CHAPTER SIX
tensions arising

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CHLOE CROSSED HER arms over her chest comfortably as she waited for the valet to bring the Mercedes back to the group, the woman's head briefly tilting back as she huffed out an exhausted breath before redirecting her attention to Stu and Alan beside her.

"So, uh, are you sure you're qualified to be taking care of that baby?" Stu inquired, furrowing his eyebrows at Alan as he awaited the man's answer.

Chloe just blinked. "Are you seriously asking that question, Stu?"

As if Alan couldn't get any weirder, he just expectedly furrowed his eyebrows at the pair. "What are you talking about? I've found a baby before."

"You've found a baby before?" Stu's eyebrows perplexedly tugged upwards as he rephrased the words, the man essentially voicing Chloe's perturbed surprise.

"Yeah." Alan lightheartedly chirped, failing to realise how the notion had come across.

"Where?" Stu bewilderingly questioned, entirely unnerved at the seemingly never-ending, utterly strange information he was continually being given about this man.

"Coffee Bean." Alan succinctly answered.

Chloe just frowned at the man, words deadpanned as Phil joined the group with a ticket in his hand. "You severely disturb me, Alan."

"Hey, Phil?" Alan ignored Chloe, not knowing how to answer the statement and turning to face Phil as he continued. "I don't think Doug would want us to take the Mercedes."

"Relax, we'll be careful." Phil casually brushed off his concern.

"See, my dad is crazy about that car." Alan hopelessly tried again. "He left Doug in charge-"

"Alan." Phil irritatedly cut him off as he didn't understand the point the man was trying to make. "We've got bigger problems here, Doug could be in the hospital, he could be hurt, okay? Let's worry about the car later."

As if on cue, the sound of a loud crane beeping above them suddenly sounded, consequently coaxing Stu's attention as he glanced up at it on the roof of the hotel. "Uh, guys? Check it out."

The group did what they were told, each of them now being met with the sight of a group of construction workers proceeding to untangle—what they each inferred was Doug's—mattress from its position wedged on one of the several quartz statues' arms, Chloe squinting as her hand went up to try and block the prominently bright sun-rays from blinding her vision. "Oh, wow."

"Is that the mattress from Doug's room?" Alan furrowed his eyebrows.

"What the fuck?" Phil murmured in utter shock, as if their situation couldn't get any more bizarre than it already was.

"Our bank accounts are so screwed." Chloe nudged Stu's side with her elbow, arms still crossed over her chest as she slowly, and disappointedly, stated.

Phil then approached one of the hotel's patrons, speaking up as he looked from him to the sight above them. "Hey man, what's going on?"

"Some asshole threw his bed out the window last night." The stranger gestured to the statue.

"No shit." Phil mused in an obvious tone.

"Yeah. Some guys just can't handle Vegas." The man shrugged.

As he then left without further explanation, Stu just shook his head overwhelmingly. "Oh, god."

"It's gonna be okay, Stu." Phil tried to supportively pat his friend's back as he then shifted his eyes between Chloe and Alan. "How the hell did we manage that?"

As if on cue, one of the valet's pulled up in front of them in a police car, consequently coaxing the group's attention to it.

"Please don't tell me this is what I think it is," Chloe muttered in pure disbelief as she internally hoped that the employee had made some sort of mistake, her following words a quiet mutter, "Please tell me we didn't steal a fucking cop car..."

Unfortunately for Chloe, her prayers were not answered as the man just tapped the car nonchalantly. "Here's your car, officers."

The absurdity of the situation only made Stu's fear grow even more than the previously high level it was already at, and he just muttered out a befuddled and fearful, "Oh, god."

"Alright, everybody act cool." Phil just shot each of the group members a pointed look. "Alright, don't say a word. Come on, let's just get in and go."

"Phil, you are so lucky that I'm this hungover." Chloe just scoffed in slight frustration as the reality of the situation began to settle in. "I swear, under any other circumstance, I would kick your irritating ass all the way back home, and I'm not fucking around."

Phil just frowned in slight offence at her. "Why me?"

"Because that," Chloe just directly gestured to the police car, "was definitely your idea."

Phil just scoffed as he nonchalantly gestured to the vehicle and began to make his way towards it. "It probably was, whatever, let's just go. Stu, you got a five?"

"No." Stu abruptly snapped, and Chloe was actually impressed that he stood his ground for once.

Chloe made her way to the passenger's seat, glaring ice-cold daggers at Phil as she pulled out her wallet and handed the valet five bucks. "Thanks."

"Thank you, officer." The valet just gratefully nodded at her as Phil sat in the front, Chloe in the passenger's seat, while the other two—plus Carlos—were debating something irrelevant outside.

Chloe just glared at Phil with an unfounded sense of frustration as the pair waited for Stu and Alan to get in the car. "Just so you know, the only reason you're not dead right now is because you have a kid."

Phil just frowned at her from his seat in response, not understanding why she was suddenly so tempered, her snarky attitude particularly directed only at him. "What's wrong with you?"

"What's wrong with me?" Chloe repeated, and she sat back in her seat in agitated bewilderment at his unassuming manner. "What's wrong with you?"

"You're gonna have to be more specific." Phil tried to lighten the mood, though he read Chloe's earnestly aggrieved expression, and his eyebrows knitted deeper inwards as a result. "What is this? Is this about us fucking last night? Or getting married?"

"Not initially, but yeah, sure, add those to the list." Chloe scoffed as her eyebrows then tugged upwards. "You don't seem, at all, concerned about any of this, you think everything's funny. Have you even comprehended the gravity of what's happened so far?"

Phil just shook his head. "All this shit's happened, Chloe. It's done, we can't just undo everything. I'm trying to fix all of it, and so what if I think it's funny? You can agree that everything that's happened so far is fucking crazy."

As Chloe intently listened to him, Phil just shrugged, not thinking too much about his following words as he nonchalantly glanced away. "And as for the whole sex thing, we did it all the time in college. If I wanted to fuck some other chick, I would've, and I'm sure if you wanted to fuck some other guy, you would've too, it's no different than both of us just wanting to fuck someone. You were there, I was there, what's the difference?"

Chloe didn't realise that those words would offend her so much. They weren't even that harsh compared to other things she'd been told from other men, Chloe knew that, and Phil has said way worse to her in the past. Those sentences didn't even make her blink an eye, but for some reason, these ones bothered her.

Some other chick.

Chloe couldn't help but allow the fleeting thought of her just being another number to him fly through her mind, and the realisation that the possibility of her being just a body for Phil, especially throughout college, had started to dawn on her.

Sure, when she was younger, that sentiment didn't bother her in the slightest. She easily rebounded, and that was it, though now, Chloe couldn't help but realise that of course she was just another figure. Just like he had been for her. The notion that they needed each other to serve a purpose, and that was it—both her and Phil's mutually agreed justification for their past actions—, reminded Chloe of their rules for one another.

That was all it could be. Just sex, with no strings attached. Phil had an ex wife. He had a kid. Surely he didn't need Chloe disturbing his rhythm.

Perhaps she was just extra sensitive from the alcohol, or maybe she was just exhausted, whatever it was, the sentence still cut deep.

All at once, she just allowed herself to ramble out a string of humourless statements. "There's a huge difference. These are our lives, Phil, we're not fucking kids anymore. We stole a police car, got married, Stu and my bank accounts are probably being run dry right now, and god knows what else we've done that we can't even remember doing! All of this shit is going on our permanent records, we could lose our jobs, you could lose your family, we're fucked! Don't even get me started on how you're criticising Stu for reacting like a normal person would under these circumstances, because he's just trying to process this whole thing like the rest of us are. Not all of us think that everything's a joke, and everyone else is stupid for not thinking the same way. I knew you were selfish, but fuck me, you just don't care about anything."

Phil wordlessly stared at her as she finished her long-winded rant, and he just watched her as she huffed out a breath, slumped back in her seat, and redirected her attention to the front of the car, wordlessly signifying that she was done talking.

She'd get over it pretty soon, Chloe wasn't one to hold petty grudges, but Phil still knew that there was definitely a prominent message that she was trying to convey, and even he couldn't deny that there was a significant element of truth backing up her claims.

Phil opened his mouth to respond, but as if on cue, Alan and Stu got in the car, the pair sitting in the back seats as they shifted their attention between the two in the front.

Phil still had his intent gaze sharply focused on Chloe, his unreadable eyes circulating with thousands of unspoken thoughts that he was trying to evaluate and put into words, while Chloe just held her unmoving, provoked glare outside her respective window.

The uncomfortable energy, that had now manifested itself into a bubbling awkward tension, indicated that it was incredibly clear that some argument had just occurred, Stu raising his eyebrows and clearing his throat as he just glanced out the window, and Alan seeming to not pick up on it as he just spoke up cheerfully. "I've never been in a police car without handcuffs on before. It's nice."

Phil and Stu turned to face him, disconcerting frowns on their faces, and without saying another word, Phil just blew out a dismissive breath, shook his head, and faced the front again, starting the car and driving off.

•

"This is so illegal." Stu spoke up between Phil's impatient honking. They were currently stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic, and Phil's, already prominent, inconclusive annoyance at Chloe, which was laced with a sense of unknowing confusion at the reason for its formation, was amplified instantly at the unfortunate circumstance.

Only proving Chloe's previous point, Phil just briefly shifted his eyes to the rear-view mirror to catch Stu's attention. "Can't you see the fun part in anything?"

"Yeah, we're stuck in traffic in a stolen police car with, what is sure to be, a missing child. Which part of this is fun?" Stu voiced, once again, what Chloe was thinking.

"I think the cop car part's pretty cool." Alan chimed in earnestly from his position beside Stu, earning himself momentary furrowed-brows from Chloe before she shifted her gaze to the front again.

"Thank you, Alan. It is cool." Phil confidently affirmed, not looking Chloe's way as he knew she wouldn't agree with him at this current point in time, despite her tendency to share similar sentiments in different settings and contexts.

She was usually easygoing, not as easygoing as Phil, though not as tightly wounded as Stu, which Phil was relieved at usually, however due to her current state of infuriation directed at him, Phil chose to just let her ride it out in her own time. Instead, he focused on Stu. "Doug would love it."

His impatience only grew at the lack of movement amongst the traffic, and he just loudly beeped the horn several times more as he loudly complained. "Come on!"

Finally getting way too fed up with the traffic, Phil just turned the sirens on and went to swerve the car onto the sidewalk with no further warning. "Check this out."

"No fucking way." Chloe sat up and widened her eyes at the realisation of his actions, and Stu mirrored the urgent expression and tone with a statement of his own.

"Oh, no. No, Phil. No, Phil! Don't do this!"

"Take it easy." Phil just dismissively scoffed, way too relaxed for their current predicament.

"Just try to call more attention to us." Stu sarcastically added as his panicked eyes were now darting between the people on the sidewalk, who were hurriedly stumbling out of the way at the sudden act.

Phil seemed to take the words literally as he playfully spoke into the police receiver and continued to drive at a leisurely pace along the sidewalk. "Attention. Attention, please. Move out of the way. I repeat, please disperse."

Despite Chloe's immense chagrin with the man, she simultaneously couldn't prevent a small huff that resembled a chuckle to slip past her, now smirking, lips, the woman admittedly finding the action a little amusing as she surveyed all of the citizens around her, each of them wearing differing expressions—most more frustrated and confused than others, but some interestedly ogling the sight.

When she realised that Phil had briefly began to flicker his gaze from the crowd to her, interested in watching her reaction, the woman just turned her head to look outside the window once more, rolling her lips inwards to conceal her momentary entertainment.

"Phil, stop the car, I wanna get out." Stu hurriedly panicked, tightly gripping onto the sides of the seat beside him in an attempt to soothe his fear. "Stop the car, I wanna get out. Pull over."

Phil just ignored his friend's protests and teasingly spoke into the microphone once more. "Ma'am in the leopard dress, you have an amazing rack."

Alan chortled as the woman Phil was referring to just flashed him a wide smile, Stu freaking out as he tried to warn the citizens of Phil's actions by calling out the window, "Get off the sidewalk, get off the sidewalk!"

As Phil turned the wheel, redirecting the car back to the road and consequently getting ahead of the traffic, he scoffed out a self-assured breath, "I should've been a fucking cop."

•

© voidvaleska