A/N: Holy shit, this took me less than two weeks, what is this sorcery?! (This chapter picks up right where the previous one left off)

9.

It was about ten minutes later when Max heard a knock on her door. She was expecting Kate to stop by so the two could go over some notes for their English Lit class, but this particular knock was louder than Kate's usually was and more persistent. So Max knew it couldn't have been her. She had an idea of who it might be and, as she moved to open the door, she wished with all her might to be wrong. She wasn't.

"Yes?" The surprised look on Max' face faded as she did her best to copy Victoria's attitude from before, surprising even herself by how cold and foreign her voice sounded in her ears.

If Victoria was taken aback by her tone, she did a good job at hiding it. "I'm here for the notes," she simply stated, crossing her arms in front of her chest, her stance mirroring the one from ten minutes ago. Max sighed and rolled her eyes as she turned around and walked to her desk to grab the notes she had gathered during the day.

"Here," she muttered as she handed everything to Victoria who mumbled a thanks in return and left without another word. Max sighed once again as she closed her door. She knew that what had happened the night before was going to affect Victoria just as it had affected herself, but she honestly hadn't expected the blonde girl to do a complete one-eighty overnight.

The brunette plopped herself on her desk chair and buried her face in her hands. She briefly wondered if Victoria was bipolar, it would be an explanation that actually made some sense among all the craziness. She didn't have enough time to think about that, however, the sound of someone knocking on her door once again interrupting her thoughts.

"It's open," she called out without bothering to get up this time. She knew it was Kate, the girl had never once been late for as long as Max knew her. The door creaked open and then softly shut and the brunette prepared herself for the question of concern she knew would come her way.

"What the fuck is this?" That wasn't the question she expected, and that definitely was not Kate.

'Crap. Crap, crap, crap,' Max' head shot up, her eyes meeting the green ones of an aggravated Victoria. The brunette lowered her gaze to Victoria's hands to see what she was talking about. She was holding the photography class notes, the Christmas Break assignment sitting on top of the papers. Max' breath hitched in the back of her throat. She knew she was forgetting something, and now she was very well aware what it was.

"Miss Hault's assignment?" she replied trying to keep her gaze on Victoria's burning one, something that proved to be more difficult than she thought.

"I can see that. Why the fuck am I your stupid partner?" She knew the queen bee would be less than pleased to have to work with her, but she didn't expect her to be that open about it. Then again, this was Victoria, after all…

"It wasn't my choice if that's where you're getting at," truth was, she would much rather be Kate's partner any day. "Miss Hault assigned the teams," she explained.

Victoria huffed. "If you think this is going to turn into one of those tropes where two people have to work together and they open up to each other and become friends, it's not."

"I… thought we were already friends? Kinda?" Max frowned in confusion.

"Well, we're not."

The shorter girl felt like she had just been slapped full-force. "Victoria… Maybe we should talk about this?" She wasn't sure if she wanted to do that, but if not talking would lead to them being on worse term than the ones they started out on, she was not going to sit by and watch.

"I said and did all I had to say and do," Victoria uttered. "Now we're gonna ace this assignment, and you're never going to speak to me again." Max could have sworn the air had just been knocked out of her chest. She was about to say something when Victoria's voice cut her off. "I'll text you when we can meet up." And with that, she turned around and left, leaving Max staring once again in complete confusion and… disappointment? Hopelessness? This felt like the proper word to describe what she was feeling. She couldn't wait for Kate to get there so she could distract herself in the girl's company.

(Victoria 15:29): Meet me at the clearing behind the dorms in half an hour.

'The what?' It hadn't taken Victoria too long to text her. In all honesty, Max expected her to stall as long as possible, but apparently, the blonde had other plans. 'She probably just wants to get this over with as quickly as possible,' Max sighed as she walked to her closet. She couldn't help but feel just a little grateful that Victoria hadn't wanted them to meet somewhere off campus, she was really not in the mood to commute anywhere.

Twenty minutes later, the brunette looked herself in the mirror and sighed. She was pale, her hair was not doing what she wanted it to do, and her clothes were boring and plain. She could practically hear Victoria's judgy voice in her head. Groaning, she hastily tied her hair up in a high ponytail and threw on a heavy jacket over her sweater. Being December, she knew she had to layer her clothes for maximum heat. She stood there for a moment, in the middle of her room, willing her legs to start moving. Now, she was the one stalling. A short moment later, after hyping herself up a little, she grabbed a notebook and her pencil case and left the room cursing the universe and its games under her breath.

Max had no idea there was a clearing behind the dorms. Which was odd, considering her natural tendency to explore everything around her. Turns out, the clearing was a little bit further than "behind the dorms" after all. She finally got there fifteen minutes later slightly out of breath and her cheeks flushed. She took a moment to compose herself before walking any further.

Victoria was already there, sitting on a log, her back turned to Max. She was a little hunched over and appeared to be jotting something down on a piece of paper. Her phone was laid on the log next to her, a familiar melody coming from the speaker and Max could hear Victoria humming along to it. It was a very different song from what the blonde would usually listen to, much too similar to something Max would enjoy and the girl suddenly found herself feeling a lot more at ease.

"I love this song," she stated softly as she approached the sitting girl who jumped slightly in surprise and turned to glare at her. "Sorry," she mumbled and Victoria rolled her eyes. She didn't say a word as she turned to her side to silence her phone.

"You're late." Max wasn't surprised to hear that.

"Took me a while to find this place," she explained as she sat down on the log as far away from Victoria as she could. "It's nice, though," she commented as she took a look around.

"It's our spot," Victoria simply stated. "Mine, Tay's and Courtney's," she added as an afterthought and Max nodded. She sighed as she waited for the blonde to speak. She hated how awkward things were between them once again. "I trust you went over the assignment?" Victoria asked after a few moments of heavy silence.

"Yeah," Max nodded flipping through her notebook to get to where she had everything written down. "It shouldn't be too hard," she commented. "We can just each do our part and then meet up to combine them…"

"The purpose of a group project is to work with someone else, you know that, right?" Max rolled her eyes. She was only trying to make things easier for both of them, but apparently, Victoria was having none of it. "We have the entire winter break to work on this, so it shouldn't be much of a problem. We'll have time to meet up."

"I uh… I'm kinda visiting my parents during the break…" Max' voice sounded weak as if she was scared the other girl was going to yell at her for what she had just said. "Haven't seen them in a while." She flinched when Victoria glared at her.

"Are you serious?" she asked, obviously displeased by that turn of events and groaned as Max nodded.

"Your folks live in Seattle too, right? Aren't you visiting? We could meet up there and work on it. It'll be a nice change of scenery too…" the brunette wrecked her brain to find anything positive to say to show that this wasn't necessarily going to be a bad deal.

"So not only will I have to spend most of my break with you, I'll have to visit my parents too. Nice. Thanks a lot, Caulfield," she really wasn't trying to hide her vexation at all.

"Look, I know you're not happy about this, Victoria, but there's not much I can do to fix it. I told you we could work on separate sections, but you didn't like that either so… So just suck it up and do it, okay?" Max was surprised at herself and the resolve in her voice. Victoria simply blinked. "I know you're still… mad at me for what happened, but you know what, Victoria? You have no fucking right to act like this! I can't fucking compete with you, I really can't. How can you be so warm and inviting one moment and such a bitch the next?! You told me to go see a psychologist once, remember that? I'm not the one who needs professional help here. I don't know what your deal is, but I have my own shit to deal with too, you know. I was willing to be there for you, though. I wanted to be there, I wanted to help you and- and I wanted to- Ugh!" She groaned in frustration and took a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself. "Look, we have four days of classes left before the break. That means you have four days to work out what it is you want from this. Whether you come to Seattle or not, I honestly don't care. I can't care right now. Just make up your mind and don't talk to me before then." And with that, Max gathered up her stuff and left, throwing one last glance over her shoulder to Victoria who sat there unmoving, her eyes gleaming with tears that she refused to let fall.

Max refused to feel like shit. Or at least she tried to. It had been three days since her confrontation with Victoria, and the blonde hadn't even looked at her until then. She would always act as if Max didn't exist and the girl didn't know which was worse; being on the receiving end of Victoria's bullying or not being acknowledged at all by her. So yeah, Max refused to feel like shit. The only problem was that she was failing miserably at it.

It was right after lunch when she finally made up an excuse for her to retreat back to her room. Kate's company was pleasant and it never failed to take her mind off things, but she wanted a break, she needed it. She knew that Victoria needed to hear everything she had told her and maybe even more, but she wasn't exactly planning on it to happen this way.

She whimpered as she walked in her room and slammed the door shut. She wanted to scream and cry and then scream some more. With a huff, she managed to compose herself enough to plop on her chair and turn her laptop on. She had to check for tickets, she had avoided doing so in hopes Victoria would come to her and let her know she was going to travel with her. Because, despite everything, a part of her still hoped that Victoria would choose to do that.

She had spent about half an hour aimlessly browsing the web, getting lost in shitty sites that offered nothing of substance, the tab where she had the airline website opened was left forgotten on her browser for the past twenty-five minutes. She was about to click on yet another video and continue her journey down the YouTube rabbit hole when her phone lit up. Her eyes did the same if only for a second. The light faded when she picked up her phone and saw it was only an email. She was about to put the device back down thinking the email to be spam, but something caught her eye. Why would a spam email be titled "Ticket Order Confirmation"? She hastily tapped on the notification, her curiosity getting the better of her, and she stared.

"What the fuck?" No matter how many times she blinked, the words in front of her didn't change. They remained the same even after she opened up her email on a new tab on her laptop, foolishly thinking a bigger screen would help her see what was actually written. Nope. Her eyes hadn't deceived her. Right there, on the screen in front of her, written in big, bold letters was indeed a ticket confirmation, urging her to click on a link in order to view her ticket. To Seattle. In first class. Max blinked once again.

Only a handful of people knew that she was going to Seattle over the break, and only one of them could actually afford to do something like this. And it was the same person Max would never expect to do it. Especially after what had gone down between them those three days before. A surge of questions swarm her mind, and yet the only thing that managed to come out of her mouth was a confused "what the fuck" followed by more blinking.

(Me 13:56): ?

It was the only thing Max could think of to send. And, quite frankly, it described her feelings to a tee. Her phone vibrated and she seriously thought that Victoria was always waiting over her own for a text to come. She couldn't help but feel just a little bit nice at the thought.

(Victoria 13:57): You said I had four days to think about it. Turns out, I only needed three. Meet me at the baggage check-in point at four on Saturday.

Victoria's tone was cold even through text and Max resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Another incoming text a second after the first one, however, was enough for her to do so after all. She still hadn't decided whether she liked that the blonde would always send multiple texts one after the other or she found it completely needless and annoying.

(Victoria 13:57): Surprised you figured out so quickly it was me.

Max groaned and placed her phone on her desk without replying. No more texts came that day or the day after. In fact, she hadn't even seen Victoria at all those couple of days, and she was both grateful and kind of worried about it. That meant that the two's first interaction after what had gone down in that clearing was going to be on a plane trip to Seattle. And this was more than enough to make Max' stomach twist with worry. And maybe a little bit of anticipation, but she really couldn't bring herself to think about that right now.

It was awkward. So, so awkward. They had met at the airport like Victoria had so nicely demanded, Max not even daring to ask her if she wanted to go there together. Victoria, ever the punctual one, had arrived there much earlier than needed and had already checked her bags in when Max got there looking disheveled and slightly out of breath. She ignored the brunette's half-hearted excuse about meeting traffic on the way with a roll of her eyes, knowing that there was only so much traffic when traveling by train. Truth was, Max had simply, once again, miscalculated the amount of time she was going to be needing. That, and she was still not a hundred percent certain she actually wanted to be there. But she would rather Victoria not know the latter.

"We could have travelled coach, it's only a forty-minute trip…" Max had mumbled while waiting for her carry on luggage to go through the security check. Victoria had ignored her, and now the two were sitting next to each other, about to take off. Victoria had, surprisingly, let Max take the window seat, commenting on how 'a hipster like her would probably want to take pictures out of it'.

"So, uh… Thanks for doing this, Victoria… I really do appreciate it," Max tried to break the silence that had fallen around them, causing the girl next to her to put her phone down and remove one of her earphones.

"It's not like you gave me much of a choice, Caulfield," came the cold reply, bringing the conversation closer to the one thing Max would love to avoid talking about. She wasn't sorry for what she had told Victoria, and she wasn't about to take any of it back; but she would rather for her trip to be as pleasant as possible, instead of dipped in awkwardness and heavy silences.

If Victoria was going to use one word to describe herself at that moment, she was going to use 'whipped'. Victoria Chase was so fucking whipped by Max Caulfield, it wasn't even funny anymore.

Her frustrated groan was timed perfectly with the telltale sounds Max' camera made every time the girl snapped a picture, so it was easy to cover it up by pretended she was annoyed at the brunette next to her. Max, on the other hand, couldn't bring herself to care that Victoria was, apparently, less than happy to be sitting there. She was too busy being completely shocked by what had just happened. She had taken a picture. After months of her stomach twisting and her mind bringing forth images she wished she could forget, she had finally pressed the shutter hard enough to take a picture. Of Victoria Chase. 'Shit.'

It suddenly clicked in Victoria's mind. "That was the first picture you snapped since… then, wasn't it?" The blonde's voice was soft and quiet, nothing like what Max expected it to be and she found herself nodding slightly. She wanted to ask how Victoria could know that, but her voice wouldn't come out of her mouth. Lucky for her, the queen bee seemed to possess mind-reading powers, Max was becoming more and more convinced of that as time went by. "I know you haven't handed in any of the assignments and you haven't been walking around with your stupid hipster camera in hand in ages. Honestly, it was kinda unsettling. It's good to see you coming back, Lamefield." For some reason, Max found herself smiling at the name she had just been called. Victoria's tone had a teasing quality about it, it lacked the bite it usually had. Truth be told, her words felt more like friendly banter if anything else; and Max could get used to that. The brunette had just settled down back in her seat when Victoria's voice came again, her head never once turning to face the girl next to her: "I'm… happy I was the subject of your first, post shitshow picture." The smile in her voice was painfully obvious, no matter how hard she tried to hide it. "Maybe your taste isn't unsalvageable after all," she added, hoping that the faint pink color she knew her cheeks had taken as soon as she heard the faint giggle from her right was not all that visible.

They didn't talk at all after that. Victoria went back to playing with her phone, albeit this time she was wearing only one earphone, in case Max wanted to say something, and Max had leaned her head back on her seat, watching the clouds go by as they flew through and past them. They were back to the somewhat comfortable, easy silence once again, however, and that was a nice change of pace. They both knew they would have to talk sooner or later. Both about what had happened that night at the club and what had been said those five days ago. Of course, neither of them was willing to ruin the calmness of the moment; it would have to happen, just not yet. They both shuddered involuntarily as the same exact thought passed through their minds.

Much too soon, the plane landed and it was time for everyone to disembark. Max had no idea what they were going to be doing now that they were actually there. She was going to her parents; in fact, knowing them, they were probably already waiting for her at the gate, but she had no idea what Victoria's plans were. She had seemed less than happy to be spending time with her family, and Max could suddenly feel a pang of guilt in the pit of her stomach. Had Victoria really done this for her even though she really didn't want to? Was that project so important to her? In reality, the brunette knew it wasn't so much for the project itself, rather than the person she had to do said project with. In her own, quite Victoria-like way, Victoria had made it possible for them to spend more time together than they ever had before, and Max didn't know if she had to be impressed or worried by that turn of events.

They both walked to the baggage carousel, Max struggling slightly to keep up with Victoria's wider strides. She sighed as they waited there, causing Victoria to look at her questioningly.

"So… you decided to see your parents after all?" the brunette asked awkwardly after a moment of them silently exchanging looks.

Victoria huffed, "it wasn't a… decision, exactly. More of an obligation." Max knew she should probably be offended by that. She never meant to make Victoria do something against her will.

"I never said you had to come along, you know," she stated, her tone somewhat harsh and annoyed. The blonde didn't pay it much mind, however.

"Who said I was coming for you, Shitfield? My parents are hosting a young artists event at the Gallery and they wanted me there to help." It was only half the truth. "Probably have me check the tickets or serve drinks, to be honest," she muttered bitterly as she took a step forward and grabbed her bag from the carousel. She noticed Max moving forward, her arm reaching out as her suitcase appeared shortly after, so she made a point to grab hers as well.

"Thanks," was all Max said before letting silence take over once more. She wanted to say something about the new information she had just learned, but she knew it probably wasn't such a good idea. She could imagine that having her own parents host a young artist exhibit at their own, very famous Gallery and not include her wasn't something Victoria would want to be brought up.

They silently walked to the exit and were about to say their goodbyes when Max parents approached them, huge grins plastered upon their faces.

"I should go," Victoria said in a quiet voice and was just about to do so when a cheery male voice stopped her.

"Nonsense!" She assumed the man was Max' father, she could definitely see the resemblance. Max let out an embarrassed sigh.

"Victoria, this is my dad, dad this is Victoria…" she introduced them half-heartedly, hoping there was going to be no suggestion of Victoria coming over to their house.

"Hello, sir," Victoria greeted politely, reaching out for a handshake. She stiffened as the man grabbed her hand tightly, but managed to hide it from everyone. Well, almost everyone.

"Please, call me Ryan," the man said as he shook the girl's hand. "This is my wife, Vanessa," he nodded towards the woman standing next to him, a polite, relaxed smile on her face. She thought Max looked like her father, but now she wasn't sure. The woman in front of her looked just like an older version of her classmate.

"M'am," Victoria nodded towards her with a small, polite smile on her face. She sure knew how to make a good impression if she wanted to.

"So you're the infamous Victoria," the woman laughed. "We've heard a lot about you."

"Mom…" Max whined as her eyes widened and her face turned bright red. She should have known something like this was going to happen. The blonde girl simply glanced at Max and smiled, albeit a little awkwardly.

"It's a pleasure to meet you both," she said. "I should get going now, though. I'm sure my parents are waiting for me at home." They weren't. The two nodded and relief washed over Max' features.

"Be sure to drop by for dinner any time you want, I'm sure Maxie here would love to have you," Ryan laughed, firmly squeezing Max to his side. She also should have known that they wouldn't let Victoria leave that easily.

"Sorry…" the brunette mouthed helplessly as her classmate chuckled softly and turned around to leave.

"I like her!" Ryan declared as he picked up Max' luggage with one hand, the other still holding his daughter close to him. Vanessa chuckled from somewhere to the right, and Max could feel more heat rushing up to her face. In all honesty, no matter how embarrassing they were, she had truly missed her parents a whole lot.

The house was big, cold… And empty. Victoria sighed as she shut the door behind her and placed her suitcases right next to it. She knew her parents were at the Gallery, and she knew she had to go there as well if she wanted to stay at least somewhat on their good side.

She hadn't lied when she had told Max that she was needed at the Gallery. Just like she hadn't lied when she accidentally let it slip that she was probably going to be greeting the visitors at the door or serving them drinks. Or maybe even both. She was, however, eternally grateful that the brunette had decided not to press the matter.

Sighing once again, she made her way upstairs to her room, already making a schedule for herself in her mind. Unpack, have a shower, grab something to eat, go to the Gallery, probably get yelled at. Yeah, that sounded about right.

The water ended up being cold, the fridge empty, and her car nowhere to be found. So Victoria made it to the Gallery frozen, hungry and more than an hour late. Not that they had told her what time she needed to be there, but her parents knew what time the plane would land and how long it would take their daughter to go from the house to the Gallery. She shuddered as she walked through the huge glass doors and she wasn't sure if it was because it was actually colder in there, or because she would simply rather be anywhere else and her body was making that clear for her.

Her father's dark eyes turned to look at her as she walked up to him and her mother.

"Welcome back Victoria," he said coldly as she slowly approached them.

"Father," she greeted curtly, her hands clasped in front her. "Mother," she nodded. She hated how they made her feel.

"You were supposed to be here an hour ago," her mother stated briefly glancing at her before returning to her talk with one of the workers who were setting up the exhibition.

"Some things came up, I'm here now," the blonde rolled her eyes.

Her father, who had been leaning over a table with some papers on it until then, stood up straight to face her, a stern look on his face. "This attitude better be gone by tomorrow." Victoria bit the inside of her cheek in order to stop herself from rolling her eyes again.

"What am I doing here?" she asked after a moment. "I have a project I'd rath- I have to work on." She was about to say she would rather work on her assignment with stupid Max Caulfield than be with her parents, but she knew better. It wasn't like the Chases were a tight family, quite the opposite in fact. But whatever they could do to keep Victoria where they could see her, they more than did it.

"As I'm sure you father already explained on the phone, sweetheart," the blonde shuddered internally at the use of a pet name that, if used by anyone else would be an honest term of endearment, "we need you here to help with the exhibition. Surely that… project of yours can wait."

"It's a photography project," she explained. "You always say I have to work harder and get better, how am I supposed to do that if I don't do my assignments? Besides," she added as an afterthought. "I'm not working on it alone. I'd hate to drag somebody else's grade down along with mine." 'Caulfield's grade doesn't need any help doing that. It could definitely use a boost to the opposite direction, though…'

"You know how ruthless and unforgiving the real world is, Victoria. Help someone climb and they'll step all over you on their way up. The only person you have an obligation to help is yourself." She absolutely hated it that her parents had drilled that way of thinking into her brain. They weren't wrong per se, she would never say that, she had seen how the art world operated. But the whole "eat or be eaten" mentality was toxic, to say the least.

"Max would rather fall down so that others could climb than step over them," she stated before she could stop herself and now she wished she had never opened her mouth in the first place. Her father's eyes gleamed and her mother finally turned to face her.

"So it's all about this Max fella, isn't it?" the man snickered. "And is he your classmate? I don't recall you ever mentioning a Max before." Victoria felt disgusted.

"It's not like I ever talk to you about my classmates," she mentioned. "You never listened when I did so why do it?" She was getting them riled up and she kind of liked it too. She knew they would probably end up yelling at her but, at this point, she would welcome any form of interaction with them that showed they were not pre-programmed androids. She found that thought amusing.

"I suppose it is a pleasant change, however, Victoria," came her mother's voice and the girl knew right away where this was going. "I'm very glad to hear you've left those… perverted thoughts behind you and going after a guy now, dear." Victoria could have sworn her eye twitched from the anger she was feeling. "I told you you just needed to be with a man to get back on the right path, didn't I?" the woman was smiling.

"You did," the blonde said through gritted teeth. It was physically painful for her to agree with the words that were coming from her mother's lips. Maybe riling them up wasn't such a great idea after all. "I'm going back home. It seems my presence here isn't necessary yet. I'll be back tomorrow before the opening." And with that, Victoria simply turned around and left, not giving her parents the chance to say anything further and wondering why they couldn't be more like Shitfield's parents who seemed to genuinely love and care and support her, no matter what she did. She groaned. She didn't need those thoughts right now.

A/N: Bruh, this is my longest chapter to date! That's only cause I had no idea where to cut it, tbh... I still hope you guys enjoyed it! And thank you so so much everyone who alerted and favorited, you guys make me smile! ^^