again. She rotated her head as her eyes appeared to refocus and as soon as she locked onto me, it was like the spell had been broken completely. She surged forward and threw her hands under my arms, gently pulling me into a sitting position.

Chloe spoke to me in the softest voice I'd ever heard her use. "It's okay, Max. Just focus on my voice. Listen and breathe. In, and out. That's it. Follow my lead. Good. You're okay. Keep going."

We sat there for at-least ten minutes doing nothing but breathing in sync. Once I'd finally calmed down enough, she dragged me into a hug and whispered in my ear, "I'm here, Max. Don't worry, I'll always be here. I'm never leaving you."

After another couple of minutes spent rocking back and forth in the hug, I reluctantly let go and shuffled away up the bed to sit against the wall. I took one more deep breath and glanced over at Chloe. That's when I noticed her bloody nose again.

Clearing my throat, my voice was hoarse from crying but I pushed through it. "Uh, Chloe? Your nose is bleeding."

She raised an eyebrow at me, then wiped a hand under her nose, which came away stained in red. Then her other eyebrow rose, and she grinned. "Good. I hope she felt it. Causing you to have an anxiety-panic attack and not recognize the signs herself? What a bitch." Upon seeing the confusion on my face, she grinned even wider and continued. "It took a while but I made it through, Max. Better late than never, right?"

I blinked, trying to comprehend the words being spoken to me. It took me a few seconds, but I got there in the end. Then I promptly threw myself back into her arms and sighed in relief. I wasn't alone. All I could say next was, "How?"

Chloe pulled her head back to look me in the eyes, her face serious again. I flinched, involuntarily, expecting another rant. Chloe noticed and softened her gaze before quickly apologizing and then began to explain what happened.

"To be honest, I'm still not quite sure myself. Though from what I could piece together, once you initiated the photo jump everything went white. Except, instead of taking me to where I expected – into this body – I got thrown into some creepy-ass nightmare where I had to watch everything that happened in the old timeline, start to finish."

I shivered and nodded, "Sounds familiar, I had something like that when I came back from my last trip through time while you were carrying me up to the cliff. It was absolutely horrible."

Chloe hummed, then continued. "I'm not sure what yours was like, but I saw everything – scene for scene – as the week went by, even the bits I wasn't actually there for. It was like I was a ghost hovering over your shoulder the whole time. I had to watch myself die in all those dumb ways. The bathroom, shooting myself in the junk-yard, multiple deaths to the train while you kept rewinding, struggling to find a way to save me-"

She stopped after spotting me wince at the mention of the train and put her hand on my shoulder. "It's okay, Max. I don't blame you in any way. I'm more pissed at myself because you had to witness it over and over again thanks to my own stupidity."

She shook her head and kept going. "Anyway, yeah. I saw the train stuff. I saw you save Kate on the roof – I'm so fucking proud of you by the way – and, well, I can recount everything that happened because I saw it all, but since you already lived it I don't think I need to retell it, do I?"

I huffed and shrugged at her. Then my eyes widened in realization. "Wait, so you saw... everything?" She saw me clench my fist and grabbed it, forcing me to grip her hand instead.

Chloe took a shaky breath. "Yes, I saw everything. Including the Dark Room."

I flinched and tried to block the memories from appearing. It didn't work. I began trying to claw at my wrist with the hand not currently in Chloe's grasp, though it didn't take long until she grabbed that one too.

"Hey. Max. Focus on my voice again. You're with me, you're safe. I wish I didn't have to bring that up again but you deserve to know – even if it doesn't mean anything to you – while you were unconscious, it was only pictures and posing. I swear to you. Nothing more. I'm still going to rip his fucking balls off and shove them down his throat when I see him, though."

I blinked and forced myself to relax, albeit not very much, and nodded at Chloe so that she could let go of my hands. "I... Thanks for that, I think. I'm so sorry you had to watch that."

Chloe pulled me in for another hug. "And I'm sorry you had to go through that in the first place, all because of my carelessness. Yet again."

I punched her in the arm upon hearing that. "Oh no you don't. I'm the one who puts herself down, not you." I stuck my tongue out at her. "Besides, even if we suspected a trap, neither of us was expecting it to be from... him."

Chloe growled. "Well we're not blind this time. That's for fucking sure." She cleared her throat. "As I was saying, I saw everything. However, as I watched the week progress, I had this weird feeling that got stronger the more I watched. I didn't know what it was until the end, when I was watching you in the Dark Room. I realized it was a feeling of protectiveness. So strong that it felt like it was linking us – bonding us – together through time and space. I focused on that feeling, then suddenly everything went white again and I opened my eyes to see you hyperventilating. Perfect timing, I guess?"

I grinned at her. "Yeah. Thanks for that. I had no idea you knew how to deal with anxiety-panic attacks."

Chloe flashed me a sad smile. "After you aban- no, sorry - after you were forced to move, it kinda hit me hard. Losing you gave me trust issues and thanks to that, Hella bad anxiety followed. So I've had my fair share of anxiety-panic attacks."

Chloe mock-glared at me when I opened my mouth to respond. "Don't even think about saying sorry. It wasn't your fault that your parents screwed us both over at such a shitty time." She sighed. You've always had bouts of anxiety even when we were younger, but I've never seen you have an attack this bad before, even when I interrogated you the first time around. I know that I've blamed you for moving away, for a long time. I was stuck in that mindset where I only thought about how the move affected me. Not once did I consider that you weren't actually having the time of your life and partying it up in Seattle without me. It's about time I asked for your side of the story, Max."

I flinched and ended up squeezing Chloe's hand hard enough to cause her to wince in pain, but she didn't let go.

Chloe looked at me with concern in her eyes. "Sorry. The last thing I want to do is give you another attack. I have no idea how... bad... it was for you without me. If you're okay to talk about it, I'll just sit here and listen. No judgement. No bullshit. Just Max and Chloe, like when we were kids."

I nodded ever so slightly, and took a moment to think about what I've been wanting to say for years. "Chloe, like you said, I've always had anxiety even when I was younger. Think about how shy and awkward I was when we first met. All I wanted to do was run away from you, but you literally wouldn't let me. You've always been the guiding force in our friendship. Most of the things I did, I only did because you were there to give me the courage to do so. Now guess what would happen if you, the only real counter I had to stop me from being my old self, was violently ripped away from me. What did happen."

I didn't try to stop the tears from falling this time.

"Not having you there to balance me out, broke me in more ways than you can imagine. I immediately reverted back to my old self without you around. I was in a completely new house, new city, far bigger than Arcadia Bay, and the only people I knew were my parents who I absolutely resented for splitting us apart – and to be quite honest, I still do – so I had nobody. I was all alone in unknown territory. I never left the house, Chloe. I simply couldn't. The only times I did were when my parents forced me to go to school, of-course. Eventually, somehow, I made a couple of friends there who were willing to keep me company and drag me out of my house, but they were nothing compared to you. Apart from those two, I was seen as the school's awkward loner who everyone else loved to bully, so that didn't help. As time went on, my anxiety got worse, to the point that I stopped texting you completely because I felt so guilty for leaving you and assumed you were only texting me because you felt sorry for me, or something. I don't know. The only thing that kept me going was my love for photography, which even that I only did because it was my last link to my childhood – to you – That passion grew to the point where last year I realized I had a shot at getting into Blackwell, and could finally come back to you. However my anxiety never went away, and I didn't find the courage to pick up the phone and contact you to let you know, because by this point four years had passed, I thought you'd have no doubt moved on from me by now since I'd ghosted you. The same goes for when I actually came back. I couldn't contact you. I couldn't visit you. I just couldn't. I have no excuse except to blame my anxiety, and that just makes me feel like total shit. Everything I did after I moved, I did it solely to get back to you. Even if consciously I was thinking it was pointless and impossible. You mean the world to me, Chloe. You always have. And I will always blame myself for not being strong enough to stay in contact. You needed me and I wasn't there for you. I'm sorry. I'm so fucking sorry."

True to her word, Chloe didn't say anything. She just listened to my rambling. She wiped away my constant stream of tears while ignoring her own. She held me as we both broke down towards the end. She made no effort to put up her punk walls of steel. Sometimes, Chloe Price cares and she just can't hide it.