EVERYDAY HERO.

          After some thought, I’ve decided to move Max to my new multimuse, BYDESIIGN. I still have lots of muse for her, but being on choir tour made me realize that I want to dedicate less of my time to roleplay blogs. One vs. the 3-5 I normally have will make that much easier. There’s no hard feelings if you don’t follow; I know multimuses aren’t everyone’s cup of tea! I will be keeping all threads I have with mutuals who follow on the new blog.

    The  past  week  or  so  at  Blackwell  felt  surreal,  and  not  in  a  good  way.   It  hit  Victoria  hard,  watching  her  best  friend  and  her  idol  led  out  of  the  school  in  handcuffs,  as  well  as  the  murder  in  the  girls’  bathroom.   She  couldn’t  call  herself  close,  or  even  fond  of  Chloe,  but  the  death  contributed  just  as  much  to  the  heavy,  endless  silence  that  settled  over  the  school.   Even  the  dorms,  so  typically  abuzz  with  chatter,  fell  quiet,  save  for  the  mumbled  greetings  and  occasional  whispered  gossip.   Blackwell  never  truly  changed,  even  in  the  face  of  tragedy.

    With  classes  indefinitely  suspended,  Victoria  found  no  distraction  from  the  constant  dread  in  the  pit  of  her  stomach,  nor  the  emptiness  that  followed  when  she  instinctively  sent  a  text  to  Nathan  almost  every  night.   Victoria  took  to  late  night  drives  after  curfew  for  some  hint  of  a  mild  distraction,  even  if  it  meant  sleepless  nights.   She  was  used  to  those,  anyway.

     It  surprised  her,  getting  stopped  by  Max,  of  all  people,  on  the  way  out.   Max  surely  didn’t  have  any  reason  to  check  up  on  her.   Victoria  shut  her  door  behind  her  and  took  a  few  steps  out.    ❛   Why  do  you  care?   ❜    She  sighed.   It  bothered  her  that  Max  was  right.   Everyone  else  listened  too  well  when  she  asked  for  space.     ❛   …I’m  fine,  Max.   I  just  don’t  exactly  feel  like  being  here  right  now.   ❜

          ❝ Why wouldn’t I care? ❞ she countered softly.  ❝ Everyone is having a rough time right now. Whatever’s happened between us in the past doesn’t matter. ❞ Part of Max wished that she could use her knowledge of Victoria to her benefit, as she might have before. Her mistakes, however, were no longer so easily rectified. She’d given up the right to fix them when she’d left Chloe to die in the bathroom. She closed her eyes for a moment, trying to force the image from her mind. Letting out a breath, she blinked them back open.

           ❝ I don’t blame you for not wanting to be here, ❞ she added.  ❝ It’s too quiet . . . and kind of lonely. ❞ She’d done her best to stay in touch with Kate, Warren, and the few friends she had on campus, but it was hard. As much as Max adored them, the bonds she had with them were so different than what she’d had with Chloe. None of them could compare -- so was it fair to string them along, knowing she couldn’t be satisfied with their companionship? Or would her longing for her best friend eventually cease?

       “It would have been badass if we had.” Chloe missed those days. When everything was easier and everyone was still…there. But it seemed the world was a son of a bitch and everything fucking sucked. At least now Max was back. She wasn’t also lost to her. “They’ll never see us coming. Captain Bluebeard and Shiver Max Timber are going to fuck their shit up.” A hand moved to stretch behind her head as she lied down on her bed. She’d rather focus on the happier moments of that day rather than what had happened once her Mom had come home. Her smile grew a little sombre at the thought. 

     The question barely manages to pull Chloe’s attention away from the laptop resting on top of crossed legs as she laid on the couch with relaxed casualness, not even sparing a glance Max’s way as she responds. ❝ You gotta be a little more specific than that. ❞

     Sudden frantic movement coming from the table does manage to get her to crane her neck towards the source of the noise, sighing with a slight shake of her head. ❝ No way it’s gone, Max. ❞ Shifting upwards into a sitting position, she offers Max a sympathetic grin that is hopefully soothing enough to ease her probably needless worry.  ❝ It’s not on the shelf? Or – wait, did you leave it on the laundry chair again and forgot all about it, and now it’s buried in stinky clothes? ❞

    ❝ Chloe . . . ❞ she whined, the plaintive sound devolving into quiet laughter after a moment. Max could always count on Chloe to find a way to lighten the mood.  ❝ It’s not on the shelf, but you might be right about the dirty laundry. ❞ Looking thoughtful, she disappeared down the hallway, returning once she’d finished digging through their clothes. “Nothing but grungy t-shirts. We seriously need to take a trip to the laundromat.” Shoulders slumping, she glanced around the room.

The polite smile was dropped the second Max called Nathan ‘unhinged’. She was actively trying to get Nathan help, but when the entire school was more concerned with the Prescott reputation than they were with Nathan’s mental health, it was more than just hard. It was nearly impossible. Not that she’d tell Max Caulfield that.

“How about you don’t assume what conversations I have or have not had with my boyfriend, okay Max?” Cassie returned Max’s look. The feeling of annoyance was wholly mutual. “I love Nathan more than just about anything, but don’t think that makes me ignorant. Now I’m not asking you, I’m telling you that you and Warren need to leave him alone.”

      Max’s anger threatened to bubble up and overwhelm her. This was the last conversation she needed atop of her already crazy day. The Max Caulfield from a week ago would have been much more sympathetic to Cassie’s plight, but she was not that girl right now.  “I’m telling you that I didn’t want anything to do with him to begin with, and neither did Warren. Nathan found us in the parking lot, and he started the fight!” And it was scary.

      She rose from her seat, looping her bag over her head so it rested securely upon her shoulder. Hands on her hips, Max fixated her fiery blue gaze on Cassie. “You pinning what happened yesterday on me doesn’t help anyone, especially not Nathan.” She shot a glance towards the parking lot, hoping to catch sight of Chloe waiting for her there.

@timewinded + chloe

    “So, what’s next for MAX CAUFIELD? Now that you’re done trying to save the world?” Chloe looked over at her with a smirk. “Not everyone gets to use time travelling powers to kick ass, save people and weirdly know what I’m going to do, which is totally cheating.”