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It’s approaching late afternoon, and they’re sitting in Steph’s room. They’ve been hanging out since Chloe picked her up from school a few hours ago. They sit in the little reading nook, cramped with their legs drawn across each other’s.
Steph’s room is cool, band and game posters, some clearly homemade, cover most of the wall space, random clippings from magazines or art books filling any large gaps of blank wall. It’s mostly tidy, aside from a few DnD things strewn across the floor. Chloe’d almost stepped on a d10 on her way in.
The window’s open, letting smoke filter out of the room as they pass a joint back and forth. A Bikini Kill record fills what would otherwise be silence. Steph had a shelf pushed up against the wall next to her bed to hold her records, the record player that had apparently been passed down to her from her uncle sitting on top of it.
This was a pretty common kind of afternoon. Chloe’s favorite kind of afternoon, really. The way they could just hang out, smoke if Steph felt like it, sit and listen to music, no stress to talk about anything, might be what Chloe appreciated most about Steph’s friendship. They did talk, quite a lot of the time, though. Steph was easy to talk to, a good listener and good advice giver, had a good balance between giving you shit if you were being an idiot and being real with you about something when you needed it.
She’s told Steph more than she really ever thought she would. About her dad, about Max. About David and her mom. She was the only person she had to talk to about everything with Rachel last year. Steph told her things in return, about her strained relationship with her own mom, a religious woman still trying to wrap her head around having a lesbian daughter. About how deep down, her biggest fear was committing to something only for it to be taken away.
They’ve grown close. But maybe that was inevitable, with how much they had in common. Even beyond the lesbianism and the music and the affinity for beanies. Though, Steph claims the beanies were her thing first, and she wasn’t really wrong.
Chloe hands her the joint, and she takes it with nimble fingers, takes a hit and lets her beanie adorned head rest against the wall. She tilts her head up a bit, smoke trailing out of her lips, the light from the lowering sun hitting her just so, casting her in a warm glow with sharp, dark shadows. Chloe bites her lip as her eyes follow the curve of her jaw, the muscles in her neck, and looks away. She plays with the loose skin at one of her knuckles and tunes into the feeling of the weight of Steph’s legs against her own.
“So, do they have the dates for the show yet?” Chloe asks then, trying to smooth past the tightness in her chest.
Rehearsals for Blackwell’s newest production had started nearly two weeks ago, and of course Rachel had a lead role. Chloe couldn’t be fucked to remember the name yet, but she was sure she’d have it down soon enough, with how much Rachel talked about it. It was smarmy, that’s all she recalls right now. Steph was stage managing, of course. She was The resident stage manager at Blackwell, after all.
Steph rolls her eyes, offers the joint back over. “Supposed to open on the 24th next month. It’s all like, a big fucking mess though. Keaton’s barely got his head on straight.”
Chloe takes the joint back, “That’s what Rachel’s said. You guys just started rehearsals. How are you that fuckin’ off track already?”
Steph smirks a little, interlocks her fingers behind her head and leans back, still looks cool despite her arms being a bit cramped in the small space. “What’s theatre without behind the scenes drama and chaos?”
Chloe shrugs, sets the joint between her lips. The record fades back into Chloe’s ears as the conversation dies. Steph closes her eyes, and it makes for an all too good opportunity to stare. Somehow the light hitting her from this new position makes her look even more godly, hair glowing auburn, and Chloe’s kind of pissed at her for wearing a low enough cut shirt that she had a far too good look at the dips of her collarbones.
Steph’s been hot always. Could get by sheerly on confidence and nerdy cool factor, quite honestly. But she was really nice to look at too. Nice sharp jaw, soft and full facial features that made any of her expressions look painfully good on her. She’s only gotten hotter as time has crawled forward since she’s known her. Chloe didn’t really think it was any fair.
Whatever she feels, whatever this is, is something she has been failing miserably at acutely ignoring. It was small at first, something she didn’t pay much mind to. Noticing when Steph looked particularly nice, feeling a bit warm whenever Steph paid her special attention. As they got closer, started hanging out more and more in the last year or so, it snowballed into this big blaring ugly monster of a thing before Chloe even knew it.
And, just, after Rachel… she can’t do it. Maybe it’s self sabotaging in a way, Steph Gingrich was no Rachel Amber, but she’s sworn off feeling that way about a friend. Or at least, doing anything about feeling that way.
But, to be fair, was Rachel even really a friend then?
It was stupid either way. Friendship with Steph was easy, the closest they’ve ever had to any tension was arguing about a movie or game. Trying to add romantic pursuit into it would just complicate it. Chloe’s had enough complicated for one lifetime.
----
“So, have you made a move on Steph yet?”
Rachel is sprawled across Chloe’s bed upside down, head resting against the edge of the mattress. Chloe snorts from her place at her desk. “No, dickweed, and I’m not going to.”
“Oh come on,” Rachel huffs, spinning herself around and sitting up right. “You guys are like the two biggest lesbians in the world. It’d be perfect.”
It’s weird, to a part of Chloe’s brain, that they’re even talking about this. For a long time they avoided any topics of each other's dating lives, to keep things as stable as could be. But it’s different now. Rachel had just been her best friend for longer than she’d ever been anything else, and the weight of their history rarely held over them anymore. Even if the circumstances of their past relationship left a mark on her.
Chloe rolls her eyes, “Yeah, ‘cause that’s the biggest call for compatibility.”
“Duh,” Rachel says, but then softens. She sighs, leans back on her hands. “But really, dude. You should go for it, she’d totally be into it.”
Chloe ignores the pang in her chest at that last part. Holds her tongue from asking ‘you really think so?’ “I just... “ She could try to lie, say she wasn’t even interested in Steph in the first place. She’s never admitted otherwise. But Rachel wouldn’t be asking her about this if she didn’t already know her too well. “I don’t wanna make things like… fucking weird with her.”
Rachel scoffs, leans forward to give her a pointed look. “Steph is like the chillest person in the world, as long as you don’t like, completely break her heart or anything I think you’ll always be cool.”
Something twisted in Chloe, something that comes up less and less but she still has to push away sometimes, says ‘like you broke mine’. At the end of the day it probably wasn’t a completely fair thought, but it stings, and she turns away to look out her window. Maybe it should be promising that they’ve recovered, but Chloe didn’t wanna risk spending months repairing a relationship like she was trying to superglue a shattered vase again. It was exhausting.
It’s quiet for a moment, and then Rachel carefully says, “you deserve… you deserve to be happy with someone.” And Chloe turns back to her, and it makes her stomach churn a little to see Rachel so serious. It’s been a while. “I’m sorry if it’s my fault you feel like you don’t.”
Chloe suddenly feels like the universe has shattered a ceramic plate over her head, and she leans back in her desk chair, shuts her eyes for a moment. “I don’t even know if it is. Maybe. Probably.”
When she opens her eyes again, Rachel’s looking down at her hands, twisting one of her rings around her finger. “I promise not everyone’s as complicated as me. Least of all Steph.”
“That’s kind of a low bar, dude.”
They’re laughing then, Rachel flopping back on the bed. “Shut up.”
----
Adjusting to having what could be considered a solid group of friends, was very weird. They didn’t all get together that often, and Chloe mostly just hung out with Rachel or Steph on their own, and she didn’t even see Mikey unless they were all together, but it was something. Her something. As stupid cheesy as that was. It was some kind of normal for her.
They sit in a diner they’ve met up in a few times, and Chloe’s mom may be a bit peeved at her going to the competition, but the competition didn’t have moms there to ask you about who you’re with and what you’re doing and hey, have you made up that resume yet?
“So have you been looking into GED stuff at all, Chloe?” Mikey plucks a fry from the basket on the table, reaching over Steph. Okay. So maybe the competition has well meaning friends that are almost just as annoying.
Chloe groans, sinks into her seat at the booth next to Rachel. “Nah, no.” Is all she really knows what to say. Mikey seems to sense the energy shift in the booth, and knows not to pry.
It was a sore spot right now, or whatever. Rachel and Steph know that. She didn’t even really have to tell them much for them to know that. She hasn’t done much of anything since leaving Blackwell. She wishes she was. Hates herself a bit, tells herself she’ll get to it. David’s breathing down her neck.
“Hey,” Steph says then, nice and chill, like it wasn’t something she was just throwing out to switch gears in the conversation again. “Does anyone want to split a shake?”
“Chloe does!” Rachel smiles easily, and Chloe elbows her from her low position in her seat. Rachel rolls her eyes, smacks her thigh in retaliation, and the only reason Chloe doesn’t strike back is because Steph has turned to her now with a raised eyebrow.
She sits up then, rests an arm on the back of the booth. She’s cool, plenty collected. “Yeah, sure,”
Mikey’s giving the table a bit of a look, eyes going between the three of them, and Chloe wills herself to ignore that. Steph is just smirking a bit, amused, “do you care what flavor?”
Chloe gives a single sharp shake of her head, lips pursed. “Nope.” She pops the P too hard, winces internally. Steph is off then, headed to the counter to order. Chloe turns to smack Rachel’s shoulder soon as she’s gone, “I hate you so much dude!” She hisses, and Rachel just giggles.
“What uh,” Mikey starts, flicking his eyes between the two of them, “what was that about?”
“Nothing, Michael. Nothing.”
“Mhmm,” Rachel hums, bobbing her head, and Chloe wants to smack her again. Mikey is obviously unconvinced, but just relents, probably deciding that like many other things, he will not be getting an answer on this.
Chloe picks at the remnants of the burger sitting in front of her while she waits for Steph to come back. Mikey and Rachel start talking abt the campaign they’re all slowly making their way through together, and Chloe just hums a response when Mikey asks her about something her character did last session.
She glances at Steph waiting by the pickup counter scrolling on her phone, and chews on the inside of her cheek. She wanted to just be actually pissed with Rachel, and maybe she kind of was, but she was mostly just worried. This isn’t how it’s supposed to be, there shouldn’t be any hints being dropped, nothing that would risk her feelings being clear as fucking day. But Rachel was just messing around, and Steph did have a really cute amused face. And she did actually want that shake.
When Steph returns, she’s holding a medium sized vanilla shake in a clear plastic cup and two straws. She slides back into her seat next to Mikey, pops the lid off the cup and hands Chloe a straw before unwrapping her own. She looks up at Chloe as she puts the straw in the shake, a little smile on her lips, and Chloe struggles to get her straw open.
“Hope you don’t mind vanilla,” Steph says, and then wraps her lips around the straw to take a sip, Chloe watching the shadow of the liquid flooding up the straw. She blinks when her eyes stop at Steph’s lips, and she quickly looks down to finally tear the wrapper off her straw.
“Nah, it’s cool,” she swallows, throws the wrapper aside and puts her own straw in once Steph has retreated from the drink. “I said whatever’s fine.” And it was, cause she really couldn’t give less of a fuck right now.
Steph just smiles, crosses her arms and rests them on the table, and Chloe thinks her eyes are fucking twinkling a bit and jesus, eye contact is sort of evil, isn’t it? “Cool.”
Rachel nudges her a bit when the moments passed, and Chloe shrugs her off as casually as possible, rolling her eyes. Mikey seems quite intent on minding his damn business, thank god.
The shake is fine, nothing entirely special but still a milkshake. A bit hard to fuck up, as far as Chloe’s concerned. She lets Steph drink most of it, tries not to stare as they pass it back and forth. The rest of lunch is smooth sailing, if Chloe ignores the tightness in her chest whenever her and Steph meet eyes.
They mull around as they clean up their trash, Rachel putting the tray they’d gotten their food on in its rightful place on top of the trash can. Steph is talking enthusiastically about plans she’s got for the play, gesturing around with her hands as she talks about the sketching she was doing last night for costumes as they slip out the front doors.
They say goodbye to Mikey, leaving him standing outside to wait for Drew to come pick him up as they load into Chloe’s truck. Rachel hangs out the window and waves to him as they pull out of the parking lot.
A mix Rachel made her months ago plays from the stereo, mostly punk stuff, and Chloe tries not to think about how much she likes the press of Steph at her side as they all bop along to it.
Rachel gets dropped off first, giving Chloe conspiratorial glances for christ’s sake as she says her goodbyes, and then she’s practically skipping up her front steps and into her house. She’s too much, truly.
“Hey so,” Steph says as Chloe takes the truck out of park, and she’s barely moved over from Chloe’s side even with all the space Rachel’s left. “Do you wanna hang out at my house? We could watch a movie or just smoke.”
It’s such a casual offer, as everything ever is with Steph, and it makes Chloe’s stomach flip a little. “Yeah, sure. Sounds chill.”
Steph nods smoothly, rests her right arm on the back of the seat, and Chloe’s kinda grateful for the way it turns her body away from her a bit.
----
They settle in the den, where the entertainment center is. They sit on the raggedy couch near the center of the room, the only other seating an even more worn bean bag chair off to the side. They’ve got a damn projector instead of a normal TV or something, and Steph had once quite excitedly explained to her how they got their hands on it in the first place. The thing was pretty cool, very Steph, and it certainly had its charm.
“So I don’t know what you’re up for,” Steph says as she rises from the couch, heads to the shelf encasing the large collection of nerdy ass movies and games, “but we could always watch Blade Runner for the 100th time.”
Chloe hums, “while that does sound enticing,” she shifts on the couch, throws an arm over the back of it, “kinda in the mood for a game or something.”
“Yeah?” Stephs throws a glance over her shoulder, starts scanning over one of the shelves with just games.
“Yeah, looking to kick your ass in one of those crummy FPS games.”
Steph scoffs, takes a second before plucking something off the shelf. She turns on her heel, points the game case at Chloe. “You’re on fucker.”
Steph is, annoyingly, so much better at this than Chloe. She knew that when she was challenging her. She gets her ass kicked every time they decide to hook up Steph’s Xbox to the projector. She doesn’t even think she was bad on her own, Steph was just stupid good.
It’s fun though, the push and pull, the banter as Chloe insists that she’s holding back, or that Steph’s really gonna get it next round.
She watches her half of the screen, crouches her character and peers behind a door she knows Steph is coming nearer to, back turned to her, and gets trigger happy per usual, lays down a cover of fire in Steph’s direction. Steph’s character is quick, ducks behind a crate. “That was close! That was so close!”
Steph just laughs, and she can see the movement on Steph’s half of her screen in her peripheral but she’s more focused on maneuvering her way to get in a position to strike again. Before she knows it she’s hearing the crass fake gunshots, and her half of the screen blinks red, and then there’s a replay of her character’s limp body crumbling, Steph’s character shooting her from behind, and hey what the hell.
“Where did you even- what the hell man?!” She can hear the shrill quality in her voice.
Steph’s barking laughing, leaning to the side in her efforts, and fuck her, man. She’s grabbing for Steph’s controller then, her own discarded on the floor, chest pressed to her shoulder, tugging the thing from her hands. Steph gets out a “Hey-!” in between her laughs, reaching out to grab her controller back, but Chloe holds it out of reach, pushes her down against the couch by her shoulder.
“You’re such a sore loser, dude,” Steph’s gasping for air a bit, struggling under the weight of Chloe holding her down.
“And you’re a cheat,” She’s still got the controller held out in the air in one hand, the other pushing down firmly on Steph’s shoulder.
“How would I even cheat, dude?! I just know the map better than you!” Chloe sticks her tongue out at her, Steph rolling her eyes as she still squirms. “Real mature, Price,” she’s smiling so wide, and the fact that she’s got her pinned down and their bottom halves are pressed so close starts to wash over her, petty gamer rage subsiding, quickly replaced with a bloom in her chest, a swirl in her stomach.
The struggle comes to a stop, and she feels frozen in a stupid nervous gay panic, Steph looking up at her with mussed hair, beanie crooked. Steph takes her wrist gently, pulls it from her shoulder with no resistance given. She holds it, thumb pressing softly into her skin. She’s got this look on her face, makes Chloe feel like she’s fucking soaring and being dropped into a bottomless pit at the same time.
She’s leaning up then, slowly, and her eyes flick down and Chloe scrambles back, heart threatening to shoot straight out of her chest and she sits back on her side of the couch, Steph’s controller falling onto the floor and landing next to hers. Steph sits up too, hand gripping the edge of the cushion. She looks a bit bemused, and shit.
“I gotta-” she stands, fidgets with her beanie and runs her hands over the pockets of her jeans. “I gotta get home… mom,” she’s already setting to leave cause fuck, fuck. “Mom wanted me home, I've been dodging her too much.” And it’s probably not even a lie, but she can feel how fucking weak it sounds.
“Chloe-” Steph is standing too, taking a step forward, and Chloe walks backwards towards the hall.
“I’ll see you later, thanks for the games, dude.” And she turns away from the concerned look on Steph’s face, makes her exit, takes long strides through the hall and to the front door, doesn’t stop until she’s made it to her truck and turned the key in the ignition.
Fuck.
----
“You’re so fucking dramatic, oh my God,” Rachel’s got her legs stretched out over Chloe’s lap, head resting against the truck window.
“I am not fucking dramatic,” Chloe pulls her cigarette from her lips, rests her elbow on the car door, hand hanging out the open window.
It’s two days after the incident at Steph’s house, and Chloe had decided until an in person session to share the tale with the world’s worst personal therapist. They’re at the back of the Blackwell parking lot, hanging around so Rach can make play rehearsal.
“You’re so dramatic it almost makes me jealous. You think you could bottle some of that so I can use it for the show?”
“Fuck off,” Chloe shoves half assedly at her ankles in her lap.
Rachel giggles, kicks her feet. “Seriously, dude, would it have been so terrible if you just let her kiss you?”
Yes, Chloe’s brain yells, it very much would have. But she knows Rachel’s gonna think her explanation’s all bullshit and tear it apart, and she’s clinging to her reasoning for dear life, damnit. Rachel pushes on, “Oh no, a hot nerdy lesbian kisses you on the lips, the world is ending,” and Chloe finds the sarcasm abhorrent right now.
“I-” Chloe starts, cuts herself off with a sigh. “I already told you I didn’t wanna go there with her. I don’t wanna make shit weird.”
A laugh bubbles out of Rachel’s chest. “Pretty sure you made it like 8 times weirder by running out of there like that.” Chloe groans, puffs on her cigarette as she lets her head fall back.
Steph had texted her after she left. A couple messages, an apology, something about picking up vibes, and then a hope that they were still cool. Chloe wishes she was the kind of person who would just pretend shit didn’t happen. She didn’t get around to responding to the messages. Not that she tried.
Rachel seems to take a moment to collect her thoughts, then says, “I just don’t get what you’re so afraid of. You like her. She likes you back. You’re like the same person in different fonts. Try it out.” Chloe sighs, lulls her head to one side, opens her mouth to say something. “I know-” Rachel interjects, “you don’t wanna like, ruin the friendship or whatever. I know you’ve got… shit you’re still kinda getting over.”
There’s that serious Rachel look in her eye, and Chloe’s ribs feel like they’re crushing her. “But what’s the point if you don’t try. What’s the point of fucking anything if you’re not taking risks, dude.” She nudges Chloe’s thigh with her foot. “And it’s seriously not even that big of a risk! It’s Steph.”
“I hate you,” Chloe mumbles. And she does. “I hate you and you’re kinda right.” And she is, and Chloe thinks maybe she was putting this talk off because she knew this was all the convincing she’d need. Because she’s stupid. And she is sort-of-maybe dramatic.
“I’m always right,” Rachel shifts, smiles to herself, “and you always know that. You’re just too in your own head to notice for a while.”
----
She meets Steph right outside Blackwell after classes end three days later. She’d texted her the morning after her talk with Rachel, but she was too busy with play stuff to meet until now. Chloe’d just said they were cool, asked to hang out to talk.
“Hey,” Steph slides into the cab of the truck, and she’s wearing a new beanie, a burnt orange color that compliments the navy blue flannel she’s got on really nicely. She settles in like Chloe wasn’t tip-toeing around her for a few days, like nothing’s up.
“Hey,” Chloe clenches her fingers around the wheel, she puts the truck in gear. “Cool if we go back to your house? Maybe smoke?” A buzz sounds like a fucking blessing right now.
“Yeah, sure,” Steph presses her hand to the back of her head and adjusts her beanie. “House’ll be empty a few hours.”
Chloe sniffs, nods, and she’s on auto pilot as she pulls out of the Blackwell parking lot like she’s done 8 thousand times before. She turns the stereo on once they’ve pulled out, one of her indie rock mixes filling the space.
They talk here and there during the drive, mostly just Steph making comments about how play shit is going. Chloe chimes in every so often to make a snide remark backing up Steph’s claims that half the cast and crew are idiots, cause it really sounds like they are. It feels normal, and Chloe loses the twitchiness in her body language, though her stomach keeps on churning.
Chloe thinks the too-thick flannel hoodie she’s got on was maybe a stupid idea when she steps out of her truck and into Steph’s driveway, sun beating down on her, but it’s never stopped her before and they would be inside soon enough anyways.
She follows Steph up the stairs to her room in silence, and the panic is bubbling up again in her chest, but she tells herself to just take a fucking breath as she watches Steph crouch down to reach under her bed to get her box of shit.
Steph slips her shoes off on the way to the window, Chloe following suit, and they settle down in the reading nook like usual, Steph pushing the window open, and Chloe’s whole fucking body flares at the contact of their legs even though she’s purposely trying to keep hers to herself.
“So,” Steph says as she opens the little black box in her lap, retrieving her pipe, “you wanted to talk?” She sets to pack the bowl, and Chloe chews on her cheek as she watches her work.
“Yeah, I…” Chloe tugs at her hoodie, adjusts the way the hood sits. “About Saturday,”
“It’s cool, man,” Steph presses the herbs down with her thumb a final time, takes the pipe in one hand to get her lighter from her lap. “Like I said in my text I just kinda thought I was getting vibes. No sweat. Doesn’t gotta be a thing,”
Chloe watches her light the bowl, and she looks stupid hot taking her hit. “Nah I mean…” She takes a shaky breath, nips at the inside of her cheek again as Steph meets her eyes, drawing back from the pipe and blowing a steady stream of smoke from her lips. “I wouldn’t say you were wrong about the vibes.”
Steph smirks, offers the pipe and lighter over. “I mean… I kinda figured I wasn’t. But you bolted, so.”
Chloe takes them, feels better already as she flicks the lighter. She can feel Steph watching her as she takes a hit. “I think I just um,” she starts, chuckles despite herself as she exhales, “I think I’m just an idiot.” Steph smiles too, and yeah, this is okay. “I think after everything with Rach I was just… worried about doing it all again.”
Stephs nods, rests against the wall. “I get that. I kinda figured,” and Chloe nods along.
“It’s stupid though… I know that,” she stretches her legs out, chest humming a little at the feel of them being cozied up like this again. “Shit with Rachel that was… we both had a lot of shit going on. Still do.”
They exchange the pipe and lighter again. “It’s not stupid. I know that whole thing fucked you up. That’s really the only reason I hadn’t like... made a move before, or whatever. I’ve kinda wanted to for like, ever.”
If her whole body was not humming before, it sure as shit was now. She was stupid. God. Chloe Price awarded the dumbest motherfucker on the planet award. “I should’ve gotten over myself a lot earlier, huh?”
Steph shrugs, smiles a little as she pulls off the pipe. “Maybe,”
It’s quiet for a moment as Steph lets smoke curl from her lips, and Chloe thinks they should have thought to put on a record before sitting down so she couldn’t hear the pounding of her heart beat in her ears quite so much right now. “So, what now?”
“I don’t know, man,” Steph sets the pipe and lighter down in the box, sets it off to the side, leans forward, “Do you wanna go out with me?”
Her gaze is intent, eyes shimmering in the sunlight coming through the window, and Chloe wonders what going out exactly entails here. Just an offer for a date? Going out as in officially trying the whole relationship thing? She thinks they can sort that out later, though, cause there’s a buzz in the air that’s not really got anything to do with the weed.
“Yeah,” her eyes go to Steph’s lips, and she can feel them both shifting, moving closer. They draw their knees in, Steph grips the edge of the seat to scoot forward.
“Yeah?” She can feel breath hot on her face, a hand moving up to grip her hood, and Steph tastes like weed and the diet soda she gets from the vending machines at school.
Chloe thinks she deserves more than the dumbest motherfucker on the planet award, whatever that may be, because she’d kinda forgotten how good kissing feels, and Steph feels so goddamn right against her, and she pulls back for a moment to switch the angle, goes back in more eagerly, and Steph smiles against her mouth.
Her heart soars, and a happy little thing snuggles into her chest to take its place, and whatever the fuck the problem with this was a couple days ago feels lightyears away.
----
Rachel’s very smug. Still beyond smug, even long after she’d spent their whole hang out where Chloe had told her the news being very very smug. Chloe thinks her smug meter just doesn’t fucking run out.
But it’s nice, sitting here with Steph pressed to her side as she drapes an arm over her shoulders. Rachel and Mikey sit on the opposite side of the picnic table on campus. They’d finished their DnD session like 20 minutes ago, but they hung around to catch up. Chloe’s kinda itching to get Steph back to the truck alone, cause what are girlfriends for, anyway, but this is good.
It’s pleasantly normal, and she lets any doubts about it get washed away by the current of their flowing conversation. So maybe she’s still not doing anything with her life right now and David’s got his head up his ass. Things are good anyway. Things are hopeful.