Cold Hands

2

After Chloe left the hospital, she went straight on auto pilot, so she was quite surprised and fairly confused when she woke up hours later in her pajamas and tucked into her bed. Groaning, she rolled over to check the time on her phone. It was a quarter to 1am. Knowing that she wasn't getting back to bed anytime soon, Chloe quietly left her bedroom and crept down the stairs to the kitchen to make a bowl of her favourite cereal. What she wasn't expecting to see was Vanessa Caulfield herself sitting at her table, holding a steaming mug.

"I- oh- uh, h-h-hi Mrs. Caulfield." Growing up, Chloe had always been a bit of a Wild Child. Certainly no where near how she was now, or even how she was when she was fifteen, but compared to Angel May Maxine, she might as well have been. Which always gave Chloe a bit of an impression that the Caulfield's-- especially Vanessa-- didn't really like her all too much. Although to be fair, Chloe hadn't particularly been their number one fans either growing up. They were always so strict and uptight for Chloe's liking, which was why both girls had always preferred hanging out at the Price house.

Vanessa gave Chloe a thin lipped smile, as she always did in greeting. "Hello Chloe. My my how you've... grown." She frowned disapprovingly at Chloe's choppy blue hair. Chloe ran a hand through it, feeling nervous and self-conscious, as she always did in Vanessa's presence. 

"Uh, yeah, things happened." She managed a weak chuckle. Vanessa just nodded and took a sip from her mug. Chloe poured herself a bowl of cereal. "So where's Ryan? I mean, Mr. Caulfield?" Instead of looking even more disapproving, Vanessa just sighed and took another sip from her mug.

"On a late night walk, I suppose. He always takes them when he's stressed. It started when we first moved to Seattle." Vanessa looked at a picture of Max and Chloe on the fireplace. The picture was of the two of them dressed up for Hallowe'en as Hogwarts students; They had both just gotten into Harry Potter at about nine, which was how old they both were in the picture. Max was a HufflePuff and Chloe was a RavenClaw. Chloe smiled as she remembered that Hallowe'en. The two girls had been arguing for days on whether Chloe should be a Slytherin or a RavenClaw. Max was the one who had convinced her to be a RavenClaw.

"Dude, you're like, super smart," Max had said. "And I can't see you hanging around with Slytherin type people."
"What's a Slytherin type person," Chloe asked.

Max wrinkled her nose. "Nathan Prescott." The two girls giggled, imagining Nathan in Hogwarts robes, hanging with Draco Malfoy and threatening people with his father. So Chloe ended up choosing RavenClaw, and that was the year everyone realized Max hand her wrapped around her little finger.

"Had I known," Vanessa said, interrupting Chloe from her thoughts, "That this would have happened, I wouldn't have agreed to let Max come back here to finish highschool at Blackwell." 

That had really hurt Chloe's feelings. Vanessa had pretty much just outright said that she wished it had been Chloe instead of Max. Obviously, Chloe felt the same thing, but it still stung nonetheless. Looking down, Chloe softly said, "If Max hadn't come back, I would be in her place right now. And she wouldn't even know."

Vanessa looked up in shock. "You mean Max got shot saving you?" This time it was Chloe's turn to be in shock. Vanessa hadn't known? Nobody told her? Then she thought that of course nobody had told her. This was supposed to be Chloe's thing to tell. But how was she supposed to tell the mother of her best friend in the world that she was the reason her daughter was in a coma?

Chloe could feel the water building up in her eyes, and she whispered, "Yeah... I'm sorry."
"Sorry for what, Chloe?"

"Sorry for putting Max in the hospital." 

Vanessa grabbed Chloe's hand. Chloe was in too much shock to even flinch. "Chloe Price, you have absolutely nothing to apologize for. My beef is with the Prescott's, not you." Chloe nodded. "You know, it makes sense to me," Vanessa told her. "I always knew that you meant the world to my Maxine. She would do anything for you."

The two went silent for a few minutes. This had probably been the longest amount of time that Chloe had ever spent with Vanessa alone. Finally, Vanessa got up and brought her mug to the sink.

"I'm sorry that we had to move away just when your father died," she said. "And I'm sorry that we had to take Max with us. But it was during the Recession, and Ryan had really needed that job."

Chloe shrugged. "I understand." But understanding didn't mean that she had gotten over it. That was something that she would never get over. Because when Max left, that was when Chloe knew that her life would never be the same again. Would never be okay again. Max was a constant in her life. As long as Max was there, she knew that she could do anything. If Max had been there when her dad died, maybe she wouldn't be the way she was now. Maybe if Max had been there when Rachel disappeared, she would have someone to actually talk to, really talk to, about how she was feeling. But her constant was gone, and now she was just a very angry variable. 

Bidding Vanessa good night, Chloe quietly went up the stairs, careful not to wake up her mother or David. She tossed and turned for a couple of hours, but couldn't sleep. And when she could, her dreams weren't very nice. So she pulled on some joggers and a hoodie, stuffed her pockets with her cigarettes, a lighter, her keys and her phone and climbed out the window. She landed on the trunk of her truck, got in, and quickly drove away.