Twelve: Get-Busy-Bluff

"Hello, Max." Kate's voice, melodic and cheerful even filtered through the headset, put a smile on Max's face. At two in the afternoon, the Bay Café was quiet and she had picked a table against the far wall. While she'd have preferred making her call from the privacy of her tent, her laptop was still plugged into the outlet charging and she had to wait it out.

"It's so good to hear your voice, Kate. How are you doing?"

Kate laughed. "I'm fine. I should be asking you that. You're still stuck in that tent, aren't you?"

"Oh it's not so bad." Though Max felt herself blushing when she thought about the reason it wasn't so bad. Every night, she slept next to Chloe, sometimes side by side, sometimes curled into each other, sometimes with Chloe's arm draped over her waist. She thought of that morning when she'd been half naked and Chloe had hugged her, burying her face in her shoulder, her breath hot against Max's bare skin. Nope, tent living was not bad at all.

A kernel of worry settled in her stomach as she heard Kate's sigh through the headset. "I wish there was more I could do. My family doesn't want me to go back to Arcadia Bay. They're worried it would be too much."

"You are helping, Kate. Raising money and getting donations is just as important as what's going on here."

"You're right, Max, you're right. It's just that..."

Max so wished she could be standing there in front of Kate, to hold her by the shoulders and look into her face. She wanted to tell her she was all right, that she didn't need to prove anything or do anything. "Right now you need to take care of yourself. You went through a lot and everyone just wants you to get better."

"I'm seeing a counsellor now. We've been talking about everything that happened. I just..." Biting her lip, Max waited. She didn't want to push Kate to say more. If only she could tell her that she understood, that she'd been tied in that same chair, drugged, photographed. She knew as no one else could know. "It's so hard to believe that it was Mr. Jefferson."

Fists clenched until her knuckles were white, Max had to remind herself to breathe. "Don't call him mister."

Kate's voice trembled as she spoke. "How could he do it, Max? And then come to class and act like it was nothing?"

"Because he's a monster." Everything that had gone wrong in Arcadia Bay had started with him. Him and his "art". Rachel would be alive. Chloe wouldn't have gotten shot. The storm, wouldn't have happened. Maybe she was a monster too for what she'd done, but at least she hadn't taken pleasure in it; she'd just wanted to save Chloe. Just thinking of his face, that voice that she'd once wanted to wrap herself in, made her stomach churn. "Do you remember his lectures? How he said he could catch any of us in a moment of desperation? It was all a game to him. We were all toys to him and he was laughing at us." Her voice broke. Max drew in a deep breath. She had to keep it together for Kate.

"What if... What if we're wrong though? The papers are saying that the Prescotts framed him to cover for Nathan."

"No. No way. Nathan didn't do all this on his own."

"Max... do you think Nathan is..."

"Dead," Max finished. "I really do, Kate."

For a long moment Kate was silent and Max was afraid she'd botched the whole thing. But then Kate spoke, though it was barely more than a whisper. "I just wish we knew for sure."

"We will, Kate. Somehow."

Kate took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "This isn't really what I wanted to talk to you about. I'm sorry. I've been working on the illustrations for that children's book–the one about bullying."

"That's great," Max said, smiling. The tension started to drain out of her limbs and she let out the breath she'd been holding. She was so glad Kate was all right. She would never know if Chloe was the only one who'd been saved by her choice. Would Nathan's arrest have been enough to prevent Kate from hurting herself? Would she have gotten the help she needed without having to step onto that roof first? "When things have settled down here we should do that tea tour in Portland we talked about too."

She glanced over her shoulder to the front window. Chloe was pacing around the building, a cigarette between her lips. Her trip with Kate would probably have to be separate from the trip to Portland she and Chloe had discussed since Chloe's plan had involved beer, weed, and possibly strip clubs.

"I'd like that." A soft chuckled wafted through the earphones. "I guess you won't be bringing Warren along. He's such a sweetie–I thought you'd make a good couple, but I guess it wasn't meant to be."

Shifting in the padded metal chair, Max licked her lips and tried to remember how she'd planned to deal with this if it came up. She'd actually read a few coming out FAQs online, but none of them had seemed really helpful, especially when there was still so much she was sorting out for herself. All she knew for certain was that she loved Chloe... in a really, really not platonic way.

Taking a sip of her coffee and licking her lips, Max began with,"What did Warren say?"

"Just that you were seeing someone."

"Chloe," Max said, her heart in her throat. "Chloe Price. You don't know her."

"Oh. Ohhhh."

Max cleared her throat. "I should probably change my Facebook status, but with everything going on it didn't seem like a good time to make announcements."

"Did you... did you just meet?"

"No, not exactly. We were friends when I used to live in Acadia Bay and then we sort of ran into each other again when I moved back here." That sounded plausible. And it was basically accurate; it just left out the parts about Chloe getting shot and Max rewinding time. She'd been practising this conversation in her mind. It was hard to explain when what bound them so tightly together was an adventure she couldn't tell a single person about. Only Chloe understood.

Max cleared her throat again. "I–I wasn't sure if it would be weird for you–because of your family and everything." Max winced. She was making a mess of things–just like old times. Super Max still didn't replace awkward-hipster-Max. It was moments like these that she missed her rewind powers.

Kate hummed into the phone for a few seconds. "Max?"

Her palms were slick, her mouth dry. "Yeah?"

"You're right, some of my family would disapprove. But I've seen what real evil looks like, Max. And it doesn't look anything like two people who love each other. I'm happy for you."

"Thank you, Kate. That–" A lump in her throat, Max dabbed at her eyes and tried again. "That means a lot to me."

#

"We're going to miss dinner," Max said, leaning back into the lumpy truck seat and giving Chloe a sceptical look.

"Chillax, Max. It's all taken care of."

The junker's headlights cast a narrow yellow path on the gravel road ahead. On either side, pines and brush formed a wall of darkness. Bits of gravel clanked against the truck's side and every bump rattled through her bones. It had been a long time since Chloe had been up here and the last time had been in a vehicle with way better suspension.

After a few more minutes, she pulled off the road into a cleared patch, a few car lengths wide. She killed the engine. The headlights flicked off and then the only light was the smudge of orange hovering over the ocean on the distant horizon. Chloe's eyes flicked to the passenger side as Max leaned forward, hands pressed against the dash. "The view's almost as good as at the lighthouse," Max said.

Careful to avoid the plastic wrap in place of the glass, Chloe leaned an elbow against the window frame and propped her head on her knuckles. "Guess this is the first time anyone's taken you out to the bluff."

"The bluff?" Max's forehead creased. "I don't remember anyone talking about this place when we were kids."

"Don't tell me the eighth graders didn't know about Get-Busy-Bluff?"

"What?"

"Damn, Max, you moved before you got to any of the juicy stuff. The bay's best makeout spot. I hear the mayor once got busted up here getting it on with his assistant."

Max groaned and covered her face with her hands. "Now I'm just imagining you making out with all those guys during your bad boy phase."

She grinned. "Jealous? For all I know you were lip locked with some artsy photo student in the Space Needle while I was stuck in Bigfootsville."

"Except that I really, really wasn't."

Chloe reached under the front seat and produced a brown paper bag. "How about I distract you with food? Mom packed sandwiches." She tossed one to Max.

Catching it, Max set it down on her lap and looked at Chloe very seriously. "How mad was she?"

"On a scale of one to 'you're fucked for life'?" Joyce had reamed her for forty minutes straight. She'd toyed with the idea of avoiding Joyce, but really it had been such a shit day all around that she'd decided to just get it over with. Who knew–maybe tomorrow wouldn't suck ass quite so much. Stranger things had happened in Arcadia Bay.

Slender fingers brushed over her hand. She glanced down to watch Max intertwine their digits. Chloe smiled and squeezed those fingers tight. At least now someone always had her back. "I figured after everything today you could use a change of scenery."

"Thanks," Max said, a smile on her face as she turned to look to the horizon again. The sky was turning a dark blue like the bay water, the two seeming to slide together like her fingers with Max's.

"All right, dinner time." She gave Max's fingers a final squeeze before letting go and unwrapping her sandwich. Wonder Bread and bologna; it was like being in second grade again, but beggars can't be choosers, right? And that's what most of them were right now, asking for FEMA aid and donations. At least it wasn't SPAM again.

They munched on their sandwiches for a while as the dusk faded to night, growing darker until the sky had as many stars as Max had freckles. "It is pretty up here," Max said. "I wish I were better with nighttime photos but it takes a lot of adjusting to get the exposures right."

"Nerd alert."

She gave Chloe a playful shove. "Shut up."

Chloe grinned. "So what do you want to do while we're up here? Anything you want, Max." She waggled her eyebrows. "Anything at all."

Max bit her lip, her gaze distant as if she were staring right through the dash. Finally she reached down for her laptop case. She unzipped the front pocket and pulled out a weatherbeaten piece of paper. One that Chloe recognized. It was the flyer they'd found with Susan and Michelle's stuff.

Chloe groaned. "You brought that along?" Max nodded but didn't speak, her eyes locked on the sheet, the advertisement for a New Year's Eve bash at some Seattle club–the Neon Bliss, which sounded like the sort of place that played cheesy dance music and served drinks that looked like highlighter fluid. Slumping in her seat, Chloe realized she should have expected this because obviously nothing was going to go right on a day like this. Shit was written in the stars. "You know when I said I'd do anything you wanted, I was hoping you'd ask me to do something fun. Like blow you."

"I'm serious," Max said.

Chloe leaned in close to whisper into her ear, "So am I," and then give her earlobe a nip. Max yelped and then slapped a hand over her mouth. "See? This place is perfect. There's no one around to hear you if you turn out to be a screamer."

Max crossed her arms and managed to look embarrassed and offended at the same time. "I am not a screamer."

"Prove it. I dare–"

This time, Max slapped a hand over Chloe's mouth. "Down, horndoggie. If you're good we'll get you a treat later."

"I like treats," Chloe said once her lips were free. But then her gaze dropped to the water-stained pamphlet on Max's lap. "You really want to go through with this tonight?"

"If you don't want to help–"

"It's not that." She let her head slump against the steering wheel. "Shitballs. This whole day..."

Max's hand brushed her shoulder and Chloe's lips twitched. If only Max were easier to distract. They could just make out in the truck like a normal couple. She could sneak her fingers under Max's shirt and explore all that soft freckled skin. But nooo, Max had to be all focussed and determined–Super Max even without the super powers.

Straightening up, she turned to glance at Max. "Look, Max... I know you went through hell to keep me alive. And I'll hella return the favour if I can. But... are you sure you're up to this tonight?"

For a moment, Max's attention was captured by a bit of lint on her coat sleeve. She plucked at it for a few seconds, lips thinned, brow creased. "I talked to Kate today about Jefferson. And I... I wanted to tell her that I understood. But I couldn't."

Reaching out, Chloe rubbed Max's back. "I know." She wished she had more to offer than that.

"I couldn't even tell her why I was so sure it was Jefferson. She was starting to doubt everything and..." Max squeezed her eyes shut, her hands clenched around the fabric of her jacket, and Chloe wondered if she was seeing the dark room again, seeing Mark Jefferson and his goddamn camera. Just the thought of it made Chloe's insides churn. If she'd still had that fucking gun... She could just imagine it, his mouth frozen in an o of surprise as she put a bullet through the centre of his head and watched him hit the ground.

"We need to make sure he stays in jail, Chloe. For good." Max sighed and shook her head. "I don't know how yet... but I feel like Michelle and Susan are leading us to him."

Chloe reached for the pamphlet. "Where you go, I go."

That grateful smile as Max looked up made Chloe want to kiss her. She didn't get the chance before Max's fingers touched the water-stained paper and the world began to waver around them.