ACT ONE â CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX
1996
A heavy silence hung in the air, Emily wrapped her hands around a jar, sipping some water. She was nursing a pretty god awful hangover.
Her sister had tried to explain what had happened the previous night, but the shooting pain behind Emily's eyes had hindered her understanding of the matter.
"I'm going to go find Jackie," Ash whispered, half-heartedly.
Emily nodded, forcing a small smile. The blonde let her heavy eyes close for a few seconds, hoping to alleviate some of the pain.
She dropped her forehead onto her best friend's shoulder, "I hate hangovers. This is literally the worst."
Taissa rolled her eyes at the girls drama but still gently patted her shoulder, "Sorry, Em."
Soon enough Lottie and her minions waltzed up to them, or at least that's how they appeared. Emily had a bad feeling that everything was about to get so much worse.
"Hey. I, uh, I boiled some drinking water," Coach Ben noted, "If you guys are as hungover as I am."
"Has anyone seen Jackie?" Shauna asked, and Emily shook her head.
"Last I heard Ash went out looking for her," the Jensen girl responded.
"There you are," Ash let out a breath, eyes falling on the familiar letterman jacket.
Ashley Jensen felt out of place about just about everything. In the time that she was passed out in the woods, most of her team had gone completely batshit crazy.
Shauna had a knife to Travis' throat. If they hadn't interrupted...he would probably be dead.
Jackie held out her arms, "Here I am."
It seemed that Jackie was in the sort of headspace where she truly didn't care. About anything, in fact, Ash was fairly certain that she hadn't been high at all the previous night, meaning that she hadn't even eaten anything.
The brunette frowned, "Is everything okay, Jack?"
The other girl shrugged, "Why do you even care, don't you have other shit to worry about like why your girlfriend went completely batshit crazy."
The word 'girlfriend' could have literally been laced with venom the way the blonde girl had spat out the word.
Ash was taken aback, "My girlâ you think Lottie and Me are a thing? Does everyone think that?"
Jackie crossed her arms, only offering Ash a shrug. The blonde's eyes then dropped away from Ash's, returning the ground.
"We're not a thing," Ash denied, lowering herself to sit beside Jackie.
"I don't even care if you are," Jackie snapped.
"...it kind of feels like you do."
"I'm not like jealous or something if that's what you think," Jackie claimed.
Ash arched an eyebrow at her, "I never said you were."
For a few moments there was a weird pause in their conversation. Jackie's eyes returned to the girl beside her.
The blonde swallowed, "Why don't you like me?"
Ash opened her mouth to reply, but then shut it again. She didn't quite know how to respond to such a question.
"When youâwhen you said that the kiss was a mistake," Jackie sucked in a breath, "You never said why."
"It's not that I didn't like you," Ash decided to say, her voice trailing off.
This is when Jackie's eyes finally returned to her's, "It's just that Iâ I couldn't let myself like you like that. My parents, my dad especially, made that kind of thing...difficult."
Ash paused, gauging Jackie's reaction for a few seconds, "I mean I was so in my head about it that when Em came out to me, I didn't even know how to react at first...I still kind of don't. But out here we're in a weird sort of way kind of free, you know?"
"So you did...like me?"
The girl cracked an amused smile, "Of course I did, what's not to like?"
A tiny smile spread across Jackie's lips, "You don't show it very well...you know?"
Ash nodded, "I know...I'm trying to be better, I really am."
"You know," Jackie started, her eyes locked on Ash's, "Out here, we don't have to give a fuck about what anyone else thinks. I mean at this rate we're never going home."
Ash swallowed, "What are you saying, Jackie?"
Jackie inched closer to her, "That it doesn't matter what we say...or what we do."
"Jackie..." Ash trailed off, as she awkwardly broke eye contact with her.
"What are you so afraid of Ash?" Jackie interrogated, studying the other girl's face.
"I don't know..." Ash shrugged, her eyes locking back on Jackie's.
"You don't have to be afraid," Jackie leaned forward, lips inches away from Ash's.
Ash closed the remaining space between them. The kiss was more electric than she had expected it to be...it was almost like this was right where she was always meant to be. Jackie smiled as the kiss ended.
A chill ran down Ash's spine, she shuddered slightly in response.
"You cold?" Jackie asked softly, and Ash nodded, though that's not why she had gotten the chills.
The blonde then shrugged off the letterman jacket, "Here."
"Oh no, I don'tâ"
"I insist," Jackie stated.
Ash smiled, sliding her arms into the sleeves of the jacket, "We should probably head back, yeah?"
"Yeah," Jackie nodded, "We need to give our teammates a wake up call."
"Jackie," Shauna's voice pipped up the second that the two of them approached the group.
She crossed her arms, "I have nothing to say to you. To any of you, I mean what the fuck?"
"Yeah, like you're so innocent."
"I'm not the one who went completely fucking insane last night." Jackie defended.
"Right. No, you were too busy screwing Travis."
Van quipped.
Emily's eyebrows shot upward, as she watched the conversation unfold.
"Whoa, hey. Look, I'm sure that we all said and did some stuff that we regret last night on account of the shrooms."
Ash half-nodded in agreement, lingering just behind Jackie.
"So, I think the best thing for us to do is just..."
Shauna shook her head, "wait, wait, shrooms?"
"Okay, yeah," Van sighed, "That makes sense."
Emily rose an eyebrow at Shauna, "What did you guys think was going on last night?"
"Um..." Mari trailed off but seemed to decide against responding to Emily's question.
"Oh shit," Taissa realized, "the broth."
"You drugged us?"
"No id didn'tâ" Misty stood up, stepping forward despite the judgmental looks that seemed to fall on her.
"Okay, yeah, it was an accident they were meant for Ben."
"Oh my god!" Mari sighed, "Do you have any idea how crazy you are?"
"They were my mushrooms!" Misty exclaimed, "You stole them to put them in your stupid soup. Besides! None of this would have happened if he hadn't tricked me into falling in love with him."
Despite her better judgment, Emily could not help but feel a bit bad for Misty. Though, she did not act on those feelings, but rather dropped her eyes to the ground.
"Oh Misty, would youâ"
"Wait stop!" Lottie exclaimed, "Do you hear that?"
Emily scrambled to her feet, "Is that a fucking bear?"
Author's Note:
HI!!! HOW EXCITED ARE WE FOR SEASON THREE??? BECAUSE I AM SO READY.
Anyways happy season three eve and I hope you liked the chapter!
â Via <3