Chapter Text
"So, like, are you ever gonna just text me then?"
"I can't," Max replied, five minutes later. "I just can't."
"Why ever the fuck not?" Chloe texted back, twenty seconds later.
"Because I'll lose my scholarship! We've been over this already, Chloe, and I don't know if I can deal with going over it again. Please."
"You'll lose your scholarship according to who? Wells? Blackhell? Come on, I know a little bit about infosec and I seriously, seriously doubt that they have the ability to spy on our text messages. Stop being so afraid to live your life, Max!"
"Wait?"
"Wait what?"
"Wait, really?"
"Yep. Really."
"Shit," Max said, three minutes later, "and I am already back home with my parents for the summer. Goddamnit I am sorry Chloe, I should have texted."
"Yep, you should have."
"I'm a dumbass, aren't I?"
"Yep," Chloe replied, "a bit. But you're my dumbass, and at least we're texting again. So, got any hot plans for this summer?"
***
On Monday Max sat in class, as Jefferson reviewed his photography equipment, and talked about lighting, and how to get the most possible out of a subject.
"You really, really need to make sure you have your full attention on the subject," he said, walking between the circle of desks around him. "We aren't wildlife photographers, or paparazzi, or spies after all, with some extreme long-distance lens. And unfortunately that normally means talking to people, and getting their consent. So make sure you get out of your shells, if you want to take pictures of people. It's a skill a lot of photographers ignore, but actually talking to people is really, really important."
Max took notes, and tried to ignore Victoria sitting on the other side of the room, staring at her.
***
"Now, tell me," Jefferson said, asking the question to everyone, in his Wednesday class, "what might be a good way of getting a picture of someone without their knowledge, especially in light of what we talked about on Monday?"
"I don't understand," Alyssa replied, frowning, "I thought you said on Monday that we needed to talk to our subjects."
"It's an open ended question, Alyssa," Jefferson said, his head in his hand. "I'm not looking for a specific answer, I am just asking all of you to engage the question in a thoughtful, meaningful way. I would have thought that that was clear from context."
"Well," Victoria, said, glancing over at Max as she spoke, "if I were to do it I would ask for their consent for a period of time. Like, maybe to follow them through the day and take pictures. Then I could get when when they weren't so aware of me being there."
"Exactly," Jefferson replied, with a big smile, "thank you, Victoria. Keen answer, as always."
Victoria glanced over at Max, who buried her face in her notes.
***
During Friday's class Max did not even look up from her notes, as Jefferson talked on and on about lighting, and how to pose subjects. She ignored his normal sarcastic side comments, and stories about his own many, many shoots. She knew that Victoria was over there, looking at her. She knew that the short-haired blonde would be smirking at her. And she knew that if she looked up and saw Victoria she would be unable think about anything except for the dinner the two had planned together, for that evening.
She almost ran out of the class, when it was done.
***
"So, anything you miss about Blackhell?" Chloe texted.
"I mean, it's a week into the summer," Max texted back. "I'm going back to it in the fall. And it's not like you're there, for me to miss you."
"Awww you do miss me. Adorable. But what about Warren? Victoria? Oooh? Have a soft spot for the ice queen?"
"Chloe, stop."
"Heh, I hit a nerve there, didn't I?"
"Chloe!"
"Max and Vic...Max and Tori...damn why does her name have to be that long? I am trying to embarrass you."
"I swear."
"Oh, come on, you miss me, dork. And you miss getting teased."
"Shut up."
"Is that a yes?"
"It's not a no."
"Ha, I knew it."
***
Max looked at the clothes in her closet, and felt the heat rise in her face. What did people even wear to dinners? What was she supposed to wear? She did not know. She should have bought more girl clothes already, right? Or fancier clothes. No, she thought. Who was she kidding. She could afford nothing more. She pulled out her best pair of jeans, the ones that had avoided most of cleaning chemicals, and grabbed the now familiar yellow hoodie, the one she had worn so, so many times since Chloe had given it to her, months ago.
She got dressed, and looked at herself in the mirror. She had been on hormones for over a year now, and had even got her dose raised. Her hair was growing out further and further, and her freckles were still there. But she did not like herself. She walked out of the dorm, and out to front of the building, where the road passed by it, waiting for Victoria. She did not have to wait long, although the vehicle that rolled up to her was not one she expected.
"Are you getting in or not, sad girl?"
"Oh, uh, right," Max replies, after a moment, as she consciously forced her mouth to close, looking at the blonde yelling at her from the huge, shining, new Ford, "on my way."
"I swear," Victoria Chase complained, as Max climbed up, into her truck, and slammed the door shut, "if you say anything about the truck I am going to never talk to you again."
"I won't," Max said, hurriedly, looking down at her hands.
There was a moment of silence, between them, as Victoria guided the enormous truck off campus. And then, suddenly, she was speaking.
"My dad made his wealth in fracking. He got me the truck when I went to Blackwell. He loves them, but I hate it."
"I wasn't asking about it!"
"Yeah," Victoria said, the eye roll audible in only her tone, "but you were thinking it."
"Listen, Victoria," Max said, trying to channel Chloe, as she looked up at the rich girl, "I know we aren't friends, or whatever. Like, maybe we could be, in another life, but I don't know if we are or ever will be in this life. So now that you finally have me to yourself will you please just tell me what is going on?"
"I don't want to be friends."
"What?"
"I don't want to be friends," Victoria replied coolly. "I am not doing this for you. I am taking you out to this dinner as a favor to someone else. I am trying to get in the good graces of someone else, not you Max."
"Wait, what? Who?"
"I'll tell you later, just sit still, and wait until we get there."
***
"Hey, Max!"
"Hey, Katie," Max replied, ten minutes later, "sorry, I was texting Chloe."
"Heh, funny about that. I wanted to ask you about her."
"Oh? What do you mean?"
"So," Kate texted back, thirty seconds later, "you and her are talking right? You talked over the summer?"
"Yep."
"Right, cool, because Blackwell couldn't really effectively monitor your phones, although if you're seen together then you get in trouble."
"Yep, where is this going Kate?"
"Right, so, like, are you too together?"
"Kate!" Max texted back, twenty minutes later.
"What! We've been texting all summer about my crush on Victoria, and coming out. I saw how you too were acting."
"We kissed."
"Ooh la la."
"Nothing more though! We aren't together! Why are you asking?"
"No reason, don't worry about it, Max."
***
The restaurant was fancy, but less so than Max had feared. It was less fine, European dining than rich, expensive American food. There were other people in jeans and hoodies, scattered across the
restaurant, despite Victoria in her tight pants, and button up. Instead Max found herself worrying about her dysphoria again. What did she look like to these people, she wondered, as she sat, and
a waiter poured water in front of her. Did she look like a woman? Or some reject, anxious wreck of boy, hiding in her hoodie.
She did not belong here.
"Pick whatever you want on the menu," Victoria said, looking at herself, and not bothering to glance across the table at Max, "I can pay for it."
"Oh, okay," Max said, unable to stop looking at all the prices displayed there.
"Where are they?"
"Where are who?" Max asked, looking up, at Victoria.
"Oh, thank god, I thought we were actually going to have that conversation go further. There they are."
Max followed her eyes, towards the door, looking for what she was looking at. And there she saw them, both, for the first time in person since last semester. They were both walking through the doorway of the restaurant, arm in arm, with smiles on both faces. It was Chloe and Kate.
Kate was dressed so much different than she had been last time Max had seen her in the hospital, in a sundress, showing her legs, and a smile on her face. But while Chloe was wearing nice jeans, and a vest over a t-shirt, she still looked so much the same as the first time Max had seen her in person, after their years of talking together online. She was grinning, a long tattoo along her arm, and her hair chopped short, and dyed blue. And as Max watched Chloe moved her arm around Kate's shoulder, and kissed her on her temple, as the shorter girl grinned.