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Sitting in the Two Whales diner made Max think the whole time traveller thing was a lot more believable, considering how little had changed in her five-year absence. The bittersweet ache of nostalgia in her chest flared as she glanced around. If she looked to the side of the old, banged up jukebox she’d see that The Fishing Wall Of Fame William always dreamed of appearing on was still there, still without his face as it had been all that time ago.
Their table was slightly sticky, like it always used to be; the food was as greasy as it was in her memories; every inhale still triggered memories of all the birthdays she spent at this place. The floor probably had the same dirt lodged in between the tiles, and Chloe was sitting across from her, just like the last time she had sat in this booth. It was a window to the past.
All the changes that five years brought seemed non-existent when Max focused on the diner itself, but she couldn’t ignore those changes when she looked at the people in it. Wrinkles around Joyce’s eyes she didn’t remember, tattoo ink curling around Chloe’s arm, and a blond girl sat to the side of Chloe that Max had met only weeks before, an unfamiliar face. Rachel Amber was one of those changes she couldn’t ignore. Primarily due to how intently said change was gazing at her.
“Come on, that’s just a daydream,” Chloe said. She leaned forward in her seat, palms flat on the table. “We want proof you can rewind time.” She cast a glance at Rachel and raised an eyebrow when the girl didn’t look back at her. “Right, Rach?”
There was no reply from Rachel. As inscrutable as ever, she was staring at Max with a curious look on her face. A slight frown and narrowed eyes that Max didn’t want to meet, an analytical look that made her feel like she was being interrogated, or placed underneath a microscope. They had only known each other for a short while, but it was Rachel who had reunited her with Chloe. Max wanted to trust her, wanted to be friends with her, but it was difficult considering how hard to read she was. Chloe wore her heart on her sleeve, Rachel wore a bracelet on hers.
“I do,” she said, “but… She’s not lying.” Max flicked her eyes up at Rachel, attempting to meet her gaze after much deliberation, but Rachel was looking at Chloe. “She’s telling us what she thinks is the truth.” She laughed, disbelieving, but her voice was serious when she next spoke. “I can tell you believe everything you just said. Every word. But we don’t, so we need proof.”
The frown was still there, but there wasn’t a trace of derision or outright disbelief like Chloe had expressed. If anyone in the diner was going to acknowledge she wasn’t lying, Max didn’t expect it to be Rachel. Max and her were friends, sure, they’d known each other for more than a couple weeks, but they didn’t have that history they both had with Chloe. Where Max had an entire childhood filled with pirate adventures and weekly sleepovers, Rachel had all those starry nights and shared kisses. To each other they were still relative strangers, joined by a common thread with blue hair and a wicked sense of humour.
“Um, okay, this is all happening so fast…” Max worried her lip between her teeth and tried not to acknowledge the two pairs of eyes boring into her while she sat there, thinking up a way to show off her powers. Her hands smoothed over her jeans and she felt the change from the bus fare bulging in her pocket. In her pocket.
She looked up at Rachel. “I can tell you everything you have in your pockets.”
Chloe tilted her head. “How does time travel make you a psychic?” She paused, then her eyes widened. “Wait, are you going to ask her to empty her pockets and then rewind time and tell us what’s in them?” A smile spread across her features when Max nodded, and she nudged Rachel with her elbow. “Come on, I have to see this!”
Rachel eyed Max for a moment, tilting her head a bit, and this time Max held her gaze. She averted her gaze and started pulling things out of her pocket and placing them on the table: a tube of concealer, makeup wipes, $1.53 in change, and an eyeliner pencil. Max stared down at the items and lifted her hand. The world went grey and Rachel’s nimble hands worked in reverse.
The table was empty once again. Max smiled at Rachel and rattled off the details, sure that this would convince them both. “You’ve got a tube of concealer, some wipes, $1.53, and an eyeliner pencil.”
Chloe looked surprised by Max’s confidence and precision, but Rachel looked unimpressed as her hands went to her pockets. This time, she pulled out the tube of concealer, two dollar bills, a hair tie, and a lighter. Once everything was laid out on the table, Chloe shrugged at Max. “Sorry Max, that was beyond epic fail. I kind of believed you but, really?”
Max raised her hand. The world ran backward, as did Chloe’s words, and Max tried again from the start. This time Rachel pulled out a burnt down roach, her phone, and the lighter. When Max rewound and rattled off the details, Rachel again pulled out a different set of things.
The process repeated. Chloe shrugged at Max. “Sorry Max, that was beyond epic fail. I kind of believed you but, really?” A beat passed as Max just rubbed her temples and sighed instead of giving a reply. She wasn’t sure if the headache she was developing was from using her powers or frustration.
“Okay, we’re clearly not getting anywhere, right Max?” Rachel’s voice was pleasing to the ear, her words honeyed, but at that moment Max was sick of getting messed with. She shot a pointed look at Rachel, but Rachel didn’t acknowledge it. “How about you predict what I’m going to do? ‘Rewind’ after I do something crazy, then tell me what I was about to do.”
Max frowned. “Why can’t I just wait for someone else to do something? You could lie.” The ‘like you already did’ was unspoken. She hoped the distrust in her tone got her point across. There was no way that pocket thing wasn’t Rachel messing with her.
“Because that’d be boring, obviously.” Rachel shot her a grin as she slid out of the booth and swiped the salt shaker off the table in one smooth motion. Max and Chloe watched as Rachel crossed the diner, twisted the cap off the salt shaker, and dumped it into a nearby cop’s coffee. Chloe laughed, Max gasped, and he stood up and began shouting at Rachel.
She paid him no heed and instead looked back at Max while tapping her wrist and giving Max a half-smile. It took her a moment to realise Rachel was asking her to rewind, mostly because of how shockingly unflinching Rachel was in the face of an irate police officer screaming at her. At this point Joyce was getting involved and Max could tell that if she didn’t act quick somebody was going to get thrown out the diner. Her hand raised—
“Because that’d be boring, obviously.” Rachel shot her a grin, and before Max could even voice her prediction, she slid out of the booth and ambled toward where Frank was sitting. Frank glanced up and his hard gaze softened. Max and Chloe were too far away to hear the ensuing conversation, but Frank looked more animated than usual, happy even.
The smile vanished when Rachel leaned forward, grabbed his plate, and dumped its contents on the floor next to his table. She stepped back as he scowled and started saying something, but Max couldn’t make out the exact words besides a shout of, “I WAS EATING THOSE BEANS!”
Heads turned at the raised voice in time to witness Frank Bowers slip on a puddle of baked beans as he stepped out of his booth and hit the ground with a dull thud. Chloe’s laughter filled Max’s ears, but her focus was on rewinding once she caught sight of how Frank was already pulling himself up with murder in his eyes, unseen by Rachel as she walked back towards them, grinning.
Her stride and expression betrayed no hint of fear and Max had to take a moment to take in the sight of Rachel, exuding nothing but effortless confidence and a devil-may-care attitude as Frank stomped after her. Max didn’t know what to think of it. Did Rachel really trust she was telling the truth?
Whatever the case, Rachel wouldn’t suffer the consequences of her actions. The scene played in reverse. The beans were back on the plate, and Rachel was back in her seat, untouched, and Max finally got the timing right so that she could say her piece before Rachel slipped away.
“—after I do something crazy, then tell me what I was about to do.”
“You’re about to walk up to Frank’s table, talk to him for a bit, then spill his beans on the floor.” Chloe snorted. Max smiled at how Rachel’s eyes widened ever so slightly upon hearing her words. “He tries to stand up and slips on them afterwards, just so you know.”
Chloe cackled. “Oh man, now I want to see that happen.” A broad grin crossed her face, and she looked from Max to Rachel. “Is she right? Was that what you were planning?”
A beat passed as Rachel met Chloe’s eyes, then Max’s, and said nothing. Max frowned at the sudden shift in demeanour, how Rachel now looked so pensive. The embers of her annoyance from earlier flared up and she felt the back of her scalp prickle. “Was that not what you were planning?” She asks.
In lieu of a reply, Rachel leaned across the table, cupped Max’s cheeks in her hands, and murmured something at the edge of Max’s hearing. “It was, but I don’t like being predictable.”
There was a beat as Rachel hesitated. It was a deliberate pause. She gazed at Max, lips curled in a faint half-smile, thinking of what to do next, how to be the most effective agent of chaos. The distance between their faces was already so short…
Rachel closed the tiny space between them and pressed her lips against Max’s. It was a fleeting, chaste, nothing more than a lingering touch that Max thought about deepening, but Rachel pulled away again and sauntered over to Frank’s booth before Max could do anything. Rachel’s smile grew as she glimpsed of the warm blush that had bloomed on Max’s face.
She cast one last glance in Max’s direction and winked before she picked up his plate and threw it like a frisbee across the diner. This time both Joyce and Frank were upon Rachel in short order, in her face screaming at her and each other and making the whole diner fall silent as they exchanged harsh words, but all the while Max’s attention was on Rachel.
Max touched a finger to her mouth. Rachel had kissed her. She felt her stomach flip at the implications. Thoughts swirled around her head: a thousand and one questions about why Rachel Amber kissed her and the realisation that she still had to rewind despite what had just happened.
Chloe shook off her shock and echoed her thoughts. One of them, at least. “Max, shit’s getting real over there, do your rewind thing!” she said, but she still stood up and went after Rachel as if she had no faith in what Max could do.
She raised her hand for the last time and Rachel met her eyes as she did so. A shy smile flickered across Rachel’s face, who mirrored the gesture before turning it into a small wave goodbye. Max gripped time and watched the colours drain from the world, the smile vanish from Rachel’s face, broken shards reform into a plate that flew across the room, witnessed all that chaos undone within seconds. It was surreal watching Rachel kiss the air where her head was moments ago.
Chloe cackled. “Oh man, now I want to see that happen.” A broad grin crossed her face and she looked from Max to Rachel. “Is she right? Was that what you were planning?”
Rachel’s eyes were on Max and that shy smile reappeared for a moment before it morphed into a look of disbelief, one that Max could see right through. There was still a glimmer of mischief in her eyes and something else that made Max a lot more aware of their hazel was a very nice colour. “She’s right.” Rachel started shaking her head, then stopped abruptly as her gaze fixed on something on Max’s face. “Max, your nose.”
Max felt something warm trailing down her lip. When she wiped at it, her fingers came away stained with fresh blood. A nosebleed?
“Shit, you okay Max?” Chloe asked. She grabbed a handful of napkins and thrust them in Max’s direction, who took them so she could start dabbing at the flowing blood. Maybe she used her powers too much?
Or maybe I’m thinking too hard about that kiss…
Either way, she hardly had time to dwell on things as Chloe placed her palms flat on the table and bowed her head, jarring Max from her thoughts. “I pledge allegiance to Max and the power for which she stands…”
“Chloe.” Rachel sighed, fondly smiling. “Can we save the pledges of allegiance for when her nose stops bleeding? I’ve heard of blood pacts, but…”
Chloe, her head now raised from the table, chuckled. “Gross!” She drummed her fingers on the table. “Actually, speaking of blood pacts, you did give me an idea… American Rust?”