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Technically, the universe starts the feud with Chloe Price when her thirteenth birthday comes and goes and leaves her with no soul mark.
It doesn't worry Chloe at the time. Not everybody gets a soul mark, after all, Chloe's parents included. And Joyce and Willliam Price are frankly gross with how in love they are. So the idea that only the universe could pick the perfect someone for her, leaving Chloe no say in the matter, has always been one that pisses Chloe off. What was true about a happiness that you didn't have a say in, anyway?
Chloe thinks she'd be luckier to find someone the way her parents found each other than to find a soul mark on her skin. Besides, as long as Chloe has Max Caulfield--her first mate in pirate adventures, her sidekick in superheroics, her partner in cookie-stealing crime--Chloe figures she'll be happy enough.
At fourteen, Chloe Price doesn't know the meaning of the word 'hubris.' All she knows is that her best friend, Max Caulfield, is upset, and it's the universe's fault, so Chloe's pissed at the universe.
It's past kid late and well into adult late but Chloe is awake in her bed, tucked under a comforter with Max tucked into her side. They're having one of their not infrequent sleepovers, and it's Chloe's opinion that sleepovers with Max have only gotten better since Chloe got a queen-sized bed they could share. It's especially useful at times like these, when Max is panicking about something.
Max panics more often than she should and way more often than she needs to, given that she's so many kinds of amazing even Chloe hasn't been able to figure them all out yet. But on this occasion, Chloe admits to herself--but never, ever out loud--Max's panic isn't entirely groundless.
It's Max's thirteenth birthday. Her soul mark appeared on her right shoulder this morning, telling Max that she has a soulmate somewhere out there.
Chloe loves science, to the point where she's outright disdainful of metaphysics. But while the mechanisms of the universe that allow for the anticipation of a perfect bond being forged between two people to be imprinted on those people's flesh are as opaque as they are dumb, Chloe can't deny that it works. She can't deny that Max has a reddish mark on her shoulder that looks vaguely like a conical flask full of volatile chemicals reacting violently. She can't deny that Max has a soulmate waiting for her, that the universe has given her a destiny, and that that destiny is for Max to meet her perfect match.
Max just got the universe's assurance that she's headed for a happily ever after, so of course she's panicking. It's reassuring, really, and it helps Chloe stay calm, because Max needs her to be calm. On that basis, Chloe is holding Max, her arm around Max's waist, her hand smoothing creases out of Max's t-shirt, trying to smooth the creases out of Max's body and Max's mind.
"What if it we meet and I mess it up?" Max inquires tearily of Chloe's armpit, the latest in a long line of hypotheticals that Chloe has been impatiently shutting down. "What if he's disappointed I'm his soulmate?"
"Literally impossible, Max."
"But I've...I've heard stories that soulmates sometimes don't work out. Maybe sometimes the universe makes mistakes?"
Chloe desperately wants to agree, but that isn't what Max needs to hear right now. "I mean, maybe. It'd explain how Maroon 5 are so popular."
Max lets out a watery giggle. Above her head, Chloe smiles and tightens her grip on Max's sliver of a body. "Shut up! I like them."
"Well, that's definitely you making a mistake, Max."
Max groans. "I...what if the universe is getting it wrong? Picking me?"
"It isn't," Chloe says firmly. "You deserve a soulmate."
Which is true, even if Chloe wishes the universe had stayed out of Max's love life. Because being best friends with Max Caulfield has taught Chloe what it's like to know the secret identity of a superhero. The world sees Max as this shy, timid, weird, boring kid. Chloe gets to see all of Max's passion, her kindness, her talent, her sheer fucking awesomeness. Chloe wishes Max would hurry up and figure out that she doesn't need to hide herself from the world, but she doesn't think Max needs a soulmate to help her with that.
It's Chloe's job to help Max. Chloe has it covered. Max's soulmate should really just butt out.
"What if he hates me?" Max whispers.
"Not. Possible," Chloe whispers fiercely. "No one could hate you."
Max hesitates. "Um...I think Melissa Braithwaite hates me."
"Oh, yeah? Well, I'll kick Melissa Braithwaite's ass for her."
Max giggles again, her muscles loosening up, her face emerging from the shelter of Chloe's body. "You don't have to. I mean, she did used to splash mud on me after it rained, but that was back when we were seven."
"The offer's still there. If Melissa Braithwaite gives you any grief, that mud-splashing bitch will go down."
Max laughs, a breathy little sound in the darkness of Chloe's room. "Thanks, Chlo."
"It's what I'm here for, " Chloe answers calmly, even through the worry stomping up and down in her belly.
Max is quiet for so long after that that Chloe begins to think she's fallen asleep. Chloe doesn't want to move; she tells herself it's because she doesn't want to disturb Max, in case she is asleep. But since Chloe found out about Max's soul mark, her instinct has been to grab hold of Max and never let her go.
Suddenly Max shifts and gives voice to Chloe's biggest fear. She buries her face in Chloe's chest and says, in a voice so quiet Chloe feels each word in her ribcage rather than hears it, "What if...what if to be with him, I can't...what if I can't be with you anymore?"
Chloe doesn't want to think about that, so she doesn't think, she just hisses, "I will kick the universe's ass before that happens. Best friends for fucking ever, Max. That means something. More than some dumb mark on your shoulder."
For a second, Chloe can't tell if Max has stopped breathing or if the sound of her own heart is drowning out everything else. Then Max sighs, and she slips an arm around Chloe's waist, squeezing her tight.
"Yeah," Max says, trying hard to sound sure of herself. "Yeah, it does."
Chloe nods, her chin ruffling Max's hair. "So no more worrying, okay? You're gonna be fine. We're gonna be fine."
"Okay. Okay, thanks, Chloe."
"Sure thing." Chloe clears her throat and forces herself to grin. "Besiiiides..."
Max stiffens. She pulls away just far enough to squint at Chloe, though she looks more sleepy than suspicious. "I know that look. What is it?"
"Oh, nothing!" Chloe says airily, even though she's feeling more uncertain now than she ever has in her entire fourteen years and six months of life. "It's just...what if he turns out to be...uh, I mean, a jerk, or something?" Chloe hesitates, then pushes ahead with what she didn't really mean to say. "What if your soul mate disappoints you, dude?"
Max pauses. "Huh? How could that..." She yawns, a slight shudder running through her frame, sending vibrations through Chloe. Max snuggles in closer. "There's no way, right?"
Chloe snorts. "Uh, Max. You're awesome. Your soulmate might be the one who sucks, y'know? Do you have a getaway plan yet?"
"Oh." Max yawns again. Sleepily she mumbles, "You always come up with...awesome plans. I'll leave it...to you."
Chloe swallows, and tries again. "What if...what if she's a girl?"
"Mmm..."
It's a pleasant, if meaningless, hum against Chloe's chest. It feels like an answer, maybe even the right answer, to a question Chloe doesn't even fully understand herself. Max drifts away in her arms, and Chloe lets her go, content in the certain knowledge that Max really isn't going anywhere.
In the morning, Max is feeling confident enough about the prospect of having a soulmate for Chloe to tease her mercilessly about it until Max's parents take her home.
It isn't long after that morning that the universe shows Chloe what it looks like to truly kick somebody's ass.
The fatal injury to her dad, William Price, is one that Chloe doesn't see coming. Receiving the news that he died in a stupid accident was the moment she realised that she'd threatened the wrong universe and all she could hope to do was weather the storm of its vengeance.
Max is Chloe's shelter after William dies. For about a month, until Max's mom gets a job in Seattle and the Caulfields move away. Max keeps in touch for a while, through emails and texts, and it's something. Until Max meets her soulmate and she and Chloe run out of time.
The first time Joyce brings her boyfriend David Madsen home, Chloe wonders if there is an opposite of a soul mark, for people who were destined to be enemies forever. There is a redness to David's skin, a tightness to the smile he forces when he sees Chloe for the first time, that was a clear warning. Joyce sees something different in him, though, something worth loving, and she follows that vision devotedly. Even when Chloe sees someone very different, Joyce simply doesn't want to hear about the David that Chloe has to suffer.
It gets bad, after Joyce rushes into marrying David and into bringing him into what used to be the Price home. Chloe's been expelled by that point, and she doesn't have a job yet, and if Chloe is convinced that she's one of the biggest fuck-ups in the world, David seems keen on assuring her that she is the undisputed champion of fuck-ups. They fight a lot. Chloe always loses.
Joyce tries to stay neutral in the conflicts, to act as a mediator. As far as Chloe is concerned, that means her mom has no fucking clue what's happening under her roof. It's that or she does, and she just doesn't care enough to stop it.
In the years between Max leaving and Chloe ending up in a hospital bed, Chloe couldn't say when she loses her mother. But the fraying knot of their love snaps somewhere in those years, so quietly that neither of them notice that where they once were so close, they have come to only tolerate each other in deference to the memory of the people they used to be.
The story of how Max meets her soulmate is kinda cute, but hearing it feels like a kitten is sitting on Chloe's chest, purring happily as it slips its claws through Chloe's flesh, finding an anchor in Chloe's bones.
It happens in a chemistry class in Max's Seattle school. It involves Max's clumsiness, a boy called Warren Graham's eagerness, a bunsen burner, a conical flask full of volatile chemicals, and Warren going home with no eyebrows but with Max's number.
Chloe listens to it all over a Skype call, and she makes all the right noises for Max throughout her dazed, rambling, giggling explanation. When the call ends with Max making lavish promises of more calls and maybe even a visit soon, Chloe grabs her pillow from her bed, buries her face in it, and screams herself hoarse.
The thing about Rachel Amber is, she makes Chloe feel good.
Rachel is movie beautiful, improbably charming, impossibly likeable. All of the thorns and the colours Chloe takes to wearing after her father dies, all of the warnings to others that Chloe is poisonous, prove no deterrent to Rachel. She decides she wants to be friends with Chloe one day, and that's really all it takes for Chloe to open herself up again.
The thing about Rachel is, she's easy to love. And when it becomes obvious to Chloe that she can't love Rachel platonically, Rachel makes that easy, too. After years of bad relationship decisions, Chloe makes her worst yet and becomes Rachel Amber's girlfriend. It's easy to love Rachel, and Rachel's love, though fierce, eases Chloe's passage through her late teens and the tapering off of her contact with Max.
But the thing about Rachel Amber is, she's wearing shorts as tiny as her grin is huge the first time Chloe meets her. So from the beginning, Chloe knows that Rachel has the soul mark of a fucking dragon on her calf.
Exactly who Rachel's soulmate might be is something they talk about sometimes, sharing a joint after they've had sex in Chloe's bed. It hurts Chloe, to lie there warm, and loose, and with the taste of Rachel, the taste of freedom, on her lips, knowing that whatever they have won't last. It hurts more to have nothing, though, and sometimes Chloe can even pretend that the future doesn't matter. Having Rachel right now is enough.
But that's the thing about Rachel Amber: her destiny is coiled over the muscle and the smooth flesh of her leg, while Chloe's skin is only emptiness. Rachel is going somewhere, and wherever it is, Chloe's learned enough about how the universe works by now to know that she won't be going with her.
Rachel is a happily ever after sort of girl, according to the universe. According to the universe, everyone Chloe loves will be taken from her too soon.
Chloe does her best not to fall too far in love with Rachel. She fucks that up, like pretty much everything else in her life.
Chloe's pretty far down when the universe decides to kick her again.
At the age of twenty, Chloe is still living with Joyce and the thing Joyce married. The path of Chloe's life has led her farther and farther away from the bright-eyed kid she used to be, and there doesn't seem to be any way back. Not for a high school dropout, a veteran of a string of short-lived retail jobs, the ex-girlfriend of Rachel Amber, a wounded survivor of a string of short-lived relationships; there's no way back for a loser like Chloe Price.
At twenty, Chloe is smart enough to know the definition of the word 'hubris' and smart enough to know that she isn't really living, just persisting because she refuses to give the universe the satisfaction of seeing her give up.
Even though Chloe has never reached escape velocity on her occasional travels outside of her hometown of Arcadia Bay, her truck still feels like it holds the promise of Chloe's eventual freedom in its rusty steel body. So really, the universe is just being a complete dick when a drunk driver runs a red light and totals Chloe's truck when she's on her way to work one evening.
The crash doesn't quite total Chloe, but it messes her up badly enough that she loses nearly two days to unconsciousness, pain meds, and then just regular sleep, something she's struggled with for years. When she finally wakes up, sore, stiff, but fully aware of herself, someone's holding her hand.
"Mom?" Chloe croaks, blinking the blur out of her eyes and turning to the figure at her bedside.
"Uh, no?" Max Caulfield answers, smiling nervously at Chloe. "It's just me right now."
Chloe gapes at her. Max Caulfield is here. Max Caulfield isn't the shy, skinny girl who helped make Chloe's world a joy to live in anymore. She's a woman now, with hair that is shorter and lighter in colour, framing a freckled face that is at once familiar and entirely new. Chloe always thought Max was prettier than Max imagined she was, but it turns out adult Max is more beautiful than Chloe ever imagined anyone could be.
Max's hand is soft and very warm in Chloe's. Max's eyes are deep blue, and soft, and very warm as she gazes at Chloe.
Chloe coughs, and Max produces a cup of water with a straw, and there's an awkward moment where Chloe drinks the desert out of her mouth. It's awkward because Chloe has a million questions she can't ask while she's drinking, but she needs to drink. It's awkward because she and Max are still holding hands and neither of them seems willing to let go just yet.
When Chloe's throat is ready--but not her heart--she asks, "How?"
Max smiles shyly. "Um...you made me your emergency medical contact, I guess?"
Which Chloe did, she remembers in horror, about a year ago. She was drunk and angry and thought it would be satisfying that when something really bad happened to her, Max wouldn't come, but she'd know.
"Oh," Chloe whispers. "Shit." She looks at Max, seeing the worry she's been trying to hide clearly now, and clears her throat. "Sorry, Max, I was--"
"Don't be." Max shakes her head. "I'm grateful, Chloe."
It doesn't seem like Max should be. Chloe's bullshit has dragged Max from her life in Seattle back to Arcadia Bay. Chloe is the one who should be grateful, and she will be, when she gets over the shock. Assuming the shock wears off before Max is gone again, or else Chloe will be too busy getting drunk to waste time feeling anything.
Chloe clears her already clear throat. "So, uh...how are things?"
Max laughs, a brief, breathy sound that spreads treacherous warmth through Chloe's stomach. "I...am fine. I, uh, life is good, I guess. College and work and...yeah. How...how are you, Chloe?"
There's an edge in the way she asks it that Chloe can't quite get hold of. "Uh...I mean, no double vision or anything. I'm sore, but I don't think anything's broken. And I'm...I'm better for seeing you, dude."
It's true, even if Chloe didn't mean to let it slip out. It puts a smile on Max's face for a second, but her expression shifts into a very familiar one: guilt. Max squeezes Chloe's hand tightly. "I don't know why. I've been a really shitty friend."
There are a lot of times Chloe has thought about what she'd say in the unlikely event that Max Caulfield ever gave her an opening like that. Everything she came up with was designed to hurt, to inflict even a portion of the damage Max's absence has done Chloe since Max's soulmate showed up.
But Chloe finds she doesn't want to say any of those things right now. Instead she squeezes Max's hand and says, "You're here. You came."
"I'm here," Max sighs. She smiles at Chloe, and shifts in her chair, leaning closer. "I'm not going anywhere."
It's a nice sentiment, even if it's a lie. But even if it's just for a little while, it's so good having Max back that Chloe decides not to argue. "So, uh...did you drive down, or...?"
"Yeah. Yesterday."
"Huh. Shit, that's...thanks, Max. So, uh, is...he...?"
Max hesitates, brushing some hair behind her ear. "No. It's just me."
"Okay." Chloe relaxes. "I like your new hair, by the way. It suits you."
"Oh! Thanks." Max blushes. She slowly reaches up and threads her fingers through a strand of Chloe's short hair. "I love yours, even if it is kinda tangled right now. Blue looks good on you."
Chloe's throat dries out again. Her head moves, tilting, leaning into Max's touch. Max hesitates, but she slowly combs her fingers through Chloe's hair, her nails scraping gently along Chloe's scalp. For a moment that renders time meaningless, Max's fingers work their way gently through Chloe's hair, separating tangles. Chloe watches Max, who seems wholly absorbed in her task, her lips slightly parted, her eyes narrowed in concentration. Chloe maybe forgets to breathe until Max smooths Chloe's hair down against her skin, brushes a strand behind Chloe's ear, then suddenly sits back, smiling nervously.
"I'll get you a brush, " Max blurts into the silence that follows. "Or a comb, I guess. Your hair's so short now."
Chloe shakes her head, summoning a chuckle. "You don't need to...it's fine. Thanks. For that, I mean. Felt...nice."
"Yeah, " Max agrees quietly. She's blushing again, too, Chloe notices. "I mean...it's good to see you, Chloe. Really. I wish it hadn't taken something like this, though."
"Yeah! The whole crash thing felt...less than nice." And suddenly a grin burns its way up out of Chloe's depths and onto her lips. "Totally worth it, though."
It startles a laugh out of Max, which helps clear some of the lingering weirdness out of the air. Max insists on feeding Chloe more water, then she goes to find a nurse. Nurses lead to doctors, and doctors lead to lights, and prodding, and questions, but at the other end of all that is the news that Chloe can be discharged as soon as she's feeling up to it.
Chloe really doesn't want to go home, but she doesn't particularly want to spend another night in the hospital, either. So the doctor bustles off to work out the paperwork, leaving Chloe with Max and a lot of uncertainty. Max removes a lot of it when she sits down by Chloe, and takes her hand again.
"I'm staying in a motel ten minutes drive from here," Max informs Chloe. "If...you could stay with me, if you want? When you're discharged. We can catch up, talk things over. Ah...I want to work things out with you."
"That...that sounds awesome, Max. Seriously."
"Good!" Max says, smiling. "I've got some...well, we've got a lot of things to talk about."
Chloe isn't quite sure what that means, but it's easy to agree with Max, so she does. After that, they're almost in danger of being able to start a proper conversation when Joyce shows up. Joyce looks tired, but she smiles at Chloe, and Chloe knows she means it. "Hey, honey. Look who stopped by for a visit?"
Chloe grins. "Yeah, we've already done some prep work for hair braiding. It's just like old times!"
Joyce lets out a little laugh, and walks to the foot of Chloe's bed. David Madsen follows her into the room, and the grin vanishes from Chloe's face. He glances coolly at Max, then dismisses her to focus on Chloe. "Were you drunk?"
"What? No!" Chloe's heart starts pounding and nausea reaches its fingers into her belly and starts twisting. She squeezes Max's hand hard enough that it must hurt, but Max doesn't protest. "You fucking know I only drive when I'm sober."
"When are you ever sober these days?" David sneers. "Is this going to take much longer? I'm going to be late for work."
Chloe flushes, but she looks at Max, and she feels ashamed. Max looks at Chloe, and to Chloe's surprise, something hot ignites in Max's eyes, and her lips compress into a hard line.
The thing about Max is, she's always been easy to categorise as a member of the wallflower genus, specifically of the shrinking violet species. The real thing about Max, though, the thing that Chloe has always known about her, is that Max has got fire and steel buried in her, just under the surface.
Chloe's long known about the passion in Max, and she's even glimpsed the determination she sees now. But Chloe has never seen Max Caulfield angry. Not like this.
Max stands up and clears her throat, and it isn't loud, but it cuts through David's grumbling effectively enough. "I'm Chloe's ride. If you want to go to work, well, frankly, the sooner you do, the better."
"Excuse me?" David turns his glare on Max, his hands curling into fists. "I don't know who you think you are, but Chloe is my responsibility. If anyone is going to leave, it should be--"
"Both of us," Max says flatly, gesturing at Chloe and herself. "Which is what's going to happen. Because Chloe is coming with me to Seattle."
"Chloe is?" Chloe says, stupidly, gaping at Max. Max's hand is shaking in hers, she realises, so Chloe squeezes Max's hand and puts some confidence in her voice. "Chloe is definitely doing that, yeah."
Joyce puts a hand on David's arm. "Max, I don't understand. Are you saying Chloe wants to visit? Because I'm all for it, but she needs some time to heal, first."
Max flicks a glance at Joyce, wavers slightly, but turns resolutely back to David. Her voice is like a razor blade pulled out of a snowbank when she says, "Is Chloe going to be able to heal under the same roof as him? I don't think so."
All of the air seems to go out of Chloe's lungs, and she wonders exactly what the doctors told Max about Chloe. Shame and anger and dread rush into Chloe's empty lungs, threatening to drown her. But Max is gripping her tightly, and she isn't letting go, and she isn't done talking, so Chloe forces herself to sit up and to listen.
"I've arranged things with my parents. Chloe has an open invitation to stay with us for as long as she wants. If she's up for the drive, we'll get going today. If not, she'll stay with me at my motel tonight. We'll work out what to do about Chloe's things later, but she isn't going anywhere with you, David. That's it."
Joyce looks stunned, and maybe confused, but not quite surprised.
David growls, "That's it? Young lady, if you think I'm going to let you...I am Chloe's parent, and I will not--"
"You won't touch her again," Max snaps.
David's face reddens, but he looks nervous, off-balance. "Look, I...I don't know what Chloe's been telling you, but I--"
Chloe laughs, a choking, desperate laugh. "I didn't tell her anything, David. But, hey! Be happy, because I'm finally fucking gone, out of that house. You see, it's my choice, and I'm choosing Max."
That really isn't it, because it takes a while for Joyce to calm David down and convince him to leave, and it takes a while for Chloe to calm Joyce down and convince her to pack Chloe a bag, but by the time Chloe leaves the hospital, she knows she's going to Seattle with Max, and that is it.
Later, when it's just the two of them, Max whispers, "Sorry to spring all of that on you. I just..."
Chloe hugs her as fiercely as her bruised ribs allow her. "Don't be sorry about a single fucking thing you did back there."
"I've missed you, Chloe."
"I missed you more," Chloe promises her.
The smart thing to do after Chloe leaves the hospital would be to spend the night in Max's motel, because walking is awful and even sitting down sucks, but Chloe never claimed to be smart. Chloe takes a nap on Max's bed while Max goes to Joyce's house and picks up some things for her. When Max comes back with the bag and a fresh latte in a paper cup for Chloe, they pile into Max's car and leave Arcadia Bay behind them.
Chloe isn't sure what to say, because she isn't sure where to start. Much worse, she isn't sure how to stop Max from gently parting Chloe from all of her worst secrets in a process that will probably leave them both bleeding.
After a mile of silence, Max finally says, "So, I, uh...am a little surprised I haven't thrown up yet? I don't think I've ever been so nervous."
Chloe cradles the cooling coffee in her lap and finds a smile on her lips. "You were totally badass, Max."
"Well...I know I've never been that angry before, either."
"Yeah." Chloe grimaces. "What...did the doctor...?"
Max shoots her a quick glance. "He told me...enough. I'm not going to pretend to know what..." Max sighs. "I don't know what to say. I'm sorry."
Chloe nods, and takes a sip of coffee, surprised at how calm she feels. "Okay. I...don't really want to talk about it anyway. Not right now, at least."
"Okay," Max says softly. "If you do...I'll be here."
After another gulp of coffee--and too cheerfully--Chloe says, "Are your parents really okay with me staying for...uh, maybe ever?"
Max laughs. "Yeah. They really are. It's...it probably won't be ideal, but we'll work it out. It'll all work out."
It has never been Chloe's experience that things just work out, but she finds that she believes in Max's sincerity, if nothing else. Chloe swallows some more coffee, trying to swallow back the stinging insects she finds at the back of her throat. "What about...uh, Warren? Your soulmate okay with me crashing back into your life like this?"
Max smiles, turning her head a little so Chloe can see it. "First mate trumps soulmate, Chloe. Even if he did have a problem, it wouldn't change anything. But that really isn't an issue."
Chloe laughs, startled by the sudden memory of playing pirates with Max. "Shit, Warren sounds like an understanding guy." Her chest tightens, but she forces herself to say, "I guess the universe didn't make a mistake with you two."
Max's smile dims. "Yeah...maybe it didn't."
"You seem a lot more confident." Chloe hopes she's keeping the bitterness she's feeling out of her voice. "He's been good for you."
Max doesn't say anything to that. She doesn't say anything at all, until a couple more miles and most of Chloe's coffee are gone. "It's...weird, the whole soulmate thing. Warren is...nice. And sweet. And so supportive, and when I...when I'm with him, it feels so...comfortable. You know how I am, how anxious I get over--"
"Everything?" Chloe interjects dryly. "You freaked out over choosing sneakers once."
"Pink or purple was a big decision for tiny Max, okay?"
There's a hint of laughter in Max's voice, so Chloe chases it. "You're still tiny, Max. What are you, five one?"
"I'm five five!" Max gasps in outrage. "My dog, Chloe, I'm not tiny anymore. You'd better respect how average my height is!"
"That is the one and only average thing there is about you, Max Caulfield."
Max is so startled she whips her head round and looks right at Chloe, then yelps when the car drifts. She quickly focuses her attention back on the road.
"Sorry," Chloe mutters, her face crimson.
"Don't be."
She says it so tenderly that it takes all of the sting out of Chloe's embarrassment, but it doesn't help her with the weight of love bearing down on Chloe. The feelings that she has for Max, that she thinks she's maybe always had for Max, have nothing to do with nostalgia or even the gratitude that comes with Max being her unlikely rescuer. They have everything to do with the way Max held her hand, with the way Max ran her fingers through Chloe's hair, with the way that Max is here, with the way that after all these years, Max is still Max.
"What were we talking about?" Chloe asks weakly.
Max purses her lips. Her hands tighten on the wheel. "Yeah. Yeah, we were talking about...soulmates." Max takes a deep breath and heaves out a sigh. "When I was with Warren, everything really did seem to fall into place. Everything seemed...meant to be. I never felt anxious, not with him."
Which means that Warren has been able to do what Chloe never got a chance to. Maybe the universe knows what it's doing after all. Max deserves to be happy, after all. Max's happiness means more than Chloe's feelings, so she'll just have to...
Chloe blinks. She frowns at Max. "Wait. What do you mean you were with Warren?"
"Um...so, uh...yeah, I left him. A couple of months ago?"
Max's face is pink and she avoids Chloe's eyes more than is strictly necessary for road safety.
"You...left your soulmate. Why...what happened?"
"Nothing," Max says softly. "Nothing bad was happening. Nothing bad was going to happen, because that's what it means, right? Soulmates. We were going to fit together, and it was going to be easy."
"So...why did you leave him?"
"Because I made a mistake," Max says fiercely. "Because everything was comfortable, and I wasn't anxious, but I also wasn't the happiest I'd ever been. Because Warren didn't push me. He made me feel safe, but he didn't make me want to be braver, and stonger. He didn't make me want me to do dumb shit, and get into trouble, and try things I'd never think of myself. I was enough for him, and he was--he is--better than me. Better than I deserve. But there's only one person in my whole life who has ever made me want to get out of my comfort zone, made me want to chase happiness at any cost, made me feel like I can be someone I want to be, like I can be good enough, and she needed me, and I left her.
"I left you," Max whispers, her eyes still fixed on the road ahead. "And it took me too many years to work out what a mistake that was."
"You left your soulmate," Chloe says stupidly. "For...because of me?"
Max looks at her at last. Her eyes are teary, but she smiles. "I left him for me, for my reasons. But I was coming to find you, I swear. As...soon as I worked out what to say. So that, uh, that might have taken me a few more years..."
"Good thing I got in an accident, I guess. Though I think you did fine with that speech, Max. It was, uh, yeah. It was good."
"Thanks. Just, ah...don't make a habit of getting into accidents? If that was your plan, it wasn't awesome. I kind of want you around for the long haul, Chloe Price."
Chloe laughs. She laughs until tears come to her eyes, and when they do, they flow, and they don't stop for a long time.
They stop for food, opting for shitty roadside burgers that they eat in Max's car. Neither of them wants to be around other people just yet.
"So...what happens when we get to Seattle?"
Max looks at her, and Chloe can see in her eyes that she understands all of the questions that Chloe's asking. "We'll have to figure it out as we go. But even if...if things don't work out like I...like we want, you have a place with the Caulfields for as long as you want. And you're my best friend, for fucking ever."
Chloe nods. "Yeah, can't ask for more than that, huh? The universe isn't about to offer us any guarantees."
Max shrugs. "Fuck the universe. It doesn't get to choose this. I do. I choose you, Chloe Price."
"That...kinda makes me sound like a Pokémon, Max," Chloe says around a fierce grin. "Not to ruin the moment or whatever."
Max laughs. "Oh, dog, I'm regretting this already!"
"No take backsies!"
Max giggles. "Oh, wowser! We...we haven't really hung out since we were kids, huh?"
"Yeah," Chloe says nervously. "If this is weird..."
"It's awesome." Max smiles, and her smile becomes a grin, and her eyes are full of light and life. "Everything is going to be awesome."
Max's assurance, Max's luminous grin, they etch themselves onto Chloe's soul, leaving their impression where no one can ever see them. But that doesn't matter, because Max and Chloe know, and they don't need anybody else's opinion on whether or not they should be together, especially not the universe's.
"Well then, let's get on with it already!" Chloe says, grinning like an idiot. "Take us home, Max!"
"Aye, cap'n," Max growls, her own grin every bit as joyously dumb. "We'll be in safe harbour afore sunup!"
Chloe laughs, because while there are no guarantees for either of them, and there are going to be a lot of problems waiting for them both when they get to Seattle, Chloe does feel safe. Chloe knows that she shouldn't expect a happily ever after, but she thinks that this time she'll have Max for as much of for fucking ever as time will allow them both.
That's happy enough for Chloe. That's happy enough for them both.
And if the universe is unhappy? Well, Chloe reckons the universe can go fuck itself.