𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙏𝙒𝙀𝙉𝙏𝙔 𝙎𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟮
❝ 𝗪𝗔𝗦𝗡'𝗧 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝗢𝗡𝗟𝗬 𝗢𝗡𝗘 ❞
❪ 𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝙁𝙄𝙍𝙎𝙏 𝙋𝙊𝙇𝘼𝙍𝙊𝙄𝘿 ❫

𝟤𝟩. ╱ ✷ ❝ what do you
know about 𝘀𝗰𝗼𝘁𝘁 𝗿𝗲𝗲𝗱 ❞

"𝗛𝗘𝗬! 𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬!" Zach called out as he and Riley ran to catch up with Clay who was just coming back to school after being at the courthouse where Tyler had been testifying that day.

"Hey, Zach." Clay greeted, wrapping his arm around his cousin's shoulders.

"Were you at court this morning?" Asked Zach.

"Yeah, I couldn't take Tyler's lies, so I left." Clay stopped at his locker and moved his arm from around Riley.

"So, how is this gonna happen?" The Dempsey boy questioned, "Is everything gonna come out?"

Clay gives him a look, "How the fuck would I know?"

"Well, when do you testify?"

"I don't know."

"What? Why would they call me and not you?" Zach asked, confused.

"I don't know, and I don't care." Clay answered.

"How can you not care?"

"I care about my girlfriend, I care about my cousin, and I care about my grades." Clay tells him, "And that's plenty."

Zach bites his lip, looking down at Riley before speaking up again, "When you're under oath, they can ask you anything, right?"

Riley looks down at her feet as she remembers the summer when Zach called her to go and watch a movie at The Crestmont with him.

What she didn't know was that Monty and Scott would be with him, which ended in Zach and Monty finding out about their relationship. That had been the summer that everyone had been doing their own thing, and when Clay went to see their grandparents.

It was also the summer that Riley and Zach started using each other as alibis. So, when Karen Dempsey thought that her son was with Riley, he was really with Hannah Baker.

And when Lainie and Matt thought their niece was with Zach, she was really with Scott which mostly ended with the two of them in between his sheets - or really any part of his house when his parents weren't home.

"You fucking stole a note." Clay tells him, "It's not like you raped her. What are you worried about?"

"What about the tapes? What about the tape you made?"

"Why are you still hanging around with Bryce?" Clay shot back at him, "What does he have on you?"

"I'm not hanging out with Bryce, okay? I just - I have to play baseball with him." Zach told him, "And I was just hoping that this trial wouldn't fuck up everybody's lives."

"Well, too late." Clay says before leaving Riley and Zach in the hallway.

"This is going to be a shit show." Riley sighed as she dragged Zach to their shared class with each other.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ

"𝗧𝗛𝗘 𝗗𝗔𝗬 so far, not great?" Clay asked Alex as Riley walked into the classroom and took the empty seat in front of the Standall boy, grabbing his books out of his bag.

"Why didn't either of you tell me they outlawed me?" Alex asked the two.

"What?" Clay looks at him confused, "That never happened."

"Yes, it did." Riley nods."

"I mean, talking about me. Or talking about me trying to kill myself." Alex looked between the two cousins.

"Shit. They did?"

"Yeah."

"I kind of stopped listening to the morning announcements." Clay said, "And teachers. And people. You had a question for me?"

"Yeah, um, so, you know that I left a suicide note?" Alex questioned.

"Um, yeah."

"Why didn't you tell me about it?"

"Well, I - I didn't...I mean, I didn't think it was the kind of thing that you talk about with someone who's, like, recovering from it." Clay told him, glancing at his cousin who was looking down at her phone with a frown.

Alex let out a sigh, pulling the paper out of his pocket and turning it towards Clay, "What do you think that this means?"

Clay looks around the classroom, "You brought it here?"

"Yeah, they can't suspended me from talking about me." Alex says, "I could have stopped it". What does that mean, 'I could've stopped it'?"

"I - I don't know. I mean, you probably thought you could've stopped Hannah." Clay tells him, "You felt guilty. We all did."

"I don't think that's it." Alex shakes his head, "There's something more." He sighed.

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ

𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 𝗦𝗧𝗢𝗢𝗗 at her locker, which just so happened to be across from Tyler, where the boy had been putting his stuff in his locker right before Bryce, Monty and Scott walked over to him.

Bryce slams the blue metal door closed, almost getting Tyler's fingers as he did so.

"The hell?" Tyler asked as Riley closed her own locker and leaned against it, watching the scene in front of her just in case she needed to step in.

She didn't necessarily like Tyler, but they had spent some time together in the six months since the tapes, so they were kind of friends.

But she liked him a hell of a lot more than she had liked Bryce recently.

"I never laid a hand on you." Bryce tells the boy.

Scott glances over at Riley who kept her gaze on Bryce and Tyler, hoping that neither Bryce nor Monty saw the flash of concern for Tyler in his eyes.

"Never. I saw other guys fucking with you, I told them to back off." Bryce says, "Why are you talking about me in court?"

"Jesus, how did you know about that already?" Asked Tyler, "Did Clay tell you?"

"Never mind how I know. Just tell me why you talked." Bryce threatened him.

"'Cause your little darkroom threat didn't scare me." Tyler tells him.

Riley couldn't help but smirk at the little boost of confidence Tyler had gained.

Bryce looks at Monty who stood behind him with a confused look on his face before he turns back to Tyler, "What darkroom threat?"

"You can fuck with me all you want, I don't care. You'll pay."

"Mr. Walker." Porter walked up behind Tyler, causing the jock and his two followers to walk away.

Riley shook her head once Scott met her eyes before she walked over to the other side of the lockers to stand next to Tyler, arms crossed over her chest as the boy looked down at her.

"Listen, if uh...if Bryce hassles you, either of you, you come and tell me." Porter tells the two teens as Tyler puts his stuff away in his locker, "And I want you in my new special skill class."

Tyler slammed his locker closed, "No, thank you."

"It's not optional." Mr. Porter tells him, glancing at Riley. "For either of you. I spoke to both of your folks. You both can start tomorrow."

"You know, I hate him." Riley glares at the counselor as he walks away from the teenagers.

Tyler chuckled, glancing behind her. This causes her to turn around to see he was looking towards Bryce, Monty and Scott.

"And I hate that dick even more." Riley scoffed, turning to face the boy, "So, if he messes with you again, let me know. I may be smaller than him, but I've heard that I pack one hell of a punch."

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ

"𝗜 𝗛𝗔𝗧𝗘 math homework." The blonde whines as she follows Clay towards his locker.

"You hate any kind of homework. I should know, I do it most of the time." Clay tells her, twisting the combination on his locker to pull it open, having a polaroid picture fall to his feet.

"What the hell?" Riley mumbles, watching as Clay bends over to pick it up from the ground.

In the Polaroid picture, it was of a guy in a varsity jacket and a brown haired girl, both smiling wide in front of them. Flipping it over to the back, the two look at each other.

Written in blue marker, the words, '𝙃𝘼𝙉𝙉𝘼𝙃 𝙒𝘼𝙎𝙉'𝙏 𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙊𝙉𝙇𝙔 𝙊𝙉𝙀' Looking around, Clay's eyes land on Scott who was closing his locker and walking away after seeing Clay eyeing him.

"Clay, Riley." Tony's voice spoke as he walked over to the Jensen cousins.

"Hey, Tony." Clay greets him.

"What the hell, man? You told me this case was gonna settle." Tony says.

Clay scoffed, "We thought it was."

"Well, they called me to testify." Tony tells him.

"We - we wouldn't worry about it." Clay says, making Riley look at him. "The Baker's know you did what Hannah asked, including giving Riley her copy of the tapes."

"The Baker's didn't call me. The school did." Tony said, "Why?"

Riley shrugged, "We don't know."

"My mom said each side calls whoever they think will help tell their version of the story." Clay said.

"How am I a part of the school's story?"

'You didn't do anything wrong." Clay says.

"You don't know everything I did, Clay." Tony says before he starts to walk away.

"Hey, uh Tony." Clay stops him, "What, uh, what do you know about Scott Reed? Riley, you were in the same friend group."

Riley tenses up at the mention of her boyfriend, "Why are you asking about Scott Reed?"

"Uh, the baseball player?" Tony asked. "He plays baseball and he's friends with Bryce."

"Jeff introduced us to each other Freshman year." Riley says, "We hung out a few times when he and Jeff had plans."

"That's what we know. Why?"

"Uh, probably nothing."

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ

"𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗗𝗜𝗖𝗞!" Riley slapped Scott's chest as he grabbed her waist from behind as she was waiting for him by their cars, "How did I let you talk me into going home with you? My aunt's gonna kill me if I don't come straight home from school."

"I think it's because you know how devilishly handsome I am." He smirked.

"You are so full of yourself." She laughs, turning around to unlock her car, "I'll meet you at your place."

｡ﾟ•┈୨♡୧┈• ｡ﾟ

"𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗔𝗥𝗘 we going to do about that?" Riley now stood behind Clay in his bedroom, arms crossed over her chest.

The two of them stared down at the polaroid picture that had been in Clay's locker.

"I have no fucking clue."