The air still held an early October mist, the grass holding up droplets of water from the torrential rain of the night before.. Chloe slowly began to rub her eyelids, resting her weight onto her elbow on the rusted door of the truck as the two drove down an empty highway. Max, on the other hand, was long since asleep, the collection of rewinding and general stress from the last week still burdened on her poor eyes. Chloe glanced over to her, with a kind smile, for though no one could see her, she didn't care. She hadn't felt this physically comfortable with someone since her dad was around. Chloe pondered tapping Max on the shoulder, waking her from her sleep of innocence. However, she knew that after all Max had been through, she deserved a decent sleep. The stinging behind the older girl's eyes, however, would not let up. No amount of rubbing would subside the general feeling of fatigue and weariness. As the first calls of birds began to stir, and the morning light began piercing the branches of trees that adorned the highway, Chloe quickly decided that she needed to rest if she was going to be driving. Upon seeing a sign for a motel, She pulled into the parking lot, her truck chugging and spluttering away. The blue haired girl turned to the smaller, still-sleeping brown haired girl, debating whether a kiss on the forehead would be too forward to wake her up. She eventually decided on a boop on the nose, awakening Max from her sweet surrender of sleep. "Mmrf?" Max let out a series of grunts and moans, before rubbing the sleep from her eyes and glancing up at a blurred vision of a very exhausted-looking punk girl in front of her; This punk girl was Chloe Price. The realisation of her choices sunk into Max's head as her brain slowly adjusted to reality again, and she gave a meek smile on her freckled face, gently closing her eyes again brushing her soft brown bob out of her face, sitting upright on the patched, brown bench of the cab of Chloe's truck. "Morning, sleepyhead. Hope you weren't having any cool dreams." Chloe joked, knowing the weight of last night, and wanting Max to be comfortable for a while.

The smaller girl gave a gentle giggle, resting her head backwards, her face pointed to the ceiling of the truck, and she closed her eyes and sighed. "The only thing I'm dreaming of is some more sleep. How come we stopped?" She let out a long sleepy sigh again.

"I'm hella fucking tired, Max. After all of your efforts, It'd be kinda unfortunate if we straight up died on the side of a highway because of my shitty driving." Chloe rebutted, only half-joking.

Max was beginning to fully wake up, her eyes now more alert, and now sore, similar to her blue-haired companion. She sat up once again, glancing up at the buzzing neon sign depicting a very washed out "M-TEL". She could just about make out the pink O in the dawn light, the daybreak of the early Autumn sunlight piercing the truck cab, the cooling veil of night now absent, the bitter reality of the world around them now pulled over the world like a pall of consequence and responsibility. As Max gave her friend a remorseful, weak smile, Chloe gently ruffled her hair, as she would've done with Rachel all those years ago.

"Come on Max, let's at least get some grub or something. I'm starving." Chloe turned her glance away, and suddenly the harsh reality of the night before began to settle. She let the pain of knowing how many lives she had taken for her to be alive dawn on her. She let this thought consume her, looking away with remorse as she unbuckled her seatbelt, opening up the truck door and slamming it's shaky form against the body of the cab. She gave herself about ten seconds to glance over her situation, her eyes filling with the pain of knowing what she had done, what she had taken. "Chloe? Are you coming?" Max asked quizzically, her small legs already climbing the doorway steps to the motel. Chloe's hands now resting against the edge of her car, hiding her face under her arms, leaning against her car and looking at the cracked concrete from hot Summers past. As she looked up shakily at her friend, clearly also eager for some food or rest, Chloe realised how different Max was to the anxious, self-concious childlike figure that she had re-united with on Monday afternoon, the girl who was scared to death of Chloe's guns and cigarettes, the one who had awkwardly danced to Sparklehose in her punk companion's messy room. Max was clearly different from the week, still her old, clumsy, cringey self; but then again, stronger, wiser, more confident. As she let the thoughts of how much more adorable and hot a confident Max was, she tried to not let her thoughts get the better of her, and finally recollected her thoughts and jogged lightly over to her friend, pushing open the doors to the motel lobby, and striding inside with her typical confident saunter.