TW: This chapter contains sexual assault-related imagery as part of a dream sequence
Saturday, October 12th, 2013 - ?
Victoria opens her eyes to find herself enshrouded in darkness. It is not the near-perfect blackness of a room at night, with the barest shapes of surrounding furniture visible thanks to what moonlight manages to filter through the curtains. No, this darkness is total. It is void.
It is the void of that endlessly deep, endlessly dark well she's visited before. The one that part of her feels like it's been trapped inside for years. Did she truly escape, last time? Or was that ghostly light that lifted her up to the warmth, safety, and comfort of Kate's arms nothing more than a beautiful dream born of a desperate mind?
Victoria is on her back this time, lying on something soft with naught but cold air touching her mostly bare flesh. She tries to move but can't, her wrists and ankles bound fast by something she cannot see. Panic surges through her body and mind as she thrashes about to free herself, but to no avail… whatever is restraining her does not give even the slightest inch.
Victoria cries out for help, screaming herself hoarse yet hearing no response save for her own voice echoing back at her, like some cruel mimic taunting her pleas. She turns her head this way and that, bending and twisting her neck as far as she's able in a desperate search for that delicate light from before. But she cannot find even the barest glimmer. She's all alone… perhaps she's always been alone.
No… no, that's not right. Victoria did get out before. The light saved her. Kate saved her. Victoria needs to find her; she needs to find the…
"Let there be light…" A soft, feminine voice giggles from the inky void.
Suddenly Victoria is flooded with luminescence, though this is not that gentle light, all hazels and golds that she discovered when she last found herself in this place. This is white. Fluorescent. Blinding to her eyes that heretofore have struggled to pick out even the scantest of details from the opaque blackness that enveloped her. It takes several long (seconds? Minutes? Hours?) of gently cracking open her eyes and rapidly blinking away the afterimages of this new light's harsh assault before they are finally able to adjust enough to take in her surroundings.
Victoria is lying atop a bed adorned by silk sheets, naked as the day she was born save for the pearl necklace around her throat. It almost seems fitting that the piece of jewelry she's worked so hard to associate with the Victoria Chase Brand would be the only stitch of clothing whoever trapped her like this would deign to leave her with. Her wrists and ankles are secured by thick black bands, which are themselves attached to the nearest bedposts, her limbs splayed out to form an 'X' shape. She has never felt more vulnerable… more exposed. Every hair on her body, every ridge, every blemish and imperfection mercilessly highlighted by the twin studio lamps that stand just beyond the foot of the bed.
She is about give screaming another try when the unmistakable -CLICK CLICK CLICK- of a camera's shutter causes her to freeze, the cry dying in her throat. The panic that was coursing through her gives way to cold dread of inevitability as a figure begins to step out from the shadows.
"I was so upset when I found out that you destroyed your beautiful photographs… such a waste," the figure sighs, as the light begins to give it form and color. A small frame. Red lips. Flashes of pale skin. The voice is so familiar, save for the dark edge that just makes it feel… wrong, somehow.
"But don't worry, I forgive you… we can make more, after all. We have all the time in the world." Another couple of steps forward, another series of shutter clicks, before the figure… before Kate lowers the camera from her face, causing Victoria's eyes to nearly bug right out of her head.
It is Kate, but… unlike Victoria has ever seen her before. Her red lips twisted into an almost sadistic smirk. Her hazel eyes sharp, and hidden behind a pair of glasses with black, rectangular frames. Her dirty blonde hair cut short, parted smartly to the right and spiked up with gel or mousse. She's wearing a white, men's dress shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbow, dark slacks, and black shoes. The slender hands that hold the camera in front of her are covered by thin, translucent vinyl gloves.
"Hold that stare!" Kate exultantly cries, grinning wolfishly as she raises the camera to her face before muttering "Oh, Christ… look at that perfect face."
"Wh… wh…" Victoria tries to speak, but her mouth doesn't obey.
"Shhh…" Kate soothes, stepping over to Victoria's left foot, crouching so that the camera is aimed at an angle nearly level with Victoria's face in a line parallel to her bare leg. "Nice… good… Oh, those eyes…"
Victoria's mind is reeling. This doesn't make any sense. She's never seen Kate act so, so… predatory before. And the way she's dressed, if she had a beard she'd almost look like…
"… like Mark?" Kate sneers at the name as she stands once again. Raising gloved fingers to her cheeks, she slowly glides them down her neck, chest, and stomach before stopping just above the zipper of her pants. "What… don't you like my new look? Doesn't this turn you on? Or were you just trying to make me jealous, rubbing it in my face like that every day in his classroom? I saw the way you looked at me every time you practically sat in his lap like some cheap whore…"
"Or… is this more your speed?" Suddenly Kate is straddling Victoria's legs, her hair now falling around her face in a stringy bob-cut, the dress shirt replaced by a pink tee with a deer emblazoned on the front under a gray hoodie. The polaroid camera she's pointing down at Victoria's head and chest clicks and whirrs as she depresses the trigger, the picture it spits out fluttering down to land on Victoria's stomach. It is soon followed by another, and another. "Maxine might have tried to hide it under all those preppy clothes, but you know she was just dying to unleash her inner hipster."
Letting the camera fall to her side, Kate raises her left hand to tap her lips with a thoughtful finger. "No… I'm pretty sure this is what you want."
Kate is on her hands and knees now, clad in that black sequined dress from the night before, her face hovering mere inches above Victoria's. She turns to give her a good view of the blue and purple bruise that mars her left cheek. "I'll make you forget all about them. And Taylor, and Courtney… and Nathan and… what's-her-name? That little trollop he's always pining for?"
Rachel…? Victoria finds that she can't voice the name, fear constricting her throat. It… it is fear she's feeling…
… isn't it?
She shivers as the tip of Kate's polished nail gently scrapes at the hollow of her throat. The smirking girl lifts the string of pearls into the air by one finger, causing the rest of the strand to pull tight around Victoria's neck.
"They can't have you… they can't touch you. You're mine, now…"
Kate's long hair tickles Victoria's cheeks when she looms over her, her face a picture of possessiveness and primal lust. Victoria's lips seem to part of their own accord as Kate lowers herself, just barely avoiding brushing them with her own.
"I have you all to myself," she murmurs. The girl begins crawling backwards ever so slowly, every movement sultry and deliberate as she keeps her mouth hovering just above Victoria's skin. Victoria gasps involuntarily at the feel of Kate's hot breath caressing her goose-pimpled flesh.
"Is that what you want, Victoria…?" Kate's piercing gaze remains locked onto her as she slinks down past her chest, her stomach…
"To stay down here, in the dark…" she whispers, her face now hovering just between Victoria's hips. "… with me?"
Victoria tries to speak, but it comes out as little more than a strangled gurgle.
"I can't hear you…" Kate chuckles, the sudden burst of air sending what feels like an electric jolt through Victoria's body.
Victoria clears her throat, squeezing her eyes tightly closed as she finally manages to cry out her response.
"… YES."
Downtown Portland – Riverfront Lodge
Victoria gasps herself awake. Though she finds herself shrouded in darkness once more, this time is different than the last. For one, the hazy numerals on the digital alarm clock nearby gives off a faint red glow that combines with the ambient light filtering its way through the curtains to her left. For another, she can just barely spot the outlines of unfamiliar furniture nearby. The fact that she's not tied to the bedposts is another dead giveaway.
Of course, she suffers from a brief bout of confusion over the fact that her bed is too large, and none of her furniture seems to be in the right place. Then everything starts to click into place. She's not at Blackwell, she's at the hotel room in Portland. The guest room, to be precise… which means Kate is in the main bedroom on the opposite side of that door just over there. And where she was just now… that was a dream.
And, uh… whew what a dream that was. She can still feel the tightness of the restraints on her wrists. The chill on her skin, followed by the heat of Kate's breath. Her heartrate is still elevated, maybe from fear at first but… by the end? Yeah, to say she woke up wet would most definitely be an understatement. Drenched would be more accurate.
I mean, sure… it started off kinda scary at first. Maybe had a bit of a rape-y vibe going, but… did it have to stop right before getting to the good part?
After all, plenty of women have fantasies along those lines, and it wasn't that far off from some of the scenarios she's imagined about Kate specifically. And the confines of one's own mind is ultimately a safe space with which to explore that kind of thing, right? Sure, she takes on the role of the aggressor with most of the people she pursues in fantasy or reality, but it's almost always been different when it comes to Kate. Maybe it's the intensity of the girl's stare, that look of burning need in her eyes… is it brining out Victoria's inner submissive or something? Or is it just the irony of being ravished by the pure, virginal choir girl that gets Victoria's motor running?
In any case, she at the very least learned one thing of value from that dream: Katie can absolutely rock the hell out of men's business-casual attire. God damn.
It didn't take a therapist with seven PhDs to figure out where a dream like that came from, either. Kate had cranked the sexual tension up to 11 with that fake-out kiss earlier in the evening, only to traipse off to take a bath without a care in the world while leaving Victoria with a massive case of blue balls. And that bath was long as shit, too, so she was forced to listen to Kate sloshing and splashing and humming to herself while Victoria could do nothing but stew in her pajamas with a petulant little pout on her lips. Like, 'don't start what I can't finish'?! Please, I can 'finish' in more ways than you can even count! And what the fuck are you even doing in there anyway?!
In the end she must have fallen asleep before Kate got out, because one minute she was sitting there running through all the delightfully scandalous ways she could get payback for that little stunt, to regain the upper-hand… and then she was waking up as she is now, with the light to her room turned off and someone having pulled the bed covers up to her chin. And… did she remember the feeling of soft lips being pressed to her forehead, or did she just dream that too?
Regardless, now she finds herself essentially right back where she started, in her bed alone in the guest room of the hotel suite after Kate, this time cross-dressing BDSM dream Kate, left her with blue balls again. Which everyone would surely agree is just rude. Seriously, how can you invade someone's mind and get them all fired up and then just leave them hanging like this?
While she lays there, her fingers idly tracing the buttons of her silk pajama top just above her belly button, she's having a really hard time stopping herself from imagining sneaking into Kate's bed and kissing her awake like Sleeping Beauty or whatever, then kissing her some more until they see where the night takes them. Sure, it's not the ideal way Victoria imagined their secondfirst kiss and first… whatever else would go, but… she's horny now. She wants Kate now. Victoria's never been good with delayed gratification, it's a fucking miracle she's lasted this long to be quite honest.
Of course, she thinks as her fingers creep closer to the waistline of her pajama bottoms, option #2 would be a little 'self-care', see if I can fall back asleep after getting some post-nut clarity. Maybe even pick up where we left off in that dream. It wouldn't be that inappropriate, right? I mean, Kate was right about the size of this suite, we're probably further apart right now than if we were in our dorm rooms…
It is while Victoria is trying to convince herself that masturbation is the reasonable, nay, the responsible thing to do in this situation, that the sound of covers thrashing and a low moan from the adjacent room slams both her train of thought and the south-bound movement of her fingers to a screeching halt.
No fucking way… is Kate actually…!?
Before she's even aware of what she's doing, Victoria is on her feet and tiptoeing over to the slightly ajar door that separates her room from Kate's. Her heart pounds in her throat as she listens for that sound again.
"Mmnm…" the quiet voice from the other side caresses Victoria's ears, causing the hair on the back of her neck to nearly stand on end. She gently rests her fingers on the doorknob.
Wait… what the hell am I doing…?
She wasn't seriously considering molesting a sleeping Kate earlier. Thinking about it was delightful, sure, but it was all part of her pre-game 'helping herself out' ritual. But if Kate's in there flicking the bean right now, just as Victoria was preparing to do the same thing… was that not a sign that she should go in and offer some assistance? More importantly, can she stop herself right now even if she tried?
Do… do I just stroll on in there like it's NBD, and say 'Hey, Katie… need a hand?' Or do I crawl into bed with my game-face on and get down to business?
"Nnn… n-no…!"
But Kate's pleading voice accompanied by another bout of light thrashing makes Victoria's stomach clench, sudden worry dousing her arousal like a firehose at full blast.
Lightly knocking on the door, Victoria hesitantly calls out "… Kate? Is everything okay?"
"nonono…"
In a flash Victoria is through the door and next to Kate's bed, looking down on the girl's sleeping face that is anything but peaceful. Moonlight peers through the window to illuminate Kate's pale cheeks, and even without her contacts in Victoria can see the way her eyes roll about behind her closed lids, her mouth stretched into a pained grimace. Her left hand, peeking out from underneath the blanket as it rests by her head near the pillow, clenches and unclenches sporadically while the girl's feet jerk beneath the covers.
All thoughts of propriety vanish from her mind as Victoria crawls into bed beside Kate and gently shakes the whimpering girl's shoulder. "Kate… Katie…? Wake up… you're having a nightmare…"
After another, slightly harder shake, Kate's eyes shoot open as she gasps for breath. The girl's pupils are wide with fright and the struggle to focus in the dim light. "Victoria…?" she pleads, her voice quivering with emotion. Then she's pulling her into a crushing hug, moaning with relief while she clings to Victoria like a drowning man to a life preserver.
"Victoria!" she cries, "Victoria, oh thank God…"
"Shh…" Victoria soothes, reaching up to stroke the hair at the back of Kate's head. "I'm right here…"
Kate somehow manages to pull her even tighter, sniffling and rubbing her tear-soaked cheek into Victoria's neck. "I thought…" she wails, "After last night, I hoped I wouldn't…"
Victoria pulls back enough to look into Kate's eyes, brushing the girl's tangled, damp hair out of her face with soft fingertips. "I'm okay… we're okay. It was just a bad dream…"
Kate's face crumples into a pained, miserable mask. Burying her head into Victoria's chest, she begins to sob. "I used to pray for them, but now…? I hate them so much. I don't want to feel like this anymore…"
Victoria's own tears well up as she buries her face into Kate's hair. She does her best to blink them away while staring at the far wall, unable to stop herself from wondering how badly she fucked up by bringing her here instead of someplace she could be getting treatment for quite literally being ready to commit suicide less than twenty-four hours ago. She'd convinced herself that keeping Kate close to her would keep the girl safe, but was that true? Or was she simply enabling her own selfish desires?
"Tell me how to help," she murmurs, her lips brushing against the girl's hair. "Do… do you want me to take you somewhere…?"
Kate's back quakes from the force of her silent sobbing for several minutes before she begins to calm, tightly clutching a handful of Victoria's silk top all the while. It would be several more minutes before she finally answers, her voice quiet, and creaking, and oh so fragile.
"Would… you stay in here with me? Last night, when we were together… for the first time in a long time I didn't dream at all. I wanted to ask before, but I was afraid you'd think it was weird…"
"It's super weird. Like, the weirdest." Victoria giggles playfully at the feel of Kate tensing up in her arms. "But… I'd like to see you try and stop me. Now scooch a bit so I can get under the covers, weirdo."
Kate holds up the covers for Victoria to snuggle in, her wet eyes shining with gratitude. The short-haired blonde reaches out to caress Kate's side over the thin fabric of her nightgown, from her ribs down to her hip and back up again in slow, smooth strokes. Victoria just watches Kate, ready with a tender smile whenever those beautiful hazel eyes look up in her direction before fluttering closed again.
"I love it when you look at me…" the girl sleepily murmurs. "Your eyes feel so warm…" After a time, the girl's satisfied sighs in response to Victoria's touch fade into soft, measured breathing, her face slackening in peaceful slumber.
Victoria just lies there staring at the sleeping girl for a long, long while, soaking in the warmth radiating from Kate's body. And while the comfort she feels at being so close to this mystifying young woman threatens to pull Victoria along into sleep of her own, that slumber is thwarted for a time by the lump that slowly begins to rise in her throat. It's a lump of words unsaid, both because she doesn't dare disturb Kate's much needed, hopefully dreamless rest… and because her raw, fragile heart knows that saying them makes them real, and it's the real things that can hurt her the most of all.
I feel like you're supposed to hate me… but I'm so glad you don't.
I'll do anything, be anything you want. Just… please be okay.
Victoria's emerald eyes water as she silently mouths the words she can't bring herself to voice.
I think… I think I'm falling for you, Katie…
She finds herself slowly moving forward, as though her face is being drawn in by the magnetic pull of those full, slightly parted lips.
… and that scares me. And I know it's crazy, but…
Her eyes dart up from Kate's lips to her eyelids. If Kate woke up right now, would Victoria pull back? Play it off like nothing happened? Or would she go for it?
… only fools rush in, right?
A tear slips from Victoria's tightly closed eyes as she plants the softest of kisses on the girl's cheek, allowing her pursed lips to caress only the barest corner of the girl's mouth when she finally pulls away. Kate's red lips twitch as though they are attempting to purse as well, but otherwise she doesn't stir. And when Victoria nestles her head back into her pillow, she perhaps chooses a spot as close as possible without taking over Kate's own.
"Sweet dreams, Katie…"
When Victoria herself at last drifts off to sleep, it's to thoughts of slow dancing, and delicate fingers interlaced with her own. Hazel eyes and sweet smiles.
… and kissing. Lots and lots of kissing.
Smiling hazel eyes are the first things Victoria sees the following morning, eyes that glimmer delightedly while roving about as though trying to drink in every detail of Victoria's face all at once. The bright morning sunlight shining in through the windows over Victoria's shoulder beautifully highlights the girl's pale white cheeks, and the cheeky little grin that has settled on those enchanting red lips.
Victoria has always found it hard not to smile in kind whenever she catches Kate smiling at her. "Morning, creeper…" she croaks sleepily.
Kates grin widens as the hand resting near her face idly toys with a lock of dirty blonde hair. "Morning…"
The shorter-haired blonde closes her eyes momentarily to stretch, her back and neck giving that oh-so satisfying series of morning crackles. Plopping her head back down onto the pillow as though that action expended all the energy she had for the day, Victoria smirks sardonically at the still grinning girl before her. "Well? You gonna tell me why you find my face so amusing, or you just planning to keep me in suspense all morning?"
The girl giggles before shrugging her right shoulder upward. "You're just really adorable when you're sleepy, is all." Her eyes twinkle mischievously as she adds "Has… anyone ever told you that you snore?"
"The hell you say!" Victoria scoffs, turning her face up to the ceiling so as not to blast Kate with her morning breath. "I do not."
"You do too!" Kate teases, rubbing her cheek against her pillow by nodding. "Not loud or anything. It's very dainty and cute, like a little honking sound."
Victoria pulls the sheet up over her face to hide her blush. "You're a damn, dirty liar," she whines. "Victoria Chase does not snore and she for damn sure doesn't honk!"
She feels Kate's hand laying over her exposed fingers, the girl's thumb giving them a gentle rub. "Thank you… for staying with me last night."
Deciding it's worth revealing the pink in her cheeks to throw a smirk Kate's way, Victoria lowers the sheet once more. "You act like it's such a burden for me to have to cuddle up to a cute girl all night… did you sleep alright? No more bad dreams?"
Kate nods again, before her cheeks begin to flush as well. "I… did have one dream, but it wasn't a bad one. I dreamt that someone kissed me, right…" she reaches out to touch Victoria's cheek with her index finger, right at the corner of her mouth. "… here."
Feeling her face heat up even more, especially the spot underneath Kate's fingertip, Victoria puts on her best innocent expression. "Hmm… sounds like a pretty good dream if you ask me."
"It was very nice…" Kate admits. Her eyes remain fixated on Victoria's mouth as that soft fingertip idly traces the edge of her bottom lip. "… though, I wanted so badly to turn just a couple inches, make it a real kiss. But, no matter how hard I tried I couldn't move… it was kind of tortuous to be honest. You… wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
When Kate's gaze darts back up to meet hers, it's no longer soft, or mischievous. It's piercing… accusatory even. You've been a bad girl, Miss Chase. Now, confess so that you may receive the appropriate punishment. Victoria squirms under the heat of that glare, the feel of her continued touch.
But… two can play at that game, mon petit lapin.
"You know, that doesn't ring a bell," Victoria coos, grabbing Kate's hand to guide her outstretched finger upward as she speaks. And if that movement just so happens to have caused that fingertip to brush across her lips as they purse to form the 'ri'-sound, well… she can't be blamed for the other girl's carelessness in placing her digits in such dangerous territory, now can she? When Kate involuntarily sucks a quick breath through her teeth at the brief contact, Victoria allows some of that hungry, primal beast to show in her own eyes. She continues to move the girl's finger past her nose, then her brow, ultimately causing it to light right in the center of her forehead. "But now that you mention it, I seem to remember having a dream about someone kissing me right… here."
Stalemate. Kate's expression is somewhere between a wry smirk and a disappointed pout at being unable to corner Victoria into admitting her sins. "Wow… that is quite a coincidence. Too much pizza before bed, I guess?"
"If that's the case I need to eat pizza more often," Victoria says with a grin, before lowering the girl's hand back to the bed between them. Interlacing her fingers between Kate's, Victoria considers her next words carefully. She doesn't want to ruin the moment, but the memory of that broken, defeated look in Kate's eyes after she'd been awakened, the way she sobbed in Victoria's arms flashes through her mind… and it scares the hell out of her.
"… Do you want to talk about the other dream? Was it about the roof again?"
The shift in Kate's face and body language is dramatic, and immediate. Victoria can spot some of the echoes of last night's fear in those hazel eyes before they glance down to their interwoven hands.
"… this one was different," Kate sighs after a long, uncomfortable silence. "It was dark, and I was in some kind of maze… and I couldn't find you no matter how hard I ran, or how much I called for you. And… I think there may have been a bus, or something? It's always hard to remember the details after…"
Victoria takes a moment to mull this over. "So, it was kinda like the other night after the party? You found me at the bus-stop, Kate. You saved me."
"Maybe…" Kate says, alternating between tightening and releasing her grip on Victoria's hand. "But I could hear you screaming, like 'No, Nate please!' And it felt so real… I was so scared he was hurting you…"
It's Victoria's turn to fall silent, rubbing at Kate's thumb with her own. The fact that Kate feels so protective of her makes her heart flutter, but the way it seems to manifest in the girl recklessly disregarding her own well-being is like a weight on her chest at the same time. Victoria knows she can just barely keep her own shit together on the best of days. The thought that Kate was quite willing to jump off a building just on the chance that it would help her makes her feel like she's juggling lit torches over a bed of gunpowder.
"Katie… have you ever talked to anyone else about how these dreams make you feel? Like… to a doctor or whatever?"
That seemed to strike a nerve, if the way Kate's downturned eyes widen or the firm clench of her jaw is anything to go by. The girl rolls onto her back in a motion that would threaten to pull their hands apart if Victoria didn't steadfastly refuse to let go. She can see Kate's eyes shimmer with unshed tears as she stares up at the ceiling.
"Yeah… a few years ago," Kate says absently.
"… and I take it that didn't go well?" Victoria gently prods with another squeeze of her hand.
Kate reaches up with her free hand to brush at the tear that pools just beneath her eyelid while giving her a sardonic chuckle. "That's putting it mildly. Victoria, I'm sorry but… I really don't want to talk about it."
Victoria pulls hard enough to draw Kate's eyes back to hers, then leans forward to graze the girl's knuckles with her lips. "Look… I get it ok? You're not the only one in this room to have a run-in or two with the guys in white coats. And I won't pressure you or anything, but can you promise you will talk to me about it when you're ready?" She doesn't try to hide the creaking in her voice as she continues. "It's just… with everything that's been going on I'm feeling really scared, and I need to know that you're safe, Katie…"
Several emotions seem to be competing on Kate's face as she turns to face Victoria again. The bridge of her nose reddening at the feel of Victoria's lips on her knuckles. The guarded look her eyes had taken softening with understanding. Her own lips forming a silent "o" of realization. Finally, she wiggles her shoulders and hips to scoot in closer, leaving only enough room for the interlocked hands between them.
"I understand… I'm scared too. And I want to tell you everything, but some of it is just hard for me to put into words. I'll get there, though, I promise… I just need a little time." This close, it's hard for Victoria to imagine that anything exists save for those wide, shimmering eyes that so easily captivate her. They practically shine with affection as Kate continues.
"But Victoria, I need you to know that being here with you, like this? To finally get the chance to feel like a normal girl, spending time with someone I…"
Victoria's heart hammers in her chest, a strange mix of anticipation and anxiety bubbling up in her mind at the thought of what Kate might be about to say. She at once wants to melt before her, to lean in and silence those lips with a kiss, and to run away with her fingers in her ears. Did Kate see the sudden fear in Victoria's eyes just now? Is that why she hesitated?
"… have feelings for?" Kate continues, her voice soft and soothing as her breath tickles Victoria's nose. "I can honestly say I've never felt safer in my whole life."
Victoria nods quietly, sliding her face forward at an angle to press her forehead to Kate's as the girl leans in to reciprocate. Victoria closes her eyes, both in an effort to immerse herself in this moment of quiet, shared intimacy, and to hide her own conflicted emotions. The reassurance that Kate feels safe dampened by the nagging worry that she's doing the wrong thing. Relief that Kate didn't say what Victoria feared tinged with irrational disappointment all the same. Finally, after taking a few beats to get herself back under control, Victoria pulls away enough to give Kate a wry smile.
"So, what's this 'normal girl' got planned for today? Not that I'm opposed to laying in bed all day, mind you."
Kate purses her lips in thought, before giving Victoria a smile to match her own. "Well… I'm up for anything, of course. But…" she reaches up to toy with the collar of Victoria's pajama top, hooking it with one finger. "I have been wondering how you plan to take responsibility for yesterday…"
"R-responsibility?" Victoria stutters. She'd be lying if she said that her body didn't instantly react, both to the teasing tone of the girl's voice and to the way the movement of that finger reminded her of last night's dream.
"Mmhmm…" she says, keeping her eyes bashfully downcast. "You did something yesterday that I haven't been able to get off my mind. And now all I can think about is: 'When will I get more?'"
Fuuuuuuck. Victoria squeezes her legs tightly together, trying her best not to visibly squirm under the covers. Seriously, if Kate fucking Marsh is this good at turning Victoria on, how in God's name has she managed to have never even been kissed before a couple of nights ago? At this very moment, Victoria knows that she will do absolutely anything Kate asks of her. She's in the palm of Kate's hand (perhaps literally…?) and Victoria likes it. But Kate just cuts those hazel eyes back up to hers, looking just as innocent as if they were talking about what to order for room service or something.
"You'll, uh…" Victoria pauses to lick her suddenly dry lips. "… have to be a little more specific, Katie…"
Kate uses her free arm to push herself up into a half sitting, half-leaning position, using her temporary height advantage to loom over Victoria in an almost predatory fashion. Some of her long, dirty blonde locks spill over her shoulder to tickle Victoria's cheek as the girl coos seductively.
"You know what I want, Victoria…" Kate bites her lip in that way that just absolutely drives Victoria crazy. "For you to take things to the next level…"
Victoria can't move, can barely breathe, so transfixed is she by Kate looking down at her with those hungry fucking eyes.
"… in my anime education, of course." Kate finishes, her eyes twinkling mischievously once again.
Victoria blinks, then blinks again. For the second time in as many days, she finds herself stunned into silence. Did… did this bitch really just…?
"Unless…" Kate murmurs with a coquettish eyelash flutter. "You wanted to do something else…?"
Victoria finally snickers, covering her mouth and turning away right before it becomes a full-blown cackle. It took her a while to catch on to what Kate was doing, but now she gets it. Victoria told her she wanted to take things slow, but still couldn't help but torment the "innocent virgin" Katie by shamelessly flirting every chance she got. So, what did Kate do?
She found a way to walk the tightrope of putting Victoria in her place by teasing her right back… while still giving her the space to move forward at whatever pace Victoria is comfortable with. She instantly adapted to the challenge of being stuck in close quarters with someone with Victoria's unique blend of hesitant fragility and desperate horniness by turning into a game. And Victoria loves playing games. She lives for it.
But of course, Katie knows that too. God damn this girl is good.
"Nope…" Victoria finally manages, clucking her tongue behind her teeth in amusement. "Watching anime was exactly what I was thinking, too."
"Is that so?" Kate smirks.
Victoria gives Kate her best 'come-hither' bedroom eyes. "Oh yeah, I think about… watching anime with you all the time. On the couch… right here on the bed… in the shower…"
Though Kate's face and neck turn a bright shade of red at that, she still manages to deftly parry and riposte Victoria's counter-attack. "Well, those all sound good to me. I'll leave it to you to choose the, umm, venue…"
"Fiiiiiiine…" Victoria mock-sighs, tossing the covers off of them so that she can slide to the edge of the bed. It's obvious Kate isn't planning to crack any time soon, and she herself is having too much fun to let this go just yet. As she rises to her feet, she calls over her shoulder "What are you in the mood for today? Spirited Away? Perhaps some naughty tentacles?"
"N… naughty WHATs?" Kate stammers, wide-eyed.
Victoria tilts her head as though thinking it over. "Hmm, that might be a bit too… advanced for you right now." Not that she brought any of her hentai collection with her on this trip anyway, but if Kate plays her cards right when they get back to Blackwell, who knows? "Oooh, how about Neon Genesis Evangelion? It's a series that has a bunch of religious references, and angels and shit. Might be right up your alley…"
Kate's face brightens with child-like wonder. "Angels, really? I didn't know they made anime like that!"
Trying her level best to hide her devious grin while nodding, Victoria hums affirmatively. "Yup! Hold tight and I'll grab the first DVD."
She quietly chuckles to herself while strolling into the guest room, both in anticipation of Kate's reaction to the "Angels" she's referring to being gigantic, genocidal monsters and at what seems like the start of a really fucking good day. She contemplates just how many episodes Kate will last before Victoria manages to break her, drive her so crazy that she can't help but pounce on her and have her way… right now, she's giving Kate two, maybe three at the most.
As she digs around in her suitcase, however, a nearby chirp serves as a reminder that she'd left her phone on the nightstand in here overnight. Curiously unlocking the device, Victoria's heart nearly stops beating in her chest when she sees the notification for a recently received email.
From: Tillamook County Urgent Care
Subject: Test Results
She feels like she's on autopilot as she clicks to open the message… and that's about the time her really good day comes to a fucking screeching halt.
To say Victoria blacked out in the following minutes isn't quite accurate. It was more… shades of grey.
She can remember her vision tunneling as she read the email. She didn't even need to see the name of the drug in question, just the words "Positive for trace amounts of" was enough for her to hurl her phone away as though it was a snake in her hands waiting to strike. Or, to be more accurate, one that had already struck.
She is vaguely aware of the sound of her own voice screaming in fury and devastation as her other senses began to fade, leaving her adrift in a sea of boiling rage. Alone with only the thoughts of Nathan's betrayal playing over and over again in her mind.
Nathan drugged her. Of course, she had already expected as much. Given the circumstances of what went down after the party, it had even seemed like the most likely explanation. Victoria had convinced herself that she was prepared for this outcome.
But… obviously there must have been some part of her, however small, that clung to hope. Hope that there was some explanation for what happened that night other than her best and closest friend since middle school dosing her drink in an effort to fucking kidnap her. She believed every word of Kate's eyewitness account, of course, but it left holes… she didn't see him mess with her drink, for one. That left the tiniest chance that perhaps Victoria did drink herself to the point of passing out, with the events that followed being brought on by another of Nate's infamous freak-outs. The boy was less than stable at the best of times, after all, and he had only gotten worse since the school term started.
Now, however, it was right there in front of her in black and fucking white. She had been drugged, and the only plausible suspect with access to her drinks that night was Nate himself. He drugged her, he tried to take her somewhere against her will. And if Kate hadn't intervened, she could have been hurt, or raped, or worse. Victoria would have never in a million years believed he would have been capable of doing any of those things to her, but it was obvious now that she never really knew him at all.
"…tor.a…?…'re safe…I'm..igh….re…" a soft voice — Kate's voice — whispers into her ear, heralding the slow return of her senses.
Victoria finds herself sitting on the edge of the guest room's bed, wrapped in Kate's warm embrace, her hands balled into fists as they are held tightly to her stomach by the girl's firm grip on her wrists. She can feel Kate's breasts and stomach pressed up against her back, her hips clamped tightly by the kneeling girl's thighs. Her left temple hurts — had she scratched herself, or pulled at her hair? — and she can taste a mixture of salty tears and coppery blood that corresponds to a pain in her left cheek where she'd apparently bitten down hard. The room around her is shockingly well preserved, likely due to Kate's intervention… after something like that, Victoria's honestly surprised she didn't chuck the nearby flat-screen TV through the top floor window. The fervent hope that she didn't hurt Kate in the process of being calmed down serves as her primary motivation for desperately trying to get a grip on herself.
"Shh… shh…" Kate soothes in response to the strangled keen that even now attempts to escape Victoria's mouth. The girl's cheek and chin are nuzzled into her shoulder, her neck dampened by Kate's own tears.
"He did it…" Victoria finally seethes through clenched teeth. "He fucking drugged me…"
"I'm so sorry, Victoria…" Kate murmurs, her arms squeezing even tighter. Her slender frame obviously belies her strength, as Victoria doesn't think she could escape the girl's grip right now even if she wanted to.
"I just don't understand… if it was sex he wanted he knows I would have done that for him… I would have done almost anything for him…"
Kate seems to mull that over for a good while before responding as gently as she can. "… don't they say that sexual assault is about power? Has Nathan felt powerless lately that you know of?"
That forces a rueful laugh to erupt from Victoria's hollowed-out chest. "Only every fucking day of his life. His dad's a fucking monster, and his mom doesn't do shit about it. His sister flew halfway across the world to get away from the Prescott Family Shitshow, and Nate couldn't blame her for it even though it meant leaving him alone to deal with their parents. He never talked about what they did to his sister, but based solely on how he's been treated… I can't blame her either."
She fights through the hiccups of another sob that strains at her throat. "He didn't have anybody to help him, no matter how bad he acted out. Wells was too scared to go against the family that paid for our goddamn dorms, and I can't tell you how many DUIs and assaults the cops brushed aside because Daddy Prescott's wallet was so far up their asses. Even… even me… I saw so many red flags, so many obvious fucking warning signs, and I turned a blind eye every time. Some fucking best friend I was…"
Kate drags her chin across Victoria's shoulder as she emphatically shakes her head. "You couldn't have known he was this far gone, Victoria. You were the best friend you knew how to be at the time… believe me, everyone at Blackwell could see how much you genuinely cared about him. You can't hold yourself responsible for the choices he's made… and especially not for something he tried to do to you."
Victoria's chin quivers. She wants to argue against Kate's logic but she just doesn't have the energy for it. Instead, she asks "Why… why are you always so good to me, Katie?"
Kate squeezes her even tighter, turning her face so that her lips tickle the hairs on Victoria's neck when she responds.
"Because… you're the kind of girl who would offer to purchase my virginity to stop me from being sexually harassed." She giggles at the sound of the surprised, unrestrained laugh that earns from Victoria, before pressing on. "And… you're the kind of girl who would run up the stairs with broken glass in your foot just to help me… and then dance on that same foot just to make me smile."
Victoria is having a hard time blinking back her tears as Kate continues. "And for a thousand other reasons, but mostly? You need someone to be good to you because you have a hard time being good to yourself. And if I can be that person, even if just for today… I truly feel blessed to do so."
Victoria allows the warmth and kindness Kate is offering to wash over her, taking a moment to focus on slowing her breathing. Stopping her leg from jangling, her chin from quivering. Willing blind fury to give way to icy resolve.
"What will you do now?" Kate asks.
"…I'm gonna nail him to the fucking wall."
Kate nods solemnly. "Tell me how I can help."
Victoria contemplates the question. "I need my phone, and his phone and laptop from my suitcase. And… and if you wouldn't mind staying with me…?"
"Of course." Victoria can feel Kate's sweet little smile against her skin. "Are you… safe for me to let go for a moment?"
Victoria snorts, and with Kate's permission holds up her hand to show that it's only barely shaking. "I'm good, but…"
"But…?" Kate murmurs, giving Victoria another tight squeeze.
Victoria closes her eyes, leaning her weight back into Kate's embrace.
"… Maybe just a few more minutes."
Victoria sighs through her nose in irritation as she stares at the lock screen she was presented upon opening up Nathan's laptop. While she's impressed that he actually took her lecture on securing his devices to heart after rumors started spreading that an unidentified student was sneaking into people's rooms to snoop through their social media accounts, it couldn't have come at a worse time.
She feels a comforting hand brush the small of her back. Since Victoria's rage-induced fit earlier, Kate has remained at her side, always touching her in some small way that keeps her centered without being distracting. For now, the girl silently watches Victoria work, providing much needed moral support while waiting patiently for her next opportunity to assist in some way. Victoria flashes her a grateful smile before returning to the task at hand with renewed focus.
Fortunately for her Nathan apparently didn't pay as much attention to the part about password security, as evidenced by her ability to guess it right on the second try. 'PRE$COTT$ RUL3!', really Nate?
Her first order of business is to pull up the Find My Phone app she installed for him when he lost it a couple weeks back, in an effort to forestall him assaulting whatever random person he would eventually accuse of stealing it. It ended up being in the bottom of his closet, of course, still in the pocket of the pants he wore the day before. Victoria figures this is her best chance of finding out where Nate is right now. Unfortunately, fate doesn't seem inclined to make it quite so easy for her this time, as when she selects his phone and clicks "Locate", an error message pops up stating "Your device is no longer locatable".
"What does that mean?" Kate asks, squinting at the screen in confusion.
"I don't know…" Victoria mutters. "Maybe he fucked with it somehow, in case the cops or someone else tried to track him down with it?"
Kate screws her lips together in thought. "I could ask Warren if he knows about anything we can do. He's really smart with all that tech stuff."
Victoria shrugs. "Go for it. Shit, if Warren Graham, of all people, ends up being the one to help us take Nate down I might just let him and Stella in the Vortex Club after all."
That earns a hearty belly laugh from the girl sitting next to her. "Now that I'd like to see. Can I be there when you break the news to Courtney?"
"Oh, trust me, I might need your Christ-fu just to make it out of that meeting alive."
Kate rolls her eyes, grinning as she taps out a message to Warren. Victoria fiddles around trying to figure something out on her own, but quickly realizes that she's out of her depth on this one. Clicking the "Locate" button twenty more times in rapid succession out of frustration doesn't provide her any further answers, and checking the "History" tab only reveals that the last known location was Blackwell Academy the night of the party, at what she guesses would have been around or right after the time of her attempted abduction.
"He says that Nathan probably just turned the phone off, or removed the SIM card," Kate finally says. "Apparently we wouldn't be able to use the app unless he turns it back on."
"So, we're shit out of luck, then?"
"Maybe not…" the girl absently responds as she reads the latest incoming message. "He thinks he can send us a script that would check it every couple of minutes, and send an alert to your phone in case it does get turned on."
"That's… actually pretty badass," Victoria admits with an approving nod. "Yeah, let's do it. Oh… and tell him 'Victoria says: Thanks, Warren G. ;'.
"Awwww… I think you made his day." Kate turns her phone to show Victoria the 'ヽ(^o^)丿' emoticon Warren sent in response, to which she can only smirk in amusement.
"Ok, NOW tell him I said 'but that doesn't mean we're friends are anything!'.
Kate levels her a discerning look. "You know… I don't think that's true at all. I've seen the look on your face whenever him and Stella get all lovey-dovey nearby. Makes me think Queen Victoria might be going soft…"
"Whatever, bitch." Victoria says with a wink, shaking her head as she turns her attention back to the laptop. "Nobody asked for your opinion!"
She spends the next half-hour or so combing through Nathan's emails without finding much in the way of things she didn't already know, such as the one from Principal Wells kissing Nate's ass after he threw a chair at Mrs. Hoida's head in front of an entire classroom full of witnesses. It's no wonder she hasn't been back to school, since that incident proved exactly how little support the faculty would get when it came to Blackwell's bottom line. And you can bet your ass that Victoria now feels like shit-heel of the year for coaching him on what to say to try and get out of it.
Though she wants to believe what Kate says about not being responsible for Nate's actions, she can't help but feel that she set up a lot of these dominoes and maybe even gave them little pushes here and there… unaware that they would ultimately topple on herself, of course.
There were a couple of messages from his family that may as well have been night and day in tone. A dismissive note from his father commanding him to "stick to his meds" and keep things together while his parents deal with buying up the town, along with an ominous sounding reference to Arcadia Bay "getting an enema" soon. By contrast, the email from Nate's sister clearly demonstrated her concern and empathy for his situation, essentially reminding him that he only had to make it through the rest of this year before he could get out from under Sean Prescott's thumb and become his own person. While there was no evidence from his sent folder that Nate had reached out to her recently, there were several unsent draft emails that he'd apparently started and abandoned after a few words going back to the beginning of the year.
The one that struck Victoria as the most unusual was a sternly worded message from Mr. Jefferson expressing his disappointment with Nate for missing the deadline for the Chiaroscuro project last Friday, and warning him that no further extensions would be given if he didn't hand it in this week. What was strange about this was that Jefferson was infamous for being a stickler when it came to meeting deadlines, and wouldn't hesitate to give his students a score of 0 for being even a day late. On top of that, everyone else was expected to hand their work for this particular project three weeks ago… and a project that focused on the interplay of light and shadow was right up Nate's alley. Victoria couldn't fathom why Jefferson would be so lenient for him particularly, or why Nate himself would let something like this slide in the only class he actually cared about.
But it's seeing the email Nate sent to her a couple days back about coordinating their outfits for the End of the World party – and bragging that he was going to score some "serious party favors" – that causes Victoria to slam the laptop closed, overwhelmed by an intense case of the heebie-jeebies. Did the motherfucker actually have the nerve to taunt her over what he was planning to do? But if so… why was he so insistent that she didn't need to go to the party while she was taking care of Max, and seemingly so freaked out when she did show up? And if she hadn't made an appearance, would he have gone after someone else? The thought that it could have been Taylor, or Courtney… or hell, even Dana or Juliet being dragged to that truck in her place threatens to bring that white-hot rage boiling right back up to the surface.
Kate rests her head on Victoria's left shoulder, reaching around to give the right one a gentle squeeze. "Do you need a break?"
Victoria closes her eyes, allowing herself to focus on Kate's presence while slowly counting backwards from ten. She takes a long, measured breath before shaking her head. "No… but I don't think I'm getting anywhere with this. Would you be up for taking over while I try to get into the phone?"
Kate nods affirmatively, but the way she chews at her lip shows that she's dubious about the prospect. As Victoria hands over the device, she adds "Don't worry, there's probably nothing on here anyway. I doubt he wrote out a confession or a detailed "how to date-rape my best friend" plan or whatever. Just start going through his file folders and see if you find anything that stands out."
While Kate gets to work on the laptop, Victoria sets about examining the contents of the baggie she'd found taped to the back of Nathan's couch: A cheap burner phone like the kind you can pick up at a gas station; the plastic casing to the sim card that came with it; and a piece of paper containing several scrawled three and four digit numbers, along with a few doodles and other unintelligible markings.
She attempts to unlock the phone using the default code of '1111' from the SIM casing, but it turns out even Nate wasn't quite dumb enough to have left it unchanged. She also has no luck with one of the numbers from the paper. Victoria reviews the remaining numbers for several minutes, trying and failing to associate them with anything she knows about Nathan's life. Finally, she goes with her gut and ignores the paper, instead trying Nathan's birthdate: '0829'.
Bingo. Yet again, Nathan's poor grasp on proper passcode technique works in her favor.
Kate, her brow furrowed with concentration, interjects "hmm… what about his photos? Do you think these could be important? There's quite a lot of them…"
"Oh, umm… yeah, you know what?" Victoria digs through her bag and pulls out her digital camera and USB cable. "See if you can copy them over, and I'll help you sort through them when I'm done with this."
Turning back to the phone, Victoria finds that there are only two contacts stored. Both listed by phone numbers only, no names. Checking the first revealed only a couple of texts, terse reminders not to call while they were "at work", and that they were still waiting on Nate to prove that he was an "adult" by impressing them. Going off of the "disappointed father"-ly tone of the messages, her only guess was that the number belonged to Sean Prescott. But why would Nate need to call him from a burner phone?
The second contact was obviously his dealer, probably that skeezy dude always hanging around in his RV, Fred or whatever. Page after page of requests to buy weed, acid, coke, a variety of prescription meds… nothing especially surprising. Nathan could self-medicate like nobody's business, after all, and he loves being the big dog that could hook up his friends… hell, Victoria herself partook of his "generosity" on numerous occasions.
But one exchange in particular raises her eyebrow.
Hey I need to score ASAP
More of that special order – 10/09 11:50am
What, again? What for?
Nevermind. I don't want to know.
Two Whales in 15. Don't flake this time. – 10/09 11:55am
What stood out the most about these texts was that it seemed to be the only time Nate seemed concerned about not naming the specific drug he wanted to purchase. And Ford's use of the word "again"… could that imply that Nate had already date-raped someone previously, and gotten away with it? Not only that, but the timing… Wednesday, the day before he drugged her. The day that she was going to…
"Victoria…" Kate breathes. "You need to see this."
The girl turns the laptop to show her a folder seemingly designated for any pictures that have auto-synced from Nate's camera to the laptop, containing well over a hundred images stretching back to the beginning of the term. When Kate clicks on the first image, Victoria sees herself, Taylor, and Courtney, the three of them posed and flashing middle fingers in front of the Blackwell founder's statue. It was their first day of class as seniors, and seeing it reminds Victoria of how Nate was wandering around campus showing off his new, top-of-the-line, unbelievably expensive camera to everyone he could find.
The next image is of Dana Ward. Then Stella Hill. Alyssa Anderson. Juliet Watson. On and on, until just about every single girl Victoria knows from Blackwell and a number she doesn't are represented in photo form. Some posed, others candid. Judging by the date and time stamps, they were all taken from the first week of the year, and none in Nate's normal bleak, fatalistic style. They were all bright and vibrant, essentially seeming to highlight the better qualities of his subjects.
The photos taken from the second week seemed to tell a similar story. Victoria drinking from the water fountain. Kate carrying a tray of tea and cookies, likely on her way to one of her Abstinence meetings. Max aiming her polaroid camera at a bird. All in a similar style to the first week, the main difference being that nearly half of the girls previously photographed were missing this time. No Courtney, no Alyssa, no Dana, to name just a few.
Another week, another round of pictures. And by now Victoria can feel that familiar sense of dread growing in her stomach. Nearly all of them were candids at this point, giving the appearance that Nate was going out of his way to avoid being seen while taking the shots. Some of them were even on the more risqué side, peeking into the girl's locker room here. A shot through a girls' dorm room window there. And yet again, the number of subjects falls by half.
It finally clicks in Victoria's mind what she's seeing, what must have triggered the alarm bells in Kate's mind as well. It was almost like one of those competition shows where contestants are put through round after round of performance, each time thinning the herd until there were just a handful of finalists remaining. Only this wasn't a contest to see who was going to be America's Next Top Model or the next winner of The Voice that no one would hear from again after the end of the season. In this one, the 1st place winner gets the grand prize of being stalked, and drugged, and Victoria doesn't even want to know what else.
Kate's images show the most drastic progression of any of them. They start off shy and timid at the beginning of the year, slowly growing more hopeful and brazen as time goes on… until they take a hard turn in the week following the locker room incident. The week she had her vision of Victoria's death. From there on the pictures were… unflattering, to say the least. Her face sunken, her eyes downcast and marred with deep bags. The light of kindness and quiet confidence in her eyes dimmed by fear and anxiety. Maybe, in the end, that's what disqualified her. Saved her from winning the honor of being Nate's next target.
By the beginning of this past week, the week of the End of the World, Victoria's week from Hell, only two candidates remained. Herself… and Max. Both halves of Blackwell's premiere power-couple. Both Vortex club members, and Nate's friends. The Queen of Blackwell and the girl who might have been her consort if she hadn't wandered off in the middle of…
…
Holy shit…
Victoria shoots up to her feet, nearly knocking the laptop out of Kate's hands in the process. After scrambling to keep a grip on it, the startled girl asks "Vic… Victoria?"
"How did I not think of this before?" Victoria begins pacing around the room, her mind running a mile a minute. She had been so wrapped up in her and Kate's traumatic and frankly unbelievable circumstances that she didn't even consider someone else who was in a quite possibly worse position. She didn't consider the possibility that Nate wasn't limiting himself to just one victim.
"Think of what?"
Kate's inquiry goes unheard as Victoria picks up her pace. The pieces are starting to fall into place now. The pictures. The urgent drug purchase on the very day that her entire life began falling apart. Nate's being almost as freaked out about Max's sudden disappearance as Victoria was, combined with his insistence on knowing whether she'd be going to the party afterward.
The fact that Victoria isn't the only one who recently blacked out and had little to no memory of what they did the following day.
…
And just like that, Victoria knows exactly what to do next.
"I need to call Max…" she mutters.
"Oh…?" The slightly uncomfortable tone in Kate's voice finally draws Victoria's attention, and she can see the girl quickly avert her eyes when she looks that way. What's up with her? It's not like Victoria was going to…
What? Call my ex literally two days following my break-up, and drunken make-out session with Kate directly after? No reason anyone would be concerned about that…
Victoria plants herself in front of Kate, putting both hands on her shoulders to get those hazel eyes pointed back in her direction. "Kate I'm not talking about a booty-call here," she laughs, giving the girl an exultant squeeze. "I'm talking about how Max hopped a bus and allegedly went on to do some uncharacteristic and even illegal things that she now can't remember, right after hanging out with Nate…"
She can almost hear the wheels turning in Kate's head before her eyes widen in realization. "Ohhhhh… do you really think he…?"
Victoria clucks her tongue. "If he did it to me, he could do it to anyone. And at the very least, it sounds an awful lot like reasonable doubt, don't you think?"
"Mmm… I'll give you two some privacy, then," Kate says as she stands. When she begins to move around her on the way to the door, Victoria catches her by the waist with one arm.
"Hey…" she says, staring down at the shorter girl intently. "You know this doesn't change anything for us, right? The bridge between me and Max is well and thoroughly burnt, and even if it wasn't… I meant what I said about wanting to see where this goes. There's honestly nothing I want more right now."
Kate's eyes shimmer as she smiles up at her. "I know. I just want you to be able to talk freely, without worrying about it being awkward or anything. But… thanks. I don't think I'll ever get tired of hearing you say that." With that, the girl stands up on her tiptoes just long enough to plant a soft kiss on Victoria's left cheek, the kind that leaves her face feeling like it's on fire when Kate pulls away and disappears through the door to the suite's main bedroom.
Victoria takes a few beats to touch her fingers to the spot where the kiss landed just moments ago, closing her eyes to savor the sensation before putting her game-face back on. This is it; she can feel it in her fucking bones. She's going to keep Kate safe, make sure Nate gets what's coming to him, and maybe even pull Max's bacon out of the frying pan… all while enjoying a little bit of "playing house" with Kate after all.
Whoever said "you can't win 'em all" obviously never met Victoria Maribeth Chase.
She smirks triumphantly as she raises the phone to her ear. Better go ahead and pucker on up, Caulfield, Victoria thinks as she waits for Max to pick up.
'Cause you're so gonna want to kiss my ass after this.