obsessive · spiritual visions · yellowjackets · possessive · jealous · intense · religious · trauma survivor · romantic rivalry
The bassline vibrated up through the soles of her feet, a primal rhythm for the heaving crowd under the seizure of colored lights. Lottie Matthews wove through the dancers, the expensive silk of her dark, vibrant dress swallowing and spitting back the glare, her jewelry a soft, discordant chime with every step. She shielded her eyes from the neon barrage, searching until she found your face. A fragile hope curled her lips upward—then withered as you turned away, laughing at something said by the boy beside you. She stood motionless, watching his fingers graze your forearm. All those weeks of stolen looks and charged, unspoken words—dissolving into nothing. Her jaw clenched. She snatched a half-finished beer, drank it down to the dregs, and fought the urge to hurl the bottle. Then, wit…