𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙏𝙔 𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙀𝙀 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟯
❝ 𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗢𝗡𝗘 𝖨𝖲 𝖠 𝗟𝗜𝗔𝗥 ❞
❪ 𝘐𝘍      𝘠𝘖𝘜'𝘙𝘌 𝘽𝙍𝙀𝘼𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂,     
𝘠𝘖𝘜'𝘙𝘌 𝘼        𝙇𝙄𝘼𝙍 ❫

𝟦𝟥. ╱ ✷ ❝ 𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗿𝘆𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗂𝗌 𝖺 𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿. 𝗂𝖿
𝗒𝗈𝗎'𝗋𝖾 𝗯𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗴, 𝗒𝗈𝗎'𝗋𝖾 𝗮 𝗹𝗶𝗮𝗿 ❞
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

❝𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙍𝙔𝙊𝙉𝙀 is a liar. If you're breathing, you're a liar. I'm a liar. No questions. The truth can be dangerous. Lies are easier. Until they aren't anymore. Zach Dempsey lied about what happened at homecoming."

"Mrs. Walker, it's still possible that Bryce just left on his own accord." The Sheriff tells Nora as Ani overhears the conversation between the adults and decides to listen in.

"He hasn't touched his back accounts or his credit cards since Friday." Nora tells him, "His phone goes to voicemail."

"Does he usually take your calls?" He asked.

"I'm sorry?"

"Maybe you and Bryce had been arguing? Was...was he happy at home?"

"Was he happy?" Nora questioned in disbelief.

"I mean no offense, ma'am."

"Clay Jensen was lying to you all. He knows something." Nora says, "Something happened at that high school homecoming."

"It seems like a whole lot happened, but until we know something specific, we can't bring him in again."

"Well, then talk to his friend. Tony. Or his cousin, Riley." Nora says, "They all had issues with my son."

"With all due respect, ma'am, they weren't the only ones."

Nora turned her head and noticed Ani standing there, causing the woman to walk towards the door and close it, "Clay Jensen, Sheriff. There's a history there and you know it."

"Clay told me about Zach, but I never told Clay what I heard about him. Like I told you, I didn't know Clay that well. Though I know he was preoccupied with Bryce having gone missing."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝗪𝗜𝗟𝗟 you delete that text already?" Scott asked his girlfriend as they sat in his car which was parked in the parking lot of the school, the boy back in Evergreen for a few days, "What was he even apologizing for?"

"My overdose and Freshman year with Mason." Riley says, "I know that Bryce did horrible, fucked up things but at one point in time we were friends. I had sleepovers with him and Justin when we were in Elementary school. And I know that what he did was unforgivable, but he's just a kid and he was trying to do better."

"I know. I know, baby." Scott helps over the console of his car, wrapping his arms around her waist, letting her cry into his shoulder, "I know."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙔 was worried for himself, where he usually was worried about his friends."

"How'd you sleep?" clay asked Tyler as the Down boy walked into school, followed by Riley.

"Better I guess." Tyler tells him.

"Uh, Alex stayed with you?" Clay asked, "And Tony gave you guys a ride with Riley."

Tyler nodded his head.

"Awesome. Awesome. So, hey, how about making an appointment to talk to Dr. Singh?" Clay says.

"Why?"

"You know, just someone to talk things through with, who can help." Riley said, holding onto his arm.

Tyler looked down at her, "But I have you guys."

"You do. You definitely do." Clay stammers, "It's just...maybe she can help in way that we can't."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝙄 set up a schedule. Who picks him up in the morning, who takes him between what classes, after school, nightly check-ins. If we spread it around, it's not that bad." Clay explained to everything that knew what happened with Tyler, "I'll tell you the URL. It's password protected."

"There's like, this insanity of us doing this at all, and then there's the insanity of, "Oh, my god, you build a website"." Jessica took the Ipad to look over the schedule.

"I didn't build it per say, it's really just storage space." Clay says.

"That's a lot of coordination. My brain injury hurts." Alex said.

"How long do we have to do this?" Cyrus questions.

Justin sat up in his seat, "'Til he gets better."

"So.. forever."

"People do get better." Justin tells her, "They do. And so will Tyler."

"I guess we'll get to summer and see how he is." Riley says with a sigh and a frown on her face, "And maybe Senior year, it'll be fine."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

" 𝗜𝗧 wasn't even a deputy, it was the actual sheriff." Ani tells Clay and Riley once she finds them in the library. "She wants him to go after you two and Tony. And she things something happened at homecoming."

"I mean, if we find out where Bryce went, if we can point them in a direction...,"

"You think he just left town?" Riley asked, looking around.

"Or he's hiding." Said Clay, "Or who knows? Maybe he assaulted another girl. Maybe he knew his luck was about to run out."

"Maybe Zach knows." Ani says, not noticing the tension in Riley's shoulders at her words.

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝙕𝘼𝘾𝙃 lied. And Zach had a clear reason to hurt Bryce. Especially after the homecoming game."

"So, yeah, it was Bryce." Zach handed Clay his phone back after looking at the picture of him being tackled by Bryce during the homecoming game.

"After all, violence begets violence."

"I saw this picture and I thought you should know; you know? Because...I mean, it looks like he did it on purpose. And this one." Clay showed him another picture, "It's like you're looking at him, but crazy night, I guess, so you didn't see him."

"Who took these pictures?" Zach questioned.

"Well, everyone was taking pictures." Ani tells him.

"But it probably doesn't matter. Your knees' gonna heal, right?" Asked Clay, "No harm done."

"No harm done? I have handwritten letters from three different schools coming into this year, you think they'll wanna recruit me after they know my knee had two surgeries?" Zach asked, "No! I'm fucking done."

"But you didn't know he did it? Or you didn't tell anyone?" Ani asked, not missing the way the Dempsey boy glanced at Riley out of the corner of his eye, "Why wouldn't you have reported him?"

"I've been fighting with Bryce Walker my whole fucking life. Okay? Ever since Pop Warner in the fifth grade." Zach tells him, "Now that he's gone, more than ever. Monty, Luke, Taylor; all those guys, they're Bryce's boys. they wanted to do thinks his way. I just wanted to do things better. I didn't want my time at Liberty to be about the Clubhouse and ... girls getting raped, you know. It's just -- I knew that we could do better."

"But Zach's anger at Bryce was about mor than football. You see, Zach had a secret."

"If any of those find out it was Bryce that took me down......that he was the one that took me out for good...then he wins." Zach says, "And I've worked so hard to put Bryce in the past."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝙒𝙀 all knew Bryce and Zach were at odds, but Zach had another secret he was keeping."

"Zach! Zach! Zach!" Riley thew herself onto the boy's back as she and Chloe walked up to the football player with Scott, who was visiting his parents and girlfriend.

"Whoa, there, spider-monkey." Zach laughed, making sure that the blonde wouldn't fall from his back.

"Hey, number eighty-five." Chloe grinned.

"Hey, there." Zach grinned, pushing Riley up more on his back, "What's up, you two?"

"Well, I just wanted to let you know that I am assigned to be your official cheerleader for Spring Workout." Chloe tells him, "So .. for luck." 

"Lucky me." Zach says as she pins the pink rabbit's foot in her hand onto his Letterman jacket,

"Unlucky rabbit." Scott eyed the rabbit's foot.

"Shut up, asshole." Riley kicked her leg out to kick her boyfriend in the side.

Chloe laughed, "You are my new hero." She kissed Zach on the cheek before she walked away.

"Did you know Zach got Chloe's number for Bryce in the first place?"

"What?" Zach grinned as he noticed Clay looking at him and he sat the blonde back onto her feet.

"So, you're her hero, but Bryce is still her boyfriend?" Clay teased him.

"Man, shut up!" Zach laughed before walking away, just as Ani walked down the stairs towards where the two cousins were standing.

"I have to get back to my parents' house, but I'll see you tonight." Scott kissed Riley before walking off, "I love you!

"I love you!"

"I think Zach always regretted that move."

"You and Zach Dempsey? Friends? Project partners? Secret online gamer pals?" Ani asked Clay.

"D, none of the above." Clay said.

"He's hot." Ani said, Riley nodding in agreement.

"Your boyfriend just walked off!" Clay exclaimed, looking down at his cousin, "How would you know Zach is hot anyway?"

"Because any teenager girl with two eyes can clearly see that he's hot." Riley said.

"But he's too hot. I don't trust too hot." Ani says.

"You don't, huh?" Clay asked. "Do you trust me?"

"She said she didn't trust hot, not nerdy." Riley smirked, dodging the hit Clay sent to her head.

"Oh, you tap me, but I escape." Ani said, "Everybody trust you."

"Not everyone." The cousins say in sync.

"That's not what I see, I see the hero that holds everything together." Ani tells Clay.

"Why do you say that?"

"No, it's just an observation. I meant it as a good thing." Ani tells him. "It's a beautiful thing, to be so trusted.

"Well...maybe I'd like to trade it for hot someday." Clay said.

"Noted."

"Yeah, like that's gonna happen."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞, Zach's gym bag." Clay turned around to look at Ani as she sat down behind him.

"Why do athletes think a gym bag is an accessory?" Ani asked, glancing over to where Zach was sitting with Riley sitting on the top of his desk. "Those two seem close."

"They are. Riley's helped a lot of people." Clay says, "The rabbit's foot, it's gone. It was there this morning."

"He lost it maybe." Anie tried to think logically.

"No, he took it off. Chloe gave it to him last spring." Clay tells her. "Bryce's girlfriend, Chloe."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝗜 think Chloe's at Sacred Heart, but we don't talk anymore." Jessica tells the two, now joined by Riley.

"But you two seemed pretty close after Spring Fling." Clay said, "You, her and Riley."

"Yeah, friends come and go." Jessica says, her and Riley playfully winking at each other, "Riley is kinda there to stay."

"Really?" Ani asked, "Just like that?"

"Were Chloe and Zach ever anything?" Clay asked.

"Just friends." Riley answered.

"Chloe had major Stockholm when it came to Bryce." Jessica says.

"So, you don't think Chloe and Zach had any secrets?" Ani asked.

"We know Chloe had secrets." Jessica pointed between herself and Riley before she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Like?" Clay asked, looking between the two girls.

"Like.... she was pregnant." Jessica said.

"And Bryce was the father."

"Everybody at Liberty had secrets they had to protect. Secrets bring more secrets, and violence, more violence."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝗖𝗛𝗟𝗢𝗘!" Riley called out with a sigh as Clay gave her a look to do so as the other blonde bounced her way out of the school doors. "I can't believe you forced me to come here. I have a video chat with Scott in half an hour."

"I will get you back home in time for your video chat with Scott."

The smile on Chloe's face is instantly washed away when she takes in the other two people standing with Riley.

Pulling the blonde into a tight hug, Riley mumbles, "I'm sorry for the ambush", into the other blonde's ear, pulling out of the embrace with a fake smile on her lips.

"Clay, what are you doing here?" Chloe asked the male Jensen cousin, glancing in Ani's direction for a split second.

"Did you hear about Bryce?" He asked, causing Riley to roll her eyes at her cousin's stupidity.

"What? What about him?"

"He's missing." Ani spoke to the blonde.

"Chloe, Bryce has missing since the homecoming game." Riley sighs, crossing her arms over her chest as she avoids eye contact with the girl in front of her.

"I haven't heart." Chloe looks over at Ani with a hard look on her face that softened a bit when she glanced in Riley's direction. "But we broke up, like, months ago. So...,"

Clay shakes his head, "Do you have a minute to talk?"

"No, I really don't. Sorry." Chloe yells him before hugging Riley again, "I'll see you later, right?"

"Yep." The Jensen girl sends her a tight smile as she walks away.

"Did you ever tell him?!" Ani calls out to the blonde causing her to spin back around, "That you were pregnant?"

"Not here, okay?"

"Are you fucking serious?" Riley hisses at the girl standing next to her cousin before looking over at Clay, "Clay, control your pet before I do it myself."

"Chloe had a secret that led right to Bryce."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝗗𝗜𝗗 you tell Bryce?" Clay broke the silence between the four sitting in Monet's.

"No....I, uh....no." Chloe looks down at the table as Riley reached for her hand, sending the blonde a small smile. "Look, Clay, I know what you think....but....I really felt like I loved him.

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝘼𝙉𝘿 now I'd like to introduce our next candidate for Liberty president, Jessica David."

Everyone claps for Jessica as she walks up to podium, Riley intertwining her fingers with Scott's as everyone calmed down.

"My name is Jessica Davis. I am running for president because I want change. I don't mean better dances or new cheer uniforms...or healthy choices in the vending machines. I mean real change."

"Bitch!" Monty calls out.

Riley stands up, turning in the direction he was sitting with a few other football players, "Hey, De La Cruz! Shut the fuck up before I come back there and make you! Or better yet, let me get your dad out here! He'll come straighten you out, won't he?!"

Monty's jaw clenches as he looks down at his hands.

"You know what, Monty? Fuck you!" Jessica points in their direction, leaving Riley with a smirk on her face, "Fuck all of you jocks!"

"You tell 'em baby!" Riley calls out as Scott chuckled, "Except you, you're too precious." She turns to her boyfriend to kiss him.

"I was raped by the king of the school and I stayed silent."

Riley turns around to look at Clay with wide eyes, "What the hell is she doing?"

"I don't know."

"I protected the jock who raped me because...I don't know." Jessica laughs, shrugging her shoulders. "Because I thought it would hurt more to speak up...because I thought it would ruin my reputation. But I am no longer staying quiet. No more! So, here's my promise. If you elect me, I will take down the jocks at this school."

"Yeah!"

"But an end to their bullshit. I will not tolerate the ones who protect them, and I will demand that their victims no longer remain silent.

"Go, Jessica!"

"Because their silence destroys us all." Jessica says and everyone cheers for the Davis girl.

"Zach hides his pain well, which is why he saw Chloe so clearly. And why he wanted to do what he could to make hers go away."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝗦𝗢...yeah, we hangout sometimes." Zach sits with Riley, Clay and Ani outside of the school at some picnic tables, him playing with the rabbit's foot that Chloe had given him.

"And you didn't tell us earlier because....?" Ani trailed off, seeing the slight eye roll from Riley out of the corner of her eye.

"It's not my place." Zach answered.

"Bryce never found out?" Clay questioned.

"Nope."

"Okay."

"What about when she broke up with him?" Clay asked.

"She didn't explain. She just broke up with him." Zach shrugged, "I guess he was pissed, but he left her alone."

"How pissed?"

"How is he supposed to know?" Riley asked, "That was a stupid fucking question even for you, Clay."

"Look, I gotta go to practice." Zach tells the three of them, grabbing his crutches from Riley as she helped him stand up.

"Was Zach telling the truth? Yes and no. But we'll get to that."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

"𝘽𝙍𝙔𝘾𝙀 disappeared, and we all felt the tremors. And nobody knew if the earthquake was coming. Clay didn't believe Zach's story. He was certain Bryce knew about the abortion...and took it out on Zach's knee at Homecoming because of it."

"If Bryce didn't know then it can't have anything to do with anything." Ani tells the cousins as they sit in Clay's car.

"So, you're convinced Bryce didn't know?" Clay asked.

"I'm sure he didn't." Ani says.

"Why? Because you're so close to Bryce?" Riley leans forward, "Because you're living in his house? That automatically makes you the Walker whisperer? Get over yourself, Ani."

"Riley." Clay sends her a look over his shoulder, making her let out a huff and fall back into the seats with her arms crossed.

"Chloe didn't tell him." Ani defends Bryce after a moment of silence.

"So she says."

"No, I know she didn't."

"How do you know?" Riley asked, "Tell us since you're on the Bryce defense train."

"How do you know?" Clay asked this time, "Did you ask him?"

Ani clenches her eyes shut for a moment, "Clay, Riley...,"

"Jesus, did you talk about Chloe, his girlfriend?" Clay asked in disbelief.

"We talked about Chloe when she broke up with him." Ani tells them.

"You've been lying to us for months!"

"No, I -- I just haven't told you everything." She admits.

"Right. You've been lying to me since the first time I drove you home."

⋆𐙚₊˚⊹♡

𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 lays in her bed, eyes casted to the ceiling as she listens to the voicemail Bryce had sent to her as tears pooled in her eyes.

"I know you said that you didn't ever want to hear from me again, I just...I needed to get some things off of my chest, so I sent you a separate voicemail from this one. I'm....Lee, I'm so fucking sorry."

AUTHOR'S NOTE!
I'M BACKKKK!!! Now, I don't know how often I'll be posting chapters on here, but I'm getting back into this story to finish off Riley's story! Only one and a half seasons left to go!

Anyway, we all should know what's going to happen next chapter..... we find out that Bryce is dead! So, we all know that Riley and Bryce were friends growing up and that's sort of how they're in the same friend group (including her being friends with Jeff way before that), so how do you guys want Riley to react to hearing that Bryce is dead?

I feel like I should have her bawling but I'm also not sure on that idea so I wanted to see how ya'll would want her to react.

Also, would it be a terrible thing to know that I already have her finding out Monty is dead written? I also have a few scenes written out for season 4 for different things
because I seriously cannot wait to get into that season!