Disclaimer: I don't own Life is Strange or Lovelytheband.
A/N: So I've been thinking about this chapter and trying to write it but I ended up hitting a block. Fortunately it didn't last as long as the others one have. Like the first chapter, this one is based on more songs from Lovelytheband, in particular "Alone Time" and "Don't Worry, You Will". I know exactly how the story is going to end, and it's probably only going to be a couple more chapters.
I could use a distraction to cope with my life, not necessarily making me feel good, just better than I do. My room is dark, in need of sunshine and maybe the smile of my new favorite person, but I feel trapped with my feelings, as though my mattress is an island that I can't escape. I'm sick of being sad, and being high doesn't help me as much as it should.
I set the joint in my ashtray and place it on the bookcase next to my bed, folding my arms beneath my head. I haven't stopped thinking about Rachel since the party last night, the memory of Rachel's lips against mine haunting every one of my thoughts. It was like something someone had told me once, that maybe the reason two people were drawn together was because their atoms were formed near each other and then separated, and that they always returned back to each other, and if that was how science explained something that I'm feeling, then fuck, I love science.
Never one to care about socializing, I've been cursed—if I could consider it a blessing, I probably would—with never-ending thoughts about the girl with the blue feather earring, and I wonder when the hell I became so attached to someone like this, to where I feel as though my heart's going to stop if I'm not around her. Reaching for the beer bottle next to the ashtray, I swish it to see how much I have left and take a swig, the lack of coolness causing me to wince.
"Nice place you have here," Rachel compliments, glancing around the tiny living room in my apartment, and sits on the couch. "It's very…"
"Lonely," I mutter, moving toward the kitchen to retrieve two beers from the fridge. She accepts one and smiles, pulling me to sit beside her. "I've mostly been by myself since I moved out here," I admit, popping the top off my drink.
"'Mostly'? Do you have girls in your bed often?" she laughs, and I feel myself relax at her teasing, feeling at home, something I haven't felt in a long time.
"Oh, you know, a couple times in a month, I suppose. They tend to avoid conversations, though." The girls I had met at parties were usually drunk or high and wanted to do anything other than talk, especially if I was providing them more alcohol or weed, and I never really complained because I was okay for those interactions. I've always just felt like there was something that was missing and sometimes I enjoy conversation.
Where is Rachel, anyway? She had stayed well past the sunrise, and it was now—I glance at my alarm clock and sigh—eight in the evening. I'd slept all day after falling asleep toward the end of a conversation. Maybe she had gotten tired of being here and decided I was no longer worth whatever it was we were feeling last night.
My phone vibrates and I reach for it from where it lays haphazardly on a pile of clothes on the floor next to the bed. Does Sleeping Beauty live? is the single message from an unknown number and I grin, my anxiety put to ease from the thought of Rachel changing her mind. I respond with a short affirmation and reach for the joint and inhale, returning it to its resting place. Barely a full minute passes before a hooded figure climbs into my bedroom through the window, and Rachel pushes the hood off of her head, smiling. "Where'd you go?" I inquire curiously, eyeing the brown paper bag in clenched in her fist.
"I figured you would be hungry when you came out of hibernation," she laughs, tossing me the bag, and I open it to find five wrapped hamburgers. She's definitely my favorite person, I think as I unwrap and scarf down three of the burgers. "I take it I had the right idea," Rachel confirms, leaving the room and returning with two beers. I watch as she pops the top of hers and takes a drink, and her eyes meet mine as I take a bite.
I'm about to speak when my phone rings and I turn my gaze to the screen, catching my father's name and the picture of him and I decked in pirate gear. Rachel notices too, the corners of her mouth twitching at the image, and hands me the phone while I wipe my hand on a napkin. "Hey, Dad," I answer.
My head is in Rachel's lap as we talk about our childhoods, her fingers playing with my hair as she laughs at the adventures Max and I had in our pirate days. She speaks of her love for the stars and space, and I confess that I have glow-in-the-dark stars on my ceiling in my bedroom. She asks to see and pulls me to my room, marveling at the sight over my bed. Suddenly, we're lying on our backs side by side, staring up at the stars, and her hand grasps mine, fingers threading between mine.
I turn my head to look at her, dopey from the alcohol and weed, and she's the most beautiful thing I've seen in my life. I curse myself for being so fucking mushy about a girl, but I feel at home here with her, and I'm aware of all the alone time I've had in my life and want to share it with her.
I hang up and set my phone and the bag of remaining hamburgers next to my ashtray, turning my attention back to my guest. "Sometimes I miss home," I sigh, and Rachel nods. "It's been so great being out here on my own, but at the same time, I miss my dad."
Rachel looks up at the stars on my ceiling and nods again. "I understand…kind of. I don't really have anyone that I miss back home, but I do miss being there." She smirks. "I can't find a thing I don't like about you and I don't want to find a reason to doubt you. I think if I were to go anywhere else without you, I'd miss you."
"Don't worry, you will," I tease, reaching for her hand and pulling her to me. "I can make you happy for a while, smile for a little, and you'll think I'm charming for a minute and funny for a second, but then I'll turn into a joke. You'll get tired of me because I'm flawed. The conversations will get ugly and you'll say you need to find yourself."
She shrugs and allows me to wrap my arms around her, her head resting against my shoulder. "Can't we just try to stay positive even though it's not an easy way to live? Whatever's going to happen will happen, and we'll deal with it then. For right now, I just want to…explore whatever this is between us."
"We can do that."