Hellions of Arcadia

Chapter 11- Do It Once, Then Rewind

Chloe

The sunlight shone though the thin curtains, forcing Chloe awake from her heavy sleep.

The bedroom was strangely hot that morning, the hum of the air conditioning absent. Damn thing probably blew again. Chloe sighed and heaves herself out of bed, well, she was up for the day.

Chloe shivered as the hot air touched her skin, a reminder of how completely naked she was. She glanced over to the bed to check on the girl who was in bed with her. Max Caulfield was still dead asleep, her bare back exposed from the covers being pulled down to the middle of her back. Chloe lightly pressed her fingers to Max's hair, making sure not to wake the smaller girl, before she got her clothes on.

Their apartment wasn't too bad, really, it was a kitchen and living room, blended together, with two bedrooms and a bathroom. Chloe had bought it for a steal, Max had to chip in a little too. But together the girls made this place work, Sure it was old and had its issues, but anywhere the two lived together, was home enough for Chloe.

Chloe scratched her left breast and made her way to the thermostat, tampering with the damned thing until she could finally get some cool air circulating through the hot apartment. Now, with that out of the way...

Chloe checked her work phone encase she had any messages, but why would she? Uber drivers work on their own clock, and that was Chloe's favorite thing about being an Uber driver. Plus, income was pretty good too.

A reminder popped up at the top of Chloe's phone screen, she tapped on it to expand it.

Rewind Lab test w/ Warren today at 2:45

The date beside the reminder read: September 22nd 2017. Goddamn, Chloe couldn't believe it was already 2017, four years after Max came back, for years after everything happened. They were both doing okay, time was slowly healing their scars, but Chloe could tell that Max was still a little messed up in the head, she did as much as she could to help. Max had been doing really well for a year, maybe two, but she started to decline from there. Recently she was quiet and oppressed, but very temperamental and Chloe didn't know what was wrong with her.

Chloe frowned to herself, Max was never perfect. She'd been breaking out into nosebleeds and coughing blood supposedly randomly. Max swore she never used her rewind since the storm, but the more and more those bloody accidents happened, the less Chloe believed her. It hurt Chloe that her girlfriend might have been lying to her, they had been through so much that they needed to be a team.

Chloe turned the phone off and tossed it mindlessly onto the couch with a sigh. Chloe was originally the one to tell Warren about Max's powers, she knew that Warren was a big science guy, and he still had a big puppy crush on Max, so he would believe anything about Max that they would say.

Yeah, Max was mad initially, but Chloe convinced her that it was better for the both of them to learn more about her power, and how it might be hurting her, even without using it. Obviously, Warren was happy to help them

Chloe heard a small ticking sound from the vents, the old ass air conditioning was kicking in high gear to cool down the apartment. The air felt stale, slowly cooling down with the hard efforts of air conditioning, Chloe would probably have to change the filter soon. She had already done it so many times it was muscle memory to her.

Chloe checked on the sleeping girl once more to confirm she was asleep before starting to cook breakfast. Chloe never liked to make a habit of cooking, that was Max's strong suit, but Max has had a rough past few days, so Chloe broke her rule this one time.

Starting a pot of coffee, Chloe got to work on making breakfast, grabbing the milk and pre mixed pancake better while she waited for her coffee to finish brewing. The kitchen was a damn mess before Chloe could help it, pancake powder and milk spilled all over the counter, evidence that she attempted to cook something.