Chapter Text
They pulled back into the parking lot. The drive was silent, not even the radio was turned on. And Max was fine with it. The light from her phone screen highlighted the pages in her journal as she wrote. ‘If anyone finds this at least they’ll only think I’m crazy rather than think I have time travel powers.’
She regretted her decision to write on the Arcadia Bay roads with all of the squiggled out letters and messy corrections. She’d have to fix it later. She snapped the book shut and returned it to her bag.
“Knowing Wells he’ll be off drinking to forget today,” Victoria explained, “Madsen might be active, but Court said he went home. I believe her, too.”
“So there’s nobody to catch us?”
Victoria frowned, “Well, there’s the night guard, but nothing happens at night really so he’s probably not really all that alert.”
“‘Probably’,” Max scoffed.
Victoria chuckled, “Yeah, but what do we have to worry about with you around?”
“I can only go so far back,” Max said with a shake of her head. “If I try to go further back it feels like I’m starting to unravel my brain matter.”
“Jesus…” Victoria grimaced. “Well, we just won’t get caught then.”
The girls stepped out of the car and made their way to the courtyard. It was a cooler night. The moon was high, almost full. It cast a blue veil over the world, like a filter over a dark shot.
Max glanced down at how the light illuminated her skin. It made her appear even paler, like a long forgotten Victorian ghost haunting the grounds.
Victoria, on the other hand, looked beautiful. The glow highlighted her features making her seem like she had been hand carved from stone and yet soft and ethereal like a Michelangelo marble statue. Max felt more self conscious than ever standing beside the Queen Bee of Blackwell.
“Shit!” Victoria hissed. Her stand shot out and pulled Max into the blonde’s chest as she yanked both of them out of sight behind a tree. The stand’s grip was cold, but it quickly shifted into warmth as the stand melded into Victoria’s form.
Whatever was happening, whatever Victoria was hiding them from, it wasn’t a concern to Max in that moment though. In fact, everything slipped away save for the feeling of Victoria's rhythmic breaths moving against Max. Like a warm boat upon the smooth waves of the ocean. It was soft. Max had never really rested against someone’s chest like this before. She never really understood why people did it in the first place. Lots of people’s chests were bony, so there didn’t seem to be a reason for it.
Max’s stomach, however, was doing flips. The beat of Victoria’s heart was the most intoxicating thing in the world, better than any music she had heard. She closed her eyes. She let the sound, the physical feeling of something so steady, fill her being. It was calming, and it was terrifying. ‘What is this?’
“Alright, he’s gone,” Victoria’s voice vibrated into Max’s body as she spoke. The feeling was better than any of the big massage chairs at the mall back in Seattle.
“Hm,” Max hummed.
“Max? We gonna move?”
Max’s eyes shot open and a deep ice cold fear ripped through her core. ‘This is weird. This is so weird, I’m so weird.’ She roughly pushed Victoria away, “S-sorry, I’m… tired.”
Victoria stood still, a surprised look painted her face. She shook her head after a moment, “D-don’t worry about it, alright? No harm no foul, yeah?” Max nodded. “Yeah, so we’ll go in, get the evidence, then get out and you can finally get some rest.”
Max nodded. ‘It was just a weird moment, you’re tired. That’s all.’ The two made their way to the entrance, “So who was it? Was it the security guard?”
Victoria shook her head, “No, it was Mark.”
“Mr. Jefferson?” Max frowned, “Why is he here so late?”
Victoria shrugged, “I dunno, he gives a shit about teaching? Who cares, we don’t have all the time in the world here.” Max raised a single eyebrow at her. “Okay, you have all the time in the world, but I still want to sleep in my bed before classes tomorrow.” Victoria amended.
Max nodded, she found herself agreeing with her, “Yeah, I feel like I haven’t been in a bed in days.” She tried the front door, and by some miracle it was unlocked.
As the two entered the building the air seemed to change. It was like they had stepped into a different dimension, or a mirror dimension. Like a dark and twisted version of their school. It intrigued Max. The colours felt muted and darker. The halls stretched further than they should, the air was chilled with the still running AC that hadn’t been changed over yet. Any shadows cast during the day were now the void hiding any possible monsters from peace of mind.
Victoria turned her phone’s flashlight on and shivered as she scanned the area, “Jesus, I feel like Freddy or Jason are gonna jump out from around the corner.”
Max tilted her head, “Who?”
Victoria narrowed her eyes, “Didn’t you, like, watch a ton of shit with Warren? I thought he’d teach you about the kings of slasher films.”
Max shrugged, “I dunno, I didn’t hang out with him very often like that. I never got a chance to watch anything off his flash drive collection.”
Victoria rolled her eyes, “Whatever, let's just get to Well’s office.”
“Actually, why don’t we go check Nathan’s locker first?” Max asked.
Victoria shrugged, “Eh, might as well. Follow me.”
Victoria led the way down the hall and Max’s mind wandered along with her eyes. ‘I want to take some pictures, we never get to see the school like this. It’s kind of peaceful in a way, I don’t know what Victoria’s problem with it is.’
Victoria’s walk was confident and strong. Each step caught the light on her pantyhose. It was hypnotizing. Victoria said something. Max shook her head and forced her eyes up to meet Victoria’s, “Sorry, what?”
Victoria’s brow pinched in worry, “Hey, you alright? You’re spacing more than usual.”
Max nodded, “Y-yeah. Just tired.” ‘Stop staring, you’re being a creep. Why even are you staring?’
“You know, you never told me what happened earlier today with the whole Carrie look.” She rubbed the bridge of her nose and muttered, “Dammit, you won’t get that,” she spoke up, “The blood, what’s the deal?”
She looked down at her ruined shirt and grimaced. “Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. So, Chloe owes some money to a drug dealer named Frank. He came to collect it and… well I had to rewind a lot. That’s how I found out that if I rewind too much in a short period of time my brain might actually start unravelling and I pass out to protect myself I guess? Anyways, it all ended up alright in the end and Chloe fought him off.”
“Frank has a stand too?” Victoria hummed thoughtfully. “Don’t strain yourself, alright? I don’t think I could carry you out of here. And don’t forget, you promised to tell me anytime you rewind and why, got it?”
“Oh, well, they both kept getting really badly hurt or dying and I didn’t want either of them to-”
“I meant from here on out! I don’t need to know that Chloe keeps dying, alright!” Victoria sighed, “Jesus, Max, I don’t want to hear about any death after what all has happened today.”
Max rubbed her upper arm, “Sorry, I wasn’t thinking.”
Victoria shook her head, “No, I’m sorry. I sorta asked you to bring it up in the first place.” Before Max could argue Victoria stopped in front of a red locker, “We’re here. It’s the top one.”
The locker blended in with the rest of them. It had a simple combination padlock and if Max had been alone or with Chloe she wouldn’t have even recognized it. “Do you know the code?”
Victoria shook her head, “No, I respected his secrets and he respected mine. I never thought I’d need to get into his locker and if I did I figured he’d send me the code if I asked.”
Max rolled her shoulder, “Luckily we don’t need a code, stand back.” Victoria took a few steps back. Max pulled her arm up and materialized her stand. The strings of time coiled around her fingers. She pulled back only slightly, she didn’t want to cut her hand again. She released the strings and her fist shot out like a bullet.
The locker door tore off its hinges as it bent in half. Max crumpled immediately as pain flashed through her hand. She groaned as she coddled the hand.
“Max! Are you okay!? Please don’t tell me you broke your hand!”
“I think I did…” Max wheezed.
Victoria gently pried Max’s hand open, “Here, let me take a look.” Max let Victoria’s slender hands slide over her hand and wrist. It was unnatural how good it felt. Why did it feel so right and wrong at the same time? Like the warring waves of yin and yang had collided in a tumultuous hurricane of feelings warring within Max Caulfield’s being. The sting of her hand lessened a bit at the feeling. At least it was, until Victoria began applying light pressure to her knuckles.
Max hissed. Victoria pulled her prodding fingers away like they’d been singed on a hot stove, “Okay, your hand isn’t broken, thankfully, but we need to get it wrapped tight to prevent swelling and protect it from more damage.” Victoria glanced up and down the hall, “Alright, no cameras, nothing recording… Close your eyes and keep them shut, Caulfield.”
Max obeyed. She heard the ruffling of fabric before she felt warm smooth cloth slide over her hand. Warm pressure wrapped firmly by experienced hands bound her injury. When it was done her hand was left with a dull throb, but it was comfortable and mobile, so better than what it was. “Alright, Max, you can open your eyes.”
Max did. She recoiled at the realization that the black fabric wrapped around her hand was previously part of the fabric covering Victoria’s legs only a minute earlier.
Victoria rolled her eyes, “Oh come on, I’m a very clean person, there’s nothing wrong with it as a compression bandage! I have actual ones in my room, we can visit there after, alright?”
Max swallowed the saliva pooling in her mouth and tried to force her brain not to think about how soft and toned Victoria’s legs looked. ‘More important things to do, Max.’
“Alright,” she stood up and approached the locker, “let’s do this quick so we can get an actual bandage on then.”
“Next time ask me if you need to break in somewhere, okay? I’m sure my stand thingy can do it better than punching a metal door,” Victoria scoffed.
Max rolled her eyes. She opened the door and frowned. The locker was normal. It had some textbooks and notebooks for classes, a cup of number two pencils, and a couple of photos taped to the walls and door of the locker. The photos were selfies that all included Nathan and Victoria at the center. They were in Victoria’s style, too. “There’s nothing here.”
Victoria nodded quietly before plucking one of the photos off the wall. She stared at it with a deep sadness, her eyes the depths of a fathomless green lake. Max found herself caught in the currents, pulled down into the depths of melancholy and broken bonds. It was like a pirate pulled ashore while the other drowned in the bay. “He really is my friend. I… I want to believe he isn’t too far gone. I want to believe that this-” she pointed at a picture of a younger Nathan, “-is still in there. But I can’t know, not yet.”
Max nodded, “We’ll find out.” She didn’t know why, but she felt compelled to gently cup Victoria’s hand, “Together.”
Victoria stared at Max with an unreadable expression. She parted her lips for a moment then wetted them.
That weird feeling flooded Max again. She pulled herself away from the blonde and tore her eyes back down the hall before she held her hand up and pulled on the strings of time again.
<~~~~
“Max why the fuck are my tights gone?” Victoria turned from the locker before her eyes bugged out, “What happened to your hand!?”
“There’s nothing in the locker, let’s head to the office,” Max said as she began walking towards the office. Along the way she filled in Victoria on what happened.
“Where did you learn that you could spring power a punch?” Victoria asked with a raised brow.
“There was a creepy stand in my room this morning. Figured out I could do it when I needed to fight,” Max answered.
“Wait… is that why Warren was in a bush with the fucked up teeth!?” Victoria said gleefully.
Max finally looked at her, “You saw that!?”
Victoria nodded as she cackled, “Yeah! Oh my god, finally! That’d better get him to stop watching you in the morning. Though, knowing him, he might get off on that kinda thing.”
Max rolled her eyes and scoffed, “Dog, you sound like Chloe.”
Victoria looked offended, “Please, I have more class than her -”
“Here we are.”
The front office was next to the main entrance of Blackwell’s main building. It was a modest area with one decently sized desk and an older computer set up. There were cabinets lined up against all the walls, one set of lower cabinets were holding a coffee maker and disposable styrofoam cups. The floor was carpeted rather than the cold tiles of the halls. All in all, it was a very different environment compared to the rest of the school. A less inhospitable location, one that calmed Max.
The wooden door was tall and heavy looking. Next to the door mounted on the wall was a panel. “What’s that?” Max asked as she reached up to touch it.
Victoria caught her forearm, “Don’t!” she snapped. “That’s the security system, Max! Tamper with that and the cops are gonna come. Same thing will happen if the door is brute forced open.” She knelt down and held a hand out to Max, “Do you have a few bobby pins?”
Max shook her head, “No, I don’t need them for my style.”
“You don’t carry them for other people?” Victoria asked.
Once again Max shook her head, “No, do you?”
Victoria nodded, “In my purse, but that’s all the way in the parking lot. Get me some paper clips.”
Max began rooting through the secretary’s desk for a few paperclips. She found three, one a plain regular metal one and two with a colourful rubber coating. “Will these work?”
Victoria nodded, “Yeah, I’ll just need to modify these…”
Victoria started bending the paper clips into small tools, manipulating all three with precision and ease. Max felt uncomfortable suddenly, remembering how she kept finding she was missing cookies from her secret stash in her closet.
She forgot about any possibilities that her room was broken into as Victoria bared her teeth and bit into the straightened colourful paperclip. She pulled the rubber or plastic off the piece. Her teeth were perfect, like smooth pearls of marble perfectly sculpted for the purpose of sinking into flesh.
‘Oh…’ Max shifted in place. She tore her eyes away from the scene before her and found the moulding of the wall to be incredibly interesting.
“Annnnddd there! I got it un-”
The alarm started blaring from the panel on the wall. Max whipped her head over, “What did you do!?”
“Well obviously I set off the alarm… I don’t know!” Victoria pulled on her hair, “Maybe there’s an anti-tampering thing in the lock or something? I don’t fucking know!”
“Okay! Okay, we have to get in!” Max grabbed the handle and twisted. It jiggled uselessly. She slowly turned towards Victoria, “I thought you unlocked it!?”
“It’s a lot harder than it fucking looks, Max!”
Max looked around. Nothing looked like it could break the door open. She took a steadying breath, “Okay, stand back.”
Victoria knocked Max out of the way, “We need you to not be shattered, Max, I’ll handle the door like I told you I would.” She took some breaths and summoned her stand. “Alright, break the door down!” The stand remained motionless. “What the fuck! Move!”
Max laid a gentle hand on Victoria’s shoulder, “Victoria, it’s okay. I’m going to rewind and-”
“And we’ll be back at square one! I’m not leaving empty handed Max, we’re getting fucking justice!” Victoria got into a low pose, pushing her wrists together with her stand copying her. “ Cold As Ice , Kaaameeehaaameee-”
She thrusted her hands out, “-HAAA!” CAI thrusted forward. While Victoria’s hands produced nothing, her stand’s hands produced a white blast of frost that slammed into the door’s lock and handle. One moment the metal was there, the next it was gone.
Max wasted no time in rushing forward charging through the door. Once she was through she raised her hand and grasped the strands of time.
<~~~~
“Annnnddd-”
The door unlocked and opened. Max was on the other side. “How-”
“You tripped the alarm, you said some magic words and blew the door open, then I went in and rewound time,” Max explained.
“Do... you know the magic words I said?” Max recited them and watched in amazement as for the first time in Max’s life she saw Victoria Chase’s utter unshakeable confidence give way to embarrassment. She walked past a giggling Max as stoically as possible, “L-let’s just get what we came for, ‘kay?”
The office of Principal Raymond Wells was a far cry from what Max had expected, even in the unlit room. Fine rich woods and warm colours made the space welcoming in the night.
“I’ve never been here before,” Max commented distractedly, “I didn’t know it was so cool.”
Victoria scoffed and rolled her eyes, “It’s tacky and would be on the nose if it were in a book about how terribly Wells is mismanaging Blackwell.” She took a seat in the large leather desk chair and paused. Her eyebrows rose before she adjusted her position.
“Okay… he does know his stuff about chairs,” she hummed comfortably. She turned on the lamp on the desk and moved the computer mouse around. She chuckled, “Of course he didn’t lock his computer. I’m going to look around on here for stuff about Nathan.”
Max nodded, “Got it, I’m going to look for his student records.”
Easier said than done. Max spent several minutes flipping through cabinets and shelves to only find boring files of teachers and other students. Finally, she found the files she was looking for.
The first was her own. Not much to talk about there, she was the quiet nervous kid who could be doing better.
The second was Victoria’s. The record was spotless, and she thought to tell Victoria but she wasn’t sure how well the blonde would take to her reading it. The added note of Victoria representing ‘the very best of Blackwell Academy by stopping fellow student Kate Marsh from jumping off the dormitory roof…’ was the one thing Max felt truly belonged.
“Hey Victoria?”
“Yeah, Max?”
Max nervously rubbed the corner of the page, “What do you think is on your file?”
Victoria shrugged, “Eh, it’s probably pretty spotless, I’m very careful around teachers.”
Max hummed. Maybe Nathan would be similar? “Is Nathan’s going to be like yours?”
Victoria paused. “It’s… not as clean. He’s had his moments of talking back to teachers, you know? He’s Nathan Prescott,” she finished like that explained it all.
And Max had to admit that she understood. “Gotcha.”
She flipped through the files until she found it: Nathan Prescott. She wanted to vomit at how sweet it made Nathan out to be. “The Arcadia Bay Homeless Fund?”
“Huh?”
Max brought the file over and spread it out on the desk, “Nathan has worked with the Arcadia Bay Homeless Fund according to his file.”
Victoria blinked owlishly before slowly shaking her head, “No, that’s not him. He’d point and laugh at them, but he wouldn’t go help homeless people.” Her shoulders sunk as she continued to flip through the pages, “...this is doctored. He’s been to detention twice, he’s missed Vortex Club meetings because of it.”
Victoria looked sad, and it hurt Max to see her beautiful features falling even further. “Victoria, listen-”
The blonde shook her head, “Don’t.” Max shut her mouth with a clack. Victoria’s features softened, “I… I don’t want you to try to soften this or anything. He hurt you. You can’t look at him like he can be better because he won’t be, not until we make sure he has no power to get away with this.”
She opened some more files on the computer. “Victoria, he’s your friend, it should bother you. I want to help-”
“Found something,” Victoria said measuredly. “Disciplinary Warning Report… disrupted various classes… erratic behaviour… record expunged?”
“Expunged!? How is that possible?”
Victoria shrugged, “You get away with a lot when you have money to throw at all your problems.” She clicked again and winced, “Essspecially when dear old bastard is ready to threaten the entire school.”
Max leaned over Victoria’s shoulder to read the next email. It was from Sean Prescott detailing his displeasure of the ‘unwarranted accusations’ against his son.
Something else caught her eye. “What’s that?” she tapped the screen next to the file ‘nathan_prescott_scan_005’.
Victoria hummed, “I dunno…”
The file opened and the temperature in the room dropped, figuratively first, then literally. It looked like a simple chaotic scribble. Dark shapes begetting insanity within a dark place. The words scrawled over the page gave new meaning to the art.
“‘Rachel in the dark room’?” Max asked quietly.
Victoria clicked on a few other files and read as Max contemplated what Nathan’s scrawls could mean, “...David is involved. He harassed Rachel. We need to go ask some questions.”
Max nodded absently. The words stuck in her mind, like a gummy chewed into pieces clinging desperately to one’s teeth. Only Nathan could truly explain what ‘The Dark Room’ meant, but Max could make some guesses. The one that stuck was the morbid one, “Do you think that… maybe… Rachel is-”
Victoria scoffed with a shake of her head, “I’m not lucky enough for her to be dead, Max.” Max glared at her. Victoria raised her hands in response, “Woah, sorry, just… Look, I’m sure she’s fine. This is just some schizoid rambling that Nathan did while he was off his meds, alright?”
Max eased her glare but kept a frown, “Or he knows what happened to Rachel.”
“Alright, well, we got what we came for, so let’s go,” Victoria said as she closed the files and logged out of the computer.
Max shook her head free of the dark thoughts. They’d find Rachel and expose Nathan. ‘For Kate.’
“Let’s get back to the hospital,” Max suggested as they out to the quad, “I don’t want to leave Kate and Chloe longer than I have to.”
Victoria grimaced, “Really? You’d rather go sleep in an uncomfortable hospital chair than in your own bed?” Max opened her mouth- “and don’t get me started on your clothes! You smell like sweat, rust, and blood and it’s hard to ignore.”
That got the brunette to pause. She grabbed the sleeve of her hoodie and sniffed. She cringed, “Ugh… yeah, I could use a change of clothes.”
“And a fuckin’ drink,” Victoria smirked before grabbing Max’s wrist, “I know I need one.”
Max didn’t know what made her feel so weak in that moment, but it caused her to allow Victoria to drag her across the quad to the dormitories. They passed an unconscious Raymond Wells who reeked of scotch and entered the building.
Max was no stranger to the darkness of the dorms. She had a bad tendency to stay up way too late watching short videos on her laptop and take a few late night trips to the restrooms. But the air was different now. It was somber, it felt darker than it should.
“Come on, let’s get to my room.”
Max tilted her head, “Your room?”
Victoria nodded, “Yeah, I’ve got resources for us to unwind. I also need to rewrap your hand in an actual compression bandage instead of my tights remember?”
Max pulled her wrist out of the blonde’s grasp. She shook her head, “Victoria I don’t want to drink-”
“I have-”
“-Nor do I want to smoke pot, Victoria.” Max sighed disapprovingly, “I don’t need any illegal substances to have a good time.”
“Pot will help you relax, I smoke it mainly to relax.” Victoria sighed and rolled her eyes, “But I get it if you’re a pussy, you know?” She smirked at Max from the corner of her eye.
Max didn’t bite as she crossed her arms, “I’d rather be stressed about this I think. I have a lot to be worried about.”
Victoria opened her mouth, but her argument died in a strangled puff of air. She sighed, “Sorry, I’m being overbearing.” She rubbed the back of her neck, “You aren’t the type of someone I usually hang out with. Just let me rewrap your hand?”
Max felt guilty, now, “Oh Victoria I-”
“If you apologize I will smack you.”
The brunette giggled, “I’ll just smack you back. But yes, you can rewrap my hand.” Victoria was frozen staring at Max. “Victoriaaa?” she was about to wave her hand in front of the blonde’s face.
But Victoria spun on her heel and started marching to her room, “Come on, Max, let’s go listen to some music and chill. It’s been a long day .” Max shrugged and followed.
Victoria’s room was the same as it was when she broke in yesterday. Max blinked, “What time is it?”
Victoria turned on some lights but quickly dimmed them to a more tolerable level. The blonde blinked before checking her phone, “It’s uh… 12:47.”
Max dragged her feet to the couch and collapsed into it, “Geez, I can’t believe it’s been only twenty four hours. Well, a little over that.”
“Since?”
“Since… everything.” Max hoped that was enough. Victoria simply nodded. It seemed it was.
Max glanced around the room as Victoria dug through her desk drawer. Being invited into a room was way better than breaking and entering. Of course the room didn’t change much from just a day -or two- but there was one new thing. A figurine of a glow in the dark alien woman was sitting upon the dresser’s shelf. It looked like it had come from some anime, probably. Warren would likely know it.
The thought of him soured her mood further. She shook her head. Her trigger finger itched to capture the figurine. She stood and withdrew her camera from her bag and took the picture.
“Shit!” Victoria scrambled to grab the statuette and toss it in the top drawer of her dresser. Her head whipped towards the brunette with a snarl, “What are you doing!?”
Max took a step back, “I thought she looked cool, I wanted to get a picture.” Victoria snatched the photo from the camera’s dispensary port, “Be careful!”
Victoria’s features softened as she scanned the photo. She sheepishly handed the photo back, “Sorry… just, don’t show that anywhere, alright?” She took the figurine out of the drawer and gingerly replaced it upon the shelf.
“I won’t,” Max smiled softly as she pocketed the photo.
Victoria chuckled, “Yeah, I know. If you were the type to do that you’d have taken a picture while I was covered in paint.”
“Oh yeah! What happened to your cashmere? Did Taylor and Courtney get to you in time?”
Victoria smiled and shook her head, “Nah, I don’t think there was any physical way they could’ve saved it.”
“I’m sorry…”
Victoria waved dismissively, “Meh, not your fault. Shit happens, y’know?”
“Actually…” Max winced.
Slowly, oh so slowly, Victoria turned around. “Max? What the fuck are you trying to say?”
Max blurted out the explanation. That and confessed to having to break into Victoria’s room. “And I feel so shitty-”
Victoria burst into laughter, “Holy shit, look at you, Max! You’re actually living !”
“Huh?”
Victoria patted Max’s hand, “Stop stressing. You have time travel, you can fix anything and do anything! And instead of actually abusing it selfishly, you’re helping people. Even when you hurt people, they deserve it, y’know?”
Max scoffed, but she was smiling, “I could’ve killed you with that paint bucket.”
Victoria shrugged, “Cai would’ve taken care of it.”
“Cai?”
“Oh! It’s my stand-”
Max nodded, “Yeah, Cold As Ice, I remember you naming it that before you blew open the door.”
Victoria stepped away and groaned, “Ugh, don’t remind me that the first time I consciously used my stand it was through a Dragon Ball reference.”
“Oh, that’s where that came from.”
“Don’t know it?” Max shook her head. “Well that’s gonna need to be fixed at some point. Not tonight, though.”
“Tomorrow night?”
Victoria shrugged, “Maybe.” She turned on her sound system and tapped a few buttons. The soft sounds of a guitar streamed through the room with the sound of a woman singing sadly about her lover being with another woman. Max found herself immediately drawn to the sounds.
“What’s with the camera?”
Max tilted her head. Then she glanced down at her hands, “Oh! When Nathan…” Victoria frowned, “...well I must’ve landed on my camera or something and it was beyond repair. Luckily Chloe had William’s old camera and she gave it to me.”
“William?”
Max nodded, “Yeah, Chloe’s dad.” She smacked her forehead, “I’m so dumb! You don’t know this but I grew up here in Arcadia Bay.”
Victoria smiled, “You’re right, I didn’t know that. But you’re not dumb, Max, okay? Don’t say that.”
Max rolled her eyes, “Yeah, okay.”
Victoria frowned but didn’t say anything as she took out a bag of green clumps and small paper squares. Max didn’t say anything, just let herself melt into the moment. The music created such a soft atmosphere. The next song played, something probably called “Midnight Love” though who it was by was a mystery to her. She’d ask Victoria who the artist was once she was done.
She watched her lick the paper and roll it with her delicate perfect fingers. She rolled the joint so expertly, like it was really just that easy to get hooked on drugs when making it was so easy.
Victoria cracked open her window and lit the joint. Max prepared her camera and took the picture just as Victoria puffed on the cigarette. She smiled and pocketed the photo. Victoria smirked. Max kept staring at her. She would’ve taken a picture, but she felt that was an injustice. A photo could get lost, fall into the wrong hands, or get damaged. Her memory of Victoria smiling at her? That was forever.
Max blinked a few times and began checking her phone. Her chest felt tighter. ‘What is this…?’
Victoria stood up, “I’m gonna grab you some pajamas, k’?” She held the joint out to Max, “Hold this for me?”
Max pinched the joint between her thumb and forefinger obediently.
“Thanks, I’ll be right back.” Victoria left the room then. Max wondered how she’d get into her room, but shook the thoughts from her head when a mental image of Victoria crouching in front of her door prodding the lock appeared.
Max instead stared at the joint in her hand. Max Caulfield had never considered smoking a marijuana cigarette in her life. She had grown up with D.A.R.E. afterall, she knew the slippery slope of drugs. But when Victoria did it, it didn’t seem evil. Chloe smoked it too, and while that was a terrible example to use most of the time she looked like Victoria.
‘Beautiful.’ Max paused. ‘But more importantly they both look relaxed.’ She looked at the joint. There was some of Victoria’s lip gloss on it, putting a glint of light on the edge like a prized pirate treasure. Max had a feeling it was. She carefully placed it between her lips encompassing the gloss, ‘How bad could one hit be?’
Bad . Very bad. She drew in too large of a breath and immediately spat the joint out and began coughing like she had crawled out of a house fire. Speaking of fires, the joint landed on Victoria’s coffee table and caught a few papers on fire.
<~~~~
Max took a drag on the joint, this time she took a more careful drag. Her lungs burned less this time and the edges of her appendages were beginning to hum gently. Victoria was taking a while. Max released the mouthful of smoke she was holding, trying to make a ring. She was unsuccessful on that front, but she felt far more relaxed.
“And here she is getting into drugs!” Victoria sounded aghast, but her expression was playful. Her arms were full with the pajamas Max had worn that morning. Or, no, yesterday morning. Whatever.
Max rolled her eyes and shrugged, “You and Chloe are a bad influence on me, I guess.” She took another drag off the joint.
Victoria plucked the joint from Max’s lips with a laugh, “Don’t hog it, bitch!”
“Oh, sorry.”
Victoria took a hit from the joint and shook her head, “It’s fine, your first time, I get it.”
Max splayed out across the couch and sighed contently, “D.A.R.E. really hyped drugs up, huh.”
Victoria snickered, “I guess?”
Max only hummed in response. She started humming along to the rest of the song. “Who is she?”
“Huh?”
Max looked over at Victoria, “The singer, who is she?”
Victoria blinked. She looked a little nervous when she answered, “She’s uh… Marie Ulven Ringheim. She goes by Girl in Red, usually.”
“She sounds really cool.”
“She’s incredible,” Victoria said wistfully.
Max eyed the clothes that Victoria had tossed on the edge of the bed. “I should get changed.”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” Victoria turned and stared out the window.
“Oh, thanks! I’m gonna be paranoid someone’s watching me change for the rest of my life, I think,” Max commented as she began pulling articles off.
“You mean Warren?”
“Yeah,” Max paused, “...did he spy on you, too?”
Victoria shook her head. Max could hear the scowl in the blonde’s voice, “When I go on my morning runs I see him peeking from a corner watching your window. Almost every morning.”
Max nodded. She had never noticed. “I… I always-”
Victoria shook her head, “You don’t have to talk about it.”
And so Max didn’t. She relaxed her shoulders and removed the rest of her attire. She grimaced at her bloody bra and decided to remove it as well. She put on her pajamas and grabbed her clothes, “I’m dressed. Where should I put these?”
Victoria gestured vaguely to the corner, “J-just, anywhere is fine.” Max nodded and tossed it all in the corner.
She sat down next to Victoria on the bed and held her hand out, “I’ll hold the joint while you change if you want.”
Victoria laughed quietly, “You say joint so stiffly.” But she got up and handed the joint to Max regardless of her pronunciation. “Don’t smoke all of my pot, you junkie.”
Max laughed, “Don’t take too long, then.” She went to take a hit but felt her body seize as she watched Victoria unbutton her shirt and peel it off.
Victoria’s shoulders were defined neatly with a slim waistline and strong back muscles. Her legs were long and graceful and they were strong, too. Like a horse, maybe? Max didn’t really know what she could compare Victoria’s beauty to. She felt inadequate, but in a good way? Like she was one of the luckiest people in the world in that moment.
Victoria peered over her shoulder, “You gonna keep staring or take a picture?”
Max spun so hard she got whiplash. “Sorry,” she whispered as she stared hard out the window with Victoria’s laughs chasing her mind in circles. The closet opened and closed. Victoria’s soft footsteps moved around the room. Eventually the mattress sank next to Max.
“Alright, I’m dressed, nerd, gimme my hit.”
Max turned and was relieved, or disappointed, that Victoria was wearing a fully covering button up pajama shirt and pajama pants. Red silk fit Victoria well.
Max held out the joint which Victoria accepted gratefully before taking a deep drag from the joint. Max’s hand fell limply to her side. ‘She’s close.’
A new song started playing. Victoria stiffened, but she didn’t change it.
“I've been hiding for so long
But these feelings, they're not gone
Can I tell anyone?
Afraid of what they'll say
So I push them away
I'm acting so strange”
Victoria was watching Max intently from the corner of her eye. She looked almost scared. But Max knew better. Victoria was never afraid. The song seemed to match Victoria. Pushing people away and hiding- no, this was more Max’s personality.
“They're so pretty, it hurts”
Max smirked, ‘And it’s stopped being about me. Boys-’
“I'm not talking about boys, I'm talking about girls”
Max stiffened. Everything became sharper through the haze her body was in. ‘Oh, is it-’
“They're so pretty with their button-up shirts”
Max turned. Victoria was wearing a button up shirt. A button up shirt she looked very pretty in. It hugged her features and made her look softer and so-
“I shouldn't be feeling this
But it's too hard to resist”
Her heart was hammering in her chest. ‘Oh my dog… is this… am I…?’
“Soft skin, and soft lips”
Max’s eyes were glued to Victoria’s lips. Her skin was soft. Her lips looked so soft. Softer than the silk pajamas she was wearing. Victoria’s eyes narrowed, but Max didn’t think of that. No, she thought of how her new favourite colour might be emerald green.
“I should be into this guy
But it's just a waste of time
He's really not my type”
Warren Graham appeared in her mind. Hayden Jones. Nathan Prescott. She knew they were conventionally attractive, but… They were no Victoria Chase. And none of them, save for possibly Warren, ever felt like her type.
“I know what I like
No, this is not a phase
Or a coming of age
This will never change”
‘No, no, no, I can’t be g-’ she swallowed the knot of fear down her throat and absentmindedly wet her lips.
“They're so pretty, it hurts
I'm not talking about boys, I'm talking about girls
They're so pretty with their button-up shirts
They're so pretty, it hurts”
‘I’ll prove it.’
Max leaned up and pressed her lips against Victoria’s quickly. Victoria pulled back immediately with her eyes wide and her eyebrows in her hairline.
Max’s heart was pounding and it dropped like a tungsten cube. For once, she wasn’t afraid of what Victoria would do with a dark secret of hers. For once, she was truly terrified. Chloe’s death was always scary each time she witnessed it, and the first time she didn’t realize that Chloe was the one getting killed.
For the first time she had encountered something she couldn’t rewind away from. Her breathing quickened. She was starting to hyperventilate. “I- I’m sorry, I shouldn't've, I-I should have asked-”
Then soft warmth crashed into her mouth. Teeth clacked against hers and she couldn’t care less. Her eyes slid shut and she moaned as sparks popped at her nerves. The scent of cigarettes and fancy unaffordable perfume, the taste of human lips and tenacity.
Max slid her hands up to cup the perfect soft cheeks and pull her deeper into the kiss. Her nose was mashed against the adorable nose of the perfect blonde. Two chilled slender hands slid up Max’s hips to her ribs as she climbed up the beautiful goddess’s lap.
Max pulled back for air with a gasp. She opened her eyes as she panted admiring the other woman. Her stand’s hands were over her own cupping Victoria’s cheeks. Her eyes were dilated so widely that it was difficult to even tell they were green. Cai’s hands were holding Max steady as Victoria’s own hands braced her leaning back.
“I… uh… I think I’m gay,” Max blurted out.
Victoria tried to hold in her laughter, but her face split into a wide smile as she looked giddy and began giggling like a schoolgirl. “I hope so, I’ve had the biggest fucking crush on you since forever.”
Max smiled widely, “Oh…” she giggled too, “Why?”
One of Cai’s hands slid up the back of Max’s neck and gripped a handful of hair and said huskily, “Well, there’s your lips…” She closed the distance and kissed Max gently, oh so softly.
‘Girls,’ Max thought giddily before she was led gently down.