Chapter Text
It was the summer of their twelve and fourteen years. It was their last summer together, and neither of them was aware of it yet.
They spent all their afternoons together playing board games, listening to music, even playing pirates in Chloe’s backyard, not caring about other people thinking they were too grown up for those games by now.
They still snatched bottles of wine from Chloe’s parents to do secret wine tasting sessions, until one of them (usually Max) would start to feel a bit too dizzy and they knew it was the moment to stop.
They also played dress-up in Chloe’s room, exchanging reviews about their outfits, helping each other into dresses or suits, and doing their best catwalk in front of a video camera while trying (very hard) not to laugh.
They spent their nights nestled in Chloe’s room, dim lights and a shack of covers, watching movies, playing video games, and sharing secrets only they knew about, staring at one another when the other wasn’t looking and getting that weird, warm feeling in the pit of their stomachs, like little butterflies flapping their wings, a sensation of pure bliss.
It had changed through the years, their friendship: it had started as one afternoon of fun at the park; it had evolved into an inseparable, chaotic duo; it had ultimately become an unbreakable bond, stronger than time and space, so devoted and pure, so deep and sincere. One thing they knew for sure: they were Max and Chloe, and they always would be, no matter what.
And then at some point it was just blatant.
Chloe was obviously crushing on Max.
She didn’t know what to call that feeling yet, but she had definitely started getting hints from the fact that she felt about Max the way she probably was supposed to feel about boys. Ah, boys.
Her father kept saying that boys only brought trouble, and her mother joked about it and told him that no matter what he said, at some point eventually he would have had to welcome a boy in their house.
Chloe used to laugh about it at the beginning, but lately she hadn’t been so sure that would really happen one day. Sure, she would eventually find a boy that she liked, there already were some cute ones at school, but… Taking him into her house? Where all of her and Max’s stuff was? The idea of a boy stepping into her bedroom, the safe place she only shared with her best friend, felt oddly unpleasant. She pushed the thought away every time.
Chloe remembered how she and Max would often plan their future lives together when they were little kids, and how their plans would always involve living someplace together. They used to spend entire afternoons picturing their future house, their future pets, their future neighborhood. They had vowed to leave Arcadia Bay together once they grew up, and go to a place where they could live happily: Max had sealed that promise by taking a picture of Chloe in a marriage proposal pose with the brand new roll film camera that she had received from her parents for Christmas. Chloe loved to see Max fiddle with it—she looked so cute when she was all focused on a new subject, making sure she got the best angle before taking the shot. She was such a nerd, but man if she loved that nerdy little dork.
Chloe felt so lucky. She had everything she could wish for: a beautiful family, a beautiful house, and an amazing best friend. What could possibly go wrong?
Max, for her part, was crushing on Chloe so hard she couldn’t even bring herself to think about her. She, of course, didn’t know that was the actual reason why. Yet.
Every time Max felt a weird new feeling growing inside her, she would bury it as deep as possible into her subconscious, simply tuck it away because she didn’t know how to deal with it and, mostly, had no clue how to address this to Chloe. She just wanted to be with her and play with her and wake up next to her in the morning—that was all she knew, and it was enough for now.
Max probably still wouldn’t admit out loud how much she liked finding herself huddled up with her best friend in a little corner of her huge double-sized bed, how she would find her smell so comforting, how she had learned the rhythm of her heartbeat and how much all that felt like home. She didn’t tell her, but she was sure Chloe knew it all, or at least part of it.
Telling her straightforwardly would probably make things awkward between them—right? After all, they were no longer the little kids who got so excited at the idea of running away and spending the rest of their lives together. They still kind of wanted that (did they?), but they had become way more realistic, Max reluctantly admitted to herself. They were probably going to get boyfriends soon anyway, everything would change and they couldn’t avoid it, so they just better get used to the idea. Max didn’t want to, but did she really have a choice?
So she took the most from those mornings, afternoons, and nights at the good old Price house. She literally spent more time there than at her own place, which she was thankful for, because yes, she loved her parents, but it felt like she and Chloe needed to tiptoe their way around them all the time, while they were allowed to be a little louder at Chloe’s, and a lot more carefree. Max loved that feeling, because she felt more herself at the Prices than in her own home. She didn’t want to let that all go—ever.
Max had started to put her thoughts in a diary, and that really helped. She would also add entries with her own pictures whenever she had them printed. It was nice to keep all those memories always with her.
•••
As the days and weeks of that summer quickly went by, Chloe’s heart skipped a beat more and more often whenever Max looked at her with those shiny doe eyes. That pair of blue irises never failed to pull on her heartstrings.
One day in September, they had just woken up—it was very early, and Chloe knew that Max didn’t want to get up just yet. That was why the girl was giving her that look.
“I know what you’re doing there, Caulfield! You’ll need way more than that to win me over. We have a long day of duties ahead of us,” Chloe teased her. And it was true: Chloe needed to tidy up her room and throw away some old stuff, do some cleaning, and get her homework done—she had just started her freshman year at high school, and while she was very enthusiastic about it, classes were challenging her enough already.
“I’m not doing anything, Chloe,” Max replied, intensifying the stare. Chloe knew how much of a challenge it was to Max to look people in the eyes for a prolonged time, so she really must be committed to win that round.
“Oh, you know exactly what you’re doing. But I’m going to let it pass, for once.” Chloe stopped from standing up and snuggled back with Max on the bed, never breaking eye contact. A few more minutes wouldn’t hurt anybody. Max didn’t stop looking at her either, and at this point their faces were so close to each other it was starting to become pretty weird. Or at least for Chloe.
Her eyes wandered a little lower, just enough to focus on her best friend’s mouth. It looked so soft and delicate, with those pink, heart-shaped lips. She started to wonder how they would feel against hers. The sunlight coming from the window was falling right onto Max’s face, highlighting her blue eyes and freckled cheeks. Max was really cute, Chloe thought. For a moment there, she was one-hundred percent sure Max had started to lean closer, and Chloe found herself doing the same…
“Girls! Come down here, we’re making pancakes! I could use some help from you two!” William’s voice came loud from downstairs, startling the two girls, who both flinched and came back to reality.
“WE’RE COMING!” Chloe screamed, promptly sitting up and stretching her back. Then she grabbed the younger girl’s hand to help her up, they quickly got dressed and giggled their way downstairs.
It was September 28th, 2008, one week after Max’s thirteenth birthday. Welcome to the ‘teen’ club, Super Max. How do you feel? Chloe had asked her. Like a true superhero, Max had joked.
The leaves were turning yellow and orange outside, the smell of pancakes filled the air inside, and Chloe had no idea that would be her last day with both Max and her dad.
On the other hand, Max knew it was her last day with Chloe, but she would have never imagined it would’ve been the last time she saw William forever. She knew that was her last breakfast at her best friend's house for a very long time—maybe the last one forever. She needed to tell her as soon as possible, but first she needed to find the right way to do it. Max hated having to do things like that, because she dreaded the idea of disappointing people, especially if it was Chloe.
The morning went by so fast. As William took one last shot of the pair and then left the house to go pick up his wife from work, the two girls went upstairs to go get changed and soon enough they found themselves playing pirates again, reliving their memories and digging up mementos from their past, as if they were eight years old again and teenage life and adulthood were still just a dream standing light years away from them.
It was the perfect last day together, Max thought. Too perfect to ruin it like that, but she couldn’t lie to her best friend for much longer.
“We're Max and Chloe, remember? We're always together, even when we're not.”
Chloe’s words echoed in her ears as she smiled and all that she could feel was pure love.
And then, all of a sudden everything went blurry, and the house’s door burst open, revealing a devastated Joyce followed by a police officer. The next few minutes were all foggy in Max’s mind, who broke down crying alone in the middle of the living room as she quickly—too quickly—processed what had just happened. She felt her heart shatter into a million pieces as she saw her best friend crying and screaming on the floor in her mother’s arms. She had never felt so helpless in her whole life.
Max couldn’t stop crying—she didn’t know if it still was about William, or about the pain of leaving Chloe, and all the guilt, or about the fear of being completely alone in a new place—she didn’t know. They were just kids, they were still too young. They weren’t even supposed to know about that kind of grief just yet.
The next thing Max knew, is that she was standing next to Chloe in front of William’s casket as the pastor uttered words nobody was really listening to. Chloe was so caught up in her own pain that she didn’t even notice the moment when Ryan Caulfield silently tapped on her daughter’s shoulder, suggesting it was time to go.
All Max felt was pure desperation. She hopped in her parents' car, almost crushed by all their personal belongings, and saw the image of her best friend fade as they drove six hours away from everything Max had ever truly loved.
That same night Chloe returned to her bedroom to find a note on her tape recorder, reading: 'I’m sorry'. She pressed play and she hugged the device as she listened to the voice of her best friend for one last time.
•••
Chloe would have replayed that message over and over through the years, until she could recite every word by heart, and the tape was consumed and the audio was getting fainter and cracked every two seconds, just as Chloe’s heart did at the thought of Max and every time that the girl wouldn’t reply to her messages.
The true reason why Chloe was always so angry during those years was because all that time she could have hated her and forgotten all about her; instead, she was still seeking her attention, craving the sound of her voice, dreaming of her coming back, of being in her arms again. She wondered, as she grew up, how the feeling of hugging Max could have changed. How the shape of her body could have shifted from the one of a little girl to the one of a woman, like her own was doing so fast already.
And when Rachel Amber came into her life and Chloe finally found a proper name to define everything that she had ever felt for Max, she knew it had been too early to know then, and that it was too late now. But maybe just this once, with Rachel, time would have been on her side. Or at least she hoped so, even though she still couldn’t shake off the feeling of wanting Max to be there for her, constant and stronger than ever.
In the meantime, Max would spend countless sleepless nights in her cold room in Seattle, just staring at the blank screen of her phone and looking for the right words to reply to Chloe. She never could find any. Even though all the grief had been buried deep inside her, every time she received a new message it would all come back to surface, and soon enough she would be completely paralyzed and incapable of uttering a single word to the same person who once used to listen to most of her talking. Whenever Chloe asked her to talk on the phone now she would panic so bad she wouldn’t reply for days, until days became weeks, and weeks became months, and soon years had passed without the two of them saying a single word to each other. Only it was more painful and lonely every day.
And you never knew
How much I really liked you
Because I never even told you
Oh, and I meant to
Are you still there or have you moved away?
Or have you moved away?
I would love to go
Back to the old house
But I never will
The song riverbed through her earphones as Max walked home from school. No matter how hard she had tried to push all those feelings away, she had finally understood why she had felt so weird and funny around Chloe back to the days when she was about to leave. It had not been an easy journey: she didn’t exactly have any edgy new friends who encouraged her to broaden her horizons, nor her parents were particularly open to discussing the matter in general. She had barely known falling for your female best friend was an actual possibility for a teenage girl until a few years ago, and when she had figured it out it had been at the worst possible time. Imagine trying to open up to the best friend you’ve known all your life, who’s also just lost her father and whom you left when she needed you the most, about the fact that you have a ridiculous crush on her which you don’t even know if it could ever be reciprocated. It was too much to even think about it, not to mention figuring out exactly how she needed to behave in such a situation. For a while now, whenever panic got the best of her, silence had become her first defense mechanism, and it soon had started to feel so comfortable that it was quite hard to simply cut it off.
•••
“Max?!”
“Chloe?!”
Chloe would have never thought that five years later she would be driving home with none other than Max Caulfield in her passenger seat. She would have never thought her heart would be feeling so unsteady just at the sight of her. Man, she didn’t think she would have even remembered her voice by now—which is still exactly the same, by the way. After all those years she really is still Max Caulfield. And then a few minutes later they’re in her bedroom as if time has never passed, dancing and laughing together, and for a moment there Chloe feels whole again, after months of thinking she had been left with nothing that mattered in her miserable life.
Max hadn’t even recognized her at first. She has had a vision of a storm this morning during class, got some crazy weird time powers out of nowhere, saved a girl’s life back in the bathroom at Blackwell thanks to them, only to discover a few hours later that that girl was Chloe, her Chloe. Whom she still hasn’t got in touch with since she’s come back to Arcadia Bay. She has changed so much, yet she is still the same. Blue hair suits her so well… she smiles at the memory from years ago of them buying blue dye to turn Chloe into actual Captain Bluebeard. They had never gotten the chance to do that, but she is kind of glad that Chloe has done it anyway eventually. That haircut looks so good on her. And she really rocks this new punk style. Max hopes she is worthy of being her friend again, especially now that she has discovered that the missing girl she has seen on posters all around campus this morning is actually the person Chloe has been the closest to for the past few years…
•••
The pool’s water feels incredible, it’s crazy that they’re doing this together, but damn she’s loving every minute of it. Chloe wishes Rachel were there to meet Max and see how amazing she is. She looks away for a moment to give Max some privacy as she takes off her clothes to jump into the pool.
“Cowabunga!”
And here she is, beautiful in the dim blue light, hair soaked in chemicals and her cute pink and white underwear which she is trying so hard not to stare at. Her best friend indeed has grown up, she is no longer her little First Mate Max. As they swim and splash about, Chloe finds herself wanting to kiss her. That same, warm feeling from years ago, only she is much more aware of its intensity now. Chloe really struggles to refrain from kissing Max, but she does, because she knows it’s not the right time or place to do that.
It is the next morning in her bedroom, though, when she dares Max to kiss her because she’s actually too scared to ask her seriously. After all, she already knows Max will never do that, so at least she can joke about it when it goes wrong.
Only it doesn’t.
Because Max kisses her.
Chloe is so shocked that she actually jumps back in awe a millisecond after her best friend’s lips touch her own, and a stupid, embarrassing joke about Warren not standing a chance with Max comes out of her mouth, and she just wants to hide and scream because she hasn’t felt this overwhelmed in years. Max better not rewind and take that kiss back, because there’s no way she’s forgetting about this.
Max can’t believe she has actually just kissed Chloe Price, her childhood best friend, crush, and now partner in crime.
She’s scared of having messed up, but it has been Chloe the one to dare her in the first place, hasn't she? And actually having the guts to do it has felt so good. It was priceless. She wonders now if they’ll ever seriously talk about it. Probably not that soon—they have much bigger problems to deal with first. But eventually, maybe. Eventually sounds good enough for now.
•••
When Chloe sees Rachel's decomposing body in the ground she can't help but throw up and scream until her lungs burn and she has no tears left to cry. Max is there to hold her all along, the only thing keeping her anchored to reality, the only person she can allow near her right now.
•••
When Max sees her Chloe falling down on the ground with a bullet in her forehead, it’s too late to rewind. She can’t anyway, however she desperately keeps trying. The last thing she sees is the face of her photography professor, and the feeling of betrayal and fear overpower her as everything goes black.
•••
Max goes through hell and back to rescue Chloe, she jumps through realities and goes through infinite possible scenarios—even the most painful and terrifying ones—all to go back to Chloe, her number one priority.
•••
Max did it. She has moved through time and space to get to Chloe, and now they’re finally back together, they’re meant to be together in this exact moment in history, in the eye of the hurricane, facing one last, dreadful choice. A choice that can only be up to the girl standing in front of her soaked in rain. The girl that she loves so desperately, for whom she would do the impossible. Even dying, if it means that she will be safe and sound along with everybody else in Arcadia Bay.
•••
Max makes her choice.
And she chooses the girl she loves more than anything—even more than her entire hometown. She chooses her, and would do that over and over again. She has promised that she will never leave her again, and she is honoring that promise.
As she stands in front of the storm holding Chloe’s hand, she knows from this moment on they will never be away from each other again. Their souls are entwined. Maybe all that has been meant to happen since the beginning, and Max’s powers existed to save Chloe. And maybe it really has been a way for Rachel Amber to get revenge on the city that took everything away from her.
It is scary, but they are not alone. They will make it through it together. Max’s powers may not last after this, but she still remembers Chloe saying that they would, forever. She’ll hold onto that hope for now.