"Maaaaaaax."

Max grumbled and quickly shoved a pillow over her head, hoping to the heavens that whoever was disturbing her sleep would leave quickly. Nobody disturbed her sleep, especially not after she'd stayed up into the early morning hours and debated her actions the previous night.

Oh yeah. That sucked, she just remembered.

There she went again, thinking about Chloe and the way Rachel treated her the week prior, questioning just how she could put up with somebody like that. What the hell did Chloe see in Rachel that she didn't see in-

"Max! I know you're in there!" Dana shouted and knocked harder on the door, clearly intending to get inside one way or another. If she knocked any harder, Max was sure she'd break down the door completely. "Open up!"

Max sighed. There was no winning against her.

"Max, please-"

"Alright, I'm coming, I'm coming!" Max quickly exclaimed and pushed herself lazily off her bed, not bothering to get dressed. In fact, she didn't even need to - she didn't bother getting dressed for bed either, still wearing her unusually-punk-for-her clothes from the night prior.

This again sent her mind spiralling into that same goddamn mindset she'd found herself in for days on end and-

"Max, finally!" Dana exclaimed and almost pushed her way into Max's room - inviting herself in. "I was worried you somehow got blackout drunk on me after you left. That'd be no good."

"...you can come in," Max mumbled and closed the door, looking at Dana looking around her room before looking back at Max looking back at her, cocking her eyebrows. "What?"

Dana's lips tugged into a grin and she shook her head. "Nothing. Just… you didn't even bother changing your clothes after yesterday. Long night?" she asked and sat down cross-legged on Max's bed.

Max hummed and chuckled. "Something like that."

"Come, sit - let's talk," Dana spoke and patted a space opposite her. "Also don't try worming your way out of this Max - you promised."

"I kinda did, didn't I?" she admitted and sagged her shoulders, shuffling over. Sitting down opposite Dana, she dropped her chin into her hand and looked at her bedsheets. "So…"

"...so you're totally crushing on Chloe Price," Dana finished for her, looking directly at Max. "Don't try to defend yourself, please Max - I know, okay?" she added and chuckled. "You pretty much confirmed it yesterday."

"I… I did…?" she stuttered out, her face going red. "I guess I did, didn't I? Ugh."

"Hey, it's totally cool! I'd crush on a chick with blue hair, piercings and tats too if I was into girls hardcore," Dana admitted and whipped her ponytail back a bit. "Chloe is cool and all, but I'm concerned."

Max opened her eyes wide. "Concerned?" she repeated.

"You're stepping into dangerous territory Max," Dana whispered and leaned in a bit, taking her hand into her own. "Her girlfriend, Rachel? She's uh…" she trailed off.

"...uh…?"

"Not cool with other girls being near Chloe. Maybe you've noticed?" Dana asked and shrugged. "Uhm. Thing is, a few years ago there was this girl - Steph Gingrich. She was real cool, a DnD nerd that hung out with a few of the lesser known kids."

"Okay," Max bobbed her head, following along.

"She was pretty openly gay. Also, she was kinda hardcore crushing on Chloe," Dana mumbled and squeezed Max's hand again. "Rachel and Chloe weren't a… thing back then, so Steph went ahead and talked to Chloe a bit. Rachel caught wind of it and uh…"

"Dana, please."

"Well, let's go ahead and say that Rachel stirred up some major drama," Dana whispered and shook her head. "Since Steph wasn't… that well established in Blackwell's social circles, Rachel… she uh… kinda crushed her completely. Destroyed her chances at Chloe."

Max dropped her mouth open a bit, not sure if she was hearing this right. Almost everyone she knew said that Rachel was a near angel when she was in Blackwell but… from her encounters with her so far, she didn't seem… all too friendly really…

"Yeah, uh… it broke Steph's heart," Dana finished and bobbed her head. "Poor girl. I… I kinda stayed clear of Rachel after that, she didn't seem so nice. Of course Vortex loved it, no surprise, but it was pretty well known after that who Chloe really belonged to. It didn't take long for the two to get together after it all."

"What happened to Steph?" Max asked curiously.

Dana herself wasn't sure. "Uhm. Well, rumour is that her father had to switch up jobs - he got some sweet gig with a movie making studio down in Cali or something, they had to move. Truthfully? I think she couldn't handle what happened and requested a transfer to another school out of Oregon, probably as far away from Rachel as possible. I don't blame her either."

"That's… wow," Max murmured and looked at her bedsheets, wide eyed.

It really was wow.

"Yeah. That's why I'm worried about you - I don't want Rachel doing anything similar to you," Dana confessed quietly. "You may have better chances though - Vortex was a big part of why Rachel was able to crush Steph. Vortex and Rachel… don't have the greatest the greatest relationship anymore. In fact, they hate each other now."

"Oh." Max felt a bit better about that.

One-in-a-million is still a better chance than one-in-a-million-and-one, right? Because that's exactly what Max's chances at Chloe were at this point.

Rachel was a bombshell.

Max was… Max. Nerdy, freckled and awkward.

Yeah. No chance.

"I need you to be careful, okay?" Dana said and took Max's hand with both of hers, squeezing. "I don't want anything bad to happen to you, Max. You're my friend and I care for you. If you ever need help with anything, whether it be Chloe or Rachel or someone else, I'm right down the dorm hall from you."

"Uhm. Yeah. Okay." Max nodded her head, doing her best to smile and appear completely calm and collected because she really wasn't inside.

Dana smiled wide, leaned forward and pulled Max into a long hug, gently rocking them. "Good. I'm gonna get going now because I have cheerleading practice, but I need you to remember what I said, okay?"

"Mhm," Max hummed in reply, standing up along with Dana and following her to the door. "I will. Thank you so much Dana."

"Take care, Max."

The moment she was out of sight - the moment - Max slammed her door shut and pressed her back against it, hands grasping below her eyes and pulling, trying so damn hard not to shout out in frustration, fear and just a random need to do so.

How the hell was she going to win against Rachel?

Chloe: nerd we're hanging out in an hour

Chloe: you need new threads, you're a walking disaster

Chloe: no offense obvs

Max: hey!

Max: totally offended, i worked hard on getting my new faux-punk look together for the mosh, shaka bra

Chloe: WE'RE FIXING YOUR LANGUAGE TOO

Chloe: ONE HOUR, BLACKWELL PARKING LOT

Chloe: DON'T SAY ANOTHER WORD UNTIL I GET THERE

Max was standing in the parking lot in exactly an hour, wearing her usual things - some drab, gray hoodie slapped onto a pink shirt and coupled with washed out jeans. Also her sneakers, because it's literally all Max allowed herself to wear.

"Nerd!" Chloe called out as she pulled up seconds after Max sat down on the steps, forcing her to stand back up. "Stop lazing about, ass! Get in!" she called out and leaned open to open the door, gesturing Max inside.

Quickly jumping inside like she was told, Max smiled wide at her… friend? "Hi!" she exclaimed and awkwardly leaned in for a hug, almost immediately pulling back and cringing to death internally. She didn't want to become too attached immediately.

"Hi yourself!" Chloe replied and smiled, quickly pulling her truck back around and out of the parking lot. Glancing at Max's attire, she shook her head. "See? This is what I mean. You're a disaster!"

"Hey!" Max called out and crossed her arms. "I'm comfortable in these clothes - I don't really care what I wear."

Chloe scoffed and shook her head, turning up the radio. "Of course you don't, buuut… you're my fan, therefore I need you to look good. Can't have all my fans look like they came from the 90's, can I?" she teased. "Though… that wouldn't be so bad, hot chicks do pull off that look nicely - case in point," she gestured at Max.

Max went a bit red. Did Chloe just flirt with her or was she reading into it too much? They were friends. She was just teasing. Chloe was always teasing. "Oh, shut up!" Max replied back and laughed, playfully shoving at Chloe's shoulder.

Remember, one-in-a-million chance, Max!

Almost a whole 10 minutes later, Chloe was pulling the truck up outside some… rundown store. It certainly didn't look like a thrift store - nor a store at all. It's entrance was a black door, nothing else on it, however beside it there was a rather crudely written sign possibly saying 'SHOP INSIDE.'

Possibly.

Max couldn't really tell. "Uh. Is this where you shop for your clothes?" she mumbled as she jumped out of the truck and waited for Chloe.

Snorting in reply, Chloe nodded. "You know it sista. Me and Rachel get all our shit here, as do most of our fans. They even have our tees!" she exclaimed in excitement, skipping ahead of Max to the door. "Ladies first."

Rolling her eyes, Max stepped forward and-

"But me just before," Chloe added and laughed, slipping inside first.

Max faked a scoff and crossed her arms, but reluctantly followed inside when Chloe pulled her puppy eyes. The same ones she used to pull on her… 5, perhaps 6 years ago when William was alive and everything was fine in their lives. Now it… wasn't. Not really.

"Dude, you okay?" Chloe asked when she saw Max floating off to god-knows-where in her mind. "You're not smokin' weed without me, right?"

Sputtering in reply, Max's eyes went wide. "W-what? Weed? No!" she exclaimed in defense. Max never smoked weed. Hell, Max never smoked. Nor drank. Nor attended parties. Did mosh-pit-type-concerts count as parties or were they a separate thing? They must've been a separate thing. That's what Max thought at least, but Chloe was probably a better person to ask on the subject.

So Max didn't ask because she knew that Chloe would find some way to rub her party-smoking-drinking-virginity in her face, or her virginity overall, but-

"Earth to Max. You're reeaaaaly spacin', maaaan," Chloe elongated the words as she attempted to sound like a 60's space-alien-conspiracy-supporting hippie. "Seriously though - you okay?"

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm cool just… thinking. Doesn't matter," she muttered and shrugged.

So they finally entered the shop and immediately Max regretted it.

She was not wearing anything Chloe bought her here. Most of it was crude, too dark, far too much out there for her style.

"Oh wow, Chloe this… this isn't my style-"

"You don't have a style Max. Chill sista, I got you," Chloe replied and rolled her eyes. "Step out of the comfort zone a bit."

Max was out of her comfort zone. She was out of her comfort zone the moment Dana took her to that damn mill and forced an almost unhealthy habit of visiting the mill just to see Chloe. Her band, not Chloe - obviously, Max had no interest in Chloe. No interest beyond friends because - haha - Max had no chance against Rachel Amber.

"Ey! Eyes up here, Max!" Chloe exclaimed and shook her friend, getting her attention back. "You've got some issues with spacing out. You seen a doctor or a shrink or somethin' like that about it? Might fix you up," she continued as she sauntered into one of the aisles in the rather dark and drab looking 'shop'.

Snorting in return, Max followed. "I don't have issues. I've just got… things on my mind. It's fine, I'm cool. Anyway. Like I was saying - this isn't my style Chloe," she spoke as she walked behind Chloe, looking anywhere but her.

Chloe ignored her, instead grabbing shirts at random and turning around to size them up against Max - hearing her drone on about something that Chloe wasn't so bothered about. "Yep. Yep. Okay Max, shush. You talk too much," she chided in and stopped, looking at her.

Max scowled and opened her mouth to speak but Chloe promptly forced her mouth shut with her hands.

"Shush!" she said again before gasping and pulling her hand back. "Oh, what the fuck-"

Laughing, Max pulled her own hand over her mouth. "Didn't expect me to lick your hand, huh? I still remember that you hated it when we were kids."

"EW! That's gross, dude." Chloe grumbled beneath her nose and wiped her hand on her jeans, quickly returning to browsing the shirt selection. Beneath her breath, she started listing off the band shirts she was willing to buy for Max. "Hm. Black Flag, NOFX, Ramones…" she trailed off.

Max waited.

Max wasn't very happy with Chloe.

"Chloe, I am not wearing half of what you bought me," she pointed out as she stared inside the three bag-fulls of shirts she now held. "You spent a fortune on me and… ugh!"

Chloe laughed as they jumped back into the truck. Waiting as the vehicle kicked forward and off the pavement, back onto the road, she shook her head at Max. "S'fine dude. I have hella cash, ain't a big. Being a rockstar pays, especially in a shitty little town like Arcadia surprisingly. Alot of people look for excitment, which means they look for us."

"Uh-huh. Right. Well, the point stands - I'm not wearing half of this." Max was adamant on this. She hadn't even heard of half the bands that she now owned shirts of. Okay, perhaps she knew of most of them actually.

Perhaps, just perhaps, she researched punk bands in her free time after seeing Chloe for the first time. Perhaps. There was no guarantee she did this, but if someone checked her history in the past two, three months then they'd more than likely see the truth.

"Whatever dude. You're wearing one of those shirts next weekend, dig?" Chloe stated and glanced at Max. Taking a breath, she pulled out her puppy eyes. "Pweaaaase?"

Max narrowed her eyes, raised her hand and gave her the middle finger. "Fine. Maybe," she simply stated and looked back out the window.

Chloe celebrated by turning up the radio and singing along to some song that Max tuned out. She mostly spent her time staring at Chloe, trying not to blush too hard.

"Alright dude, see ya on the weekend?" Chloe said as they pulled up to Blackwell. "I want to see you in one of those shirts. Sending me a selfie or some shit of you wearing one too? That'd be awesome."

Max grumbled as she opened the door and slipped out. "Mhm. Right. I'll see what I can do, but no promises!" she replied, glancing at Chloe. "I'll… I'll see you soon."

Chloe grinned and leaned over to slam the door shut. Moments later she took off with a skid, laughing to herself when she saw Max jump and immediately flip her off in the mirror.

Max kept her promise and sent Chloe an awkward looking selfie of her wearing one of the Black Flag shirts that she bought.

Max: happy?

Chloe: omg dude

Chloe: OMG DUDE

Chloe: u look rockin in that, fml

Chloe: ur wearing that on saturday, cya

Max: wHAT

Max: but the OTHERS

Chloe: UR WEARING THE BLACK FLAG SHIRT

Chloe: THATS IT

Max: fuck you

Chloe: you wish

Grumbling beneath her nose, Max threw her phone back down onto her desk and decided to keep the shirt on. It was comfortable at least, though not her style. But… Chloe did say she didn't have a style. Dana did too, once. Perhaps she should just… suck it up and get used to this.

Chloe liked it at least.