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Explosive Decompression

altunderscore

2


TW: non-explicit onscreen sexual assault from "October 4th, 2013" to next linebreak.


September 22nd 2013

'Nathan..'

Victoria's fingertips dug into the fabric of her pullover and her teeth tugged thin strips of flesh off her lower lip.

She could hear a dozen voices below her enjoying the last sunset of summer but couldn't find it in her anywhere to move from her spot on her bed.

Nate had a gun.

She had noticed a change in his attitude the last week or so if she was was being generous, or since class had started if she wasn't.

He was.. different.. when they went to pick up party favors from Frank Bowers at the beach the night before last. More cocky. More brash.

The last time Nate had mouthed off at the scruffy dealer there had been a switchblade in the bearded man's hand and a hundred pounds of dog winding his way between their legs before she could blink.

Nate had frozen then.

This time he laughed.

On the way back to Blackwell, sitting in the passenger seat of Nathan's Mercedes, Victoria had questioned him about it. Nathan had laughed again; a thin, reedy sort of thing, and reached towards his waistband.

"Check it out, Vic. Sweet, huh?" He had said as he tossed the gun into her lap. A part of her tried to flinch away from it, like it was a bomb or a grenade or something. The rest of her realized there wasn't anywhere to go and caught it instead.

"What the fuck is this, Nathan?" She had said. It seemed like the appropriate response. "What do you need a gun for?"

Nathan took his eyes off the road and stared at her from under his creased brow in a way that made the fine hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. He worked his jaw and exhaled through his nose before responding.

"It's a gift from a friend. I'm in the Major Leagues now, Vic. Major League means guns." He nodded at the pistol in her lap. "If Frank Bowers thinks I'm scared of him or his mutt dog he's got a surprise waiting for him."

He paused.

".. They all do." He said, half under his breath as he turned back to the road.

Victoria took her eyes off the gun and studied Nathan's face as he lapsed into one of his silences. They had been friends for long enough that she could read his face as well as she could his words, so long as he wasn't doped to the gills on his meds or his drug of the week from Frank.

The silence stretched as the black Mercedes SLS ate up miles of dark Arcadia backroads. The interior of the car was lit by the backwash of headlights and the LEDs of the console, but that was enough for Victoria to watch the theater of expression play across Nathan's face and hands as he lost himself in thought.

His tense shoulders and clenched fists around the steering wheel spoke of stress. Long-term and persistent if it was getting to him even now, so far away from anything resembling his normal life.

His father.

Fucking Sean Prescott.

Nate's lips pursed and Victoria caught the beginnings of a sneer forming before something shifted up towards his eyes and the sneer became a smirk.

Nathan had a plan.

Nate thought he had a plan.

Victoria looked at the gun in her lap and her stomach turned into a nervous knot.

"Nate, are you okay?" She said. She probably could have phrased it better, but Nathan wouldn't care. He preferred the blunt approach anyway.

His chest expanded like he had laughed, but he didn't actually make a sound.

"Never been better, Vic."

The smirk bloomed into a grin.

The gun in her lap seemed to weigh a thousand pounds.

It made her sick.

"Nate, you know you can tell me anything. Fuck Frank Bowers, fuck Blackwell, and fuck Sean Prescott most of all. What's wrong, Nate?"

Jesus Christ she was actually begging. Victoria Chase was begging a boy to open up to her over a lump in her throat in the passenger seat of his car. How much lower could she get?

Nathan didn't respond verbally. He just shifted into sixth gear and gunned the throttle.

The dashed marks in the center of the road bled into a solid line and Victoria was pressed back into her seat as the digital speedometer climbed ever higher.

Nathan's grin had become a sneer in the moments she hadn't been watching him.

That was the story of their entire relationship though, wasn't it?

The display hit 160 and Nathan took a hand off the wheel, casually reaching into her lap and taking back the gun.

Victoria's heart had joined the lump in her throat. Her pulse throbbed away in her ears. Nathan's expression had shifted into something she couldn't recognize anymore.

She looked away.

Her eyes stung.

She looked out the passenger window instead.

In the reflection, she saw Nathan smile as the speedometer crept higher.

Victoria closed her eyes.

She was back in her room. The last day of Summer was bleeding itself out onto the courtyard and everyone was basking in the last sprays of sunshine but her.

She pulled her curtains shut and fell back onto her bed with a tired sigh.

It was times like this that made her wish she could smoke.

She pulled her phone off the charger on her bedside table and checked her inbox.

3 unread to Nathan, sent this morning.

2 unread from Taylor, received about half an hour ago.

Fuck.

Victoria unlocked her phone with one hand and shifted onto her side.

Taylor was telling her that her mom had fallen suddenly that morning and was in the hospital in Portland. The scans hadn't come back yet, but..

Fuck..

Victoria pushed herself back upright and stood, grabbing one of her bags from under her bed as she did. The door opened and out she went into the hall, past the acoustic guitar trickling from underneath Caulfield's door.

"Camp Adventure" by Delta Sleep. She'd heard the hipster practicing this one all week.

Victoria definitely hadn't googled the lyrics she'd heard Caulfield softly signing to herself the first time she'd heard them.

Of fucking course the little brown waif could play music, too. She was good at everything else. It only made sense.

She turned away from her spot in front of Max's door and moved to Taylor's room. She opened the door without knocking and stepped inside.

Taylor was leaning over her stereo fiddling with a pair of knobs before standing and turning towards Victoria. She was suspiciously not wearing makeup, but the red skin around her eyes and inflamed cheeks told all the story Victoria needed to see.

"Come here Sweet-T." she said, stepping towards her friend and spreading her arms.

Taylor gasped out something that was half a sob and half a laugh as she stepped towards Victoria and rested her chin on her shoulder.

"You know I think that's a dumb nickname, Victoria." Taylor exhaled. Victoria could hear the smile in her voice though. That's what counted.

"It's the good kind of dumb though." Victoria said as she let her friend go and stepped away, but not far enough she couldn't grab one of Taylor's hands and pull her towards the bed.

"Sit." She commanded, with none of the venom her demands usually held.

Victoria walked across the room to Taylor's mini-fridge and found a bottle of orange juice along with a tray of ice, then pulled a pair of glasses from the second drawer from the bottom of Taylor's desk. A few cubes of ice and a splash of juice dropped into the glasses with a clink and Victoria turned back to Taylor and the bed she sat on.

"Are we talking about the news you got today, or the party the week-after-next?" Victoria asked as she passed the second glass to the blonde on the bed.

Taylor swirled the ice in her glass around as she considered it, her eyes on the floor. She pulled one of her legs up to rest on the bed and leaned back onto an elbow as she spoke.

"Maybe after a drink or two first.." She trailed off, before her face lit up and she was suddenly upright again. Victoria quirked an eyebrow in response as she twisted the cap off of a bottle of vodka.

"Yes, minion?" She asked.

"I know something you don't know." Taylor said, playing with the last syllable with her tongue.

Victoria's other eyebrow rose and she inclined her head.

"That is your job, Taylor." She said while she poured the vodka into her own glass. "So spill for me like a good girl and I'll give you something nice." Victoria smiled and took a sip.

"Alcohol first. This is a good one, I promise." Taylor was positively bouncing in her seat. She held out her glass.

Victoria walked towards her and didn't stop until she hit the side of the bed. 'Personal boundaries' were always more like guidelines to Victoria Chase, for friends and foes alike. She stared down at Taylor and started to tip the bottle over into the other blonde's glass before thinking better of it.

Taylor whimpered as Victoria brought the bottle to her own lips with the smuggest expression on her face.

"Talk." She said, and began to drink.

"Kate Marsh is coming to the party the week after next!" Taylor blurted out, reaching for the bottle before Victoria could drink too much of it, or worse, drop it entirely.

Victoria spluttered in surprise and then cringed as the liquor shot into her sinuses.

"Fuck!" She winced, quickly handing the bottle off to Taylor so she could clear her nose.

Taylor smiled as if she had planned the entire exchange and spoke as she poured her own drink. "You heard me, Victoria. Kate Marsh is coming to our next party. Apparently Courtney was able to convince her to give it a shot somehow."

Victoria wiped her mouth and spun Taylor's desk chair around so she could throw her arms across the backrest and leaned forwards, eyes wide.

"How the hell'd she manage that?" Victoria asked.

Taylor shrugged. "No idea." She answered. "Maybe Kate just wants to get out of her shell?"

Victoria's lips pursed around the rim of her glass. "I don't buy it." She said plainly after a moment of consideration. "Bitch spends all of August crawling up everyone's collective ass about 'muh Jesus' and 'preserving your purity against temptation' and suddenly she wants to hang out at a Vortex party? No way." Victoria finished her glass and spun herself around in her chair.

"You sure she's not going to, I don't know, wear a wire or something? Get everything shut down like Nathan's dad doesn't own the cops here?" Victoria said, then winced.

Nate.

Fuck.

She refilled her glass and downed it.

Taylor's eyebrows rose, but she said nothing of it.

"Doubt it." Taylor said. "From what Court' said, she was pretty into the idea. 'Just to socialize' is how Courtney said she'd put it, but that's still out of character for Saint Marsh, don't you think?"

Victoria nodded. The room spun a little. The alcohol was hitting her.

"The next thing you know Caulfield'll be knocking down our doors trying to get in." Victoria said, resting her chin on the back of her arms.

Taylor smirked. "Oh yeah?" She said, refilling her glass with just orange juice.

"Mhmm.." Victoria replied. "Can you imagine her showing up to the VIP lounge in one of her little hipster animal shirts or something?" She laughed snidely and twirled her toes in the carpet.

"It's a wonder she's allowed to dress herself at all.." Victoria trailed off as she poured another shot.

Taylor leaned back, considering.

"She could get Kate to dress her, honestly." Taylor said, eyes flashing a bit as she caught the makings of a snarl on Victoria's face. "I think she'd look cute in one of Kate's church dresses. Maybe a nice necklace or some showy earrings to liven her top half up? Kate's got a lot of those, right?"

"Fuck that." Victoria positively growled. Taylor had struck gold.

She smiled, catlike. "Oh?" Taylor asked. "How'd you do it then?" She sing-songed innocently.

Victoria met her eyes for a second before looking down towards the floor.

Taylor followed her sightline down towards her fidgeting toes.

Oh shit..

"She'd definitely look best in something dark and form-fitting, but not too overstated." Victoria pondered aloud. "Something that cuts off above the knee, but only just. A couple inches of heel to highlight her legs more, too."

Victoria laid her head down on her arms fully and kept speaking.

"Too much makeup and you'd cover her freckles.." Victoria's eyes fluttered shut and her cheeks flushed, not entirely from the alcohol.

'Oh man.. ' Taylor thought. She had a suspicion.

"Caulfield has freckles?" She probed, baiting.

"Mhmm." Victoria mumbled, finishing her own drink and setting the glass on the table with a rattle. "From her cheeks to her shoulders.."

That was definitely a blush.

This explained.. a lot, actually.

Taylor smiled mischievously. "So. Little black dress and some heels. Maybe some eyeliner. What else, V? Maybe one of Kate's cute little cardigans?" This was almost unfair.

Victoria growled again as her figurative hackles raised.

'This is priceless' Taylor thought as she swallowed.

'Fuck Kate.' Victoria grumbled. "I've got plenty of cardigans in my closet too. One of those, and maybe a black lace choker.." Victoria smiled into her arms at the thought.

Taylor's eyebrows climbed towards her hairline.

This explained a whole lot.

"Geeze V, was Wednesday Addams your first crush or something?" Taylor questioned as she set her empty glass down and stretched out on her bed.

"Morticia, actually. Wednesday was cute too though." Victoria answered with a slow smile.

Then her eyes shot open, quickly finding Taylor's over her own wide grin.

"Tell no one." Victoria demanded.

Taylor mimed locking her lips and throwing away the key.

"Gomez had his charms too, I suppose." Victoria admitted, spinning in her chair again. "But there was something about Anjelica Huston's Morticia that I latched on to."

Victoria stood and walked to the bed, uncharacteristically flopping down across Taylor's legs as she settled in.

"I guess I hadn't really been exposed to a woman as matriarchal and in-control as Morticia was. I'd definitely seen authoritative women in movies before, but never one that was powerful and sensual, you know?" Victoria pondered rhetorically.

Victoria couldn't see it, but Taylor nodded nonetheless.

"Not that strong and feminine women didn't exist before then, of course." She admitted. "I just hadn't seen them."

Taylor's hand crept into Victoria's hair as the taller, drunker blonde wiggled across her legs to put her back against the wall.

"Who was your first crush, Sweet T?" Victoria mumbled.

Taylor answered immediately.

"My dad was watching Fight Club and I remember I was walking through the living room long enough to discover Brad Pitt with his shirt off."

She heard Victoria groan from somewhere below her and smiled.

"You too, huh?" Taylor said.

"Mhmm." Victoria answered. "I couldn't decide between him or Helena Bonham Carter. I'd be fine with either."

A comfortable silence settled between them for a few minutes. Taylor filled the quiet time by running her fingers through Victoria's hair as she felt the taller blonde relax at her side.

"My biggest-" Victoria yawned. ".. fuck. My biggest childhood crush though was definitely Winona Ryder. I didn't see "Beetlejuice" until I was 12, but it changed my life." Victoria laughed quietly, climbing up the bed and molding herself into Taylor's back.

Taylor giggled. Victoria was a cute drunk.

"Did you know she's only 5 foot 3?" Victoria asked into Taylor's hair.

Taylor did not, but she did notice a pattern when she saw one.

"Got a thing for short girls, V?" She asked with a knowing grin.

"Absolutely." Victoria answered back quietly but confidently.

A soft moment passed.

".. T, you won't tell anyone I'm bi, right?" Victoria asked, somewhat less confidently.

Taylor clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth and shook her head. 'This girl..' she though.

"No, Victoria, I won't out you to the Blackwell randos. You'd murder me publicly and that'd fuck with my plans this weekend."

Victoria laughed at that and squeezed Taylor's hand.

"I'd make it quick for you at least. A clean death, better than you deserve." Victoria said dramatically, tracing a line across Taylor's throat with a drunken flourish.

"I won't tell everyone you're an anime fiend either, V. Your secrets are safe with me." Taylor said, smiling softly as she felt Victoria freeze behind her.

"It's not that obvious, is it?" She asked after a moment. Taylor could hear the blush in her tone.

"No, Victoria. I honestly wouldn't have any idea if I hadn't seen your bookmarks tab-"

-"You went through my fucking bookmarks!?"

"-while looking for birthday present ideas-"

-"You nosy bitch!"-

"-and was surprised at all the Sailor Moon fanfiction you read is all."

She felt Victoria go still and silent behind her.

"I love you, V?" Taylor asked, only moderately spooked.

Victoria still hadn't moved.

Taylor knew Victoria's body language. She knew 'mortified' when she felt it.

"If it's worth anything at all, I think you'd pull off that cosplay you have saved on Amazon."

Victoria shifted.

".. Really?" She asked.

Taylor nodded.

"Definitely. You've totally got the legs for it. You'd look great."

".. Thanks, T."

Taylor smiled and sighed. "Y'know, what if we did a costume party for Halloween?" Taylor asked guilelessly.

"I am not outing myself as a weeaboo in front the Vortex sharktank, Taylor." Victoria grumbled.

"Just say I said you could pick my costume if you let me pick yours, or that you lost a bet or something." Taylor offered. "You'd look amazing and nobody'd care anyway, V."

Victoria exhaled a long breath into Taylor's hair.

".. Maybe." She replied.

'Yes!' Taylor shouted internally.

"You're a really good friend, Taylor." Victoria said quietly from above her.

Taylor blushed. Victoria was a sappy drunk.

"'m sorry I'm bitchy every now and then-"

'Maybe a bit more than every now and then, V..' Taylor thought

"- but it just slips out sometimes, even with friends. I don't mean it, though."

Victoria squeezed her a little.

"Not with you and Courtney at least. Nate either.." She trailed off.

Taylor started to respond, but Victoria kept talking.

"I'll drive you out to visit your mom after class tomorrow, Sweet T."

A stronger squeeze this time. Victoria didn't let go.

Taylor pursed her lips and felt her eyes start to sting.

"It's all the way in Portland, Victoria. Are you sure?" Taylor asked.

"Absolutely, Sweet T. It's less than 2 hours away anyway. No sweat." Victoria said, voice firm even through the spin of the alcohol. "We can get something nice to eat on the way back too if you feel like it. My treat."

Taylor laughed, despite how understated a thing it was. It was better than crying.

"Your dad's treat, you mean." Taylor jabbed.

"The Chase Family watches over their own, peasant." Victoria said in an absolutely abysmal posh English accent.

Then they were both laughing.

The laughter faded into another comfortable silence.

The sun had set a while ago and the hallway was thick with the sounds of excited girls coming back indoors when Taylor turned over in Victoria's arms.

"Wanna sleep in here tonight? We can finish off that vodka and get started organizing the costume party.." Taylor wiggled her eyebrows suggestively as she trailed off.

Victoria's eyes rolled as she considered the idea. After a moment, she spoke.

"That sounds.. doable, minion." She said, imperiously. Then she smiled. "I pick what we get delivered to eat, though." She said with a firm nod.

"Deal!" Taylor quickly agreed. She sat up quickly and then stood, heading towards her closet and grabbing a towel.

"I'm gonna shower before these hoes steal all the hot water. Keep my spot warm for me?" She asked.

Victoria rolled into the center of the bed and stretched.

"It's my spot now, but yes I'll keep it warm." Victoria responded. That smug expression was back with a vengeance.

"I'll be right back then, V." Taylor said cheerily as she stepped out the door.

Victoria exhaled as she wiggled down into the blankets.

'This was nice.. 'She thought as she drifted off.


October 1st 2013

Victoria heard a door open as she stepped out into the hallway towards the shower.

It was Fucking Caulfield, because of-fucking-course it was.

She was framed in her doorway in bunny ears and some kind of pale dress. She had whiskers drawn on her cheeks in eyeliner and her freckles only made them stand out more. The tip of her nose was colored a pale pink. One of her hands held her guitar case and in the other was her fucking pet tree with its pot held in some kind of multicolored tophat.

Victoria stopped dead in her tracks.

Caulfield did too.

Victoria took a half step back and reached to her left. She always kept her camera next to the door.

Caulfield saw what Victoria had reached for and immediately reddened. Victoria reflexively brought her camera up, framed her subject, found her focus, and shot.

The quiet snap seemed to echo down the empty hallway.

All the blood that had rushed to Caulfield's face drained away and now she looked absolutely ashen, but Victoria simply made a show of looking the brunette up and down and gestured down the hallway.

"Well then, Lamefield? Toddle on." Victoria commanded.

Caulfield snapped back to herself and quickly made her way past Victoria -'Dear lord she has a bunny tail too'- and to her destination. Victoria's own blush faded as quickly as it came.

Now her blood boiled.

Kate's room.

Max knocked on the door softly while looking down both ends of the hallway and after a moment Kate opened the door wearing a mouse-ear hairband and her own drawn on whiskers. The door was opened wide enough that Victoria could see into the room past the two hugging girls, decorated with streamers and a full tea set on display on the little table in the center of Kate's room.

Right behind Kate on the floor was her little fucking rabbit in what looked like a little fucking blue and white tea-cozy-turned-dress.

They were having an Alice in Wonderland-themed tea party for Halloween, several weeks early so Kate didn't have to do the whole "pagan witchcraft" thing.

How absolutely fucking perfect.

Max released Kate from the hug and stepped into her room. The last thing Victoria saw before the door closed were Kate's narrowed eyes.

Victoria seethed.

'Fuck!' Victoria threw her camera at her bed and didn't wince as it bounced off and clattered against the wall and then the floor.

Her fingernails bit raw crescents into her palms as she stormed towards the showers.

If anyone asked why a pair of thuds echoed out of her stall as soon as the spray turned on, well, no one could say she hadn't dropped her shampoo.

No one saw the torn skin on her left knuckleridge, after all.

No one saw the pinkish spiral sliding down the drain.

Absolutely no one saw the tears of pure hatred that pooled in her eyes but didn't fall, either.


October 4th, 2013

The music boomed loudly enough her teeth shook, but she was too drunk to care. Taylor was off somewhere with one of the Bigfoots, Courtney was trying her best to shake some rando off because he smelled too much like weed at the moment, and Nate was behind the bar.

All of that was fine, because of what was in front of her.

A Cheshire smile slid its way between her nose and chin at what she was seeing.

At what her camera was seeing.

At what everyone would see by tomorrow morning.

Who knew innocent little Kate Marsh had it in her?

Definitely not Logan.

Or Zach.

Or Hayden.

Or Devin or Tyler or Donovan either.

Kate didn't seem to care. She flitted between them like a little scarlet hummingbird looking for nectar wherever she could find it. Right now she seemed to think it was down Hayden's throat.

Victoria laughed. This was perfect. This was a fucking gift from above.

Hayden traced a drunken trail down Kate's neck and the slut pulled him closer and moaned, her eyes screwed shut and her swollen lips parted in a perfect 'oh'.

There it is. The thumbnail. Perfect.

She slid the focus back, revealing Hayden's hand visibly squeezing her ass through her skirt as Logan stepped into frame, pulling one of her hands off of Hayden's head and bringing it to rest on his chest as he leaned in and kissed her. Her arms wrapped around Logan's neck and she gyrated in Hayden's lap.

This was beautiful.

Victoria got one more long, panning shot before killing the footage and slipping away upstairs.

Rando Bigfoot could go home and handle his problem elsewhere. She needed Taylor now.

The first room was empty. The second was in-use, but not by who she needed. The third-

Bingo.

Taylor sat primly at the head of the bed, a large blanket obscuring her lower half. A large blanket, and a human sized lump. Taylor's face was flushed, and neither of her hands were in view.

She could deal. This was important.

Victoria's hand slipped under the blanket, found a waistband, and jerked.

The football team's kicker spilled out from under the blanket with a glazed look in his eyes and saliva around his mouth.

His eyes squinted in confusion and his mouth opened to say something but Victoria cut him off immediately.

"I'm sure you were doing your best, but now the grownups need to talk. You may go now."

Victoria gestured towards the door.

He tried to say something else but was cut off again.

"I said you were dismissed." Victoria hissed, her voice cracking like old ice and her expression even colder.

The boy swallowed and made his exit, closing the door behind him.

Taylor looked at Victoria with a mixture of anger and confusion on her face, but Victoria's grin was fucking predatory and brought her up short.

"What's going on V? The house better be on fire because-"

Victoria cut her off.

"Look." She said simply, a smug smile on her face as she tossed the camera onto the bed next to Taylor.

Taylor reset the video to the start and pressed play.

Her jaw dropped.

"Oh no fucking way.." She trailed off.

The smile that carved itself across Victoria's face was vile enough she could fucking taste it but she didn't care.

"Mhmm. Who could have guessed prim and proper Kate Marsh was just waiting for her chance to bloom into a little scarlet flower?" Victoria's words were acid.

"Victoria, something isn't right here." Taylor said after a moment and Victoria's expression shifted.

"You'd think, but this is all her. I've been watching her." Victoria's eyes darkened.

"She drank one glass of wine." She said. "One. After that it's been nothing but water. Nathan was handing them out himself."

Taylor's eyebrows knit together in confusion.

"That," Victoria said, indicated the video playing back on the camera, "is absolutely not because of the alcohol." Victoria laughed, and Taylor's stomach churned.

"You sure, V?" She asked, voice heavy with trepidation. "If you told me this was Kate's evil twin I'd have believed it before thinking she'd do something like.. this.. so suddenly."

Taylor chewed her lip as she passed the camera back to Victoria.

"You think I'd stand by and watch a pack of dudebros just rape a girl, even if I fucking hated her?" Victoria asked, shaking the camera as she gestured towards the screen.

Taylor spoke to the negative but Victoria continued on

"I was watching her like a hawk, Taylor. One glass of wine that Nathan poured himself from a bottle that had only ever been behind the bar. The rest were bottles of water from the cases behind the bar, too." Victoria explained as her smile solidified.

"There is absolutely no way that she was drunk here. Which means that this is the real Kate Marsh. Which means she can't hide behind her bible when she gets fucking crucified-"

"Victoria. Please." Taylor said. "I get it. Post the video."

Victoria's smile was positively sublime as she transferred the video from her camera to her phone.

"Gladly."


October 7th, 2013

Taylor popped her lips and Victoria turned away from watching Fucking Caulfield sleep to see what Taylor wanted. The other blonde gestured from across the table at a piece of paper in front of her while Mr. Jefferson went on about Alfred Hitchcock.

"Dear Kate,

We love your porn video

XOXO Blackwell Academy"

Victoria didn't smile so much as she showed her teeth.

Perfect.

She looked back up to Taylor to show her approval and heard a gasp to her right as Max jerked awake like she had been shocked.

She looked terrified.

Caulfield glanced rapidly in every direction as if she had no idea where she was and Victoria tilted her head, ready to open her mouth to get the mousy brunette's attention when a paper ball flew overhead and struck Kate Marsh in the face.

Victoria couldn't bring herself to pay attention.

Max looked shattered. What the fuck was going on?

Victoria's phone buzzed back on the table, but that wasn't important. It wasn't Nate's tone and everyone else important was already in the room.

Mr. Jefferson turned and asked the class about a photographer that captured the human condition in black and white and circled the room looking for answers.

Victoria exhaled in frustration when nobody answered and raised her hand, offering up the "Diane Arbus, Mr. Jefferson" he was looking for to continue his lecture before turning back to Max.

Victoria turned just in time to see Max raise her camera to her face and snap a shot.

Her hands were shaking.

Mr. Jefferson cut himself off mid-sentence and turned back to Max, lectured her for taking a selfie in class, and then transitioned into a question about the technical term for the "process that codified photographic self-portraiture."

Max's eyes never left the tabletop.

Victoria raised her hand again, but Max looked up and her expression hardened.

"The Daguerreian Process, Mr. Jefferson." She said plainly. "I don't feel well. May I please go to the bathroom?" She asked.

Mr. Jefferson leaned back onto the table behind him with a smirk on his face, sitting half on his hands.

"Excellent work, Max. That's exactly right-"

Max cut him off.

"I don't feel well Mr. Jefferson. May I please go to the bathroom?" Max repeated, her voice perfectly flat.

A trickle of blood slid from her nose, across her lips, and down to the point of her chin.

'Jesus fuck.'

Mr. Jefferson opened his mouth and quickly shut it. He closed his eyes and gestured towards the door.

"You're excused, Ms. Caulfield. Don't forget about your Everyday Heroes submission- I'm expecting great things from you." He said, but she had grabbed her things and was out the door before he finished.

She had only paused long enough to whisper some kind words to Kate.

Mr. Jefferson returned his attention back to the class and segued into progress reports on everyone's projects. Victoria checked her bag one last time for her portfolio before pulling the folder out and laying it on her desk.

A minute later Mr. Jefferson dismissed the class and Victoria stood to make her way to the front of the room to turn in her submission. Taylor blew her an exaggerated kiss before overdramatically strutting towards the door.

The moment Taylor opened the door there was a pop like someone dropped a heavy book on the floor, but had somehow echoed from farther down the hall towards the front of the school.

Taylor glanced back into the classroom in confusion and Mr. Jefferson quickly went back to critiquing Victoria's framing technique, having looked up with his expression oddly blank at the noise.

Victoria leaned back over the desk to respond to Mr. Jefferson's critique when she heard the intercom crackle to life.

A chill passed through her at the urgent tone of the voice on the other side of the PA.

"Code Blue. Code Blue. All students and faculty immediately clear the halls and move to the nearest classroom. Faculty please secure all doors and cover all windows. Do not move from your positions until the all clear is given. I repeat, Code Blue. Code Blue-"

There was an active shooter in the school.

Her eyes flicked to the phone in her purse.

The phone that had six unread texts and three missed calls to the first number in her contacts list.

To the boy that hadn't talked to her in two weeks.

'Nathan..'


October 11th, 2013

It was too sunny for a funeral.


October 12th, 2013

Victoria laid on her bed, eyes boring holes in the digital display of the clock on her nightstand.

1:30 AM.

She'd been here, on top of her blankets in the dark, since 9.

She couldn't think.

She couldn't breathe, either.

That was okay.

She sent a quick text to 'Sweet T' and after making sure the checkmark indicating the message had been read didn't pop up, she reached into her bedside table and grabbed what she needed, stuffed it into her shower bag, and walked to the bathroom.

No twinkly guitar trickling sweetly out of Maxine's room. No soft voice singing sad love songs either. That was fortunate.

No lights under any of the other doors.

Perfect.

The motion-sensitive overheads in the bathroom snapped on with an anemic thrum and their flicker cast odd shadows into the space under the sinks. One of the fluorescent bulbs had gone out, and another had one foot in the grave.

Appropriate. Victoria laughed.

She checked the bathroom to make sure she was alone and mechanically dropped her bag inside the lip of her usual shower stall. She returned to the sinks, picked one at random, and turned it on. She watched the water slip down the dappled drain in a daze.

She was tired, but couldn't sleep.

That was unfortunate.

Steam began to carry upward in a warm, misty cloud and Victoria wet a washcloth in the scalding stream.

It stung, but that was almost the point.

Layer by layer, she peeled the makeup away until there was nothing left but her.

She swallowed something heavy in her throat and looked up.

There was still one more layer to go.

She wiped away the steam and finally looked at the monster in the mirror.

She thought of Nathan.

Her first concrete sign had been the gun he literally threw into her lap, but there had been others. Less obvious, but nonetheless real.

She had just been fucking blind.

She heard the joints in her fingers creak in protest of her grip on the edge of the sink but she couldn't actually feel them pop and shift under the strain.

She let go anyway. She needed her hands.

She laughed again.

All she ever had to do was go to someone -anyone- and tell them that something was fucking wrong with Nate.

She tried to look away from the face across from her but found she couldn't. Something cold and sharp like arrowflint in the expression opposite her own held her transfixed.

Her eyes were like glass. Green like a cats-eye marble and equally human.

Equally alive.

Alive like the Price girl was.

Alive like Kate would have been if Max hadn't found the note in time.

Victoria's eyes burned. The face across from her twisted into an unholy sneer. The disgust was almost palpable.

Kate Marsh had been violated and Victoria had held the fucking camera and smiled. Taylor had told her something was wrong but Victoria had been so sure and so eager to finally have a victory over the perfect little church girl that she kept going. Kept pushing until something broke.

Kate had hugged her at the funeral and said she was sorry.

Something had broken alright.

The face in the mirror made her sick.

She thought to the bag in the shower and would have smiled -would have screamed- if she could move her mouth.

She was trembling. She was fucking shaking, but none of the fury made its way to her face.

The face in the mirror stared back, looking just as dead as she felt.

'Good.' She thought as the automatic lights shut off, thinking there was no one left in the bathroom.

They were half right.

In the darkness, freed from the paralysis the monster in the mirror had stricken her with, Victoria Chase smiled.

The fire in her eyes came to a head and something hot slid down her cheeks.

It felt like hate.

It tasted like salt.

The water kept whirling into the dark drain and Victoria slowly relaxed, imagining the warm stream taking her hesitation with it on its way out to sea.

She felt light. She felt like she was tied to the earth by a string leading back to the bag in the shower.

One cut and she'd float away. Like a kite in the breeze.

She smiled.


The bathroom door groaned open and the lights snapped on with a dull hum as someone stepped onto the tile.

Victoria turned her head like she was waking from a dream.

A reflexive barb formed on the tip of her tongue (Seriously what the fuck was this girl wearing?) but Caulfield just smiled tiredly and opened her big dumb mouth.

"Hey." She said, walking to the sink next to Victoria. "Come here often?"

Victoria felt life spill back into her limbs. She could worry about the girl in the mirror after she'd fed this dorky little hipster her own ass.

"What the fuck are you doing, Caulfield?" Victoria said, turning away from the mirror to face the freckled girl fully.

Max looked down at her toothbrush and then back at Victoria with a confused expression on her face. She punctuated her unspoken sentence with the rustle of bristles on teeth.

'That little smartass.. ' Victoria thought as heat flooded into her cheeks and her pulse picked up for the first time in days.

She scoffed to cover her flustered blush.

As she opened her mouth to vent even a fraction more of the frustration Max Fucking Caulfield stirred up inside her apparently just by existing, Victoria wondered if this couldn't be what normal felt like.

If it was, she didn't think she'd be able to bring herself to float away any time soon.


A/N|

Chapter 2. Hopefully this solidifies that Victoria isn't some incredibly strong emotionally flawless Mary Sue or is suddenly whitewashed. Poor girl has problems. Two doozies back to back is pretty nasty, but I promise it's generally an upward trend from here, mainly because I can't stand bullying Kate.

Apparently reviews and PMs are my drug of choice, so keep those coming.

Chapter 3 soonish. It'll be chronologically after Ch. 1 since we're all caught up now, so yeah. Consequences.

Anyway, love y'all.

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