𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙀 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟭
❝ 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗖𝗞 𝗞𝗡𝗢𝗖𝗞, 𝖳𝖸𝖫𝖤𝖱 ❞
❪ 𝙏𝘼𝙋𝙀 𝙏𝙒𝙊, 𝘚𝘐𝘋𝘌 𝘉 ❫

𝟢𝟫. ╱ ✷ ❝ 𝗸𝗻𝗼𝗰𝗸 knock, tyler ❞

"𝗣𝗔𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗧𝗜𝗖, 𝗥𝗜𝗚𝗛𝗧?" Tyler speaks up from behind Clay, taking pictures of the students on the gym floor, dressed in their Halloween costumes.

Clay turns his head to look at him, "What?"

"They way they celebrate themselves and just..their weird group. It's...it's better to stay outside of it all, you know?"

"No, I don't know." Clay sighed, grabbing his stuff and walking out.

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𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗜𝗡 the large bathroom stall, trying to block out the sounds of cheering from the gym, but there was absolutely no use because no matter how hard he tried, he just couldn't.

As soon as he looked around the stall, he took notice of the fact that all the writing that had been on the door of the stall and the walls were no longer there.

Walking out of the stall, the toilet from one of the other stalls flushes and Tony walks out.

"Seriously?" Clay turns to him, "You're following me into the bathroom now?"

Tony stays quiet as he washes his hands.

"Silent treatment? Wow. You know what? Good. 'Cause I'm tired of it all anyway."

"Clay."

"Oh, it speaks!"

"Clay, those guys are using you." Tony tells him, "They just want to shut you down. And whatever they're offering you, they'er lying. Riley's trying to get them all off your back."

"You lied to me." Clay ignores the part about his cousin, "You lied about where you were last night. I saw you. With your brothers. I saw you beating up that guy. Or were you just "helping" him too?"

"Clay. Clay!" Tony calls after the boy as he walks out of the bathroom.

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"𝗜 𝗙𝗨𝗖𝗞𝗜𝗡𝗚 𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗘 Halloween." Riley mumbles as she lays against Scott's bare chest, both of them leaning into each other as they sat against the headboard in Scott's bedroom, Riley laying between his legs as some old Halloween movie playing on the TV.

Scott chuckled, "What? You don't like dressing up and watching little kids get scared while going to the door, and getting candy from strangers?"

"Shut up." She laughs.

"Halloween was my favorite growing up." Scott says, "I was always either a Power Ranger or a baseball player. One time I was the lion from 'The Wizard of OZ' while mom was Dorothy and my dad was a Scarecrow. It was the only time they were actually happy before their divorce."

"Clay and I used to match for Halloween, but then he grew out of the same interest as me, so Jeff and I would match. Like the Sam and Dean costumes. Then there was Jasmine and Aladdin, Sandy and Danny, Tiffany and Chucky." Riley says, bringing her hand up to her neck, messing with the silver "J" charm of the necklace that Jeff had given her which never left her neck. "Halloween was Jeff's favorite, so I guess since he's not here to enjoy it anymore.....,"

"You don't want to enjoy it." Scott mumbled, wrapping his arms tighter around her waist, "I'm sure Jeff is watching over you, baby. He's always there and I'm absolutely sure that she's still doing all that he can for you even though he's gone."

"I haven't even been to see his grave yet." She tells him, voice cracking, "I haven't gone to see Claire or Harris. It's just too hard. I know once I see them - that once I go to his grave - that things are gonna be real. Everything is just gonna fall apart, and I'll just fall into this loop of depression that I've worked so hard to get out of. I don't want to go through that again, and I don't want anyone to see me go through it again."

Scott kisses the top of her head as she blinks away her tears, a few rolling down her cheeks and falling onto Scott's arms.

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"𝙄𝙏'𝙎 𝙃𝘼𝙍𝘿 𝙏𝙊 say exactly how things turned, but let's just say that night, things escalated quickly. While Courtney didn't hear my stalker arrive..I did. Thankfully, I found a way to kill two birds with one stone. Remember when I said you wouldn't believe the skeletons Tyler found?"

"Turns out, they weren't mine. They were Courtney's. I guess we all have secrets. And nobody likes it when their secrets get out. Funny thing is, no one ever found out it was us. That whole fall, everyone looked at that picture."

"I'd imagine some boys more than once. But no one ever knew who it was. Well...now you know."

"Riley! Door open!" Matt called out to his niece as he walked by her room to get to Clay's.

"In a second! I'm changing!"

"Dinner's ready! You both have a surprise!"

"Like I said, we're a society of stalkers. We're all guilty. We all look. We all think things we're ashamed of. The only difference is, Tyler...you got caught."

"Do you know what this so-called "surprise" is?" Riley asked as the two cousins walked down the stairs.

"No, idea." Clay shrugged, "Guys, I have to go out after dinner, okay? Won't be long."

"Where are you going?" Tony asked, coming out of the dining room, which was rarely ever used by the family.

"Tony!" Riley grinned, moving to hug the boy.

"Hola, Dulzura." Tony grinned back, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he looked over at Clay, "You're mom invited me."

"There you guys are!" Lainie exclaimed, noticing her son and niece, "I ran into Tony's dad at school today. I haven't seen Tony in so long, I thought, invite him to dinner."

Riley and Tony look over at Clay as she shook his head at Tony while sitting his backpack on the stairs.

The both of them shared a look, already know what he had inside his bag.

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"𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 older brothers?" Lainie asked Tony, "God, I only had one, and we fought constantly."

"Though, to be fair, he's an asshole."

"Matt!" Lainie exclaimed, scoffing. "Like Mark was any better!"

Riley looks down with a frown, and Clay reaches out to squeeze his cousin's hand.

"Well, we get along pretty well." Tony tells them.

"Really?" Clay questioned, "I feel like I saw you guys fighting recently."

"Well, that's true. We're not afraid of confrontation, but at the end of the day, we always know who's side we're on." Tony explained.

"How's that History project going?" Matt asked, "With the Cassettes?"

"That's a good question." Tony looks at Clay, "How are things going? Okay?"

"I, uh, I think I'm done, actually."

Riley raised an eyebrow at his response.

"Oh, yeah? Already?"

"Yeah, I think I'm just gonna...pass the project on to the next student."

"Fucking Bryce." She muttered, low enough that she and Tony were only able to hear it, "Fucking idiot."

"Sounds very collaborative." Comments Lainie.

"A colleague of mine is studying collaborative learning theory." Matt says as the doorbell rings, and Lainie stands up to get it, "It actually strengthens your synapses."

"Wow."

"Um..yeah, it's like our oral history project."

"Trick or treat!"

"....passed down through the generations." Clay said, "That kind of thing."

"Fantastic. It's the oral tradition."

"Except if we don't finish our project first, we could fail the whole assignment. Right?" Tony looks at Clay.

"We couldn't," Clay sighed, "But I doubt it."

"I would hate for us to have to face those repercussions." Tony tells him. "Riley's taken time out of her own History class to help us out also, so...,"

"Maybe we won't. Maybe those repercussions aren't ever real."

"As your project partner. I would highly recommend that we-,"

"Are you...my partner?" Clay asked.

Riley rolled her eyes at her cousin, leaning back in her chair as she crossed her arms over her chest as she watched the exchange between the two males sitting across from each other.

"The assignment was very clear about what would happen if you broke the rules, Clay." Riley spoke up.

Clay looked at his cousin, "Yeah, well, the assignment was given by a dead person. In history. The historical figure is dead, obviously."

"Sure. Sure." Matt says, "In a sense, all our assignments are given by dead people."

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𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗧𝗛𝗥𝗘𝗘 𝗧𝗘𝗘𝗡𝗦 walk down the steps of the Jensen home, the only female crossing her arms over her chest as she took a seat on the steps.

"That guy that you saw last night." Tony turns to Clay, "He messed with my sister. Me and my brothers took care of it."

"Messed with...you should call the police." Clay tells him.

"The police in my neighborhood are a little different from yours." Said Tony, "Sometimes when there's no justice, you make it for yourself."

"Don't go to Bryce's." Riley spoke, the two turning to look at her. Tony points in her direction, agreeing with the blonde, "Don't listen to Marcus. Just...don't do it."

"Why not?" Clay questioned.

"It's not what Hannah wanted."

"How do you both know what Hannah wanted?" Clay follows after Tony, Riley standing up to follow behind them, "Wait. Hey, how do you even...Marcus told me he just passed on the tapes."

"Marcus lied." Riley tells her cousin.

"How do you know?" Clay asked, "There probably isn't even a second or third set of tapes. It's probably all bullshit."

Riley bit her bottom lip as Tony started the engine of his car, pushing a tape into the radio and hitting play.

"Hey, it's Hannah. Hannah Baker. That's right. Don't adjust your...whatever device you're hearing this on. It's me, live and in stereo."

Tony drove away as Clay stared at the car in shock and disbelief before he turned to his cousin.

"The third set's hidden." Riley licked her dry lips to wet them.

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"𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙎 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂...𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉 though Tyler stopped coming around..I never stopped feeling afraid. So, what could I do after that? First the school, then my house..even my own bedroom. Nowhere was safe. You made me paranoid, Tyler. So, now...I'm giving you that."

"Maybe I'll never know why you did what you did. But I can make you understand how it felt to be me. That's why I'm outside your window, Tyler. And after people hear this, I bet I won't be the only one."

"Knock knock, Tyler."

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𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗦 𝗜𝗡𝗧𝗢 her bedroom, towel in hand as she towel dried her hair just as her phone dinged from the bedside table, indicating that she had a new text message.

Picking the phone up, she unlocked it and gasped at the picture of Tyler's bare ass on her phone screen.

"What the hell did you just do, Clay?"