Chapter Text
“Oh. You,” Victoria said as she answered the door, glowering as she recognised the miscreant that had washed up on her doorstep. “What are *you* doing here?”
Chloe cheerfully grinned at her. “Where else am I going to stay for the big ten year Blackwell reunion?” she said as she pushed past Victoria to dump her bulging bag on the couch.
“You do realise I have a spare room now. With a bed even,” Victoria said sourly.
“Yeah, but why change a tradition?” Chloe asked.
“So I only have to wash some sheets as opposed to having my couch shampooed afterwards?” Victoria asked rhetorically.
Chloe just smirked at her.
“Homeless tramp,” Victoria muttered.
“Uptight bitch,” Chloe returned.
“Anyway, *some* of us have responsibilities. Like making sure everything is sorted out for tonight.” Victoria paused, sneering back at Chloe, who had fished inside her bag and retrieved a laptop, the only new looking thing of Chloe’s that Victoria had ever seen. “Have you somehow managed to avoid losing that house key of mine you filched? Haven’t deleted the wifi password?”
“Check and check,” Chloe said, already typing on her laptop, before looking up at Victoria briefly. “Don’t worry your pretty little head. I’ll be fine until R-hour.”
Victoria rolled her eyes and collected her things. “Just because some of us aren’t mannerless animals,” she said sweetly before closing the door on whatever reply Chloe was doubtless slinging at her.
Well that was at least one of the alumni that hadn’t bothered replying who had at least a fairish chance of turning up tonight. One that she might not totally hate making an appearance.
If only she could say the same for all of the rest.
* * * * *
“What do you mean, one of your servers has come down with a bug and you don’t have a replacement?” Victoria tried for icy disdain but internally winced a little as her voice cracked in frustration. This wasn’t even the first problem she’d run up against this afternoon. Despite having repeatedly chased all the suppliers up over the last few weeks, two had somehow managed to lose their way to the school and one was still missing in action.
This was simply the last thing she needed.
The man in front of her shrugged, smiling oafishly. “Can’t have her around food or drink when she’s like this and no one else is available to cover. What can you do?”
And this was why she hated Arcadia Bay, despite - or possibly because - she lived locally. Because if there was only one company locally capable of handling her needs, what, indeed, was she going to do?
“Fine,” she bit off. “But I do hope you’re expecting a suitably reduced fee.”
He hesitated a bit before nodding, but whatever he was going to say was cut off by the ringing of her phone. Probably for the good of her blood pressure and his continued good health. With any luck, it’d be her last supplier.
It wasn’t.
“Nathan?” she asked as she answered the phone, voice falling solicitously, waving the man off as she walked away to get some quiet.
“Hey, Vicky,” he said, overly bright, overly bold in that way of his that practically screamed his mood to the world. To anyone who really listened.
To her, at least.
She knew what was coming even before he continued, practically mouthed the words as he said, “I’m sorry. I don’t think I’m going to make it tonight.”
“That’s alright,” she said softly. Her stomach couldn’t help falling slightly, despite her words.
It would have been nice to have him here, supporting each other even as they fell apart.
Just like the old days.
“It’s just… I’m in a good place at the moment.” He laughed, a little jaggedly. “Or at least an okay one. But being around all our classmates again, remembering what it was like back then… It just feels like a step backwards, you know?”
“I understand,” she said, and she did. Even if it felt like sometimes she had to step backwards before she could go forwards again. “You’ve got to look after yourself first.” She paused, feeling like she had to say something more. “I’ll try and fly out to you sometime soon, so we can catch up properly, okay?”
“Yeah,” he said. “Yeah, that sounds good.” He even sounded like he meant it.
“Take care,” she said and rang off, before focussing her attention again on the unfortunate man in front of her. “Now, how are you planning to make sure that there aren’t going to be any further problems with the service…”
* * * * *
“What a surprise to see you here,” Brooke sniped as she stopped by the table to pick up her ID. “I’m shocked that you didn’t get one of your former minions to do it for you.”
Victoria pushed down her initial response, pressing her lips together in what she hoped passed for a smile. It wasn’t as though she didn’t have it coming, she supposed. But that didn’t make it any easier to swallow. “Brooke,” she said. “You’re looking good.”
It wasn’t… completely a lie, even if it wasn’t exactly completely true either. Brooke certainly exuded enough confidence in her own skin. She looked at Victoria skeptically for a moment before shrugging. “Whatever,” she said and took her ID from the table - the picture the best one Victoria could find from her stack of photos from back in the day - and wandered off, flipping it between her fingers.
Well, that could have gone better, Victoria thought. Though it could also have gone worse, she supposed. And she had never thought that this would be easy.
She couldn’t help tensing as she saw the next person approaching the table.
“Kate,” is what she could manage by way of greeting.
If Brooke had seemed confident in her own skin, Kate seemed to practically own the room, even with curls of hair escaping their arrangement. She was already looking past the table, smiling a greeting towards someone already there. Her expression dimmed as she looked towards Victoria.
“Victoria,” she said neutrally. “You’re looking well.”
Victoria’s throat closed up. What could she say? “I…” she started, then noticed Juliet walking up behind Kate. “Can I catch up with you later?”
Kate tilted her head, studying her for a moment before her smile became a bit more genuine. “Well, I’ll be here all evening, if you want to find me.”
Her phone went. It was her mother. Victoria ignored it as Kate disappeared into the room. The last thing she needed right now was another dose of parental disappointment.
She smiled perfunctorily at Juliet, made the appropriate small talk - teacher in Seattle - then Trevor - sales clerk, Olympia - then Logan - plumber, Lincoln City. She’d just finishing very carefully not mentioning how much weight Logan had put on in the last ten years, when she caught sight of an angular figure in an immaculate suit out of the corner of her eye. It took for a moment for their identity to register.
“Chloe?” she said, choking a little.
Chloe smirked at her. “What? I did tell you I’d be coming.”
Victoria managed to bring her expression under control. “And just because you say you’ll be somewhere I’m supposed to expect that you’ll turn up now?” she asked, finding refuge in sarcasm. “Let alone turning up in something like that,” she said, gesturing at the suit. “I wasn’t aware that you even owned anything apart from moth eaten t-shirts and ratty jeans.”
If anything, Chloe’s smirk widened. “Carry it off well, don’t I?”
Victoria refused to give an honest reply to that because the answer was *yes*, dammit. Victoria had never denied - to herself - that from the time Chloe had come back into her life, she had possessed a crude animal appeal. But she’d never really thought of her as hot.
Until now.
*Dammit.*
“You wear it like you’re a chimp in one of those old adverts,” was what she actually said, of course.
“I’m hurt, Chase. Mortally wounded here.” Chloe paused a moment. “Has, y’know, anyone arrived?” she asked, eyes skidding away from Victoria’s, her tone lacking its usual swagger, halfway between hopeful and nervous.
Victoria didn’t have to ask who ‘anyone’ was. The very people who Victoria would like to see least. The success stories of their class. The people who Chloe had very specifically never brought up since they’d reconnected. “No,” she said.
Chloe’s face shuttered. “Yeah? Thought as much. I guess I’ll just be over here livening the place up. Feel free to join me when you get tired of being stuck behind that table. If you think you can handle the pace.”
Victoria rolled her eyes epically at her. “You really think I can’t handle anything your stoner ass can’t throw at me? Now, go,” she said, waving a hand peremptorily in her direction. “I have former classmates who actually finished their time here arriving.”
Chloe gave her a sarcastic little wave before heading off into the crowd. Victoria dealt with the new attendees whilst casting occasional glances towards Chloe, because *damn* that suit was unfair. She was distracted enough that her first warning of the latest arrival was a slightly awkward “Hey.”
Victoria spun around to see Max slouching awkwardly in front of the table, hand half raised in greeting.
Oh. Great.
“I’m surprised you found time to come back in between jetting around the world,” she snapped then closed her mouth with an effort. It wasn’t Max’s fault that things between them had gone that wrong during their last year at Blackwell.
Completely.
It wasn’t completely Max’s fault. After all, Victoria had been such a bitch, a slut, a cow, an all round shit back then - could Max really be blamed when she hadn’t realised that Victoria had been genuinely reaching out after the shitshow that had been Chloe and Rachel fucking off for parts unknown, on far from the best of terms.
Hadn’t been completely Max’s fault that she’d completely fucked what Victoria had actually tentatively hoped might be-
And then, just to add insult to injury, she’d actually managed to achieve their mutual dream of becoming a successful, verging on famous, photographer, whilst all Victoria had managed was washing up here.
But it wasn’t Max’s fault. Not really. And it had been ten years since they’d seen each other. Plastering something that probably resembled a smile upon her lips, she said, “I’m sorry. Let me try that again. It’s a pleasure to see you again. Here, have your ID, though I imagine you’ll hardly need it.”
Max took the proffered badge, rubbing the back of her head with her other hand whilst she smiled uncomfortably at Victoria. “It’s nice to see you too. Look, I know it’s probably way past late to do this, but I really want to apologise for how I treated you back then. I was just so messed up back then, that I…” she shrugged. “I couldn’t believe in myself, let alone that anyone might actually want me.”
She was so awkward, so blunt that Victoria couldn’t help but believe her. And who hadn’t been fucked up back then? Certainly not her. She felt a knot of anger that she hadn’t even realised that she was still carrying start to dissolve.
Fuck it. What was the point of worrying about it still? She sharpened her smile to something bitchy, something the old Victoria might have worn, and covered her mouth in faux shock. “Max? Apologising to me? Aren’t you going to take a selfie to commemorate the moment?”
Max looked at her blankly for a moment before starting to snort. “You- I-“ She started laughing properly, almost bending over in half and - for a moment - Victoria was reminded of why she’d been attracted to her way back when. She could be so dorkily open in a way that Victoria could never have even imagined being. When she straightened, she was far more relaxed than she’d been when Victoria had first caught sight of her.
“Thanks,” she said. “I needed that.” Victoria rolled her eyes. As if *that* hadn’t been obvious. “Sadly,” she continued, “I seem to have left my camera in my other suit.”
“As if that rumpled mess could really be called a suit,” Victoria said. Honestly. It looked like Max had been sleeping in it. She smirked at her. “But if you’re that hard up, I do have a camera back here.”
“Seriously?” Max quirked an eyebrow.
“For old times sake. Not to mention the ‘honour’ of having a genuine selfie apology from the great Max Caulfield gracing my camera.” She handed it over. “And,” she added before she lost her courage, “I’m sorry that I was,” such a bitch, a cow, a shit, “the kind of person back then who you wouldn’t think was being genuine in that way.”
Max flashed her a genuine smile before mocking an exaggerated look of contrition for camera. A click and a flash later, she handed the camera back.
“Now,” Victoria said. “As much as I’m sure your dorky conversation skills could no doubt enrapture me for the rest of the night, doubtless there are other people you’d like to catch up with as well.” She looked significantly in the direction of Chloe.
She was fairly certain that Chloe’d kill her if she didn’t.
Max followed her eyes and flushed. “Maybe, ah, I’ll work up to that one,” she said, but wandered off into the room regardless.
She kept an eye on them in between dealing with late arrivals. It took about five minutes or so, but Chloe clearly telegraphed the moment when she spotted that Max had entered the room. And yet neither of them actually approached the other, just each just sending a series of ridiculous little glances towards the other. She wasn’t exactly sure what had happened in the run-up to Chloe fucking off, but they both needed to get the hell over themselves and deal with it. If she had to go over there and drag one over to the other, she swore that she was never going to let Chloe live it down.
She was in fact in the middle of getting up to do just that - it was late enough that anyone who hadn’t arrived yet could quite frankly fuck themselves - when one last arrival walked into view.
Rachel Amber.
For a moment Victoria felt like she couldn’t breathe, until the adrenaline hit her like a kick to the head. Fight. Flight. *Something.*
She knew what she would have chosen when she was younger, what she *had* chosen repeatedly.
But she was better now. Older. More in control of things.
She was.
After one breath, two, three, four, she even started to believe it herself. Hadn’t said anything, of course, or even let her expression change, but wasn’t that a victory in and of itself?
It was ten years later, and there was no way she was still bound up in all the old bullshit.
“Victoria,” Rachel said when she finally reached the table after what seemed like a lifetime. Victoria could almost feel her eyes travelling over her body, half making her want to rip them out with her fingernails, half… another reaction entirely.
But she was past this. She was.
“Rachel,” she managed. “Surprised to see you here.” Especially because Victoria had somehow ‘lost’ her invitation rather than sending it out.
“Mmmm,” Rachel said, gaze dropping to the table, eyes running over whose badges were still there… and whose weren’t. Victoria made no effort to move - wasn’t entirely sure that she could - as she reached across the table to pick up her badge. As she turned to look into the room contemplatively, Victoria felt like a great pressure had been lifted from her.
Fucking Rachel Amber. Of course *she* had to turn up, like a bad penny, a horrific nightmare, looking like an idle dream.
Then Rachel looked back at her. Victoria only just managed to stop herself from stiffening again.
“Before I forget,” she said, opening up her handbag, flicking through it to finally withdraw an envelope with Victoria’s name written on it. “I wanted to give you this.”
Victoria numbly took the proffered envelope, opened it up to reveal… money.
“What-?” she started, unable to even start to follow where this was coming from.
“It’s what I owe you,” Rachel said, quietly, intensely. “And a bit more besides.”
And, finally, *there* was the anger. “You think this changes *anything*?” Victoria hissed. “If I’d wanted money from you, I’d have cashed the cheques you sent me. Repeatedly.” It was almost like an out of body experience, listening to her mouth move without her volition. “I don’t want your slutastic money you got from whoring your body out to the public.” It was like eighteen-year-old Victoria had possessed her body all over again.
Rachel’s face was a mask. If Victoria’s words meant anything - anything at all - to her, it didn’t show. “Then do whatever you want with it. As long as you take it, as long as — as far as I’m concerned — things are square between us, I really don’t give a damn.”
It was the total lack of engagement that finally snapped Victoria out of it. All of a sudden, she couldn’t wait to be somewhere else - anywhere else. “Fine,” she bit out, hands crumpling the envelope like it was Rachel’s neck. “I hope you enjoy your evening,” she said in the most utterly poisonous tone she could manage, before she stormed off to get some air.
*Fucking* Rachel Amber.