Every goddamn day.

It was the most pathetic thing Victoria had ever seen.

And she had seen a lot of pathetic things in her life.

Every goddamn day she’d close her locker and make her way to her second period class.

Every goddamn day she’d make her way through the hallways alone, since her sycophantic friends were on the other side of the school, right now.

Every goddamn day she’d walk past the class that Max and her gang of imbeciles just finished.

And every goddamn day she’d see Warren trying to ask Max out.

That, however, wasn’t the infuriating part.

It was Chloe.

Chloe would always be right by Max, trying to stare Warren down the entire time, but he just never got the fucking clue, and neither did Max, apparently.

Courtney told her once that Max was fucking surprised, somehow, that Warren was into her.

Everyone could fucking see it.

And everyone could fucking see the way Chloe looked at Max like a kicked puppy dog that finally found someone to pet it instead.

Every goddamn day.

It was the most pathetic thing Victoria had ever seen.

One day, mercurially, Victoria decided to intervene.

She might actually pop a vein if she saw Max make up another lame excuse and Chloe fail to work up the goddamn nerve to ask the person she had the most obvious crush on out.

“So it’s like hey yeah, we could just go somewhere fun for a little bit – no pressure of course or anything – and it’d just be like a fun time, y’know?”

Victoria pulled up beside the three of them.

Chloe spared her a look for a few seconds.

Chloe and Victoria were not on good terms, but this wasn’t a fucking favor to Chloe or Max.

This was for her own goddamn sanity.

Max noticed her second, and smiled politely, or at least, as much as she could, given the circumstance.

Warren noticed her last, and only begrudgingly acknowledged her existence.

Victoria stared at him.

And said fucking nothing.

Eventually, the presence of her gaze was enough that he felt uncomfortable, and turned from Max to face her.

Mostly because Max hadn’t looked away from her since and stopped contributing to the conversation.

“Um … hi? Victoria? What’s the u-uh … occasion?”

Useless idiot #1 couldn’t even get a word out without stammering.

She could have easily crushed him, right now, with how much of an ineffectual buffoon he was being to Max, when she obviously couldn’t take a hint.

But.

She was trying to be nice.

Victoria cracked her neck and briefly looked around, before back to Warren.

“Nathan’s pissed off and looking for someone to wail on. I wouldn’t be hanging around here right now.”

Warren frowned, then laughed nervously.

“You’re right. I wouldn’t want to be around here.”

Chloe’s frown faltered somewhat, but she just crossed her arms.

Max blinked a few times, and hugged her books tighter to her chest.

Quiet.

“So … beat it. Before he comes?”

Warren blinked, looked to Max, back to Victoria, and nodded.

“Ah, y-yeah, I guess that’d probably be a good idea.”

He looked to Max and smiled wide.

“Later dude. Don’t forget to check out that movie and be on in time for the raid tonight.”

Victoria burned holes into his head with her eyes until he finally got out of the fucking way.

She watched him go.

When he was out of earshot, she took his place in front of Max, and cleared her throat.

Despite their relationship not being particularly good either, useless idiot #2 looked up to Victoria and smiled pleasantly.

“Um. Thanks, Victoria. I don’t like it when those two get into fights …”

Victoria just huffed and shook her head.

Her arms were crossed, of course, and she was standing in her trademark power pose.

“I didn’t do it for their sake. I just don’t want to have to deal with a pissed-off Nathan all afternoon.”

It was, actually, a lie – Nathan wasn’t even here today.

But Victoria was pretty good at lying, anyway.

Max just nodded slowly, though her smile did falter somewhat at the rebuttal of her gratitude.

Quiet.

Victoria wasn’t helping in making the silence less awkward.

Eventually, she just closed her eyes and breathed in.

“Max. Are you doing anything tonight?”

When she opened her eyes, both Max and Chloe had a completely broken look of shock on their face.

Max rarely looked surprised.

Chloe often did, but it was no less amusing to break her like that.

Still, surprising them wasn’t the point, and when Max couldn’t form a response, Victoria just groaned and separated one of her hands from being crossed to just twirl the finger around in a circle impatiently.

“Any day now, lamefield.”

Max blinked again, and again, but then cleared her throat.

“Um. W-well. Warren wanted to play a game tonight and ---“

Victoria grunted.

“Cancel it.”

Max blinked again.

Chloe still hadn’t recovered from her shock.

It was actually kind of funny by now, but Victoria was focused on her objective, and couldn’t dwell on it.

Max’s face slowly became troubled as she processed what Victoria was requesting out of her.

“What? I can’t just ---“

Victoria took a step closer to the two.

Max’s breathing hitched.

Victoria reached out.

Max blinked about a billion times –

Victoria grabbed Chloe’s hand, and in her stupor, useless idiot #3 couldn’t help but to have her hand dragged onto Max’s shoulder.

Then, Victoria pulled away and groaned painfully, like if someone had just punched her in the gut, or something.

She raised a hand to rub at her own temples.

Useless idiots two and three remained frozen in place, incapable of processing Victoria’s decisive movements.

Or something.

“Do it anyway. He’s trying to get into your pants, idiot. That’s all men ever want.”

Max eventually had a frown, but sighed.

Victoria noticed that Max didn’t reject Chloe’s hand on her shoulder, and Chloe got closer after she accepted that this was going to be a thing.

“Warren’s not like that. He’s just …”

Max looked away, and frowned some more, before looking back to Victoria.

“He’s, um, he has boundary issues. He means well.”

Victoria rolled her eyes.

She did notice that the intimacy between the two of them was so natural that Max was basically talking like normal, and Chloe fucking finally recovered from her shock to give Victoria a glare.

But it wasn’t as harsh this time.

More thoughtful.

A bit less spiteful.

It was something.

Whatever.

“Trust me. Cancel whatever you’re doing and go out with Chloe instead.”

Quiet.

Both of them looked quite surprised again, and Victoria had to try very hard to suppress the amusement she had from making Chloe look like someone had just shot someone or something.

She couldn’t let people see her emotions, after all.

“I – um – I – With – um …”

Max looked to Chloe, but Chloe absolutely could not meet Max’s gaze right now with the idea of a date raised, and just looked away with a gentle blush.

Victoria’s hand moved down to her cheek and she just rubbed more vigorously.

Good lord.

This was fucking impossible.

Like pulling teeth or something.

“Yes. With Chloe. Go to a movie. Go tag some statue. Go get high or drunk or – I don’t fucking care – just do it away from me, and away from Warren.”

Chloe still looked away, and Max still looked to Chloe, trying to put the pieces together in the world’s only two-piece jigsaw puzzle.

Eventually, Chloe breathed in deeply and looked back to Max.

She smiled.

Max smiled, too.

They both blushed.

Chloe patted herself down with a free hand, then pulled out a pair tickets from her jeans.

“Victoria is … right, for once.”

Chloe shot Victoria a most momentary of glares, and Victoria just smiled pleasantly.

Can you smile sarcastically?

Victoria was sure trying.

Chloe looked back to Max and wiggled the tickets.

“I got some tickets to some show. Sufjan Stevens – I know you ---“

Max squeaked.

The noise caught the three of them off-guard.

Max dropped her books inelegantly and rushed forward to wrap her arms around Chloe in a tight hug.

Chloe blinked a few dozen times, but eventually regained her composure enough to return the hug and sigh loudly, contently.

She patted at Max’s back.

Eventually, they separated.

Max picked her books back up.

Chloe put her tickets away.

They stood much closer together, now, though, and Chloe’s arm was around Max’s shoulder.

Max was smiling so effusively holy shit.

It was actually kind of cute, if Victoria was being honest.

But she wasn’t, so it wasn’t.

Victoria moved her hand back to crossing her arms and kept her idle face.

Quiet.

Max eventually just sighed.

“Thanks, Victoria. I … I didn’t know …”

Victoria frowned and rolled her eyes again.

When she looked back to the couple, though, Chloe was staring cryptically at Max.

She rubbed at her shoulder meaningfully.

Max looked to Chloe and hummed a wordless question.

“Dude, I asked you to kiss me.”

Victoria blinked.

Fucking what.

Max nodded and giggled softly.

“You dared me, though … What if you were just …”

Max frowned, slightly.

Fucking what.

Holy shit.

Victoria thought what she was seeing from a distance was bad enough.

She didn’t even want to know how blunt people were being to Max and her dumbass was just writing it off like this.

Eventually, Max just shook her head, and sighed.

She looked back to Victoria.

“Anyway, um, thanks, Victoria. You didn’t have to um, do that.”

Max elbowed Chloe.

Chloe grunted.

“Yeah. Whatever. Nice to know you’re not always a bitch.”

Victoria huffed and brushed herself past the two of them.

“Don’t mention it. Seriously.”

Max giggled, somehow, and Victoria just shook her head while she walked away.

Good fucking lord.

Every goddamn day.

The next day, Victoria walked by, ready to stare daggers at the gaggle of idiots.

But she came away quietly blushing, instead.

Chloe had Max up against a wall, and they were making out in a most public of manner.

Perhaps that’s why she didn’t see Warren around anywhere.

Maybe that’s what it took for him to get the fucking hint.

Or Max, for that matter.

Whatever.

At least she didn’t have to see the same idiotic drama play out every goddamn day.

Victoria pointedly ignored the nice texts Max sent her later on.

This wasn’t a favor for Max, or Warren, or Chloe.

Of course it wasn’t.

Not a million years.