Chapter 2 Life is Strange Ep 1
Chloe sat on the hood of her truck, waiting for the bell to ring in the school for the 'art nerds' as Chloe calls it. She had had no sympathy on the school considering they suspended her for stupid reasons that were justifiable. However other than that, being at school was the least of her worries. She reached over to the right pocket of her pants, feeling for the familiar box's contents that made her crave so much. But she only pulled out crushed and faded receipts. She sighed disappointingly, knowing that she was gonna have to scavenge or at least find cigarettes without getting into trouble.
The familiar sound of the damned bell she hated the most wrung into her ears. That's when a few minutes later she saw Rachael walking over to her. She was wearing a green vest, over her faded white 'Blondie's t-shirt,' that had silhouettes of the band members sitting behind the text which was 'Atomic Blonde'. Her shirt matched her black ripped jeans which exposed her perfectly sculptured knees. To top it off, she had red laced up boots with a small heel at the bottom of it making Rachael seem taller. It was subtle yet expressive.
"Howdy Stranger." Rachael greeted.
"Howdy," Chloe played on, still sitting on the hood of her car. '"How's school?"
"Better now that your here Mum." Rachael admired looking Chloe up and down.
"Gross. I can't believe you just said that." Chloe turned to her and only met her eyes after Rachael checked her out for centuries. "Like what you see?"
"You're wearing my clothes." Chloe wore a red plaid shirt, with a white shirt underneath it. To cover the V-neck of her shirt she had a dog tag around her neck. It was different to what she normally wears, but it was nice to change it up every now and then. With her top, she wore tight black pants, which was unsurprisingly something she will always wear and was never gonna change any time soon. As for shoes, she wore hightop black converse.
"You left a couple of stuff in my bedroom, so I don't see why not." Chloe smirked.
"It would be a sin to not wear my clothes."
Chloe hummed, "It's becoming an unnatural habit. I feel my style slowly disappearing."
"That goes to show that I have a better fashion taste then you."
"Woah! Slow down there, Rach. I've got fashion sense. I just prefer changing it up a bit."
"Is that bullshit I hear?"
"N-No."
"Impress me. Prove to me that you can dress up," Rachael looked at Chloe, but with a suggestive look on her face. "Tomorrow, night."
"What's tomorrow night?"
Just beside Chloe was a boy with his hands gripping onto the cardboard which was twice his body breadth. Little did Chloe notice, that a girl was surrounded by her friends and was urging her to go forward. The boy came up to her and kneeled in front of her, just in the distance she could hear 'Will you go to the dance with me?"
The crowd awed like what Shakespearean theatre did back in the day. Chloe shifted herself left and right to see the girl's lip mouth 'yes,' but the girl kept mouthing incomprenhensible things which Chloe couldn't fathom. She saw her mouth move into a yes, and the whole crowd cheered. The realisation hit Chloe making her mouth gape.
"So what do you say stranger?" Rachael pushed, saying it without sounding desperate.
"I-I don't dance." Chloe nervously rubbed the back of her neck.
"Sureeeee," Rachael dragged, making Chloe roll her eyes. "I've seen you dance, you're hella natural."
"Sureeeee, whatever floats your boat." Chloe shrugged, which made Rachael smile and her eyes squint. She had that look in her eyes, that Chloe knew for sure that she lost.
"Does this mean you'll go?" She grimaced.
"Yes, But only on one condition."
"Name it." Rachael said fearlessly
"I have to show to show you something at the end of the night. But you can't go back home till the next day? Deal?"
"That sounds great. Anything is better than home."
Oh shit. When did I agree to do this. I look like a complete idiot.
Chloe stood in front of the mirror looking herself up and down, then shifted her back round so she could she the back of her suit. She sighed deeply, putting her hands on her head. All of a sudden the door bursted open, followed by a flash of light.
"MOM!" Chloe hammered, but all she could hear was mother 'Joyce', bending on her knees with laughter.
"Sorry honey, I-I just-" she apologised but looked at her camera then at the picture which had Chloe looking herself in the mirror with a disgusted face.
"Mom I look stupid. I mean look at me. I'm a walking mannequin." She turned to her, waiting for her to pull of a face which she didn't.
"You look wonderful." Joyce walked over putting her hands on her shoulders. "You're very lucky to have a date."
"A date? As if." Chloe brushed off and turning towards the mirror to fix up her collar which were flipped up.
"Chloe, out of all the days I push you to do something out of your comfort zone. This is the first time I've witnessed you attend a dance. My guess is that, you don't even want to go to this dance," Chloe was fixing herself by pulling her black vest back and fourth. "You're never into anything unless it's something you want to do."
"No shit Sherlock Holmes." She whispered.
"What did you say?" Joyce snapped.
"I said that step-douche has a nice taste in suits." Chloe retreated, trying to swivel the conversation away from her tantrum.
"Chloe! Don't act like i didn't hear what you said and don't call him a stepdouche."
"The 'Step-douche' stays the same, whether you like it or not."
"Fine, just at least try to be friends with him, because he's willing to give you a job at his car mechanics company for a month."
"What makes you think I want to work with him?"
"See I just proved my point, that you won't do anything without anything in return."
"Whatever." Chloe said rolling her eyes. She turned over to her Joyce who had her arms folded.
"He's offering money. $130 per hour, you'd be surprised how much cars needs fixing up. I wouldn't be surprised if you learned to fix cars yourself, considering the fact that you have that old truck parked at the front of our house. Where'd you get it anyway?"
"None of your concern." Chloe said quietly, praying that it didn't come off rude.
"Well, as long as your not fooling around with drugs or alcohol." Joyce admitted, while a wave of guilt washed over Chloe. "I'm happy your doing something, productive."
"Thanks mum for the encouragement." Chloe replied sarcastically.
"This doesn't mean your off the hook for getting suspended." Chloe can practically see the struggle her mum is facing. Working 8 hours a day, to get the little money that pays off the bills. Before when everything use to be easy, Chloe remembered all the times that they would go get ice-cream or watch the lastest horror movie, or go to the record store to buy vinyls which were expensive. It was obvious when all that changed, after her father passed away.
"Mum. I'll take the job." She blurted.
"You'll take the job?" Joyce repeated looking surprisingly at her daughter. Chloe replied by nodding her head. In the first time in forever, she saw her mum smile and it wasn't something Chloe wanted to stop.
It's not a bad offer. I just need to calm down, and face step-douche without being an asshat.
The Day of the Dance - (Play 'Waltz' - Tchaikovsky, watch?v=ZMLkGwi8n7E)The Dance is tonight
Her mind repeated over and over again making her stomach churn every time she thought of it. She took a deep breathe, and held her arms out as if she was holding a big boulder. After she starts side-stepping to the left and then to the right.
1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4
The count in her head kept her sane. The normal music she listened to always had an erratic and complex beat to keep her body moving, but the music she had playing had the most lazy piano player playing. It was so quiet, and it had no variations anywhere. She turned, keeping her whole body awkwardly stiff. She imagined what it felt like to dance with Rachael and how many times she would step on her toes, which made it more embarrassing for her.
"Fuck." She muttered, putting her arms down. She looked over to her digital clock which sat on top of her night table. It was 9:10am and she had started dancing at 7am. In a few minutes she would meet up with 'step-douche', to talk about the job he had offered. She put on a simple black t-shirt and black cargo work pants. She got her keys from her jewellery stand, then walked out the door to her car.
20 minutes later...
'Arcadia Mechanics Repair shop' the sign read just atop the store. It was lit up by a line of neon lights which outlined a circle around the label. Arcadia was is in aqua bolded font and mechanics a red bolded font. The sign spun around at a slow pace, creating this aura of a poorly managed company which had little customers, but fortunately the store says differently, with the number of cars it has parked up front, the store screams 'please fix everything.' Chloe walks slowly over to the garage with her hands in her pockets, then ducks under the garage door which only just misses her head.
"Hello?" She called, analysing the things around her. The place smelt like gasoline, and everything around seemed to be greasy making it seem like she was the only clean thing in the garage. There was chains linked up to everything that seemed possible. A series of tires were towards her left, an engine suspended of the ground by chains, a car raised up by a lower platform, an identical group of wrenches sitting on a black fold up kit. At the top of the large building was the roof which had two windows on either side of it, letting in the sun which lit up the garage.
It made the air thick, and made it too easy to sweat. She had only noticed the second level which had elevated pathways at the sides of the buildings, which led to a a box like office on the right hand side of where she came in. She drew her eyes towards the set of stairs which led her straight into the building and climbed up it. Now at the top, she noticed 'step-douche' David at work, with a visible air condition. He straightened the papers and put it together by using the top of his desk, then put it towards the side of his desk.
Chloe walked over to his office and knocked three ties "It's Chloe."
David looked over the window with a scowl, and Chloe smiled sarcastically. He opened the door while towering over Chloe. "Are you here for the job?" He gruffed, almost sounding like a dog.
"I'm here for Mom. So yes, I'm here for the job." Chloe said folding her arms.
"Okay good. I'm glad you considered doing this for m- no I'm glad you're doing this for you mom."
"Save it for later. I just need a job to do."
"Hmmm," David grumbled, "I'll start you off by finishing off that car over there, the one suspended off the ground." He pointed with right hand over to the red sedan, which had its engine and tires extracted away.
Oh so that's why everything was so messy.
"I need that car done by tonight. All you have to do is reattach the tires, and reattach the engines." He continued simply while stroking his block of moustache.
"B-But! I have the dance tonight!"
"Not my problem."
"Then you'll finish it by then, with pressure, it'll make you work faster." He claimed.
"That's not how that works!"
"Look, quit complaining. It's," David squints at the clock which sat just beside the garage door which Chloe entered. "9:37am, if you get this done by 4pm that's $975. I assure you it'll be worth it."
Ugh fuck.
"What needs to be done?"
Chloe woke up to a sound of a harsh slam of a door.
"It's time to go." The voice gruffed. "I have to go close the shop."
She wiped her mouth with the front of her hand. A greasy wrench is within her grasps then she looked up to see David, who was descending down the stairs. She looked down at the red car, which she had just slept on and saw the tires in place. The hood was shut and the engine was gone, but Chloe still hastily opened the hood and noticed the heavy compartment sitting snuggly. David came over, and stood in front of the car inspecting it. He stroked his moustache, and hummed deeply.
"I have to say, this car is looking sharp." He says impressively, causally inspecting the car top to bottom, looking for a tiny mistake.
"Well...Boom." Chloe replied vaguely, which earned an unimpressed look from David. After his inspection, David brought something out from his back, which Chloe assumed was tucked behind his back and saw a yellow envelope. Without a though Chloe ripped open it's seal and found the green goods. Her money.
"Can I go now?"
"When have I ever stopped you before?"
The full moon was out tonight, and the humid night air flushed the suburb with the smell of the fresh beach sea. Rachael's house was far from where the stores and highschool was. Instead it sat atop of a hill, which was close to the lighthouse anyone could walk to and from there in a heartbeat.
Chloe sat readily in her car, just outside of Rachael's house in her rustbucket. It was a strange scenery, because the car contrasted to the rich and finely built houses that anyone would think that if this car was setting outside their house that someone would be planning a robbery. However Chloe didn't care, all she cared about was seeing Rachael.
It's been a few minutes now and Chloe was bouncing her leg up and down in her poor car, that the car was bouncing to the rhythm of it. Not long after Chloe finally got the courage to open her creaky car door and walk on the pavement which led to Amber Household. The crickets were cheering her on every step of the way, and the swing set that she swore was at the neighbours house moaned.
I'm overthinking this. I think i'm going crazy
Finally arriving at her doorstep, Chloe did a tiny hop to get all the jitteryness out of her system then pressed onto the doorbell. It 'dings' echoing in the house and she waits. The door opens to Rachael's Mother who welcomed her in with open arms and a wide smile.
"Oh Darling! You look dashing! Come in, Come in!" The mother welcomed.
"It's nice to see you too, Mrs Amber," Chloe looked around and met the eyes of Mr Amber. Who has now folded his newspaper and walks over to Chloe while extending his arm. "It's great to see you to Mr Amber."
"Enough with the formalities you can call me James." He greeted smiling at her, which she returned back.
"Rachael will be down any minute, just wait here." Mrs Amber said excitedly, then informs Rachael that Chloe is here.
Not long after a strange shadow overcasts the stairs, which caught Chloe's eyes. She followed it and found black imitation heels attached to her feet where the straps wrapped smoothly around her feet. It also brought out her long slender legs which she followed up to meet Rachael wearing a lace long sleeved Burgundy dress that cut off wave-like on her chest exposing her shoulders. Her hazel-nut hair was up in french side braid with curls that were hidden behind her shoulders. Her eyes stuck out, with her rose lipstick that god Chloe wanted to kiss.
Chloe watched with an open mouth, a muted sound which was suppose to say 'You look beautiful,', or 'You look amazing.', but no words seemed to suffice how she felt about her. So it was only logically to say, to Chloe's sense.
Rachael stood there with a wide grin and a blush slowly forming. She nervously picked at the paint of the stair ledge, but not for too long.
"A penny for your thoughts?" Rachael said nonchalantly.
"Y-You l-l," Chloe gulped, and Rachael giggled.
She will be the death of me.
"Look?" Rachael pushed trying to get her sentence out of her.
Beautiful? Insanely Beautiful? That your the centre of the Universe? Sublime? Fine?
Chloe held in her breath and found the word she's been looking for.
"Breathtaking."