Afterwards: A Life Is Strange Fan-Fiction <A Choice Story>

Chapter 20/Episode 2: Leaving

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Saturday, October 12th, 11:23 AM
I wake up to a bright ray of light hitting my eyes. I rub them and sit up.

"Good morning sunshine." Chloe says sarcastically. I look outside and see that we're parked in the parking lot of a rest stop.

"Hey." I say. That's all I'm able to say. I'm still pretty sleepy. Hell, I'm surprised I can even think this straight. "Have you been driving all night?"

"Not quite that long, Max. I still have to sleep sometimes too you know. Oh, and by the way, thanks for laying on my leg. I can barely feel it. If I had to step on the brake really fast, we would have been dead." She says while smiling. I must have fallen asleep on Chloe. I was really tired after everything that happened yesterday. I look out the window again and realize we're not in Arcadia Bay anymore. I remember leaving, but that's really it.

"Where are we?" I ask. Chloe turns to me and smiles.

"Welcome to Portland Oregon! Directing you to the strip club closest to you..." She jokes. "Then donuts, and finally, books, if that's what you really wanna do." She forgot about the tats, which is good, because I really don't want a tattoo. If I did get one, it would probably be of a baby doe or something, or maybe a flower.

"You drove to Portland? You mean we're in Portland right now?"

"Fuck yeah dude! I'm hella awesome, aren't I?" It is pretty cool that she was able to do this while I was sleeping.

"Yeah, this is pretty cool, but do you know where we are?" She gives me a blank stare.

"Ummmm, no. I was lucky enough to make it to Portland using my phone, but then it died, so we're kinda lost." Last I checked, my phone was dead too.

"So, we're in Portland, but we don't know where we are in Portland? That shouldn't be too hard to figure out. Plus, that doesn't really matter, I mean, we made it to Portland!" I say with a smile. She smiles back.

"Yeah, we made it! I say we celebrate by getting super high, then blackout drunk!" I laugh.

"I don't think so Chloe, but I'm down for celebrating."

"Cool, we can do something tonight." She says while looking around. "So, what do we do now?"

"Breakfast?" I ask.

"Whoa, you just read my mind, Caulfield."

"Well, what can I say, I am your best friend." Chloe starts the truck and drives out of the parking lot onto the road.
...............
"Your food will be here shortly." Says the waitress.

"Thank you." I say. She nods and walks away.

"So, what's our first move here in Portland?" Chloe asks.
A place to stay/Work

"We need a place to stay of course!" I answer.

"We already have the truck, isn't that good enough?" Since we're trying to conserve on money, I guess the truck is the best option.

"Well, I guess for now, but we'll need an actual place sometime."

"Max, you're thinking too far into the future. Who knows if we're even going to stay here." I suppose she's right. Anything can happen.

"We're going to have to make a solid plan sometime though."

"I find it more fun to just go through life without giving a crap. It's more relaxing too." I can kind of agree with that, but we have to care about some things.

"This is our second chance after that storm. We can't mess it up."

"We have to have fun though. We can't get stressed over this." She grabs my shoulder. "Max, just chillax, ok? It'll all be alright." She gives me a half smile and leans back down in her booth. That's...surprisingly reassuring. The waitress walks over.

"Here's your coffee." She hands us both a cup of coffee. I nod and smile at her, and she walks away. We put sugar and cream in the coffee and sip on it slowly.
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"We'll have to find work, so we can make more money. That five thousand won't keep us covered forever." With as much food we're going to have to eat, that money is going to go away very quickly. Chloe stares at me.

"Whoa whoa whoa, who said we were even staying here?"

"So, we're not staying here?" I ask.

"Well, no-I mean, I don't know. You know I don't like to think about what we're going to do for the future. It's more fun this way." Chloe can be so irresponsible when it comes to big things like our plans, but that's part of who she is I guess.

"I don't know about that. I find it comforting to have something to lean on. What are we going to do if we-when we run out of money?" She shrugs.

"I dunno. But let me ask you this: what would we even do? You think you're going to be able to get random photography gigs around here? And what am I going to do? Unless it's a job that involves smoking weed and listening to music, I don't think I'll be very good at it!" She slouches down in the booth and crosses her arms.

"Chloe, you're good at a lot of things! To get into Blackwell, you had to be accepted in, which you were, so you obviously have something to offer!" The waitress comes over and places coffee onto the table. She places two cups in front of us, and leaves.

"...Damn, we have to pour our own coffee? We shouldn't tip that high." Chloe says. I think she's trying to deter the subject.

"Oh Chloe, be nice." I say while smiling. "I'm sure she's just busy." We pour the coffee and prepare it.
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Next part
"You know Max, we haven't talked about what we're going to do for our celebration. Any ideas?" Hmm, I haven't thought about it any.

"No, I don't know what we could do." She looks at me with that signature 'Chloe smile' she has.

"Well, I have some ideas. We could always get some tats." She did remember the tattoo idea. "Or, we could go to a nightclub or something. I'm sure there's one around here. I do know the tattoo artist here. She did some stuff for Rachel and I."

"I prefer the nightclub." She smiles again.

"Just keep an open mind, Max." The waitress walks over with the food.

"Here you go ladies." She says merrily.

"Thanks." I say as I start cutting into my Belgian waffle. I cut off a small price and take a bite. "Mmm, it's almost as good as the Two Whales!" I say to Chloe.

"This'll never be as good as mom's cooking was." She looks a little down. This celebration tonight will hopefully change that.
...............
We get in the truck and Chloe turns to look at me.

"So, have you thought about what we're doing for our celebration?"

"When did you plan on doing this?" I ask trying to gain some extra time to think about my answer.

"Hmm, good question. How about eight o'clock tonight?"

"It's a date!" I tease.

"So, what's your answer?"
If you go to the nightclub, go to chapter 21
If you go to the tattoo parlor, go to chapter 22