Chapter Four

Victoria's POV

I heard strangely familiar voices out in the livingroom, including Max's voice, but I wasn't sure who the other two were at first. Then I heard a knock on the bedroom door and went to stand just in front of it, but didn't open it right away, just incase.

"Victoria, it's Max, can I come in?" She called through the door. I felt my brow furrow a bit, wondering why she had decided to call me by my full name for one of the first times in forever. I opened the door a little and she burst in, shutting the door quickly behind her. Her eyes were wide and she looked like she had seen a ghost or maybe the devil.

"What's going on?" I asked, feeling nervous suddenly. "Who's out there?"

"It's your parents," she said, making my heart stop completely. Why were my parents here? Why hadn't they called first? How was I supposed to go out there looking like this?

"You can't be serious," I said, moving past her to open the door a little. I peeked my head out, seeing my mother standing in my kitchen, looking over the ingredients that Max had set out to make dinner. My dad was sitting on the couch, leaned back with his arm draped over the backrest like he owned the place. Well, I mean he technically owned the couch and had paid the first few months rent on this place, but still! I closed the door, turning around and looking around the bedroom, my mind whizzing through thing after thing that I had to fix before my parents could even step foot in here.

"What are they doing here?" Max whisper yelled, looking like she was about to pass out. I didn't blame her, this was bad. Well, it would be bad if we didn't play our cards right.

"I have no idea," I said, running to the dresser to put on something that wasn't a pair of panties and a baggy t shirt. "Did they say anything to you about why they were here?"

"No, they just said 'Oh, yes, we're Victoria's parents May we come in, Maxine Caulfield?'" she replied, making me laugh just a little because she had made her voice deeper to do an imitation of my dad. But the amusement I felt faded when I processed what she said.

"Did they wanna check up on us or something?" I asked, turning to look at a terrified Max.

"I don't know, probably," she replied, looking around and picking up her earlier discarded clothing. My stomach clenched when I realized that my hair was probably just as messy as hers, my neck probably peppered with red and purple marks.

"You have to go out there and distract them," I said quickly, grabbing Max and pushing her towards the door by her shoulders. She struggled against me, her eyes wide when I let go of her so that she could turn around to look at me.

"What? No way!" She exclaimed, before I could shoosh her.

"Not so loud," I whispered, trying to think. "I know that you're not exactly their biggest fan right now, but I need you to do this for me. I can't go out there looking like this. I need a minute to make myself look like you and I weren't just going at it in the apartment they rented out for us." Max's expression went from totally horrified to more thoughtful as she looked behind her towards the door then back to me. "Please, Max. We just need to fake it for a little while longer. Then, I swear to you that I'll tell them. Hell, I'll tell them tonight if you go out there right now and start talking to my mom about something." She sighed, closing her eyes for a moment.

"I'll do it," she finally said, making me run up and kiss her quickly.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you," I said, kissing her again before turning to go to my dresser. I heard Max groan before walking back out into the livingroom. I heard her apologize and then say that I would be right out.

I don't think I'd ever gotten dressed so fast in my life. I put on a pair of my nicer leggings and a decent t shirt, trying not to look like I'm trying to impress them and more like I had just been around the house. They would probably still find a way to turn that on me, saying something about how I shouldn't laze around all the time and stuff like that. I hadn't spent the whole day lazing around, anyway. In fact, I'd gone to the store to buy bed sheets and stuff for the kitchen as well, along with some towels for the bathroom. Then I had turned in a few applications to some places I might want to work at before coming back to the apartment to study for my summer classes. I was actually really liking my Anthropology class. It was nice to learn something that was pure facts instead of all the wishy washy romantic stuff that they taught us back at Blackwell half the time. I guess that's what happens when you enroll in an art's program.

After I had finished getting dressed, I went into the bathroom through the door that connected it to the master bedroom. I saw something run past my foot and jumped away from it, squealing a little. I looked around to see the cat that Max brought home earlier playing with a bra that was poking out from under the bed. I stomped over, the small kitten looking up at me with big, shimmering eyes as I took the bra away from him. He almost looked like he was pouting.

"Oh, don't give me that look, you little weirdo," I said as I put Max's bra in the dirty clothes hamper. I turned and walked back to the bathroom, looking in the mirror as I debated whether putting makeup on to conceal the red and purple marks on my neck was worth it. As I started to put some makeup on, I felt something rub up against my ankle. I jumped, looking down to see Bongo rubbing his head against my leggings. I tapped my foot against him lightly, moving him away from me before I looked back up at the mirror. After I finished putting my makeup on, I started towards the door the leads into the living room, taking a deep breath. Bongo meowed up at me, his big eyes looking at me like he wanted something from me. I sighed, running my fingers through my hair. Leaning down, I picked him up, setting him back in the bathroom and closing the door quickly before he could escape again. Then I made my way to the door, hearing voices coming from the livingroom. I reached for the door knob, not letting myself hesitate as I pulled the door open.

"Victoria," dad greeted me, a smile on his face that made me freeze where I stood. It actually looked genuine for the first time in a long time. "Your mother and I were just having a chat with your friend here. Maxine, was it? She's quite the charmer, you know." I stared over at the three of them in disbelief. My parents were sitting on the stools at the island with two glasses of white wine while Max was stirring tomato sauce at the stove. My eyes met hers and she shrugged, looking almost as dumbfounded as I felt.

"What took you so long to come say hello to us?" mom asked, eyeing me suspiciously.

"I was unpacking," I lied, wishing that this whole scene didn't look like something out of a really awful rom com. Dad stood from the stool he'd been sitting in, walking over and wrapping his arm around my shoulders before kissing the top of my head. He was smiling so big that I was sure it must've been fake, but I couldn't tell. This whole thing was really freaking me out now. I still didn't even know what they were doing here.

"Well, you can get back to that later," he said, leading me to the stool he'd been sitting in, having me sit in it now, right next to mom. "Maxine offered to let us stay for dinner, but we settled on some wine instead."

"Why did you guys come here in the first place?" I asked, not realizing I'd said it out loud until I was faced one of my mom's glares. I stood my ground, resisting the screaming urge I felt to run away.

"We just wanted to make sure that the two of you hadn't burnt the place down on your first day," dad teased, ruffling my hair. I could smell alcohol on him, which wasn't unusual, but it was strange how much it seemed to be affecting him. He usually wasn't this affectionate. Or, he hadn't been since I was little, anyway. Sure, he was way more lovey dovey than my mom, but never this much. It was always a little smile or a pat on the shoulder or even a "Love you," every now again, but never this.

"We also came to tell you something, didn't we, John?" Mom chimed in, her words causing my dad's features to fall suddenly.

"Oh, yes, I nearly forgot," he muttered, picking up his glass of wine and taking a long swig. The pang of anxiety I'd always felt when my dad drank had become smaller over the years. I always had to remind myself that he was a nice drunk, nothing like Nathan's dad.

"What is it?" I asked, trying to stay as present as possible since whatever this was had spoiled dad's mood so immediately. Max hadn't said a word this whole time. She'd just gone on making dinner, probably wishing she could go hide in her room. Our room. Oh, Christ, hopefully my parents wouldn't want a tour. No, that'd be more a Caulfield thing. My parents probably didn't care about that sort of thing.

"It's about the Prescott boy," dad said, snapping me back into the moment like a broken rubber band. I stared up at him in disbelief, but he wouldn't look at me. "They're giving him a retrial this month and they wanted you and… and Maxine, to be there." A plate fell to the floor, shattering into a million pieces. I looked to Max who was standing by the stove with wide eyes, her face completely pale. I stood up, going around the island to help her, grabbing both her shoulders and looking into her eyes. She looked like she was in a completely different world, her face almost vacant.

"Max, it's ok," I said softly, wishing I could do something to help her. She had been getting better. Slowly, but still better. She didn't have several nightmares a night anymore and she didn't have as many flashbacks. Well, that I knew of, anyway. Usually when she had a nightmare or something, I was able to hold her close or show her that I was still there and that all the things that were happening behind her eyelids weren't real anymore. But now, my parents were here, so I couldn't act like I cared so much. I had to pretend that I wasn't terrified that all the progress she had made would suddenly get thrown away simply because someone decided to give Nathan a second choice.

"Why do they need Max to be there?" I asked, having a hard time keeping the anger out of my voice as I turned to look at my dad. He looked shocked, like he hadn't expected Max to react this way. Granted, he probably didn't, but he should've expected some sort of emotional reaction from the person who had seen her best friend being killed.

"Prescott's lawyers said that without a testimony from the only witness of the actual murder, they can't put him away without reasonable doubt," my mom said, her voice flat and strangely gentle as she stood from the stool. "His father has decided that it would be better not to have his only son in prison. Apparently raising a psychopath is bad for their reputation, but leaving him undefended and trying to erase him is even worse." Max was shaking, but she was frozen where she stood, staring off at something the rest of us couldn't see.

"Max, come on, let's go sit on the couch for a little while," I said softly, taking her hand and leading her towards the couch in the livingroom. She followed me, but didn't say anything as she sat down. I sat down next to her, wrapping my arm around her shoulders, ignoring the way my parent's gazes burnt into the back of my skull. "Why didn't you just call me? I could've told Max myself."

"It's ok, Victoria," Max said softly, sitting up and turning herself a little to look at my parents. "Thank you for telling me. Who should I talk to so that I can get the information I need?" My mom looked right at Max, but my dad couldn't look at any of us, instead deciding that his glass of wine was far more interesting.

"Well, you'll probably need a lawyer, but we can provide you with one if you need it," she offered, taking me off guard. "They suspect that you had a hand in the Price girl's murder since you did not testify against Nathan in his first trial."

"That's fucking ridiculous," I said under my breath, using every scrap of willpower I had in me to stop myself from letting my anger bubble to the surface. "Max had nothing to do with any of that."

"Victoria, please," Max whispered, taking my hand in hers. The backrest was facing away from my parents so that they couldn't see the small gesture, but Max was squeezing my hand a little. "It's ok. It's perfectly understandable that they'd think that I had something to do with Chloe's death. I was there, after all." Her voice sounded so far off, dark, almost broken. I could practically see the memories flash behind her eyes, Chloe's death playing over and over in her head like it always did. She turned to look at my mom again, her gaze almost vacant. "Why do they need Victoria to testify? She wasn't there." I looked over at my parents as they gave each other a look that sent shivers down my spine.

"They want Victoria to testify that Nathan was mentally unstable and that he never would've done anything if he hadn't been provoked by Chloe Price," my mom said, her words making me freeze where I sat.

"I can't do that," I said, but my voice was weak and I felt Max shaking next to me. I had to be strong for Max. I couldn't give in to this shit, not now. "Sure, Nate needed help, but he killed Chloe, I can't stand in the way of him being punished for that. And I won't stand against Max. She had nothing to do with any of this."

"You won't be standing against her," dad replied, finally looking at me. "You'll be standing up for your friend."

"Max is my g-" I caught caught the word in my throat, barely stopping myself from saying it. I felt Max's grip on my hand tighten. "My friend. She's my friend and I care about her. What Nathan did was wrong and I'm not going to stand in the way of him being punished for what he did. I love Nathan, you both know that, but I can't just turn around and say that what he did wasn't his fault." Everyone was quiet for a minute, making me tense up as I looked down at Max's hand, her fingers wrapped around mine. Nathan was my best friend before everything had happened, but after all the things that Max told me, I realized that he wasn't the Nathan I remembered. Or, not outwardly, anyway. My mom cleared her throat and stood and I quickly let go of Max's hand so that mom wouldn't see it as she got to her feet.

"Alright," she said straightening her blouse. "Then we will inform the defense that they won't be able to use you as a witness. We will also provide you with a lawyer, Maxine, if that's alright." Max nodded, smiling weakly as I stood to walk my parents out. I lead them to the door, holding it open for them. Mom paused before she walked out after my dad, not meeting my gaze as she stood in front of me. I could've sworn that her roots were graying, but it was hard to be sure with how light her hair already was. I looked away from her as she tried to meet my gaze.

"Be careful, alright?" She said softly, reaching out and cupping my cheek with her hand, forcing me to look up at her with widened eyes. My mom didn't really touch people unless she had to, the sensation of her cold skin against mine sending chills through me and reminding me of those rare nights that she would rock me back to sleep after I had nightmares as a small child. "I don't want you to be hurt by any of this. Or by anyone involved." She looked over at Max before catching my gaze again, lowering her hand so that it was at her side. "Your friend may not be stable for a while yet." I should've said something. Maybe thanked her or said that I loved her or told her to fuck off and never talk to Max again. But I didn't. I had a hard time finding any words at all in that moment because, for the first time in what felt like forever, my mom actually looked scared.