Lanternesque
Max wondered what exactly about these streets made her feel like this.
The empty, lonely, harsh stretches of asphalt seemed to treadmill under her feet. Maybe they were going somewhere. Max hadn’t really asked.
Maybe they were going somewhere nice.
Maybe they were just wandering.
(Then again - maybe wandering was leading them somewhere nice, too.)
Chloe had her hands in her pockets. She was wearing a tee that was just a little too big for her - but the collar was stretched out, for some ungodly reason or another.
Max was convinced that the reason was ungodly, because said stretched collar slipped off Chloe’s neck and exposed one of her shoulders, and if that wasn’t a devilish temptation, well.
Her nails were bitten down to the quick, and the lonely streetlights grasped at her silhouette.
The buildings rose above the steamy mist and leered over them.
Fog clinged to sewer caps - and the bottom edge of her dress, barely riding above the ground.
She shifted the jacket on her shoulders subconsciously.
She counted to eight.
She was fine.
“Oh, crud.” Chloe said, suddenly and without prompting.
Max sent her a glance, and spent yet another moment resenting the five inches Chloe had on her.
“Rachel’ll probably be pissed at me. Holup, lemme call her.” She bit her lip and fished around in her pockets.
“Pissed at you?” Max murmured without really thinking - still staring at Chloe’s lip, still getting worried between her teeth.
“Yeah, I’m not supposed to ditch parties without her. Last time I managed to torch a trailer.”
Finally, Max’s eyes managed to dart up from Chloe’s mouth, and instead send her eyes a stare.
“What?”
“I’ll tell that story another time. Ah, there’s the lil bugger!” Chloe bit out in an odd, cockney accent, letting her bottom lip escape its prison - much to Max’s relief.
(And disappointment - not that she’d admit it.)
“Actually - Maxxie, why don’t you call her for me?” Chloe said, tossing her the phone casually - like it wasn’t at least a hundred bucks to repair and totally unprotected.
Max fumbled to catch it - only realizing once she had what Chloe had just said.
“...Pardon?” She said, sending Chloe a look from under her bangs.
She really felt so much better without her hair tied back like that.
“I sa-”
Chloe suddenly stopped talking when she sent Max a glance, and caught her eyes - still staring up from under tangled bangs, while Max toyed with the frayed cuff of Rachel’s jacket.
Max blinked.
“Chloe?”
Chloe shook her head, suddenly and forcefully.
“Heh - sorry, lost my tram of thought there. Uh - right, call Rache for me. She’ll get mad at me - but you’re too adorable to get angry at.”
Uhm.
Alright, noted - Chloe just said stuff like that, and it meant nothing at all. Ever. Just friendly teasing.
Still, her heart - once it started again - beat just that tiniest bit quicker.
“I - I don’t…” She mumbled, glancing at the phone cradled in her hands.
Chloe glanced back, and stopped walking.
“Oh. Right. Sorry, uh. Got carried away for a sec.”
Chloe dipped effortlessly and scooped her phone back up from Max’s hands.
“I’ll call her. It’s no trouble - I just wasn’t thinking for a second there. Gimme a sec.”
And, just like that - the trouble was over.
Max blinked.
That was… weird.
That wasn’t how these things went.
She glanced down, and furrowed her brow a little.
This was… weird.
Chloe was weird.
“...Huh.” Chloe said suddenly - startling her from her thoughts. “Weird. She didn’t pick up.”
She just shrugged.
“Eh. Guess she’s not mad.”
Max blinked.
“That’s how you start a horror movie.” She murmured.
Chloe glanced at her.
“What?”
“This is how horror movies start.” She said again - even quieter, and feeling like an absolute idiot. “With someone not picking up the phone, and the caller shrugging it off.”
Chloe blinked.
“...Well, Rachel would make a good kidnapping victim.” She acquiesced, chewing her lip thoughtfully and she had to stop doing that.
She grinned.
“How genre savvy of you, Max. I’ll try again.”
Max blinked. Again.
This was so weird.
Distant phone rings.
A click.
“Oh! Yo, Rachel-”
Chloe stopped talking very suddenly.
“Alrighty then!”
And then hung up.
And then kept walking.
Max stared, for a moment - and then stumbled to catch up.
“Uh - what was that about?” She said, the moment she was in range - and then stumbled again.
This time, she began careening to the ground.
Braced herself for impact.
That didn’t come.
She gingerly opened one eye - and, at that moment, Chloe hauled her up. She fumbled blindly, and grabbed a hanging bit of cloth.
That was apparently attached to Chloe’s shirt.
And then Chloe was right there, with her lantern-esque eyes glittering in the low light and the fog clinging to her legs like smoke, and Max’s chin was tucked up against her exposed shoulder blade and she could smell copper and sap again and Chloe was going to be the death of her.
“Woah! Watch your step there, Dork.” She hummed with a tiny, sly smile that looked far better up close.
“Oh, right, your question.” She went on a moment later, while seemingly having no interest in letting Max go. “Well, I called, but she was busy, apparently. I was actually ninety percent sure she was fucking someone, but whatevs. I don’t judge.”
Max blinked up at her.
...Was this a normal thing for Chloe? Was this expected? Planned for? Did they have some special code word for when they were in the middle of something promiscuous, or something?
“Anyways-and-hows. Lots to explore. Don’t worry about Rachel - she can take care of herself. And whoever she’s fucking.”
And Chloe glanced down - and looked almost surprised to see Max still tucked up against her shoulder.
Max, who felt her face instantly go beet red - despite the fact that she had had no say in the matter.
(Though, if she had…)
“Uh. Max, not that I mind, but you’ll have to stop clinging to my shirt sometime here.”
Max squeaked, and instantly released her iron-clad grip on Chloe’s loose tee.
“Sorry.” She murmured, tugging at her hair and stumbling back a few steps when Chloe let her go.
“...You’re cold.” Chloe said suddenly, with certainty.
(She wasn’t, but that wasn’t exactly something she was going to confess to.)
Chloe took off her beanie, and fit it snugly around Max’s head.
The punk pulled back and tilted her head with a hum.
“Mm. Maybe we should stop by your place first - get you in some of your own clothes.”
“No, it’s… this is fine.” Max mumbled, tugging curiously at the beanie.
She fit it around her ears, and smiled.
“I like it.”
And then she glanced at Chloe, who was staring at her very blankly.
“Uh… Chloe?”
Chloe instantly snapped out of it, and smiled - wide and pleased.
“Dope! Take good care of her, alright beanie?”
Chloe sent her beanie a stern glance, and Max couldn’t stop her snort.
Chloe’s eyes lit up at the sound.
“Alrighty then - with that settled, back to exploring!”
And she stuck a hand out.
...For Max.
Who stared at it.
Chloe blinked - and then, just as quickly as the light had come on, it went out.
Still - she managed to look completely unaffected outside of that.
Her hand curled up a little - like a dead animal - and she began to pull it back.
“Uh - alright. You don’t have to - uh - personal space, and all th-”
Max snatched Chloe’s hand with a single, sharp movement.
Chloe glanced back at her.
Max lit red like a christmas light, and kept her eyes firmly on the ground.
But she didn’t let go.
After a silent, tense moment, Chloe shifted her hand a little - and thread her fingers through the gaps in Max’s, fitting them together like a lantern and its lid.
Max risked a glance up.
Chloe had a tiny smile - not the sly one that made her stomach twist and tie like taffy, or the amused one that made her skin crawl with embarrassment. No, this one made her eyes sparkle like lapis, spotted and dappled and flawed. This one pulled back and showed just one or two teeth that glinted in the light, sharp and off-white. This one came with a tiny pink flush that touched her cheeks, just below the thin bags under her eyes, and made her face a piece of art.
This one made her perfect. Made her off-white, slightly crooked teeth perfect. Made her awful, haphazard dyejob perfect. Made the light bags under her eyes perfect. Made her worried, chapped, bitten lips perfect.
Made her lapis lantern eyes perfectly flawed.
And then, that tiny smile widened until it was stretching across her entire face - and the flush on her face lightened, as she tugged at Max’s hand with a giddy light behind her eyes. Like her head was a jack-o-lantern, with a candle of chaos in the middle.
“Alright, Max.” She said - and her voice bubbled and popped with the same giddiness that was behind her smile. “Let’s explore an abandoned city!”
“...Sure.” Max whispered, looking down so her bangs hid the helpless, stupid smile she couldn’t stamp out.