Dicking around in Chloe's room should've been warning enough that something dumb was going to happen, but she guessed that she could use her rewind power if something were to go wrong. Now that this has happened... She's not sure if she wants to rewind. It's a dynamic mix.
The things that happened before the dare are pretty bland. But Max certainly recalls Chloe's words-
"I dare you to kiss me."
It was pure, unadulterated torture. Chloe Price herself just asked me to kiss her? Did I hear that right?
And so came the moments of questioning the situation. Was she joking? Probably not. Well, she probably was, but Max didn't want her to be joking. This gave her the perfect excuse to dive right in and satisfy her curiosity as to how those plump lips would feel on her skin.
Still, Max had self-control and obligations. What would this do to their friendship? It could either make them inseparable, or break them apart forever. And Max became drawn to her lips again, gazing at her hair-
"What? Chloe, no way-"
"I double dare you. Kiss me now."
Max was always curious.
No way did Chloe know about her unrequited love for the bluenette, right? This would be a dare that she could use as leverage. Chloe won't suspect a thing; after all, it was her own idea. Blame it on the dare, satisfy your interest, and possibly even pilfer bits of Chloe's heart along the way.
And Max Caulfield didn't hesitate to seize the opportunity.
She leaned towards Chloe, touching their foreheads together, testing herself out with her hands on Chloe's hips. Chloe smirked, thinking that Max was just playing around, but became confused for a second when Max lightly kissed the corner of her mouth and gazed at the girl deviously through her eyelashes.
Max backed away, just a centimeter for a second, and contemplated how far she'd take it next- leaving Chloe to wonder for the time being whether to keep smirking or to actually prepare herself for a kiss, but the Max's pelvis crashed into Chloe's and she was being pulled onto her and-
Fuck. Max grabbed the ends of Chloe's hair to pull her lips onto her own- forcefully this time, closing her eyes and breathing in deeply, inhaling Chloe's scent- a blend of smoke and jasmine incense, faintly mixed into the bluenette's clothes. Blood pumped through her veins, her heart beating fast as hell, burning through her chest, her skin, her everything.
Chloe has no idea I'm in love with her.
The kiss was sloppy; nervousness got to the better of them, and their lips enveloped one another's rhythmically, teeth clanking amateurly. Chloe's eyes were wide in shock the entire time, and she gingerly grabbed onto Max's forearms for support as their lips caught each other like butterflies fluttering frantically.
The force between the two was intense, and the kiss ended in a matter of seconds, Max pushing Chloe away. Her face was red, tears threatening for reasons she couldn't explain. Chloe looked completely out of her mind.
"W-whoa, Max, I-I didn't think you'd actually do it..." She gaped, smoothing out her flannel with her hands nervously, her eyebrows raised so high that they could fly away. Their mingled saliva was in regions of her mouth, but she neglected wiping it off in spite of ignoring bringing attention to the kiss that definitely just happened.
"Chloe, oh fuck, I-I didn't mean to-" Max stepped back farther from Chloe, nearly tripping by the bedpost, but managed to catch her step. She fumbled with her hands at her sides, and she felt tears bubbling up behind her eyes, her face itching as if it was under a thousand blankets except there's no blankets but she's still hot and she can't do anything about it and- "I s-should go, I'm so sorry I did that, I'm going to leave-"
"Wait." Chloe takes a deep breath, slowly walking over to Max, although her legs are trembling slightly. "We're going to talk about this."
Although Chloe comes off as a bitch, she really does have empathy. She feels bad for setting Max up like that, as if she'd manipulated her, even though she had good intentions. The result of the good intentions was just bad, and she should've thought- because God, if Max leaves this room without any sort of clarity, Chloe might just have to write "BANG ME" across her bare chest to get the message across.
"Chloe, wouldn't it be better if I just left? What's there to talk about? I-I kissed you, and you weren't serious, and I made a fool of myself.. A-and-" The bluenette closed her eyes due to the profundity of the brunette, and she sat down on the bed, gesturing for her "friend" to come join her.
"Chloe?" Max walked slowly toward the bed, Chloe laying down and scooting over to make room. Max just looks at her for a second, her haphazard electric blue hair framing her face, and feels the sting of the first tear down her cheek. They're done, she knows it.
But she sits on the edge of the bed, as far from Chloe as possible, and plays with her hands in her lap, picking at her cuticles and tries to ignore everything around her.
"It was just a kiss, Maxi-Pad." Chloe starts off, her raspy voice barely over a whisper as her legs hang over the bed, buttons from her flannel fumbling in hand.
"My problem is that it wasn't just a kiss to me, Chloe." Max sniffles, her nose a bit stuffy from crying and her eyes watery. She grips the bedsheets and curls her toes, focusing on the pattern of her thigh-high socks.
"Max, it's fine! I don't care. Look! I'm all good. Nothin' wrong with me. We can forget about it." Chloe moves so that her head is propped against the headboard, arms supporting, facing Max.
"I don't want to forget about it," Max mumbles.
"...Oh," Is all that Chloe can reply, the temperature of her room seeming to raise by at least one degree in that very moment.
"C-Chloe, I didn't rewind because I don't want you to forget." Max pulls her knees up to her chest, warming her toes with her hands to match the temperature of the rest of her body.
Silence took over the room, but none of them pointed it out, because the situation was already awkward. It's that kind of stagnant awkward where you know what questions need to be asked, and the quiet is painful, but you're not sure if the only things worth saying will help.
But Chloe is ever-so-impulsive.
"Do you like me?"
That one question from the punk girl caused Max to break out in panic turned to silent sobbing, remembering how it felt to run her fingers through Chloe's hair, their bodies heating up, mouths working with and against each other deliciously just moments ago. Max could still taste and smell Chloe on her.
"If I answer truthfully, is it going to ruin us?" Max looks Chloe in the eyes, and both of them know she's being really serious now.
"Only if you say you don't."
Chloe inhales deeply at her own quick response, sitting up and moving next to Max, mimicking her position and wiping Max's tears.
It'd been a wild ride. Chloe tried making attempts to get closer to the photographer, trying to seem cool but only harming herself in the end. The train tracks, the shooting range, all of it backfired, no pun intended. It seemed that all of her efforts were ignored.
"I really like you, Chloe." Max sniffles again, taking Chloe's hand and resting her head on her shoulder. "I don't want to screw up. I screwed up, didn't I?"
"Calm down." Chloe rubs the back of Max's hand with her thumb and holds her close. "I really like you, too. You didn't screw up. You're fine."
"How long have you liked me?" Max talks from Chloe's shoulder, the stars from outside illuminating the room, the sound of crickets infiltrating their ears.
"I don't even know. I don't really care. I just know that I like you." Chloe speaks with apprehension in her voice.
"So... We both like each other." Max reaches an arm around Chloe, pulling her tight.
"Yeah. I guess the confessions are out." Chloe bites her lip, a vital question threatening to break past.
"But what do we do now?" The brunette huffs a bit, exhausted from all of this, ready to move on from this conversation.
The bluenette hesitates for a second, but takes her chance.
"Hey, Maxaroni?"
"Yeah?"
"Do you..." She stops dead in her tracks. "Never mind."
The stagnant awkward persists for another moment, but soon Max takes control of the situation as she often feels obligated to do.
Max lifts her head from Chloe's shoulder, looking at her face, grabbing it and bringing her to face her.
Chloe isn't one to hesitate. She's brash and unapologetic when it comes to her decisions, and doesn't leave much to the mind.
"What was that?" Max won't let her off easy.
"Just forget about it."
"Chloe."
"Fine!" She sits up straight, facing Max completely, and takes her hands. "D-do you think we could do that again?"
"Kiss?!"
"Y-yeah."
"Did you actually like it when I kissed you?" Max tentatively scoots closer to Chloe, fitting perfectly between her legs, wrapping her own around Chloe's back. Her heart is doing that flipping thing again and her face burns like someone put out a cigarette on it.
Both girls know that they want to kiss each other again, but what stands in the way- or opens the door, depending on how you look at it- is how the two of them go about initiating things. Quick, brash Chloe, decides first, thinks later. Slow, thoughtful Max- thinks first, decides later. Both thought and decision making processes have their consequences.
"I did the 'dare' because I wanted you to kiss me, but I didn't think you'd do it-"
Max hugged Chloe suddenly, leaning her head on her shoulder again and smelling her shirt. Something about it was comforting. Something about Chloe being in it was comforting. She could feel her warm Chloe, smell her, see her, hear her gravelly voice, taste her neck as she started kissing up gently;
Chloe tilted her head, exposing more skin. "M-Max, holy shit." The vibrations of her voice travel through Max's lips to straight down between her legs. "You're actually-"
Chloe was cut off by Max's soft lips touching her own timidly, testing her boundaries with her "friend" and opening and closing her mouth a few times before Chloe's buttery lips moved in sync with the brunette; melting.
Chloe wrapped her own legs around Max's backside, creating some sort of seal between them, her hand on Max's head, fingers in her hair; pulling her closer.
Their lips just kept going and going leisurely, eyes lidded dreamily, hair wild and hot, the smacking sounds filling the room along with the crickets. Chloe lets out a low-pitched moan, and Max quavers, backing away and leaning their foreheads together, looking each other in the eyes with much intensity.
"Chloe, this is really..."
"I know-"
"This is really hot..."
They just look at each other, foreheads slightly damp against one another, relaxed a bit before Chloe initiates another kiss, harshly catching Max's lips.
This time around it's a bit more belligerent, Chloe wanting to take control as she intended when she first mentioned the dare. She's mercilessly honest with what she wants, getting her point across by introducing more elements, opening the door for Max to try what she's doing.
They work their lips against one another before Chloe takes Max's bottom lip into her mouth, nibbling and suckling on it before releasing it, and they go back to the normal.
Max feels something like a coil tightening and unwinding in the pit of her stomach, small waves of heat washing over her from that base. Every time Chloe does something with her mouth, the coil winds a bit tighter, and it's driving her insane.
Max slips the tip of her tongue past Chloe's lips when their lips separate, and when Chloe starts sucking on her tongue, she loses it.
They separate their mouths fully this time, and she furrows her brows in a way that says "I have a problem that you need to deal with."
The punk plays with the hem of Max's shirt, looking away from her eyes and down at her dynamic hands.
She takes some time to catch her breath, allowing Max to recover before she does anything else. She tries to control her shaking, because she doesn't want Max to know she's nervous, but it's obvious that she's shaking.
How could you not be nervous? She's been anticipating this moment for a long time, not that she'd admit that to Max without a fight.
"C-can I take off your shirt?"
…
Shit.