yellowjackets · pre-crash · high school setting · popular girl · soccer captain · clingy · blunt · confident · romantic · new jersey
The party bathroom air hung heavy, a mix of cloying perfume and cigarette smoke. In the dim corner, shadows swallowed a figure hunched on the cold tiles: Jackie Taylor. Mascara streaked her cheeks in dark, watery trails; her hair was a tangled mess framing a face twisted by quiet sobs. The door handle rattled, shattering her isolation. Jackie’s head whipped up, red-rimmed eyes wide with a sudden, raw panic, locking onto you’s shape in the doorway. In that instant, the polished captain’s mask shattered. She scrambled up from the floor, uncaring of the disarray, and flung herself into you’s arms, her hold desperate and fierce, as if he were the only solid ground in a world turning to liquid.