Love Restrained | Yellowjackets

chapter nine

IX

The first thing Hayden did when she got up in the morning was look for Lottie.

She was very worried about her, especially after what happened in the attic. And knowing Lottie, she knew that the girl didn't have many friends she could count on, which meant she was probably dealing with everything on her own.

Hayden guessed that was the reason why they were best friends. They were so different yet had so many things in common. Lottie was shy and usually had a hard time trusting people, and so did Hayden, but somehow they managed to developed a relationship where they were able to rely on each other.

Lottie was pretty much her only real friend. Sure the other girls of the team were her friends too, except for Natalie, and maybe Misty. They used to have lunch together and hang out with a certain frequency. But Lottie was the only one that was really there for her.

When Hayden wasn't with the team or with her brothers, she was with Lottie. It used to be the both of them riding back together from practice and grabbing something to eat on the way home. Or the both of them hanging out in Lottie's enormous house since her parents were never home. They would crash to Hayden's sometimes, but she didn't trust her brothers around pretty girls, and Lottie was beyond pretty.

Hayden would always stay after a party to help Lottie clean the mess, since her house was a big party spot back home. Or they would always get ready together before going out. Well, they were always together. But not in a Jackie and Shauna way. They knew how to be apart.

However, since the crash, Hayden feared they were growing apart. Not because things have changed between. Well, things have changed, they were in the middle of fucking nowhere. But now Hayden had the role of a hunter, so she would stay out pretty much all day with Natalie. She barely saw Lottie. She barely saw anybody. She was stuck with Natalie all day.

And she didn't know how Lottie felt about that. Not only about the distance between them, but about everything else. They haven't really had a chance to sit down and talk after everything went wrong and the plane crashed.

They were never really the type to have deep emotional conversations. Yeah, they would talk about deep topics and get lost in it. But opening up was something very rare. Hayden mostly avoided feelings, and if she decided to talk about those kind of things, it would certainly be with Lottie. And with their present situation, where everything was a mess, Hayden was just pretending nothing that serious was going on. Maybe that wasn't the best way of coping, but it was keeping her from completely losing her mind.

With no sign of the girl inside the cabin, Hayden walked over the front porch, looking over the girls having breakfast, but Lottie wasn't with them.

"Have you guys seen Lottie?" Hayden asked called their attention.

"The crazy bitch went to get some berries with Van and Mari." Natalie answered.

Hayden didn't like the way Natalie said that. Well, she didn't like the way Natalie said anything. But she was not let her talk shit about Lottie.

"Watch what you say about her." Hayden snapped, as a warning.

She sat there, eating whatever there was for breakfast, waiting for Lottie to come back.

"Duty calls." Natalie called.

"Just five more minutes." Hayden mumbled, eating her breakfast.

Natalie shook her head, clearly not in the mood for waiting, "You can see her later," she told her, shoving the gun to her, "Now, let's go."

Knowing it was no use to protest, Hayden took a deep breath, her shoulders sagging slightly as she grabbed the rifle. She took one last look around the, hoping Lottie would magically show up, before she went for another day of hunting with Natalie.