#avedonxsque

i. MONEY CAN’T BUY YOU HAPPINESS.

“Uh… Are you sure?” Max peers into the gift bag that, in itself, screams EXPENSIVE. She hadn’t expected Victoria to actually buy her anything, and a part of her is reluctant to accept it. It’s not that she doesn’t appreciate the gesture, but how can she accept something so extravagant? She’d probably just ruin it, anyway.“No. I just bought this for you because I wasn’t sure.” The sarcasm is almost enough to make Max cringe and Victoria sighs. There’s a pause that follows, and Victoria is staring at Max expectantly. “Would you just– try it on, Caulfield.”There’s more hesitation before Max finally reaches into the bag, pulling out the soft, royal purple, cashmere cardigan. It’s not really her style, and probably more expensive than everything she has in her closet combined. If anything, this is more Victoria’s style– well, obviously, since she’s the one who bought it, but could Max really pull it off? She wasn’t so sure… ‘Hipster Chic’–if she could even call her wardrobe that–was one thing, but ‘rich girl’? She couldn’t give off that kind of impression even if her life depended on it.She can practically feel Victoria’s stare on her, boring holes into her skin, and it’s enough incentive to prompt her to slip her hoodie off and slowly slip the new garment on. She’s almost scared to look at her reflection then– afraid to see how ridiculous she must look. But, when she finally brings herself to look into the mirror at her reflection, all she can do is stare, taking in her appearance.In all truthfulness, she doesn’t look nearly as bad as she feared. In fact, the cardigan somehow manages to hug her subtle curves in a way that her hoodie never could. She’s pretty sure that it makes her look like a totally different person and she’s awestruck. Maybe she could pull this off after all…Unable to keep a smile from forming on her lips, Max glances over at Victoria, silently awaiting her feedback. When she sees the slowly ebbing smirk that aligns Victoria’s lips, she takes it as a good sign.“Not bad, Caulfield,” she remarks, crossing her arms over her chest. “Now, if we could just change the rest of your wardrobe, you may just be able to pass for someone who actually has fashion sense.”“Hey,” Max is still smiling, but rolls her eyes anyway, “There’s nothing wrong with my clothes!”Still, if Victoria could manage to find her more clothes that would look this good on her, she wouldn’t be opposed to it.Money might not have been able to buy you love or happiness, but it was definitely a start in the right direction.

ii. TENSION.

It was bound to happen sooner or later… After all, happiness couldn’t last forever, right? Things had just been too perfect, and perfect Victoria with her perfect face, and her perfect hair, and her perfect clothes, and her damn near perfect everything, started giving off strange vibes. They were friends now– or at least, Max liked to believe that they were, but once Victoria started acting weird, she called her out on it… And that’s when she realized that it definitely wasn’t the smartest thing she could’ve done.Victoria had her cornered and pinned against the wall, towering above her. Max’s heart leapt to her throat, and between between being frozen in place and paranoid that any girls in their dorm could enter at any moment and catch them in this position, Max’s gaze kept flickering past Victoria’s shoulder and down the dormitory hall.Her mouth felt dry, and she wasn’t sure if she should be scared or not. Victoria’s dark gaze certainly didn’t help her any, and she could only chew the inside of her cheek.“U-uh–” she finally attempts to speak up, her voice cracking, “Look, Victoria, I didn’t mean anything by it, I just–”… No way. No way is Victoria Chase kissing her right now. There’s no way in hell. If you’d asked her just last week if she thought such a thing could ever be possible, she would’ve laughed in your face and told you how absolutely ridiculous such an idea would be. Not that she was opposed to the idea or anything, but it just wasn’t plausible… Well, she’d thought so… until now. Victoria’s lips are warm against her own, and she freezes up for far too long as the dawning realization winds up slapping her straight in the face: She’s about ninety-eight percent sure that she’s falling for Miss Queen Bee, Victoria Chase.

iii. SCAREDY-CAT.

When Max had first suggested the idea of a horror-movie marathon Halloween night, she had no idea that Victoria hated horror films. How could she possibly know when Vic put up such a believable front? In all honesty, she half-expected for Victoria to try to drag her out to one of many Halloween parties–lord knows how the Vortex Club was probably missing their precious queen bee right now–and yet, here they were, curled up on Victoria’s couch and watching a stereotypical 90′s slasher film on her ‘tasty’ plasma screen.A bowl of buttery popcorn sat wedged between them, and Max was so busy shoveling the fatty food into her mouth and so engrossed in what was happening in the movie, she had no idea that Victoria was one jump-scare away from freaking the fuck out, turning the entire movie off, and calling it a night.And sure enough, the girl stupid enough to wander off on her own got attacked, loud, dramatic music flaring up, and making Victoria nearly jump out of her skin. She’d done a good job up to this point disguising her fear– keeping it hidden, but with the popcorn flying off the couch and Max hitting her head on the armrest due to the extra weight of Victoria barreling into her, it was quite obvious to her that Victoria was scared shitless.“Ugh– what the fuck, Victoria?” she groaned, pretty sure that she was seeing stars flashing before her eyes.Vic pauses the movie mid-scream, right before the lone girl is killed, and the stilled image on the TV is only slightly disturbing.“Let’s watch something else,” she suggests, removing herself from Max, and watching the brunette slowly sit back up, before gawking.“What? We can’t do that! It’s just starting to get to the best part!” Max protests, frowning. “I thought you said you liked scary movies.”“I said I could watch them,” Victoria defended, “Not that I like them… And I don’t like this movie.”“Oh yeah, I totally couldn’t tell from the way you nearly killed me just now,” Max scoffs lightly, and rolls her eyes at the way Victoria’s face pinches up at her.“Okay, fine. What do you wanna watch?” she asks, watching as Victoria gets up and moves over to sift through her various DVDs.As ridiculous as it might’ve been for Victoria to torture herself by trying to sit through all of that, Max also couldn’t help but find it just the tiniest bit endearing and it just made her love her more.

iv. SLEEPOVERS IN MY BED.

They sometimes sneak into each others dorms and sleep next to each other. It was a surprise the first couple of times when Max would be stirred awake by Victoria sneaking into her room and crawling into bed with her, but after a while, she eventually got into the habit as well.It was always nice to cuddle, and the added warmth on cold autumn nights was never not appreciated. Besides, Victoria always looked adorable when she was sleeping and it was a softer, more innocent side of her that Max didn’t think she’d ever seen before.In a way, it brought them closer together, and Max might even dare to say that it strengthened their relationship. And even though she’d lost count of all the mornings she’d wake up shivering because Victoria was hogging all the blankets, she knew she still loved their moments like this.

v. “I LOVE YOU.”