Holy fuck guys it's been three weeks since I have updated and I know and that's why I decided to make this chapter longer. Don't think I have decided to drop this just yet, I have plenty of chapters ahead of us and everybody is very angry with each other and others are just frustrated that nothing is coming along right (That's me guys, I want my gays to just fuck it and get together but they won't. Ugh.) Again I want to thank Richie for editing and actually listen to me plot because sometimes I need reassurance that certain things won't flop.
So anyways guys I can't wait to hear what you guys think. I truly enjoy reading single comment and when you do it makes me happy. Sooooo keep on sinnning, comment and fav (:
It had been a few days and Max was now on speaking terms with her parents, they were happy but not thrilled that she opted not to stay with them' after all it was too soon.
Max was still staying with Chloe, and things had been different, even different from that night at the pool. Chloe was acting distant and of course ignoring the biggest elephant in the room; Rachel Amber.
Max tried to bring it up, to bring up that they should point the police to the body. Days had passed and yet they had not found her. Max also offered to organize a wake with all the people from school, to help everyone grieve properly; to help them heal together.
Chloe had dismissed her suggestions she wanted nothing to do with Rachel after the stuff she pulled with Frank, Jefferson and Nathan. Chloe was another string to be pulled along, a toy to be tamed and someone she could humiliate even further. Chloe was finished being everybody's puppet, so afraid of getting used just to be thrown to the side again and again and again.
Max pulled herself away from her thoughts when a smiling Chloe came into the living room and sat next to her like she had done dozens of times before. "Hiya Pete, what are we doing today?" Chloe raised her feet to the coffee table, knocking over some weird home decorating magazines.
Max unfolded her legs as they dangled over the edge of the couch "Well- umm I think we should go talk to Nathan." Max mumbled knowing how the idea was even excruciating to her, she couldn't imagine what the imagine was doing to Chloe.
"Max, I think you've actually gone mad; there is no way in hell that I'm going to see psycho Nathan. Do you not remember what he did? What he did to you; who was responsible for all of those dead girls including Rachel?" Chloe retorted back as she kicked the coffee table a little bit to the sliding doors.
.
"Chloe y'know that wasn't just him, Jefferson put these things in his head; he fucked with everyone's mind." Max turned her body facing pouty Chloe "Look, I think it would help me or even help you get closure. Look, before... before you wanted to find Rachel, but she still deserves her revenge and we should give it to her and all the girls that have come before her."
Chloe sat still with not even a whisper coming from her, her hands were like
glue, stuck together hoping that they would give her strength somehow. "I just don't see how this is fair. How I have to be the one to go looking for the guy who killed the girl I-." Chloe bit down on her lip before she said more than was needed to, she looked over at Max who was looking back at her with sympathetic eyes, her gaze followed her and she smiled softly.
"Chloe.. you're right it's not fair. None of this is fair, but we need to deal with this. We need to be the brave ones here and face this town because there's no way we can tell anyone about this. They'll think we're crazy, that I- that especially time warping- it's just impossible to everyone, and I'm never using it again, so what's the point?" Max looked down at her hand, for all that had happened, she was glad about what Nathan did, stopped her right in her tracks before she could wreck anymore of Arcadia Bay.
Chloe sighed cautiously leaning her head on Max's shoulder "You're really going to pull a Max Caulfield and make me do this, huh?"
Max felt hotter than usual as she brushed against her shoulder, the way her messy hair felt against her bare shoulder tickled her, Max managed to grab her beanie before it dropped to the floor. " If I didn't pull a Max Caulfield once a week then you'd really be in trouble." Max turned to face Chloe, her beautiful stupid face. Max smiled smugly, she was happy that Chloe was the one she got to experience this journey with, together they had promised they would take on the world, they had created a bond; something so raw and real. Max stood up straight with the beanie in her hand and inched toward Chloe, merely inches away from her lips Max tousled Chloe's hair before placing the beanie on top of her head "There. Much better."
Chloe licked her lips as Max approached her, this was going to be it she thought, this was going to be the time where they just stopped stepping around the subject and just did it. Chloe gulped hard as Max looked at her dead straight in the eyes, was she nervous or scared or anything. Just lean in, Chloe she made the effort now put on a brave Chloe could comprehend what was going on; the moment was gone, the small window that the universe had allowed them to share was gone.. it was her own damn fault. Chloe didn't want to disappoint so instead she gave Max a sly smirk "What? Are you saying you want to retouch my roots because I know if you do that I'll have to put some blue in you too." Chloe bit her tongue, the wording came out wrong and it was more awkward than she intended it to be. "I mean your hair would look nice.. uh with blue streaks." she tried to play it off before lightly punching Max's good arm.
Max furrowed her eyebrows with her hands in her lap "uh Chloe are you okay? You look a little hotter than usual- no I mean you're really red, maybe we should go for a walk." Now it was both of them getting flustered over nautical things.
"No." She sighed placing her hands on her laps as to prepare to get up "We should go see prick ass about everything. I need to hear it from him, I need to hear the words so I know that they're real, that everything we did was real and worth all of this." Chloe put her hands on her thighs and pushed herself up.
"Maybe after what he says we can look for the other bodies, I recognize one of the girl's name from the binders. Dana and Juliette were talking about how she lived in my dorm room before me and she like just disappeared. No one even cared to look at her, it's kinda weird that the police didn't question this. Jesus Christ why is town so fucked up." Max reached her arm for Chloe to pull her up and quickly got to her feet.
After a while from going around in circles around the town they had finally pinpointed where Nathan was at, at the Prescott Manor.
Chloe pulled up to the Prescott Manor, everything looked pristine and cold; exactly what they were known for. The butler answered the intercom at the gates, he was hesitant to let Max and Chloe in but when Max had mentioned she was with her lawyer, her punk too cool for school lawyer he very much obliged.
"Okay Chloe, I don't really want this to turn into a shit show. As you know, I won't be able to rewind because i promised myself that I would never use my power again. No matter what, so just please behave around the Prescotts'." Max turned to Chloe before pulling her hood over her head as it was already pouring outside.
"Chill Maxaroni I'm not going to do anything stupid, Nathan is probably in deep shit as it is, but I will not forgive him for being so blatantly idiotic and shooting you of all people." Chloe frowned turning off the engine of her truck and hopped out and into a puddle of water. Max trotted along staying close to Chloe as they started walking up the driveway and up the stairs to the manor. Max swallowed hard to remove the lump in her throat as she reached over to ring the doorbell. Missing her book bag and how she would play with the strap she played with the sling over her arm for comfort. The same man who had answered their buzzing at the intercom greeted them and asked them
to come in.
"If you could wait here, I'll have the Mrs. with you in any given moment." The clean shaven man made his way out of what looked like the den and into the parlor where Mrs. Prescott was; fulling her duties as head of the house.
"Wait we don't need-" Max protested but the older man was already out of their general vicinity. Max let out a heavy sigh, digging her nails into the leather cushion underneath where Chloe and she sat. "What the hell am I going to say to Nathan's mom; hey I know your son tried to kill me and all, but I still need to talk to him before he shuts down because you won't take seconds to talk to your only son." Max scoffed already annoyed with the idea of the woman and dealing with this situation more precarious than anticipated.
Chloe placed her hand over Max's. "Look, we'll get through to her, she wants to protect her son; her family name. These people will do whatever it takes to maintain this level of arrogance. The first thing she'll say is that she wants to pay you off.." Chloe licked her lips and squeezed Max's hand tighter "This is so much more than money, your life is worth so much more than money can buy." Chloe leaned in picking up Max's chin until their eyes met "Max I-"
"Ah I was wondering when you were going grace us with your presence Ms. Caulfield, Ms. Price if I'm correct." She overlooked Chloe not at all pleased with her appearance."Come now, we must make this quick I have other more important matters to attend to." Mrs. Prescott walked in front of them, down the hallway and into her office. The older woman gracefully glided her hand across the two leather chairs in front of her desk "Please have a seat, this won't take long but I still want you to be comfortable." Her gaze was stern, the way she looked at both girls meant she had very little time to sit down and actually talk about Nathan, to talk about the big elephant in the room. No wonder Nathan was the way he was, no one was on his side here and it looked like that wasn't going to change anytime soon.
"Uh thank you. Actually we're here because of Nathan." Max mumbled a bit before she was cut off again "Oh course you want us to pay for this." She gestured to Max's arm "This whole thing that needs figuring out or whatever it is that you kids do these days." She took out her checkbook nonchalantly, like it was just some other transaction. "Now Maxine how much would you like to make this whole accident go away." Mrs. Prescott picked up her very heavy pen and started waving it around in a circular motion.
"No! You have this all wrong. I want nothing from your family. I am here to talk to Nathan. I have to clear some things up. I'm sure someone like you can understand that. After all you have more important matters to attend to. Isn't that correct, Mrs. Prescott?" Max held back her own snicker and merely replied with a dashing grin. Mrs Prescott pursed her lips while holding back a few words herself "Is that so ? Well I'm not sure Nathan is up to receiving visitors that cause him so much distress; but given the circumstances I'll have someone take you to his room to see if he's available." Crossing her hands over the table she clicked her tongue before speaking again "Is that suffice, Ms. Caulfield?"
"That's a start, when and if we talk to Nathan, i'll let you know." Chloe butted in glaring over at Nathan's mother, she just couldn't sit there and listen to this woman for another second and that's not taking into account the way she was handling Max, Max of course was smarter than that and Chloe sure as hell knew it but know Mrs. Prescott has no doubt what type of people or just person her family will have to deal with, if things aren't settled in the span of days.
With a little more dignity than getting kicked out of her office,but not by much the older butler came back hurriedly escorting them up the spiral where; as Thomas had said Master Nathan resided. A younger nurse had just stepped out of Nathan's room, looking razzled and a little pale she continued down the hall with her eyes glued to the ground as she passed the girls in the hallway. Chloe furrowed her eyebrows as her gaze followed the woman's footsteps to the washroom, her body was turning to follow her but Max placed a grip on Chloe's arm "I don't think she wants to talk." She spoke softly as Thomas announced both of them before setting foot inside of room.
Max closed her eyes and took a deep breath, finally coming face to face with Nathan after everything, this wasn't exactly about her, it was about this town; Jefferson, Rachel, Kate and thank god but they knew that Chloe would have been next. Maybe Nathan wanted practice after Rachel, maybe he thought he'd cut back a ton to prevent Chloe from dying but that meant Chloe was able to fight back at his dorm. Like everything he's done; it was all to appease someone. If Nathan didn't work so hard to make Sean Prescott of Mark Jefferson happy he wouldn't be in this mess, he wouldn't be so messed up that he thinks he has to resort to killing people to keep quiet. No Nathan Prescott isn't a bad person, his actions are disgusting but he still has a chance to redeem himself, to be a better friend for even victoria. Poor little rich kids deserve happiness too.
Chloe put her hands on Max's shoulders and Max's eyes sprung open "I'm right here Max, if you feel you can't do this just tell me. You won't be doing this alone, I don't want this to go bad like before with the nose bleeds. I don't want to sound hella paranoid but I'm kinda always there." She gave a small chuckle following Max's lead inside, passed the door frame and their eyes fell to Nathan holding his arm as he wrapped a bandage over his forearm "Stupid bitch can't even draw blood." mumbling out he then noticed the people in his room. "If it isn't Maxine Caulfield and her punkass girlfriend." He scuffed out standing up to go walk over to his desk. "Came over to be the good little samaritan and bring me Mr Shitface's notes or what the hell are you doing here?"
Max rolled her eyes, maybe she was wrong and Nathan wasn't exactly savable.
"Cut the shit Nathan, you know why I'm here. Jefferson, Rachel, you and Chloe are all strangely connected. That's why you shot me right, Chloe wasn't there and I knew way too much. You owe me an explanation, you fucked my whole life because of this. I can never go back to photography, the least you can do is step the fuck up." Max was raging, she could feel the top of her head getting extremely hot like when she would rewind. Max knew that she had to pull back, she had to take it down a notch if she was to prove to Chloe that everything is fine.
Nathan glared at the shorter girl standing in front of him, clenching his hand around his bandaged arm. "What do you want Caulfield. You don't know what this is. You have no idea what you're talking about.
"You know what. you're probably right. I have no idea what your deal is but just give me a hand here and help me understand."Max was trying so hard to reach out but Nathan wasn't making it easy, Nathan didn't even want help; feeling the need to be more preoccupied with self loathing and still being the veil spoiled little rich kid.
"Look man just tell us what happened with Rachel, we know you had something to do with her disappearing so stop act fucking dumb. You're the stupid fucking reason she's gone." Chloe was now strutting closer to Nathan, knocking over several things along the way, knickknacks here and there. The tall girl standing over him looking as if she wanted deface Nathan. "Tell us what happened, tell us what happened and no one gets hurt. No one else has no know but us, you what had a thing for Rachel too right? That's the angle you're playing here, you had a thing but then you weren't the only boy in her life right. Jefferson, Frank and maybe even Samuel the janitor were better off than you were. Did that bother you? You couldn't even keep up with the janitor for fucks
sake." As much as Chloe wanted to project every fiber of herself onto focusing on Nathan all her words were hitting her with every single blow directed at him.
"Shut up, just shut the hell up! You have no idea what I meant to her, we were it. Everyone else was just leverage, Frank the drugs, Samuel access to anything she wanted, Jefferson… he and I were a team. He wasn't into Rachel he was helping me with that. I brought her to our meetings… our sessions." Nathan clenched his teeth locking his jaw in place.
"Stop shit talking. No one believes this shit. You didn't love Rachel, you just wanted to use her like everyone else. Rachel was so giving and she let it carry on too long and look what the hell happened to her. She was and I mean.. I was in love with Rachel I knew what it meant to her and you fucking bastards took her away from me. You took away this one hope we had in this whole fucking town, look at us now." Chloe turned from Nathan to Max "You're really screwed up if you think that this was okay! You almost killed Max, my best friend my- my-" Chloe clenched her jaw trying to keep herself from crying in front of Nathan. "How fucked do you have to be to think that someone like Max has anything to do with this situation. If you even go near her again I will end you. I am so sick of this entitlement and whatever else your family pretends to be and you better believe that Chloe Price isn't afraid of death."