Hellions of Arcadia

Chapter 13: Slippery Slope

Chloe

Chloe was not happy when she got home.

First, she had the situation with Warren that she still had to deal with. Then she had gotten a call from her neighbor Lena, to hear that Max had passed out in the shower. It was all giving her a headache.

After Max had stormed out of the car, after the meetup with Warren, Chloe just needed a rest. The past few days- Hell, the past few years- had been really stressful. She knew Max was upset, and in a way, Chloe really couldn't blame her. The guilt from The Storm was still resting on Chloe, she couldn't even imagine how Max was feeling about it.

But they were supposed to be a team, Max and Chloe against the world, right? Max promised that her and Chloe would be united, that Max made that sacrifice for Chloe, just for Chloe. But Max wouldn't let Chloe in, she boxed the punk out. Leaving Chloe by herself.

Chloe had tried everything, she was patient, so patient. But she had been waiting too long. Max was taking her meds, seeing doctors, and Chloe was there to help her cope, but nothing. The girl was perpanently scarred and if it didn't get better soon, Chloe knew that Max would take her down, too.

Some days, the pressure of Max's impeding breakdown kept Chloe awake, it made her want to pull her hair out. The only ways she could cope was dinking, or driving, that's why she had the uber job. And a dully stocked alcohol cabinet.

Chloe knew that she was being self-indulgent. Max had sacrificed the lives of many, and her own sanity to keep Chloe alive, but sometimes Chloe wished that Max hadn't have. She wished that Max was selfless enough to kill Chloe. Then they wouldn't have been like this. Max may be distressed, yes. But she wouldn't be guilty, she wouldn't be broken. And she wouldn't be taking Chloe with her.

After half an hour of just sitting in her car, looking at Max was before she stormed out, Chloe threw up. She jjust opened the car door and threw up bile all over the sidewalk. Her head feeling light and spinning. Everything was so hard, so hard that it was physcially breaking down both girls. They were both having illusions (thought Max's weren't a surprise, the trauma that the girl suffered would do that to someone) But Chloe was spacing too, seeing things. Like her long dead father.

She tried not to do it aloud, but Chloe blamed Max's rewind for the problem. After that incident, the rewind power had gotten a mind of its own. Acting when Max didn't want it to, slowly infecting Chloe and making her mad, too.

Chloe was pretty sure that she had fallen asleep for a while, her head resting against the steering wheel, because there was an imprint on her forehead, and a blank spot in her memory. Not unlike rge times she got drunk, drinking until her own mind faded, and she woke up the next time with her head exploding and a black hole in her memory. She started to embace that feeling these days.

Drinking became a hobby for her recently, with all this stress, she found it as a way to cope. She didn't smoke pot as much anymore (at lwast that Max knows of) because her smokers lungs were starting to catch up to her, and that habit would kill her faster than the drinking would.

She was reverting back to when she was 15 and 16 years old, drinking to forget the memory of her father. But this time, she was drinking to mourn Max Caulfield, the old Max that had died on that cliff 4 years ago, when they watched the hurricane slam into the coast of Arcadia Bay, and completely tear it up.

A drink sounded amazing at that moment, it's not like Max would care, she was pissed off at home, probably doping up, because she was the one that was allowed to. It peeved Chloe that Max could smoke weed, legally and between the two girls. But she scolded Chloe for smoking it, saying it would 'hurt her' then turn around and crack a window, like Chloe wouldn't smell it.