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

Chapter 10

Max awoke confused, uncomfortable, and poorly rested. She was looking up at a ceiling, but it seemed higher than usual and unfamiliar. Max turned her head to her left and saw a hand hanging off a bed that wasn't hers. Victoria's hand. Victoria's bed. In her pre-coffee state, Max tried to recall what had happened last night. She remembered watching a film with Victoria last night – Gerald's Game, and with that piece of information everything around her suddenly made more sense.

The film had started off as a kinky weekend trip to save a marriage, Max had thought this was going to make for a tedious 100-minute film, but she could cope with it, Victoria had wanted her to watch it after all. However, the film took a turn, and while not necessarily a scary one, it became one of the most unnerving and uncomfortable cinematic experiences of Max's 19 years. Suppose it should have been expected from a movie adaptation of a Steven King novel.

Max had then returned to her own room but as the evening got darker and Max got weary, she couldn't stop the phrase 'you're not real, you're only made of moonlight' from playing in her head, and every shadow suddenly looked like a 7ft tall necrophiliac. Since Max's anxious state was Victoria's fault, she decided Victoria was going to be the person to help her through it. And that was the decision that led to her sleeping on a small air-filled camping mattress on Victoria's wooden floor, with a blanket that didn't reach her toes.

Max checked the watch on Victoria's hand, she needed to get ready to meet Chloe and Rachel. Max decided to leave Victoria sleeping and left for the communal bathroom. Apparently, nothing could interrupt Victoria's pristine and always well rested state of being, not alcohol, not unsettling thrillers, but Max was determined to find some payback for last night.

Max didn't usually put a lot of effort into the way she looked, but this morning she wanted to look her best because Rachel always looked flawless. She was nervous about breakfast with Rachel and Chloe, she didn't want to compete for her best friends' attention over breakfast or feel awkward about not being in the know about any stories or inside jokes the two of them had developed over the years. She honestly didn't want to befriend the person that had righted Max's wrongs, she felt it immediately set her levels below Rachel. But Chloe means an awful lot to Max, and this was important to Chloe, so she was willing to genuinely try.

Max cleaned her teeth and splashed her face with cold water, but it did nothing for the dark circles under her eyes. Just great, Max thought, she was going to have to face Rachel looking like crap.

By the time Max realised she'd gotten into the shower without taking a towel in with her, it was already too late. She did her best to shake dry before putting her pyjamas back on, the water still seeped through making them immediately transparent. She prayed there was no one in the hallway and ran back to her room, entering quickly and turning back on the door to close it hard.

"Max where the hell have you been?" A familiar voice asked her, Max turned and screamed at the site of Chloe and Rachel sat on her bed. "And why can I see through your clothes?" Chloe continued. Max blushed and grabbed the towel hanging on her door.

"What the hell are you both doing in my room." Max demanded.

"You didn't lock it, so we walked in," Chloe returned innocently. Max frowned.

"Chloe!"

"Don't Chloe me, you're the one that didn't turn up for breakfast."

"What? I said I'd meet you at 7.30." Max asked, shaking her head at one very confusing morning.

"Yeah and it's nearly 8.30 now." Max looked from Chloe to Rachel expecting one of them to crack and say it was a prank. When neither of them did she picked up her phone and saw that it was indeed nearly 8.30.