Burnout | LottieNat

good things don't last (and life moves so fast)

"I tripped." Nat says coolly, avoiding eye contact.

"Natalie, you don't have to lie to me," Lottie replies, worry evident in her eyes. She gently cups Nat's jaw, taking a closer look. She would usually flinch away from the touch, but it feels like her skin is on fire.

"I'm not lying, Matthews," she snaps, finally pulling away and glaring at her.

"Look, I know we're not close or anything. But I'm your tutor, so you're gonna be seeing a lot of me! We might as well be friends."

"You make being friends sound a lot more intimate than it is."

"Give me a chance?" And fuck, Nat can't resist her puppy dog eyes.

"Ugh, fine. Just don't..." she's interrupted by the taller girl flinging her arms around her and pulling her into a hug. Nat lets out a strangled noise, wrapping her left arm loosely around Lottie's back.

Natalie feels like she's burning alive. Maybe it's the constant fire that comes from the touch of a girl she barely knows, maybe the drugs and alcohol can't even affect her as much as the touch of one Lottie Matthews.

-

Okay, so maybe rich bitch isn't so bad. She looked like she genuinely cared about Nat for a second there, and she didn't immediately make Jackie throw her out of her house for interrupting their precious team meeting. Lottie tried to get her to open up, and when Nat didn't she respected the boundary. Green flags, right? Nat's accepting her presence because of a respect, not because of her tendency to look like a lost puppy whenever she sees Nat. She's supposed to go to tutoring for the first time after school today, and she skipped her first three classes to smoke under the bleachers. She'd actually run into Shauna Shipman and Jackie Taylor under there, sitting together on the floor while Jackie smoked and Shauna read aloud something that sounded like poetry?

Anyways, they immediately scattered, giving her awkward smiles and running off holding hands. Oh, to be that in love. Natalie aspires to be as chaotic as those two.

Now she leans against a metal pole, scrolling on her phone before getting a notification from Instagram.

@lottie.matthews13 has requested to follow you!

She smiles to herself, pressing accept and following her back. This might be a good time do to some good old fashioned background research (stalking) to the girl who's so dedicated to being her friend. Scrolling through the posts, there don't seem to be any with romantic partners (not that Nat cares). There's a couple group photos of the Yellowjackets, after winning a match or at parties. They seem to be a fun bunch.

One of the posts that stands out to Natalie is one of Lottie at a Chappell Roan concert, the

caption reads: casual stan i fear

Casual? Is that the name of the tour or an album or something? Nat goes on to Spotify and searches up, finding that it's a song- so she adds it to her playlist and goes back to stalking Lottie's Instagram, only to find out that she's been added to a group chat.

YELLOWJACKETS

@nat.scat has been added to YELLOWJACKETS

@snackietaylor: hi nat! lottie said you might be interested in joining the team, so I thought you'd want to get acquainted with everybody before making a decision.

@nat.scat: she did?

@lottie.matthews13: yeah, I did!

@wolf.food: NATALIEEE WHY ARENT YOU IN MATH BITCH

@nat.scat: i'm under the bleachers if you wanna ditch?

@snackietaylor: I don't recommend skipping too much if you want a better chance of making the team.