The next morning, my eyes still closed, I reached over to find Chloe only to feel empty sheets, and I sat up instantly alert. Chloe was nowhere to be seen, but the smell of... Pancakes? was coming from downstairs, and I could hear muffled conversation.
I got out of bed silently, walking on tippy toes to reduce the creaks of the wood floor in the hallway and down the stairs as I peaked down into the kitchen, where my Mom was sitting on one of the breakfast bar stools talking to Chloe, who was making pancakes.
Chloe turned her head and locked eyes with me and smiled. My Mom then turned and looked at me too. A unreadable expression on her face before she looked down, stood from her stool and left the room.
I watched her walk away, before walking behind the counter where Chloe was pouring more batter into the pan.
Sleepily I wrapped my arms around her waist and leaned against her, my cheek against her back as she chuckled. "Good morning sleepy head." she said, flipping another pancake.
"My Mom tell you of my broken childhood or anything else that doesn't matter?" I asked, my cheek still pressed against her back and obscuring my speech.
Chloe tensed as she sighed and put the spatula down on the counter. "She told me why you're here..." Chloe said turning in my arms, looking down at me and ruffling my already messy hair. "And that she's grateful that you have a good 'friend' like me." She said as she kissed my forehead, then turned back to the frying pan.
I sighed as I unwrapped my arms from around Chloe's waist and walked around the kitchen's island to a cabinet where the coffee mugs were and poured myself a cup. Adding sugar and milk, I stirred the warm drink enjoying the smell.
I grabbed another mug and poured one for Chloe, who took it gratefully and slurped it loudly.
"You're weird." y/n said, silently taking another sip of coffee.
"And you, are really good at making coffee." Chloe said as she all but chugged the rest of her mug, placing the cup on the counter.
Chloe stacked three pancakes on a plate and sat them in front of me with some syrup along with a fork and knife.
"I'm really sorry about your Dad."
I know Chloe meant it in a good way, but it brought tears to my eyes, so I avoided Chloe's intense gaze, and instead stared down at the pancakes and mumbled a thank you.
Chloe nodded in understanding, wrapping an arm around my shoulders, the other arm still holding a spatula. "I know, it hurts, but it's gonna be alright, l/n"
After pancakes, Chloe put her number in my phone, confirmed that our date was still on for tonight and headed home. I didn't really know what to do with myself afterwards, so I walked into our backyard, a small yellowed grass area filled with weeds that grew higher than my waist, and a beaten looking fence surrounding it. A rusty looking lawnmower sat in the corner and I decided that was a good place as any to start, so I used a shovel that I found sitting under the porch to hack away at the weeds that had grown through the wheels and cover. Once it was detached, I had to drag it out of the dirt, where it left a stiff lawnmower print in the dirt.
The wheels didn't even turn as I heaved it to the garbage bin. I took one look at the height of the bin, estimated the weight of the mower and didn't even try to throw it.
I walked into town and bought some giant gardening scissors, some kind of ground cylindrical cookie cutter and two dozen blue flowers. It was too late until I realized I wasn't going to be able to carry it all by myself. Luckily that Warren fellow from the ice cream shop walked in just as I was trying to balance both trays of flowers and the two tools.
Warren grabbed the flowers just as they were about to fall.
"Easy there, you almost dropped these." He said with a smile.
"We haven't been properly introduced, I'm Y/N" I said as I picked up the tools and accepted one of the trays back.
"Warren," he said "Do you have a car to take these back to your house with, or are you walking?"
"Walking, I didn't really think this through." I replied.
"No problem, if you need a ride I came by car, I only need to pick up some vegetable seedlings for an experiment at Blackwell." Warren said leading me out the door to put the flowers and tools in his car.
"Are you attending Blackwell, Y/N?" Warren asked as we walked back into the store.
"No, I never applied for further learning, although my Dad encouraged me to. I pursued being a welder for cars as a trade, but after moving back here I'm just running on my Dad's will money."
"I'm sorry." Warren said, casting a look down at me with knowing sad eyes.
We stayed silent in the car except for when I gave the directions to my house. Warren helped me carry the plants and tools to my backyard, and when he saw the state of my lawn he volunteered to head back to his house to grab his lawn mower.
After the lawn had been mowed, Warren came into the house for a some lemonade and our conversation flowed from one topic to the other, talking with him came easy, he left lots of gaps in the conversation for me to respond and share my own stories, but not enough to create awkward silence.
Warren helped turn up the soil after the lemonade break, and soon after the last few flowers had been planted, he had to leave for dinner with his parents. It had been nice to fill the silence and groom the lawn for the day, but now I was all sweaty, my knees were stained green by the grass and I smelled like fresh soil.
I headed up the patio stairs, kicked my shoes off and headed up to the bathroom for shower. The hot water felt good on my muscles from the gardening, and when I got out the sun was already sinking towards the horizon. I threw on some jeans and a black shirt that said "W.T.F - Where's The Food?", before grabbing my leather jacket, a pair of socks, and heading down the stairs.
Mom was sitting at the counter looking out the window at the blue flowers I'd planted, she turned when she heard my footsteps. I glanced at her, scanning her face, but found no guilt, shame or anger as she looked me up and down and nodded to herself.
"Have fun" She said quietly turning back to look at the garden.
I sighed and walked out the door, only pausing a second to ponder wether I should walk back in there and apologize for ignoring her. Instead I shrugged my boots and headed to the front, where a rusty old truck was turning the corner onto my street.
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Hey Guys! I disappeared for awhile, and when I came back you guys had over 2k reads on this! I'm mind blown. I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this story. And we're at 52 likes already, that's half way to the next story! I've started really liking Overwatch fan fiction lately so I will probably do a book of Character x Reader for that if any of you guys are interested in reading something like that. (Expect some Amélie, Pharah and Tracer x Reader anyway because I MUST write it. I'm lonely hahaha.)
Anyway thanks for the reads guys! And remember smash that like button for more reading material and I'm always open for suggestions! Happy reading!
*Reminder I don't own any names, places or characters in this story please don't kill me
~ Ryan
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Paying the Price - Chloe Price x Reader a Life is Strange Fanfic
Fanfiction***I must have fallen asleep, because when I awoke the sun was starting to set and I could hear someone trying to start my motorbike. I jumped out of the rusted car and grabbed the baseball bat that I'd dropped on the ground on the way to the car. I...
