Disclaimer: I do not own Life is Strange or any of its characters. This story is for entertainment only.
Chapter Two
She grunts as she climbs up into her truck, rubbing her arms as she quickly starts the engine and cranks the heater up. Chloe sits there for a few moments, sighing as the old car slowly starts spitting warmth onto her cold fingertips. She looks up at the school in front of her, her gaze lingering on its red brick walls, before backing out of her parking spot and pulling out of the driveway.
She thinks about how two years ago she'd been so glad to be leaving that place. She'd told herself she'd never go there again, for any reason whatsoever. Chloe huffs out a dry laugh. Now she's sneaking onto campus every few days or so just to hang out with her best friend while she studies. Shaking her head, she drives in the direction of her house. Usually the thought of returning fills her with dread but today she's oddly content with it.
Chloe parks on the street before bounding up to the entryway of her house. Using her keys, she unlocks the door and steps inside. "Mom?"
"In here," she hears Joyce call back from the kitchen. The aroma of sausage and eggs fill the air, the scent drifting throughout the house. Chloe's stomach rumbles in response to the delicious smell. She walks into the kitchen, grinning a little.
"What's up Mom? Hope there's enough there for me," she says, holding up a fist. Joyce gives a little eye roll but bumps her knuckles against her daughter's just to humor her.
"Of course," she replies, gesturing at the pans in front of her. One is almost full to the brim with scrambled eggs while the other contains sizzling sausage patties. "How was the sleep over with Max?"
"It was cool," Chloe replies, plucking a chunk of eggs from the pan and popping it in her mouth. To be honest, the blue-haired girl was still a bit surprised her mom even approved of her hanging out at Blackwell so much, especially over night; she has her unvoiced suspicions that Joyce is just glad she's finally chilling with someone she deems "a good influence." Of course, step-shit doesn't like her being on the school's campus, period, but she literally couldn't care less as to what he wants. And thinking of, there's no sign of her step-shit in the house, so she assumes that he's already at work to dictate the Blackwell security system. She chills with her mom for a while, feeling in a particularly good mood as they chat about random things over their breakfast.
Chloe actually enjoys her mom's company when her step-dad isn't around to fuck things up. When he isn't there having a power trip or some other bullshit, and he isn't mentioned at all, they can usually get through a bunch of conversations without any arguing. It's really nice, actually. Since her dad's death, sometimes it was hard to comfortably be in the presence of her mom, and so Chloe secretly treasures their little moments together.
Her mom leaves to work at the diner a little while later and Chloe soon finds herself alone in the house. She pretty much has the place to herself for the day until Joyce and Sergeant Douchebag get home from their respective jobs, which isn't going to be until much later that day. She pulls herself upstairs to her bedroom and collapses on her bed, pulling her phone out to check if she has any texts from Max. There aren't any.
She lies on her bed, and after a good expanse of time of just sitting there, she groans in boredom. In the past, it was easy for her to just get high and do nothing all day... but recently she's found that it's harder and harder for her to do that and actually enjoy it. Instead, she's found that all she does in her spare time is wait around for Max to get off school so they can hang out.
Chloe stares at the window as she thinks about how... not sad she's been lately. The empty hole in her chest that has developed over the past years finally feels like it's being filled back up, bit by bit. The days of idly thinking about throwing herself off the roof have vanished now. It would take an idiot to not realize that Max is the reason behind that, and while Chloe is reckless and a little wild, she isn't dumb. She hums to herself as she picks up her phone and types a message before hitting the send button.
Chloe: hey nerd, what r u doing?
Ten minutes pass without a response and Chloe rolls over in her bed, not really sure what to do with herself. Normally this would be the point at which she'd throw some tunes on and get high as fuck, but even that doesn't sound even remotely appealing to her at the moment. After a bit, she finds herself pondering over the events of the couple of months.
She'd been shocked when she bumped into Max at the store almost two months ago. Of course Chloe had instantly recognized the other girl—she even looked like the same dork from before—and seeing her had reopened a few wounds too. She'd been more than a little pissed at first, especially because Max hadn't even bothered to message her... but she soon found that it was almost impossible to hold a grudge against Max herself.
The way that they clicked together was almost eerie, and it was as though the weeks of tension and drifting apart before Max finally moved away to Seattle hadn't happened at all. Chloe's still curious about that time, and she's constantly tempted to ask Max about it, but she always holds back because she doesn't want to risk ruining their re-established relationship. She likes what they've got now. It's both nostalgic and new at the same time. Chloe sighs, grabbing her cellular device again.
She does some surfing around the internet, but after a while she starts feeling restless. Unable to shake the unpleasant sensation of being antsy and cooped up, Chloe decides to go for a run around the neighborhood. Changing into an old hoodie and some sweatpants, she quickly leaves the house, locking the door behind her. She pops her earbuds in before taking off, jogging down the sidewalk as the cool winter air hits her face.
Chloe hardly notices the passage of time as she runs, lost in the long hallways of her brain and the lyrics filling her head. It's almost three hours before she finally returns to the house, sweaty and more than a bit hungry. She takes a fast shower to refresh herself and then makes a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to munch on. Eventually she drags herself back up the stairs and to her room, scarfing down her food.
There's a reply from Max on her phone that she hadn't noticed during her run, but it's boring and just talks about how she's busy at school. Chloe lies down on her bed after she's done eating, unable to keep her thoughts from wandering to the other girl. For a long time she'd been almost positive she would never see her again. After the way things ended... while she would never admit it out loud, Chloe had always wondered if she was somehow at fault. She couldn't help but think that she'd done something wrong and prompted the seeming end of their friendship.
But now it feels like none of that even happened. Again, burning curiosity pokes at her, making her feel unsettled. Part of her would love to just adamantly demand an explanation from the other girl, but then there's a more rational side of her that reluctantly respects Max's space. She only hopes that with time she might learn exactly what had happened all those years ago.
At some point Chloe falls asleep on her bed, lost in a sea of her own thoughts. She doesn't even get a full hour of rest before she's rustled out of slumber at the sound of the doorbell ringing. She blinks wearily and checks the time on her phone. It's almost three o'clock in the afternoon and she scowls at that; her mom and step-douche weren't going to be home for another couple of hours. After standing up and yawning, she hears the doorbell go off again.
"Hold the fuck on," she mutters under her breath, going down the stairs and approaching the door. She looks through the peep-hole and blinks in surprise at who's on the other side. Immediately she unlocks the door and flings it open. "Max!" she says, taking the other girl in. "What are you doing here? School isn't out yet."
"My Media Literacy teacher is out sick so I don't have class this afternoon," she replies, a little smile on her face. "So I figured we could just chill here?"
"That'd be hella cool, yeah!" Chloe exclaims, grinning and turning around to head towards the stairs. She's already two steps up when she realizes that Max isn't following. When she backtracks, she finds the girl still standing right outside the door, waiting for her.
"You can come in, Max," she says, rolling her eyes. The moment the words are out of her mouth the other girl steps in and closes the door behind her. "Geeze, you're so fucking OCD, you know that?" Chloe continues, grabbing her wrist and dragging her towards the stairs.
Max pulls an expression of mock indignation. "Well, excuse me for being polite."
Chloe shoots a questioning look at her. "Yeah, but I've told you like, a million times that you can just come in whenever you want."
An uncomfortable expression flashes across Max's face, but it's lightning quick and gone in an instant. If Chloe wanted to, it would be easy to convince herself that it had never happened. "I don't know, Che. It's just a weird habit, I guess," the shorter girl says with a shrug.
"Whatever," Chloe laughs, opening her bedroom door. "Don't worry about it. Anyway, what do you wanna do?"
Max hums in contemplation as she sits down on the edge of the bed. Chloe follows in close pursuit, plopping onto the space beside her friend before leaning back and stretching on the sheets. She yawns, still feeling a bit groggy after her incomplete nap.
"I don't know," Max says eventually. "I'm pretty shot after the test this morning. I think I might have bombed it." Chloe watches as she takes her shoulder bag off and sets it on the ground before leaning over, propping her head up on one hand to look at her. "You look tired."
"Nah, I was asleep before you showed up. Just a bit fuzzy still," Chloe responds, but she has to stifle another yawn and Max chuckles at her.
"Go back to sleep if you want, I'm probably gonna study."
Chloe already feels herself drifting off, her eyelids drooping shut. In the back of her mind she feels a little bad because Max had come over to hang out, but exhaustion claws at her, begging her to succumb to the sweet bliss that is sleep.
Somewhere in the distance, she hears Max saying, "You're like a kitten. An oversized kitten with blue hair."
Chloe somehow finds the energy to mumble, "I'm not your cat." The last thing she registers before slipping into unconsciousness is the sound of Max's laughter... and on top of that, the undeniable feeling of contentment swelling in her chest, threatening to swallow her whole.
Author's Note: Sorry it's been a while. I haven't been writing and didn't want to post anything if I wasn't at least... numerous chapters ahead of what's published, but I figure I should at least get something up. I also apologize that this chapter is a bit... bleh. The Chloe-POV chapters are a tad hard and boring to write, especially these pre-discovering-your-best-friend-is-totally-a-vampire ones, haha.