By morning the rain had passed, giving way to a cruel heat which seemed to suck all the air out of Chloe's truck as the two girls continued their journey back to Seattle. Neither girl had brought up the events of the night before, and Chloe expected that Max wanted to forget about it as much as she did. In fact; that morning, Max had acted as though nothing had happened. She snuck out and bought them both breakfast without waking Chloe from her sleep. She had even offered to drive despite Chloe's poorly-disguised concern at her friend's competence:
"Are you sure you're okay to drive?" Chloe's brow had been stuck in a furrow since the moment Max brought up the possibility that she might take the driver's seat.
"Of course! It didn't go too badly last time. A little slow, but better safe than sorry!"
"I know, but…" Chloe searched for an argument, "You don't have a license! You can't drive without a license, Max."
Max gave her a curious look, "Since when has a little thing like 'the law' ever gotten in the way of gun-slinging, pot-smoking Chloe Price?"
Chloe shut her mouth; Max had her beaten. She couldn't help but smile as they made their way up the I-5. A little slower than the rest of the traffic, but they were making fair progress. Chloe cradled the bag in her lap which now contained Max's muddied clothes from the previous night. She hoped that they wouldn't damage the portraits that were carefully placed face-down at the bottom.
Chloe's hand nudged an unfamiliar bulge in her left pocket. "Oh! I almost forgot!" Realising what is was, she pulled out Max's now dry phone and pressed down on the power button "Let's see if we can get this baby working again." Sure enough, a quiet jingle sounded and the screen lit up, "Works like a charm! You can thank me later with free food once we get back to your place." Just then, the phone vibrated and a score of messages flooded the screen. "Whoa… Six missed calls. Somebody loves you, Max! Hmm that's weird; these are all from like 3am last night."
Max looked worried, "Who are they from?"
Chloe felt a horrible lump rising in her stomach, "Kate Marsh."
Max's eyes quickly darted to the phone in her friend's hand, "Shit! Call her back, quickly!"
Chloe had already pressed the 'call' button and Kate picked up after only one ring, there was a cacophony of background noise and her heavy breathing told Chloe that she was already in a rush.
"Max?" Kate's voice was cautious but shaky.
"Hi Kate, its Chloe. We got your messages, what's going on?"
"Oh Chloe, do you think you could put Max on the line? I just-" she stopped herself "Never mind, I have to go soon anyway."
"Kate, please." Chloe didn't have a good feeling about this conversation, "What happened?"
Suddenly Kate was crying, "It's Warren" she said through heavy sniffles "It was his infections. A little while after you left, he got really bad. They took him to the ICU, and… He never came back. He's gone, Chloe." That was all she could manage; Kate quickly devolved into deep sobs which prevented her from saying any more. As for Chloe; her lump had now risen to her throat and had taken on the density of a dying sun.
After a minute of silence, Kate spoke again "Listen Chloe, I really have to go. Tell Max that I'm really sorry. I'm really…" She broke off into tears again "Bye, Chloe." And she hung up.
Chloe was left with the phone hanging loosely in her trembling hand. The rushing in her ears made it difficult for her to hear her friend beside her.
"Chloe? Chloe! What did she say?"
She turned and looked at Max with tears welling in her eyes "Warren…" was all she managed to force out before the lump in her throat settled and blocked any more words from forming.
Max, too, seemed unable to speak. In fact her face showed no emotion at all. Where Chloe's cheeks were stained with tears and eyeliner, Max's were dry and clean. When Chloe's bottom lip trembled and shook, Max's mouth remained tight and still. While Chloe's chest ached for the loss of such a young life, Max's heart seemed unmoved. That is, of course, until the car rolled to a stop in an emergency bay on the side of the highway. Slowly, methodically, Max put the truck into park and turned the ignition off. Then her bottom lip started trembling; soon her cheeks were lined with rivers of tears; then as she leaned her head forward in defeat, she began crying. It started as soft sobbing punctuated with deep, desperate inhales. Then she threw her head back and wailed at the roof of the truck's cabin. Before long, this devolved into soul-ripping screams as she began beating at the steering wheel with her fists as though the truck had been the one who had taken Warren. Chloe would have been worried for her truck if she had been able to see what was going on through the tears in her own eyes. On and on Max screamed as she laid out a series of blows to the truck that Chloe could feel were driven by all the stress, pain, and devastation that they had both experienced over the last few days. After some time, the screaming stopped. Max leaned against the door and stumbled out of the truck; Chloe followed. They met as they went to swap positions and wrapped each other in a warm, tight embrace. Chloe let Max hold on for as long as she needed, which turned out to be a very long time. Eventually, Chloe found herself in the driver's seat with Max on her right. Through shaky breaths, Max managed to give Chloe some instruction:
"Just take me home."
And so Chloe drove.
A few hours later, Chloe turned into a gas station whose sign boasted "The lowest gas prices in Seattle!". Max had been asleep for a while, but she woke up as Chloe got out of the truck.
"Where are we?" she said, drowsily.
"About twenty miles from your folks' house. I know you wanna get home as soon as possible, but we've been running on fumes since Des Moines." Chloe opened the passenger door. "Come on. I'll let you choose something from the store. My treat."
Max didn't move.
"Max it's like 90 degrees out, I can't leave you in here"
"Chloe I'm not a dog." Max snapped, "Just roll down the windows and I'll be fine."
"Max I'm not leaving you" Chloe said, taking her hand "You need some fresh air, come on."
The air conditioning inside the gas station store was refreshing and helped Chloe's head to clear. She was looking at the soft drinks in the refrigerator when Max walked up beside her holding a flavoured milk and a candy bar. Chloe decided to break the silence that had been going on since the previous evening.
"Listen Max, about last night…"
"Chloe, please I don't want to talk about it." Max cut in quietly.
"No, we need to. I-"
"Chloe, drop it." She hissed through her teeth.
"Max, no!" Said Chloe, raising her voice "You need to know that I still love Ra-"
"Chloe please be quiet!" Max pleaded, using her head to direct Chloe's attention behind her. Chloe turned and saw what had caught Max's eye. A man dressed in black was at the counter pointing a handgun at the store clerk. She could hear his hushed voice ordering the trembling man to open the cash register.
"Oh, shi-" Chloe started, but was cut off. Max suddenly appeared in front of her. She hadn't moved, she just popped into existence between her and the gunman. What's more, Chloe was immediately aware of the fact that Max was now covered in blood which soaked her shirt and skin with dark patches. Some was splattered all over her face as well.
"CHLOE!" Max's shrill cry drew the gunman's attention who immediately wheeled around and saw the two girls.
"What the fuck!?" He stood for a split second in shock, and then a tremendous BANG filled the room as he pulled the trigger. Almost immediately, Max dropped to the floor like a sack of bricks. New blood was spewing out from a wound somewhere in her back. In an instant the man in black fled, and the clerk reached for his cell phone and ran across the store to the two girls, already trying to reach 911. Chloe was on the floor cradling Max's head and shouting at her. The ringing in her ears stopped her from hearing her own words, but she hoped it was something like "It's going to be okay". At least, that what Chloe needed to hear.