𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙊𝙉𝙀 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟭
❝ 𝖧𝖤𝖸, 𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗔𝗛 ❞
❪ 𝙏𝘼𝙋𝙀 𝙊𝙉𝙀, 𝘚𝘐𝘋𝘌 𝘈 ❫

𝟢𝟣. ╱ ✷ ❝ hey, it's hannah.
𝗵𝗮𝗻𝗻𝗮𝗵 𝗯𝗮𝗸𝗲𝗿 ❞

𝗔 𝗗𝗘𝗘𝗣 𝗦𝗜𝗚𝗛 leaves the lips of Riley Jensen as she makes her way down the stairs of her aunt and uncle's home, bag handing from her shoulder and car keys resting in her hand as she has her head tilted to the side, phone between her head and shoulder as she listened to the person on the other end of the call.

"Morning, honey." Lainie Jensen smiles at her niece as she enters the kitchen, the blonde sending her a silent wave as she walks towards the counter to fix her a cup of coffee.

"I thought you were taking me to school today?" She tells the person on the phone, moving towards the refrigerator to grab ice and the coffee creamer.

"I know, baby, but I have to get to school early for baseball practice." Scott Reed tells his girlfriend as he moves around his bedroom, getting his stuff ready to leave, "I promise, I'll pick you up in the morning."

"You said that yesterday, and you ditched me to ride with Bryce and Monty." Riley said as she playfully shoves her cousin away from her as he reaches out for the coffee cup.

"Riley...," The boy sighs.

"It's fine, I'll just drive myself to school." She tells him before hanging the phone up.

"Honey, do you want me to drive you since I'm taking Clay this morning?" Lainie asked her niece as she smiled up at the blonde.

"No thanks." Riley says, "I'm just gonna drive myself."

"Riley, let your aunt drive you to school." Matt Jensen speaks up, looking over at his brother's daughter.

"Fine."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝟭𝟳 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗥 𝗢𝗟𝗗, Clay Jensen slams the royal blue locker door shut as he stands in the hallway of his high school, Liberty High, and standing next to him was his cousin.

"She was so pretty." A female voice reaches the ears of the Jensen cousin's as they turn to leave the lockers to get to their first period they had together as the bell rings.

"Totally."

Riley turns in the direction that the voice had come from, frowning as she watches the two sophomore girls snap a selfie in front of the locker that once belonged to Hannah Baker, a friend of her's and Clay's that had committed suicide more than a week ago.

"What was it again?" The first girls questions.

"Hashtag "never forget"." Answered the second one, both of them leaving as Clay makes his way over to the locker, slapping his hand down on the cold metal.

"Fucking hell." Riley mumbles, watching as Justin Foley makes his way over to her cousin.

Justin Foley was a seventeen year old boy with good-looking hair who played football and basketball, who was tallish and a bit of a softy. But at the moment, he looked like absolute hell - dark eyes, t-shirt that looked like he had slept in it and his hair was unwashed - almost like he had been awake for the last couple of days.

"What the hell are you doing?" Justin speaks, causing Clay to spin around to face the boy now standing in front of him. "What are you doing? Trying to break into her locker?"

"No - no, I - I just-,"

"Looking for something?" Asked Justin, glancing over at Riley who stood with her arms crossed over her chest and a frown on her pouty lips.

"What would I be looking for?"

Justin moves closer to the boy, "You tell me."

"Do you even know my name?" Clay questioned him.

Justin scoffs, "Course I do, Clay."

"Guys, second bell." Kevin Porter, the school guidance counselor, walks out into the hallway and looks at the only three teens left in the hallway.

"You're not that innocent, Jensen." Hisses Justin, "I don't give a shit what she says."

"Justin." Riley moves towards the teenager.

"Mr. Foley, let's go." Porter called out, "Get to homeroom."

Riley moved to stand between the two, resting her hand on Justin's abdomen, "Jay, just go to class."

The Foley boy looks down at the girl for a few seconds, kissing her on the forehead before he walks away from the two cousins.

"You too, Mr. Jensen." Porter said, "You as well, Miss Jensen."

Clay glances back at Hannah's locker before he lets Riley pull him away and towards their classroom.

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗦𝗢, 𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗔𝗥𝗘 a number of ways to get help if you need it, or if a friend does, okay?" The communications teacher, Mrs. Bradley, spoke as she walked around the classroom, "All of this information is on the board outside of my room, or outside of the main office. It's on the Liberty High homepage-,"

"Mrs, Bradley," Pratters, one of the students - and one that absolutely got on Riley's nerves - spoke up which caused the blonde to roll her eyes from where she sat in the back of the classroom, "It it possible we could be done with all of this? It's been like a week. Isn't it healthy to, like, move on?"

Many of the students in the room begin to talk over each other, some throwing insults towards the boy.

"Okay, everyone, thank you."

"No, seriously." He says, "I know, it's tragic but I don't want to keep being reminded all the time. It's depressing."

Riley scoffs loudly, sitting back in her chair and crossing her arms over her chest, "You're whole life is depressing, dick."

"Language, Riley. We've talked about this." Mrs. Bradley tells her, before looking over at Pratters, "We're never done with it, Mr. Pratters, which is why it's important to know the signs that someone you care for might need help. Are they withdrawing from friends and family? Is there a change in their appearance?"

Riley glanced over at her cousin, finding the boy with his gaze fixated on the desk that once belonged to Hannah, spaced out from the rest of the class.

"Clay?" Mrs. Bradley calls out, trying to bring his attention back, "Clay."

"Yeah, sorry, what?" Clay asked, coming out of his trance, snickers all around him.

"Are you with us?" She asks.

"Yeah, no, I am. I'm with you." Clay says, looking back at his cousin, who sends him a soft smile.

The blonde's hand lazily goes up in the air, catching the attention of some of the students and the teacher, "Can I please go to the bathroom?"

"I don't know, can you, Riley?"

The seventeen year old gives the teacher a sarcastic smile as she stands up from her chair, walking out of the classroom as she mumbles "bitch" under her breath.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗕𝗔𝗖𝗞 𝗧𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦 the classroom she had come from, Riley stops in the hallway as she takes notice of Mr. Porter trying to get into Hannah's locker while her parents - Olivia and Andy Baker - stood behind him.

"You'd think there was a masters key or something." Andy tries his best to joke with the guidance counselor.

"Yeah, there was, once." Mr. Porter glances up and catches Riley from the corner of his eye, "Riley! Mind helping me with this before getting back to whatever class you're out of?"

Silently, she makes her way over to the three adults, sending an awkward smile towards the parents. Grabbing the slip of paper from Porter's hand, Riley looks over the combination before twisting the dial and pulling open the locker door, before taking a step back.

"She doesn't have any stickers?" Olivia looks inside the locker, the only things inside being a few textbooks and notebooks - the complete opposite of what it would look like if Riley opened her own. "Why - why doesn't she have any stickers?" The grieving mother looks between the counselor and student.

"Honey, it's a locker." Andy says to his wife.

"No, it's Hannah's locker. Why - why is it like this?" Questioned Olivia.

"Ma'am, I really don't know." Porter answers as Riley shrugs her shoulder.

Riley bites her lip, noticing Clay stepping outside of the classroom that she was supposed to already be back in.

"This is everything then?" Olivia starts pulling the books from her daughters locker.

"Yes. I mean, we can go through the rest in my office." Porter tells them, "That way, I can return the textbook."

"We just need everything personal." Andy says.

Olivia interjects, crossing her arms. "The lawyers said bring everything."

"Lawyers say a lot of things." Says Andy.

"I should get back to class." Riley tells the three adults, walking around then and walking towards her cousin, both of them walking away from the classroom.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗔𝗧 𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗘𝗡𝗗 of the school day, the Jensen cousins walk out of the school building, both of them ready to get home to relax for the next couple of hours. Well, Riley just wanted to get home so that she could take a nap before getting started on the mountain of homework she had due.

"Clay!" Courtney Crimsen walks towards the two, throwing her arms around the Jensen boy, throwing her arms around him in a tight hug as Riley stands off to the side, a look of disgust on her face.

The two girls had never really gotten along with each other, both running with different crowds in school.

"You've been on my mind." Courtney tells him.

Clay puts his hands into the pockets of his jeans, "Hey, Courtney. I have?"

The short haired girl spots Riley out of the corner of her eyes, choosing to ignore her, "Well, I just feel like we all need to be there for each other at a time like this, you know?"

Clay nods, scrunching his eyes as the sun beams down brightly on them, "Sure."

"It's all just so sad." The Crimsen girl shakes her head, "It just doesn't make sense, right?"

"No." Clay looked at his feet, "But, um, a lot of things don't make sense."

"Exactly, so true. Some things you know, just don't have simple explanations, right?"

Riley knew exactly where Courtney was getting at - the tapes that had been sent out but she knew for a fact that Clay hadn't gotten them yet, but he was close to getting them.

"Right. Yeah."

"I'm glad we got to talk." Courtney squeezes his arm with a smile on her face before lifting up on her toes to kiss him on the check, walking away with a quiet "bye" leaving her lips.

Clay turns to his cousin, a look of confusion on his face as he looks down at her small frame, only to find the blonde looking at him with a smirk on her face. "What? Riley, what is it? Stop looking at me like that!"

Riley can't help the smile that grows on her face as she walks closer to his cousin, squeezing his arm just as Courtney had done, "Bye."

"Shut the fuck up!" Clay shoves her away from him gently, both of the teens laughing.

"I'm sorry."

"Hey, Clay! Riley!" A voice calls out to the cousins, and the duo look over to find their friend Tony Padilla leaning up against his car, "Want a ride home?"

Before Clay can answer him, Riley had already begun to bounce down the steps, her blond hair flying as she did so, "Of course we do, Tone."

Tony grins, opening the passenger door to his car for the Jensen girl to get into the backseat with him and Clay soon joining the teen in the two front seats, "No bike today? Or fancy car?"

"Um, no. My mom wanted to drive us, and you know, talk about things." Clay answered.

Tony nods his head in understanding before starting the car, and grabbing a cassette tape from the pile of tapes he had in his car, "Can I play you and the lovely lady a tape?"

"Yeah, of course." Clay agrees, moving his backpack out of his lap to rest next to Riley's feet in the back seat. "You're still on the old media, huh?"

"Uh, it's much better."

Clay chuckles, "Everything was better before."

"You said it, son."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙔 𝙎𝙏𝘼𝙉𝘿𝙎 𝙒𝙄𝙏𝙃 a piece of printer paper tapped to the front of his work uniform, "trainee" written in all caps with a sharpie as Hannah showed him the ropes of the Crestmont, the movie theater where Clay had just gotten a job, Riley having gotten one the week before but at Monet's.

"Like so." Hannah turned to him, "Now, if they ask you if it's real butter, what do you say?"

"It's a butter based product." He answers.

Hannah nods her head, "And smile when you say it. I know, terrifying. But it smells like the big lie. Oh, and uh, little trade secret; if they're cute, only put butter on the top so they have to come back for more during the movie.

"Okay, uh, why?" Clay questions as he watches his cousin walk into the building, Jeff Atkins walking next to her as the two playfully pushed each other around.

"So, you can chat 'em up." Hannah tells him.

"Oh, chatting isn't really my thing." Clay says as the blonde skips up to the counter.

"Hi, Clay." Riley flashes him a bright smile, as she rests her elbows on the counter.

"I'm working." Clay gives her a blank look as Jeff catches up to her.

"I know, buuuutt....I locked myself out and you have the other key soo....," She trails off with an innocent smile on her face.

"I told her that taking the key off of her key ring was a bad idea, but she only half ass listens. " Jeff shakes his head with a playful roll of his eyes.

"I think we're gonna start making you wear your key around your neck like an episode of Zoey 101." Clay tells her as he fishes his keys out of the pocket of his jeans, taking the key off of his ring and holding it out to her.

"Thank you." Riley smiles, going to take the key from his hand, but he yanks it back, "Clay, come on!"

"Don't lose it. And put it on my desk when you get inside." He tells her before handing it to her this time.

"I promise." She grinned, leaning over the counter to kiss his check before she spun around on the heels of her feet and walked towards the door.

Jeff looks over at Clay, "I'll make sure she doesn't lose it."

"Thank you."

"Chatting isn't really your thing?" Hannah raises an eyebrow, "That conversation with that blonde looked like something."

Clay turns to Hannah, nose turned around in disgust as he shakes her head, "Ugh, never."

"She a friend of yours?" The Baker girls ask.

"Something like that." Clay chuckled.

₊˚.༄𖥸

❝𝗟𝗔𝗧𝗘𝗥, 𝗧𝗢𝗡𝗬!❞ 𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 gets out of Tony's red sports car, walking behind Clay up the porch of their home as Tony drives away.

"Didn't mom and dad tell you to stop ordering so much stuff from Amazon?" Clay notices a package sitting in front of the door, on top of the "welcome home" mat.

"I haven't ordered anything!" She shakes her head before her eyes catch the top of it, "Why the hell would it be for me if your name is written clearly on the top of it?"

Clay picks up the horribly wrapped box, taking it inside the house as Riley closes the door behind the two of them, both walking into the kitchen.

While Clay looks for something that could cut the tape on the box, Riley makes her way over to the refrigerator and pulls a bottle of water from the door just before jumping to sit on the counter top.

"What is it?" She asked, though she already had an idea on what it was inside.

"Cassette tapes?" Clay holds one up for her to see after he studied the tapes with a number painted in blue nail polish across the front cover, "Don't you have a cassette player? The one Tony got you one year?"

Riley shakes her head, "No. It's in storage with a lot of my other stuff."

The Jensen boy sighs, placing the tape back on the shoe box, "I'll see if dad still has that radio thing."

"It's called a boombox!" Riley calls out after him.

"Whatever!"

Riley groans out in frustration as she gets off of the counter, pulling her phone out of her back pocket as she makes her way up the stairs, dialing Tony's phone as she did so.

"Did he finally get them?"

"Yeah." She sighs, running a hand through her blonde hair, "He got them."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗘𝗗 𝗧𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦 his dad's office, leaning against the door as Jazz music fills his ears from the background, "Dad, where's your radio thing?"

"My radio thing?" Matt asks with his eyes glued to the papers he was grading in front of him.

"That thing you play CD's on when you're painting, or working in the yard, or whatever."

Matt smiles in realization, "My boombox?"

Clay pauses, tilting his head to the side, "Is that really what they're called?"

"They were. Now, I believe they're called obsolete." Matt said, "Yeah, it's in the workshop."

"It plays tapes, right?"

"It does, last I checked." Matt said, "Riley knows where it's at, why does she need it?"

"No, no, I need it." Clay told him.

"How were things at school today?" Matt asked, finally turning away from the papers he was grading to look back at his son.

"Same." Clay nods his head, "Everyone's still acting weird."

"Are you?" Matt pushed his glasses up off his eyes, "Um, how are you doing?"

"Me? I'm..fine." He shrugs, "So, can I - I can use the boombox?"

"Yeah, of course. The boombox. Go." Matt gestured him away, "But...keep in touch, okay?"

Clay nodded with a smile on his face, "Sure thing, dad."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗢𝗪𝗦 𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗘𝗟𝗙 onto her bed as she walks into her bedroom, kicking her shoes off before standing back up and moving to change into a pair of shorts and a t-shirt that once belonged to Jeff, and plugging her phone in to charge as her bedroom window opens and a male figure crawls inside.

"What are you doing here, Scott?" She asks as he wraps his arms around her waist, playing a kiss on her temple.

"Practice ended early so I thought I'd come over, and make it up to you for ditching you this morning." Scott tells her as the two of them sway side to side in place.

"Hmm, well I'm too tired to do anything." She mumbles, head pressed against his chest. Riley titles her head up, chin now resting on his chest, "Lay with me?"

"Of course, baby." Scott kisses her forehead, moving to lead her towards her bed.

"You have to be gone before Lainie or Clay come in here." She yawns as she crawls under the covers, Scott following soon after as the two teens get comfortable in the king size bed.

"I know." He said, wrapping his arm around her waist, letting her head lay on his chest. "I'm gonna stay until you fall asleep."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬 𝗣𝗨𝗟𝗟𝗦 the large boombox from the shelf in the garage and moves to plug it into the power strip. Never having used it before, the Jensen boy studies the front of the device before pushing a random button, causing it to open the tape compartment on it.

He sat down on the stool, sitting in front of the work table and unwrapping the shoe box. Pulling the first tape with the number one out, he puts it into the small space and pushes it closed.

Pressing play, Clay waits to hear what's on them. And when he does.....

Hey, it's Hannah. Hannah Baker.

"Holy shit."

....he wished he hadn't.