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A welcoming relief unfolded in Max’s chest once she kicked her way up the dusty dirt path to the top of the cliff.
Chloe sat on the singular, solitary bench there, an equally singular spot open at her side.
'Man, what a perfect shot...'
Luminous rays framed her against the setting sun, as the waters in the distance gleamed with warm sunlight. Her arm was lackadaisically slung over the back of the bench where Max’s neck would be, were she sitting down and not clicking her heels next to her like a klutz.
Max would have busted out her camera, had she not frozen when Chloe caught her observing.
The beanie-bearing girl craned her head to throw a weak smile Max’s way before returning her gaze to the ocean below.
Max walked to the side of the bench, stopping with a smile next to her friend.
"Hey, Chloe, fancy meeting you here."
"It's not like I just drove us up here to talk or anything. 'Bout time you made it up here."
"I took my time, okay? It’s a scenic route."
"Yeah, scenic alright, when you stopped a couple feet short with your photographer's eye at work on me again."
With the dastardly grin Chloe was wearing, Max couldn’t help feeling embarrassed.
'More like my photographer's stare...'
"I can't help it,” she acknowledged. “At this point, I've become one with the camera."
Chloe patted the empty place beside her, and Max charily set herself down. She looked at Chloe to listen to her witty response, but none came. She didn't even crack a smile, or her stare, as if she hadn't heard Max at all.
Max could feel something amiss, something off, some sort of empty disconnect in the space between them. It had felt like that the entire way to the lighthouse.
She had seen Chloe like this enough to recognize it. This was how she looked when she was thinking on something, with the way she let her mouth move yet her body tense. That much was clear.
"Chloe?"
"Yeah."
"Is, there something you wanted to talk about?"
Chloe grinned and stretched her arm around Max's shoulder, yanking her close to her side.
"What, I can't hang with my best bud?"
"No, it just seems like you've got something on your mind."
She didn't respond. Chloe listlessly, almost longingly, stared out at the seemingly endless, bottomless ocean beyond her, at the waves tumbling to the shore far below.
"I dunno. I guess I wanted someone around to help me stress less."
"You know you can always talk to me, and I’m always here to listen Chloe. What's up?"
Max put on a reassuring smile, though Chloe didn’t seem to see it.
"That's why you're my best friend Max. God knows you're the only person I can talk to without getting bitched at."
Max didn't speak when Chloe paused, as a thoughtful frown crossed her face.
"Y'know, maybe that's why you have this power. To rewind so that you can listen to everybody and try to help them. Well, I'm glad you helped me."
Max wasn’t sure where she should start. Thoughtful Chloe was one thing, but Chloe dwelling on the meaning of things as important as this was a different person entirely.
Max wasn’t ready to seriously talk about her power. She just wanted to help Chloe, but it was so difficult to tell sometimes what troubled her.
‘Maybe I should start with her step ‘douche,’ as Chloe calls him. She doesn’t seem to be too fond of his company.’
"Is, your step dad giving you trouble again?"
"Nah, that dickhead's actually been leaving me alone for once. Hasn't given me shit for playing my music or dressing the way I do, or who I hang with or whatever the hell I'm doing.”
She turned to Max and quickly looked away, seeing her concern.
“Sorry. Pisses me off."
Max wearily reclined, knowing Chloe's pain all too well.
"I can relate..."
Chloe gave a doubtful chuckle and turned back to her.
"Really? And what have you been doing the past couple years without me?"
Max winced at her accusatory remark.
"Sorry, about that. Fucking, Victoria and Nathan are after my head, just like everybody else in this town... Except for you and Kate of course."
"C'mon Max, I like you. You're way cool, you just won’t let yourself admit it. Your photos are proof. And you've got a sick taste in music to boot."
Chloe stopped for a somber moment, and let her voice fall quiet under the weight of her melancholy.
"I just wish I had the chance to know sooner."
Max couldn't avoid another wince. She hated thinking about how she up and left Chloe, without any warning, or any real goodbye, and it evinced an unbearable sting when she brought it up. Every time she did, Max would just run to a new conversation to escape her guilt. Or rewind.
But, she knew the ghost would linger as long as she allowed it to. It would haunt their pictures, lurking in their eyes and hiding in their smiles until they exhumed it.
She knew there wouldn't be a better chance than right now. Alone, with time and her best friend at her side. 'Now or never', she convinced herself.
"I'm, sorry for moving the fuck away when you needed me Chloe, and I'm sorry for not calling you or anything. And I know I only made it worse as I put it off."
Chloe turned, taken aback my Max's abrupt apology.
She struggled to find the words, but forced them up from her heart.
"I was scared. I, I just thought... I don't know what the hell I was thinking. But I know I was thinking about you. I missed you, so, so much Chloe, more than being back in Arcadia... I just didn't know how to tell you… Oh, Chloe, I..."
Max sucked in a breath, turning with a frantic fright in her eyes. She hadn’t intended to spill that much.
Chloe didn't move, only stared blankly at the sandy orange earth below her feet.
"That might be the saddest shit I've ever heard."
She slapped a kindly hand on Max's knee, prompting her to jerk back, and to cautiously lower her poised hand.
"Relax. I already told you I don't care about that anymore. No rewind necessary. If I was a real friend I would have found your number or something if I had wanted to talk to you so badly."
She let out a wearied sigh and held her face in her hands.
“God, it seems like yesterday that you just… slipped away.”
Max’s heart felt like it was being tugged apart from opposite sides. She felt so utterly crushed by the guilt, but, the only thing she could do was try her best to fix it.
She put her hand on Chloe’s shoulder, leaning into her field of view.
"We're talking now Chloe. That's what I'm happy about."
"Says the girl who can rewind time."
"Thanks to you. You would have died back there, Chloe. This... power is worth whatever cost comes with it because of that."
Chloe chuckled, tossing her hands in her lap.
"Still holdin' that over my head, huh?"
"No, it's not that-”
“Then what is it?”
Chloe watched Max's flinching hand out of the corner of her eye with a narrowed stare, waiting for it to raise.
But it never did. It remained open and casual, even as Chloe's lips pursed and she clenched her teeth.
"Why aren't you rewinding? Don't you want to take that back, or your little speech?"
Max stayed silent. Her eyes looked so serious but seemed so scared.
It was painfully obvious how nervous she was. Her eyes and her unsteady lips and her reflexive blush betrayed her apparent calm. So why wouldn't she rewind to escape it?
Chloe gripped the bench leering at Max, feeling the gnarled wood stick at her skin. Why couldn't she understand her?
Chloe wanted to be mad at her. Mad at her for making her feel the way she was. Mad for making those five years of her life while she was away miserable, because even with Rachel at her side it just wasn’t the same. She wanted to hate her.
And now, with this miraculous and alien power to rewind time, and she wouldn't bother to fix a simple mistake?
Chloe sighed and looked away.
“Max, if you’re not going to tell me, then rewind this conversation so I won’t have to live with the damn guilt. Otherwise, just tell me. Please.”
Max grabbed Chloe’s wrists, forcing her to look at her. She tried to put on the most serious stare that she could and shoved some shaky steel into her voice, but she wasn’t sure if she was pulling it off or not.
“Chloe, I’m not rewinding. I want to promise you that I won’t rewind for you unless it’s a serious issue. I won’t abuse you or my power just to impress you. That’s how much I trust you.”
Chloe’s glare softened for a moment, but returned sharper than ever as she tore her hands away from Max.
“If you trust me so much then tell me already. What is it Max, that made you not want to call me? I get that you were scared, leaving town and all, but… I thought we were bros.”
Chloe’s voice dampened as she recalled her loneliness, and it wounded Max so much to hear her opening her own.
“That scared me shitless, suddenly losing you. First my dad, then Rachel, and even you. You weren’t there to listen to me then."
Max lurched forward, hands tightly clasped and shaking her head while Chloe stared even more mournfully at her.
"I never meant to do that, Chloe. I would never, ever mean to hurt you. I guess... I guess that's why I never talked to you."
Chloe’s face contorted into a venomous glare that startled Max away.
"Cut the shit already Max. You're dodging the question right now, so either answer me or drop it."
Max could have stolen back this conversation any time she wanted. Taken back Chloe, reversed her blunder and how she just gave away her emotions a moment ago.
But it wasn't everything. She had gone too far now, and she was so close. Her heart clawed at the feeling, her tongue itched for the words, and she couldn't bring herself to chicken out now.
"No, Chloe... I was scared, because I liked you. At least, I’m pretty sure I did. I don't know why and I don't know how, but I just found myself thinking about you all the time. I didn't want to ruin what we had by burdening you with that, by trying to turn our friendship into something else."
Max shamefully turned away. She could feel scathing eyes scrutinizing her and caustic words waiting to bite, and more than anything she felt fear that Chloe was furious. Why wouldn't she be?
"So you liked me, huh..."
Max heard her sigh behind her and she released one of her own, wringing her hands in her lap.
‘Now, or never...’
Max lifted her chin a bit, rubbing her thumbs together and shakily staring at her shoes.
"Well, actually... I still do. Like, I really like you Chloe.”
She allowed herself a brief pause, frantically trying to gather an explanation that wouldn’t make Chloe explode in her face.
“You-"
"You like me? Now? After I've..." Chloe looked downwards, gesturing to her entire body and looking back with a worried frown. "Changed?"
Max solemnly nodded her head.
"Holy Hell Max..."
Chloe held a hand to the back of her head, tugging at her neck.
Max stifled any further words. She tried to refrain from panicking and tried to wrangle her blush back to her heart, but it was pointless.
"I had to let you know eventually Chloe. I'm so sorry that it's now, but-"
Suddenly Max was whirled around to face Chloe, noticing her cheek was wet as she was pulled into her shoulder. She would have reciprocated Chloe's embrace, were her mind not collapsing in confusion.
"Thank fucking Christ..."
Max received a shock when Chloe murmured that into her ear, and a jolt when a fire wildly kindled under her skin when she realized what it meant. She wanted to run and to protest and to question, but her head had stolen her words.
"I told you, I was scared shitless. Still am. And Max, know that that promise really means a lot. That you still trust me."
Chloe clamped her hands on Max's tense shoulders and pushed her away to look clearly at her with the most affectionate grin Max had seen on her.
"God I missed you so much... Man, look at me. Sure you don't want to take the most embarrassing photo in the world right now?"
She wiped her eyes and cleared her throat, giving Max a chance to attempt to make the slightest sense out of this untoward burst of emotions.
"Chloe... Do, you like me?"
She tossed her head with a whimsical grin.
"Always have. I was scared too when you left Max, 'cause you took a piece of my heart and I really wasn’t sure if I was ever going to get it back. I thought I missed my chance. I'm happy that, when you came back, you gave me another."
She gestured again to her shredded jeans and ragged tank top, electric blue hair dangling from a black beanie. To her new style and her new habits.
But Max was too focused on her eyes to care.
"You like me?" She asked, sounding almost offended. "Why me? I'm just introverted, loner-geek Max who takes too many weird pictures."
"Because I like all that about you Max. I told you, you're hella cool." Chloe quickly leaned close to Max with an eager smile brightening her face. "What about me? I'm just a punk teenager druggie who plays her rock music too loud."
"And I like all that about you! You're hella cool too, Chloe. Everything I’m not."
“So you’re too curious for your own good.”
“I’ve been called nosy.”
Max and Chloe silently stared at each other, one smile stealing the other's attention before they inched closer to each other.
Max scanned all of Chloe’s face, marveling at the genuine happiness in her smile.
“And you’re not just a punk Chloe. You’re super pretty.”
Chloe crossed her arms and openly browsed all of Max’s features, but she couldn’t get over that cheerful grin of hers.
“You’re not just a geek either. More like hella good-looking. Can’t resist that Caulfield charm.”
Chloe took Max’s hand. Her breath hitched and her smile faltered, but it returned stronger than ever even though she sheepishly glanced away. Chloe curled her fingers tighter around Max’s, gleefully watching her react even more uncomfortably.
Is this why Max had a camera on her at all times? Because Chloe found herself desperately wanting to capture that adorable look for herself.
She said, "So we really like each other.”
“Thankfully. What a fortunate coincidence.”
“I wouldn’t call it that. Seeing you after all these years feels like-"
“Destiny?”
Chloe emanated so much warmth with the grin she put on that Max couldn’t resist doing the same.
Max yanked her back into the hug to confirm their feelings. She inhaled a relieved breath as Chloe laughed and held her tightly, but Max couldn't speak. Her heart was too choked with emotion, body too nervous to say anything feeling Chloe's fingers dug into her back.
But suddenly, a brilliant idea exploded onto the scene of her mind.
Max released an arm to dig through her bag, pulling out her camera and lifting it away from them.
"There's no way I'm missing this."
Max snapped the shot and impatiently shook it with a huge grin.
A perfect picture. The sun streamed past them in warming lights, filtering through the trees and painting their shadows behind them, and showing off their blushing grins as they held each other.
Chloe smiled and looked at Max with her arm around her waist, adoring the way she stared at the photo. She carefully took it from her, fingers grazing against Max's as she did.
Chloe loved the picture to pieces, but there was one thing missing that prevented it from being perfect.
"Hey, do you mind if I take one? I've got a pic in mind."
"Be my guest," Max said, handing her the camera with a smile.
Suddenly Max was pulled into Chloe's lips, losing her breath in a deep kiss. Her heart swelled and her eyes fluttered open, but all she could hear was the shutter of the camera.