Love, Blood and Wilderness | YELLOWJACKETS

Chapter 9

I couldn't tell you how I was the one who was roped into getting Jackie Taylor out of bed. But here I was, stomach cramping, frustrated, trying to force Jackie to wake up.

"Jackie, c'mon, time to wake up," I said gently, but she wasn't budging.

"Jackie, let's go," I tried to be more assertive.
She groaned, dramatically.

"I'm cold," she whined, "and I have cramps."

"I mean, we all do, Jackie."

It had been a few weeks and our periods have all synced up. Over these past few weeks of irregular menstrual cycles for us all, Lottie hadn't shown any improvement from her paranoia, but I would do my best to help ease her worries and try to ground her. She's been quiet but still present with me.

I approached Nat a little while back and asked if we could still be friends, despite what had happened between us.

"Sounds good," she told me, "just try not to fall in love with me." With that she got a scoff and a guarantee that I wouldn't. Though my feelings for her still lingered.

I mentioned to Lottie that Nat and I would be hanging out a little more, and she wasn't overly thrilled.

    To make up for it, I took her to a secluded area in the woods every few days and fucked her how she liked. Those were the only times she wasn't absent minded and nervous.

"Fuck Tay," she whimpered, "God you're so fucking good." She kissed me desperately.

"All for you, Matthews," I would say, and watch her finish with pride and sensuality, admiring how beautiful she was when she was completing what I had started.

Though this week, we haven't had any luck finding time for each other, since all of our periods came on the exact same day.

"C'mon, let's go Jackie. We'll ride the crimson wave together," I remarked and she rolled out of bed.

    We made our way outside where Akilah was still making breakfast.

    I'd already eaten and I even brought Lottie breakfast in bed a few hours ago and snuck her the last of my Advil. I wasn't sure where she was though, I hadn't seen her in a little while, but she was probably doing one of her chores.

    We made a system to circulate doing chores to keep us more organized, and it was working relatively well.

    This morning my job was easy, to gather firewood and organize everyone's stuff, which I woke up early to complete. Everyone played their part, except for Jackie, who was always avoiding doing her chores whenever she could.

    "Bloody soldiers on the left and breakfast on the right. Don't mess them up like Travis did,"

Akilah laughed over a homemade pot stove and Travis gagged next to her.

    "Okay, you guys are disgusting. I'm...," he put his hands in the air in surrender and walked away.

    "Shut up," she giggled.

    I left Jackie alone to try to look for Lottie, who was still no where to be found.

    A few minutes of searching went by without a sign of her and a pit started to form in my stomach. Sure she's been wandering off a little bit but normally she'd let me know where she was going.

    "Everything okay, Thompson?" Nat asked behind me.

    That was the first time she used my last name. I wasn't sure what to make of it, but took it as an indicator that we were finally at a level of closeness that I had hoped for.