Chapter One

Max's POV

Monday, November 16th, 2013, 6:53am

After Chloe died I went on with my life. I mean, my world did stop spinning for a little while. About a month passed before I could really get myself back into the swing of things in a semi normal way. We had a temporary substitute in Jefferson's class since he got arrested, so my photography class was basically study hall for awhile. Needless to say, I had a hard time readjusting to normal life, along with the stuff that came along with it.

Things had changed quite a bit from the week I had experienced with Chloe before everything that happened. The police came, taking Nathan and I to the station for questioning. So the paint thing with Victoria didn't happen because I wasn't there. I spent most of that day being questioned by the police and them asking me if I need to see a therapist. I just told them that I would be fine. They let me go back to Blackwell that afternoon, even though they didn't believe me, there was nothing they could really do to keep me there.

Kate didn't try to kill herself because Victoria took down the video when she found out that Nathan drugged her and I went to talk to her right after I got back from the police station. She's been a lot happier since then.

As that week went on and as a month passed, I thought a lot about my powers. I had sworn never to use them again to prevent something like what happened with Chloe from ever happening again. It took some time, but I finally got used to thinking before I made my decisions again. That week helped me realize just how time meant and how every moment was important. So I let them pass away as they came, letting time flow the way it was meant to.

After that hellish week, Victoria had actually started being somewhat decent to me. Chloe being shot and Nathan getting arrested, she had almost acted like a completely different person. I had never denied my feelings for Victoria, even when I first discovered them. I had always known that denying how I felt about her wouldn't help me or anyone else. Instead, I just tried to ignore it as best as I could. If I never pursued it, then it would never affect anyone except for me and that's how things were supposed to be when it came to secretly crushing on the most powerful girl in the whole school. Not to mention the fact that she would never feel the same way about me. Even if she did, it would never go anywhere because, like I said, being the most powerful girl in Arcadia Bay was very important to her and hipster trash like me would mess up her reputation. Not to mention the fact that being gay wasn't exactly cool here.

In places like LA, being gay was accepted by most and was even considered to be a cool trait by certain people my own age and the younger generations. Unfortunately, Arcadia Bay hadn't exactly caught up yet. Don't get me wrong, there were people in same sex relationships here, but they were hidden and not very open about it. Before everything went to shit during that week, Chloe told me that her and Rachel had actually just started having sex and were going to run away to LA so that their relationship could be out in the open. So, as you can probably imagine, she was furious when she found out that Rachel had also been sleeping with Frank.

I had never met Rachel, but I knew that she never would've promised anything to Chloe unless she meant it. That's just something that someone like Rachel would never do. Plus, the thought made me angry and I had always told myself that being angry with the dead only made you miss them more. Then I'd just sit up all night wondering why Rachel didn't love Chloe enough to only be in a relationship with her, even though I knew that Rachel wouldn't have been in two relationships if she didn't really care about both of those people. Plus, it wasn't my place to judge, me practically being a murderer and almost ripping apart an entire city and all that.

It was early in the morning on a Monday, so all I wanted to do was slam my phone into the wall to turn off the alarm, but I got up to shower instead. Getting my shower stuff together and grabbing my pale blue towel, I walked out into the hall wearing a pair of striped shorts and a t shirt that said I Never Get Tired of Puns. I mean, it was true. That's why it was my pajama shirt. I could hear Kate playing her violin already. It was a soft, sad sort of sound that made my heart clench inside my chest, like it was trying to protect itself from the tears that it knew I would shed at the sound of Kate's own recovery.

I walked past her room and into the showers where I was surprised to see Victoria standing in front of a sink, brushing her teeth. She was sort of vulnerable looking with the brush in her mouth, white minty foam on her lips.

I wonder what kissing her would taste like after she just brushed her teeth, I wondered. Shaking my head to clear it, I pressed on and stepped into the closest shower, not waiting to see if she had looked at me or not. I took my shower and got dressed again, walking out to see Victoria still standing in front of the sink, but instead she was turned around, facing me as I walked out of the shower. I jumped a little, stopping in my tracks, suddenly very aware that I was in my pajamas and had just been entirely naked. Her dark green eyes were piercing into my mind like daggers, or alien probing devices, but she didn't have her usual sneer. She was just… Looking at me? Why was she looking at me like that?

I couldn't tell what she was thinking, so it just looked like an empty stare. It made my insides tie themselves up inside me and I wanted to run away, but I couldn't move. So I just stood there, staring back at her with red cheeks and burning ears. God, why was she looking at me like that?

"How are you?" she asked, crossing her right leg over her left one as she leaned back against the sink. I must have been thinking more than she had been staring at me because the way she was asked me sounded like she had just noticed me and hadn't been looking me over for the past eternity and a half.

"What?" I asked before I could think. Damnit, Max. You couldn't have something semi human sounding? Like thanks, I'm good or something like that? Victoria let out a sigh and ran her delicate fingers through her bright blond hair. It looked like it was damp from a shower she had taken earlier.

"I asked you how you were doing," she replied impatiently. "Like how you were feeling about all of the shit that happened." I paused, unsure of what to say next. I was curious as to why she was asking and felt more inclined to ask her than to answer her question. I decided to just do both instead.

"I'm alright," I lied a little. I was alright, better than I had been, but I still felt pretty shiity overall. "Why do you ask?" She let out a scoff and rolled her eyes, grinning just a little like I had asked her the stupidest question in the world.

"What, I can't be nice to nasty hipsters?" It sounded less like her usual insults and more like a joke. At least, that's what I thought, but one could never be sure of Victoria's intentions in these situations.

"It's just sort of out of character for you to be nice is all," I retorted, shifting my weight from one foot to another. I had my arms crossed over my chest, holding my towel and shower bag close to me. I almost used them like a shield to hide from her gaze. Almost like I was afraid that she would stab me in the heart with her eyes. Victoria just let out a sigh and shrugged.

"Maybe I'm trying to be nicer," she said softly, almost like she didn't want to say it. She wasn't looking at me anymore. She was acting like her nails were suddenly the most interesting things in the world. Her words caught me off guard. I had expected her to blow me off or start insulting me, but instead she actually admitted to trying to be nice to me. Not just some random student, but me, Max Caulfield, designated polaroid loving, hipster garbage of Arcadia Bay.

"Why?" Again, the word get away before I can catch it. It weighs in the air like a brick, falling to the ground as it was spoken. Victoria paused, still not looking at me. She shrugged again, almost like she was the one withering underneath someone's gaze now instead of me. I almost felt a sense of satisfaction from it, but I pushed it away, not wanting to spoil this rare moment. After a long pause, she looked up at me with a small but genuine smile.

"Because maybe I actually wanna be friends."