"Call me as soon as you get back to San Francisco." Joyce said as she hugged Chloe and Rachel. She was the one who got up at five AM to say goodbye to us. She turned to me, "If she doesn't do that, you call me."
It seemed that Sera had come over during the night, which was the only reason I could think of that Joyce was so energetic. I could only imagine that she and Sera had a strong relationship, especially now because Chloe had asked permission to marry Rachel from both of them. Plus, she most likely brought Rachel's suitcase.
I worked up a tired chuckle, "Will do, Joyce."
"Alright, mom," Chloe chuckled and grabbed her into another hug, "We gotta get home. Wonder WoMax has class or whatever and I have to get back to work."
"And you, Rachel, it was great to see you again." Joyce nodded her head.
Rachel gave her a side-hug instead, "Great to see you again too. I'll take care of them, okay?"
"I doubt it, but thank you for saying it anyway."
We got into Chloe's old Honda, putting our bags in the trunk, then drove out of Arcadia Bay. Of course, now that Rachel was here, I was shoved into the back seat and getting car sick. I decided to take another photo of them, as they went back to hand holding and being in conversation about what they'll do when they get back. I took the picture out, developed it, and handed it to Rachel.
"That's hella pretty." She said in a happy tone. Not like hype and excitement, but calm and almost wistful. "I already have a picture from you, plenty, so maybe you should keep it."
"Are you sure?" I asked again, taking out the other pictures from the night at the pool. "You can look through these and you can pick."
Rachel chuckled, but said, "You need a portfolio, Max. I think you should keep them."
I smiled and put all the photos back in my bag. At this point, I have nearly a million pictures of just Chloe and Rachel, both separate and together. And those are from recently! I still had plenty from when I was still in high school and from our crazy adventures. Though, maybe they'll want them someday.
The car ride was boring and that was an understatement.
We stopped at gas stations (beforehand we went to the pizza shop and got that free pizza, no need to explain ourselves, but we finished that in two hours), fill gas and get snacks and drinks from the little store, along with Chloe keeping another cigarette in her mouth that she didn't light. Rachel thought it was cute, so Chloe might do that every single day.
"What's the first thing you're going to do when you get back?" Rachel asked me.
"Go see Kate, of course." I said with a big smile. It was a lot bigger than I intended it to be.
"I want to see her too!" Rachel added.
My phone vibrated. Good morning, Max!
Kate sounded happy today. I texted back, Morning, Kate. Are you doing anything today?
"I can't wait to be back in your guys' place too! I can't wait to be surrounded by photos of bands and your work and be on that wrinkled, undone bed and uncomfortable couch. I was so sick of that nice, fucking hotel with that useless gold chandelier and silky bed I kept falling off of."
"Silk's worse than our bed?" Chloe sounded kind of offended.
"Honestly, as long as you're on it," Rachel leaned over and kissed her cheek, "I don't mind any bed."
Kate: I have class today, but I'll be back by evening. Are you back in San Francisco?
The smile hasn't left my face yet, Will be soon. I want to see you today, so evening?
Kate: Of course! Seen you at 6?
Me: Perfect.
During the rest of the ride, Chloe and Rachel were talking about Chloe's job and how she still worked when she was still sick, but only to reunite Dana and Juliet. The second I was about to fall asleep, Chloe decided to talk to me.
"Hey," she raised her voice, looking at me through her rear-view mirror, "Max."
"Yeah?"
"I dare you to do something."
"What? Why?" I shook my head in disbelief.
"I see you smiling like a goof back there. You're texting Kate."
I huffed and felt my cheeks burn, in a tired sigh, "Fine. What is it?"
"Since you're smiling, I could only guess that Kate is also happy. So, I dare you to kiss her."
"What—"
"I double-dare you. Kiss her when you see her."
I couldn't argue. I knew that Rachel was in on the plan. I hate to surprise her with that. Maybe if she's more comfortable in the future.
"What's the big deal? You've kissed her before."
"Yeah, but not knowing it! Not with the intention! It was an accident." And her trauma.
"I know, but now you could try again, while you can see her."
I crossed my arms and decided to lean against the car door, trying to go and take a nap. I could hear the two of them snickering to themselves, really wanting the idea, the dare, to work.
"Hey!" I was forced awake by Chloe's voice. I couldn't help but heave my breathing as I searched around. Judging by the steep street we were on, we were back in San Francisco. Shit, was it a bad dream? I don't even remember.
"We're here." Chloe added.
"Are you okay?" Rachel turned around to look at me, concerned. "Did you have a bad dream?"
"Maybe?" I replied with a laugh, "I just need to rest somewhere better."
"Sure, do you want the bed for now? Chloe and I are gonna go somewhere and I would hate for you to still be on the couch."
"No, no, it's fine. I'm used to it. Where are you two gonna go?"
"To go eat! I need food and then go out on a small date, maybe even come back home to watch a movie."
"Just watch a movie, right?"
"Oh yeah, no bullshit or hidden innuendos, I promise."
I chuckled, "Okay. I'm going to see Kate at around six, so you two do that."
We arrived back to the familiar apartment building, even sighing in relief and brought all of our bags to the fifth floor, where we threw our bags into the bedroom, still left as is.
"I can't believe how happy I am to be here!" Chloe cheered. We agreed.
"We'll wait with you to take you to Kate's apartment. I hope Victoria isn't there." Rachel rolled her eyes at even saying her name.
"Actually, she likes us. Even Chloe, who annoyed the shit out of her. She likes us, Rache. " I said so confidently, but my heart raced and pounded in my chest. Wowser, that was crazy to say. Rachel's face rose in surprise, but smiled.
Chloe and Rachel went into the bedroom, leaving the door open to let me know they weren't doing anything and using my laptop to watch movies. I was outside, on my phone while it was charger, forcing me to lean on the armrest to not pull the plug.
I was checking on Rachel's social media, except for Tumblr, which was a bunch of aesthetic photos she updated once in a while. Rachel's Instagram was definitely the most interesting one. The last picture in black and white was her and her mom in what looked like a studio. I found that strange; I would think that kind of picture would be in color. From the picture of them kissing in the driveway, she added three more, still in color and more vibrant than the time she was still working.
The one after was a picture of her wearing the orange and red ringpop on her left ring finger, with the joking caption, I said yes, lol. -RA
It won't be a joke for long.
The next one was of their matching tattoos. No caption, no witty or deep paragraph, it was just that. Lastly, it was back at Joyce and David's house, while lying in her bed, Chloe kissing Rachel's cheek. There was another one next to it as I pressed the arrow. It was the first picture they ever took together at the Firewalk concert. The caption said:
I met my love when I was sixteen. I'll never forget seeing her fight someone, hitting a guy with a glass bottle, I had to pull her along. She had a really bad black eye, but she was still hot! We've been through so much and I have so much to thank her for. She helped me find my real mom. She saved my life, damn it! I wouldn't know where I would be without her. The drama with me and my sexuality was hella annoying, but now I could show her off. So, fuck you to everyone who doesn't like it. -RA
I felt my mouth curl into a smile. They were such liars for saying they didn't want to marry each other. As I checked her Twitter, she held a lot of AMAs for the time being.
Do you miss your girlfriend?
All the time!
That was the last question she answered. When I scrolled down, she answered hundreds of them, but most were a lot about coming out and figuring out who they were, so she privately talked to them.
I exited out after reading most and, turns out, it was already five-forty.
"You ready to go, Max?" Rachel walked out, sitting down next to me. "Chloe fell asleep, but I'll wake her up in a bit."
"Can I ask you something?"
"Sure, what's up?"
"Are you guys really just five years? I feel like it's been ten… hundred."
Rachel giggled, "Yeah, Max, I'm sure it's five years. I'm just hella happy to be here again!" She hugged me tightly, placing her head on my shoulder. "Thank you for saying we've been together for ten hundred years."
"It's your guys' relationship! I dunno. I'm jealous."
"But then people would tell us to get married and I don't want my feed full of that. We'll get married when we'll get married."
I only nodded. I kind of hated hiding Chloe's plan, but it was hard to surprise this girl.
"Okay, I'm gonna go and wake her up." Rachel stood up. Before she walked out, she said, "Show me that tattoo later, okay?"
I nodded again, laughing this time.
Chloe and Rachel took me to Kate's apartment, then telling me they were going off to their date.
"Don't forget the dare!" Chloe reminded, then drove away. Sorry Chloe. Not doing it.
I shook my head, snickering at her, then walked up to Kate's door and knocked. It took a moment before Kate answered the door, automatically jumping into my arms for a hug.
"I missed you so much!" Kate said joyfully. I hugged her back. I missed her, but I was so relieved to see her so happy. So full of life and had a sparkle in her eye.
When she pulled away, the first thing I noticed was her hair being shorter. It was a little wavy, probably from having it in her usual bun, but it was cut just above her shoulders.
"I missed you too. You cut your hair recently?"
"Victoria made me do it." She said, "new quarter, new me. But seems like you did too! I like it, especially the blue." She replied, touching the blue part of my bangs. "I miss mine already. But, come in, Max. I actually made you some coffee inside. Victoria doesn't drink it, but she had one of those fancy machines, I don't think she'll mind."
We walked in together and, indeed, I could smell the brewed coffee in the apartment. My mouth watered at it, wanting to gulp down the whole pot. Next, I felt the actually place was cold inside.
"So, how was your time in Oregon again?" Kate asked as she grabbed two mugs.
"It wasn't great at first, but Rachel's back, so she made everything exciting again." I watched as she poured coffee into one.
"That's nice." She sighed, seemed like she was readying herself to say the next sentence. "How was meeting—"
"That was the "wasn't great" part of the trip."
"Do you want to talk about it?" She poured a mug of tea from the kettle on the stove.
"Of course, it involves you, so you deserve to know. She explained herself about what she did to you, albeit fast and not very good, something about wanting you to herself and how she didn't know what she was doing was bad. Then, she called you."
Kate didn't say anything as she sat down, placing the mugs down and getting a chocolate cake pop from the box. I also grabbed one.
"It was really something I wanted to talk about. Well, not her, I'm done with her and we had another talk, saying the same things you just said. I wanted to say something about my faith. My therapist said it's good for me to open up to friends about it."
"Sure, I'm all ears. I know that you're religious and you dedicated yourself to it."
She took a drink and finished eating her pop, "I sat myself down and wrote down what I thought. I still personally believe in God, follow his word, go to church, and I'm still proud to identify as it. When I thought about it, Christianity has been... hard to follow. After everything happened in school with her and hearing my family say horrible things about gay people, I hated being hurt by my own faith and it was more hateful than I thought. I still love God and what he teaches his children, but if people interpret it as hating others who aren't Christian or what have you, then maybe I should take a step back. Maybe not let it guide my whole life, I mean, everyone thinks I'm a walking sin. The Bible says nothing of it, by the way."
"So, what does this mean?"
"I'm still Christian, but I've been having a difficult time, especially knowing now what she did to me in a sacred establishment… Maybe take some time away from the church."
"It's okay to feel that way." I drank a little bit. "You've been through a lot, Kate, and I'm proud of you for getting through it. I can see you're feeling better."
"I'm happy to see you! I could talk to you in person rather than on the phone." She used the hair tie around her wrist and put her hair up again in a bun. "I mean… of course I'm not completely healed, it'll never go away from what my therapist explained, but I'll manage better soon."
I smiled and nodded at her. I couldn't say anything. All I wanted to do was look at her. She smiled back, "What are you looking at?"
"The prettiest thing I've ever seen."
She shook her head, changing her smile into a coy one, "Tell me more about your trip."
"Don't kill me, but we went back to our high school and broke into the pool." I reached into my bag for the pictures. "I didn't jump in. These two did."
"Wow, these are so gorgeous." I handed them and she flipped through. "You have a great eye. I'm almost kind of jealous. I tried my hand at photography and I was told I was good at it, but I found myself gravitating to art."
"Do you have any pictures? I would love to see them." I felt myself become giddy.
"Not here, I didn't bring them with me to California. I would love another professional opinion."
I laughed at "professional" being used for me, "I'm nowhere near that."
"I think so."
After that, we shared a laugh and continued to eat, then I remembered Kate saying something about a date.
"Were you serious about the date?"
"Yes, of course, I think I said when you come back. I'll let you know when we could do that. Maybe when my therapy sessions are over?"
"How are those, by the way?"
"Good! It feels nice, now that I can finally talk about my issues. What about you? Has your anxiety acted up since you left?"
"Only once, when I… I saw her." Nope, it was just Frank and his beans. "Is Victoria here?"
"No, she has something to do tonight. Quite literally, she has a boyfriend. Or a girlfriend, she didn't specify. Did you need to talk to her?"
I choked on my coffee. "Kinda, but my dog, Kate, I didn't know you made jokes like that."
"I started. I learn a lot from my friends, but they were as surprised as you. Which, I'm so excited to show you the film! That's where we need to go for our date."
"I'm okay with that!"
We talked, finished our drinks and the kettles, finished the cake pops, and went on about our days apart, especially Kate's since she took her sketchbook out and shared me all the drawings she did of our school, her friends, and San Francisco. She even made pictures from memory of me, Chloe, and Rachel! Somehow, they were like mirror image and I had to applaud her for that.
"Victoria will never admit this to you, but we're friends now. She doesn't actually hate me."
"I'm glad! See, I told you she's really nice."
"I'm sorry for not believing you. I apologize for Chloe and Rachel too."
Kate looked out the window, "Oh, it's getting late. The sun's already gone. Maybe you should get home."
"I feel like I just got here." I stood up. "Well, one picture before I go."
Kate smiled as I took my camera out. Naturally, when I put my arm around her shoulders, her arms went around my torso in a close embrace.
I double-dare you. Kiss her when you see her.
Before I could think about it more, Kate kissed my cheek and I clicked for the shot. I looked at her as the photo came out. She only had a coy smile and a clear blush over her cheeks.
"Did y-you want this picture?" I shook the polaroid around and it developed. Oh my dog oh my dog oh my dog—
"Nope, I already have a picture." She shook her head. "Thank you, Max."
I put my camera and the photo away. She walked me out the door and said the usual text me when you get home, then went back inside. I was still in shock that Kate casually kissed my cheek. I had to touch it, almost like it burned a little. I can't even function right now.
