Chapter Two

Victoria's POV

Monday, November 16th, 2013, 6:30am

The music was pounding around me, the bass vibrating through my entire body and echoing in my chest. I wasn't drunk, but I was dancing. I usually didn't dance unless I had had a few drinks. The sound of the music and people around me made me want to move and I couldn't stop myself. The lights were all dim and blinking between colors and light and dark as the music took control of my body. I had no idea that I was dancing alone until I saw a pair of brilliant blue eyes watching me from across the dance floor.

Maxine Caulfield, stupid freckles and baggy sweater and all, standing against a wall about ten feet away from me. Her messy brown hair was somewhat tame tonight as she watched me, her eyes glued to my body. I felt a strange tingling in my stomach and felt shivers travel through me. I suddenly realized that I didn't want her to look away from me, so I moved my hips back and forth, arms over my head as my hands met somewhere above me. I took my eyes off of her for a moment to look at the ground and then back up to her.

It was almost as if I couldn't control myself. All I wanted was for her to come dance with me, to put her hands on my hips and move with me to the loud music. When my eyes met hers again, I winked and bit my bottom lip a little, pointing at her and beckoning her to come toward me with my index finger. I knew that if anyone saw me dancing with her my reputation would be shattered like old glass, leaving everything I had worked so hard for in dust and shards of bitter regret, but I didn't care just then. All I wanted was Max. Her eyes, her lips, her hands, the touch of her skin on mine.

When I motioned to her she blushed for a moment before walking toward me, a new confident stride in her step. God she was hot when she walked like that. She knew she was in control and it made my heart race a little. She was the only person to stand up against all the shit I gave her and I used to hate her for it, but in that moment all I could do was wish that she would take control and use me however she wanted.

When she reached me, she took a slow step toward me, putting both hands on my hips. I couldn't help grinning at her, putting my arms around her neck, lacing my fingers together behind her head. I moved to the beat of the music. Faded by Alan Wake, Northern Light Remix. It was an amazing song that always made me want to dance. Max took another step toward me, our body connecting and moving together. She was looking me up and down with a hint of a smirk on her lips. When our eyes met, she got real close and whispered into my ear.

"You're gorgeous, Tori." The breath from her words tickled my ear, sending shivers down my spine and filling my stomach with butterflies. I felt like I was melting under her touch as her hips moved with mine. Her hands were gripping my top, pulling me close. All I could do was let out a soft sigh in reply, quivering as her hand moved up my side and to my back as she pulled me close. I was slightly taller than her, by about an inch or two. She looked up at me and I couldn't break away from her gaze. I could barely breath let alone speak.

Max grinned and started to lean in, getting so close to me that I thought our bodies might combine to create a whole new human being. Like those legends that talked about soulmates. We would become one and be even more powerful than the gods. The thought made my heart ache, making me want to be closer. I closed the gap between us, locking my lips with hers.

I felt like my body was being slowly set ablaze by her touch. I grabbed onto Max's hair, gripping it gently but tugged at it a little to show that I was serious. She wrapped her arms around my waist, her fingers gripping at my top. Goddamn it, why was this so good? Why did I want this so much? When she pulled away, I found myself craving more. The kiss wasn't enough. I had denied these feelings for long enough. I wanted Max more than I had ever wanted anything or anyone in my entire life and I wanted her now.

She must've seen the fire in my eyes because I could see my feelings reflected in her brilliant blue gaze. What I wouldn't give to just fall into those eyes and never have to come up for air. I wanted to be something those eyes looked at and craved more than anything else. Max smiled a little, taking my hand and motioning her head toward the door. I felt my heart race so fast that I could've run all the way to New York and back if I wanted to. I nodded and squeezed her hand once in reply.

We got back to my dorm and locked the door, suddenly shedding clothes faster than I could realize. Hot kisses made their presence known on my lips, along my neck and chest. Max was in charge now, completely in control, but we were also in sync, like our bodies were made for one another. We made it to my bed and she got on top of me, starting to slow things down. Looking into my eyes, she must've seen my desperate expression. I was all anticipation, like it was filling my whole body with fire.

Max kissed my lips softly, tracing her fingers down the side of my face. She kissed my cheek, my jaw, my neck, making her way down to my chest. Every touch made my whole body quiver and I couldn't help the small moans that escaped me. Her fingers were making their way down my stomach as she kissed down my sternum.

Every part of me was on fire, I thought I was melting, the entire world started to blur as Max made her way down and started doing things to me that I had never let anyone else before. I could feel pressure building inside of me, filling me up until I thought I was going to burst at the siems.

It was all fire and building and building until finally -

I was awoken by the loud blaring of my alarm and an odd sensation down south. I sat up and grabbed my phone, shutting off the alarm. I laid back down on my bed with a long, deep sigh.

I can't believe I just had a wet dream about Max Caulfield, I thought, rubbing my face to help wake me up. I sat up in my bed again and ran my fingers through my hair, looking around my room. There was no one there. No Max, no music, no clothes scattered across the floor. Just me and an ache in my chest.

"Just a dream," I told myself, getting out of bed. I pushed the ache deep down, hoping that it would just go away. I grabbed my shower bag and a towel and walked out of my room after fixing my hair a little in my mirror. Wouldn't want to walk out there as a complete mess. Plus, if your hair looked ok then it helped the rest of you to look ok.

Regaining some composure, I walked out of my dorm and down the hall to the showers. There was no one else around, but that didn't stop me from putting on my best bitch face and taking large, dominating steps. All I could really do was hope that I didn't look like I was trying too hard, even though everyone else was still asleep.

I walked into the shower room and immediately went into one of the showers, taking the fastest shower I had ever taken in my life. I just had this strange feeling that someone was going to walk in at any moment and I didn't want to be naked when they did. I had never been a big fan of the whole communal shower thing. I wanted my own shower where I didn't have to worry about how gross it was or who else had been in there or what they had been doing, but I had started getting a little bit used to it.

After a seven minute shower, I dried off, put my soft pink, silk pajamas back on and walked out of the stall. My hair was still a little damp, but that would help me brush it out. I spent a few minutes on my hair, knowing that I would have to redo it when I got dressed anyway and moved on to brushing my teeth. Right in the middle of this process, the door swung open next to me and someone walked in. I didn't look up from what I was doing, deciding that ignoring someone was safer than looking right at them when I was in this state. I was somewhat vulnerable and I didn't want to make eye contact with any other living being. Whoever it was froze for a moment, their footsteps stopping when they saw me. Then, a second later, they kept moving, going toward the shower right behind me. As they made their way over to it, I looked up at the mirror to see Max's profile in the mirror. She had her eyes down, her towel pressed against her.

I felt my stomach drop when I saw her and, for a moment at least, I couldn't take my eyes off her as she closed the shower curtain. All the feelings I'd experienced during my dream were coming back, flooding my mind and body all over again. I felt myself quiver before regaining control of myself.

You're so pathetic! I thought to myself, gripping the edges of the sink as I spat out my toothpaste. She's just a person! Calm the hell down. But I couldn't. My heart was racing in my chest at the thought of her hands all over me, using me the way she wanted, my entire body responding to her will. I cursed under my breath and grabbed my hairbrush, trying to focus on anything but the fact that Caulfield was just behind that curtain, totally naked.

STOP! I let out a sigh and set my brush down, washing my face.

I don't know what it was, but for some reason I had developed a massive crush on that stupid hipster after she saved Kate. It only got worse after Nathan got arrested. I didn't have him around to convince me of how stupid Max was and how pathetic and dumb I was for thinking of her as anything more than trash.

But Max wasn't trash. She was beautiful and smart and talented and so sweet it made me want to vomit, but I loved it. I wanted to kiss her and play with her hair and snuggle with her and watch anime and all that stupid mushy shit. But she would never feel the same way and my position in the social ranks would never allow anything to happen between us. Plus, my parents would kill me if they found out I was dating a girl. Or worse, they'd use it as an advertisement for some gallery opening and make my sexuality so painfully obvious that the few things I had that were still a secret would finally be out in the eye of the public.

Plus, Max deserved better than me. She deserved someone that would treat her well and not insult her at every chance they got. She was too good for me and I knew that, but for some reason thinking of her with anyone else made me want to punch someone. I finished washing my face and heard the water turn off in Max's shower. I had my things packed up and was about to leave when she walked out from behind the curtain.

I was frozen where I stood, unable to breathe let alone move. Fuck, I was staring at her, looking at her up and down. Reading her stupid pun shirt and feeling actually amused! Damn Max and her puns! I had to say something. Anything. Anything would be better right now than this silence. As I looked up and down her body, I noticed her pull her towel close, like she was guarding herself from me. Was I scaring her? I felt something soften inside me and remembered everything that Max had gone through recently. How her friend died because Nathan, one of my best friends, killed her right in front of Max.

Damn it, Nate. You couldn't have done anything much worse than that.

I met her eyes again and tried to look more confident than I felt.

"How are you?" I asked her, leaning back against the sink and crossing one leg over the other. Max got that wide eyed look on her face, the one she always got when someone surprised her or pulled her back to earth from her thoughts. It was one of the most adorable things I had ever seen, but I pushed that down too.

"What?" She asked, her voice cracking a little. I bit back a laugh at the sound, running my fingers through my hair like I was frustrated, but really I was just trying to cover whatever remnants of a smile managed to make their way onto my lips.

"I asked you how you were doing," I repeated, my voice coming out a little sharper than I meant it to. She could be frustrating sometimes, her stupid blue eyes looking at me like I had just grown another head. "Like how you were feeling about all of the shit that happened." I continued. She paused, eyeing me suspiciously.

"I'm alright," she said. She was lying, I could tell by the way she shifted her weight from one foot to the next and looked away for a split second. "Why do you ask?" I couldn't help scoffing, rolling my eyes at the way she said it. She acted like I was going to hurt her. I mean, I don't blame her, I wasn't exactly the type to ask people how they were feeling about anything. I wanted to say something nice, but something sarcastic made its way to my lips first.

"What, I can't be nice to nasty hipsters?" It didn't have as much bite to it as I wanted it to, though. I didn't want anyone thinking I was a softy for someone like Max, especially not Max herself.

"It's just sort of out of character for you to be nice is all," she said in that snarky voice she got sometimes. It made me feel strange, like it was frustrating but also funny and I just wanted to make her squirm as much as she did the same to me. I felt something in me waver a little, like my guard couldn't hold up under the weight of my emotions. I just sighed and shrugged.

"Maybe I'm trying to be nicer," I murmured, looking away from her. I couldn't help it, looking into her eyes made my heart hurt. They were so pure and beautiful, but they also looked fogged over sometimes from all of the things she'd seen. I wondered how much Max had seen in her life. I mean, seeing your friend die and then having to save another human from their own decisions the way she did for Kate was enough to make a person lose it a little, but Max somehow held up under the weight of those things. I wondered if those were the only things she'd seen.

"Why?" Max's surprised response pulls me from my thoughts. I pause before looking up to meet her eyes again. I can't help smiling at the way her eyebrows are lifted so far above her eyes in surprise.

"Because maybe I actually wanna be friends," I reply, feeling my chest tighten at the admission. I didn't know what Max would say and that made me so nervous that I had to hold on tight to the towel in my hands. She just stared at me for a minute, her mouth open a little, like she'd just heard someone telling her that the whole world was actually just an illusion. After a long pause that felt like forever, Max started laughing, and not just a little. She actually looked like she was going to burst into tears she was laughing so hard.

I felt my brows furrow at her response, crossing my arms over my chest.

"I'm serious," I snap at her, but she doesn't stop laughing right away. The way her cheeks got all red when she laughed made my heart flutter. I just wanted to kiss her cheeks. She stops after a minute, taking a deep breath when she had regained herself. Straightening up, she wiped her eyes and sighed.

"You can't be serious," she said, still a little breathless. "There's no way in hell that you would actually want to be my friend." That stung a little and I had to resist the urge to flinch away.

"Says who?" I asked sharply, standing up straight and taking a step toward her. Max shrunk away a little, looking less amused, but she was still standing her ground. Did she think I was going to hurt her? "I can be friends with whoever the hell I want."

There was a long pause. I couldn't tell if Max actually believed me, but if I had to guess I'd say that she thought I was full of shit.

"Why would you wanna be friends with me?" she asked, that confused look on her face again. I paused and looked away from her again. I couldn't help it, I had to take breaks from her gaze to keep myself guarded at least a little.

"Because you're a good person," I started slowly, still not looking up at her. "I need someone like you as a friend because maybe you could help me be a better person." It was true, as strange and uncomfortable the words felt as I said them out loud. Max was one of the kindest people I had ever met and she saved Kate, the person I had practically shoved onto that roof. I knew that if I was her friend then I might become a nicer person which might not be such a bad thing. I knew that my rep might be a little stained if I got nicer, but it might make me feel like less of shit if I was actually decent to people. Sometimes I just couldn't help the bitchy stuff I did and said. It was like a disease that helped me get to the top. But being at the top was… Surprisingly lonely and not really satisfying most of the time.

"Are you sick or something?" Max asked, pulling me from my thoughts again. Apparently Max wasn't the only person that spaced out.

"What are you talking about?" I asked sharply, crossing my arms again.

"You're acting really weird," she said, smiling a little. She was joking and trying to hide the fact that my confession was funny to her. I felt regret growing in my chest

.

How could I have been so stupid to think that Max would understand?

"Yeah," I replied, rolling my eyes. "I must be if I thought that you would ever actually even consider being my friend. How stupid of me." The words didn't sound as sharp as I wanted them to, so I started toward the door. As I reached out to grab the door handle, I felt Max grab my wrist, pulling me back a little. Her hands were so small and warm. My dream flashed through my head again, waking up the butterflies that I had managed to settle just a few minutes ago.

"Victoria, wait," she said softly. I sighed and turned around, not bothering to shake her hand off of my wrist. Max swallowed hard, not looking at me. "I'm sorry for acting so bitchy. I just never thought that you'd actually wanna be my friend. You were never exactly nice to me." I felt myself tense up at her words. She was right. I had never been nice to her, not the way she deserved. No wonder she laughed in my face, I would've laughed at me too.

"I know," I replied softly, taking a step towards her. "And I'm sorry for that. I do actually want to… you know, try this out." I felt Max's grip tense around my wrist.

"This?" she asked, it was a sort of squeak. I swallowed hard, looking away. This. Yeah, I wanted more than this. I wanted to… to… I don't even know how to say it. I just wanted to be with her.

"Yeah," I said. "I wanna try to be friends. If you want to then we can see how it goes."

Max let out a breath of amusement and looked up at me, smiling. But there was something beneath that smile, somewhere in her eyes, hiding behind the smile and the words that came with it. I wanted to find it because it made my insides feel warm. What was it?

"I would like that," Max said, letting go of my wrist. It felt cold where her hand had been, my skin missing her warmth.

"Good," I said, unable to help the smile that made its way to my lips. Max and I were actually going to try to be friends. Maybe it would be more if I played my cards right.

No, I told myself. Just friends. For her sake if not your own.