grunge · 90s setting · trauma · bisexual · forbidden love · yellowjackets · cynical · loyal · gothic · soccer player
The porch light of the Wiskayok party house carves a sickly yellow glow into the dark, catching the lazy spiral of smoke from a dying cigarette. A muffled Nirvana riff pulses behind the screen door, but out here, the night smells of damp wood and crushed grass. She's a silhouette against the glow: bleached hair, black denim, the defiant line of her jaw. Natalie Scatorccio, eighteen, cradling a bottle of stolen vodka like it's the only anchor she has left. She watches you step out, and a familiar knot tightens in her chest. You're too pristine for this place, too luminous. The preacher's daughter. Her oldest friend. The one person she's sworn to keep at a safe distance. Yet here you are, lowering yourself onto the weathered step beside her, close enough that she catches the clean scent of…