Victoria hesitantly reached up and grabbed Noir's hand, stopping her from jabbing the finger against her chest. She pulled the arm forward. Noir closed her eyes while also on instinct spread her fingers out over Vic's heart. Calming herself with Vic's pulse.

"Thank you… Sorry for screaming." Noir leaned forward and put her head on Vic's shoulder then let out a small sniffle.

"Don't worry about it, It's okay. Although the entire campus might have heard you, but oh well. Sounded like you really needed to tell me that." With her free hand she rubbed Noir's back. She also wasn't one to waste good weed though, and her weed was good, so she hit the joint again.

"That and a lot more." Noir tilted her head some to look at Victoria's neck. One bite. That's all it would take. A bite, pulling her down onto the bed, getting on top of her, grinding her thigh between Victoria's legs. Then she wouldn't ask for her Max back. She wouldn't have to go back to the dark. "Tori, I want you. So. Fucking. Bad." Noir groaned out, getting closer with each word. She made sure her hot breath wafted across Vic's neck.

Vic inhaled and pursed her lips. "I…"

"I just wanted you to know, Mind if I kill the joint?" Noir leaned off and away from Vic, resting back against the edge of the window.

Vic traded the joint back to Noir. "You're just changing the subject. Also, Tori?" Vic had an inquisitive look in her eyes.

"I'm high and horny and frustrated that I haven't had sex for like a hundred years." Noir pulled on the joint heavily. "So yeah, for both of our sake's I'm trying to change the subject. Unless you want to talk about it?"

Victoria blushed slightly while shaking her head, eyes diverted the to the trees behind the dorm. "It's not a no, just not right now." She was willing to take that step with Max, but Noir was a different person. Well not that different.

Noir let out a chuckle that was more than an angry huff. "Not right now huh." She took one last hit. Then leaned out the window and crushed the cherry against the brick of the building. With a flick she sent the joint sailing into the trees. "Well let me speed it up for you. I can stop time and for you, you would cum instantly." Noir leaned back into the window and looked Vic directly in the eye. "Over, and over until your vision goes white and you're screaming your throat raw." Victoria's face was fully flushed red by this point. "We've made Brooke AND Kate bang on either wall for us to be quiet at the same time."

"Okay, okay." Vic let out a little embarrassed laugh.

"Just sayin. Seven times in five seconds is your record." Noir gave her a cheeky wink.

"Alright!- Wait, seven fucking times? Fuck." Victoria's mind was lost in all the new possibilities of adding time travel to sex.

Noir was wearing that devilish grin. "There we go." Noir slipped down from the window to the bed. "That face is what I wanted." She laid down in the bed, fully stretching out. "But yeah, I called you Tori. I remember the first time I did. You gave me such a look, but then accepted it. Felt like I was truly in the Vortex after that."

Victoria came out of her wonderment to listen. She also got off of the window sill and sat on the bed. Crossing her legs and sitting at the end of the bed where Noir had her feet. She resisted the urge to tickle her. "I'm assuming I didn't call you Noir?"

"You just called me by my name, Maxine. I don't know why She insists on 'Max never Maxine.' but just goes to show how different we are."

"I don't think you're that different. You two even grin the same."

Noir let out an annoyed groan. "Don't be a buzzkill."

"Well, What should I call you in public? Noir is going to sound weird. Could I call you Maxine? Use Noir in private?"

"Call me whatever you want, Not like I'll be around long anyway."

There was a brief silence. "So… You're really dying then?" Victoria's voice wavered as she spoke the question that had been on her mind since Max had told her she didn't want to die.

Noir sat up and put her hand on Vic's knee. Trying to be reassuring. "No, Max is just, asleep. It's like, her memory banks are too full and she needs to defrag her hard drive. I mean she's been living for over a hundred years. Humans just aren't built for that. It's a one of a kind medical situation. She's had every test in the book. Went through decades of psychological therapy. We don't know exactly what is wrong. I mean technically we exhibit symptoms of dissociative identity disorder. PTSD. The list goes on. She knows more about than I do. I get most of it second hand from her, unless…" She motioned to herself. "I'm thrown to the surface and take over. She'll be back in control by tomorrow morning."

"But, You- Max was coughing up blood? And she nearly attacked us."

"It's the side effects of using time travel too much. It was just a severe nosebleed. I thought she had gotten control over it but it seems it can still happen with the right trigger. Also, that was me, not her, sorry. I didn't want to hurt anyone, especially you. I would never hurt you. I was just trying to defend myself. I was wrenched out of a nightmare and plopped into your room. I hadn't seen you in so long, I just couldn't believe it was real… We don't share our memories with each other so I never know what to expect when I show up. I don't blame her for not sharing them though. If I were her I wouldn't trust me either."

Vic took a second to take it all in. "It's okay, sounds kind of terrifying if I'm honest."

"...Yeah, it is."

"Why shouldn't she trust you?"

Noir sighed and laid back down. "Soon, soon for her anyway, after she did what she did to me, I found her in a nightmare. I told her I would get my revenge and ruin her life just like she did mine. Any and every chance I got… After awhile though, I realized she didn't need any help in that department. She locked me away after that. started using me as a trashcan for all the horrible things she went through."

There was another short silence. "What did she do to you?"

Noir rolled onto her side, getting away from Victoria eyes. She tried to stare a whole into the wall Vic's bed was against. "We were all sitting on the front lawn. The Vortex Club I mean. I remember how badly I wanted to kiss you, right there in front of everyone. You always were so shy about being affectionate in public. Even though the entire school gossiped about how loud we were in bed." That brought a small sad smile to Noir. "Then I got a headache, everything went dark. The next thing I remember… The next thing-" Noir's words got caught in her throat. Tears were falling onto the pillow.

Victoria hesitated but only for a brief moment before moving to lay down behind Noir. She wrapped an arm around her and hugged herself against the smaller girl. Noir instantly took hold of Vic's arm with both of her own.

"In my timeline, Chloe got into a car accident when she was 16. She was paralyzed from the neck down. I couldn't bring myself to visit her. I was stupid and selfish. When I told you about everything you made me promise to go see her. You even said you'd pay for her medical expenses. We made plans to go visit her together." Noir tightened her grip on Vic's arm, holding it against her chest. Vic put her palm over Noir's heart, it felt like a jackhammer. "The next thing I remember after sitting on the lawn is... I was sitting next to Chloe's bed… And-" A sob broke through her already struggling words. "She was dead Tori." Noir sucked in a ragged breath. "Max had killed her."