Chapter Text
Chloe’s phone buzzed from across the room.
She couldn’t remember the last time she had dove for it so quickly. After Max had moved, she had spent months obsessively checking her phone for texts, but had slowly learned to abandon the habit. Ever since then, the only people who regularly texted her were Frank whining about money, Justin whining about free pot, or Elliot whining...just generally whining.
But now she had Rachel, and hearing the phone come to life with a new message made her heart leap out of her chest.
She fumbled with the phone, snapped it open, and saw…
Steph Gingrich?
“Barb - have a proposition for you. Meet me in the park?”
Chloe blinked at it a few times. Steph was friendly enough, though being referred to as a fictional Elf Barbarian she had pretended to be one time was going to get old fast. Great, she probably needed more fodder for one of her Dungeons and Dragons games with Mikey.
The one fragment of a game she had played had been...an interesting experience, sure, but not one she felt particularly compelled to repeat. Especially when she was still hoping Rachel would text her and ask her to hang out, or run away, or watch paint dry together. Literally anything.
“Sorry, Barb is dead and Chloe is busy”
Her thumb hovered over the ‘send’ button.
“If you ever want to talk to me, Chloe, you know you can, right?”
Steph had said this to her yesterday, after asking Chloe if Rachel was single, and after Chloe had babbled awkward word salad in response. Maybe...maybe that was actually a good offer to take her up on. Hell, maybe that’s what Steph was even texting her about.
Maybe she was going to get inducted into some Blackwell Lesbians Witches Coven or something.
That could be neat.
“Barb reporting in from Elf Heaven. Sure be there in 20”
She hit send.
On the twenty minute walk to the park, she checked her phone approximately 47,000 times to make sure Rachel hadn’t texted her with conflicting plans. But no, her maybe-sort-of-it’s-complicated-girlfriend-question-mark was apparently busy this lovely afternoon. Oh well. Her loss!
She could see Steph’s telltale beanie at a picnic table on the far end of the park. WIth a sigh, she realized Mikey was there too. Sure, Mikey was nice and all, but his presence would make the “I Kissed A Girl And I Liked It” talk a bit more awkward.
As they didn’t seem to see her coming, she decided to crouch down and approach them from behind as quietly as she could. At the last moment she jumped up and leapt over the table, before sliding into the seat opposite them. Mikey nearly jumped out of his skin, but Steph merely laughed.
“She lives! Nice stealth roll, Chloe,” Steph said with a lopsided smirk.
“Y-yeah...real great…” Mikey added, a hand over his heart.
“So, what’s up? Shenanigans? Tomfoolery? Surely not hijinks?” Chloe asked, banging a drum beat on the wooden table with her palms. Damn she was in a good mood. How long did post-theater highs usually last?
Steph laughed, as Mikey finally regained his composure and turned back to the notebook in front of him. “Don’t worry, Chloe, we’ll get to all that. Just waiting on Rachel first. I’m kind of surprised you didn’t come together, actually.”
Chloe stopped her epic drum solo and looked up at Steph. “Huh? Rachel is coming?”
Steph quirked a brow. “Sorry, I guess I assumed you two were conjoined at the hip these days. Yeah, she’s coming-- hey, speak of the Devil. Or the Duchess, at any rate.”
A car had just pulled up along the street outside the park, and Rachel had gotten out. Whoever was driving was attempting to say something to her, but she angrily slammed the door and stormed off.
As the car pulled away, Rachel underwent an instantaneous transformation, from fuming child to carefree teen. Chloe was almost concerned by how good she was at spontaneously adopting a new persona, except that concern was quickly overpowered by awe at Rachel’s unending radiance and beauty.
“Sorry I’m late,” Rachel said, brushing a bit of hair out of her face. “You didn’t have too much fun without me, did you?”
“No fun at all, I assure you,” Steph replied, returning the smile. Chloe looked between the two other girls.
“Okay, I feel like I’m the only one out of the loop here,” she said. “What are we doing, exactly? Not that I have anything better to do, whatever it is,” she hastily added, giving Rachel a nervous smile.
“Ooh, can I tell her? Please?” Rachel asked, looking mischievously at Steph, who chuckled and shrugged. Rachel clapped excitedly, and turned to Chloe, grasping her by the arm. Chloe felt herself blushing.
“How would you like to get out of Arcadia Bay?” she asked. Before Chloe could respond, she quickly added, “for a weekend. Think of it as...a trial run. A pre-adventure before our Big Adventure. Just you, and me, all alone, miles away from this hellhole…”
Chloe couldn’t help but grin. “Uh, yeah. That sounds awesome, obviously. Sign me the hell up.”
“Hooray!” Rachel said, doing a little dramatic spin. “Oh, and by ‘just you and me,’ I mean obviously Steph and Mikey will be there too.”
“Uhh,” Chloe said.
“And 36 other people,” Mikey chimed in.
“Uhhhhh,” Chloe said.
“And by pre-adventure she means a LARP,” Steph explained. “We’re inviting you both to our yearly LARP in Warrenton.”
“Uhhhhhhhhh,” Chloe said.
“Oh, come on!” Rachel pleaded. “Steph told me all about how badass you were in that game of DnD you played. This is just like that, only with improv, and character acting, and dressing up in crazy costumes!”
“Rachel,” Chloe said, putting a hand up to her forehead. “Just slow your roll for a second. Isn’t this all a little...uh...nerdy?”
“We can hear you,” Mikey said.
“Who cares?” Rachel said with a shrug. “It’s a new experience! I’ve never done this before, and I know you haven’t either. We can make it fun! I bet these nerds have never seen anything like Chloe Price before.” She leaned in and grabbed Chloe’s hands in hers, holding them up pleadingly. “Trust me, no one else from Blackwell will be there. You’ll still be Queen Bitch as far as anyone back here is concerned.”
“Oh, good,” Chloe said sarcastically. “My reputation as an expelled delinquent took a lot of cultivating.”
Rachel lowered her voice, speaking just softly enough for only Chloe to hear. “Besides, we’ll be camping out in a forest together for two nights. I’m sure we can make THAT fun, if nothing else is.”
Chloe waited a moment for the blood to drain out of her face, then coughed and said, “yeah, uh, yeah, two girls sleeping together in a forest surrounded by 40 virgin nerd dudes who’d literally kill each other for the chance to spy on us sounds like the most romantic thing I can imagine.”
Rachel pulled her hands away. Her mood swings could be intense and volatile, and while her swings towards joy filled Chloe with butterflies, now she was swinging back towards anger, and filling Chloe with dread.
“If you don’t want to go, just say so,” she snapped. “Steph and I can have plenty of fun without you.”
Chloe looked to Steph, who was trying very hard to appear as if she wasn’t listening in. Then she looked back to Rachel...saw that angry, betrayed look on her face, the same she had worn when she slammed the car door and stormed away from whichever parent had driven her to the park…
It dawned on Chloe that Rachel needed to get away for a few days. It didn’t matter where she went or what she did. This was just the easiest and quickest out for her. And she wanted Chloe, out of everyone in the world, to be there with her.
Chloe turned around and climbed up on the picnic table. Rachel did oh so love displays of melodrama.
“Barb the elf will join your party!” she shouted.
“Barb the elf is dead,” Mikey pointed out.
“That was Barb’s twin sister, who was also named Barb.”
“Oh.”
“With the four of us together, we’ll be unstoppable!” Chloe continued. She saw how happy Rachel looked and it made everything worth it. “Let’s go kill some nerds!”
A group of kids playing Magic: The Gathering at a nearby table stopped and looked over at that exclamation.
“Metaphorically!” Steph shouted, awkwardly.
“We’re not serial killers,” Mikey added.
The nerds looked unconvinced but turned back to their game.
Chloe jumped down off the table, stumbled a bit on the landing, but spun around in attempt to make it all look perfectly choreographed.
“I can nab some costume supplies from the theater department,” Rachel said. “I’ll need to work on my character too. Or maybe I’ll just wing it. That’s always fun!”
“You’ll need ears, Barb,” Mikey pointed out, examining Chloe critically.
“WHAT? I CAN’T HEAR YOU, DUE TO MY LACK OF EARS,” Chloe responded.
“I meant ELF ears, Your Hilariousness.”
Chloe cringed slightly at the thought. Oh, Gods, they were really serious about all this…
“It’ll be a good time, Chloe,” Rachel said, suddenly beside her again. “I promise.”
Chloe looked at her. If Rachel jumped off a bridge, would you follow?
Yep.
“Yeah,” she said with a weak smile. “I know.”