Chapter Text
The first time the phone rings, Jackie ignores it. Or, rather, she sleeps through it ringing until the last ring, at which point she's neither awake enough to process what was happening nor to move fast enough to answer on time. So Jackie rolls over and goes back to sleep, ready to fall back into her dream of winning nationals, which will become a reality in a matter of hours.
Then the phone rings again.
With a groan, Jackie flicks on her bedside lamp and picks up the phone. God, if this is just some scammer she'll-
"What?" She barks down the phone.
"Fuck, Jackie, what's got your panties in a twist?" Natalie's voice sings down the phone.
Jackie rolls her eyes. She glances at the clock to find that it's three in the morning almost and she'll be waking up in three hours to get on a plane. Her suitcase is packed at the foot of her bed, her jacket is hanging on the door ready to go. She even made Jeff and Shauna call it an early night at the party so she could get to sleep exactly when she wanted with a full night's sleep in her pocket before travelling to the other side of the country.
And yet here she is. On the phone with Natalie fucking Scatorccio at the witching hour because... because why not?
"What the fuck do you want?" Jackie barks again. "Do you know what time it is?"
Natalie hisses down the phone like she's sucking her teeth or a popsicle, but most likely a cigarette or something of that variety. "I just wanted to know what time your curfew was, again?" She says. "And no I do not."
The amount of times Natalie causes Jackie to roll her eyes in the span of one conversation could be studied. The outcome would be so wild it'd look like those math equations with the stupid amount of cheese wheels Michael is buying for a party where he'll split them seventy-forty with his best friend John, or something like that. Jackie drops her forehead into her hand and squeezes the bridge of her nose with her thumb and forefinger. She's so tired even her thoughts are stupid.
"My curfew is at eleven, like always. And it's three in the morning. Where are you- What-?"
Natalie interrupts. "Shit, so you broke curfew to get it on with Jeff? Damn, Princess, I didn't know you had it in you?"
"I-" Jackie frowns. "What the fuck are you talking about?"
But her stomach plummets, heavy as lead with dread and bile. She thinks of the worst, but still with her mind fogged by sleep she doesn't see the worst of them all.
"I saw Jeff's car at the side of the road," Nat explains, though poorly. "I saw his windows all fogged up, the thing bouncing around. I was impressed, really, I mean even I-"
"Natalie I've been in my house since eleven-oh-six."
She was late, that was the thing. Her parents are strict with her curfew, the kind of strict that five minutes is the end of the world on a good day let alone the night before nationals. So she knew she was in deep shit, hence getting Jeff to drop her off first. She waved off Jeff and Shauna, took her mother's cold slap and went off to sleep. She didn't think that-
She waved off Jeff and Shauna.
"Where are you right now?" Jackie wedges the receiver between her shoulder and ear as she walks the short distance from her bed to the dresser, pulling out anything to put on.
"Uh-" She sounds far away from the phone. "I'm at the payphone outside of the gas station. You know by the old tennis courts?"
"Jesus, the fuck are you doing over there?"
"The guy at the gas station doesn't card you for smokes. And he has decent weed for a decent price. And, well, he's kinda hot-"
Jackie pauses pulling up her shorts. "He's thirty two and failed high school twice, please don't tell me you've fucked him."
"Jesus, no. Of course not!" Natalie retaliates. "I do have some standards, you know?"
"Yeah yeah, whatever." She wrestles with the cord of the phone and the actual receiver to pull on her shirt. "I'm not meeting you all the way over there. Meet me halfway?"
"Sure thing, boss." Nat says. "Outside the Target?"
"Fucks sake, just go through Hacklebarney Park. I'll meet you at my end."
"Got it." Then she hangs up.
Jackie, in the rush and stress of everything, may have forgotten to consider the fact that there is a ninety percent chance Natalie is still drunk from the party. But she's too busy now trying to tie her damn shoelaces while trying to remember where she put the pocket knives she got Shauna and herself for Rutgers next year.
She ties her shoelaces. She finds the knife, stuffing it in her bag along with a flashlight, a protein bar, her house keys, a small bottle of vodka and a lighter. Jackie climbs out her window like Jeff does but with the grace and balance of a gymnast unlike his ape-like fumbling that somehow never gets him caught. She jumps the distance and wonders how she'll get back up, then decides that the issue at hand is ten times more prevalent than future Jackie's problems.
The walk isn't quick, which just means Jackie spends the whole time pulling her arms over her chest and trying not to cry thinking about what Natalie told her. It's ridiculous, it is. In fact, it's unbelievable. Jeff? Her Jeff cheating on her? That alone is laughable. But with Shauna? Well that's-
That couldn't-
She wouldn't, would she?
Jackie, then, experiences the weirdest feeling of jealousy. Like the thought of Shauna getting Jeff first, and Jackie getting to him after, is sort of like Jackie getting Shauna...
She pinches her wrist until it's purple.
Shauna wouldn't. She wouldn't. She knows how important Jeff is to Jackie and how long she's been waiting for them to at least tell each other they're taking each other's virginities. Shauna wouldn't lie to her. They're best friends.
Jackie finds a bench at the edge of Hacklebarney Park and stares at some dug up flowers and ponders what sort of dog did it. A stray or a naughty one? Without an answer, she hugs her knees up to her chest and waits and tries to remember all the words to that Oasis song her dad loves so much to keep her mind from wandering.
Just as she was getting to the chorus about electric ladies, Natalie calls her name and jogs up to the bench.
"Everything alright?" Nat asks.
"I need you to tell me exactly what you saw," Jackie tells her.
Nat frowns, then looks scared for a second. "What?"
"Jesus, are you high or something?-"
"Maybe."
"-Tell me what you saw with Jeff's car."
"Oh," Nat says. "Well it's like I already said."
Natalie saw Jeff's car pulled up at the side of the road five blocks from Jackie's and three from Shauna's at, between, quarter-past and half-past eleven. The car was a-rockin', as old celibacy advertisements might warn one about. The windows were fogged up, so Nat couldn't see very well into the car, but she thinks she could see Jeff's head against the window and a hand next to it. She thinks a song from The Bends was playing.
"What were they wearing?" Jackie asks, bringing a smoke to her lips. Not even a quarter of a way through Natalie's explanation, she'd asked to bum a cigarette. This was her second.
"I don't know," Nat sighs. "I couldn't see in."
"No, but, the person's hand. Could you see anything?" Jackie winces while she waits for the answer.
Natalie hums in consideration, takes a puff, then exhales out of her nose. "I don't know. A red sleeve, maybe?"
Jackie closes her eyes. She smokes the rest of her cigarette before saying anything, pressing the heels of her hands against her eyes in between breaths. She can hear Nat mumbling apologies and snarky comments against Jeff and men in general but isn't listening to them.
Finally, she says, "So this wasn't long after I left the party, which means you were definitely still wasted."
"Hey!-"
"How d'you know you didn't dream it up, huh? You were seeing shit that wasn't there all night, what's up with you?" Jackie drops her cigarette butt onto the concrete not the grass, shaking her head impatiently and waiting for an answer.
"I-" Natalie looks away quickly, returning with a shameful flush on her cheeks. "So, like, maybe I took some acid-"
"Acid?"
"Yeah-"
Jackie can't believe this. "For fucks sake, we're competing at nationals tomorrow and you took fucking acid? Doesn't that take days to get our of your system? Jesus, what if they drug test us and we lose our winger! Allie's already out of the count! What were you thinking?"
"Jeez, sorry, mom." She rolls her eyes dramatically. "Can we get back to the problem at hand, please?"
"Oh, right, yeah." Jackie folds her arms over her chest, chin up high, now in captain mode. "You mean the part where you, currently tripping balls on acid, were telling me about how you think you saw my boyfriend cheating on me?"
Nat drops her head and mutters something like "Well, when you put it that way."
"Why the fuck did I believe you in the first place?" Jackie jumps up and starts pacing the floor in front of the bench. "I should've known better- I should've known not to listen to a fucking- a-" Her breath quickens. All of a sudden, her chest tightens too and she clasps the material of her shirt away from her skin. The space leaves room for the cool air to rush up and against her bra-less chest and she gasps, dropping her hand and really unable to breath now.
She sits back down. Natalie puts her hand on her knee and it makes her jump. "What's this about?" She asks. "Why're you so worked up? A blind person could see you don't give a shit about Jeff."
"That's not-" But she sighs instead. Picks her battles. "Jeff was giving Shauna a lift home too," she admits.
"Oh, shit."
"Yeah. Shit."
"Fuck, I'm sorry, Jack, I really am. I didn't mean to-"
Jackie brings a hand to her face and wipes underneath her eyes. "It's fine. Really. I'm glad you told me."
Somehow, it's always Natalie who ends up telling her stuff like this. Well, not to this extreme. Rarely to this extreme. Normally just quarrels amongst the team and debriefs after parties.
"Still, it's a shitty thing to hear." Nat holds out her cigarettes to Jackie again. Jackie takes one.
"Thanks. I'll reimburse you, or whatever."
"Don't worry about it," Nat says. "You need it more than I do right now."
Jackie makes a mental note to buy her a new pack after nationals as she smokes. When she takes another she notices the brand for the first time that night and realises they're smoking Lottie's cigarettes, not Natalie's.
With that awful, gooey sadness she always gets around Natalie, especially in the middle of morning practice when she shows up late and Jackie had to yell at her for it but her red puffy eyes tell her she's been crying and Jackie's sure she knows why, Jackie realises Natalie must've spent her cigarette money at the payphone to make two calls to one house.
"So why did you call me?" Jackie asks after a long time of silent smoking. Colour starts to bleed into the almost black night sky now and she's not regretting anything yet.
"'Cause your boyfriend was cheating on you?" Natalie provides, but a few seconds too long after Jackie had asked, so she wasn't telling the whole truth.
"No," she says. "No, you phoned me four hours after you thought I was having sex with my- with Jeff. Why not wait until tomorrow to terrorise me on the plane or something, huh?" It'd be fair, call Jackie out on the assumed rendezvous the way so many people on the team and off, around the team and others, call Natalie a slut and worse. Jackie's definitely called her a few things she's not so proud of now.
Natalie sighs. "I dunno. I needed to talk to someone."
"But why me?" Jackie and Nat can have their moments of good comradery (see: right fucking now), but in the grand scheme of things there are a dozen people who rank above Jackie for Nat to talk to. First in command is Lottie, then Van, then Kevyn and her weirdo friends. Then Akilah, and then Laura Lee when Nat's expired Catholicism creeps up on her consciousness.
"'Cause I got into a fight with Lottie, okay!" The answer explodes from Natalie. Jackie finds herself leaning away from the blast. Then, cooled down, Natalie sighs warily and says, "I didn't know who else, okay? I knew Laura Lee would be sleeping, and I knew Shauna would give me a lift but I knew she'd be an asshole about it, and I knew Tai would be an even bigger asshole. And I know Van wouldn't be able to do anything, and Kevyn- Look, I knew you'd help me out."
Now Jackie frowns. "But you didn't even ask me for help?"
"I was at the bus station," Natalie confesses. For the first time, Jackie looks at their feet and finds a duffel bag overflowing with clothes on the ground. "I was gonna leave. Or do something stupid. I just- I fucking hate it here. I can't-"
"Hey-" Nat's eyes start to water and Jackie leans across the length of the bench to hug her. "Hey, you're alright. It's okay, I'm here. You're okay."
Jackie actually doesn't know what to do when people cry. Honestly she's bad with people, and especially people with emotions. Her charisma is all this concisely choreographed charm that she's perfected over the years so no one can see past the mask, but she's absolutely clueless. So she rubs Natalie's back and hushes her and keeps telling her the same thing in different words and hopes her message comes across as sincere each time.
"I just-" Natalie hiccups. "It was a bad fight."
"You guys always fight." Jackie's not so sure what's going on between Natalie Scatorccio and Charlotte Matthews but she knows that if the three of them are the last in the locker room she should hightail it outta there before she sees someone's tits. She knows she feels a deep twitch in her pelvis every time she catches them in the showers, or in a bathroom at a house party, or once under the bleachers during the boys' homecoming game (and she also knows that the first time she caught them, in the locker room late for practice, she was honestly doing her team captain duties of locating the missing team members, and she knows the second time, at Taissa's brother's party, that it was genuinely coincidence, but every time after that she knows, deep down she knows, that once she realised they were missing she could put two and two together and actively sought them out). So she doesn't know what, exactly, is happening between the two, but unfortunately she knows the very physical things that can happen between them thanks to her own greedy eyes.
Nat sniffs and looks a bit like a sad, wet kitten. "Not like this."
Jackie can't help but pout. "Oh, babe," she says, squeezing her tightly around her shoulders.
"God-" Natalie makes a choking sound and Jackie belatedly realises it's a laugh. "I can't believe you're the one comforting me right now! You just found out your best friend has been sleeping with your boyfriend and I'm the one crying! I don't cry!"
It's true, Natalie doesn't cry. But Jackie suspects all the substances bubbling in her system combined with the lack of sleep and inevitable nerves for tomorrow have Frankenstein-ed together to create a version of Natalie unafraid of vulnerability and emotions. So Jackie shrugs a little in their hug, squeezes her again, and says, "I won't tell anyone."
Nat huffs a laugh and pulls back, wiping her eyes with the sleeves of her sweater.
Jackie smiles at her. She looks around at the park and can see even more light in the sky now. "God, we're so fucked for this flight."
"I think I'm still high, honestly," Natalie laughs wetly. Jackie could've told her that. "I'll try to sleep it off."
"I can't sleep when I fly. Too anxious."
"I've never been on a plane before."
Jackie looks at Nat then, about to say something stupid and along the lines of How have you never flown before?, then realises how bitchy that would be.
"Is that your bag for tomorrow?" Jackie nods at the bag at the foot of the bench.
Natalie shakes her head. Her eyeliner is running down her face. "I haven't got my uniform or anything." Not to mention she's still in yesterday's clothes.
"Hey, I'll walk you to yours if you want. Pack you your stuff if that's okay."
"Why?"
"'Cause I don't really wanna be by myself right now, and I don't want you to be alone either. Is that okay?"
Natalie nods.
On the walk to the trailer park, Jackie carries Natalie's bag, and because it's too early for dog walkers and commuters, she holds Natalie's hand when she gets too quiet. Deep down, although not very deep at all, she knows Nat would do the same for her.
"How are you getting to the school tomorrow?" Jackie asks her when they're in the trailer.
With her back turned to change into a new bra and to apply an ungodly but necessary amount of deodorant, Natalie shrugs. "I was just gonna walk."
To avoid too many people showing up to the airport at different times, the team are all leaving their cars at the school for the long weekend and being taken to the airport by one of the school buses.
"Get a lift with me and-" Jackie freezes. "Fuck."
"What?"
"Shauna's driving me."
"Oh, I'm definitely coming along with that." Jackie doesn't know if she means for emotional support or to stop manslaughter from happening, or maybe even to watch as Jackie strangles her life long best friend all because of a stupid boy. The glimmer in her sharp smile as she turns around, pulling her jeans up and over her clean underwear, tells her it's probably the latter.
"Wanna sleep over?" Jackie sighs, sitting down on the bed. "Well, you know what I mean," she adds when she sees that they'd get less than an hours sleep before Shauna would be there to pick her up.
"Sure." Then, "Can we get cigarettes on the way, please?"
"Sure. I'll pay."
"Yeah, you will."
*
Natalie quickly realises two things in the front seat of Shauna's car. The first being that she is definitely still drunk or high or both with the way her stomach churns and the way the trees dance and wave her goodbye as they pass. The second is that this is a hundred percent a mistake.
After the initial greetings, which are awkward but not unpleasant, Natalie would say, the preferable option would have been silence. She feels dirty, though, in the middle of this war that Shauna is unaware of. Conversation can't flow, probably because Natalie's un-sober ass is stuck in the prime conversation seat and Jackie is sulking in the back seat, probably a seat she's never sat in before. Shauna and Jackie's attempts at conversations are as smooth and lovely as nails on a chalkboard.
Shauna snorts a laugh. "You look like shit, Jax."
"Couldn't sleep," Jackie says. "I had this pain in my back the whole night, like a weird stabbing."
Natalie almost laughs.
"Oh, that's- weird."
"I know. Unexpected, as well."
"Well, yeah, 'cause you've not done anything to hurt your back, I wouldn't say." Shauna's frowning at the road like she genuinely is confused why Jackie's back hurt.
"I didn't sleep, either," Natalie adds to smooth out the awkwardness. "I had the same sort of stabbing pain, but, like, in my chest."
"Jesus, are you guys sick or something?" Shauna asks, eyes wide with worry as she looks between her passengers at a red light.
"Don't think so," Natalie shrugs.
"Did you have any stabbing pains?" Jackie asks Shauna.
"No, I-"
"Didn't think so."
At that, all three of them are quiet for the rest of the drive. As it turns out, they're some of the last to arrive, only waiting on Coach Martinez. Jackie lifts their bags into the hold, neatly piling hers with Natalie's before leaving Shauna to lug her own case into the hold. They turn away and join the girls.
Taissa has her arms crossed, always disappointed in something. Van, at her side, looks tired. Laura Lee is kissing her parents goodbye at the edge if the parking lot. Mari is standing around with her hands on her hips. The JV girls are huddled with excitement. Then there's-
"Hey, can I talk to you for a second?" Lottie asks, putting her hand on Natalie's shoulder after appearing out of nowhere.
"No, thanks." Natalie shrugs her off and walks away, standing at the furthest bus stop sign to smoke the last of her old cigarettes. The pack Jackie bought is in her jacket pocket and she'll try to make it last the weekend but doesn't have high hopes. She needs a fucking joint, or another tab of acid.
She doesn't want to face Lottie, because some of facing Lottie means facing herself but mostly because she's just really pissed off at Lottie right now and doesn't want to look at her. Long story short, after a bad start to a generally bad high, Natalie went to find Lottie as the party started to dissipate, and Lottie doesn't drink like crazy so she knew she could get a lift. They ended up fooling around in her car for a bit, then things were said that shouldn't have been said and Natalie was running down the street and packing to flee the state. Hell, there's a Greyhound ticket to fucking Virginia in her bag. She was willing to go to buttfuck Virginia to avoid facing Lottie.
Suddenly, Jackie is at her side. "What did you two even fight about?"
Good question, she thinks. Out loud she says, "I dunno. I don't really wanna talk about it."
Jackie accepts that answer. "Wanna sit together on the bus? I think if I have to sit next to Shauna I might actually kill her, and I haven't even asked her yet if it was her."
"Is that a good idea?" Natalie frowns then clarifies. "Confronting her before nationals?"
Jackie shrugs. "I play better when I'm not keeping shit."
Again, she frowns. "Really?"
"Look, I don't know what I'm gonna do, but I do know I wanna kill her a little bit," Jackie snaps, "so do you wanna sit with me or not?"
Natalie pretends to consider this. "Sure, okay. Are you gonna want to talk to me the whole ride, or can I just listen to my music?"
"That's fine. So long as I can have the window seat."
Nat grimaces at the memory of the dancing waving trees. "Fine by me."
Both Shauna and Lottie frown at the pair sat next to each other, and they both keep looking over their shoulders in their seats to inspect the unexpected duo.
Natalie is awake long enough to watch Coach Martinez's sons board the bus, and watches as they reluctantly sit together in the limited seats. She sees Misty follow Coach Scott onto the bus and to the seat behind his like a shin-humping chihuahua and can't decide if it's creepy or endearing because she's mostly asking why the fuck Misty Quigley is coming with them when she's not even on the team.
Whatever. She doesn't care.
Jackie presses her head to the window with a sigh and looks so forlorn Natalie thinks there should be violins playing. She feels like an asshole for being the one to break it to her, even if it was completely accidental and without the slightest bit of malice. And yet.
Nudging their knees together, Natalie does what she thinks is the only option and offers her open hand to Jackie. With her stupid big eyes even bigger and stupider than normal, Jackie thanks her with as much as a blink and tilt of her brows as she takes her hand.
She doesn't know when they fell asleep. All she knows is that Coach Scott is saying their names over and over, and when she opens her eyes the world is at an odd angle because, in her sleep, she started using Jackie's shoulder as a pillow, and now Jackie is using her head as a pillow. Nat mutters a swear when Coach tells them they're at the airport and nudges Jackie awake. Considering Jackie actually got in a few hours sleep she appeared to be much deeper in her bus ride nap than Nat. Or maybe Natalie is just a light sleeper, something Jackie didn't have to worry about in a house and family like hers. Grabbing her bag from the floor, she tells herself to stop being mean to the girl who just sympathy-held her hand and let herself become a human pillow the whole way to the airport.
"Fuck-" Jackie says as they step off the bus, stretching like a cat. She offers to get Natalie's case and is gone before Natalie tells her otherwise.
Impossible to ignore are Lottie and Shauna, both glaring at the last off of the bus like making an accusation during the witch trials. Worse, though, might be the fact that she can hear clear as day Mari saying, "I mean, we all knew Nat was, you know, a bit of a dyke, but Jackie too?" And with her stupid know-it-all scoffing laugh that makes her sound like such a prick-
God, Natalie needs a fucking smoke.
Jackie returns with the cases as Natalie watches Taissa step up to Mari and thinks things might get ugly. She looks away.
Both coaches blow their whistles to gather the girls' attention away from the growing tension between Mari and Taissa. They're guided like school children into the airport. They queue politely and calmly, wherein no one talks and everyone is just glaring at each other.
Natalie has a bad, bad feeling.
They've only just got to the airport. They've got the plane journey, practice, the actual game, the after party, official and non-, and then the whole journey home to come before any of them can have some privacy again. Not to mention the growing tension right before fucking nationals! Natalie getting high off her ass the night before is the usual. She's played most matches in her lifetime at least a little bit high. Jackie losing sleep wasn't ideal, but Nat thinks they'd have been fine regardless of that. But everything else now?
It's all Natalie fault. She was the one who couldn't deal with Lottie like an adult so left and decided to phone Jackie about something she could have kept to herself, keeping her awake the whole night, and then hold her hand and sleep on her on a bus fill of their gossip-addicted teammates.
Sure, the tension between everyone else is probably just nerves. But Jackie- Jackie's fucked. Exhaustion aside, she isn't herself. No sign of the perfect preppy team captain princess ready to whip up a motivational speech or pep talk to get everyone in the mood for the game. Without that, what's left is the outer shell of a paper doll in the shape of Jaqueline Alice Taylor.
As Natalie watches her bag get swept off down the runway, all checked in without any problems, her growing anxiety about flying for the first time bubbles, unwelcomed, in her stomach. She decides she'll buy herself some Dramamine. First, though, she douses herself in something expensive but tasteful in duty free (and doesn't think about how she's seen this exact bottle on Lottie's vanity, and definitely doesn't get tasteful mixed up with tasty). Jackie links their arms together and starts talking her ear off about something or other, but this far into her come down and this long without more then forty minutes of sleep is messing with her head and she can't hear a damn thing. Jackie doesn't seem bothered. Actually, Nat thinks she's only doing this to perform for Shauna. She hasn't even told Shauna anything yet.
God, everything's getting out of hand.
With half an hour before the gate opens, Nat pries herself from Jackie's arm to take a piss and raid the machine in the toilets for tampons (she's due and she's down so much cash she probably can't afford a box of tampon now, but she knows how to punch the machine just right to get as many as she wants). She's gone maybe five minutes, ten minutes tops.
The screaming can be heard the minute the hand dryer turns off.
Natalie runs.
"You're a fucking liar!" Jackie is screaming. Full on, voice breaking screaming. Angry, yes, but her face is painted with betrayal and she's got tears in her eyes. Mari, of all people, is pulling her back by the waist so she doesn't hit Shauna, but Mari isn't that strong.
Jackie slaps Shauna.
Natalie shoves Mari away and grabs Jackie. She's a force, but she allows herself to be taken back a step. When she's on her feet again, Natalie does not let go. Keeps her arms planted firmly around Jackie's middle.
Chest heaving, Jackie's breathing turns ragged and she sobs for a second before saying, haggard and heart breaking, "How could you? You're my best friend."
The present tense hits Natalie hard in all the ways she knows best. The hatred of knowing you'll always have a love for someone you can't stand. Knowing you're half of someone you wish you fucking weren't.
The whole team is standing around them, the rest of the airport are watching them like the latest soap opera. The coaches are nowhere to be found.
Trust the Yellowjackets to cause a scene. Buzz Buzz Buzz!
Jackie repeats, "How could you do this to me?"
Here is where Shauna loses it. Not her usual blindly swinging losing it. The worse kind. She rolls her eyes and sighs. The subtle kind that comes with an almost silent groan you'd miss if she didn't have your full attention. "Not everything is about you, God-"
"Well you slept with my fucking boyfriend so I'd assume it has something to do with me!" Jackie cries.
"The world doesn't revolve around you!"
They've argued like this before. Minus the infidelity thing. Shouting about each other's worth and character. The girls will stand around them and all be witness to the crime until it goes too far. Then Taissa will split the group up, make some almost team captain remark about respectability and teammates, and call the argument to a close. People will go home and gossip and by the next morning, or by Monday first period, everything will be back to normal.
Nothing will go back to normal now.
Jackie scoffs. She steps away from Natalie but only to fold her arms over her chest. Nat stays close.
"Oh, please. You're such a side character it's pathetic. You let yourself-"
Shauna's eyes widen like saucers. "You're delusional, oh my god! Characters? What- What are you even-"
"Don't spin this around! You fucked Jeff. How many times, Shipman? Huh? How many times did you fuck him? I know he doesn't like condoms so how many times? Has he knocked you up? Jesus, has he-"
Shauna, cheeks flushed, looks around the room. "Would you shut up!"
"Were you jealous? Is that why? You were jealous of me being in a happy relationship and couldn't stand that you aren't the reason I smiled? You're sociopathic."
Nat remembers the spat at the party last night where this word has been tossed between Tai and Shauna. She doesn't remember who said it, coming in as a surprise to no one. A shared frown between some of the girls says they recognise it as well.
As Jackie spits another low insult, something flicks over Shauna's eyes and Jackie must see it too because she says, "Oh." It's quiet, cunning, and nasty. Her voice has dropped low with either hurt or malice. "I see. It wasn't me you were jealous of, was it?"
"That's enough!" Taissa intersects them at exactly the wrong time. Shauna's punch, known to knock out many members of the baseball team at once, lands right across Taissa's cheek so hard and so suddenly that Tai stumbles back. Van is present in seconds.
They're causing a proper scene now. Some couple in matching Hawaiian shirts are talking to a man in hi-vis.
"Look what you made me do!" Shauna spits. Lottie is holding her wrist - her punching arm - so she can't move or hit anyone else.
"Me!?" Jackie scoffs and Natalie agrees. In that moment of knowing Jackie's reaction is justified, Natalie let down her guard enough for Jackie to leap forward.
She rushes to catch up to her, in turn receiving a violently sharp elbow to her nose. Her eyes are watering and the floor is cold under her arse when she hears Jackie cry. She passes out before she can register anything else.
*
Taissa nurses her bleeding lip in the toilets while the rest of the girls bicker among themselves. She can't with them right now. She can't even look at Jackie and Shauna, so thank God they're off being questioned and hopefully arrested. She just can't with them. They've ruined everything.
Throwing the toilet paper down the toilet and flushing, she reminds herself the more she touches it the more it'll bleed.
It's only bleeding because she bit it when Shauna punched her. Otherwise all she'd be dealing with is a sore cheekbone. She doesn't bruise particularly harshly. A little purple-red tone. She'll be fine.
The metallic taste fills her mouth again. She spits into the sinks.
"That's kinda hot."
Tai jumps at the voice, finding Van standing by the door with her arms crossed.
"God, you scared me."
"Sorry." She doesn't look the slightest bit sorry. "You think it'll scar? 'Cause that'd be hot."
Taissa looks down at all the open stalls. It was empty when she came in, she already checked. Despite her heart thumping and mind telling her how stupid of an idea this is, she can't help but smile and roll her eyes.
"Of course you'd think it's hot."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Van knows exactly that it means and she knows it. Still, she acts dumb.
"Wanna show me how hot you think it is?"
This is insanely stupid, Taissa reminds herself as she pulls Van into the furthest empty stall and locks the door. As she welcomes Van's mouth against her own, she tells herself how ridiculously idiotic it is to make out with Van in as public of a place as a fucking airport. Especially after the scene the Yellowjackets have already made. Or maybe because of it.
And at the same time, all the chaos of the last half hour has her all revved up. She needs to release it somehow. All this adrenaline pumping through her.
Wait-
The last half hour-
Taissa pulls back from Van, and is almost drawn back in with Van's endearing little head follow, and frowns. "What time is it?"
Just then, the doors swing open. She puts her hand over Van's mouth and presses her into the door, then steps onto her feet. Van mutters a muffled protest and licks Tai's hand. Taissa shoots her a warning look.
She can hear Mari and Akilah talking with Melissa. How is it always the Yellowjackets? Couldn't it just be some mom taking her kid for a piss? God.
After they piss, their voices are drowned out by the hand dryers, them there's silence.
Tai repeats her question. Van shrugs.
"How come you came after me?" Taissa asks instead. They don't just spontaneously decide to make out unless copious amounts of alcohol have been involved. It's usually all planned over a cleverly coded note passed in health class.
"Oh!" Van says like she just remembered. God, she's cute. "Yeah, dude, it's chaos out there. We need you."
Sighing and rolling her eyes, at the situation not at Van, Taissa unlocks the door and storms out of the toilets, Van in tow.
Indeed, it is chaos out there. The Yellowjackets have split up and are nowhere to be found, except for Misty and Krystal (God help us all). Javi Martinez has been abandoned with seemingly every piece of carry on luggage at a bench by a screen showing all the flight times. No sign of Seattle.
Van directs them to an information kiosk where their Coaches are in a heated discussion with the woman behind the desk.
"Sir, would you mind?" She is saying when Tai gets close enough. Coach Martinez is leaning over the desk desperately.
"Coach? Everything alright?"
Coach Martinez just sighs whereas Coach Scott turns around with his hands on his hips.
"Ma'am," Taissa turns to the desk, "I'm sorry. Would you mind filling me in on the details of this? I'm standing team captain-" Coach Scott, Martinez and Van eye here then with various levels of Oh really?s. "-and I just want to be able to tell my team what's happening?"
The lady - Cassandra, according to her name tag - could not give less of a shit. She clears her throat. "Your Coaches here are demanding the release of your friends but I keep telling them that, one, I don't control airport security, nobody does." This is said with an air of attitude of someone having recently cut ties with a member of TSA. "And two, it's no use anyway."
"What do you mean it's no use?" Suddenly, Taissa is very concerned that her wish had come true and Shauna and Jackie were being carted off to prison as they speak.
Cassandra sighs bitchily. "You've missed the time slot in which you'd have taken flight. To do so now would be to violate all air safety laws and cause unthinkable damage, especially with the storm coming in now."
The blood drains from Taissa's face and she suddenly understands why the Coaches look the way they do.
"Sorry, in English, please?" Van says coyly.
Again, Cassandra sighs. "You've missed your flight, hon."