Chapter 6
Chapter 6
The drive back home was a quiet one. Max had spend the entire time looking out of the window, barely paying attention to the passing surroundings, thinking over what Chloe had said. She silently cursed herself for forgetting what she told herself when they left Arcadia Bay.
No looking back . But she guessed that was easier said than done when a lot of things just reminded her of it all. Even on the internet they spoke about what happened, so it was hard to avoid thinking about it. Thanks to Chloe she felt better now, and she knew that when she was doubting herself again she would be there to reassure her. Her very own tower of strength.
Thanks Chloe, she thought and smiled. She glanced over at her for a second. It was been funny how mature Chloe had been all of a sudden, but at the same time it made her feel safe. Chloe was always the one trying to get her out of that shell of hers, testing the limits of her comfort zone, but this side of Chloe was the same that she had seen at the lighthouse, the one that was ready to lay down her life to save others. The good person underneath all the anger at the world, the one that still had hopes and dreams.
They pulled into the driveway of her home. It wouldn't be long before her parents would be back she wagered. Chloe and Max got out of the car.
“Say would you mind if I dusted off that old PlayStation of yours later?” Chloe asked as they walked to the door. “I'm seriously craving some Final Fantasy right now.”
“Be my guest,” Max said and unlocked the door. Chloe went up the stairs to put her new clothes away while Max went into the kitchen to get herself something to drink. After her thirst was thoroughly quenched she walked into the living room and sat down on the couch. She simply sat there, enjoying the silence, with only the occasional sound from upstairs.
She remained that way until she heard footsteps coming down the stairs and turned to look at Chloe, who stopped in her tracks when she noticed Max. She felt a flutter inside her chest when their eyes met. Those blue eyes. The same eyes that she had looked into before making her decision on the cliff, the same eyes that had looked into her ownwith such intensity that it made her shiver just thinking about it.
“Uh, Max?” Chloe asked.
But Max didn't hear her as she got up from the couch and walked towards Chloe. Max stopped in front of her and gently cupped her face with both hands.
Before Chloe could react she had closed the distance between them and captured her lips in a soft kiss. It took Chloe a second to register what was happening but quickly circled her arms around her waist and started to kiss her back.
It was gentle, slow, everything that Max imagined an actual first kiss would feel like. She sighed pleasantly as they both pulled back and looked at one another.
Then a wave of embarrassment hit Max and she gently stepped out of Chloe's embrace, her face bright red. “I, uh, just saw that we don't have any milk in the fridge, so I'm just gonna go buy some real quick. And, uh, you wanted to play some PlayStation anyway. Be back soon!”
And without waiting for a response from Chloe she dashed out of the front door.
With wide eyes Chloe watched as Max hurried out of the door, too stunned to say or do anything. She just stood there, her fingers touching her lips absentmindedly. Did this really just happen? She wondered.
Her heart was pounding in her chest and she felt slightly dizzy. Holy fuck, this really just happened. They fucking kissed!
She felt....she couldn't even describe how good she felt!
Part of her felt incredibly stupid to have pulled back during the dare kiss now. Chloe's face split into a wide grin as headed into her room. She threw herself on the bed, folding her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling. And how damn cute she looked...right before she ran off.
The grin on her face turned into a serious expression. Why did she run off?
She didn't feel ashamed, did she? After all what was there to be ashamed about?
...Unless Max didn't know about her feelings. Chloe groaned. Of course she didn't. She had only been out of denial mode since yesterday.
Great, just fucking great, Chloe thought and covered her face with one hand. She needed to talk to Max ASAP. She pulled her phone out of her pocket and was about to text Max but hesitated for a moment. No that would be something they needed to talk about in person. So she would wait until Max came back. Yeah, that sounded good.
Until then she might as well dust off that PlayStation. She got up from the bed and headed into Max's room. Chloe had just pulled the box with the PlayStation from out of Max's cabinet when she heard a sound from downstairs. Placing the box on the ground Chloe jogged out of room and slid down the banister in hopes of catching her a little off guard.
She felt a little disappointed when she found Ryan and Vanessa in the kitchen. She must have looked the part too, because Ryan cocked an eyebrow at her.
“Were you expecting someone else?” he asked, an amused tone in his voice, sitting at the table.
“I, uh, thought you were Max.”
“Oh, she isn't here?” Vanessa asked as she walked to the counter.
“She said she wanted to buy something from the groceries store,” Chloe told her and joined Ryan at the table.
“On foot?” Ryan asked and Chloe just shrugged.
“Beats me, honestly.” Chloe lied and leaned back in her seat. Ryan and Vanessa gave each other a look, but he too simply shrugged while Vanessa shook her head. “Uh, thanks by the way. For the new clothes.”
“Ah, it's fine. As long as I'm not sleeping in the cardboard box at the end of the month that is,” Ryan joked. “Now, if you ladies would excuse me, but I think I'll listen some music for a while” He got out of his seat and Chloe perked up after he mentioned music.
“Whatcha gonna listen to?” she asked.
“Oh, just some of my old LPs. You know, old geezer stuff,” he joked. “Why, you wanna check them out?”
Chloe gave him a crooked grin. “You betcha!”
Idiot idiot idiot! Why the fuck did I run out of the house? Max asked herself as she walked back from the grocery store, just having bought some milk just to cover up the quick lie she had told Chloe to get away from the situation.
Good work, Max. Didn't promise that you would wait? Max asked herself. And here you go, kissing her.
And this time she couldn't just blame it on Chloe daring her to. This one was for real. And no rewinds anymore either.
Chloe probably thought she was an idiot now, or she would be pissed off.
Max sighed and rubbed her hand across her face. As she rounded the corner into the driveway of her home she spotted her father's car, which meant that her parents were now back and as she entered the house she could her mother being busy in the kitchen.
“I'm back,” Max said and entered the kitchen, placing the milk she had bought on the table. Her Mom greeted her with a smile then raised her eyebrow when she saw the milk.
“I'm pretty sure we're still good on that front,” Vanessa said.
“I, uh, well better safe than sorry, right?” Max sat down at the kitchen table, her back turned so that she could hide her flushed face. “Where's Dad?” she tried to change the subject
“Chloe and him are in his hobby room, listening to some of your father's LPs. So I guess they are 'Rawking out' right now.” Vanessa chuckled at the last part. Max too chuckled. Yeah, that sounded like Chloe alright. She let out a sigh, at least that meant Chloe wasn't pissed off then.
“So are you going to tell me what happened between you two?” Max's eyes widened and turned to look at her mother, who was standing there with her arms crossed and smiling that knowing smile of hers. “Because I don't believe for a second that you went to buy milk 'just to make sure' and Chloe acted a little weird earlier. Did you two get into an argument?”
“No we didn't,” she said, hoping in vain that she would drop the topic. Of course she didn't.
“What was it then?” Her Mom sat down at the table. “You know you can talk to me.”
Max rubbed her forehead. “It's complicated.”
“Oh, 'it's complicated'.”
Max groaned and buried her face in her hands. Whatever. Fuck it. Can't become much worse anyway
“I...kinda...kissed her earlier,” Max told her. If her Mom was surprised she didn't show it. “And when she kissed back I chickened out.”
Max felt a hand being placed on her shoulder. Vanessa gave it a gentle squeeze “You know this isn't something you need to be ashamed of, if that was what you were afraid of.” she said and Max smiled a bit. It made her relax a little. To be perfectly honest she had been a little afraid of what her parents would think when she came clean about her feelings for Chloe...or, well, girls and guys in general now it seemed. Leave it to her Mom to be supportive. And if she had her approval she also had her Dad's.
“Thanks, you don't know how much it means to me to hear that,” Max said. “But I'm more afraid that I've gotten ahead of myself and Chloe doesn't feel the same way. Chloe and I have been friends for so long, it's...like a wall that's standing between us and instead of climbing it slowly I just took a bulldozer and rammed right through it without checking the other side.”
“You just said that she kissed you back. I think maybe the other side has just been waiting for you to make the first move.” Vanessa looked at Max and gave her shoulder another squeeze before resuming her work on dinner. “Talk to her, Max. And whatever happens, I'm a hundred percent behind you.”
“I'll try, Mom,” Max said and buried her face in her hands. Easier said than done though. She got up from the chair and started to leave the kitchen to go hide in her room for a bit until she managed to gather enough courage. “....Fuck.”
“Language, Maxine,” her Mom called after her.
Dinner had been to awkward to say the least. Max avoided as much eye-contact with Chloe as possible, which made it rather hard to look into her father's direction since they were sitting next to each other, enjoying an in-depth conversation on why Queen was awesome. But every so often her Dad tried to include Max into it and she found herself only giving one word responses and focusing on finishing her dinner as fast as possible. As soon as she had done so, she excused herself from the table and all but sprinted out of the room, not paying attention to the worried looks that she was given.
Once inside her room she leaned against the door for a few seconds, taking deep breaths and then tried to busy herself with something. Namely writing into her journal in hopes that it might help her nerves.
The knock on her door didn't exactly surprise her, but her heart still skipped a beat. “C-come in.”
And of course Chloe walked in, sitting down beside her on the bed. They didn't say anything until Max finished her journal entry and turned towards Chloe.
“So, about earlier,” Chloe said, her face serious. More serious than she had seen her even in the previous week.
“Sorry,” Max said, then sighed and when she saw Chloe frown she started to rub her hands together like she was sitting in an interrogation room. Was it getting hot in here?
“For the kiss.” Max sighed. “I didn't know what came over me.”
“Don't,” Chloe interrupted her, placing a finger on her lips to shut her up. “Don't apologize. I kissed you back, didn't?”
Max nodded, feeling nervous about Chloe's next words, and she could hear her own heartbeat in her ears.
“Max, kissing you made me feel like I haven't felt in a long time. I know that we've only been back together for barely a week now.” Chloe pulled her finger away. “Wow, that actually came out easier than I thought.”
Max didn't say anything, instead she focused on Chloe's eyes and saw the same look that had been underneath the anger on the Sky Needle. And Max finally realized that Chloe had been throwing rocks over to her side of the wall the entire time. “I...”
A shiver went through her as Chloe pulled her close, resting her forehead gently against Max's. “...I want this. More than anything I've wanted before. I don't want you to take it back.”
That was it. They couldn't simply go back to their innocent childhood anymore, where they had simply been BFFs. So all that was left for them now was to move forward. Like Chloe said, they had to stop living with what-if's.
Max leaned slightly forward, nuzzling her nose, and she could feel warm tears come to her eyes. Her voice quiet she said: “I won't. I never will.”
That was her promise, to Chloe and to herself.
“Max...” Chloe leaned in closer until their lips were only mere millimeter's apart.
“I love you,” Max breathed out and closed the gap. Their lips lightly touched each other. Somehow this alone felt already more intense than their earlier kiss, and Max felt slightly dizzy. They pulled back for a second before going back in, this time longer and deeper. Chloe wrapped one of her arms around Max, burying her fingers inside her brown hair.
Max felt Chloe's tongue run across her bottom lip as she was gently pushed onto her back. She opened her mouth to invite her in and felt a pleasant jolt go through her body as their tongues brushed. It was clear that Chloe had a lot more experience than her, but Max couldn't care less. She was sharing this with her now. She moaned slightly and circled her arms around Chloe's neck to pull her in more.
Eventually Chloe pulled back to look at her, gently touching her cheek. Max smiled and placed her hand over Chloe's. Chloe leaned back in to plant several small kisses over her face. Max laughed a little and wriggled underneath her. “Stop, that tickles!”
“Not until I've counted every single freckle on your body!”
“Stoooop,” Max whined, trying to hold back her laughter enough so that her parents wouldn't come barging into the room
“So you fell for me, huh?” Chloe asked cheekily, her kisses starting to go lower, and she pulled Max's shirt down a little to expose her right shoulder. “Of course. Who wouldn't? Ooooh, you have freckles on your shoulders too!”
“You are so full of-” she gasped as Chloe started to plant kisses over her neck, slowly wandering down to her shoulder. It took all of her willpower reserves but she eventually managed to wriggle free of Chloe's grip and sit up, leaning against the headrest of her bed. Chloe didn't seem to let that stop her and followed immediately, aiming once more for her lips, but was stopped by two hands holding her by her shoulders.
“Say it,” Max said with a cheeky smile, her face flushed red and breathing a little heavily.
“I love you too, you fucking nerd,” Chloe said with a smile that mirrored her own. Satisfied with what she heard she pulled Chloe back in for another kiss.
“There's no way your folks will approve of me sleeping in your bed now,”
“Shut up,” Max said and pressed their lips together.