Max & Chloe's Hella Shitty Coffee (Life is Strange)

Chapter 1

*Freshers week, an introverts hell.*

A rainbow horde of excitable teens flowed into the uni bar and a stream of the sick and the drunk trickled out. A deep and bassy heartbeat came throbbing from the open windows, and all around the courtyard people sat in loose groups of jocks and preps and goths and every other stereotype.

"Which is really weird, because when you view Dali's work less as a surrealist and more as a dadaist expression of-" A heavy green bottle crashed down close enough that the shards almost hit her shoe. The skinny boy jumped up onto the bench with a squeal, sandals slipping on the varnished wood as he tumbled back down onto the paving in a dayglow heap. The tall security guard called him a brat and Max wondered if her cat missed her yet.

The skinny boy had been following her around all evening. She'd met him yesterday outside of the campus coffee shop, all beady eyes and pointy nose and ears that made it look like he could probably fly if he waves them fast enough. He asked her what she was drinking, and before she could manage a fourth syllable he was explaining why his home ground Colombian blend in a Rick and Morty thermos was far superior. She thanked him for the recommendation and made a note to never talk to anyone ever ever ever again.

She found him earlier that afternoon leaning with his butt against the door handle to the Arts building. He greeted her by her name, which she had never told him, and stepped aside to let her out first. The door handle was still warm when she touched it, and she resolved to cleanse herself with bleach and turpentine when she got back to her dorm.

The skinny boy sat back on the bench, and Max decided that she wanted to go to bed. Excusing herself, she took off towards the library, winding through the loud and the lecherous and the loose. The route back to her dorm was roughly southeast, and she knew that the library's bright red front doors faced north, so she aimed herself for the narrow alley between the library and the Mean Bean next to it. Another bottle, this time clear and small, smashed to her left as she pushed past a vending machine.

"Fuck yeah! Burn it baby!" Up ahead a pair of girls in matching blue uniforms were waving lighters in the air. They were both tall, taller than Max anyway. The one closer was blonde and skinny and pretty, the one further away was more athletic. Her arms were toned, her body slip but shoulders broader than they looked, legs padded with the kind of muscle that looked like it could kick holes through walls. Her hair was blue, bright and vibrant. A beanie sat on top, otherwise she was in the usual Mean Bean blue and green. Between them laid a mound of blue polo shirts, drenched in what smelled like a gallon of butane. The lighters fell together, and the pile of work clothes lit up like a bonfire. "Wooooooo!" screamed the blonde, and "Burn baby!" screamed the blue, dancing around the fire. Max tried to slink by when the nasally voice came from behind her.

"Maxine! Maxine wait! Are we going back to your dorm?" Skinny boy was running up behind her, knees scraped and glasses eschew, his sandals slapping against the concrete as he got close. The blonde girl barely noticed, but the blue took a second look at the skinny boy, then at Max.

"Wait, Maxine?" Their eyes met for a second, the blue haired girls locking into hers as wonder then realisation then crushing self awareness locked in to Max's brain. Oh dang. Oh dang. Oh-

"Maxine!" Her wrist was pulled back sharply, and the skinny boy was right behind her, trying to get her attention. The blonde girl looked over and yelled, and the blue girl moved her eyes from Max to the boy, wide eyed narrowing and relaxed jaw tightening into a rock hard clench. "Maxine where are we-"

The blue haired girl stepped back, then took a run up, and all the strength and muscle in her left leg sent her foot flying toward his crotch. Unbalanced she overshot, and instead her shin collided with his jewels while her foot perfectly slammed into his taint. The skinny boy collapsed into a wheezing heap, and Max recoiled only to find her shoe in the middle of the flame. The blonde girl screamed, and Max sent the shoe flying down the alley, hopping away as she hoped her sock hadn't burned through. The blue haired girl turned her eyes back to Max, and for a second the only noise was the skinny boy crying on the pavement.

"Max?"

"Chloe?"

Her eyes were a perfect blue, like she remembered, but the rest had changed. Her formerly soft and childish face had hardened into a woman's scowl. Her nose hadn't grown, and her ears were still tiny, but her lips were fuller, and her cheekbones had grown out sharp enough to cut cheddar. Her teeth looked perfect, but when she opened her mouth to shout Max could see the slight chip on one of her canines that had come from running into the door frame when she was 12.

"Shit, pigs. Run!" Her voice had dropped an octave, and she was so much taller than Max remembered, but when she grabbed her hand to run Max remembered being a child again, pirates in the Arcadia forest, and the way her heart used to leap.