As Chloe handed Max the photo, Max stared at it. Go back, and let her best friend, the person she loved most in the world, die? No, Chloe didn’t deserve to die to save that fucking town, the town that wouldn’t care about her, even if she died.
Max tore up the photo. “I’m sorry, Chloe, but, I love you too much, to let you die. “
“….Max”, was all Chloe could say, as they watched the town they grew up in be wiped off of the map
FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014
Max sat down on the couch, watching some inane show on Netflix for some background noise. She’d just gotten done with her classes at U Of Wash. for the day. Chloe would be getting off of her job at the auto repair shop, soon.
They had drove to Seattle, after the Storm. Max’s parents had taken them in. Chloe had found the auto job after two weeks, and Max found a job slinging caffeine at one of Seattle’s many coffee shops. They saved up all of their pay. With some help from her parents, as well as them not charging Max or Chloe for rent, they had gotten a studio apartment, where they had been living for a month.
Chloe stomped through the door, going to the kitchen right away. She returned to the bedroom/living room, holding a large bottle of whiskey.
“..Chloe, I wish you wouldn’t drink so much..”
“Well, I wish you hadn’t killed our home town, for my worthless dropout ass. We don’t always get what we want.”, she snarled, twisting off the cap, and downing a fourth of the bottle in one gulp.
“Chloe!”, Max cried. “I did it for you, for us!”
Chloe downed more of the whiskey. “Bullshit, Max! You did it because you would feel guilty! Well, I was ready to die! Because I was, and AM, a worthless fucking moron. Because, there were people in that town, that would have gone on to do more with their lives than ME! Because I KNEW that you doing this would haunt me for the rest of my goddamn life!”, Chloe screamed.
“C..Chloe!”, Max sobbed.
She downed the rest of the whiskey, throwing the bottle against the wall. “I’m going out. Don’t wait up.”, she glared, walking out the front door.
Max walked over to a shoe box. She pulled out some photos. She stared. Among them, was a copy of the bathroom photo she had taken. She had only taken the one photo, and had torn it up. Why was this here?
A Post It was on the back, in Chloe’s handwriting
Max-
I’m having this copy made, because, if you do what I think you will, then, you’ll need this.
You’ll save my pathetic ass, and doom our town. And that can’t happen.
You might be able to live with it. I wouldn’t. So, this is an emergency copy. Be the hero I know you are.
Love,
Chloe
Max gasped. Chloe had never told her. But, then, why would she? She knew Max would never give her up. But, Max would have never guessed that the strain of her saving Chloe would destroy their relationship like this.
Wiping her face, Max did something she never thought she’d do. She focused on the photo. ‘Dog, I...I never thought I’d say this, but… if this is how it’s going to be. With Chloe hating me for saving her, then.. maybe.. maybe it’s better if..” She couldn’t even complete the thought. As the photo blurred more due to her crying, everything faded to white.
KZZRRSSSHH
As the photo dropped to the floor, Max grabbed it and put it in her messenger bag without thinking
The door opened. Prescott entered, raving about how he owned the school, and could blow it up.
A minute later, and Max heard the angelic voice of her best friend.
Max slid down the the floor against the stall wall. She laid her head against her knees.
“..that gun away from me, psycho!”
Max shuddered as she heard the BANG! She felt the tears roll down, as everything faded to white, again.
FRIDAY APRIL 11, 2014
Max laid her head against the back of the couch. It had been six months, to the day. And each month had felt like a century, as far as Max was concerned. She had moved in with her parents, in Seattle. There were people she still cared about back in Arcadia Bay. None of them were worth staying in the town that her best friend had died for. Every second in that town, everything she saw, reminded her of that.
So, she had gone back to Seattle. After staying with her parents for a couple of months, she had saved enough slinging caffeine to get a studio apartment.
She chuckled. It had been the same coffee shop she had worked at, and this was the same apartment that she and Chloe had shared, in the alternate timeline.
“Quite the fucking coincidence”, she smirked. All these months, and she still thought of Chloe. She barely left the apartment, except for her job at a small photo studio, taking pics of families and snot nosed brats, and grocery shopping.
She knew that she couldn’t continue on without Chloe, that life had no meaning without her. But, she also knew, from the alternate timeline, that Chloe wouldn’t be able to live with the guilt of her surviving.
She walked over to the shoe box of photos on her bed, and pulled out the bathroom photo. As she concentrated, everything faded to white.
She was back in the bathroom, living October 7, 2013, for the third time in her life.
Pres-shit entered, foaming at the mouth about his ability to blow up the school.
Chloe entered. They yelled at each other.
As Chloe’s body fell to the floor, Max stepped out.
“Hey! Dickhead!”
Nathan turned around. “What the...?”
“..’nother witness, Prescott”, she said, in a monotone.
His eyes grew cold. “...we’ll see about that, you dumb bitch.”
If she couldn’t save Chloe, and couldn’t save Arcadia Bay, then, at least she’d die with the one she loved.
She saw death in his eyes, and welcomed it.