Disclaimer: Anything familiar to you, I don't own. This is a work of fanfiction for personal amusement, fulfillment and a bit of self-therapy. I make nothing from any of it.
Chapter Fifty-Nine: Hodos
March 17th, 2012 5:09 PM
Her arms ached a little more than she cared to admit when Chloe settled back into her truck. She reached sideways and shut the driver's side door, flipped the visor down so that the sun's rays were blocked from her eyes and then closed them for a second. It was a nice, comfortable feeling. Outside of her windshield, the squat, faded brown brick building that was brake shop was closed, the lights were dimming and the last of one or two other employees were beginning to make for their cars. Chloe did not open her eyes to look at any of it. She couldn't particularly allow herself to say, get too relaxed and sleep, but Chloe soaked up a good thirty seconds of sitting down and then started the truck. While it shuddered to life she fumbled in her pocket for her silenced phone and tried to calm her growling stomach. The phone showed her no messages from Rachel, but several from Max and Steph. Given that Rachel had gone on a trip to see James Amber for the first time since his trial, this struck Chloe as concerning enough that before she took off she had to read her messages.
Steph
Chloe – we're gonna need to meet up with Max & Rachel
I think about six
Plz come pick me up on your way to school.
Me
Just got out of work, on my way to the house.
With that, she opened her messages from Max, more than a little confused. It wasn't odd for them all to be hanging out on a Saturday night when there was no party. The issue was that as far as Chloe knew, Max and Rachel were supposed to come meet her and Steph at their house instead of the other way around. If plans had changed, she only hoped it was not a sign of some new kind of disaster. Honestly, they needed a break from disasters. At least, Chloe sure did. I also need about a three hour bath, a twelve hour nap and to be shot in the face, Chloe thought as she rolled her sore left shoulder.
Max
Stella's back. No word on what happened yet. Doesn't want to see people until about six.
Rachel made it home okay. I hope work wasn't too bad. Let me know if everything's alright when you can.
Me
Love you. OMW home. Will meet you.
Having figured that she had just enough time for a shower if she really stepped on it, Chloe had made it back to the house in the kind of record time that probably should have costed her in the form of a speeding ticket. Now, as she stumbled back downstairs still toweling her hair, Steph waited patiently at the kitchen table, shoes and beanie on as if ready to go. When Chloe had ducked back into her room after the shower, Pompidou was no longer asleep on a large pillow beside her bed, so she was unsurprised when she looked past Steph and saw the dog lounging in the backyard.
"You all ready?" Steph asked her, though the answer seemed pretty self-evident to Chloe. The eagerness in the girl's voice was understandable, as was the slight impatience on her face. Stella's return was a relief for the both of them. The growing concern that maybe she had not run away from school at all, but simply been killed by Nathan had started to affect them all. Chloe in particular had tried not to give the theory much credence or much time bouncing around her mind but these things had been harder to do the longer the girl's absence went on.
"Yeah, just let me throw on some shoes." She was not about to wear her boots today. Her legs might not have hurt as her arms did (though the warmth of the shower had done them some good) but they still felt heavy and her feet ached from standing on cement all day. "So have you heard anything about Stella?" It was pretty clear from the shift in Steph's mood at the question that she had not.
"No, but there is something I need to talk to you about." You know, I hate it when people do that. Instead of saying 'we need to talk' why don't people just say what they need to say? Chloe folded her towel over the back of the nearest kitchen chair and, running her hands through her hair, gestured for Steph to go on. She hated the way her stomach twisted when she heard the phrase 'there is something I need to talk to you about'. Steph rose to her feet and Chloe followed her toward the front door, which allowed her to get her shoes on while Steph spoke. "So, it turns out dad wants to move me away from Arcadia Bay." Oh, fuck.
"Oh, um, where to?"
"Out to LA with him. He does most of his work there, so he spends most of his time there." Chloe tried desperately to keep her face calm and impassive. She did not want to let on that the second the idea of Steph moving away had come up, her raging appetite had vanished. Not only was she not a particularly large fan of losing friends in that way, there was an added aspect to this situation: she would find herself without a home when Steph left.
"How are you feeling about that?" At this point, shoes in place, Chloe led them from the house and up to the truck. She honestly found it a little hard to focus on anything more mechanically taxing than walking so she did not look back at Steph to try to read her face. It was enough work to simply open the truck door and slide into the driver's seat. Steph, for her part, chose not to match her blue eyes to Chloe's for whatever reasons of her own.
"It's a cool opportunity, considering I want to draw and animate for a living, plus maybe I could find a way to work for the same company while I'm in school, but- I'm not sure I'm ready to leave Arcadia Bay, yet." Even put off by the idea of losing Steph, Chloe felt incredulous at this. When offered a choice between Arcadia Bay and Los Angeles, California, what could possibly be keeping Steph there? I don't know if I should look a gift horse in the mouth but I don't know if I should let my friend give up an opportunity like that? "I've made a deal with him. I'm going to stay here until graduation and then I'll move out with him. The thing is-" at this point, Steph's voice lowered and Chloe realized that she had not yet started the truck, despite the fact that they were both sitting there strapped in and time was winding down until they were supposed to meet Rachel and Max to go and talk to Stella. Actually, this is kind of a lot of people to go talk to her at once. "The thing is, when that happens the house is going up for sale."
"I get it," Chloe told her, trying to sound as reassuring as she could without letting onto her relief that Steph was not leaving her then and there, not during one of the shittiest times she could remember in recent history. The truck protested her interrupting its rest as the engine began its labor once more. "I'm really glad you told me, but I'm also happy you're going to stay and graduate with the rest of us." At this, Steph seemed to preen slightly so Chloe figured that the serious portion of the discussion had come to an end. She put the truck into reverse.
"Face it, you'd all be lost without me. I am the guiding force of badass in your lives." At that point, looking relieved herself, Steph turned on the radio and the two of them simply jammed out in relative silence the rest of the way to the school. Even when they spoke, they did not talk about any of the elephants in the room: Chloe finding a place to live after graduation, Stella, where Pompidou would go when Steph moved or, of course, the fact that the campus they were on their way to was being haunted by a pair of sexual predators. Jesus, Stella. What does it mean if Nathan's involved? It's not like he's going to be gone just because she's back. Meanwhile, there was Rachel to consider and the day she must have had. Look, they're both back, so you can talk to them both. Just calm down and focus on the road. She did.
At no point during the ride did Chloe notice Steph particularly texting the girls ahead of time to warn them of their arrival, but the familiar forms of Rachel Amber and Max Caulfield were sitting on the bottom step down to the parking lot from campus when Chloe turned into the school. She was surprisingly relieved at the sight and, after pulling into a parking space and seeing Steph's cheeky grin, she was certain that she had simply not been paying close enough attention to her friend. On the plus side, Rachel looks fine, Chloe told herself as she stepped around the back of the truck and approached the girls, who rose to their feet.
"Steph," Chloe said, drawing the girl's attention as she followed Chloe over to the steps.
"Yeah?"
"Sorry for getting sappy."
"What?" It was alright that Steph was momentarily confused, because a couple of quiet seconds later, Chloe greeted first Rachel and then Max with very tight, very long hugs and very little else until she was absolutely satisfied. While it was getting close to six, Chloe did not care. There was a sigh of relief to be breathed now that Rachel and Stella were both back where they belonged. "God, you're such a softie, Chloe Price."
"I warned you," was Chloe's defense, before she released Max, who dodged her attempt to ruffle the girl's hair and turned back to Rachel. "Are you okay after today?" In answer, Rachel made a gesture with her hands so vague that the only words Chloe could find to describe it were 'flailing listlessly.'
"I'll fill you in later?" Rachel offered. Chloe searched her eyes for any sign of extreme emotional stress. Instead, the thespian simply looked determined. "Today was kind of a lot, but also at the same time kind of almost nothing." Beside them, Max and Steph shared a loud high five.
"Alright, Stella wants to talk and I wanna know what's going on, here," with this, Max turned back toward the stairs. Chloe understood, though she also could have done with a couple more minutes just with Rachel, Max and Steph. Still, it took very little time for them to reach the dormitories and by the time that Max was unlocking the front door to the building to let them all in, Chloe honestly was as ready for answers as any of them, even if she did not think it would be as easy as all of that. Stella was shy enough under normal conditions and these were not normal conditions. At least we didn't run into David skulking around like a big cat. Every time she thought that guy was changing he just reverted back to the same old shit. The good news was that he could not touch her or the people she cared about ever again.
"Chloe, are you okay?" As they ascended the stairs, Rachel lightly bumped Chloe's shoulder, the affectionate gesture that the three of them seemed to find so universal. It was enough to pull Chloe from her reverie and draw her eyes to the blonde beside her.
"Tired, hungry, but I'll live." She couldn't help it, despite the seriousness of the situation, Chloe smiled at Rachel and in return was rewarded with a smile of her own. A few steps ahead of them, Steph and Max did not see precisely what was happening and could not give them any shit about being 'nauseatingly cute,' so Chloe bumped the girl back. They did this back and forth until they reached the top of the stairs and Chloe felt significantly less tense by the time that the door to the girls' dormitory was unlocked and opened before them. That was probably for the best, too, because the moment that Kate opened the door and gave Max's joking query as to whether they would all fit into her room a sympathy chuckle, things changed.
Chloe couldn't recall ever having come into Kate's room before, at least not since it became Kate's room instead of Max's. She actually very much liked it. She was given to understand that the rooms were painted somewhat at random, but somehow the dark burgundy of the room which had been Max's last year fit her very well. There was something prim and proper about it which fit the girl and the way she had her room organized. Kate had put down a dark rug and there were a few posters along the walls that seemed to be for shows she enjoyed, as well as one that displayed the Lord's Prayer but beyond that the only thing about the room that stood out in that moment was the girl with the long, thin brown ponytail sitting on a chair in one corner of it. Chloe offered Stella a smile and took a moment to examine her. For Stella's part, she tried to return it, but could not quite manage it.
Her glasses had clearly been taped together and she was wearing clothing that was more suggestive of prepping to go to bed than anything else but all told, Stella looked very much herself, if tired. The whole dodging of eye contact and lack of verbal response was far from unusual for the girl, in fact if she had been super outgoing upon returning to the school Chloe would have been more worried for her. The most positive thing that Chloe saw about Stella as she and Steph settled down into a sitting position on the edge of Kate's bed beside her, was that when Max approached the girl and greeted her, Stella reached up and insistently grabbed Max in a hug that seemed tight, though not crushing. Without meaning to, Chloe cut through the silence and tension in the room by sighing as the weight shifted from her sore feet, and leaned back on the bed. It felt good.
For once, Chloe was not part of the tension, either. Though she was no less eager to learn what Stella had been through or, at least, where she had been than any of the others, she was not intent on pushing the girl. No one seemed to want to push the envelope, in fact, but Chloe saw the desire for answers in their eyes. Given that Stella had still not spoken by the time that she released Max who joined Rachel on the floor near her, Chloe did not think answers would be immediately forthcoming. The truth was that her own worry was split between Stella and Rachel at the moment. Thankfully, Max was thinking tactfully. As the photographer reached around to rest her left hand on Rachel's opposite hip, Max spoke very softly, asking a question which either Kate or Stella could answer.
"Has Brooke been by yet?" Max queried. "I know she was eager to see you, Stella." For a moment it looked as if Stella was going to speak and then, her mouth hanging half open, she simply nodded.
"Brooke was here earlier but had to go into town before it got too late." After that Max directed conversation away from Stella, which was probably for the best. No one liked to feel like a large group of people was sitting around expecting something from them. Chloe sure didn't. Instead they talked about classes, about things they had been doing for fun (this part of the conversation was quiet and short) and what they had in mind to do the next day. Generally, they tried to create a friendly environment and relax. As often Max's ideas did, eventually this plan worked.
"So, um," Stella's interruption came in the middle of a discussion about whether Max should risk sneaking off for a midnight run to Up All Nite Donuts in town that night. The conversation fell silent in the room, which Stella openly acknowledged with a grimace on her face, but five sets of eyes turning on her at once did not quiet Stella down. Chloe wasn't entirely sure what she expected the girl to say, but it probably had not been what did come out of her mouth. "Are the rumors true about Nathan?" Stella asked, turning to look Max in the eyes. "That he tried to hurt Victoria, that he hurt you?" While Chloe felt cold the moment the girl asked, Max looked, if anything, more upset. The rumors include her now. Chloe had figured it was only a matter of time: there were plenty of people who heard about Victoria from Courtney and there had to be even more who witnessed the showdown or saw Max chase Nathan and Victoria from the gym.
"I can only say that he hurt me," Max finally answered. She had not been able to admit that to Brooke in as many words less than a full day before. "The rest - it's um, not my place?" Chloe waited to see how Stella would react to this, if she would look frustrated or conflicted or even concerned. Instead the brunette folded one leg over another and her hands in her lap and, without looking away from Max who was still visibly perturbed, admitted much the same.
"I think he hurt me," she confessed and slowly her hands shifted from a neat, folded position to twisting around one another. "At one point, he started talking to me... and I guess I kind of froze. I didn't know what to do so I just sat there with my drink and-"
"And then started to feel tired and confused," Max predicted. Stella nodded . "I'm so sorry." Instead of reacting to this, the girl with the broken glasses continued to wring her hands.
"I remember leaving the party. I remember a room, dark, big tall lamp in the corner and a big padded chair. I remember a voice, and sometimes I don't think it was Nathan's, but the thing is, I think I remember Nathan touching me." Chloe closed her eyes. Stella didn't have to tell the rest of the story, it made sense without that. After that she must have woke up in her room, struggled through a day and when she decided it wasn't safe at Blackwell because who would want to sleep in the same building as someone who did that to you, she left. God, Stella.
"I'm so sorry," Max repeated, but this time she swallowed and continued speaking. "But I'm so glad you're home."
"I don't have a home." As devastated as she sounded, Stella kept it together even after Kate slid from her perch at the end of the bed beside Chloe and Steph and knelt down in front of her. The rest of the room remained silent while the two of them prayed, or maybe Kate prayed for the both of them. Stella often opened her eyes during the prayer, looking around the room as if she could not quite be sure she was really still there. It was, all told, devastating. While Kate spoke to her God about strength, hope, justice, Stella grasped the girl's folded hands in both of hers as if they were the divine lifeline. Maybe, considering how close the girls were, that was exactly what was happening. Either way, the others stayed respectfully quiet until such time as Kate rose back to her feet, grabbed either of Stella's hands in her own and then released the brunette all together.
"Stella, if you want to talk at any point, we can go somewhere and just sit down and talk," Max promised after several seconds.
"I'm not sure I can right now, not more than I have." At this, Stella, who had looked as tired as Chloe felt from the moment they had walked in, got up. It seemed she had gotten her answer and now her own energy reserve were running low. It's probably been a hell of a week for her, Chloe thought, before realizing that they had not learned a thing about Stella Hill's Week Off. The general understanding that their conversation was coming to an end passed around the room and Chloe prepared herself to stand up and leave, again, though her feet protested the idea.
"You can, though, come to me to talk any time. About any of it." At this, Max released Rachel and rose to her feet. For her part, Max understood the concept of boundaries when upset, so she did not attempt to reach out for Stella, but she made sure that the taller brunette looked her in the eyes first. "You understand?" At that, Stella nodded.
"I was just... scared and that's why I ran."
"I'm scared, too," Max promised her. It was probably the truest thing Max could've told her fellow photography student. No one rushed to evacuate the room. The rest of their visit was dictated by Stella and how she felt and that was alright. Still, Chloe would have been lying to say she was glad to be back on her feet already when they walked out of the room and found that less than an hour had passed. The confirmation that Nathan had hurt Stella that night, the night that he had tricked them all into believing he had passed out in the gymnasium, had had the effect of lighting a new fire in the three of them as they descended the stairs to leave the dormitories. Steph did not look particularly comfortable as they paused at the bottom of the stairs and she looked toward the door to the boy's dormitory. Chloe did not blame her.
"We have to watch him better," Chloe said quietly as they stood there. Stella was, all told, her fault. She had been the one to believe that Nathan was unconscious. She had been the one to tell her girls that it was safe to go dance, to leave the room, to have fun while the bastard was on the hunt. Everything Stella went through fell partially on her shoulders. "We have to watch him closer. If he tries that shit again, I won't fall for it this time." You should have apologized to her, she told herself, swallowing at whatever was forming in her throat. Instead, when no one had spoken even several seconds after they emerged from the building, Chloe tried to distract them and herself. "So, how about that uh, D&D huh?" Someone behind her, and she was not sure who exactly, chuckled sympathetically. It was probably Max.
Some time later, Chloe came to on the familiar, soft pillows of the living room couch. She was aware immediately after opening her eyes to take the in the room that something was off. The room was dark, the sky visibly through one the window above the television strangely wine-colored and there was no sign of Max, Rachel or Steph. The explanation took a little longer to come to her than it had been, but eventually as Chloe sat up and rubbed at her eyes she realized that she was not awake at all. Without having to test the world around her for the confining edges of a dream, Chloe was fairly certain.
Oh cool, is this one of those dreams where everyone leaves me and I end up whining like a bitch? Well, fuck that. With the knowledge that she was dreaming fresh in her mind, Chloe decided that she wasn't going to be going through with any sort of unpleasant experience. Chances were that in the real world her girls and her best friend were sitting around, chuckling every time they looked at her slumped over. Hell, she was probably even drooling and doomed to hear all about it. The quiet of the house was punctured by a voice, which was just about all that stopped Chloe from ending the dream then and there, from sending her self out of the dream and into the fog-grey void or, better yet, consciousness. The voice belonged to Steph and it was not a happy one.
"Chloe?" The sky outside darkened and when Chloe turned to look out of the window, the window was gone, the television was gone and instead of sitting on the couch, she was standing beside the back door, staring out at the dark, wine-red day. The sky was reminiscent of the burgundy of Kate's walls, and clouds of slightly paler red swirled dangerously in it. "Chloe?" At this, Chloe jumped because the voice sounded from mere inches away from her. Steph had her hair uncharacteristically pulled back, not restrained by a beanie or hanging loose around her head. It had been getting longer than usual as of late, but it was not quite as long as it seemed to be here in this dream. Judging by the way the girl looked clean through her, there was something else at work that was not as it seemed: this was not one of Chloe's dreams at all. "Max? Rachel?" Steph stumbled away from her, blue eyes scanning every inch of the rapidly darkening house.
It wasn't just light that was off within the building, either: the walls were changing color until they, too, were almost the shade of the sky outside. Oh shit, Steph. As Chloe stood, conflicted, Steph crossed out of the room and the room fell away until Chloe was in the hall, watching Steph yell for Pompidou up the stairs, clearly hoping to hear him leap from Chloe's bed and come racing down to her. As disturbing as the dreams of being lost and alone could be when she did not catch them early on and put an end to them, this was more heartbreaking. The idea of leaving Arcadia Bay behind had apparently been far more upsetting to Steph than she had let on. By the time Steph had released one last, almost hopeless, monotonous call for Chloe, Max or Rachel, Chloe knew that she needed to put an end to the dream. Chloe stuck around long enough to make sure the pressure she exerted on the edges of the dream, this invisible, indefinable border which she could feel but not see, was enough to break the dream down. When signs of its instability (the walls shifting, moving, rooms starting to fade away into nothingness,) became impossible to ignore, Chloe pushed her way to the waking world.
"I'm going to try to do something special for the three of us during Spring Break, so you should probably call your folks and see if you can convince them to let you stay. I know we kept you to ourselves for Thanksgiving but-" Chloe woke to this and the sound of the immediate sigh from Max. It was not dismissive, it sounded like relief. "Oh," Rachel murmured as Chloe opened her eyes. "Someone likes that idea." When she shifted her head first to her right, Steph was still slumped sideways in her chair asleep. To her left, though, Rachel and Max had drawn close enough to one another that there was no question they were sharing a physical moment. Still a bit dazed, Chloe simply leaned back in her seat and shifted position as the girls shared first one kiss and then another.
"And is this 'something special' going to be embarrassingly excessive?" Chloe asked, earning a surprised hitch of breath from Max who pulled up, short of a third kiss and turned back to her. Chloe didn't comment on wide pupils, flushed faces or the fact that Max somehow looked like she'd gotten caught with her hand in a cookie jar. Rachel, however, had shifted her gaze from Chloe back to Max and was now grinning at the unaware girl as if she had done something cute. Max, in fact, didn't seem to realize that Rachel was paying her any attention until the blonde began to toy with Max's locks.
"I dunno," Rachel said, batting Max's hand away when she tried to keep Rachel from her fun. "We've kind of just had a really shitty year, so I want us to have some kind of a good time. If we want to do something really ridiculous like take a holiday together and I can make it happen, I'm gonna." It was hard to argue with Rachel under most circumstances, but somehow the thought of a vacation away from Arcadia Bay, one during which she, Max and Rachel could just be together without any pressures from Nathan Prescott or Mark Jefferson was way too much to raise even a single complaint against. She would do what Rachel said, because typically that was what one did if they were smart.
"Okay," Max agreed, though she continued for a second or two more to try to stop Rachel from rearranging her hair until finally, bright red in the face, she admitted defeat and lowered her hands. Chloe did not say 'okay' but, then, she did not speak at all. Still processing Steph's dream, she watched Rachel play with Max's hair and fully welcomed the smile trying to push its way up her face. "The question is, what should I pack?"
"I dunno, a few outfits. Probably gonna have to find bathing suits or something. I don't know." Oh god, what does she have planned? Chloe groaned at the thought of any kind of shopping whatsoever. It wasn't that she couldn't enjoy it, it was just that money was always kind of a frustrating concept for her. "Yep, and I'm thinking you should think about dressing warm." Dress warm it is. Chloe shot Steph one last look as the girl moved slightly in her sleep, smiling slightly. Her nightmare's over, Chloe thought before turning back to her girls. She scooted forward, reached out with both arms and wrapped them around Max's midriff, though it was somewhat difficult to do given their height differences.
Chloe closed her eyes and for just a second hugged the girl with her forehead pressed against her upper back. It was comfortable there. She thought that if she shifted slightly, she might be able to fall asleep like that.