A/N: As always, thank you for your patience as I work through some real-life BS that keeps me from writing as often as I'd like to. Comments/Likes/Follows are definitely appreciated, and don't go unnoticed or unread.

It was still dark, the sun rising later as autumn drew on; Chloe's eyes has difficulty adjusting to the miniscule amount of light projected by a street lamp filtering through the closed blinds of her window. It was in this dreamlike, half-asleep haze that Chloe looked beside her to see a sleeping form snoring gently, its fingers inches away from her hip. As she became more awake, the urgency of her need to pee grew more difficult to ignore.

But ignore it she did in order to spend a few extra moments in bed - gazing and examining every detail...of her: the soft brown of her hair, short enough to hang only barely in her eyes - closed now with long eyelashes but ocean-blue when they were open; the scattering of freckles only just visible in the low light across her face that Chloe used to tease her about but which was something inseparable to her now - cute as a child but presently different...far different; long nimble fingers that, hours ago, Chloe had taken in her hand and guided between her legs to places that she alone had previously touched - 'touched' in the same way that Chloe's own hand had - prior to that - found itself touching her friend in ways that made them both smile; ways that made her friend gasp at new feelings she'd never before experienced.

Hours ago...last night…we did...

Memories further awakened her mind, awakened her body, awakened those places that were touched...and awakened a now desperate need to race to the washroom or risk an embarrassing accident.

When Chloe returned, she stood in the open doorway of her bedroom statue-still to see that her gently-breathing friend hadn't moved from her spot in the bed that she'd been in a few moments earlier. Chloe smiled as though an unconscious reflex and padded her feet across the floor to slide under the covers. Laying beside her once more, Chloe gently placed her hand over the hand laying next to her and leaned forward to place whisper-soft kisses on the many freckles on the bridge of her friend's nose.

Max…Max Caulfield…My Max…

And, in Chloe's mind, she was hers. She always had been, and she always would be.

I love my Max. I'm IN LOVE with Max. I AM IN LOVE WITH MAX CAULFIELD! MAX...PRICE?

It didn't matter that she was fourteen-years-old. It didn't matter if people her age didn't date, or if they did, that it wasn't serious. She was sure this wasn't 'puppy love', as her parents would call all of her past crushes; she was sure this wasn't a 'crush'. This was serious...and different from anything else she'd ever felt before.

She was deadly sure that there was nobody in the entire world that she ever could, or ever would need besides Max. She knew this fact with as much certainty that she knew her name was Chloe Elizabeth Price.

It doesn't matter if everybody stopped existing tomorrow...as long as I could be with Max. My friend. My best friend. My only friend. My...girlfriend, maybe?

Chloe wasn't sure if it was okay to date another girl, and she was almost certain that girls couldn't get married to each other - at least outside of parts of Europe and maybe Canada, she thought. But she was also 100% positive that marrying Max was what she wanted someday.

And I'm pretty sure Max wants it too. I think she does, anyway. Doesn't she?

Chloe made a mental note to ask Max about it after breakfast that morning. She would find some time when her mother wasn't around and…

It was then that she remembered that this wasn't like any other day this past week; this was the day that Max was going home after breakfast.

The realization hit her like a punch to the stomach...or what she imagined it felt like when a guy got kicked in the testicles. She was jerked out of her dreamy state and was rendered fully awake as the adrenaline, the panic and the emotions rolled over her like a tsunami on previously calm waters.

Nonononononononononono! Not yet!

She lay back in bed and stared up at the ceiling, blinking away the tears that flowed down her cheeks. She did know this was coming, and she did want to be strong; for Max, and for herself. But she worried that she couldn't be. A part of her whispered in her head that it was too soon...that she wasn't ready to deal with stuff on her own; to be alone with her mother, in a house that suddenly seemed so much bigger, and emptier.

"Stop it, Chloe!" she chastised herself in a harsh whisper, "You knew Max was leaving at the end of the week, so grow the fuck up and be strong! Max doesn't need to see you bawling like a baby all the time! Don't be selfish! You can fucking do this! Grow some lady balls!"

Another voice in her head - a voice that Chloe found loud and scary - suggested that after Max left and had time to think about it, Max would realize what they did together the previous day, or even the entire week, had been a mistake. This voice told Chloe that she had ruined their friendship forever, and that Max didn't want to do those things with her. That Chloe fucked up their friendship because she was a selfish, sex-crazed piece of shit.

Max is shy...and sensitive...and quiet. Did I force her to kiss me? Did I...could I have...r..raped my best friend?

Chloe buried her head in her pillow as she hyperventilated.

No! She would have said something! If she didn't want to...if she didn't feel those things, she would have told me! She would have! Wouldn't she have?

Once Chloe managed to calm herself down enough to reflect on this thought, she found herself considering, "Maybe it would have been better if Max had just moved to Seattle? Maybe it would have been better if we didn't spend the week together? Maybe it would have been better if we hadn't kissed? If we hadn't done...it yesterday? Maybe it would have been better...if I had died in that car crash too and didn't have to deal with anything ever again?"

Chloe flipped over onto her back again as quietly as she could, and took a deep breath in and out, willing herself - demanding of herself - to stop panicking. She wiped her face with her hands and pulled her hair out of her eyes.

"Enough! This is stupid! I have to be strong!" Chloe thought, taking another deep breath in and out, "You can do this, Chloe! You have to fucking do this! You will..."

Her mind train derailed and her eyes shifted beside her suddenly as Max rolled over in her sleep to face away from Chloe. That motion moved the blanket down off her body; Chloe caught a quick glimpse of the splash of freckles across her chest and the small swells of Max's breasts before she turned to face the closet. Chloe's eyes lingered on Max's back, also covered by a faint sprinkle of freckles, and she felt an ache in her chest that descended down to her pelvic area.

Taking her third deep breath in and out in five minutes, her hand extended over slowly. After lingering a moment above Max's shoulder, she reached down and grabbed the blanket, pulling it up over Max's body to her neck. After a moment longer of watching her sleep, Chloe then herself turned onto her side. She dozed fitfully for several hours until she heard her mother's voice yelling upstairs that breakfast was ready.

Chloe blinked away the memories of that morning and swallowed anxiously. She held her arms tightly across her chest as she stood in the doorway watching her mother talking to Ryan Caulfield outside of their car. She could see Max sitting sullenly in the backseat - her hair tied back in a small ponytail that Chloe had put in earlier that morning when they woke up. Max's expression looked unreadable to Chloe, both due to the distance and through the tint of the back window.

"Maybe she is as sad as I am? Maybe?" Chloe thought numbly to herself.

Chloe held her arms around herself tightly, just as she did when she sat at the breakfast table and refused to eat; just as she did when Max got the phone call that her father was waiting outside; and just as she had been doing watching Max sit in the car for the past few minutes. The pressure around her chest seemed to help regulate her breathing by holding an impending panic attack at bay; Chloe had made a promise to herself that she wouldn't get upset that morning; she would show Max that everything was fine, that it had been a fun week but it was time to go back to normal.

Normal...what is normal now?

She knew that this morning would be difficult - she had known about it since midway through the week - but it didn't hit her how difficult until that moment just before sunrise; the moment when the fun of the week ended, and the reality of the rest of her life loomed.

Her eyes roamed over the car, Max's father hugging her mother, and again over Max in the backseat. She saw her look up and forced her arms to unclench enough to lift a hand and wave - forced her face into her best impression of a smile. Max waved back...and Chloe saw her mouth something. It wasn't completely clear through the tint and the distance, but it was as unmistakeable to Chloe as if Max had sent the message through a psychic connection that only they shared.

She mouthed the words back: I love you.

Chloe saw Max's dad had already gotten into the driver's seat of the car and heard the engine start up. Casting one more glance at Max was all it took for Chloe to break her own promise.

She quickly turned away and tried to walk casually, but quickly, not even closing the front door behind her. She broke into a run as she hit the stairs and the tears started, and she hadn't yet reached the second floor before her vision was so obscured and her breathing so reduced to gasping sobs that she made it the rest of the way into her room and slammed the door shut on instinct alone. She collapsed on her floor and curled up in a ball, shutting the world out in a wave of loud, sobbing emotion.

Dad's gone. He's never coming back. It's just mom and me now.

Whenever she was upset, her father would comfort her...and now he couldn't. Whenever she was confused about something going on in her life, her father would be there to let her pick his brain. She missed his hugs, his stupid jokes, his bad cooking, and how he always made her feel good about herself. Chloe could talk to her dad about everything.

Dad was even the first person I told when I got my period, because mom would have been weird about it.

The more she thought about him, the more she thought about what happened immediately before and immediately afterward. On the day he died, it was meant to be just another day of spending time with Max...with the overshadowing knowledge that Max was moving away in a few days.

I knew I was going to lose my best friend. We'd still keep in touch, of course, but it obviously wouldn't be the same. We were already going to different schools, and now we were going to be in different cities...different states. So I had one last breakfast with the only friend I'd ever had...one last game of pirates...one final day of being kids.

And then…

Max had been there when her mother came home with the police officer; she had cried on Max's shoulder and Max didn't once complain that her shirt was getting wet, or make fun of her for being hysterical. She didn't act awkwardly, or uncomfortable. Chloe remembered that she cried alongside her, just as hard as she did.

Max loved dad too, I think; she laughed at his dumb jokes even after I got tired of them.

When her parents came to get her, Max had hugged Chloe harder than she'd ever hugged her before. She had told Chloe it was going to be okay, even though she probably knew it wasn't.

Max went home that night, and the next time I would see her would be at…no...the last time I would see her would be at the funeral.

Chloe heard the sound of her mother's footsteps padding up the stairs and coming to a pause outside her door. She was preparing to will up whatever strength she had left in her to yell out, "Leave me alone!" when she saw the shadow of feet disappear from underneath her door and heard the sound of her going back downstairs.

It had only been a few minutes since Max left, but Chloe missed her in a way that she'd never missed her before. She couldn't count how many times she'd seen Max drive away in her parents' car, and she'd never felt her absence so painfully as she did right then. She certainly hadn't cried after she left; at least not since they were in preschool. She uncurled herself and crawled over toward her closet - toward the side of the room that Max's stuff had been on. She thought maybe Max had forgotten something when she packed to leave that morning; perhaps she missed a shirt, a sock, a headband, or something that Chloe could find. She thought maybe if she could find something of Max's, it would make her feel better and miss her less.

I'd settle for a pair of her underwear…

Chloe stuck her tongue out and giggled through her tears at how weird and gross that thought sounded in her head. "Imagine Max coming over sometime and finding me cuddling a pair of her undies!"

She didn't find any clothes that Max had left, but she did find the treasure map on the floor. She folded it up and placed it in a box by her closet. As she tossed it there, she noticed something sticking out and rummaged through it to find a cassette tape.

She sat up and wiped her eyes, then stared at the tape until suddenly recognition dawned on her. "This is the tape that Max recorded for me when she thought she was leaving." Chloe said to herself, "What was that thing that Max said she had recorded about loving me?"

Chloe got to her feet and dug around her shelves until she found her old tape player. After a moment of hesitation, she put the tape in and hit the play button:

"Hey Chloe, this is Max. I guess I just wanted to leave you one more message. Because I know this was the absolute worst time for me to go. I thought maybe if you heard my voice it could be a little bit like I was there. I don't know, maybe this was a dumb idea. I would give anything to be there with you now. It's so hard, trying to say what I'm thinking. If I could just see you... But we'll be good at it, great at it! We'll write and talk all the time. And then you'll come visit and it'll be like I never left. I mean it, you don't have to worry about anything changing. You're dealing with so much other stuff. You don't deserve any of this. Chloe, listen. Even if I never, even if we're moving for good, we're always together, okay? Even when we're apart. We're still Max and Chloe. I will always, always love you... Goodbye"

Chloe's hand shook as she hit the 'Stop' button.

We probably would have kept in touch...and we probably would have talked all the time...and we probably would have visited.

But what if we didn't? What if dad had died, Max had left and this was the last time I ever heard her voice? What if she had moved to Seattle and forgotten about me?

Chloe wiped her eyes again, reached onto her bed and grabbed her phone.

"I miss you so much, Max! I wish you didn't leave!" she typed, then after a pause, erased it.

"Hey, Max! Miss me yet?" she typed again, then with a sigh, deleted that too.

Chloe stared at her phone with growing anxiety, trying to come up with the perfect thing to text - something that both expressed how desperately she missed her but also that she was doing okay regardless. Finally, she settled on: "Just wanted to say thanks for keeping me company this week, Max. I love you. Seriously."

She put her phone down and was ten minutes in to distractedly going through the motions of tidying up her room when Chloe heard her phone chirp. A smelly pile of dirty socks fell to the floor and she practically flew from her closet onto the bed and grabbed her phone. When she saw the notification on her phone screen, her mouth and eyes opened wide.

"Max: I miss you, Chloe."

Chloe excitedly texted back her initial message, "I miss you so much, Max! I wish you didn't leave!" and then added, "If you were here, I would totally spend the rest of the day kissing you." before deleting that and just sending the first message.

A few minutes later, Max texted back, "Dad wants me to finish unpacking my room today, and mom is taking me to buy new clothes, but tonight after the folks go to bed, maybe we can video chat? I hope it doesn't sound weird because we just spent a week together, but I miss seeing you're face."

Chloe giggled at that. She paused for a moment, then texted back, "I don't miss *YOUR face!" then added, "But if I have trouble falling asleep tonight, I won't be able to count your freckles until I do. Also sure, a video chat sounds cool tonight. "

"You count my freckles? You're so weird, Chloe ;P "

Chloe smirked, "Weird is relative. I think Einstein said that. Also, your freckles are cute.'

A few minutes went by before the reply came, "You're too fnny! Anyway, I have to go finish my room. Talk 2nite. I love u2, Chloe Price. Seriously. ;)'

Chloe stuck her tongue out and texted back "NO EMOJI!" then lay her phone down and smiled. She gave a quick glance to the pile of dirty socks, then stood up and opened up her bedroom door.

"Mom? Are you home? Can we talk?" She called.