The sound of an alarm was so fucking annoying.
But the feeling of your girlfriend kissing you to wake you up was much better.
"Good morning…" I mumbled as Rachel kept kissing my cheek. "What day is it?"
"Friday. We decided on your dorm, remember?"
"Oh, right. I remember. Do we have to go to classes today? Don't you just want to stay here and kiss?"
Rachel chuckled, placing one more kiss on me, "I'd love to. But I promised your mom that your grades will stay up. So, we have to go. We'll kiss all you want after school is done with."
"Fine."
That time in our lives was a blur now. I was sure I was going to die right there in the grass of Amber Manor. I thought I was going to be gone and taken away from Rachel, just like her family and best friend were.
Hell, I couldn't believe I didn't go to prison, considering I shot Chase… I guess her dad didn't want this on his hands. I just told what happened and it was like that never occurred in the first place…
That fucking nightmare hellhole. I couldn't let Rachel live there anymore. While I was in the hospital, recovering the bullet that shot through my back, barely missing everything that could've been severed and killed me, my mom and all of my friends helped move Rachel's stuff into my mom's house, staying with us from now on.
Becoming girlfriends just… kinda happened. We didn't ask each other the question, it just happened. She always liked me and I grew to like her, so we just started doing things couples did.
I'll never understand how Rachel still liked me even though I was a total asshole to her, but, fuck, I'm glad.
Everything just fell quiet after everything. It was like everything that happened never fucking happened. The Vortex club didn't even exist anymore!
Mostly because, obviously, everyone in that fucking club were fucking insane.
(Nobody talked about Chase ever again, thank God.)
Now, everything between me and Rachel was just natural.
"Are you really sure you want to go to school?"
Rachel then took that stupid tie the school made us wear and wrapped it around my lifted collar, starting to tie it for me.
"Yes, Chloe." She smiled, chuckling and shaking her head after. "A little addicted to me, aren't you?"
"Better than weed, let me tell you that."
I could never stop looking at her sometimes.
How could someone be this beautiful? Wait, is she real?
I held her chin and lifted her head, kissing her lips quick. Her eyes were wide, but then she grinned, stretching from ear to ear.
"What was that?"
"Just making sure you were real."
"Did you think you were sleeping in bed with a ghost or something?"
"You know this, but you're fucking crazy beautiful, okay? I just needed to make sure!"
"You always amaze me, Chloe Price."
Rachel was keeping me in line from now on, but as much as I (and secretly her too, but she won't say it) wanted to spend some days or nights rebelling against the world, we just needed to be together now. Just be girlfriends and get through Blackhell.
"Alright, you're good to go." Rachel was still holding my tie, looking up at me while biting her lower lip.
"Thinking about it now, huh?" I smirked.
"Of course. I do every time you ask me to just stay here with you. But we won't today. Maybe some other day, though. Come on," she stepped away and grabbed her backpack, "let's finish getting ready and get to school. We have to see your Dungeons and Dragons friends, remember?"
Right! We're starting a new campaign today!
I shut my trap and got ready faster.
"Okay, ready?"
Rachel grabbed my hand and pulled me along to school, not stopping for a second.
It's still fucking crazy that this was happening now… Without that stupid party, without that stupid punishment to clean that stupid house, without the Vortex Club just being full on batshit fucking crazy none of this would be happening right now.
Me hating Rachel felt so fake and that I made that up. Maybe I actually kinda liked her; I just didn't want to believe that.
But here I was, that 'tough' shit I used to pull wasn't me anymore.
Rachel went into school, holding my hand tighter as she hurried through the hallway, making everyone else move aside and against the lockers.
"No running in the halls, Miss Amber!" Principal Wells yelled as we passed him.
I cackled as Rachel sped up. "Whatever, Principal Wells!"
Well, that tough shit was still a part of me at times.
Rachel headed straight to Photography class, where Max and Kate were sitting at one of the desks by the window, with Kate sitting in her chair and Max was on the desk, looking down at her.
Max and Kate. Those cute, little and soft lovebirds that were just too perfect together. Their cuteness still made my teeth rot. God, just the way they held hands was cute somehow!
They might as well get fucking married with how well they just go together!
"There you two are!" Kate greeted us.
"Hey!" Rachel let go of my hand and sat next to her. "I'm so glad it's Friday now! Any weekend plans, you two?"
"Not really, no. Just movie nights with Max."
"That's what you do every weekend." I crossed my arms, a little mocking in my tone.
"And it's the best every single time," Max nodded, smiling from ear to ear. "What about you two?"
"Chloe's dorm this weekend," Rachel replied. "I'm going to get her ass focused on homework before we could do whatever we want to do!"
"Can we just do a little bit of what we want to do first and then do homework?" I raised my brow. I don't wanna do homework, are you fucking kidding me?
"And let you distract me? No, Chloe Price."
"Give me a taste, at least! Make me chase for it, Rachel."
She scoffed, but the corner of her mouth was still curved in a smirk. I wasn't giving up. I want one kiss, at least!
"I'll think about it."
"Hey, you guys!" A familiar voice greeted us, along with the sound of the door closing after.
"Hey Steph!" I turned and nodded my head at her. "Took you long enough!"
"We're still not exactly used to you being here before us, Chloe." Mikey said.
"Well, get used to it, dude. With Rachel, my shit is more put together."
"We can tell!" Steph started to dig through her bag. "Plus, I had to print out some assignments and character sheets for our new campaign."
"We still don't have a campaign figured out yet." Mikey was given the sheets and passed them to me and Max.
"I got an idea, actually," I took a sheet from him, looking at the elaborate sections for descriptions in physical appearance, personality traits, and stats. (I tended to put my strength in the highest number.)
"Is that so, Callamastia?" Max sounded like she was teasing me. "What is it?"
"Like, I know we start our campaigns with knowing each other, but I was thinking we don't know each other at all. We'd be traveling to different places, but then a crazy ass meteor or like a flaming ball crashes through the air—BAM!—and onto Earth! We'd be like 'what the fuck' and then we all go there. I don't know what the fuck happens after, but whatever's in that meteor or whatever, it'll kill us all!"
"That's…" Steph crossed her arms and giving me an amused smile. "That's pretty genius, Chloe. Yeah, let's go with that!"
"Hell yeah!"
Thank fuck, classes were fast today!
I saw Rachel walking out of the school building and, feeling my stomach growl, I hurried to her.
"Hey, let's go to Two Whales for dinner, please?" I hugged Rachel around her waist from behind, stopping her from heading to the dorms.
"Chloe, we went yesterday."
"Come on, how are you going to deny it? They started serving breakfast all day and now you don't want evening pancakes?"
"It's not that I don't want evening pancakes, we just had them yesterday! And the day before that. And the day before that one too! We have to eat something else, Chloe."
"Then let's order something else! It doesn't have to be nighttime breakfast all the time!"
Rachel sighed, rolling her eyes. "Okay, fine. You caught me in a good mood."
"Hell yes!" I grabbed her hand and now I was the one pulling her along. I hurried and hurried, making our way to the diner. My mom was still working at this hour, I think.
I just wanted to get to the diner, running and running until I ran straight into the diner.
"What did I tell you about running into here, Chloe?!" My mom had a coffee pot in one hand and her hand on the other, looking at me with her 'mom glare'.
"I'm hungry, mom, okay?" I replied, going to my and Rachel's usual booth. "While Rachel wants something else, I want pancakes!"
I made them laugh with that and my mom knew that I wanted coffee with it, getting a mug and pouring one for me.
"Then what'll it be, Rachel?" My mom asked her.
"Just a burger and fries for me, Ms. Price. I promise to get her on her homework once we get back to the dorm."
"Good to hear! School was good then?"
"Only because it's Friday." I added, then drank my coffee.
"Of course you'd say that. I'll be back with your orders."
When my mom left, I grumbled to Rachel, "You're not serious about the homework, are you?"
"The quicker we get homework down the quicker we could do whatever the fuck we want." Rachel then smirked, "But I know you'll try to make it go your way somehow."
"You know we so well."
No way I'm going to do homework right away on a goddamn Friday! Rachel can spare some time!
"Aren't you glad we came here first, though?" I asked.
"Of course. I'm always glad whenever we're together."
Man, that shit will never leave my memories. Not just because of the PTSD. No fucking clue if we'll ever have kids, but if we ever do, how the fuck will we answer, 'how did you and mom meet?' We couldn't just say, 'your mom held a crazy party, but it was actually by her 'friend', who sabotaged it to make me get stuck in the same house (because I hated her at the time) as her in order to make her want to end herself (because I hated her so much) because her dad made this deal with that 'friend's' devil father and then they were just sadistic after that and then I grew to love your mom and saved her from getting killed by that 'friend.''
I guess I do love her. Yeah… I think I do?
"Hey, Rachel."
She hummed, setting her phone down.
"I love you."
She widened her eyes, then chuckled, giving my shin a light kick. "Don't fuck around like that."
"I'm not fucking around!"
"We haven't been dating long; Don't just say it so randomly!"
She was still laughing, so she doesn't hate it that much.
I couldn't stop smiling at her. I totally looked goofy as shit, but I couldn't not smile.
If I don't love her, then I really, really, really like her.
We just had small talk while we ate, talking about what we should do after we finish with homework back at my dorm room. Mostly movies or lying down to just talk. Our relationship didn't move that fast on the physical side of it, not with everything we both went through, especially Rachel.
Her hugs were the best! And I was never into all that cuddle or snuggle shit, but those were the best too!
And her kisses!
"Why are you smiling?" Rachel asked, smiling too, holding a french fry to my mouth.
"Nothing," I shook my head and ate the fry.
After finishing our meals, I let Rachel pull on my arm until we were on the sidewalk. I tugged on her back, making her stop.
"Chloe Price!"
"Rachel Amber."
"Come on, we have to get back to the dorm."
"Nope," I tugged on her arm again, making her land onto me, "we should go to the lighthouse."
"Chloe—"
"Come on, you know want to hang out for a little bit! It's not even a little dark yet!"
She grumbled, slouching her back, then sighed, "Ten minutes."
"Sweet!"
So, there was more dragging along. Not so much about halfway, because she was starting to run too, sometimes even faster than me.
We ran all the way to the very top of the cliff to the lighthouse, where no one was ever there. I thought for a second that maybe Max and Kate decided to go first, but they were homebody movie geeks at this point, so they weren't going to be there.
The lighthouse was just a perfect place to watch the ocean and sunset, sitting on the perfectly placed bench facing the view.
"You know you don't want to be here for just ten minutes!"
"I really mean it this time, Chloe," Rachel took her phone out of her backpack and checked the time. "There, I remember the time and I'm going to check again in a little bit."
"Alright then," I sat down on the bench, stretched my arms on the back, "whatever you say."
She shook her head, in disbelief at me, but sat down anyway. I put my arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer and sighed contently, looking towards the horizon.
"Does any of it ever feel like a dream to you?" Rachel asked, keeping her eyes forward as she leaned into me.
"All the fucking time…" I snickered, shaking my head. "Like, did I really hate you that much? Did I really get stuck in jail for three days? Did I really choke you that day? Did you help me pass my first flashback attack?" I paused, holding her closer. "Did Chase really use me to torment you, in hopes you'd end it all…?"
"None of it sounds real when you ask like that… I still can't believe that I never have to go to that house again. I'll never see my dad again. I'll never see my mom, both my real one and my fake one, again. I'll never get to change my childhood or the beginning of high school… get my dad to stop hurting me or tell myself to not do anything for just five minutes of praise… But… It brought me here. It brought us together."
"Good job finding anything positive in this situation." I smiled a little bigger, kissing her cheek. "I'm proud of you. For getting through all that bullshit."
"I'm proud of you too." Rachel smiled back, turning to me to kiss my lips. "Hate—and will forever hate—that you had to be stuck in my house to get us here."
She cupped my cheeks in her hands, giving me one more kiss, this time deeper and lasting seconds longer. This was definitely a comforting feeling now, setting me down into reality.
She added after she pulled away, "And, now, you're always stuck with me."
I chuckled, gazing at her for a little. She makes it sound like a bad thing.
"And I don't mind that one bit."
A/N: Sorry for the long ass wait, yall. Sorry that this ended kinda rushed as well. I guess it's obvious that I lost motivation to write this… Frankly, I honestly believe this'll be the last fanfic I'll write for lis! Trust me, I still love the game, I love Max and Chloe and Kate and Rachel! I started writing when I was 15 and I'm 21 now, yall. This is probably the last fanfic I'll write in a long while. Anyway, I hope yall still enjoy, if yall are still reading, that is.
Thank you.