𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙍𝙏𝙔 𝙎𝙄𝙓 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟮
❝ 𝗡𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥 𝗦𝗣𝗘𝗔𝗞 𝖮𝖥 𝖨𝖳 ❞
❪ 𝙎𝙈𝙄𝙇𝙀, 𝘽𝙄𝙏𝘾𝙃𝙀𝙎 ❫

𝟥𝟨. ╱ ✷ ❝ that 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗲 gets 𝗯𝘂𝗿𝗻𝗲𝗱 and we 𝗻𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘀𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸
of it 𝗮𝗴𝗮𝗶𝗻 ❞

𝙍𝙄𝙇𝙀𝙔'𝙎 𝙀𝙔𝙀𝙎 stayed glued to her nails as the nail tech brushed the light blue color onto her nails before a touch to her ankle made her look over at Hannah who nodded her head in Tony's direction.

"Okay, what's going on?" Hannah asked the boy, "You've been kinda bitchy all day."

"Excuse me? I don't have a bitchy bone in my body." Tells her, "Ask Riley."

"Gotta agree with Hannah on this one, T." Riley shrugged, "You have been bitchy. It's not a good look on you either."

Tony chuckled, "Okay, fine. There's a guy....at school."

Hannah and Riley grinned at each other before turning to Tony.

"We love this story already. Who is he?" The brunette asked.

"He's...artsy."

"Artsy." Riley smirked.

"And dramatic."

"All code words for "too gay"?"

"No, no, it's not that." Tony shook his head, "He's just totally not my type."

"Does this dramatic artist have a name?" Riley raised an eyebrow at the boy.

"Ryan Shaver."

"The guy with the "zine"?"

"Mm-hmm." Tony smiled.

"Holy shit." Hannah laughed, "Yeah, he's totally not your type."

"Is he into you?" Riley questioned.

"Oh, yeah. No questions asked." Tony tells the two girls.

"If you do say so yourself." Joked Hannah.

"Look, he's always smiling at me, he laughs at my jokes that are not jokes. And, he, like touches me on my arm and shit." Tony explained to the two girls.

"And what's the stimulus response when he touches you on the arm?"

"Part of me wants to say, "watch the leather, homo". The other part of me wants to throw him against the lockers and kiss him, "Tony looked over at them, the three of them laughing.

"Oh, dear lord. You are in trouble." Riley tells him.

"You have to ask him out." Hannah tells him, Riley nodding in agreement with her.

"Come on. You need to restore our faith in teenage male-kind." Hannah tells him.

"Well, not all of us are Justin Foley." Tony says.

"Prove it."

Tony doesn't say anything as he raises his hand towards the girls, showing off the cherry red nail polish being applied to his fingers, which just so happened to make the color of his Mustang sat outside.

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞, 𝗗𝗢𝗡'𝗧 you get it?" CLay drove his car, Justin leaning against the window while Riley was laid out in the backseat, "It has to be the Clubhouse."

"Right." Justin answered, eyes locked on the lights and passing buildings outside of the car.

Clay glanced at him, "Are you high?"

"Jesus. No."

"I can't bring that shit home again." Clay tells him.

"I'm not. I'm just tired."

"So, if you weren't using, what have you been doing the past forty-eight hours?" Clay asked him.

Justin pauses, "I saw my mom."

Riley sat up, moving to the middle as she looked over at Justin, "Your mom?"

"I thought you didn't know where she moved." Clay says.

"Well, turns out, I lie sometimes." Justin says with a shrug.

"Wait, so you went home?" Riley asked, worry floating in her eyes.

Justin looked back at her, noticing the look in her eyes, "No, I saw my mom." He unzipped the backpack he had with him, holding out a wad of cash out towards Clay, "She gave me some cash."

"She gave you that?"

"Here. It's for you. Consider it rend. 'Til I can find something permanent."

"Keep it." Clay tells him, "We don't pay rent anyway. So...if you have all that cash...why'd you call me?"

"You said you needed me." Justin says, turning to look back out the window, feeling Riley bring her hand to rest on his bicep between the seat and door, "I'm just -- I'm done with doing fucked up things."

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 𝗕𝗥𝗢𝗨𝗚𝗛𝗧 her knees up to her chest as she sat on her bed, phone sitting next to her as she looked at the name pulled up on the screen.

With a sigh, she quickly picked it up and pressed the phone against her ear.

"Hey, this is Jeff -- Riley, get down from there! Hey, this is Jeff, I can't come to the phone right now because I'm trying to stop my best friend from doing something that could result in her breaking a bone, but leave a message and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Riley! What did I say?!"

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗠𝗔𝗬𝗕𝗘 𝗜𝗧 was one of those bitches who follows Hannah's mom. The one with all the signs." Monty stands on the baseball field with the other players, the word 'RAPIST' burned into the grass as Coach Rick ran over.

"They'll have all this cleaned up by game time." Coach Rick says, "So, let's get our heads back in the game, guys. We can let this get to us, or we can take the field and how these people who we really are."

"And who exactly are we, coach?" Zach asked him.

"Apparently, we're the rapists." Scott stood with his arms crossed over his chest.

"I don't wanna hear that talk, okay?" The coach says, "We got a championship season ahead of us starting tonight. Going to prove these people wrong."

"How does winning a baseball game prove we're not rapists?" Questioned Zach.

"You got something to say, Dempsey?" Bryce questioned him.

"No. Nothing. You got something to say?"

"No." Bryce is glaring at the boy, "I'll save it for court tomorrow."

"Okay, that's enough. Ten minutes of long toss." Coach Rick tells the boys but they stay in place, "Let's go! Go, go, go!"

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗪𝗛𝗔𝗧 𝗛𝗔𝗩𝗘 you got to say for yourself?!" Jessica's dad makes his way towards Justin as he, Clay and Riley walk towards the school.

"People are watching." Jessica told her dad, trying to get him to stop.

"I don't give a damn!"

"I do! Hey!" Jessica moves to stand in front of her father, "Who do you think you're hurting right now?"

"What this boy did to you--,"

"He didn't do it." Jessica says, "Dad, please, just get in the car."

Greg, Jessica's dad, points at Justin, "You be very careful of yourself, young man.

The three watch as Jessica's father walks back to his car, Jessica and Justin staring each other down before the boy feels a hand pushing on his abdomen.

"Hey, it's okay." Riley mumbles as Justin locks his eyes on Riley's, the blonde giving him a soft smile, "Let's get inside."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞, 𝗪𝗘 need to get in there. We've got a plan." Clay sits next to Sheri as he sat with her, Justin and Riley in a booth at Monet's.

"What's the plan?" Asked Sheri.

Justin pulled bolt cutters out of his bag, sitting them on the table, "Boom."

"What the hell?" Riley looks down in disbelief.

"Seriously?" Sheri questioned, "That's the plan? Put those away."

Clay and Justin share confusing looks with each other, "What? Why?"

"Why not just break down the door?" The Holland girl questioned the two boys.

"Well, then because the door would be broken." Justin tells her, putting the bolt cutters back into his bag.

"Yes."

"What she's saying is we gotta do it without tipping them off that any of us were even there." Riley tells the two boys with a roll of her eyes, "Both of you are idiots."

"Thank you." Sheri gestures towards Riley, "Someone who understands?"

"And we do that how?"

Sheri glanced at Riley, "Let me handle this. I'll text you."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝙄 𝘿𝙊𝙉'𝙏 know about this." Tony tells Hannah and Riley as they stood next to the lockers, looking at Ryan who stood in front of his own.

"Why?" The two girls ask him.

"I don't know. I mean, look at him. He's staring at himself in the mirror." Tony says, their attention now back on Ryan as he actually checked himself out in the mirror in his locker, fixing his hair.

"Like you don't use a mirror." Riley playfully rolls her eyes, arms crossed over her chest as she leans back against the lockers, one foot propped up against them, "How much pomade does it take you every morning to look like that?"

"That's not the point." Tony glared playfully at the blonde, "This point is, we're too different."

"Different is good, okay? Opposites attract and all that." Hannah tells him.

"Now, go. Do something attracting." Riley said.

"No."

"Carpe Diem. Seize The day before it's too late!" Hannah smiles widely.

"Carpe Diem. Seize the day. Seize the fucking day." Tony says to himself as he walks over to Ryan.

"You think he'll be okay?" Hannah grinned, looking in Riley's direction.

"He'll be okay." The blonde smirked, eyes locked with Scott as he flashed her a smile as he walked past the two girls, him and Riley holding eye contact until he was out of sight.

"No way!" Hannah exclaimed, looking at Riley in excitement, "Mystery guy is Scott Reed!?"

"Would you keep your voice down?" Riley hissed, glancing around. "Seriously, the whole school does need to know who I've been keeping between my shee -- Look! Tony's coming back!"

"We are not done with this conversation, Riley Nicole!"

"If this backfires....," Tony tells the two girls, wrapping his arms around their shoulders as the three walked towards the school doors, "I'm coming straight to you."

"Okay. We will be there for you, always."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗛𝗢𝗪 𝗗𝗜𝗗 you guys even find this place?" Sheri asked as she followed behind Scott, who was putting the code to the lock in as she made sure to pay close attention to it.

"Find? No, you don't find the clubhouse." Scott tells her.

"You're invited." The other player she didn't know the name of told her.

"Oh, shit. I just realized, I have a test today, fourth period-,"

"Sheri fucking Holland." Bryce's voice spoke from behind her, making her turn around to find him walking towards them, "Never thought I'd see you here."

"She came bearing gifts." Scott says and Sheri brings out the small bag of weed from the backpack, showing it to the boy.

"Oh, shit." Bryce chuckled, "Juvie was good for you. Alright, ladies first."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬 𝗣𝗨𝗧 my picture in the box with, like, a hundred others." Sheri exclaimed as she now sat with Clay, Riley, and Justin, the three sitting in the library.

"Like -- like trophies?" Clay asked.

"Insurance." Justin said, "What happens in the clubhouse, stays in the clubhouse."

"We have to get those pictures." Clay said, " We'll go during the game."

"You go. I'm out." Sheri shakes her head.

"Wait. Why?"

"I can't go back there."

"Yeah, I get it." Justin glances over at Riley.

₊˚.༄𖥸

𝗦𝗖𝗢𝗧𝗧 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗘𝗗 at the Polaroid in his hand as Riley sat silently across from him, a tear rolling down her cheek as they two sat in a tense silence.

"Why didn't you tell me?" His voice cracks as he breaks the silence.

Riley shrugged, "I didn't know how to."

"This happened months before we got together. You were -- you were going through this when we got together, when we first slept with each other. Riley, he was still a senior when this happened. We -- we could--,"

"What can we possibly do? What can we do?" Riley asked him, "Huh? Yes, Mason Reynolds was a Senior, but we was also on the baseball and football team. He would have gotten away with it because of jock culture."

"Who knows about this?"

"Jeff, Bryce, Zach, Justin and Monty." Riley whispered, wiping the tears still falling from her eyes, "I begged him to leave me alone. He was always following me around, knew all of my classes, knew what I did on the weekends. He knew I attended every baseball game because of Jeff. I begged him to stop."

Scott stared down at the table as he listened to his girlfriend.

"I cried, and I tried pushing him off of me but I wasn't strong enough. I didn't even know what sex was yet! I wanted him to stop, but he didn't. He just kept going and going. And I begged Bryce to help me 'cause he was in the room, but he didn't want to jeopardize his place on the teams so he just walked out." Riley starts to tell him her story, "I didn't overdose on pills because of the death of my parents. My overdose wasn't because of what my dad did, it was because of what Bryce didn't do."

"I overdosed because of what Mason did to me, what Bryce let happen to me. I overdosed because I thought that dying would be better than admitting that some senior boy raped me. I felt worthless. I didn't think I would be good enough for anyone. I felt -- I felt like I--,"

Scott stands up to move next to the blonde, wrapping his arms around her waist and pulling her closer to him as she sobs in his arms, "Shh, baby."

"I'm sorry." Riley cried, "I'm so sorry."

"Hey, you have nothing to be sorry for." Scott kissed the top of her head, "I love you, and you mean everything to me. Do you hear me? I love you. So much."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬'𝗥𝗘 𝗜𝗡𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘." Riley caught up to Zach as the two of them made their way towards the clubhouse.

"Remember, act like I caught you going inside." Zach tells her as he gently grabs her by the arm, dragging her towards the clubhouse and opening the door, going inside the small building where Justin and Clay were digging around.

"Shit." Clay is the first to notice Zach and his cousin.

Zach lets go of Riley, "What are you doing in here?"

"Lee, come here." Justin holds his arms out for the blonde, who walks closer to him and lets him wrap his arms around her waist, keeping a great amount of distance between her and Zach.

"We know about the clubhouse." Clay tells him. "We know everything, and we're not the only ones."

Zach glanced at Riley, "Oh, you know everything? I don't think so."

"We know enough."

"Hey, just back off Dempsey." Justin held one of his hands up, keeping the other around Riley.

"Or what, Justin?" Asked Zach, "Gonna come at me? I wasn't scared of you even before you fell apart."

"Do what you want, Zach." Clay spoke, "I've already had the shit beat out of me once this week. It's not gonna stop us."

Zach turned back to him, "Really?"

"Yes."

"Cause it's gonna keep happening, Clay." Said Zach, "To you, to Justin. It doesn't stop. You can't take shots at the top and expect to not get him back."

Clay shrugged, "I'm not scared."

"Good." Zach spoke, "Lee."

Riley pulled herself out of Justin's hold and walked past Zach. Moving things around on the shelf, she pulled the box off, handing it over to Zach.

"You already have three of these." Zach tells Clay, sitting the box on the table, "There's the rest." He kissed the top of Riley's head before he starts to walk out.

"Wait, wait." Clay stops him, "It was you? Why the big mystery? Why couldn't you just talk to me? Tell me what was going on?"

"Cause I'm a fucking coward." Zach tells him, "And you're not."

"How did you find out it was Zach?" Clay asked, turning to his cousin.

Riley chuckled softly, "I know Zach's handwriting. I copy his Bio notes all of the time."

"How'd you know where the box was?"

Riley gave her cousin a soft smile as she turned to walk out, "I'll see you guys at home."

₊˚.༄𖥸

"𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗦𝗘 𝗣𝗛𝗢𝗧𝗢𝗦 go back, like, years." Sheri spoke as her, Clay and Justin went through the countless Polaroid pictures that had been in the box. Riley had gone and gotten in the shower since they got back to the house, promising to come help as soon as she got out.

"It's no wonder these fucking baseball players are so fucking tight." Justin says. "I mean, they're all covering each other's asses for this shit."

"These poor girls."

"That's the thing I don't get. I mean.....why are these girls getting themselves into the situation in the first place?" Clay questioned.

"Seriously, Clay?" Sheri looked at him, "You're gonna blame the girls?"

"No, I just - Look, I mean, this girl's laughing." Clay held up the photos, "Like she's having fun."

"Oh, my god. This is Nina, that girl on the track team." Sheri took the Polaroid from Clay's hand, "She's Jessica's friend."

"Shit, really?" Justin asked.

"Clay, you don't know what was happening in this photo. And you don't know what happened after." Sheri tells him.

"But clearly, no one's forcing her to be these." Clay says.

"Look, girls don't just "get themselves" into bad situations." Sheri said, "Guys make the situations bad. You don't know what it feels like to be a girl in that room."

"Uh, yeah, no I guess you're right." Clay says.

"I'm just saying, it's complicated."

"Yeah." Clay whispered.

"Shit. Shit, guys. Look." Justin said, staring at the polaroid in his hand.

"Oh, my god." Clay spoke, grabbing another Polaroid, "Wait, that's - that's Chloe."

"He did it to his own girlfriend." Sheri had a sad look on her face.

"This is how we take him down." Clay says.

"What do you mean?" Asked Justin.

"She's unconscious in these pictures." Clay said, "He's fucking raping her. If we show her these, maybe e can get her to report it. Maybe we can get her to turn against him."

"You think she will?" Justin questioned.

"I think we have to try." Clay said as Riley comes into the room, closing the door shut behind her, "Riley, look."

Riley walked over to them, taking the photo from his cousin's hand and looking at the photo, "That's Chloe."

"That's how we get to Bryce." Clay grinned, looking at his cousin and noticing the sad look on her face, and the tears in her eyes. "What? What's wrong?"

"You forgot a Polaroid." She whispers, eyes still staring down at the photo.

"What? We've looked at almost all of them." Sheri tells the girl.

"Not all of them." She says, laying the Polaroid out of her back pocket, "Here's one more."

Justin stood up from the floor as Riley handed the photo to her cousin, pulling the girl into his arms, "It's okay." He whispers.

"Riley....," Clay stared at the photo in shock.

Riley was laid on the same red couch as in the other Polaroids, eyes closed as a red haired boy laid on top of her, pants around his ankles as he smirked back at the camera and the person taking the picture.

"When was this?" Sheri looks up at the blonde, "You looked so young."

"I was. I was fifteen in that picture." Riley said, "Freshman year, Mason Reynolds. Baseball and football team. I wanted him to stop, but he just kept going. And Bryce fucking Walker knew because he did nothing to stop it. He just walked in, saw what was happening to me and just walked out."

"Riley, you need to tell someone." Clay tells his cousin.

"No." Riley shook her head, "No, it happened almost four years ago. I've put it behind me and that's where it needs to stay, where it's going to stay. Behind me. No one knows about this, besides you three, Scott, Bryce, Monty and Zach. This stays in this room, that picture gets burned and we never speak of it again."

Clay listened to the words of his cousin as he looked down the the Polaroids, noticing one flipped to the back.

Picking it up, he stared at the photo in shock as it was Hannah Baker, a varsity jacket hugging her body.

Bryce Walker's varsity jacket.