𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙏𝙀𝙀𝙉 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟭
❝ 𝖬𝖸 𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗡𝗦𝗢𝗥𝗘 𝖨𝖲 𝗗𝗘𝗔𝗗 ❞
❪ 𝙏𝘼𝙋𝙀 𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀, 𝘚𝘐𝘋𝘌 𝘈 ❫

𝟣𝟫. ╱ ✷ ❝ my 𝘀𝗽𝗼𝗻𝘀𝗼𝗿 is
𝗱𝗲𝗮𝗱 ❞

"𝙄𝙁 𝙄'𝘿 𝙃𝘼𝘿 known what would happen...what that night had in store..I might never have walked through that door. But parties have a weird magic. They're like an alternate universe. They can make you believe that maybe anything is possible."

"Hannah Baker! There she is!" Bryce spots the girl as she walks through the crowd of people.

"Hannah! Hannah! Hannah! Hannah!"

"Thank you."

"Keg's out back. Get on it." Bryce tells her.

"Maybe you do fit in after all."

"Oh, shit." Justin bumped into Hannah as he walked in with Riley, their hands intertwined so they didn't lose each other, "Sorry."

"Sorry."

"Well, well, well. Look who decided to show up." Jessica walked over to the three, "Fashionably late doesn't fly when it's your girlfriends part. And, you." She turns to Riley, "Who helped set up, how are you late?"

"I had to go home and change." Riley says, doing a little spin to show off her new outfit.

Before when she had been at Jessica's the young blonde had been dressing in a pair of pink PINK sweatpants and a baseball shirt that belonged to Jeff. And now, she was dressed in a white top that showed off just the right amount of cleavage tucked into the leather skirt hugging her figure perfectly, and she had it topped off with her signature black leather jacket -- one that Monty had gotten her the year prior.

"And I made a pit stop to pick up your boyfriend."

"Hmm, you look hot." Jessica gave her a playful wink before the Jensen girl had noticed Hannah standing there as well.

"Bubbles! I am loving the hair!" Riley grinned, pulling Hannah into a tight hug, "Clay said you weren't coming to the party!"

Hannah shrugged, "I changed my mind."

Riley lets a smirk grow on her lips, knowing that she would be rushing to tell Jeff.

"Hey." Hannah directs herself to Jessica.

"Hey."

"So, you and Justin?" Asked Hannah.

"Yeah, me and Justin." Jessica nods her head, "Why?"

"I mean, exactly. Why? And, like, how?"

"Summer school." Jessica says, "And Riley kinda pushed us together more. Do I need your permission?"

"Do you remember what he did to me last year?"

"You guys weren't technically dating," Riley is quick to jump in to defend the Foley boy. "Though, it doesn't excuse what happened to you."

"How is that even the point?" Hannah looked between the two girls.

"Brye is the one who sent the photo."

"Just Justin is the one who showed him. I'm sorry. Look...ancient history aside, just...be careful, okay?"

"But she didn't...did she, Justin? She didn't know. And people don't really change. Welcome to your second tape, Justin Foley."

ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ

"𝗜𝗧'𝗦 𝗔𝗡 𝗔𝗨𝗧𝗢𝗠𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗖 five day suspension, Clay, Riley." Childs sat down in her seat, the two teens seated in front of her with Mr. Porter. "Sit down, please."

"I already told you, it's not mine." Clay tells them, "And it's not Riley's cause she didn't ask me to hold anything. Somebody must've slipped it in my bag."

"Do either of you have an idea on somebody who would do something like that?"

"Who told you to check my bag? Start with them." Clay said.

"And hope that I don't find out who it was first." Riley spits, glare directed to her feet.

"You're classmates are concerned about you, and so are we." Porter looks directly at Clay.

"Concerned about me?"

"It's been a rough couple of weeks. But after what happened yesterday with the exchange students, now this...,"

Clay cuts Porter off, "It's not ours!"

The phone in the office starts to ring as Riley sat back in her chair with her arms crossed over her chest.

Mrs. Childs picked up the phone, "Principal Bolan, hello. I understand. Of course. Got it." She hangs up the phone, looking at Clay. "Principal Bolan feels -- giving your spotless record and your role in the school community -- that a three-day suspension will suffice, as long as you sign up for the drug deferral program at the police station. As for you, Riley, you've been in trouble more than once, so you have a five-day suspension. And it is also asked that you go back to your sponsor and back to your support groups."

Riley lets out a scoff, "My Sponsor's dead."

Everyone grew silent for a few moments following the girls statement before Clay spoke up, "I don't believe this. You have no idea why this is happening."

"Okay, tell me. Why is this happening?" Porter asked.

"Who told you to check my bag?" Clay questioned.

"Do you have something you want to tell us? Like who sold you the drugs?" Mrs. Childs asked, glancing over at Riley.

"Forget it. You think I'm lying, that we're lying." Clay points in Riley's direction, "Look, I'm sorry, okay? About everything, alright? Can we go now? Please."

"You can have a seat over there." Porter pulls the cousins out of the office, "You're mom and aunt will pick you up shortly."

"Un-fucking-believable." Riley scoffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Mr. Ramos asked me to get more dry erasers for the white board." Skye told the woman behind the front desk as Riley and Clay plopped down into the plastic chairs, "They suspend you guys?"

"Three days."

"Five." Riley rolled her eyes.

"I told you they were doing a bag check. Why didn't you hide it?" The tattooed girl asked.

This time it was Clay's turn to scoff before letting out a sigh, letting Riley rest her head on his shoulder.

"Anyway. Didn't realize you were a stoner, Clay." Skye tells him, looking over at Riley in concern.

"I didn't realize you cared."

"Excuse me. Of course I don't." Skye turns back towards the desk.

"Did you tell Zach I keyed his car?" Clay asked.

Skye turns to look at him, "Seriously? You think I'm the type that would read anyone out about anything?"

"I don't know what kind of person anyone is anymore." Clay tells her.

"Yeah?" Skye grabbed the erasers from the woman as she brought them back for her, "What kind of person are you?"

ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ

"𝘼𝙍𝙀 𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙈𝙊𝙍𝙀 of a beer person, or a beer person?" Clay walked over to the couch where Hannah sat, two red plastic cups in his hands.

"Hmm...though call. Uh, I'll take beer." Hannah tells him.

"Excellent choice, Madam." Clay handed her the cup, "Tonight, it is being served lukewarm in questionably clean cups and devoid of any flavor. Cheers."

"Cheers." Hannah turned towards the group of people playing suck and blow, "You know, when I was saving your seat for you, I had to fight off, not one, but three drunk teenagers playing Suck and Blow."

"Good work." Clay tells her as he glanced over to find Riley playing the game as she passed the card onto Jeff after taking it from Zach, "I hope you called their parents and notified the proper authorities."

"Oh, definitely." Hannah joked, "No fun on my watch."

"Fun? At a party?" Questioned Clay, "I'm pretty sure that's illegal. Oh, my God."

"Oh, my God. Uh, you look really nice tonight, by the way." Hannah tells him.

"Oh, this? I just threw something on?" Says Clay.

"Well, you do, you look really nice."

"Wait, wait, wait, I wanna play!" Jessica laughed as she stumbled over to the couch with Justin following, "Scoot over, Clay."

"I don't think there's any...room?"

"Are you guys playing?" Jessica asked the two of them.

"Uh, no."

"So, you guys just like to watch?"

"Yeah, only from an anthropological point of view. You know, observing the millennial teenager in its natural habitat." Clay tells her, "And I'd rather not play a game with a card that my cousin's had her lips on."

"Don't worry! I'm clean!" Riley grinned from her place on Jeff's lap since there wasn't anymore room.

Jeff laughed loudly, throwing his head back, "You are so fucking drunk."

"You bet your sweet ass, I am!"

"Hey, you guys playing or what?" Sheri looked back at the couple.

"Yes!"

Riley quickly took the card from Jeff and passed it onto Sheri, who moved to give it to Justin. And instead of passing the card onto Jessica, Justin blew the card away from him and smashed his lips against his girlfriends.

"That's what I'm talking about!" Riley yelled as Jeff made sure she wouldn't fall from her place on Jeff's lap.

"We need to get you some water." He laughs.

"Damn, Justin! Get in there!" Bryce yelled out.

"Okay. Personal space." Clay laughs.

"Love that personal space." Hannah chuckled, being pressed against the arm of the couch.

"Yeah."

"Shit, I guess I lost!" Justin laughed.

"Yeah, you fucking lost." Bryce laughed.

"Yeah. You good?" Clay asked Hannah, "Sorry."

"No, I'm fine. Are you fine?" Hannah questioned.

"Oh, great."

"That night, for the first time in a long time...I didn't feel invisible. I was nervous, 'cause I felt so good, and I didn't want to screw it up. I was trying to act normal. But I didn't really know how anymore."

"Where are you going with her?" Clay asked as Jeff stands up, keeping Riley pressed tightly to his chest so that she wouldn't fall.

"I am taking your very intoxicated cousin to get some water into her system, because I really don't want to try to sneak her into my house drunk." Jeff tells him.

ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ

"𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙍𝙀 𝘼𝙍𝙀 𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙀𝙀 stories to tell about that night. I'll tell this one first. But for now, Justin, you've been with the same girl all night. But I'm not gonna call her out by name. Even though, if you were at the party, you already know. I realized two things in that moment."

"Number one -- I was drunk. And number two -- so was this girl. But I figured you'd just give up and leave her alone. At least, I hoped you would. I know what you're thinking. Maybe if this girl hadn't had so much to drink what happened next never would have happened."

"But it was a party. Everyone has too much to drink. And besides, how can you blame someone for something that happens while they're unconscious."

ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ

𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 𝗦𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗟𝗬 𝗙𝗢𝗟𝗟𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗗 behind her cousin and aunt out of the school with her arms crossed over her chest.

"Mom? Look, I know you're mad right now and you have every right." Clay started to tell his mother.

"Honestly, Clay, I'm not mad at you. Either of you, I'm at a loss." Lainie tells him.

"Look, mom, will you take me to the police station before we go home, to sign up for that program?" Clay asked.

"You have a week to sign up."

"I know, I...but I need to get it out of the way." Clay tells her, "Please."

"Get in." Lainie tells her son before looking over at his niece, "Riley, I want you to drive your car home and give me the keys when you get there."

Riley scoffed, "You can't take my keys! I work my ass off to pay for it!"

ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ

𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗕𝗟𝗢𝗡𝗗𝗘 𝗣𝗔𝗖𝗘𝗦 around her bedroom, running her hands through her hair as she had a million thoughts running a mile a minute through her head. She had been getting phone calls from Scott, Monty and a few others asking where she had gone, but she didn't answer any of them.

She couldn't leave the house for the next couple of days until her suspension was over, and she couldn't hangout with any of her friends, or Scott though her aunt and uncle didn't know about her boyfriend -- which was going to drive the two of them crazy.

But Riley wanted to know who had snuck the weed into Clays' backpack, and she knew just the place to get her answers from.

ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ

"𝙄 𝙃𝘼𝘿 𝙏𝙊 do something, I had to make him stop. But I couldn't get my feet to move. It was dark in there. And I recognized his voice as clear as day. And so would all of you. But this tape isn't about you, Justin."

"You called him a friend. But your girlfriend needed you. That girl had two chances that night. But we both let her down."

ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ

"𝗪𝗛𝗢𝗔! 𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬, 𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 the hell?! Lee!" Bryce called after the girl that stormed towards his pool house, where she knew that the guys she was looking for would be, "Riley!"

"Which one of you did it?!" Riley slammed the pool house door open, scaring the boys that were inside, "Huh?! Who put the fucking weed in Clay's bag?"

"Riley, we just needed Clay off our backs for a while." Zach decided to be the brave one and speak up, "Five days of suspension isn't gonna kill him."

"He didn't get five days! He only got three and you wanna know why?!" Riley questioned as Bryce came in, looking at the girl with a frown on his face, "Because he's a good student who's never been in trouble like this before! You wanna know who got the five days?! I fucking did!"

Marcus looked at her in confusion, "Why did you--,"

"Because I told them that it was my weed!" Riley yelled, face red with how angry she was, "I told them that I asked him to hold onto it, and now every last bit of trust that I had with Lainie and Matt, I fucking lost it! They're threatening to put me back into a fuckin support group where I'm supposed to talk about my fucked up life, my fucked up parents, my fucked up feelings, and what made me start popping pills in the first fucking place!"

"Riley, you gotta calm down." Bryce walks up behind the blonde, placing a hand on the small of her back.

"Fuck you, asshole! You are why I'm in this mess is the first damn place!" Riley turns around to shove him away from her, "Fuck all of you!"