Chloe had barely rung the doorbell to the Chase house before a muffled voice shouted from inside, letting them know the door was unlocked. Chloe wasn't familiar with the voice, but Max gave a little shrug as she opened the door, strolling in. "I'm back here," the voice called, and Max closed the door before leading the way further into the house.
"Hi, Mrs. Chase," Max greeted as they walked into the kitchen, where Victoria's mother was emptying their dishwasher. Chloe could vaguely remember seeing her at the gallery a few months ago, but hadn't properly met her that night.
The woman was waving a hand towards Max, chuckling quietly as she closed one of the cabinet doors. "Oh, please Max, just call me Liz." Her eyes shifted to look at Chloe curiously, who cleared her throat nervously.
"Uh, hi, I'm-"
"Chloe, right?" she asked, smiling widely as she dried her hands off on a towel, using the heel of her foot to close the dishwasher.
Chloe gave a strained chuckle, scratching at her arm absent-mindedly while ducking her head. "Yeah, that's me."
Liz was still smiling, eyes twinkling as she looked between them. "Victoria talks about you two all the time." There was an odd tone in her voice, something close to pride, and Chloe wouldn't have been surprised if Victoria hadn't really talked about her friends to her parents before.
"Hopefully not as much as she talks about Kate," Max joked, a sly smile spreading across her face as she slid onto a chair at the island counter.
At that, Liz started laughing earnestly. It was remarkably similar to her daughter's laugh, although it was less restrained than any laugh of Victoria's. "Oh, believe me, she won't stop talking about Kate unless you tell her to stop," she replied. Chloe felt a smirk spreading across her face, while Max tried to hide a snicker behind a cough, reactions that Liz appeared to have missed as she smiled at them. "You girls going out to take pictures today?"
Chloe shrugged, dropping onto the seat next to Max. "Vic and Max will be taking pictures, Kate and I are just their hype squad."
"Well, don't let their heads get too big, or you'll have issues getting either of them on a plane in two months," Liz said, smirking slightly. The smirk faded quickly as her gaze shifted between the two of them. "How're you feeling about New York?"
Max let out a loud sigh, shaking her head ."It's crazy. I can't believe it's only two months away," she said, fingers tracing patterns on the granite countertop. "I mean, I've done the whole 'going off to school' bit with Blackwell, but this is a whole other level."
The woman across from them had shifted to lean against the refrigerator, crossing her ankles. "I'm still kind of surprised you girls didn't decide to stay with Victoria and Kate."
Chloe cleared her throat, seeing Max's head turn to look at her out of the corner of her eye. "I mean, they're cool, obviously, and it would have been nice, but, uh-"
Liz was smiling again, shaking her head. "Believe me, I get it. The whole 'out on your own' thing is appealing, I don't blame you." Chloe decided to begin tracing patterns herself on the countertop, giving a little half-hearted shrug. Liz's tone was kind, but the conversation was still borderline awkward. "If you ever change your mind, though, I assure you that Cam and I don't mind. We already own the building," she added, amusement trickling into her voice.
"Thank you," Max said quietly, nodding her head slightly.
There was a long pause in the conversation, and Chloe had to fight from clearing her throat again nervously. "It's cool that you're letting Kate crash here, and with Vic when they go off to school," Chloe commented, fighting the urge to raise an eyebrow expectantly.
Liz's expression was soft as she exhaled heavily, leaning her head against the refrigerator. "Victoria loves that girl; I don't think we would have heard the end of it if we had said no. And Kate is the sweetest thing, too." There was a momentary flash of frustration across her face as uncrossed her ankles, shifting her weight. "It's absolutely horrible what her parents did to her."
"Yeah, they're real pieces of shit, alright," Chloe agreed, feeling a scowl growing on her own face.
Liz scoffed, shaking her head. "Pieces of shit indeed. As a mother, I can't imagine not loving my daughter, no matter what or who makes her happy."
"Well, Kate certainly makes Victoria happy," Max chimed in, a little smile spreading across her face.
A similar smile spread across the woman's face as well, nodding. "That she does." Before she could say anything else, rapid footsteps were audible from the stairs, and Liz's smile shifted into a smirk. "Speak of the devil," she stage whispered as Victoria stalked into the room, a concerned look on her face.
"Were you seriously talking about me?" Victoria shot out, eyes darting between her guests and mother warily.
"C'mon, Vic, why would we ever want to talk about you?" Chloe said, waggling her eyebrows.
Victoria groaned as her head lolled back dramatically. "Ugh, this is why I don't leave her unattended," she shot back, pointing at Chloe.
Liz and Max both chortled while Chloe rolled her eyes. "Yeah, yeah," she muttered as she leaned against the counter, trying to peer past Victoria. "Kate still upstairs?"
Victoria nodded, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to one foot. "Yeah, she's putting Alice away."
"Aww, if I knew she was out, I'd have gone upstairs," Chloe complained, leaning further onto the counter.
"Too bad, so sad." Victoria was shaking her head for a moment before her eyes squinted and shifted to her mother. "Mom, why are you looking at me like that?"
Chloe turned to see Liz's satisfied smile on her face rapidly shift as she gasped dramatically. "I'm just watching you, am I not allowed to watch my daughter?"
"With that expression? No." As Chloe bit back a snarky comment in defense of Liz, Kate finally walked into the room, a sketch pad and pencil bag under her arm. Victoria gave a little sigh as she saw her girlfriend draw near, nodding towards her. "Cool, you ready?" Victoria said quickly, eyes already drifting towards the front door.
Kate was smirking ever so slightly as she looked towards Liz, who was doing a good job at keeping a neutral expression on her face. "Am I interrupting something?" she asked, eyebrow raising as she turned her gaze to Victoria.
Victoria seemed taken aback by the question, eyes slightly wide. "What? No. Mom's being creepy."
Liz was leaning against the opposite side of the counter, grinning as she stared back at her daughter. "Am not."
"Are too," Victoria responded automatically, her face starting to flush as she presumably realized how childish she sounded.
Liz was still grinning, green eyes staring at Victoria's red face. "Kate, is it wrong of me to watch my daughter when she's talking?"
"Kate, don't answer that," Victoria said quickly, reaching over to grab Kate's free hand. "We're leaving, bye Mom."
Chloe waited until the two blondes had left the room before looking back at Liz, who's grin had faded back into a warm smile. "I, uh, guess we're going," Chloe commented, reaching up to make sure her beanie was still firmly on her head.
Liz nodded, standing upright as she made her way around the counter towards them. "I guess so. It was great to finally meet you, Chloe. And to see you, Max," she added, giving the shorter girl a little nod. "Maybe one day, you two can convince Victoria that running out of the house when I'm home isn't the only option."
"Yeah, probably never gonna happen," Chloe responded, laughing as the three of them headed for the front door.
Chloe sitting up on the bench, arms thrown over the back of it as she tried to absorb some vitamin D from the afternoon sun. She was torn between leaning her head back and dozing off or continuing to watch Victoria and Max, although she couldn't make out anything they were saying from this distance. Instead, she decided to turn towards the young woman sitting next to her.
Kate was leaning forward, the tip of her tongue sticking out between her teeth as she focused on her sketch of the courtyard. She'd only been at it for a few minutes, and already Chloe felt jealous of the blatant talent in front of her. "Damn, Katie, you got some skill," Chloe commented, watching the scene rapidly forming on paper.
Kate looked up for a second, a dazed look on her face as she processed the words before smiling. "Aww, thanks, Chloe. It's really just a lot of practice, that's all." She moved her knee so it bumped against Chloe's, looking up at her brightly. "And you're a pretty talented artist as well, by the way."
"I know real skill and talent when I see it, don't knock yourself," Chloe commented, shrugging and hoping her face wasn't starting to turn red as she turned her gaze towards Max and Victoria. The two were currently taking turns photographing the fountain, constantly comparing and seemingly arguing about their shots.
There was a skitter of Kate's pencil against the page, her hand coming to a sudden halt. "I had a question for you," Kate asked suddenly, eyes focused on the photographers with a frown. She was chewing on her lip, a worried expression settling in as her knee started bouncing.
Chloe felt a frown cross her own face as she looked at her friend. "What's up?"
Kate gave a heavy sigh, knee ceasing its movements as she fiddled with the binding of her sketch pad instead. "My dad called me last week," she said flatly.
"Shit. Sorry," she added on quickly with a wince. Kate didn't critique her potty mouth, but she knew it still made her slightly uncomfortable at times.
Kate shrugged, the corner of her mouth twitching as she stared blankly down at her unfinished drawing. "It's fine, Chloe. I'd be lying if similar words didn't come to mind when I saw it was him."
Chloe pulled her arms back into her lap as she crossed her ankles, letting them sway above the ground. "So, what did he want?" she asked cautiously, glancing between the sketchbook and Kate.
There was a long pause as Kate fumbled with her pencil, visibly swallowing hard. "He wants to see me," she finally said, going back to chewing on her lip.
"Oh." They were both silent for a minute, shifting uncomfortably, before Chloe cleared her throat nervously. "Like, a 'good' wants to see you?"
"It seems like it." Kate was absent-mindedly scribbling swirls along the edges of the page, brows furrowed. "I'm just nervous, I guess. He didn't say anything when I..." She trailed off for a moment, taking a deep breath before shaking her head. "My mother was the one who wanted me out," she added flatly, eyes dull.
Chloe sighed, shaking her head as she gave the courtyard a once over, wondering what the right thing to say in this situation was. "That sucks, Kate," she finally decided.
"I don't think she's going to come up with him," Kate said slowly, looking up from her sketch pad to glance at Chloe and shrug. "He's always been very supportive of me going to Blackwell and...and with everything that happened there, and he didn't seem to have an agenda when we talked this time, but..."
Chloe nodded automatically, chewing the inside of her lip. "I got'cha." They were quiet again for a bit, both watching Victoria give a little disgruntled shove to a laughing Max. "What does Vic think?"
"That I shouldn't see him." Kate's voice was heavy, and she slid her pencil into the binding of her sketchbook before rubbing at her forehead. "She thinks he's just as guilty of kicking me out as my mom was."
"I feel that," she said, head bouncing slightly.
"What's your opinion, though?" Kate had a little nervous tone in her voice with the question, knee starting to bounce again.
Chloe let out a little snort, reaching a hand back to scratch at her neck. "I mean, honestly, he let your mother kick you out of the house, so fuck him for that." Kate stiffened a little, but otherwise didn't respond. "But, you know, it's your call. If he's not gonna be a dick about things, maybe it'll be fine."
"Yeah, maybe," Kate responded quietly, a wistful tone in her voice. Chloe glanced over at her, eyes focused towards their girlfriends, albeit she didn't really seem to be watching them, just gazing off into the distance. "Is it wrong that I want Victoria to be there with me, when I see him?"
Chloe felt the corners of her lips twitch, tempted to smirk. "If you're okay with her kicking him in the pants when they meet? Sure."
Kate laughed, a short outburst that seemed to slip past her lips without her permission, judging by the surprised look on her face as she covered her mouth. "I don't think she'd do that," she commented as she lowered her hand, looking back at Chloe, who was sure she had a doubtful look on her face. "She wouldn't, you know that. But I'm just worried that she's going to be more…rude than she needs to be."
"Kate, that girl adores you. If you tell her to play it cool, she'll do it," Chloe responded confidently. Kate flushed a little, biting her lip as she looked back down. "Dude, I'm serious. I've known Vic for a long time - maybe not well," she added, throwing the arm closest to Kate across the back of the bench again. "You've got her wrapped around your finger."
"Yeah," Kate agreed quietly, almost inaudible.
Chloe turned to face her fully, frowning as she watched Kate continue to stare down at her sketch. "Is something going on? Everything okay with you two?"
Kate's head snapped up, frowning. "What? No, no, everything's fine, I didn't mean it like that." She gave a shrug as she tipped her sketch pad to retrieve her pencil from the binding, trying to get her fingers between the loops to knock it loose. "Vic can just be very protective, sometimes."
"Well, yeah, that much is obvious," she responded automatically, chuckling. Kate still had a rather down look on her face, and Chloe cleared her throat uncomfortably. "She just cares, a lot."
Kate nodded, eyes staring off into the distance again. "I know. And it's nice to feel so…wanted." Her voice wavered on the last word, a smile of disbelief briefly appearing on her face.
"But?"
Kate frowned as her eyes flicked over to Chloe's face. "Oh, no buts, not really."
"Buuuuut-"
"Chloe, I'm serious, everything's fine." A blush was starting to appear on Kate's face. She glanced at Chloe quickly, the corner of her mouth twitching. "I just…I never thought I'd feel like, like this, you know?"
"What, in love?"
Kate's face was turning a shade darker as she finally freed the pencil and sent it twirling to the ground. She quickly leaned forward to pick it back up, hiding her face with a raised shoulder. "Uh, I-I guess."
"Aww, Kate's in loooooove," Chloe sang, laughing when Kate gave her a little whack on the shoulder. "Hey, you got that from Victoria, the Kate I know would never hit me," she complained loudly, internally chuckling at the amused expression on her friend's face.
"Wait, Kate hit you?" Max's voice called out, and Chloe looked up to see her and Victoria starting to walk towards them.
"Knowing Chloe, she probably deserved it," Victoria shouted, a hand above her eyes to try to block the sun shining behind Kate and Chloe.
Chloe couldn't hold back the disgruntled gasp from escaping her lips. "I did not!" she shot back, fighting to keep from laughing as Kate giggled next to her. "You guys done already?"
Max nodded, now close enough to speak at a normal level. "Here, at least. Vic was talking about going to the aquarium still, if you guys are okay with it."
"Hell yeah! You know I always like to see the otters. Only thing in the world that might be cuter than you."
"Chloe," Max muttered uncomfortably, cheeks blushing as Victoria made gagging noises.
"Nope, you're still cuter than the otters."
"You two are gross," Victoria complained, throwing herself onto the bench next to Kate.
"I think it's sweet," Kate countered quickly, smiling. "And I'd agree that there are very few things cuter than otters in this world."
"Tell her she's cuter than an otter, it works wonders," Chloe stage whispered, laughing as Victoria whacked her hand, still resting on the back of the bench.