[ SUMMER ] our muses relax on a beach. - from rach to vicky
the chase space is setting up an exhibition dedicated to queer artists, and victoria has lost sleep for weeks thinking of how to perfect her submission. between studying for finals and organizing the last vortex club party of their junior year, she sits at her desk in her dorm in complete darkness, face illuminated by her laptop screen. google’s stark white background is simultaneously keeping her awake and giving her a migraine, but she’s nearly fifteen pages deep into the results for her search of LGBT artists and she shows no signs of stopping.
the chase space is run by her parents. though it took convincing, they approved of her puberty blockers, then her estrogen, but victoria feels paralyzed. she is seen as their daughter and though it took some time the support now is unwavering, but applying for this exhibition is terrifying. it would be coming out all over again, not only to her mom and dad but to anybody viewing the exhibition. what if a classmate went to the gallery over summer break? is this the first exhibition victoria wants on her resume? is she ready to accept this part of herself and wear it like a badge of honor her entire adult life?
almost as if rachel could sense the tension, the text message comes in from the right side of the laptop screen. im on the beach rn and im hella bored. r u busy?
victoria’s first sleep-deprived thought is don’t you have some other plaything to ask? but she stops herself. green eyes look at the time again, and victoria’s keys on her coffee table beckon her attention. she shuts her eyes tight, sucks in a breath that inflates her whole chest, and types back a response. in just a few minutes she’s dressed in something cheap and tucking her keys into her cardigan pocket. though june was steadily approaching the beach gets cold at night, victoria has learned her lesson from multiple vortex bonfires.
when she parks, the sight ahead of her makes her pause. the only other car parked on the beach is frank’s shady rv, which victoria made a point of parking as far away from it as she could, but rachel’s figure is silhouetted by the moonlight. waning gibbous reflected into the pacific ocean, victoria looks at the camera in her passenger’s seat and rolls her lips into a line. she pulls the DSLR from the bag, standing up and taking a picture of the scene before shutting the car door and approaching rachel.
❛ hey, ❜ her voice is soft upon approach. victoria can put the pieces together quite easily, considering frank and rachel are the only ones here, and she’d make a quip about it if this was a normal night. but the look on the other girl’s face makes victoria’s eyebrows furrow. ❛ is everything okay? ❜