Chapter Text
“Jax!” Shauna Shipman called from across the hallway. As usual, half the student body turned to look at her, drawn by her magnetic charm.
Shauna was not your typical prom queen. To start with, she wore more alternative type clothing—all well-fitting obscure band T-shirts and ripped jeans that hugged her ass just right (not that Jackie would notice a thing like that). Her makeup was just a touch darker than that of her peers, and her attitude was more smartass than sweetheart. She was more likely to be seen brooding mysteriously over a journal than holding court in the cafeteria. But none of that stopped Wiskayok High School from worshipping her—all in awe of her beauty, confidence, and charm.
Jackie Taylor was no exception.
“Hey, Shauna,” Jackie replied once Shauna’s admiring fans grew tired of watching them, “And for the millionth time, please stop calling me Jax. I hate it.”
Then there was Jackie—inexplicably Shauna Shipman’s best friend. (It was perfectly explicable to Jackie and Shauna. They’d been friends since kindergarten, long before cliques and social statuses were a thing). Jackie was all collared shirts tucked into khaki shorts, sweater vests, and ponytails. Her glasses just served to make her already bug-like eyes bigger. She was scrawny enough to be the perfect size to shove in a locker when Shauna wasn’t looking. She spent half the time with her head in a book and the other half trailing after Shauna like a lost puppy. None of those qualities inspired the admiration of her peers.
Shauna Shipman was the exception.
Shauna pouted her full lips, “But it’s cute.”
Jackie just shook her head, turning to pretend to be busy organizing her locker. For some reason, Shauna calling her ‘Jax’ had started to get under her skin. It made her feel all sweaty. Jackie preferred to ignore the fact that she felt disappointed when she imagined Shauna actually listening to her and ditching the nickname.
“Anyway,” Shauna said, as Jackie carefully counted her multicolored pens to make sure she hadn’t lost any throughout the day, “Lottie’s having a party tonight. Should we get ready at my house or yours? I was thinking you could wear that new dress we picked out.”
Jackie sighed through her nose and turned to face Shauna with what she hoped was a stern expression, “No, Shauna. You know I have to finish my lab report tonight. And I would never wear that dress in public.”
It was a true statement. But also, Jackie just hated parties. Besides the fact that they usually involved her awkwardly sipping disgusting beer while Shauna abandoned her to make out with whoever was her boyfriend at the time, Jeff was always there. Jackie had recently figured out that Jeff had a crush on her (she hadn’t realized this until the guy had ‘accidentally’ grabbed her boob when they danced at the last party), and for some reason, Jackie felt so scared she wanted to puke whenever she thought of Jeff approaching her again. She hadn’t had her first kiss with a boy yet, so it was probably normal to be nervous. Surely most girls contemplated moving schools and changing their name to avoid kissing because the idea of it was so scary, right?
Shauna looked at her pleadingly with those big doe eyes, but Jackie stood firm. Then those sweet eyes went mischievous, and before Jackie could go on the defense, Shauna was plucking Jackie’s glasses off of her face and setting them on her own.
Jackie burned with a mixture of annoyance and something much more… sinister, “Shauna! Give them back.”
Shauna just laughed, easily holding Jackie’s wrists down so that she couldn’t snatch her glasses away, “Wowza! I sure can’t wait to study my beloved, sexy mitochondria tonight.”
Jackie was dying. It was the only explanation as to why her face felt so hot that she could feel her brain starting to melt out of her ears.
“Shauna,” she hissed, futilely trying to pull her wrists back, “Stop! I do not sound like that.”
Shauna smiled winsomely and finally decided to have mercy on her, carefully taking the thick glasses to set delicately back on Jackie’s face.
“And it’s an organic chemistry report, it—it—“ Jackie stuttered a bit as Shauna decided to tuck some stray hairs behind her glasses, “It has nothing to do with mitochondria.”
“Oh yeah?” Shauna teased, “What’s it have to do with then?”
“Mass spectrometry!” Jackie explained grumpily, “It’s actually really cool. Using an electron beam, we can deduce chemical structures based on—Um. Shauna?”
Shauna was looking at her like she was lost, and Jackie mentally smacked herself. Nobody wanted to hear her nerd out about organic chemistry! Not even her own family tolerated it.
“Sorry,” she apologized sheepishly, “Um, but seriously. I can’t go to the party tonight.”
Shauna looked crestfallen, “But Jackie. It’ll be boring as fuck without you.”
Jackie felt herself puff up a little at that, but she couldn’t let Shauna’s sweet words distract her from the end goal. ‘Going to party’ equaled ‘Jeff’. ‘Not going to party’ equaled ‘studying’ which equaled ‘A+ in orgo’ which equaled ‘ivy league acceptance’ which equaled ‘everyone being proud and loving her’… or something.
“Nothing is gonna change my mind, Shipman,” Jackie said, closing her locker and adjusting her heavy backpack around her shoulders.
“I have an idea,” Shauna said, hooking her elbow around Jackie’s and guiding them out of the school, “You can do the lab report tomorrow. I’ll even help you. And I’ll make your favorite pancakes while we study. C’mon, Jax.”
Jackie awkwardly looked down while they walked to avoid the gaze of the several people who inevitably came up to say hi to Shauna.
“The answer is still no,” Jackie mumbled as she got into Shauna’s old car.
“Jackie,” Shauna said, suddenly serious, “Hey, what’s wrong? The pancake bribe usually works on you instantly.”
Jackie felt her shoulders creeping up around her ears. Instead of replying, she gazed out the car window as Shauna drove them home. She hadn’t told Shauna about Jeff yet. She always felt so ugly and inadequate talking about boys with Shauna.
“Sweetie,” Shauna began gently, eyes darting back and forth between the road and Jackie, “Did something happen?”
Frustratingly, Jackie felt like crying. She forcefully swallowed around the lump in her throat and squeezed her heart necklace.
“It’s just,” Jackie whispered, because suddenly it felt a little easier to talk about in the passenger seat of her best friend’s car, “Jeff. I think he likes me.”
Jackie peaked over at Shauna, trying to gauge her reaction. She was scared that Shauna would laugh at Jackie’s naivety or patronize her about boys. It wouldn’t be the first time, but now Shauna was clutching the steering wheel tightly and frowning. Jackie tilted her head in confusion. Maybe Shauna liked Jeff? She was dating Adam at the moment, but Shauna was pretty fickle about guys…
“Why do you think he likes you?” Shauna asked, voice a bit strangled with some emotion Jackie couldn’t discern.
“Well…” Jackie’s face burned. She felt like such a loser virgin. “He kind of, like, grabbed my, uh, boob,” Jackie physically cringed at herself, “At the party. Last time.”
Then Jackie was screaming. Because Shauna had abruptly swerved them off the road and slammed her brakes.
“Shauna what the fuck,” Jackie wheezed, her heart in her throat.
“Jeff did what?” Shauna asked, voice flat as if their near death experience had not phased her at all.
“I’m not saying that again!” Jackie shouted incredulously, “Also, we almost just died?”
“He grabbed your boob,” Shauna stated slowly, as if such a statement was too absurd to be true, “Did you tell him he could?”
Jackie gaped at her best friend, “Yeah, Shauna. I told Jeff Sadecki, out of the blue, in public, ‘by the way, you can grab my boob if you want.’ Of course I didn’t tell him he could!”
“Alright,” Shauna said, eerily calm as she put the car in reverse, “New plan for tonight. We kill Jeff.”
“Woah!” Jackie yelped, grabbing Shauna’s arm before she could drive them toward a potential murder plot, “Um, no! We aren’t doing that.”
Shauna was grinding her teeth, “He can’t touch you again. I won’t let him.”
“Which is exactly why you should take me home so I can work on my lab report,” Jackie tiredly reasoned, “It’s an activity that has zero chance of another Jeff groping incident.”
“Same if I kill him,” Shauna argued.
Jackie was so tired and embarrassed that she suddenly wanted to be away from her best friend. She just wanted to go to her room and dive into her nicely organized chemistry notes, where everything made sense. She hugged herself and tried to hold back her tears.
“Hey, wait,” Shauna said, frantically parking her car again so that she could use both hands to cup Jackie’s face, “Jax, I’m sorry. Please don’t cry.”
“I’m not crying,” Jackie said bravely.
“Okay,” Shauna breathed, swiping her thumbs over Jackie’s cheeks anyway, “Here, how about this? I’ll take you home right now and make you pancakes while you work on your report.”
“Won’t you miss the party?” Jackie sniffled.
“Fuck parties,” Shauna scoffed, “I hate parties.”
Jackie smiled a little at her friend’s silly lie, “Okay…”
“Does that make you feel better?” Shauna asked, pinching Jackie’s cheeks like she was a baby.
Jackie rolled her eyes, “No.”
“Hmm,” Shauna pretended to think, “What if you tell me more about mass spectrometry?”
Jackie grinned despite herself, “That might help...”
“And you can wear your new dress,” Shauna said innocently, “Since we won’t be in public.”
“Don’t push your luck, Shipman,” Jackie said, trying to ignore the urge to squirm at the thought of dressing up just for Shauna to look at her.
Shauna shifted her car into drive, leaving one hand open between them for her to hold. Jackie took the hand with relief.
“Jackie,” Shauna said seriously as she drove, rubbing Jackie’s hand soothingly with her thumb, “You don’t have to do anything with Jeff if you don’t want to.”
Jackie stiffened a little, “I know,” she replied, voice small, “But why don’t I want to? I’m probably the only girl in the whole grade who hasn’t even been kissed yet. I feel like such a freak.”
“No,” Shauna said vehemently, “It’s okay if you’re not ready. You’re perfect.”
“What if I’m never ready?” Jackie asked, voice so quiet that no one but Shauna would’ve understood her.
“Then that’s okay too,” Shauna said, confident as always, “It can just be me and you. We’ll be roommates forever and travel the world or something. Fuck boys.”
Jackie rolled her eyes fondly, “What about Adam?”
Shauna looked confused, “Adam? I’ll break up with him tomorrow.”
“Shauna, no,” Jackie protested half-heartedly, “You don’t have to do that.”
Shauna shrugged as if it was nothing to her. Jackie inwardly cheered. She loved when Shauna was single, since it gave them a lot more time to hang out.
“Love you,” Shauna murmured, casually playing with Jackie’s hand in hers.
Jackie opened her mouth to speak but froze up before she could produce the words. Instead, she made a lame sound of agreement, inwardly cringing at herself. She didn’t understand why it was so hard lately to tell Shauna that she loved her.
Shauna didn’t seem to mind, launching into a description of a detailed plot to ruin Jeff Sadecki’s life while Jackie occasionally vetoed certain of the more violent aspects of the plan.
Shauna smiled at her softly when she parked the car in her driveway. She raised one of her hands so that she was cradling one of Jackie’s cheeks. Then she leaned in and kissed her other cheek, soft and sweet, her lips lingering against the now-hot cheek and her nose bumping against the thick rim of Jackie’s glasses.
Jackie flushed with pleasure. She and Shauna had always been affectionate like that, but she never got tired of the feeling of accomplishment she got when she earned a Shauna kiss.
It was like getting an A+ in friendship, and Jackie didn’t even have to study for it. (Although, if studying for Shauna was an option, Jackie would be all over that shit.)
“Well, c’mon,” Shauna said, throwing open the car door, “I’m ready to hear more about this… mass spectometer.”
Jackie smiled and shook her head, getting up to follow Shauna like always.
Shauna may be Wiskayok’s favorite, but Jackie was Shauna’s favorite. And that was a whole lot better to her.