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Chapter Text

"It's called the 'golden hour,'" Max said softly, pulling herself onto Chloe's lap and snuggling into her chest as the two of them gazed out onto the ocean waters; far away, the sun hovered just above the horizon, casting a warm, golden glow that reflected off the shimmering waves of the sea.

"I'm glad I get to see it with you," Chloe murmured, pressing her lips on top of Max's head.

"Me too."

They were silent for a moment, listening to the sound of the waves rushing over the shore and the rustle of the cool breeze nipping lightly at their clothes and hair.

But Chloe knew what was left unsaid. That this was their last sunset together.

It hadn't mattered, at the beginning, when they'd had the whole summer - hell, all the time in the world - to be with each other .

But Max was leaving for Seattle tomorrow, and their summer days and nights were coming to an end.

Chloe pulled Max closer, burying her face in Max's hair as she tried not to think of the future - a future that was pulling them apart.

Almost as if Max had read her mind, Chloe heard her say quietly, "I don't want to go."

Chloe leaned away, shifting slightly so the two of them were looking at each other, their vulnerable expressions mirroring the other's.

"I don't want to leave you, Chloe," Max whispered, reaching one hand and placing it against Chloe's cheek.

Turning her head so her lips brushed Max's palm, Chloe mumbled, "You'll see me again, I promise."

"How do you know?" Max asked, taking her hand away and turning to stare hopelessly at the ocean, her bottom lip trembling before she curled back up against Chloe's chest, burying her face in the crook of Chloe's neck.

Chloe felt a knife twist in her gut, a painful reminder of the end of their time together. Their last day together shouldn't be like this, shouldn't be sad, shouldn't be shitty, it should be better than this, should be happy.

"Hey, hey, don't look so sad," Chloe said softly, leaning away slightly to lift up Max's chin with one hand. "I'm never leaving you."

For a moment, the world became just the two of them again as Chloe closed the distance between them; Max's lips against hers were warm, comforting, familiar, and though the ocean breeze felt cool against her skin, Chloe could only think of the fire that burned in her heart until stars and lights shine behind her eyelids.

As the two broke apart, breathless, Chloe placed her forehead against Max's, an idea forming in her mind.

"I promise, things are gonna work out," Chloe said, but Max pulled away, shaking her head.

"Chloe," Max started, but Chloe cut her off with another kiss.

"Look, we'll always be together, okay?" Chloe said, reaching up and untying the black string to her bullet necklace. "As long as you have this, you'll have me with you."

Max sat there, speechless, as Chloe tied the necklace around Max's neck, her fingers just brushing Max's skin, light and gentle.

"And, check you out, Max, you're all punk and cool now, like me," Chloe said half-heartedly, feeling her heart leap a little in her chest as Max managed to return a small smile.

"I don't think I can go full punk, but...thank you, Chloe."

The gratefulness in Max's voice caused a lump to form in Chloe's throat, and she swallowed as she tried to grin back - but it felt forced, unnatural.

And she could see that Max saw it from the way her expression turned pensive and preoccupied.

Chloe opened her mouth to say something, but Max thought aloud, "I want to give you something too."

Max turned and pulled her bag up from the ground, brushing the sand off of it before reaching aside and pulling out a handful of Polaroids.

"Here, you should pick the one you like most," Max said, looking up to see Chloe's eyes wide with surprise.

"You want me to pick one?" Chloe asked, incredulous. Glancing down at the photos sprawled out on her and Max's lap, Chloe could remember when and where each were taken - and all had a special moment, a special meaning...

"Yeah. So you can remember me too," Max said, leaning her head back on Chloe's shoulder as she picked up a blurry photo of Chloe falling backwards onto a sand castle.

"Huh. I remember that one," Chloe said. "Asswipe," she unthinkingly added under her breath.

Max laughed. "Get wrecked, Chloe."

"Still can't believe you tricked me into thinking I wasn't in the shot," Chloe muttered. "You kept telling me to go backward until I fucking ran into the castle."

"That was funny," Max said lightly, picking up another photo.

For brief time, the two reminisced over Max's collection of Polaroids, most of which were memories of their time together. There was the photo of Chloe sitting on the beach, framed by another golden sunset. Then there was a shot of Max in Chloe's truck, one elbow on the edge of the window as the wind blew back her hair. Another showed Max and Chloe sitting on a log, the two looking at each other in the dancing light of a bonfire.

"Wait, wait, this one," Chloe said suddenly, lifting up a photo from the pile. "Can I keep this one?"

It was taken the day after they'd gotten together, confessed their feelings for each other. Max grinned as she held the camera above them both, Chloe smiling as she planted a kiss on Max's cheek, her arm slung around Max's waist.

Chloe didn't want to forget that moment - her excitement when Max, stuttering and stammering, had admitted that she'd liked Chloe too. How they'd spent the night just lying in the bed of Chloe's truck, star-gazing, talking and whispering into the night about their wishes, hopes, dreams.

The next day had been total bliss...And for it to be captured in one photo, Chloe thanked the heavens, the gods, fate, destiny - whatever it was that let her meet and come to be loved by Max Caulfield.

"It's yours, Chloe," Max said, smiling; unable to resist, Chloe pulled Max in for another kiss, hoping that the touch of her lips could tell the words she left unsaid.

Once they pulled away, Chloe gently placed the photo in her breast pocket. "Now you'll always be close to my heart, Max," she said, winking, and Max gave her a playful shove in response.

"You are too much sometimes, you know that?"

"You still like me, though," Chloe grinned, laughing when Max rolled her eyes.

Their lighthearted moment last only briefly though before the two of them looked back out onto the ocean waters - the sun had begun to dip below the horizon then, causing the skies to darken as stars began to twinkle above them.

"Chloe?"

"Yeah?"

Max snuggled back into Chloe's embrace, head lying against Chloe's shoulder. "I want you to know that this was the best summer of my life," she said softly. "And...if I never see you again, I want you to know - "

"Max," Chloe swallowed, trying to sound more fierce than she felt, "Don't talk that way."

"But I'm leaving, Chloe," Max repeated, her voice cracking. "I - "

"I promise you," Chloe interrupted, tightening her arms around Max, "this isn't the end."

Something powerful and intense burned in Chloe's soul and heart, and she pressed her lips back onto the top of Max's head.

"It's only the beginning."

Chapter Text

"So, how do you like it here so far?" Dana asked, striding forward with such confidence and grace that Max felt like a waddling duck, struggling to keep up.

"Uh, it's okay - "

"Oh, I know, Terry's class is such a bore," Dana huffed, abruptly turning down another hallway, leaving Max to squeak an apology as she accidentally bumped into a passerby.

"But thank God it's finally lunch," Dana continued, busy digging for something inside her purse. "We can finally get a break to actually, like, talk about the real things."

"Real things?" Max asked, tightly gripping the strap to her messenger bag as the two of them entered the cafeteria.

"Like, you know all that stuff the principal told you about 'great heritage' and 'deep pride' is all bullshit," Dana said matter-of-factly, pulling out a pocket mirror from her purse and admiring her reflection, tilting her head this way and that. "And I love helping all the newbies out here at Blackwell. There's something cute about how you guys don't know anything."

Max had no idea whether she was to take that as a compliment or an insult, so she gave another lame "uh" in response, feeling more and more out of place in this new school.

But...I hope I'll see Chloe soon...

Dana kept talking, blissfully unaware of Max's lack of input as she picked up a lunch tray, gesturing for Max to do the same. "Anyway, since you're new here and stuff, you can sit with me and the girls."

"The girls?"

The two of them grabbed their food and began heading towards a table in the corner of the room, whose seats were already occupied by a few other girls, busy chatting away.

"These are the girls," Dana said with a hint of pride as she put her tray down on the table.

"That's Victoria," she pointed out a girl with short, blonde hair, sitting at the corner of the table and vehemently stabbing at the piece of pizza on her tray with a plastic fork. Victoria glanced up, gave a curt nod, and then continued her crusade against the piece of edible cheese and cardboard.

Dana pointed to the girl sitting next to Victoria, whose long blonde hair cascaded down her shoulders and onto her denim jacket. "That's Taylor."

A brown-haired girl sitting across from Taylor added in a serious tone, "Make sure you avoid the girl's bathroom on the second floor after seventh period. That's where Vic and Taylor - "

A loud, "Shut the fuck up, Juliet," hissed through Victoria's teeth - leaving Max red in the face as the rest of the table cracked up, causing Taylor to cover her blushing face with one hand.

"Aw, c'mon, you two, everyone knows," said Juliet, chin balanced on one hand as she leaned across the table, playfully poking Taylor's arm.

Dana rolled her eyes as the laughter died down. "And there's Juliet, she's kind of a nosy ass."

Juliet looked up and scowled. "You're the ass, Dana," she huffed, before turning and giving Max a friendly smile.

"Over there's Kate, as sweet as a cinnamon roll." A small, mousy girl with a bun and a cross hanging around her neck gave a polite wave to Max, which Max hesitantly returned.

"Anyway, girls, meet Max, the new kid from Seattle."

A chorus of "Hey's" and "Welcomes" greeted Max as she sat down across from Kate, with Dana settling down next to her.

"As long as you're with us, Max, you're gonna be fine here," Dana said, flashing a bright smile at Max. Unsure of what that meant, she gave a meek nod, repeating in her mind all the names of the people at the table. But Chloe's not here...

Seemingly noticing Max's pensive expression, Kate added, in a soft voice, "Don't worry, Max. It's a new year, a fresh start for everyone."

"Fresh start my ass," Juliet abruptly cut in, grinning as she leaned forward, both arms on the table, her head held in her hands, "Pretty sure we did the same things this summer as last summer...Like Dana totally hooking up with Trevor behind - "

Dana slammed her drink down onto the table, shooting Juliet a furious look. "God, Juliet, you are such a little - "

As Juliet and Dana viciously tore into each other, Max shot a nervous look at Kate, who sighed and rolled her eyes.

"This happens a lot," Kate said simply, calmly taking a bite out of her apple as Dana and Juliet began flinging insults at each other. "But what did you do for the summer, Max?"

Without thinking, Max reached up and gripped the three golden bullets hanging around her neck, recalling memories of a time filled with beach sunsets and blissful laughter.

"I was at the beach by Tillamook Bay," she said softly. "I...I met a girl there."

A loud scoff to her left pulled Max out of her reverie, and she turned to see Victoria with an incredulous look on her face. "You went all the way from Seattle to Tillamook, just to meet some girl?"

Getting defensive, Max stammered, "Well, she was special."

Victoria snorted, crossing her arms and shaking her head. "There's no such thing."

"Wait, what? A beach? A girl?" Juliet suddenly said, head swiveling so fast in Max's direction that Max was surprised she didn't break her neck. "Max, tell me more."

"Yo, Chloe, what'd you do down at Tillamook anyway?" Justin said, leaning back on the bleachers and handing the communal blunt to Trevor a seat below, Luke sitting next to him, idly texting on his phone.

A loud snort came from Rachel as she and Chloe sat down next to Justin. "Tch. More like who did you do at Tillamook," Rachel said under her breath as she took a sip from the beer bottle in her hand.

Chloe ignored Rachel and the few hoots from the other skater bros as she thrust her hands into the pockets of her black jacket, giving a noncommittal shrug in response. "Summer job shit, life-guarding at the beach," she replied nonchalantly.

"Aw, c'mon Chloe! You gotta tell us more," Justin whined as Trevor vigorously nodded in agreement before offering the blunt to Luke.

"Be a bro, Chlo," Trevor said sagely, earning him a rough prod on the shoulder with Chloe's foot.

"Look, asswipes, it was nothin'," Chloe said, holding a hand out for Rachel's beer bottle. "Besides," she grinned as she took a swig, "I'm not gonna let you thirsty fucks know the details."

Whoops and hoots came from the skater crew, accompanied by a few "aw, c'mon, Chloe's" and "bruh's."

Luke, breathing out a gray cloud from his mouth as he held the communal blunt between his fingers, said derisively, "Betchu Chloe's lying 'bout bangin' someone."

Indignant at the stab to her pride, Chloe shot a look at Luke's smirking face. "I'm not lying! I totally scored this summer."

"Yeah? Like the way I was gonna score if you hadn't flirted with my girl?" Luke said critically, giving Chloe the stink-eye.

The crew burst out laughing as Chloe just shot back, "She wasn't even your girl anyway, dumbass. You just don't have the balls to talk to chicks, like me."

Luke grumbled something under his breath that sounded like, "Still a lying player."

"For once, Chloe isn't lying," Rachel huffed, leaning back and reaching into her backpack before pulling out a pair of aviators. "Chloe couldn't shut up about this chick for a week straight - "

"Shaddup, Rachel," Chloe muttered, about to take another swig of beer before Justin pushed the bottle aside, eyes wide.

"C'mon, Chloe, at least tell us something," Justin whined, pouting and clapping his hands together, as if in prayer to the almighty gods that he would be blessed with knowledge of how to pick up chicks.

"Alright, alright," Chloe said, handing the bottle to Trevor before popping the collar of her black leather jacket. "I'll tell you."

"She was a lifeguard by the beach," Max started, suddenly hyper-aware of being the center of the table's attention.

"Oooh, that's hot," Juliet said eagerly, before letting out a swear under her breath as Dana stepped on her foot under the table.

"Go on, Max," Dana smiled.

"Well, I visited the beach a lot to take photos and stuff," Max continued, taking out her old Polaroid camera and holding it in her hands, recalling fond memories.

"Did you take a pic of the life - ," the rest of Juliet's words came out muffled as Dana placed her hand on Juliet's face.

"Vic, you should bring me to the beach sometime," Taylor said nonchalantly, causing Victoria to bristle.

"We'll go this weekend, I swear," Victoria huffed; under the table she began to quickly google directions to the nearest beach on her phone.

Ignoring the interruption, Dana asked, "So, what'd the lifeguard look like?"

"She was cute," Max said, smiling as she remembered a flustered, blue-haired punk covered in sand.

"So, you know, I was just chillin' at the top of the lifeguard tower when I saw her in the ocean," Chloe said, leaning back on the bleachers, hands behind her head. Noticing the rapt expressions of her audience, Chloe smirked and continued, "She was totally hot, bikini and everything."

Justin almost looked like he was about to pass out, and Trevor was frantically patting his forehead with his sleeve. Luke and Rachel both rolled their eyes, but nonetheless said nothing as Chloe basked in the attention.

God, these suckers totally believe me...But Luke would never leave me alone if I told them the truth.

"But guess what happened?" Chloe asked, and Justin quickly blurted, "What?"

"Riptide," Chloe whispered, leaning in close - Justin and Trevor began exclaiming "Whoa's" and "Oh man's."

"Tell us more, dude," Trevor said in awe.

"I was walking along the beach, taking photos," Max said, looking down at her old Polaroid. "It was pretty windy that day, though."

"And you fell into the hot lifeguard's arms?" Juliet said eagerly, leaning forward, hands gripping the edge of the table.

"Uh, no, but she did fall into the sand a little later," Max laughed. "Anyway, I took a photo, and just as I was about to take it out from my camera, it blew away."

A loud gasp from Taylor caused the table to momentarily divert their attention to her. "And the lifeguard went to get your photo, right?" Taylor asked, eyes wide.

"Yeah, she did," Max smiled, and the table did a collective 'aww.' Kate added in a hushed voice, "That's cute."

"Then what happened?" Dana asked, biting the inside of her cheek as she awaited the rest of Max's story. "You said she fell into the sand."

"Yeah, then she jumped off the lifeguard tower and started sprinting towards my photo," Max recalled, remembering how shocked she'd been when Chloe had abruptly tore herself from her post to catch Max's fleeing Polaroid.

"She didn't get a good start though," Max said. "She totally just face-planted."

"So I carried her out of the ocean, and she was in my arms and totally just thanking me for saving her life," Chloe boasted, a broad grin on her face as Justin clapped his hands onto his face, mouth open in a perfect 'O.'

"Wow, so smooth, so badass," Luke sarcastically muttered under his breath before uttering a swear as Chloe gave him a sharp jab on the shoulder with her foot.

Trevor piped up, hand frantically typing notes on his phone, "Then you guys banged?"

Chloe threw her palm facing up, squinting at Trevor's rapt expression. "No, dumbass. I'm not a barbarian." A split second later, she added, "We did that the next night."

Justin clutched his chest, expression pained, his eyes shut tight as he imagined Chloe's hot summer. "Damn, Chloe."

The girls reacted with a chorus of 'aw's' and laughs as Max described Chloe immediately getting up from the sand, red in the face and swearing as she ran through a colony of seagulls, who all immediately began squawking and flapping at her as she sprinted along the beach.

"She sounds like a real keeper," Dana said, delicately wiping a single tear of laughter away from her eye.

"She really was," Max said, mind far away as she remembered soft words exchanged during a bonfire that night.

"So what happened after she got the photo?" Kate asked, taking a sip from her juice box.

"She gave it back to me and we talked for a bit," Max recalled. "She invited me to go to a bonfire that night."

Juliet immediately cut in, "And then you guys totally made out, right?"

Victoria said under her breath as she raised her water bottle to her lips, "Juliet's so fucking thirsty."

"Says you - "

"Sounds too good to be true, but I trust Rachel," Luke said derisively, handing the blunt to Rachel.

"Whatever, ass, believe what you want," Chloe huffed, taking another swig from the beer bottle before giving it back to Trevor.

"So, where's the chick now, dude?" Trevor asked.

Chloe paused for a moment, looking away and off beyond the football field and towards downtown Arcadia Bay; if she squinted, she could just make out the waves pulling back from the shore, its white foam leaving behind green specks of seaweed.

She unconsciously put a hand up to her breast pocket, feeling the thin outline of the photo within. Biting her lip, Chloe felt her heart twinge in her chest as she remembered that Max still hadn't texted her since their last day together.

Rachel answered for her, adjusting the aviators on her face before saying, "Chloe's girl went back to Seattle."

"Aw, man, I'm sorry - "

"Do you have her number? Dude, can you hook me up?" Justin interrupted eagerly, shaking Chloe's shoulder and bringing her back to the present.

"The fuck, perv," Chloe said a second too late, pasting a half-hearted smile on her face as she gave Justin a weak shove. "Yeah, she has my number, and no, there's no way she's gonna hook up a loser like you."

Justin groaned, shoulders slumped and face turned to the skies as he moaned, "I just wanna girlfriend!"

"That sounded like a really great first date," Kate commented lightly as Victoria and Juliet glared daggers at each other across the table.

"It was," Max said, putting her camera back in her bag. She almost wanted to take out some of the photos of her and Chloe, but she resisted - those memories were for her and Chloe, no one else. It felt wrong to share the many private moments they had together…

"Where's the lifeguard now, Max?" Taylor asked, leaning slightly around Victoria.

"She...She told me she goes to this school, actually," Max replied, and immediately the attention at the table zeroed back in on her.

"What - "

"No way - "

"Who?"

"Woah, woah, wait a fucking minute," Dana said slowly, hands raised up in front of her as she gave Max a look of disbelief. "Hot Lifeguard is here? Why didn't you say so?!"

"I, I just, I wanna see her first before I tell you guys about her," Max stammered, red in the face.

"Max just doesn't want one of us to steal her girl away," Juliet said before swearing loudly as Dana slammed the heel of her foot on Juliet's toes underneath the table.

"We respect dibs, Max, don't worry about us," Dana said, flashing a beautiful smile.

Taylor piped up, "But I'm guessing you haven't seen her here yet, huh."

Max shook her head, a moment later surprised as she got a comforting pat on the shoulder from Taylor as she leaned around Victoria.

"Do you have her number, Max?" Kate asked.

Before Max could answer, Victoria let out an exasperated huff. "Lemme guess. You gave her your number and she hasn't talked to you since then."

Max shook her head again, feeling regret building up in her chest. "It...It was the other way around, actually."

"Then why haven't you two just called each other up?" Juliet asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.

Sighing, Max had rued the day she'd returned to Seattle - and immediately dropped her phone on concrete, its screen shattering into a spiderweb of glass pieces.

"I dropped my phone and broke it. I had to get a new one," she said sheepishly, placing her hand on her pocket - she wasn't gonna risk taking out her phone and dropping it on the linoleum floor.

"Aw, Max," Kate said sympathetically, reaching out and patting Max's arm. "You'll see her again soon, I'm sure of it."

Max looked up, feeling a little hope in her heart. "I hope so."

Chapter Text

Once their lunch break was over, Chloe shook her head as Rachel waited for her at the end of the bleachers, while the other boys sauntered back to the main building.

"I'm gonna skip today," she said in response to Rachel's questioning look.

Though Rachel paused for a moment, as if she wanted to ask why, she shrugged and nodded. "See you."

Chloe lounged on the bleachers for a few minutes, the bravado she'd thrown on in front of the skater crew gone and shriveled up, instead replaced with a feeling of inadequacy and anxiousness.

All she'd gotten from Max after their last day together was complete and total silence.

Maybe she found someone better in Seattle. Something twisted inside her gut, and Chloe drew her knees up to her chest, shutting her eyes tight as she tried not to think too hard.

Naturally, she did anyway.

Shaking her head, Chloe got up, picking up her backpack and digging for her box of cheap cigarettes before descending the bleachers and lighting one.

Leaning against the school building and taking shelter underneath the shade of the overhang, Chloe breathed out, the smoke nothing more than a reminder of the hollow feeling inside her chest.

Chloe took another drag of her cigarette, wondering what Max was doing; if she was missing Chloe, if she was thinking of her at all.

She stared at the ground, tapping the end of her cigarette and watching the ashes smear a small gray streak as she ran her foot over them.

Leaning her head against the cool brick wall, Chloe closed her eyes again - if she let go of her worries for a moment, and just concentrated on the soft breeze passing by her face, she could almost imagine being on the beach with Max again…

But her heart ached just even trying to think about their summer together.

The few days after their separation, Chloe had awoken each morning, hopeful and eager to see a text from Max.

Instead, she'd woken up to nothing. Each day her hopes became a little more crushed, until Chloe had done nothing but lie in bed and gaze at her phone for an entire morning as she began to feel the creeping fingers of doubt tighten around her chest.

Maybe Max found someone better in Seattle, because Chloe wasn't smart, or talented, or rich, or smooth or hipster-y like all the other Seattle art-holes.

No, Chloe had just been some lame lifeguard on the beach that hadn't even been able to run right.

"Stop," Chloe whispered, vigorously shaking her head as she tried to wave away the negative cloud hanging over her mind.

But it never worked.

Chloe threw the cigarette on the ground, snuffing it out with the heel of her boot.

Seeking comfort from someone who wasn't there, Chloe reached into her breast pocket and delicately took out the worn photo, its edges frayed from the amount of times it'd been pulled out and held in Chloe's hands.

She stared intently at it for several moments - as she'd done almost any time she was alone - and then sighed.

Those summer dreams were done and gone; but Chloe dreamed of them anyway, closing her eyes and picturing herself back in the photo in her hands.

Warm lips. A bright smile. Gentle hands. A wonderful laugh.

Chloe drifted back in time, seeing snapshots of her and Max flashing by as she tried in vain to relive the past.

The sound of the bell pulled her back to the present, and Chloe hurriedly put the photo back in her pocket, glancing around and seeing students walk out the doors, chatting animatedly as they went to their next class.

Chloe stood there for another minute, chewing on the inside of her cheek and looking at the ground as she debated whether or not she should just skip the rest of the day; hell, it was day one, not like the teachers were gonna do real shit today anyway.

She took out her phone, intent on texting Rachel to cover for her, when she heard a voice say her name.

"Chloe?"

Her heart stopped. That sounded like -

Chloe looked up.

Max stood a few feet away in front of a set of doors, her face lighting up as their eyes met - she ran forward and threw her arms around Chloe, and Chloe staggered backward, momentarily stunned and shocked as Max wrapped her arms tighter around her torso, laughing.

"Chloe, it is you! It's you, it really is!" Max said excitedly, pulling away a little, her hands reaching out and holding onto Chloe's. "I'm so glad you're here!"

Chloe couldn't understand what was happening - Max, here? But her hands felt so warm and nice and real...

"Wait," Chloe said slowly, mouth opening and closing as she tried to find the words, "I thought - I thought you went back to Seattle."

"My parents decided to move here," Max said, almost bouncing up and down with excitement. "So I go to Blackwell now! I remembered you told me you went here, too!"

Max...Max is here.

But before Chloe had a chance to imagine the future they'd have together, she jerked her hands out of Max's grasp, scowling.

"You - you didn't even, you didn't," she tried to force the words out, hands clenched into fists at her sides. "Why didn't you call me or, or text me - "

Chloe had difficulty reconciling what she'd pictured in her mind with what she was seeing now; Max, here, excited to see her, hugging her, holding her hands but also Max, not calling her, not texting her, not telling her that she was going to Blackwell now -

Max's face turned apologetic, and she opened her mouth to answer, one hand reaching out again for Chloe's; the two of the jumped when they heard a sharp voice suddenly call out, "Back off, Price!"

They were suddenly shoved apart by one very angry Victoria Chase, viciously glaring at Chloe as she blocked Max from view.

"Back off, Price," Victoria repeated, crossing her arms and giving Chloe a fierce scowl.

Whatever kind of vulnerability she'd felt just moments ago with Max's presence immediately evaporated; with Victoria around, Chloe immediately threw up impenetrable walls around her heart, and she took a step forward into Victoria's space, rearing for a fight.

"Or what?" Chloe hissed, their faces just inches apart.

"Haven't you and your crew had enough of taking advantage of every girl around here?" Victoria said, unmoving and unflinching. "You can flirt with anybody else here, but you're not touching one of my girls."

Chloe opened her mouth to shoot a retort, but Victoria quickly cut in, "Max already has a girlfriend, dumbass. I'm not letting you and your crew ruin any more relationships - "

"What?" This time, there was no bite to Chloe's voice - only shock, and then terror.

Max did replace me.

"Chloe, wait, no - " Max tried to go around Victoria, her hand reaching out to touch Chloe, but Victoria just took a step back, pushing Max backward as well.

That's why...she never…

Chloe's breathing became a little more rough, the air from her lungs hissing out of her clenched teeth as she let out a low growl.

Victoria, protecting Max. Victoria, Queen Bitch, around Max.

Max was with the rest of them, the preps, the rich, the wealthy, the better.

Her heart pounded loudly in her chest as she took a step back as well. "I knew it," she whispered, shaking with the ferocity of her anger and her despair. "You didn't fucking call me because you got somebody else."

"Chloe, no, please, that's not - " Max was trying to get around Victoria, voice desperate; Victoria only kept taking steps backward, one arm extended behind her to stop Max from going forward.

Victoria turned her head and said in a clear, sharp voice, "This loser isn't worth your time, Max."

Max tried to interrupt, "Victoria, no, you don't understand, Chloe's - ," trying to get past Victoria's blockade, looking only at Chloe.

But Chloe didn't look at Max.

She turned, fists clenched so hard her fingernails dug painful red marks into her skin; but nothing felt as painful as the feeling of being replaced.

She finished Max's sentence. "Chloe's just some fuckin' loser that you're too good for," she said, voice raw with rage and loss. "I get it."

Chloe walked away, feeling the burn of Victoria's glare in between her shoulder blades - she ignored Max's pleas for Chloe to come back, to listen, but Victoria's voice abruptly cut her off, spinning carefully crafted and convincing tales of how Chloe wasn't worth Max's time.

But as Chloe turned the corner, she picked up the pace, almost sprinting by the time she made it to the parking lot, her chest wracked with sobs as she fumbled the keys in her hand.

But even as her old, beat-up truck skidded out of the parking lot, Chloe couldn't find the ability to hate Max - no, she hated herself even more.

Because Victoria was right.

Chloe wasn't good enough for Max.

And she knew it.

Chapter Text

Max felt her heart twist in her chest as she saw Chloe turn around the corner. No, no, don't go -

Victoria's hands were planted firmly on Max's shoulders, and as much as Max tried to struggle, she couldn't get past Victoria's iron grip.

"Max, look at me," Victoria said firmly, and Max gritted her teeth as she turned her gaze to Victoria's steely expression. "That's Chloe Price."

"I know she is," Max swallowed. "She's the girl I met over the summer."

This threw Victoria off balance - she took her hands away, mouth open in shock. "Wait, what?"

"Chloe's my girlfriend," Max continued, taking a step around Victoria, ready to run after the one person in the world who knew her, who understood her, who loved her. "And I have to go - "

"No, you're not going anywhere," Victoria said, suddenly businesslike as she again took a step in front of Max, one hand tightly gripping Max's arm. "You don't know Chloe Price."

"Yes, I do," Max huffed, a hint of irritation in her voice. "She's - "

"A player," Victoria finished. "Max, I've been to school with Price and her gang since elementary school. She hits on anything with an ass."

Max opened her mouth to shoot a retort, but Victoria gave an exasperated sigh. "You know what? Fine. Don't believe me. But when you get your heart broken, just know it wasn't on me."

Victoria took a step away, giving Max a little space; but Max had heard genuine concern in Victoria's voice, and she hesitated on moving forward.

"Why...Why are you telling me this?" Max asked carefully, taking a step away from Victoria.

"Why?" Victoria snorted. "Look, you don't need to know why. But I know that you have this naive cute hipster shit thing going on," she said, pulling a disgusted look and gesturing to the entirety of Max's body, "and I kinda hate that, but I'm not so bitchy that I'm just gonna let you get heartbroken."

"Chloe wouldn't do that," Max said fiercely, gripping the bullets around her neck. "She wouldn't."

But even as she said those words, a hint of doubt crept into her heart. Victoria stood so firmly next to her words, her face set in that steely scowl - there had to be a reason why Victoria would intervene between her and Chloe.

"Believe whatever you want, Caulfield," Victoria said, crossing her arms and walking away. "But Price is a player and you'll pay soon enough."

Chloe drove straight to the lighthouse, almost skidding into the gravel lot as she slammed onto the brakes.

Furiously wiping at her eyes with her sleeve, Chloe did her best to feel punk, cool, and badass.

But instead she felt helpless, stupid, and incompetent.

So, naturally, she felt pretty pissed at the world.

Chloe stomped up the old dirt path, only slightly comforted by the gentle rustle of the trees and the light whisper of the wind. Usually this place brought her peace from the petty dramas of high school, but all Chloe could think in her mind was the petty drama that'd happened at her high school.

She got close to the bench, opening and closing her fists as she paced in front of it, just feet away from the edge of the cliff.

Her breathing labored and face screwed up with a mixture of emotions - despair, sadness, anger, fury - Chloe threw herself down on the bench, one foot rapidly tapping against the ground as she fished out a cigarette from her pocket.

Instead she found herself pulling out the photo of her and Max, and she wiped her eyes on her sleeve again as she stared at it. Sniffling, Chloe abruptly got up and made her way to the edge of the cliff, photo clenched tightly in her hand; she raised her arm, ready to throw it, ready to throw away all the memories that came with it and to forget about the girl who replaced her -

As much as her hand shook, Chloe found her fingers gripping the white frame even tighter, and a sob shook her chest as she brought the photo back close to her heart.

She cried for a few minutes, sniffing angrily as she tried to fight back the totally pathetic feeling of being sad over some summer fling.

Chloe hated this feeling. She hated being sad, but she also hated the idea of trying to hate Max, and then she hated herself for even thinking about hating Max; chaotic thoughts spiraled around in Chloe's mind as she stomped back to the bench and threw herself back onto it.

Gripping the photo in her hands, Chloe tried to focus on it, tried to remember the good things that had happened between them as she tried to blink away the red from her vision and stop the aching in her heart.

The sun was much lower in the sky when Chloe heard a voice say in her ear, "So that's her."

Before she had time to react, a hand shot out and snatched the photo, and Chloe immediately whipped around, snarling -

Rachel burst out laughing, easily dodging Chloe's lunge. She wiped a single tear of laughter from her eye as Chloe got up from the dirt, red-faced and indignant.

"Shit, Chlo, good to see you too," Rachel chuckled, glancing at the photo in her hand. "But I fucking knew it! Max Caulfield is -"

"Give that back!" Chloe abruptly snarled; Rachel raised her eyebrows, but nonetheless held the photo out for Chloe to snatch back, grumbling as she delicately placed it back in her breast pocket.

"Can't believe I was right," Rachel said, unperturbed as she sat down on the bench.

Chloe took a moment to glare, trying to burn a hole in Rachel's innocent smile, before she too sighed and sat down.

"Right about what?"

"That the girl in Grant's class who looked like a kicked puppy is the chick you dated," Rachel replied, taking out a box of cigarettes from her pocket.

Chloe jerked her head up at that comment. "How do you even know Max -"

"Well, Chloe," Rachel said in that I-know-shit-better-than-you voice, "I dunno, maybe Grant called out attendance, maybe Max didn't look away from your empty seat for the entire class period."

Chloe opened her mouth to say something, but Rachel raised a hand. "Or, or maybe Max had your bullet necklace and was clutching it the entire time like a goddamn life preserver," Rachel continued, taking out a cigarette and lighting it. "It's not that hard to be observant, Chloe."

Chloe looked away, scowling as she crossed her arms.

As Rachel took a drag, she glanced at Chloe. "I'm guessing shit happened."

Chloe said nothing.

For a while, the two sat in silence.

"Sorry," Rachel said eventually, tossing the short stub of her cig out past the edge of the cliff. "Are you okay?"

"No, I'm not fucking okay, Rachel," Chloe snapped, but then she immediately regretted it.

Rachel pursed her lips, but said nothing.

"Just, things just got fucked up," Chloe continued, letting out a low growl of frustration. "Like, I hate - "

"You hate everything, Chloe," Rachel said dryly.

"Rachel, would you just shut up for a second?" Chloe snarled, and Rachel raised her eyebrows, eyes wide, but she nodded.

Chloe let out a sharp breath in between her teeth as she whipped forward again. "So Max didn't call me or text me at all after she went back to Seattle. And then she just fucking shows up today at Blackwell, all happy and peppy to see me."

"Okay," Rachel said slowly, brow furrowed.

"And then Fuck-toria Chase got in the way and then she basically told me why Max didn't talk to me," Chloe said, throwing herself back against the bench and glaring at the ground.

Rachel's eyes narrowed at the mention of Victoria, and she immediately straightened up, her face hard and stoic. "Chase? Victoria Chase was there?"

"Yeah," Chloe huffed, "Max is with Chase's groupies and shit and Fuck-toria told me Max has another girlfriend." Chloe clenched her fist, her nails digging hard into her palm, and she tasted bile at the back of her throat.

Rachel stared stone-faced out past the ocean, her lips in a thin line. "What did Max have to say about this?"

Chloe let out a short, bitter laugh. "She didn't need to say shit. Chase is her B-F-F, remember?"

Rachel muttered something under her breath that sounded like "both dumbasses" before shutting her eyes tight and pinching the bridge of her nose.

"So, Max shows up at Blackwell as the new kid and she's excited to see you and then Victoria tells you that Max didn't contact you because she got a new girlfriend," Rachel said, voice flat, "And then Max looked sad for the rest of the day."

"I don't get why she'd look down," Chloe huffed, but she felt something painful stab her heart at the mere thought of Max being sad. Chloe remembered the one time Max really had lost a photo to the wind, where it'd flown out to the sea; the look of sorrow on her face had twisted Chloe's gut…

Rachel sighed, leaning back on the bench and turning her gaze to the sky, and some of the anger left her face, leaving her looking pensive.

For a moment, the two of them listened to the sounds of the waves crashing in the distance, watching the golden sun spreads its orange and yellow and red rays of light out past the horizon and onto the waters, casting dark shadows across Arcadia Bay.

"Chloe," she said carefully, "You know Victoria was probably just starting shit with you."

Chloe gave a low grunt in response.

"I'm serious," Rachel continued, glancing at Chloe. "You know Vic's had it out for you and me since freshman year. She just wants your last year at Blackwell to start out shitty."

"Well, she did a good job at doing that," Chloe muttered.

"You know Vic's just - "

"I don't fucking care about Victoria," Chloe growled, scowling. "I don't care about anything right now, okay? You don't know what it's like to feel this fucked up."

Rachel opened her mouth to say something, but then closed it.

Another silence seemed to stretch on between them, and the two of them watched the sun dip below the horizon, the air around them becoming a little more chilly as evening began to set in across the Bay. Chloe turned her gaze to the ground, grinding the toe of her boot into the patch of grass beneath the bench, watching the dirt smear itself across the black leather. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Rachel staring contemplatively out past the ocean, expression inscrutable, the breeze gently blowing back her long hair with small ripples and waves. The blue feather earring next to her ear gently moved back and forth with the wind, complementing the pensive look in her eyes, the thin line of her mouth.

Chloe swallowed, casting her gaze back to the ground. It isn't Rachel's fault.

But still, Chloe couldn't find it in herself to say sorry. Apologizing was never one of her strong suits.

And it seemed like Rachel knew that too.

After what seemed to be an eternity in which the two sat in silence, Rachel sighed. "Chloe?"

Chloe took a moment to answer. "Yeah?"

"You wanna get high? Forget about this for a bit?"

Chloe thought about this for a moment, remembered how she'd considered stopping smoking for Max.

"Yeah. Let's go."

Max was determined to talk to Chloe the next day, despite what the girls thought. After the spat from yesterday, Victoria had summoned the rest of the girls to back her up - naturally, they all began expounding upon stories and incidents of Chloe Price flirting with Girl A, Girl B, Girl C...The list went on.

Max found it all too hard to believe. Her Chloe? The Chloe she remembered was sweet, sometimes a little blunt, caring, sometimes a little vulgar; but definitely not this conniving and devilish asshole that seemed to come from all of the girl crew's stories.

"Seriously Max, Victoria may be a bitch, but she's not fucking around when it comes to Chloe Price," Dana said, and Juliet nodded next to her, absent-mindedly putting on her lip gloss while ignoring the glares and swears from the people she ran into.

"I just...I don't know," Max said quietly, clutching the strap of her bag a little more tightly in her hands as they strode past lockers and bits of conversation went past them. Why was the girl crew trying so hard to convince her to leave Chloe alone? What exactly was Chloe's reputation at Blackwell?

"You don't know Chloe Price, that's why," Juliet said, angling her face this way and that as she admired herself in her handheld mirror. Dana nodded, and the three of them headed up the stairs to the next floor.

"Shit," Dana hissed under her breath, and she immediately stopped in her tracks, throwing her hands out to pull Max and Juliet behind a set of double doors.

"What the fuck, Dana?" Juliet said loudly, but Dana just shot her a look and jerked her head at the hallway just past the doors.

Max, wide-eyed, just followed Dana's gaze; the three of them peered around the set of doors, and down the hallway, they saw Victoria in a heated argument with another girl, whose beauty and grace were fit for a runway...But her features were contorted with rage, her blue feather earring swaying this way and that as she angrily gestured at Victoria.

People who had to walk past them immediately threw themselves to the wall, trying to remain as small and inconspicuous as possible as they tried to avoid the seething crossfire between the two.

"Oh my God, they're really going at it," Dana breathed, and Juliet nodded, taking out her phone and starting a video recording.

"Who is the girl next to Victoria?" Max whispered.

"That's Rachel Amber. Those two haven't spoken to each other since freshman year," Juliet said under her breath, cursing at her camera zoom. "God, this is blurry as shit - "

"What happened between them?"

Dana shook her head, biting her lip, her eyes fixed on the two girls ahead of them. "Victoria and Rachel dated in middle school."

Max's eyes widened at this information. "I'm guessing they broke up."

Juliet nodded in affirmation. "They broke up freshman year. Rachel met Chloe Price, and they started hanging out a lot."

Turning her gaze back to Victoria and Rachel, Max wondered why Chloe had never mentioned Rachel - she was incredibly beautiful, and Max felt a lump in her throat as her thoughts went into overdrive.

Dana seemed to read her mind. "Chloe and Rachel never dated, but they hung out so much that Victoria felt like she was getting the short end of the stick."

Whatever bit of relief that came with that news was immediately squashed by what Victoria had said yesterday. I'm not letting you and your crew ruin anymore relationships. From what she was hearing, Chloe really did sound like a player...

Juliet leaned on Max a little more, holding out her phone a little farther as the three of them watched Victoria snarl something in Rachel's face. "Eventually Vic just asked Rachel to pick between her or Chloe."

Dana sighed. "That was such a shitshow. Vic totally lost it when Rachel picked Chloe over her. The whole school was talking about it for days."

Max turned her gaze back to Rachel and Victoria; their faces were just inches apart, the two of them scowling with such ferocity that Max could almost feel the heat of their fury from all the way down the hallway.

The three of them spent a moment in silence, and eventually Rachel said one last thing to Victoria before turning on her heel and walking away, leaving Victoria to seethe on the spot, her hands clenched into fists as she glared daggers at Rachel's back. For a second, Max thought Victoria was gonna run after Rachel - instead, Victoria turned around and jerked open the door to a classroom, only to be met with a surprised Taylor.

"But at least Taylor was there to help Vic feel better," Juliet said. "So things worked out in the end, but Rachel and Vic haven't been on good terms since then."

And by extension, Chloe and Victoria haven't been the best of friends either.

The three of them watched Taylor reach out and hold onto Victoria's hand, murmuring something before the two of them left the classroom and went down another hallway.

Max instinctively clutched her bag strap, missing the feel of someone's warm and gentle hand holding her own.

Chloe didn't arrive at school until lunchtime, having decided that it was appropriate to spend her morning moping around and blasting the most punk music she had on her stereo speakers; eventually, when her mother came barging in about how she needed to get an education, Chloe reluctantly got her ass up from the bed and into the most punk rock clothes she owned.

So naturally that meant she wore her usual ripped jeans - but black - and her usual combat boots - but black - and an oversized cable knit sweater - also black, but with gray stripes. Can't go total black or Sergeant Shithead would be on her ass.

She made it to school and was dragging herself from the parking lot when she saw Rachel furiously stomping out of the front doors of Blackwell.

Despite the low, thunderous raincloud hanging over Chloe's mood, she stopped in her tracks as Rachel came up to her.

"Hey - "

Rachel barely seemed to notice that she was there, despite the fact that she turned her scowling face towards Chloe's bewildered one. "Victoria won't fuck with you, or me, or any of us anymore."

"What - "

"I'm skipping. Bye, Chloe," Rachel huffed, stalking around Chloe and towards the parking lot. Chloe barely managed to catch the words hissed under Rachel's breath - something like 'fucking up' and 'Chloe's life' and 'stupid grudge' was all Chloe managed to catch as Rachel walked away.

Chloe briefly considered following Rachel, but remembered the ferocity of Rachel's bite, and thought better of it. Her friend needed space to cool down; the air literally seemed to waver and shift around Rachel's form, and she could've sworn that Rachel was leaving scorch marks in her wake.

Chloe walked through the doors and glanced at the clock hanging on the wall; she had a few minutes to blow until the next class, so she hung around the trophy cases off to the left of the main hallway.

She managed to catch her reflection in the glass and grimaced. Last night had been rough - she'd tossed and turned in her sheets, restless and caught in a tumult of emotions. The bags underneath her eyes were a sure sign of her weariness, and it didn't help that her eyes were a little red as well.

Whenever Chloe got sad, she got angry that she got sad, but when she got angry, she cried. And then she ended up hating herself for crying, which just made her even more angry, which resulted in even more tears - Chloe shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts.

Instinctively, her hand drifted down to the back pocket of her jeans; Max's photo had been a source of comfort for her, helping her to remind herself of the light in her life.

Chloe jerked her hand away when the sharp staccato noise of the bell rang in her ears, and she glanced up to see students walking out of classrooms.

Sighing, Chloe mentally braced herself for the day before beginning to walk down the hallway, hands shoved into the pockets of her jeans.

Max exited Jefferson's class, mind going over what she'd say to Chloe the next time the two saw each other. First, explain why she hadn't called. Explain how she was stupid and dropped her phone and lost all her contacts. Second, tell Chloe how much she missed her. Tell Chloe that she never forgot about her. Third, ask about what the girl crew was talking about - Chloe wasn't a player. She couldn't be.

Max reached up and gripped the bullets around her neck, trying to extinguish the doubts that lingered in her chest. What mattered is that she talk to Chloe.

But when Max entered the hallway, she saw Chloe walking down from the other end; hope built inside her chest when she saw that familiar face, and she took a step forward, about to call out Chloe's name -

But Chloe looked up, seemed to freeze as their eyes met - then a fist punched a hole through Max's chest as she saw Chloe scowl and immediately turn away, walking quickly to the other end of the hallway.

The longer the distance grew between them, the more lost and alone Max felt.

Chapter Text

After school, Max went home and tried to do homework, but found herself curled up on her bed, clutching Captain to her chest and resisting the urge to cry. Chloe had avoided her the entire day - dodging into the crowds before Max could even take a single step forward. Even in the one class they did have together - Grant's - Chloe had sat down with Rachel, and then immediately shot out of the room the second the bell rang.

Her thoughts tangled with what the girl crew had told her about Chloe; but she still clung onto their memories of the summer, of all the photos she'd put on the wall of their adventures along the beach. She pressed her face into the soft fuzziness of Captain's head, remembering how excited she'd been that first day of school - she'd wanted to bring Chloe to her house, to show Chloe her photo wall, to tell Chloe how they could be together again.

Her chest tightened, and she pulled away to look at her one-eyed teddy bear's perpetually happy expression.

She'd always wanted her life to be an adventure - but not without Chloe.

She had to talk to Chloe tomorrow. She had to.

The next day, Chloe declined going to the bleachers and spending the lunch period with the other skaters. She didn't feel hungry, she said. She knew that was a lie.

Rachel had given her a look, the one that always seemed to shift imperceptibly between wanting to intervene and wanting to let Chloe have her space - in the end, she gave a nod, and ushered the boys away.

She went to her usual smoking spot to the side of the doors, underneath the overhang. The brick wall was cool against her skin and through the fabric of her black tank top. She lit another cigarette, staring at the ground.

She thought about all the times yesterday that Max had tried to talk to her.

But it was a reflex, a knee-jerk reaction to scowl and turn away, to feel that growling anger snap and bite whenever she saw Max come near. Max had replaced her, joined up with Fucktoria Chase's groupies.

But there was also hurt, pain. Of course she wasn't good enough. Of course Max wanted to be with someone competent, who had their shit together, who wasn't an inch away from being a high school dropout.

She hadn't always been that way. Her freshman year, she'd joined the Mathletes Club - more from loneliness than boredom - and she'd won the district competition that year. Math came easily to her. It was all facts. There was always a right answer.

Then she'd met Rachel. And things...The world seemed bigger than high school. Chloe found herself losing the ability to care about her grades and growing the desire to live life as high as a kite. But confidence didn't come with the weed, or the partying, or the vandalism…

She glanced down at her cigarette. She'd smoked to look cool at first. Thought by wearing her black leather jacket, dying her hair, and leaning against a wall and smoking a cigarette would make her feel badass and cool.

It sort of did, in its own way. A lot of girls sought to talk to her more often - gaining the label as the school punk and rebel made her a people magnet. It'd magnified Chloe's ego, a little. But the second the flirting seemed to lead in a more serious direction, Chloe immediately backed off.

The idea that someone could stay committed to her of all people…

She breathed out, a gray cloud whispering past her lips.

"Hey, I just gotta get something from my locker before class, I'll see you guys later," Max said, standing up from the lunch table.

"Sure, see you, Max," Kate said, smiling. The rest of the girl crew gave nods or murmurs of acknowledgement.

She threw her trash away and made her way out of the cafeteria, adjusting the strap on her bag.

Chloe. Chloe had been outside last time…

Max opened the door, squinting at the sunlight. She turned, and her heart leapt to her throat when she saw Chloe leaning against the wall, cigarette held between her fingers.

"Chloe."

In that split second when Chloe looked over, Max saw a mixture of emotions - vulnerableness, surprise, even a bit of hope - before a scowl darkened Chloe's face, and she threw her cigarette on the ground, roughly grinding it out with the heel of her boot.

When Max took a few steps forward, Chloe pushed herself off the wall, crossing her arms.

"What do you want?" Chloe snapped.

Max's throat suddenly felt dry, and she instinctively reached up to grip the bullets hanging around her neck; she saw Chloe's gaze flicker down to her hand, and then back up to her face.

"I wanted to tell you the truth-"

"I already know the truth."

Max flinched, but she held her ground underneath Chloe's glare. "I never replaced you. My phone broke, that's why I couldn't call you-"

"That's your excuse? That's really your fucking excuse?" Chloe asked, her words as sharp as splinters of glass, cutting straight to Max's heart. "Your phone broke?"

"Please, Chloe, I would never lie to you, you know that," Max said, and she took another step forward - she wanted to hold Chloe's hand so badly, but when she reached out for it, Chloe abruptly took a step back.

"It did! Please, Chloe, just listen to me," Max begged. "I would never replace you. And I never forgot about you." Her hand tightened over her bullet necklace, and she looked up into Chloe's icy blue eyes, trying to plead with something other than words.

She saw Chloe's jaw tighten, but her shoulders relaxed, just a little bit. "Say I believe your shit excuse. Doesn't cover up the fact you're with the prep crew."

"Chloe, they told me that you-"

"That I what? That I'm fucking poor as shit? That I'm a dumbass? That-"

"No, they told me that you, that you flirt with other people a lot, that what we had wasn't real," Max said, but her voice faltered at the end, coming out as a whisper...Because the mere idea that their summer together meant nothing hurt so much that she couldn't bear the thought of it.

"That what we had wasn't real?" Chloe repeated. "You...You don't actually believe them, right?"

There it was - suddenly, Chloe's guard was down, and she looked small, vulnerable.

"I...I don't know," Max said, and she regretted it when Chloe's expression closed off again, hard and cold.

"I get it. You trust the people you've only known for two seconds more than me." She turned on her heel and started stalking away.

"Chloe-"

"Don't." The word came out as such a snarl that Max stopped in her tracks.

She was left standing there, brokenhearted and alone as the bell rang.

It was much harder after that to try and talk to Chloe.

The next few days passed in the same fashion; whenever she found Chloe, Chloe would turn away, disappear back into the hallways, or jump into her truck and skid out of the parking lot before Max could even call out her name.

She'd come home and hug Captain, whispering to him about how her day had gone, how Chloe's absence in her life had left her uncertain and unsure of her and Chloe's feelings.

But she couldn't find it in herself to let Chloe go. There had to be a way to fix things. They were meant to be...Right? Her bullet necklace had meant...forever.

The next attempt to talk to Chloe, she'd reached out and gripped the edge of Chloe's black jacket - what she'd gotten was a low growl of, "Don't fucking touch me," before Chloe quickly stalked away.

The attempt after that was even more brutal than the last. She'd tried to wait by Chloe's truck at the end of the day, but all she'd gotten in return was a silent glare and Chloe stiffly turning around and shoving her way onto a bus.

It all began to wear down on Max, and irritation began to replace the ache in her heart. Why was Chloe making such an effort to avoid her? Why wouldn't Chloe talk to her? Why couldn't they talk?

Her hesitancy shrunk away, and her own small bit of anger grew in its place. Chloe couldn't avoid her forever. Someday, they had to talk about this. About each other. About whether or not Chloe...if Chloe was just a player.

If she could just have some closure, maybe that'd be enough.

Summer was fading away to the beginnings of autumn, and leaves were falling from the trees, leaving Blackwell's green lawns covered with orange and brown and gold. Normally, this would be prime time for Max's camera to snap photos of the beauty of the world changing with the seasons, but her desire to touch her camera had dulled just enough for her to find little joy in taking pictures of the earth's beauty.

It didn't seem...as bright. Maybe it was from the way her mind mulled over and nursed her irritation, her heartache. Maybe it was because she'd go home every day and look at her photo memorial wall and see a summer filled with shining golden suns and warm sandy beaches, accented by a colorful dream of a girl with blue hair.

The thought had crossed her mind several times to take the photos down. But not...But not until she could get a real, solid answer from Chloe on where they stood.

One day, Max summoned up what courage she had, backing it up with the irritation and need to have closure.

After Grant's class, Chloe again shot up out of her seat and bolted out the door - but Max was just as quick, quickly dodging amongst the other students getting up from their seats and muttering an apology to Rachel as she accidentally bumped into her.

She made it out of the door and saw Chloe briskly walking down the hallway, and she followed after.

This time, she didn't flinch away when she grabbed onto Chloe's arm, didn't tear her gaze away from Chloe's glare as she heard Chloe snarl.

"Let go-"

"Chloe, listen to me," Max said, voice coming out stronger than she'd expected. "You can't run from me this time-"

"Run? You're accusing me of running?" Chloe said in disbelief. "You're the one who ran off to Seattle and got a new girlfriend."

Max mirrored Chloe's scowl. "Okay, I didn't run, and I didn't get a new girlfriend. If you would just fucking listen to me-"

"I don't need to do shit," Chloe said, jerking her arm out of Max's grip.

"Why do you keep running from me? Do you run from all your problems, Chloe?" Max asked.

"What the fuck? Run from my fucking problems?"

Max stood her ground. The bull's rage in Chloe's eyes felt very much like the bitter fire that burned in her stomach; she was going to get her answers now.

"You keep running away from me! You're literally trying to run away from me right now!" Max said, noticing how Chloe had taken a step back.

Chloe opened her mouth to argue, and then closed it, her face twisted between a grimace and a scowl; Max didn't give her any time to respond, and she barreled forward.

"Are you - are you trying to hide something Chloe? Is there something you need to tell me?" Max hissed.

"Tell you? You didn't tell me shit, Max," Chloe spat back.

Something flickered in Max's mind, and she took a step back. Chloe wasn't answering any of her questions. Chloe wouldn't answer any of her questions - and the truth finally dawned on her.

"You are hiding something, but I know what it is now. They were right about you," Max said, gripping the strap of her bag, fighting back the tears in her eyes. "It was just a fling to you."

She didn't bother waiting for Chloe's answer. There was no point.

Max turned around and almost ran around the corner, crushed by the truth and trying to run from the lie that stood frozen in the hallway behind her.

Chloe wanted to throw up.

It was a long ten minutes after the bell rang for the next class that Chloe loudly swore and kicked the wall - then she dropped an F-bomb that did little to lessen the pain from the crater left behind by her explosive anger.

She was breathing hard when she slammed open the front doors, and she was furiously blinking back the tears when she made it to her truck, hand shaking as she fumbled the keys in the ignition.

This feeling was all too familiar. It was a deja vu that was unwanted, unneeded.

Chloe had to pull over to the side of the road a few minutes into driving, too blinded by the red in her vision to continue. She tasted bile and blood on her tongue as she bit down hard on her lip.

She sat down in the gravel, pulling her knees up to her chest and burying her face in her arms.

Why? Why do I have...to fuck everything up?

She texted Rachel.

Rachel was there within minutes, her Vespa skidding to a halt on the gravel, her helmet roughly tossed onto the ground as she hurriedly sat down next to Chloe.

"Hey. Hey, I'm here."

"God, Rachel, just, god fucking damn it!" Her words did not come out the way she'd intended; there was no force, no power. Her voice made her swears high-pitched and hollow, a hint of how long she'd repressed the sobs in her chest.

Rachel only nodded, put her hand on Chloe's back.

"How come I can't do anything right? How come I just - I just - get fucking angry?" Chloe asked, hoarse.

"I know, Chloe," Rachel said. "I know."

It wasn't an answer. It was an acknowledgement. And Chloe didn't know whether to feel better or to feel worse.

"I just - I just get angry when I see her but I - I shouldn't be angry, I shouldn't be that way, I wasn't angry when I was with her over the summer but I just," Chloe said, the words coming out of her mouth like loose teeth, painful but necessary.

"Chloe, I can't help you if I don't know what happened. Just...take a moment, then tell me everything," Rachel said, rubbing Chloe's back.

It took Chloe a few minutes of breathing in and out to pull herself together enough to tell Rachel of her and Max's most recent encounter. Rachel, all the while, kept her hand on Chloe's back, listening intently, her eyes focused on Chloe's wretched face.

Chloe couldn't tell if the bitterness she tasted on her tongue was from the sea salt winds drifting in, or if it was from the sickness she felt churning inside her stomach, rising up to her mouth. Anger was the color red, but it was also the sound of insults, the tangible punch of a fist in someone's gut. Her gut, now.

Rachel didn't say anything for some time, just kept her hand on Chloe's back.

"So?" Chloe said eventually, voice hoarse.

Rachel sighed. "You do flirt with people, Chloe."

"So you're taking her side?"

"If you're going to accuse me of taking sides, then this conversation isn't going to go anywhere," Rachel said, unperturbed.

Chloe opened her mouth to shoot a retort, but then thought better of it. She took a moment to glare at her shoes.

"I just, I don't know, it makes me feel better when I know people wanna talk to me," Chloe muttered, using her finger to dig a hole in the dirt. "It's just weird when people actually, you know, wanna talk to me."

"Yeah, I know," Rachel said. Chloe glanced at her, and she seemed tired, her expression drawn and distant as she gazed out to the horizon.

Of course Rachel knew. Of course Rachel knew how Chloe had stuttered and stumbled when they'd first began hanging out. Of course Rachel knew that Chloe had difficulty believing anyone would want to be her friend.

"Sorry," Chloe said.

"Someday, you're going to have to fix things with her, Chloe," Rachel said, still staring out at the ocean. "Because right now all she sees and hears are lies about you."

"It's not a lie that I'm stupid," Chloe mumbled.

Rachel sighed, taking her hand away from Chloe's back and crossing her arms.

"You've been acting stupid, sure, but you're not stupid, Chloe," Rachel said, standing up and offering a hand down to Chloe. "Let's go. You could use some fun down at the skatepark with the others."

Chloe paused for a second. Then she reached out and let Rachel help her up.

"Max. Hello. Max."

"W-what?" Max looked up from her uneaten sandwich, blinking up at Dana's face.

"You've been in this like, super sad mood for the past like, forevers," Dana said, sitting back down in her chair and crossing her arms. "We've seen you try and talk to Chloe Price, you know."

"And you always come back to class...really sad," Kate added, her voice gentle as she gave a comforting pat to Max's shoulder.

"I'm...We're just," she tried to start, but a voice whispered in her mind, there is no 'we' anymore.

"Mhm, right, right," Juliet cut in, tightening her ponytail. "Max. Honestly. You need to let her go. Price isn't good for you."

"Price isn't good for anyone," Victoria said. "I told you so, Caulfield. Told you Price would break your heart."

Max bit down on the corner of her lip, still staring sadly down at her sandwich."Yeah. Yeah, I...I guess so."

"C'mon, Max. Don't look so down. She's out of your life now, that's the important thing," Dana said, clapping a hand on Max's shoulder and flashing a bright smile.

"Is it true? That...That Chloe's a player?" Max asked, glancing up.

Juliet immediately spilled the beans. "Yeah, like sophomore year, she totally led this one girl on, think her name was Megan, and then Chloe asked her to prom and then just didn't show up-"

"No way, I thought it was Megan who asked Chloe to prom and then Chloe just got cold-feet," Dana cut in, but Juliet shook her head.

"Dana, c'mon, I know my shit-"

"Just because you're a school newspaper reporter doesn't mean you always get your facts straight-"

"Oh, so like, you do-"

While Dana and Juliet continued bickering over the table, Victoria turned to Max and said, "Well, the end of that story was Chloe led that poor girl on. And then she did it again the next year. Asshole."

Taylor sighed, taking a sip from her water bottle. "Yeah, the next year, for some bizarre reason, people were really into the punk aesthetic."

"Chloe had a lot of admirers that year," Kate said mildly, taking a bite out of her apple.

"Led all of them on," Victoria said bluntly, aggressively ripping her sandwich in half. "So you should be thankful you got out of that shithead's life, Max."

"Um, yeah," Max mumbled.

"If you're still down about this Max, you should come to our sleepover on Saturday," Kate said.

At the word 'sleepover,' both Dana and Juliet snapped their attentions back to Max.

"Wait, yeah, that's a great idea," Dana said, clapping her hands. "That'll cheer you up. We always have a great time."

"Get you some better clothes, too," Victoria said under her breath.

"Yeah, Dana has a great time, as in she spends all her time blowing through my parent's stores of alcohol," Juliet said before hissing as Dana slammed her foot on Juliet's underneath the table.

"It'll be fun, Max," Taylor said, offering a friendly smile.

Maybe...Maybe it'd be good to get her mind off Chloe.

"Yeah, that sounds like fun."

Chapter Text

The sleepover ended up being at Juliet's place on Saturday night, and her place was a gigantic house that made Max think of fancy people dressed up in over-luxurious clothing posing for life-sized oil paintings of themselves.

They've all assembled inside Juliet's room with high-ceilings and what Max actually believed to be a diamond chandelier, and Kate took her time gently holding Max's hand and painting her nails, the two of them sitting on a gigantic purple beanbag. Meanwhile, Victoria and Taylor sit next to each other, lying against the headboard of Juliet's bed while Juliet and Dana sit at the end of it, exchanging the latest gossip.

"I can't wait for the football game next Friday," Juliet said, skimming through her phone with her thumb while Dana painted the nails on her other hand. "Logan's going to be playing."

"Juliet, dumbass, Logan plays every game," Victoria chimed in, glancing up from her photography magazine. "And I thought you two broke up."

"Well, sort of," Juliet started, but then she suddenly straightened up and turned to look at Max. "Speaking of break-ups, what about you and Price?"

Dana gave an exasperated huff, but didn't look up from Juliet's hand as she carefully painted a shiny red coat of nail polish over Juliet's thumbnail. "You could be a little more sensitive, Juliet."

"Um, no, no, it's ok, Dana," Max said, shifting a little on the beanbag so Kate can get a better angle at her nails. "I'm...I mean, we're not together."

"Max, c'mon. If you wanna get over someone, you gotta say things with conviction," Taylor called over to her.

Kate added in a soft voice, "If you don't want to talk about this, Max, you don't have to."

Max swallowed. "No, I can, I can do this." She braced herself, because the words that she thought she wanted to say aloud have been rolling around in her mind for days. "Chloe and I aren't together," she said firmly, her voice coming out with an edge of confidence. Something felt liberating in saying that - like she didn't need to stress herself out over Chloe Price anymore.

"There you go" and "Hells yeah" and "Thank God" came in from the girl crew, and Max couldn't help the small smile that came to her face.

"Thanks, guys."

"We're here for you, Max," Kate said, leaning away and turning Max's hand this way and that, before giving an approving nod.

Dana narrowed her eyes at one of Juliet's nails, but added, "Really, Max. Give us the lowdown on you and Price. Why'd you even get with her anyway?"

Holding her hands out in front of her, Max shrugged, pursing her lips. "She seemed really nice over the summer." She knew there was so much more to Chloe than just 'nice' - but at the same time, now, she knew that 'more' was just…

"Nice. Yeah right," Victoria muttered, flipping a page in her magazine.

"I just, I," Max started, trying to find her footing. "Like, I think Chloe couldn't just...handle me being here, in Arcadia Bay."

"Because she probably wanted to find another girl to pounce on," Juliet said matter-of-factly. "You were just a fling over the summer and she came back to school looking for another fling."

"Threw her off, yeah," Taylor said.

Max bit down on the corner of her lip, shoulders sagging a little. "...Yeah, I...I guess it was." You...You don't actually believe them, right? Chloe's words echoed in her mind, and she shook her head, trying to clear it. Chloe hadn't made the effort to talk to her after their spat, merely avoiding her and not catching her eye in the hallways.

Not like Max had made an effort to, either. She found herself...not wanting to, not wanting to put up with bitter, angry, snappy Chloe, not wanting to talk to a Chloe that snarled and growled. And she wasn't going to waste time on someone who thought she was just some fling.

"What you should do, Max," Victoria said, "Besides eat all the chocolate and shit we gave you, is move on. Find someone else. It'll make you feel better."

"The thought's crossed my mind," Max answered back, and she felt Kate give a comforting pat to her shoulder. "I'm...I'm working through it."

'Working through it' meant coming home each day and curling up next to Captain, because at least her stuffed teddy bear didn't run from her or bark at her or get angry at her for no reason. Also, eating some gummy worms, because those always made her feel a little better. She couldn't bear to eat ice cream because it only reminded her of how her and Chloe would grab popsicles and walk along the beach together -

Max shook her head again, more rapidly. "I threw away all the photos we took over the summer."

Dana actually looked up from Juliet's hand with raised eyebrows. "Did you burn them? You should do that. It's really therapeutic."

"Of course, the girl who almost set her hair on fire using a hair straightener would say that," Juliet said under her breath, and Dana almost immediately snaps back, "I could fuck up your nails, you know-"

While Dana and Juliet launched into another bickering match, Kate gave Max a small smile. "You're letting go, Max. That's good."

Max did her best to return the smile, but she wondered if Kate could sense the lie. She'd taken down their photos from her wall, yeah, but she hadn't thrown them away. Instead she'd tossed them all into a box and shoved the box beneath her bed (more like punted beneath the bed, the anger she'd felt after her and Chloe's last fight). And Chloe's bullet necklace...It was hanging from her neck right now, hidden underneath her shirt. For some reason, she hadn't found herself able to put the necklace in the box either.

Something about the necklace... She needed more time to let go.

"Isn't that Grahamcracker bitch into you, Max?" Taylor asked. "He's like, always all over you in Grant's class."

Warren? Too overbearing. "I'm not into him, though," Max said, glancing at her nails.

"Could just hang out with him once to show Price that you've moved on," Victoria said, now busy scrolling through her phone. "Make her know that you're better off without her."

Just to spite Chloe, go out with Warren. A small, feral part of her felt a sense of satisfaction at that idea, but then whole other part of her felt like she was sinking down to Chloe's level. And that made a sour feeling in the pit of her stomach.

"I'll think about it," Max said.

Chloe hated going to school, because not only did she have to listen to the boring drone of the zombie teachers of Blackwell, she also had to make a concerted effort to avoid Max in the hallways.

Chloe didn't want to fight her again.

But she knew that if she saw Max again, that ugliness in her chest would rise like before, sinking its claws of fury into her lungs and spitting out vile words through her throat. That anger would help her against David, imbuing her with a reflexive defensive wall - but it wasn't helping her with Max.

She was grateful, then, that her locker was a whole floor away from Max's. It gave her time to open it, hunch inward, glance around to make sure no one was watching, and then to delicately pull out the worn photo in the breast pocket of her blazer.

She rubbed her thumb over the once sharp white edges, now smooth and dulled from the many times she'd pressed her fingers against them, trying to put herself closer to a time now moving further away into the past. Even after their most recent...fight? Is that what she should call it? Fighting with Max...It wasn't right. But that lingering sense of abandonment and the fact that her mind could justify why Max wouldn't want her only made Chloe hunch even further into her locker, her shadow passing over the photo of the two of them.

Maybe… maybe it was better that Max...wasn't with her.

The mere thought of that caused Chloe to grit her teeth and feel that wrenching twist inside her gut.

Maybe it is. You're just some punk vandal. And she's not.

Max wasn't. Max was pure, good, happy, the sun -

Chloe felt tears sting at the edges of her eyes, quickly rubbing them out with her forearm. She didn't want to ruin her photo. This memory that she held in her hands had to stay happy. It was the only thing she had left of Max.

She couldn't ruin that.

"Yeah, Max and I are heading to Two Whales after the game on Friday - "

Chloe immediately honed in on that voice, quickly sliding her photo back into her breast pocket and slamming her locker shut, only to see Warren Graham leaving a classroom nearby and talking animatedly to some other nerd boy.

" - and then we're gonna go try and catch a movie at the drive-in. Planet of the Apes is playing, and she told me she's a total scifi connoisseur - "

Warren's voice drifted away as he turned around the corner, and Chloe felt the metal of the her locker handle digging painfully into her palm as she trembled with unbridled fury.

Chill. Chill the fuck out. Chill out.

Chloe took a deep breath, swallowing, blinking back the red from her vision.

Max...Max was moving on from her.

As fast as her anger appeared, it vanished, leaving Chloe feeling hollow and empty as the bell rang for class.

By Thursday, it was apparent to Chloe that she didn't even need to avoid Max anymore.

Max wasn't making an effort to even talk to, or even look at, Chloe.

She talked with her new girl crew friends in class, partnered up with Waldo Grahamshit in Grant's class, and overall seemed to be doing just fine without Chloe. In the hallways, Chloe would glance over - and sometimes she'd meet Max's eye, but Max's expression would close off and become hardened, and she'd look away and mutter something to Dana Ward or Juliet Watson or Kate Marsh or whoever was flanking her that day.

And Chloe definitely didn't miss how Max wasn't wearing her bullet necklace anymore.

She'd instinctively scowl, of course, anytime her and Max made eye contact - but the moment Max was out of sight, Chloe would feel her face slacken into one made of weariness and sorrow.

Of course, Chloe's self-pitying parties didn't alleviate the monster in her chest that made her furiously glare at Warren anytime he walked by her, or made her clench her fists and want to punch a locker or a wall or even him whenever she heard him talking about Max.

During Grant's class on Thursday, Grant handed out a lab and told the class to partner up. Naturally, Chloe partnered with Rachel - but kept her mind focused on someone else.

Chloe squirmed on her stool, glancing back every few seconds at where Max was talking with Warren.

"Rachel," Chloe hissed, turning to her lab partner. "Look, she's with that fucking ass-nerd."

Rachel, busy adjusting the straps on her goggles, replied, "Chloe, you literally attach 'ass' to anything you don't like. Ass-teacher. Ass-principal." Once done getting her goggles comfortable on her face, Rachel reached forward and picked up a beaker. "Let's not forget, 'You're an ass, Rachel.' Honestly, you're going to have to be a little more specific on who's the ass."

"She's with fucking Waldo Grahamcracker," Chloe continued, voice dripping with bitterness and hate as she concentrated her furious glare on the beaker in Rachel's hand.

"Heard he's a real geek," Rachel said idly as she poured a yellow liquid into the beaker.

Chloe bit her lip, one foot tapping impatiently on one of the rungs on her stool as she glanced back at Max and Warren.

Her heart went cold when she saw Max laugh, smiling as Warren gestured broadly as he talked about some stupid story about his nerdy-ass life.

Max laughed for me like that when I told her stories about my life...

"Guy's probably an ass. He made her laugh," Chloe muttered as Rachel picked up a graduated cylinder filled with a clear liquid.

"If he made her laugh, I don't think he's an ass," Rachel replied, putting the cylinder back down and scribbling a few notes down on the lab sheet.

Chloe looked back again, and the she felt her stomach twist as she saw Warren clap a hand on Max's shoulder, the two of them grinning. For a split second, Max's eyes met Chloe's, and Chloe immediately whipped her head forward again, ears burning, heart pounding as she tried not to think too hard of what had just happened.

Shit.

"Rachel, they're going out together," Chloe blurted, panic rising in her chest as she clenched her fists.

"How do you know that?" Rachel asked, carefully holding the beaker up to eye level as she squinted at the yellow liquid's surface.

"Because he just touched her shoulder and they laughed!"

"Shit, Chloe, if that's how you judge whether people are together, then we've been married fifty times," Rachel said dryly, putting the beaker down and writing something down on the lab sheet.

"Rachel, shit, what if she's into nerds? What if she's into smart people?" Chloe said, holding her head in her hands. "Shit, I don't have good grades, Rachel!"

"You used to, back in freshman year," Rachel continued, composed and collected as she delicately added a few drops of water from a pipette to the beaker. Meanwhile, Chloe was busy hyperventilating, tightly gripping the edges of her stool as she began blurting out nonsense.

"Fuck, Rachel, she's into him, she's into smart nerd-asses," Chloe babbled as Rachel watched a miniature reaction of bubbles and steam happen on the beaker's surface. "I gotta - "

"Chloe," Rachel said sharply, writing the answers to a few more questions on the lab sheet. "You wanna know who she's into?"

Chloe stared at her, eyes blank. "Who?"

"You, dumbass, or else she wouldn't have gone out with you this summer," Rachel said, sighing and stepping back from the lab table before taking off her goggles. "Look, Chloe. I know you're smart, but sometimes you can be real stupid."

"Max doesn't like stupid people, I need to - "

"No, Chloe, Max doesn't like people who act like a total ass around her," Rachel abruptly cut her off, taking a deep breath. "Look, if you'd stopped avoiding her and just talked, like actually talked instead of whatever fighting shit you two get into, you'd be fine."

Chloe glanced back at where Warren and Max were busy getting their own lab experiment done, the two closely observing the bubbling and steaming reaction in their own beaker.

"Talk about what?" Chloe mumbled, turning back around and suddenly feeling very small. "That I'm an asshole? That I'm not rich and preppy and good - "

"Alright, fine, have a pity party by yourself, Chloe," Rachel huffed, throwing her arms up in the air as she leaned back against the lab table. "But you know as well as I do how she feels about you - and how you feel about her."

As much as Chloe hated to admit it, Rachel was right.

Shit, Rachel was always right.

But the inborn fear that she wasn't good enough for Max sunk its claws ever further into Chloe's heart, and the fire within it that had once burned so brightly for Max began to shrink and dim.