Disclaimer: Anything familiar to you, I don't own. This is a work of fanfiction for personal amusement, fulfillment and a bit of self-therapy. I make nothing from any of it.
Chapter Fifty-Six: Homologeo
March 14th, 2012 3:35 PM
As much as none of them were in a particularly good mood to begin with, the end of the school day had brought some relief of suffering, at least to Chloe. That was why, as she leaned up against the wall on Max's right and listened to her and Kate talking, Chloe glared at the man approaching them as if the glare itself would be enough to turn him away. It was not. Even beneath his winter coat, David Madsen still looked like he spent far too much time lifting weights. The security cap perched perfectly straight on his head looked chosen to bring out his square jawline and the sense of superiority emanating either from his eyes or his 70's copstache. The worst part of it all was that as Max attempted to calm Kate down, she still stood rigid and clearly upset. Kate had seen David coming before any of them and Chloe could not blame her.
They had gotten very little out of Kate about her conversation with David the day before, but they did know enough to believe he had accused her of having something to do with Stella's disappearance. Oh, fuck it, Chloe thought as she pushed off of the wall and placed the foot which had formerly been flat against it on the ground. She turned back to her girls, but Max had gone silent. Her face was beet red, her eyes wide, nostrils flaring and pupils constricting. I've seen Max in a rage before, Chloe thought as she swallowed involuntarily at the sight. Kate fell quiet as well, perhaps seeing the same thing. Rachel hadn't spoken since Kate had pointed out David's approach but she, too was stepping forward. I've never seen her like this. Last night she got very graphic about how best to kick David's ass.
In short, his approach was among the most unwelcome sights they could have been confronted with, second only to Jefferson or Nathan doing the very same thing. Clenched in David's right hand was a pen, his left a small spiral bound notepad. Detective Dickstain on the case! The man, whether it was due to sensing the photographer to Chloe's left sweating hate or not, stopped short of them. Chloe looked at his face, ignoring the big show he made about flipping a couple of pages in his notepad and clicking his pen. Even when he spoke, she stared directly into his eyes, drawing them to her a couple of times. Come on, genius, realize that this is a capital B, capital I Bad Idea (TM)! The man's jaw clamped shut for a moment and then opened again.
"Rachel, Max, could you step over here for a moment and talk to me?"
"I don't think we're on a first name basis, Mr. Madsen," Rachel told him. When Chloe glanced back, it was clear by the slight uptick in Max's irritation that the thespian had spoken over something she was about to say. David looked stumped for a moment, then grumbled. When he did not speak again, Rachel took a step forward. Chloe and Max followed.
"This isn't your business," the man immediately snapped toward Chloe. "You can wait with your friend."
"My friend over there is okay," Chloe told him, looking back toward Kate who offered a weak nod of agreement. "My friends here might not be." Lifting her chin, Chloe kept eye contact with the man. She could see that his blood pressure was already sky high by the way his eyes bulged slightly from their sockets. She would have privately mocked him if it weren't for the fact that Max was clenching her fists hard enough that her knuckles were white already. David was not the only one who was starting this conversation with his attitude turned up to 11. She would have laughed if it didn't suggest there might be danger in this conversation for David, Max or both. Meanwhile, Chloe thought, eyes sliding briefly toward Rachel and then back. This is a dangerous can of worms we're opening today, girls. As usual, David took not being unquestionably obeyed worse than Pompidou took her sleeping in on a Sunday. He even looks like he's going to start barking like Pompidou, too. Self-righteous fashy fuck. After what felt like an extravagantly long time, the man sighed through gritted teeth.
"If this is going to be you three obstructing my investigation and acting out about petty problems, get it out of the way now." Petty problems? You put a spycam in my bedroom and nearly broke my wrist, you creepy fucker. Chloe told herself that it had not just gotten warmer in the hallway and that the sound escaping Max's throat was down to her clearing it, not some sort of growl. Even still, she wasn't sure what she herself could say or do that wasn't going to cause more trouble than anything else. Chloe glanced back at Kate to see her pretending to be on her phone.
"You're not starting this conversation off very well, are you, David?" Rachel almost sounded as if she was teasing David with false pity. If I look in her eyes right now, am I going to see an inferno?
"Come to think of it, should I get out my phone and record this? You know, just in case you decide to yell at us and accuse us of shit, like you did with Kate." Max's query was dripping not with mockery but vitriol. This situation had all the makings of a bad day. When the man made as if to respond to the girls, Chloe decided the safest decision here was to draw his ire herself.
"Honestly, David, if this is about stroking your hateboner, you can go fuck yourself. If this is about helping Stella then we're open books." His irritation dial turned from 11 to 12, David furrowed his brows together and cleared his throat about five times over the space of thirty seconds as he tried to contain whatever enraged retort was bouncing behind around that apple red face of his. Okay, so he's back on me now. That's for the best. It really was, too. If Max was pissed off and Rachel was getting there, then no matter how mad Chloe was, they were going to be leagues beyond her in short order. A quick glance around revealed neither any teachers nor Principal Wells. Most of the students were also out of the building or at a club meeting. This was, all told, a conversation likely to be witnessed by Kate only.
"Two days after a Vortex Club party, which you Ms. Amber and you Ms. Caulfield are partially responsible, a student disappeared from school grounds." David stared down at his pad for a moment as if he needed it to recall the details of the situation. Is this even technically in his job description, anyway? David seemed intent on beginning his questioning with a history lesson, as if none of them had spoken to him. "The email she sent Kate Marsh says that something happened at or just after that party. Is there anything that you know that might be relevant to the investigation? There have been plenty of rumors about what might have been happening." He looked at Max before shifting his gaze to Rachel and then Chloe, as if he had not enjoyed what he saw in the eyes of the person before. Then again, I wouldn't want to look into Rachel or Max's eyes if I was him, either. Chloe thought she could read on either girl's face alone that they were wishing him nothing but a painful demise. "One of those rumors was that she was on drugs at the time of the party."
"Yeah, well, you know what they say about rumors," Max told him.
"That they come with a grain of the truth," he retorted. She snorted, derisively.
"Yeah, sure. Look, we've heard the rumors, too. If we had any reason to believe any of those rumors for sure we'd tell you. Stella's our friend and when she went missing we looked everywhere. While others looked no farther than the first teenage girl they could accuse of something." Oh shit, Supermax isn't pulling any punches today. Chloe glanced at the suddenly vindictive girl. It was clear from the scornful and distrusting look on David's face that the True Detective had finally gotten back on the horse, but even so, Max was already at one of her more advanced stages of anger and she clearly did not care about escalating the situation, not with David. Not after what he said to Kate, what the fuck does she know that I don't? Chloe could not quite imagine what escalation would look like between the two at this point.
"When was the last time any of you talked to Ms. Hill?"
"The day after the party," Rachel answered for them. Max did not contradict this statement and Chloe only nodded along in agreement.
"And were there any signs that she was planning to run away? Did she say anything or perhaps seem to be preparing to leave?" When Max responded with a curt 'No' he grumbled and scribbled down something unclear in his notepad. "If you're hiding something from me Max, I'll figure it out."
"I said you have no right to call me by my first name," the photographer informed him. She was now speaking loudly enough that were anyone else nearby, it would probably be enough to draw their attention. Chloe cut across the conversation as David's voice rose and he prepared to respond. Judging by the curling upper lip, it was going to be simple chest thumping. Chloe wasn't in the mood.
"David, you're being a moron," Chloe told him, drawing his rage away from Max. She told herself that the shiver resulting from meeting the man's eyes and seeing just how fed up he had become with this conversation was barely perceptible. He could not have seen it. Chloe also knew what it looked like when she lied to herself. "We want our friend back. She's not hiding shit from you." Strictly speaking this was entirely untrue, but Chloe was not about to tell David that they thought the person who hurt Stella was Nathan. They had no proof. Besides, Chloe thought at him, mostly to distance herself from the nerves he had just woken up in her stomach for the first time in months, if Max was hiding something from you, it could be written in marker on your face and you wouldn't know it. David did his 'annoyed man-ape gone wrong' thing and then decided to jack the accusatory properties of his questions up a notch.
"And did she have any kind of boyfriend or anything of the sort?"
"No," Rachel replied, shortly. Max's eyes had strayed from David's face. Chloe was no longer convinced she had imagined the temperature rising in the hallway. She was also unsure exactly what was going through Max's head. I hope she doesn't do something stupid like try to hit him and get herself expelled. "She was too shy for that kind of thing. She was just starting to make friends for the first time thanks to Max and the Vortex Club. There was no one close." Apparently deciding Rachel was talkative enough, David focused his attention on her instead, turning to almost present his side to Chloe and Max.
"Are you certain?" David asked her. "There's no one that she- I don't know, might have been 'involved with' one night who might have thought there was something more going on?" Chloe did not look at Max or at Rachel. At the same point the switch flipped in her own head, that David was trying to paint Stella as drug addicted and promiscuous, Max snarled, audibly. She heard the photographer's sneakers on the floor of the hall as Max turned away from them and began to walk toward Kate. "Max?"
"I'm done answering your questions for the day, Spycam," Chloe could not recall when any of them had made a threat involving the knowledge of David's crime in front of anyone else. Max's words were not lost on Kate who barely reacted to Max's hand grasping her own as she was busy looking in confusion and concern between Chloe and David. Daughter of a bastard. David did not say anything. The color had drained from his face long before Max and a quietly protesting Kate reached the front doors of the school and pushed out into the chilly March air.
"Well, I'm sure," Rachel said as soon as they were gone. The girl shifted beneath her jacket and seemed to try to keep her voice calm, but failed at the last. Chloe no longer felt so calm herself. When she looked down, her hands shook in time with the feeling pulsing in her stomach, the one telling her that maybe finding a toilet before she threw up on the floor could be a good idea. "Listen, David. I'm not going to lie to you. There are any number of things that could've happened. She said that some guy hurt her. I could list the top five creeps at this school, you'd write off three of them because, frankly, I think you'd find you had more in common with them than you care to admit, and you'd ignore the other two just because they came from me and we both know that what you're really here for is to prove that somehow the three of us had something to do with her leaving."
"And did you?" the man questioned bluntly, clearly reaching the end of his patience. He was not the only one, though. At the question, Rachel's hands came together in one loud clap, pressing against one another as if in prayer and then rose, the tips of her fingers pressing against her lips as she took one loud, slow inhale as if to resist shouting something at the man. When Rachel exhaled just as slowly, Chloe realized that she wanted more than anything to leave that hallway, then and there, with Rachel or without.
"Boy," Rachel told him, "you just don't fucking learn. No. No we didn't have anything to do with it. Why the fuck wouldn't we tell you? Kate and I spent three hours looking for her. Max and Chloe spent six." At this point, any semblance of control in Rachel's shaking voice flew out of the window. When Chloe reached out for Rachel, her forehead was covered in a thin layer of sweat, as were her hands. Chloe wasn't so sure she wanted to touch the girl if she was going to go nuclear. "Our friend's missing and your idea of an investigation is to harass Kate, probably her best friend and then come around to your favorite targets. You never change. You couldn't just do your job, and now people are getting burnt again." The effect of this statement, even though Chloe momentarily did not catch the meaning, was immediate. The last of the rage in David's eyes gave way to widening pupils and suspicion and then he closed his notebook with a loud thump and turned away from them.
"Isn't it weird how whenever the great, moral crusader David Madsen launches an investigation everyone around him gets hurt. If Kate or Alyssa get hurt, if Max gets hurt, if Chloe gets hurt or, god forbid, Stella gets hurt because of something you did, it will be on you Inspector Clouseau. I'll make sure the entire school knows how you handled this investigation. That'll be you out of the frying pan and into the fire." Oh god, she's all but screaming at him that she was the one threatening him with fire. While Chloe was curious as to who Inspector Clouseau was, she thought it better to ask when neither of them felt like pissing in David's shoes. Actually, right about that moment, Chloe felt like doing far worse than that.
When Rachel turned away to walk toward the front doors, herself and David continued down the hall away from them in the opposite direction, Chloe did not follow. Fuming and uneasy, she realized that the best thing she could do was walk away and give them all time to calm down. David flips all my switches and presses all my buttons. I'm not gonna calm down so easy. Still, the blonde paused and looked back at her when she reached the door. Rachel's face was still contorted in anger and though Chloe knew it was not directed at her, she still didn't want to be on the receiving end of that look in Rachel's eyes that spoke of the kind of fire one might find in a furnace, one which would consume all fuel fed to it until nothing was left.
"I'm gonna um, I'm gonna get a drink and I'll meet up with you in a couple of minutes. I don't feel so good." Rachel's face softened at this and though she momentarily looked past Chloe at David's retreating form, the girl promised to text her when she found Max and Kate. As the door shut behind Rachel, Chloe spun in place to make sure that David turned down one of the other hallways and left her alone. As she saw him do just that, her eyes wandered to the vending machines and she tried not to grimace as she set off toward them. Gathered around the pop machine while they talked were Victoria and Taylor, looking as if they were a little harried by their own days. Not that Princess Victoria would admit anyone ever saw her with a hair out of place, Chloe thought. She had just wanted a damned soda, not to have to deal with the mystery of the great 'turnaround of Victoria Chase.' After grumbling to herself for a moment, Chloe exhaled and approached. Instantly, Taylor looked up at her from Victoria who was leaning forward to free a can of coke from the machine. Chloe noticed Courtney's absence immediately.
"Hey, Chloe," Victoria greeted when Taylor tapped her on the shoulder and gestured. Okay, that's downright friendly. It wasn't exactly an excited greeting, but it was surprisingly calm and cool. Taylor, on the other hand, waved rather genuinely. Chloe tried not to shift her shitty mood to the two of them, but even though Taylor had become more open toward her, even more than Victoria, Chloe was getting tired of wondering when the next snide remark was going to be coming. Victoria had changed her mind about them once and she could change it again. Chloe, at least, had not forgotten the past two and a half years of Victoria's snooty, stuck up, superior attitude. She had not forgotten being brought to tears in front of a classroom full of people as Victoria mocked her for something as simple for a ratty red sweatshirt. One which Max wears whenever she wants and gets nothing for.
Chloe knew she had failed at keeping her last conversation from affecting this one before it even began, because the closest thing she could manage to a greeting was to wave one stiff hand in the air as she approached, eyes focused on the pop machine which Victoria was stepping clear of. I can't help it, alright. This isn't fucking Brooke or something this isn't even Taylor or Courtney. This is Victoria. The shit she used to give me, the shit she'd give me and Max about this 'Rachel's Harem' bullshit. I don't care why, it pisses me off.
"Are-um, are Max and Rachel nearby?" When Chloe's eyes slid to Victoria's face the girl did not immediately match them. In fact, she did not quite look directly at Chloe. Chloe took this as a sign that maybe the conversation would end quickly if she just answered and began to dig a few quarters from her pocket. The bag over her shoulder did not cause her any problems as she had left her skateboard behind that morning. The first of the quarters rolled down the slot and into the machine as Chloe found the words to respond.
"No, they're-" she cleared her throat, well aware of the hard tone in her voice. Chloe tried to calm that down. "They're with Kate. I'm not sure where, yet."
"Oh," Victoria responded. Hoping that that was all there was to the conversation, Chloe fed the machine a couple more quarters. "Hey, Taylor? Could I talk to Chloe alone for a second?" Chloe's hand froze over the button for a cherry coke and she turned to look back at them. Taylor glanced at Victoria from beneath blonde bangs and then, after shooting a confused look at the both of them, nodded very slowly, as if an old machine processing a complicated command.
"Yeah, um, I'll be in the cafeteria with Juliet and Courtney." Something resembling hurt sounded in Taylor's voice and it was almost enough to pull Chloe's heartstring. Then again, Taylor was no fucking angel, either. She watched Victoria promise to catch up with the girl and then paid attention as Taylor retreated from the situation toward the cafeteria, looking almost a little dazed each time she glanced over her shoulder at Victoria. Chloe pressed the button and returned to her quest for a coke. What the fuck does Victoria want to talk to me alone about? She was just working ideas over in her mind as to how she could extricate from herself from the situation when Victoria glanced around the school as if to make sure no one was near enough to hear them and then decided it was time to speak.
"Okay," Victoria started, turning back to Chloe, voice all fire and indignance. Now that is Victoria Chase. "What the hell is your problem?" Her hands still shaking slightly from her earlier encounter, Chloe decided that if Victoria wanted to get into this now, she was more than happy to oblige the girl.
"Don't you mean 'What the hell is your problem, Kari?' Don't you mean 'What the hell is your problem, 'urchin girl?' Don't you mean 'what the hell is your problem, Karl?'" She spat each of these in fairly rapid succession and reveled in the vitriol in her own voice. Surprisingly, Victoria did not glare at her, but instead immediately looked at the wall beside the machine as if examining something on it. Chloe did not miss the slight sigh, the reddening of Victoria's cheeks. "That's what I thought," Chloe told her. "Look, Max is willing to forgive and forget and you've barely ever been a dick to Rachel, but I remember everything you've ever said to me and the shit you said about Max and I being with Rachel. If you're gonna change back and start treating us like shit again, it's better to get on with it. We've got enough bullshit to deal with without Victoria Chase's insecurity ticking like a timebomb in our ears."
"Look, Chloe," Victoria shot back as soon as Chloe said this last. Okay, too far. She had wanted to apologize as soon as the words came out of her mouth, but Victoria did not look like she was going to let her get another word in until she'd had her say. "You don't have to like me if you don't want to, but people can realize they were being dicks and change." 'Poor me, I'm reformed and you're being hateful.'
"The worst thing is," Chloe responded, immediately forgetting her desire to apologize. "I want to like you. Totally. Both because I know Max likes you and because you're good at what you do, you're smart and generally cool to most people. Why do you have to be such a dick to others?" For a moment Victoria's cheeks continued to flare and she looked as if she was going to stare past Chloe again, at the wall but at the last Victoria's forest green eyes returned to Chloe's. "It's not just to Max and I, it was to Kate too. Why would you want to be a dick to Kate? She's a fucking saint, and you know it." Again, her last sentence was apparently too much for Victoria. The blonde did look shaken up and Chloe felt a little bad about pushing. Victoria's been through way too much shit lately. That didn't mean Chloe felt like leaving Max open to whatever bullshit Victoria might have planned.
"First off, Kate's no fucking saint," Victoria told her, her voice not faltering whatever the look on her face said. "She can be a judgmental bitch."
"My girlfriends and I hang out with her all the fucking time. If she was the judgmental type, shouldn't that get in the way?" Chloe laughed at the assertion. The laugh had been intended to lighten things up as much as anything else, but Victoria looked as if she thought she was being mocked. Those green eyes narrowed and her nostrils flared, almost dangerously.
"Maybe not about that, but about other things. I bet you've never tried to smoke so much as a cigarette in front of her. Oh and don't let her hear about you touching a drop of alcohol, or she'll turn her nose up at you like you're some kind of brown stain." Victoria's voice was slowly ticking up a notch or two in volume. "That's not even the worst of it. She's not perfect." Chloe raised her hands. The truth was that there was some potential honesty in that statement. The girl did occasionally get passive aggressive about drug use. Was it so unlikely that she might have said something to upset Victoria at some point? Even if it was an offhand comment, it might have upset Victoria's, frankly, delicate ego. It didn't excuse her behavior, but Chloe took the girl's point.
"That's fair. It's possible. Everyone has problems. But why me? Why Max?" There was a debate on Victoria's face. Chloe watched it rather intently. With the wind out of both of their sails, it felt like a conversation was actually happening which held some value, some purpose. Chloe had a feeling she was about to learn a thing or two about Victoria Chase and probably teach her a thing or two about herself, as well.
"Look, about you... about the clothes... it's like I said. I was a stupid, shitty kid. I get that. I'm sorry." If last part of the conversation had taken the wind out of her sails, this one felt like it had knocked the air from her lungs. Chloe tightened her grip on her drink slightly so that it did not fall from her hand at her surprise. Had she ever actually witnessed Victoria apologize to anyone about anything before? This was a girl who had once kicked someone by accident after that person was tripped and complained at the person who tripped him for slowing her down. Chloe would have told you even five minutes ago that the Queen Bee didn't know the word sorry. "About the rest, and the things I said to you and Max about Rachel, look. I'm just-" the battle playing out across Victoria's face faded into the background, but not before Chloe saw the victor. Truth. "I'm just jealous, alright. I didn't wanna say it."
Immediately, Chloe held up a hand and considered the number of ways that she was going to gloat to Rachel and Steph both about being right. How about a big blue banner declaring my room the headquarters of the Chloe is Always Right Foundation? Victoria's stare only turned from unease to frustration as a smile bloomed across Chloe's face. Of course Victoria was jealous. She wanted the impressive, popular Rachel Amber all to herself and she had been too busy hiding in the closet to make a move. Now there were two girls with Rachel, one she had never been friendly with and a second who had come out of nowhere. It didn't excuse her behavior by any means, but holy shit did it feel good to be right. Victoria was red and upset, offended even when Chloe finally looked back up at her.
"Ha," Chloe declared. "I knew you were into Rachel. No fucking wonder you let them into the Vortex Club." Far from telling her to quiet down, scoff at her or otherwise attempt to convey exasperation, frustration or even offense, Victoria looked the picture of surprised and confused. For the second time that day she did something Chloe had never seen her do before: Victoria's mouth dropped open. Is she surprised she's so transparent that her tongue is about to actually hang out like Pompidou's? After a moment or two of Chloe gloating silently at Victoria, the blonde shook her head and pulled herself together.
"If I've ever been jealous of anything when it comes to Rachel, it's how she doesn't care what people think of her so well. I'm not into Rachel. I didn't let them into the club for her." Then, came the exasperation. The Chloe is Always Right Foundation? We might be going through a bit of a rough patch. As Chloe tried to process this response and wondered exactly why she believed it so completely, Victoria drained the last of her pop can all at once. "Look, I'll just, I dunno, text Max later to ask what I was going to ask." Chloe did not respond, instead she furrowed her brow and ran the math on what this was all likely to mean. If she's not into Rachel then what in the hell could she be jealous of me about? Then Victoria's statement caught up to Chloe and the can in her hand clattered to the floor, spilling its contents. 'I didn't let them into the club for 'her.'
"You're into Max?" Chloe hissed. This time, when Victoria's cheeks flared one last time, it was dark. Chloe reached across herself and pinched herself hard on her left arm. No, no not dreaming. The blonde crossed her arms over her chest, huffing as if it was no big deal and stared, head cocked at Chloe until Chloe remembered what was going on and shut her gaping mouth. "Why in the hell would you admit that to me?"
"It's not, like, a big deal to me anymore. I don't want to be a dick to anyone and besides, I don't think I can get anymore embarrassed right now than I am. You and like five or six other people know the most embarrassing thing there is to know about me: my best friend tried to- yeha, no, nevermind." The sudden twist the conversation had taken had clearly made Victoria immediately uncomfortable. Chloe quieted as she watched the slightly shorter girl piecing words together. "My parents somehow heard a rumor about it that I think is down to Courtney and are trying to convince me to let them pull me out of blackwell and take me back to Seattle, so everything's kind of shit and if you go and tell everyone what I told you and I get mocked or something, I don't really care." They're trying to pull Victoria out of Blackwell? Victoria, and not Nathan?
"First off, there's nothing for you to be embarrassed about," Chloe told her, voice as firm as she could make it. A year and a half ago she had been forced to have this same conversation with a disoriented Max. "That was his fault. He's the one with the problem. He's the one who hurt you. Though she does keep her voice down. Besides, as for the other thing, Max is fucking gorgeous, she's smart enough to make me feel like a total ditz and not mind it and you both like photography and shit. I'm not gonna tell anyone but you should tell Max, ASAP." This seemed to take Victoria enough by surprise that the girl let down her defensive barrier and uncrossed her arms watching Chloe with surprise on her face. "Like, ASAP."
"Would you- you know, actually be okay with that?" Victoria asked her, sounding both unsure and confused. The truth was, Chloe thought as she scratched her chin, she had never thought about it before. Chloe sidestepped the puddle she had just made and retrieved her can. Without a second thought she downed what was left in the vessel and hurled it at the nearest trash bin. How do I word this?
"What Rachel, Max and I have is different." That much was unquestionable. "I don't know if 'okay' is the right word, especially when all I can think about is being called 'Kari Price' but if you're asking if I'm gonna get jealous? I know Max. I know where we stand. That's all I need. And Max has been trying to be your friend since she moved here. If you're actually willing to treat her like a person, now, don't let this shit get in the way." Genuine guilt snuck its way onto Victoria's face. You know what, it fits. She should look guilty, Chloe thought. And when she gets over that guilt maybe she'll be a better person for it.
"Look, I know I was a dick alright? She just, makes me feel like I have to be something I'm not, alright. Like I have to push harder." This seemed to be a confession Victoria had some difficulty with, so Chloe gave her the respect of not interrupting. Besides, I've seen it before. It's even happened once or twice with me and Rachel. Max could be intense, on another level one moment or the next just this goofy, short brunette who wants to take pictures, cuddle, eat chinese and watch shitty B movies on Netflix.
"You know what?" Chloe told her, "I get that. She can do that to people. But how you handle it is on you. My advice is, 'get over it.' I'm going to go find her and Rachel and Kate now. You can come with me or don't." At this, Chloe gestured over her shoulder to the doors that came out closest to the dormitories. Victoria glanced at them and then back toward the cafeteria. Oh right, she was busy.
"I-I had better go find Taylor," Victoria said, audibly trying to keep her usual confidence in place and failing as she hurried to add, "but don't tell Max, alright?" Chloe shook her head, laughing.
"You'd tell me, with me probably being the least friendliest with you of the three of us but you don't want Max to know?"
"Yeah well," Victoria responded, adjusting the pale purse strap on her shoulder. "This shit is weird."
"On this one you and I agree," Chloe replied, nodding. She was trying to sound laid back, playful. For a moment she turned, intent on taking off and then, wincing at a thought, called out to Victoria.
"Yeah, Price?" Victoria asked.
"If the other thing that you're worried about gets bad you need to talk to Max about it. Max has been dealing with it for a while and it's not always good, sometimes just seeing him fucks with her, but she wouldn't have said the stuff she did about being there for you if she didn't mean it. Max can be horrible about her own issues, but she's pretty good to have around for others' shit."
"I'll think about it."
"One more thing," Chloe told the girl and this time she took her backpack off and shifted it to the other shoulder entirely, her right now sore. "Don't call me Price anymore."
"Why do you care?"
"Because I thinks you're going to be sticking around." This was the best olive branch she could offer to Victoria. Things were still shaky, she still didn't trust the girl with her life but this was Chloe's attempt to tell Victoria that she was trusting that her heart was in the right place.
Me
Hey you. Where are you guys?
Max
Dorms. TV room. Rachel will let you in. Get over here, we miss you.
A lot.
Me
A lot, a lot, a lot?
Max
Bunches.
Chloe did as she was told and after splitting from Victoria she made for the dormitories as quickly as she could. She did so while contemplating the idea that all of this time Victoria had been holding a candle for Max, not Rachel. She would have bet her own meager possessions that Rachel was the object of Victoria's downlow 'girl crush.' Pondering precisely how Max would react when she found out, Chloe was entirely unprepared for Rachel grabbing her and pulling her into the dormitories the moment she banged on the door. Chloe laughed as she was pulled to the present by the blonde thespian and allowed herself to be led into the small, cramped tv room. Along three walls were threadbare couches, all the same shade of brown. The television on the fourth wall was fairly new and pretty large, which made it surprising that the lounge was so underutilized. As Rachel pushed her toward the couch along the back wall, prodding and poking Chloe each time she playfully complained, it became clear that Max, Kate and Rachel were the only ones in the room.
If Max found out and agreed to give Victoria a chance, how would Rachel react? How would I feel? One thing she knew for damn sure was that it was going to take time for her to reach any kind of serious friendship with Victoria. In response to Chloe stopping and falling into thought for the moment, Rachel prodded lightly at Chloe's side, causing her to yelp a little. Kate and Max looked up from the screen at this, Kate with a confused smile and Max patting the seat beside her. The message was clear. Either she sat down with Max or she was going to be prodded and tickled into submission. She was, nonetheless, a little caught off guard when the moment she sat down and Rachel sat on her other side, either girl pressed tight against her side and rested their heads on her shoulders. Chloe laughed and lifted her arms to make them all a little more comfortable. Kate seemed to be in a better mood than in the hallway. The girls' antics won a small grin from their devout friend and then Kate returned her attention to some show on television, some show Chloe had never paid attention to.
Rachel and Max fussed over her for the next few minutes and, quietly, Chloe allowed it. She didn't mind. She kept her promise of silence to Victoria, but when eventually asked why she took so long she just informed the three of them that she had been talking to a potential new friend and refused to say anything else. This was about the time that Rachel again began to lightly prod her as if to threaten to annoy her into talking.
"have they been this way the whole time I was gone?" Chloe asked Kate, looking past Max. The blonde looked at Chloe and shrugged one shoulder.
"They usually are like this when you're not around," Kate told her, playing along. This seemed to be perfectly acceptable to Rachel who seized on the comment.
"Exactly, so you'll have to make the most of our time together so we don't get to feeling neglected." Chloe had a few ideas of precisely how they might do that, but settled instead for leaning in as the thespian's hazel eyes danced with the urge to tease Chloe. Who, Chloe thought as she pressed her lips to Rachel's and felt the reaction, the slight parting of the girl's lips, the eager return of the kiss, am I to turn down a request like that?