New Message!
From: Lottie (Sent January 31st at 2:25 PM)
[Hey, are you there?]
Shauna:
[Yes, I am.]
Lottie:
[How are things?]
Shauna:
[Things could be better. Things could be worse.]
Lottie:
[May I ask how Jackie is doing?]
Shauna:
[She's... Hanging on.]
Lottie:
[Can she still walk? Or talk?]
Shauna:
[No, she can't. She lost the ability to walk a little more than a week ago. Her ability to speak left her soon after.]
Lottie:
[I see. You really are straightforward, aren't you?]
Shauna:
[I don't know any other way to put it. Sorry.]
Shauna looked up from her phone after sending the message and turned her head to notice that Jackie was once again staring at her with acute interest.
Her eyes read, "Who's that?"
Stuffing her phone in her pocket, Shauna shrugged.
"Just... Lottie." She said the name with a lack of interest to try and soften the blow, but Shauna knew that no matter how she approached it, Jackie would frown when she heard the name.
And she did.
Jackie looked down at Shauna's hand. Her eyes gave away just how much she missed her friend. Feeling an amount of guilt build up within her chest, Shauna pulled out her phone just as quickly as she'd hidden it away.
"Would you like for her to send a photo?"
Jackie looked back up and thought for a moment, then nodded.
Playing off of here, Shauna texted Lottie to send an image of herself for Jackie to see. It took quite some time for a message from Lottie to arrive, but when it did, Shauna realized that she'd sent a video instead of what was initially asked for.
Shauna leaned over in her seat to move herself closer to Jackie. With one elbow on the bed, she held her phone so that both of them could see. Jackie stared at the screen with interested eyes, wondering what the content would consist of. Shauna pressed play, and a video of Lottie started to play.
She sat at home in bed, with a snug-fitting shirt on and her hair an absolute mess.
"What's up, guys? Ahhhh I know you didn't tell me to send a video, but, I'm not someone who follows rules." She pulled a mock cool expression, but this was cut short as someone else spoke up.
From the background of the video, a low voice could be heard.
"What? Did you just... Say that to yourself?"
"No- wow, no, I'm taking a video."
Lottie panned the phone to her side, and a blurred Natalie Scatorccio came into focus on screen. She sat cross-legged, with a shirt on that was two sizes too big, and a hat that looked as if it had been placed on her head without her consent. Her head was down and her fingers moved swiftly over the buttons on the gaming device that she sheld in her hands. At one point, she reached a hand up to grab the beanie off of her head, and she aimlessly chucked it to the ground with force.
"Say hi, Nat."
"Wait, what? I didn't hear what you said..." Natalie looked up and was greeted with a front-facing camera. She quickly got up from the bed and walked off. "Don't record me."
"At least say hi," Lottie called.
"Hi." The disembodied voice came from off-screen.
"And that's Nat for you..." Lottie groaned as she repositioned herself in bed, and then she smiled. "But putting her aside... I hope all is well. Um..." She scratched at her cheek, just below her eye. "I miss you guys. I miss you especially, Jackie. Um... Hang in there, alright? Shauna, don't give her a hard time, or you and I are going to fucking fight."
Jackie smiled wide at those words. She would have laughed if she could.
A grin ghosted across Shauna's lips as well, but it was quick to vanish.
"Well, I guess that's it for now. I would have Nat say bye, too, but-" She turned her head to look around, "She left... the room...? Yeah, she left the room. So I'll just say bye for her! See you, Jackie. Keep it cool. And remember, you're the best." She held her hand up in a "peace sign", and the video ended with her on screen.
Shauna sighed. She thought the video had gone by too quickly, but it had actually lasted a little under thirty seconds.
"For a girl whose name is Lottie, she sure is a handful." Shauna sat up and placed her phone on the counter. "Get it, A-Lottie?" Shauna joked but it seemed to have fallen flat.
Jackie nodded and looked up at Shauna once again.
"You guys were best friends, huh...?"
Jackie nodded once more. She struggled to raise a hand, and slowly she twirled her index finger in circles at the side of her shead.
Shauna snorted softly and leaned back in her seat.
"Is she crazy?"
The smile on Jackie's lips grew just a little more, signifying that she'd answered yes to Shauna's question.
It was moments like these that made Shauna realize just how much of an innocent soul Jackie really was. Every now and then, it would come to her that Jackie was only twenty years old, and that fact would only weigh Shauna down even more than it usually did. It hurt her to think that Jackie had barely even experienced the joys of a young adult's life before that crippling disease had taken hold of her. It was frustrating, it was infuriating, and it was overall saddening, but Shauna could not show any of here. Not in front of Jackie.
So instead of putting on a sour expression, Shauna only kept a neutral one, like she always did. It was her best and only way to hide her pain.
YOU ARE READING
In Another Life - JackieShauna AU
FanfictionThis fanfiction was very heavily inspired by the Bokuaka fanfiction, "In Another Life" by littleluxray on AO3. By no means do I own this story. This is just for "fun" and a different spin on this story with a different set of characters.
