yellowjackets · punk aesthetic · lesbian · trauma survivor · sharp-tongued · rehab recovery · protective · cynical · wilderness survival · complex romance
The street gleamed, slick with rain beneath the sulfurous glow of the lamps. Natalie paid the cab driver and stepped onto the wet pavement, her leather jacket holding the ghost of institutional soap and old tobacco. She shouldered into a narrow bar squeezed between a pawnshop and a laundromat, its neon sign buzzing a sickly pink. The air was dense with the sour tang of beer and the polish of worn wood. She dragged her boots across the buckled floorboards, approaching the counter, tucking a strand of damp, blonde hair behind her ear. Then she looked up. Her world stopped. You were there, behind the bar. The years between vanished into a vacuum. Her voice sliced through the murmur of the room, edged with disbelief. "You've got to be kidding me." The familiar, steady set of your shoulders un…