Life is Strange AUs

Maybe we should just say that Max has boundary issues. Or maybe we should condemn her for snooping around Victoria’s room while she’s out with friends. Unfortunately, it doesn’t matter what we do, because Max Caulfield’s self control was already expended today listening to Warren talk about Quentin Tarantino films, and now she just wants to indulge herself in Victoria’s secrets.

At first when she finds Victoria’s laptop unlocked, all she can do is grin at her near-infinite power. She could make embarrassing statuses. She could post selfies. She could delete selfies. She could go an individually heart every single one of Rachel’s photos (again, but as Victoria this time). She could ride the high of exposing Victoria’s world and then things would just go back to normal, but with nothing to fear from Victoria ever again.

Suffice it to say, Max has some things to work out in therapy, but not until she gets caught.

Oh? Max spots a delightful prize behind the roll-out keyboard - a little black book. She recognizes it immediately, of course, as the notebook Victoria constantly makes notes in while maintaining eye contact (it’s a total power move, and, if Max is being honest with us, it’s kind of hot). Now this is a profound level of intrusion for her. 
It’s perfect!

At first she just leafs through the pages with only a briefest glance at them (Victoria doesn’t draw anything in them - boo!), but then she catches her name. She flips back a page and begins to read, sitting with her feet up on the desk and swishing about in contentment.

Max

Maxine Caulfield is the last member of the little R.A. gang and quite possibly the worst of them. Oh, she’s quiet and shy unlike the others, and she doesn’t try to show off, but still. Beneath it all, diary, I can see what she really is.

Max Caulfield thinks she’s a god. She’s not like Rachel, thinking she can play the game and play it better  than everyone else - no, she won’t even afford you the dignity of a response, of undermining you, or of competing. She just sits there, blank faced, no matter what I throw at her. Today, in class, I fucking called her out for confusing Michelangelo and Raphael as the painter for the Sistine Chapel ceiling, and she said, “Oh yeah, sorry, that was an AU.” She has abso-fucking-lutely no shame.

And it’s not like it stops there! One time she walked in on me doing laundry (mom and dad weren’t home for the weekend and I didn’t feel like hanging out there alone), and I was wearing my rattiest fucking sweater and it was just gross. I was just going to be in and out and nobody would see, but, lo and behold, Max ALSO decides to do her laundry at 2am like some kind of asshole, and was like, “Love your sweater.” Like ???? She doesn’t compliment my regular clothes - she is either the most tasteless dumpster goblin on the planet or she was fucking with me. 

AND HAVE YOU SEEN HER BACKPACK? It’s got like 1,000 buttons on it, and unlike Kate or Evan who at least is trying to provoke a conversation about environmentalism or some shit, they’re literally. All. Fandom bullshit. I think the full cast of Ouran Highschool Host Club is on there. Worse than that, they’ve all got Pride flag backgrounds. Like 100 fucking pins - we get it you’re gay! No surprise thanks to the fact that she RADIATES FUCKING QUEERNESS AND WON’T STOP CALLING OUT “LMAO, GAY!” EVERY TIME A VILLAIN IS REVEALED ON SAILOR MOON. For reference: Taylor started going over to Max’s room to watch Sailor Moon in preparation for Crystal coming out, and on Tuesdays and Thursday nights, there’s a solid two hours of ‘LMAO, GAY!” every twenty minutes. Then, hey, I thought - ‘you know what? Sailor Moon is a good show. I should watch it with Taylor instead and I won’t have to deal with this bullshit.’ Wrong! Through the goddamn walls Max just knows what’s happening despite the fact that it’s on subs and still calls ‘LMAO GAY’.

Worse? One time her and R.A. were looking up compatibility charts for their signs, and Max comes up to me in class and is just like, ‘Hey Victoria, what’s your sign?’ But when I tried to remind her that astrology is baseless and trivial, she just said, ‘Oh cool, you’re a Scorpio,’ and told me we must be compatible. Like no shit Sherlock. But it still doesn’t mean anything.

I guess that’s just it. She doesn’t want to be mean or cruel or even give a fuck that I’m there. I’m not quite invisible, sure, but what I have to say couldn’t be more inconsequential. Nothing fazes her. I’m not a threat. She just thinks I’m cute. The only thing is, I can’t tell if it’s in a ‘girl’ way or a ‘child’ way. I don’t know what she thinks of me at all, only that it’s not very much.

So why can’t I stop thinking about her?? What’s my fucking deal? She can’t even download digital photos because of that Polaroid of hers, so I just end up on Rachel’s Facebook all day (Max is always there, and it’s always going to get a billion likes Max wouldn’t have gotten if she’d put it up herself).

I hate this, diary. It fucking sucks. Why did I have to be put in class with a girl like Maxine Caulfield? She’s-

“What are you doing here, Max?” The voice is cold and threatening. Max’s paralysis is instantaneous, and all she manages to do is close the diary and sit back in the chair.

She can’t see Victoria, and this is the closest she can get to Victoria not seeing her.

“Totally - uh, y’know. Minding my own b-”

“You were reading my fucking diary.”

“- just wanted to drop in and say hi, y’know.”

“Drop the act, Caulfield. Why are you here?”

Max plants her feet in hopes that she won’t have to spin around and face Victoria. Unfortunately, literally any part of Victoria’s body is stronger than her whole body, and she spins nonetheless. 

Max is silent for a moment. Then she swipes under her nose, nodding gently as if this is a break in the conversation and not the start of an interrogation. When Victoria’s glare deepens, she only gives an awkward smile in response.

And then she fucking finger-guns.

First she throws her out, then Victoria slams the door behind her.

Max picks herself up, dusts herself off, and sits down criss-cross-apple-sauce in front of Victoria’s door.

Max: it’s in the girl way.

Victoria: what?

Max: In your diary, you asked if I thought you were cute in a girl way or a kid way.
Max: girl way

Victoria: i do not care

Max: suuuuuuuuuuuure
Max: But, jsyk
Max: If you did care
Max: I would like that

Victoria: What does that even mean?

Max: Like I really like your TV
Max: we should watch something together sometime in your room alone 
Max: with no one else around

Victoria: Could you stop being gross?

Max: Could you stop being hot?

Victoria’s door pulling open leads to Max falling back halfway onto Victoria’s shoes, halfway out in the hall.

Victoria huffs. The cold venom is gone and now all that’s left is frustration. “Why are you like this? Do you have to be so weird?”

Max shrugs, making no effort to get up. Victoria pulls her feet out from under her.

“I dunno, would you still like me if I was normal?”

Victoria is on the edge of yelling and she knows it. Unfortunately, she exerts all her self-control into not yelling instead of screening what she’s saying: “Maybe! But- fuck.”

Max grins. Victoria holds her head with a hand and exhales slowly, trying to calm down. Max pops up to her feet and leans against the frame of Victoria’s door.

Once she’s calmed down a little, Victoria holds her hands up in defeat. “Whatever. That’s not the point. The point is you’re an asshole and you shouldn’t have looked.”

“True,” Max concedes. “True, true, true. Never shall I ever do it again.” Max holds three fingers to the ceiling at a right angle. “Scout’s honor.”

Victoria glares again, but this one is fleeting. “Good. And you’re not going to say anything about what you read, right?”

Max nods. “Totally.” She futzes with her bracelets for a few seconds before adding, “Hey, Blue is the Warmest Color is in theaters. D’you wanna go?”

Victoria rolls her eyes, sitting in the rolling chair Max had been in a second ago. “Can you just stop, okay? Even if I have a crush, or whatever, it’s my own fucking business, okay? Just leave me alone.”

“Victoria, I’m asking you on a date.”

Whether Victoria’s flushed skin is from anger or embarrassment is unclear, but Max is satisfied either way.

“Why?” Victoria asks. “Why like this when it could have been literally any other way?”

Max takes a second to think that over. “Hmm. Well. I’m a fuck-up. I’m nosy. We both know you were never going to decide if you liked me or hated me and I . . . wanted to know.” She shrugs. “I guess I didn’t really make it any clearer.”

“No, you didn’t.” Victoria’s hands are crossed over her chest, and now she’s looking off into space just like Max is. Anything is easier than looking at each other.

The high has worn off, and now Max just feels like shit. Victoria liked her, and she was into Victoria, and that didn’t mean much now because she blew it and acted like a kid. She likes making fun of Victoria for not being open about her feelings (re: any of them), but here she was, stepping into the shit instead of sending a Risky Text or something like a normal person.

“Ah.” Max crosses her arm over her torso to hold her own shoulder. It gives her the comfort of being held. “Yeah I . . . ha. Yeah. I fucked up.” She nods to herself, melting in shame for a moment in Victoria’s doorway.

Victoria refuses to look at her.

“Yeah . . . I should go.”

No, it’s not over quite yet. She can’t leave things just like that. “Hey Victoria?”

“Hm?” Victoria offers her a side-eyed glance, but then it’s back to the wall. Max feels cold.

“Look . . . I’m. I’m sorry. That was fucked. I just . . . I know better, and being curious doesn’t make it okay. I’m sorry. I’ll leave you alone. Sorry.”

As she turns to leave, though, Victoria finally, actually looks at her. “Wait.”

Max pauses just outside the doorway, then just swings her body back in. “Yeah?”

“What time?”

“Huh?”

“What time do you want to go see Blue is the Warmest Color?”

“I thought-”

“I’ll buy the tickets. You can buy the snacks. Deal?”

Max shifts her weight on her feet. “Um, yeah. Deal.”

“And next time you want to come over, just. Like. Text me.”

“Oh.” Max scratches the back of her head. “Really? Like, like friends? I’m so confused.”

Victoria rolls her eyes again. She stands up from her chair and closes the space between them quickly. It leaves Max feeling nervous, unsure where to look, how to stand, how to try and stop being a loser for five seconds and accept an invite to the movies. Which actually she did in the first place.

Victoria leans down a little, eyes narrow and suspicious as she asks, “So, are you into me or are you fucking with me?”

Max swallows. “Into you, definitely.” She gives a sheepish grin. Then a shitty joke crosses her mind about fucking with her later, but when she opens her mouth to say it, she at least manages the restraint to literally shut her trap.

Victoria raises her hands and shoves Max outside of her room (Max is bewildered by this point but also trying not to laugh at the sex joke). “Okay. Then take me on a good date, Caulfield, and we’ll call it even.”

And then she closes the door between them again. Shock is all she can feel for a second, but once it wears off, a goofy fucking grin crosses her face. She makes no move to leave the hallway between their rooms, just pulls out her phone.

Max: so hey do you want to hang out tho?

Victoria: -_-

There’s no follow-up at first. Then, it’s just the “...” for a minute, or some other wildly too-long time that Max can’t handle.

Victoria: fine. But you absolutely cannot say ‘lmao gay’ to literally anything.

Max: but what if we hold hands
Max: what am I supposed to do then?

Victoria: we are so very much Not going to hold hands

Max: okay, okay.
Max: At Blue is the Warmest Color maybe?

Victoria: just come in and shut up

Max’s grin won’t stop, but she slides her phone back and goes to join Victoria in her room. Maybe she’d be willing to watch Final Fantasy...?