HEARING DAMAGE
TEEN NOLA - CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT !

           "WHAT THE EVER LIVING FUCK, SHAUNA?" Bellowed the stomping Taissa Turner as she raced towards the crouched down Shauna. Her hand gripped tightly to the girl as she yanked hard and whipped Shauna to her feet in an instant. Her eyes blazed with pure fury and concern.

           Everyone that had been outside was quickly ripped away from their tasks by the outburst of emotion from Taissa as she stared down the Shipman girl.

            "Hey!" Lottie yelled out while rushing to Shauna's side, using all of her strength to push Taissa away from the feeble looking brunette.

            Taissa had to fight off the calming hands of her girlfriend who tried to pry her away from the altercation before it got worse. "Did you know about this? Have you been encouraging her?" She angrily accused the Matthews girl.

            She couldn't believe it. What she'd seen was all kinds of fucked up and if Lottie had been encouraging this incredibly unhealthy behaviour for the already mentally unwell from grief Shauna, there was no telling what Taissa would be willing to do.

            Those who had been inside during the beginning of the yells quickly made their way out, their brows furrowed in confusion. Akilah stepped up alongside Nola as she worryingly called out, "What's going on?"

            "What is happening?" Van then asked Taissa, who had seemingly released an outburst of emotion out of the blue. No one knew what was so wrong or what Shauna had done that wound Taissa up so much.

            Taissa refused to back down. This had to stop! "Fucking told you that it wasn't okay! I knew it wasn't alright." She viciously snapped at Lottie, who continued to place herself in between Taissa and Shauna, batting her hands and pushing her away anytime the Turner girl got too close.

          "What?"

            Frantic, heavy pants filled the air. Van's hands fell to her sides as her intrigue grew. Taissa glanced back briefly at the those who stood by the cabin door before returning her gaze to Shauna. "Go on, Shauna, tell them." She sardonically stated to the doe eyed girl. "Tell them what you've been up to with Jackie."

            This was it. Nola knew it. Taissa had discovered Shauna's twisted little displays of grief and was understandably not pleased with what she'd found. It was certainly jarring to observe the thick beads of pink and blue pigment cling to frozen skin.

          "Tai..." Nola gently called out from behind the girl. She could see the tears beginning to well up within Shauna's eyes despite the distance between them and she didn't like it. Seeing Shauna cry was never something Nola enjoyed seeing.

            She hoped that Taissa would look back at her, would recognise the plea to leave the topic alone, at least until they were alone but she didn't. Taissa never took her eyes off of Shauna, not once.

            Shauna had no choice but answer. Her voice was weak as she struggled to get out the words. "Just...talking." The lies.

            "Talking?" A bitter chuckle broke past Taissa's cracked lips. She spun on her heel to face the others, her eyes wide and wolf as she quickly revealed the truth behind Shauna's actions. "Shauna's been braiding Jackie's hair. She's been doing her fucking make up!"

            As faces contorted with discomfort and disturbance, Taissa turned back around to continue listing off the fucked up shit Shauna had been engaging in when no one was looking. "And you've been posing her, right? Adjusting her limbs like some fucked up doll."

            Shauna's body began to curl in on itself. Her shoulders hunched over as she subconsciously began to face herself away from the barrage of truths that were thrown her way. She knew what she was doing wasn't normal but what the fuck was normal anymore?

           "Is that normal, Lottie? Is that healthy?" Taissa continued, now turning her gaze to the Matthews girl who had acted as Shauna's protector since the first stomach churning truth was hurled her way.

            Lottie chose to ignore her sneer and instead soothingly uttered, "It's okay." to a tearful Shauna.

            Taissa couldn't believe what she was actually hearing. Nothing that was happening was okay, what Shauna was doing was okay. She said as such. "It is not fucking okay."

            She took a step forward but was swiftly pushed back by Lottie who exclaimed, "She was her best friend, Tai." Lottie's gaze was one of protection. Everyone grieved in their own ways but none of them knew exactly what Shauna was going through regardless of their own losses.

            "She was also Nola's but you don't see her playing marionette with the dead body." As Taissa brought up the Rilke girl, she gestured back with a swing of the hand in the direction of the cabin that stood still behind her, where she knew Nola stood.

            Brief looks were sent Nola's way at the mention of her also being Jackie's best friend. Some of them found themselves wondering why she didn't mourn for Jackie as openly as Shauna did. They both lost their best friend, after all.

            Nola chose to ignore their looks. She stumbled her way forward, digging up small piles of snow as she moved closer to the girls. "Guys, she wasn't doing anything wrong and she promised me that she wouldn't go out to the shed anymore. Can't we all just leave alone?" She suggested with a halfhearted shrug.

            It was a lost cause, she knew that. Taissa wouldn't simply let it lie, not after what she'd seen.

            Taissa did just that. She wasn't for letting it go. She shook her head at Nola's plea before looking desperately back at the Shipman girl. "Shauna, this has to stop." Tears of her own began to sting at her eyes as they threatened the break through the dam. "For your own good and for the good of the baby."

This didn't seem to sit well with Shauna who immediately wiped away the anguish that had been painted upon her face and replaced it with flared nostrils and short, rage induced grunts. She took a large step towards the Turner girl while scoffing. "Like you—or any of you know what's good for the baby."

          Without tearing her eyes away, Taissa pointed in the direction of the meat shed where Jackie's dead body lay. "Well, it sure as hell isn't this."

            There was a beat of silence. Nobody moved, nobody spoke. Taissa then finally spoke through gritted teeth. "We are getting rid of Jackie's body. We are getting rid of Jackie's two-month-old corpse."

            "No." Shauna weakly uttered.

            She was no match for Taissa who quickly responded with a firm, "Yes!"

            The desperation in Shauna's deep brown eyes was clear as day, so much so that even blind people could see it. Her mind was going haywire as she searched for any excuse she had to stop them from getting rid of Jackie's body. "We...we can't even bury her. The ground is frozen solid." She claimed.

            Taissa's own emotions began to well up even more. She felt her face grow hot from held back tears. "We can cremate her."

            And before another thing could be said, before anyone could disagree, Taissa turned away from the now completely broken looming Shauna and began hurling out orders. "Help me gather firewood. Now! Move!"

            "We need to get this done before the sun sets. We're gonna do what we should have done weeks ago."

            Nola didn't move. Not the help gather firewood at least, no she moved to stop Taissa in her tracks. She reached out and grabbed hold of Taissa's blue jacket, her ice cold finger tips curled around the fabric. "Taissa, come on." She whispered hopefully. She didn't want to burn Jackie's body. "Please."

            The Turner girl felt for the brunette, she really did. She and Nola had never truly seen eye to eye on anything, but that didn't mean she didn't feel horrible but this needed to be done.

           She shook her head and shook herself free from Nola's grip. "We need to get this done tonight. It's the only way." She explained emotionlessly despite feeling like shit for making her friend tear up.

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

             A FUNERAL PYRE FOR Jackie was constructed fairly quickly. As the winter was slowly beginning to set and with the atmosphere one of mourning, they had gathered more than enough firewood to build the pyre. It looked remarkably similar to the one that had been thrown together for Van, though at least this time they knew the person was actually dead unlike before.

            A few of them stood gawking down at Jackie's stiff, frozen body that had been carried out from the meat shed by Taissa and Lottie. Everything that Shauna had done to her was all on display. From the braid to the garish make-up. Every little thing.

            Van had to swallow hard at the sight. "God."

            "Should we save her clothes?" Akilah then asked with a small shrug of the shoulders. She figured that since they didn't know when winter was going to end that they could use the extra layers.

            The intent behind her question wasn't clear obviously as she was immediately on the receiving end of looks of disturbance. Taissa said what they all were thinking. "You want to strip her naked?"

            Akilah shook her head. She tightened her own clothes around herself to keep warm as she so softly mumbled to explain what she meant."I mean, her jacket, mostly. It seems a shame to waste it."

            "No one is taking Jackie's jacket." Shauna called out of them from not so far away. She'd been listening to everything they had been saying and hadn't liked it one bit.

           Her insistence caused Van to deeply sigh. "Shauna, it's worth talking about—"

          She was swiftly cut off by a now pissed off Shauna, who rose to her feet and advanced in their direction like a Lion stalking its prey. "No! Okay, we're not fucking debating whether Jackie gets to keep her clothes." She snapped at them, baring her teeth.

         "It's not like she needs them." Mari then stated, the girl feeling fed up with having to accommodate Shauna's every whim. She kneeled to the ground, knees pressed into the snow as she prepared to pull the varsity jacket from Jackie's body.

         "Stop!" She was quickly stopped when Shauna shoved her away causing her to fall ass first into the snow.

          Mari scoffed while jumping back to her feet, ferociously glaring at the Shipman girl. "Oh, now you're her protector? Too little too late."

            "Fuck you, Mari!" Shauna cried out as she jumped at the girl, ready to punch, kick and tear every hair from her head for daring to talk shit about something she didn't understand.

            Yells for the two girls to stop fighting echoed throughout the snowy forest. Girls jumped in to pull them apart but it wasn't truly finished until Lottie arrived and pushed away Taissa, who had been trying to wedge herself between Shauna and Mari.

            Lottie breathed heavily. She glanced around at everyone before uttering, "Give her some space." Yet again, she was jumping to Shauna's defence. She even appeared oblivious to the glare that was fixed upon her courtesy of Taissa.

            Mari couldn't help but roll her eyes as she and some of the others walked away. She also couldn't help but grumble out, "It's not as if we were wrong."

            Nola had to halt her movements and clutch her head with felt like it was throbbing. "Mari, I swear to god. Give it a fucking rest."

            Everyone else stopped as well, simply looking at the Rilke girl whose shoulders shook with each and every shaky breath she took. "She was our friend. One of us, remember? A Yellowjacket."  No matter how much Nola tried to sound strong, she just sounded devastated as though seconds from bursting into tears.

          Van stared over at her friend for a moment. "You've barely even reacted to her death. Why is that?"

           Nola slowly blinked her eyes to fight back tears. With the weakest shrug possible, she muttered, "I don't know. Maybe some part of me hoped that if I didn't acknowledge it, then it didn't really happen." Then a smile that was never reaching her eyes formed on her lips. "Guess I was just being an idiot."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

            THEY'D BEEN ONLY MINUTES away from finally bidding a fiery farewell to Jackie Taylor, when Natalie and Travis who had gone out before the sun had risen to hunt, returned to the sight of the frozen blonde laid atop the funeral pyre.

           Natalie's pink tinted nose was scrunched up as she blurted out, "What the fuck is going on?" While moving closer to the group, she could see Jackie more clearly which meant she could see the horrible makeup that had been applied. "What did you do to her face?"

           Taissa rushed away from the pyre, leaving Shauna behind with the body. Her voice came out low and quick as she explained the situation to the confused pair. "We decided it was time to move on."

           A sharp, quick breath of disbelief that resulted in the air turning to mist escaped the Scatorccio girl's dried, cracked lips. "This has been a fucking day." She scoffed.

           "Wait, are those Javi's?" Akilah asked from not too far away. Her question caused everyone to glance down at the torn and bloodied pair of pants that dangled from Natalie's clenched fist.

           Lottie's brows furrowed at the sight. "No. Can't be."

           Despite her own personal desire to avoid ever using whatever strength she had been given, Nola couldn't help but frown at the clothes that Natalie held. They were a lie. They sure as hell didn't come from Javi, who Nola could still hear every now and again. He was alive and Natalie was lying.

           Natalie's gaze turned sharp in an instant. "Not another word."

           Her warning did little to deter Lottie from allowing her confusion filled words to spill from her cracked lips. "No, Javi's alive. I can feel it." Lottie uttered matter of factly.

            Natalie's boots stomped furiously in the snow. "For fuck's sake, shut up!" She bellowed out while giving Lottie a shove, sending the girl back. "Don't you see how much damage you are doing?"

         An almost fearful look painted itself across the features of Lottie's face as she stared down at the rage filled blonde. She didn't understand why she was being yelled at. She was just saying the truth. Natalie didn't care one bit for her feelings in that moment, all she cared about was protecting Travis from getting hurt even more than he already was.

          He didn't need some bullshit false hope.

          "Why, Lottie? Why? What is making you fucking do this?" Natalie continued to push. Why was Lottie so insistent on something she couldn't possibly know about? Javi had to be dead. It had been over two months since any of them had seen him. The weather was only growing worse and there's no way in hell that anyone could survive being out there.

          Before the Matthews girl could attempt to explain, everyone's attention was suddenly gripped by the sudden blaze of fire from beside them. Shauna slowly approached the pyre, a large torch held tightly in her grip. Everyone fell silent as they moved closer, gathering round to finally mourn.

          It was a daunting sight.

         "Jackie." Shauna breathed out. A wobble made an appearance in her bottom lip. Unable to tear away her gaze from the face of her best friend, she weepingly continued on. "I'll never have another friend like you. I don't even know where you end and I begin."

            "I'm sorry and I love you." She earnestly declared. After glancing back at everyone for just a moment, Shauna looked back at Jackie before leaning forward and bringing the crackling fire to the pile of wood that carried the body.

          The rest of the kindling caught a blaze relatively quick. Within seconds, smoke began to rise up, swirling through the ice cold air.

There wasn't a dry eye in the group as they all remembered the one who had constantly brought them together as a team, the one who had constantly found ways to keep morale up despite feeling like shit most of the time and the one they had all turned their backs on, ultimately leading to her untimely demise and the blaze of glory that now began to envelope her.

          As though he finally decided to let his brother go, Travis walked forward with Javi's clothing, bundled it up tightly then placed it within a small crevice of unburnt wood. He sniffed back tears as he sorrowfully spoke. "Goodbye, Javi."

━━━━━━━━━━━━━

jamielee's thoughts.
chapter twenty eight. not proofread.
we all know what's next lads. I genuinely have no idea how I'm going to write the next chapter. should I write them eating jackie normally and then the bacchanal in italics mixed in? please give me some ideas on what you think would be best. anyway i hoped you enjoyed :)