Chapter Text
Chapter 1:
Chloe nervously picked off the last of her shimmery blue nail polish as she paced back and forth across the oak floor of her bedroom, causing an occasional “Creeeaaaakkk” when passing over one particular loose floorboard. She’d been going at it for so long now that she wouldn’t be surprised if there was a perfectly polished line across the floor, marking where she had walked over and over again.
The ticking clock that hung on the wall opposite of her bed was the only other noise in the room apart from her quickly beating heart and it served as a constant reminder that time was continuously passing both much too fast and much too slow all at the same time. Her new, and very dear friend Red would be there any minute for a sleepover and the anticipation was killing her. It’s not that she’d never had friends over before, but this was different. She and Red had become so close lately, far closer than any other friend she’d ever had, most likely due to the fact that they had shared a certain time-traveling experience together, unique to the two of them. There had never been a time where she wanted to impress someone so much before. What if Red thought her room was too prissy, what if she snored weird in her sleep or something and kept Red up all night. What if- “knock knock knock”.
Suddenly there was a knock at the door and her rapidly beating heart as well as her pacing immediately came to a halt. She froze, wide eyed for a moment before realization washed over her and she excitedly sprang into action. She desperately grasped onto the ornate silver handle of her large, white bedroom door. She flung the door open to reveal a grinning Red, who looked a bit surprised by the suddenly opened door. The beautiful sight of her friend's happy face dissolved all of Chloe’s nerves and replaced them with an overwhelming sense of joy. Before Red had the chance to do much of anything Chloe pulled her into a tight hug and blurted out a string of excited words that went something like, “I'msogladyou'rehereImissedyousomuch”.
“Hey there, someone’s hyper today!” Red exclaimed with a hint of playful teasing in her voice. Chloe pulled back then, keeping her hands on Red’s upper arms, remembering that Red wasn’t too keen on physical touch. Unfortunately, Chloe then made the mistake of looking directly into Red’s eyes and every other thought going through her mind instantly disappeared. They were big and brown, warm yet sharp, and suddenly so close. They seemed to almost have a gravitational pull to them and Chloe felt hypnotized as she got sucked in deeper and deeper. She began to feel much too warm, which struck her as slightly odd considering there was a slight breeze coming through her open balcony window.
After what felt like a lifetime, but in reality was only a couple seconds, Chloe snapped out of it when Red spoke again. “Um, where should I put my bag? You have no idea how dead my arms are from carrying it up all of those stairs”. Chloe, embarrassed, immediately dropped Red’s arms. “O- Oh, You can just leave it at the foot of my bed next to my backpack”, she said pointing to the spot on the floor. What on Earth just happened, what is wrong with me!?, she thought. Why did I do that!?.
In her very flustered and confused state Chloe had failed to notice that Red had stared right back at her and had made no move to stop what had just occurred. But this is something she would not know for a very long time.
To shake off her weird feelings Chloe decided to put her sleepover plans into action. “So, I was thinking we could build a blanket fort in the middle of the room, then we can sleep in it kinda like we’re camping”, she explained. Luckily the slightly awkward atmosphere quickly slipped away and Red enthusiastically responded, “Oh yeah great idea, then I can tell you a bunch of ghost stories tonight and scare the bejesus out of you”, “You know your stories don’t scare me”, Chloe curtly replied as she promptly grabbed one end of the big blanket off of her lounge chair. “Your face that night when we sat under the bleachers at the tourney game said otherwise.”, Red quickly fired back, grabbing the other end of the blanket. Knowing that Red was right, but not wanting to admit it, all Chloe could think to do was stick her tongue out at her. With a triumphant smirk Red gave her a look that said, “you know I’m right”, in response. It seemed that Red had won that argument.
“So how are things with your mom” ,Chloe asked, changing the subject. “Fine I guess” “I mean it’s nice but I just don’t really know how to act around her” “I’m so used to having to walk on eggshells around her that I’m having a hard time letting loose and enjoying her company, you know”. “Changing time doesn’t exactly change my old memories”. They draped the blanket across Chloe’s bed and her desk chair in order to create the roof and base of their fort. “I can’t imagine, it must be so strange”, said Chloe. “It’s a lot quieter around the castle now though, and she made me pancakes for breakfast the other day, oh and I got to sleep in till 11:30 yesterday!” They grabbed the big plush pillows from Chloe’s king sized bed and additional blankets from the closet to add to their fort.
As Red spoke, Chloe couldn’t help but think about the Red she had first met versus the Red she had come to know standing before her now. She had become so much more open and comfortable with being vulnerable. She felt a sense of pride toward her friend as she listened to her continue to talk. Then Red pulled a big comfy looking hoodie out of her bag and slipped it on. As her hands slid through the sleeves, Chloe admired her pretty red and black manicure. It was slightly chipped but it added to the look. She looked back down at her own nails, picked clean from the morning's anxieties and sighed. “But overall things are a lot better now”, Red concluded. “I’m happy for you Red, I promise it’ll get better with time”. Chloe looked back up and smiled at her in a way that she hoped was reassuring . “At least I have you to keep me sane for now”, Red replied, smiling back.
Just as they were both getting settled in their newly built fort, Chloe’s mom Cinderella popped her head through the door, causing both girls to look over. “Hello my dears, I don’t mean to intrude but I thought you might want these '', Cinderella opened the door further to reveal a tray full of an array of snacks along with a DVD case. Everything from popcorn to candy, the perfect sleepover snacks. “Mom, this is perfect!”. “Thanks, you're the best!”, Chloe proclaimed, she jumped up to take the goodies and gave her mom a grateful kiss on the cheek. She brought the tray and the movie back to the fort and offered it to a very excited Red. “This is awesome", she said, taking a bite out of a piece of licorice and contently plopped back against a pillow. Chloe looked down at the movie currently in her hand. Try as she might, she didn’t recognize the movie at all. “Hey mom, what movie is this?”, asked Chloe through a mouthful of popcorn, holding up the DVD. “I’ve never heard of it before”. “That was one of mine and your father’s favorite movies when we were younger, I thought you two girls would enjoy it.”, Cinderella said with a wink, and just like that she was gone.
Once her mom had left Chloe joined Red in falling back against a pillow and got settled into their fort. “What's going on with your nails?” Red asked suddenly. “Huh?”Chloe replied, confused. “I didn’t think I’d ever see a day where Chloe Charming didn’t have her nails done”. “Oh yeah”, Chloe follows Red’s gaze down to her blank fingers. “I forgot about that”. She could tell by the look on her face that Red was not following at all, but then Red just shrugged and looked pensively over at her overnight bag for a moment. Chloe watched her with slightly squinted eyes and furrowed brow and desperately tried to figure out what she was planning. Then all of Red’s thoughts seemed to tumble out of her mouth all at once.“I was sort of embarrassed to say this before but I’ve never actually been to a sleepover before because of my whole evil mom situation or whatever and I figured manicures are something that you do at a sleepover so I brought some nail polish, I could repaint your nails for you if you want”. She said the last part a bit quieter than the rest. “I would be honored”, Chloe said with a soft smile.
“I’m gonna go out on a limb here and guess that you’re gonna want them to be blue.”, Said Red as she rummaged through her bag of nail polish. “Woah, how’d you guess?”, Chloe said with feigned wonder. “I have my ways”, Red replied. The two girls giggled at their own antics. Red found a shade of blue that she seemed satisfied with and took Chloe’s right hand. She was just about to brush on the first bit of paint when- “Wait!”, Chloe blurted out, making Red jump. She had suddenly remembered how much she’d liked Red’s nails when she saw them earlier and had gotten an idea. “Sorry, I just- could you maybe paint them red?”, “like yours?”. “I mean yeah of course, you almost gave me a heart attack”, said Red smacking the hand not holding the nail polish brush over her heart. Then she put the blue polish away and pulled out a red one, “this color good?”
Red looked over to get an answer and Chloe caught a glimpse directly into those gorgeous eyes again, she quickly looked away as a shock of energy ran through her, she didn’t want to act like a complete idiot again. “Yeah good”, she barely croaked out before she caught her breath. For her own safety she decided to keep her eyes down and look at their hands as Red started to brush the polish on. Bad idea! Red is holding my hand!, she frantically thought. HOLDING HAND, HOLDING HAND, repeated a few times like an emergency siren in her head before she pulled her thoughts together. Chloe, stop it, what is wrong with you today?! Eventually she managed to calm down again and relaxed back against her pillow. They sat in silence for a minute as the sun began to set. Its light shone through Chloe’s balcony window, bathing them in a cozy, warm, golden glow, and for a moment all of their worries washed away and the two girls were at peace together.
As she moved on to the second coat of nail polish Red broke the silence, “We’ve talked about me a lot today, what about you?”. “Read any new history books lately?”. Wow this girl gets me, Chloe thought as excitement ran through her at the thought of someone willingly listening to her rant about a bunch of old dead people. Apparently her excitement was very evident because Red chuckled, “Let’s hear it!”. “Okay so basically-”Chloe began.
“That was an insane ride of a story, I don’t know how you remember all of that”. “It’s a gift”, Chloe said proudly tossing her hair over her shoulder. “This might be a bit of a stretch but it kinda reminds me of this one time when I pulled a huge prank on Maddox.” As Red told her story she gingerly switched over to Chloe’s other hand. It was at that moment that Chloe noticed how careful Red was being with her. She was holding her hand, which was intoxicating enough, but she held it with almost no grip. Chloe suddenly felt deeply touched. This girl who was usually so abrasive, rigid, and sometimes a bit cocky, took the time to treat her with so much tenderness. Suddenly that freaky electric energy was back, but this time it wasn’t so shocking, it was warmer, and more of a gentle flow as opposed to a rush. This feeling was much more pleasant and a lot less stressful or maybe she was just getting more accustomed to it. She looked back up at Red’s face, haloed by the sun, She was still busy telling her story. Maybe she would just have to get used to this new feeling that Red gave her, especially because she planned on keeping Red around for a long time.
“Hello, earth to Chloe, you’re spacing out on me”, Red called in a singsongy voice. Chloe snapped out of her thoughts and slowly tuned back into the rest of the world at the sound of Red’s voice. “You spaced out on me for a minute there princess”, she said and then gestured down to Chloe’s finished nails. “Sorry, I don’t know what came over me.”, Said Chloe, still slightly flustered. She held her hands up to admire her new nails. “they look great, i absolutely love them”. “Now you’re one step closer to being as cool as me”. Chloe rolled her eyes at that but she couldn’t help but let out a soft chuckle,
There’s that cocky side.