𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙏𝙔 𝙁𝙊𝙐𝙍 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟯
❝ 𝖡𝖱𝖸𝖢𝖤 𝖶𝖠𝖫𝖪𝖤𝖱, 𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗙𝗜𝗥𝗠𝗘𝗗 𝖣𝖤𝖠𝖣❞
❪ 𝘛𝘏𝘌      𝘎𝘖𝘖𝘋 𝘗𝘌𝘙𝘚𝘖𝘕 𝘐𝘚     
𝘐𝘕𝘋𝘐𝘚𝘛𝘐𝘕𝘎𝘜𝘐𝘚𝘏𝘈𝘉𝘓𝘌 𝘍𝘙𝘖𝘔       
𝘛𝘏𝘌 𝘉𝘈𝘋 ❫

𝟰𝟰. ╱ ✷      ❝ 𝗒𝗈𝗎   𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄   𝗐𝗁𝖺𝗍   𝗂
𝘁𝗵𝗶𝗻𝗸   𝗍𝗁𝖾   𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗯𝗹𝗲𝗺   𝗂𝗌 ❞
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

"𝙈𝙔 mother has a saying for this sort of thing. It means, 'the good person is indistinguishable from the bad'. I've heard my mother say it a thousand times....and I've never really thought about it until that day...when we got the news."

"And then I couldn't stop thinking about it."

"Yo, Jensen! Wake up!" Justin walks into the little shed that was turned into a bedroom for both Justin and Clay. "Your dad made waffles."

"What have we said about dirty dishes, Justin?" Clay rolls over in the bed, "You have lasagna over there from, like, four nights ago. You're not Dr. Fleming discovering penicillin."

"Dude, no one ever understands your jokes." Justin tells him, leaning down to shake Riley, who had come crawling into his bed earlier in the morning, "Hey, Lee, wake up. You're my ride and we're gonna be late."

"Five more minutes." Riley groans, rolling over to bury her face into his pillow.

"Oh, shit. I'm gonna be late. I've gotta get Ani." Clay groaned, looking at the time on his phone before a confused look overtook his face, looking over at his cousin, "When did she come in here?"

Justin shrugged, tugging on Riley's blonde hair, "Get the hell up, Riley!"

"I'm awake, you jackass!" Riley exclaimed, standing up and stomping out of the small shed.

"Again, when did she come in here?"

"Sometime this morning, two maybe three." Justin tells him, "Said she had a nightmare and didn't want to wake up your mom and dad."

Clay frowned, "Her nightmare are back?"

"Guess so."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗗𝗜𝗗 they say what happened?" Zach asked as him and Justin stood in front of Clay and Ani.

"That's all we know." Clay has his arms crossed over his chest, "I just wanted to get to you guys before it hits the news."

Justin swallows the lump in his throat as he rushes towards the trash can by the door, throwing up inside of it before walking out of the door and Clay moves to follow him.

"Sooner or later, everyone looks guilty. And given the right circumstances, the right motivation... who knows what any of us might do?"

Justin rushes out to the filed, beginning to cry for the loss of what used to be one of his best friends, hands coming up to rest behind his head, "Fuck."

"Hey!" Clay calls out as he walks towards Justin, "Are you...are you okay?"

"No, man. No, I'm not. I'm--," Justin turns around with a shrug, "--I'm fucking sad."

"You -- you are?"

"Yeah, I've known him since I was eight. He was the first person, besides Riley, that gave a hit about me, the first person to look after me, man." Justin wipes at his tears with his arm, "He was my fucking brother."

"I feel like he didn't look out for you, though." Clay tells the Foley boy.

"Dude, you don't know what you're talking about. Okay, Clay?" Justin walks closer to him, "You don't know everything. You think you have this idea that --," Justin takes a breath so that he doesn't say anything to Clay that he'll regret, "You knew what you knew. He was a fucking person, Clay. A human being. Now, he's fucking dead."

"Hey! Hey, Foley!" One of the baseball players rushes onto the field, out of breath from the running that he did, "Hey, Justin, you need to come on! It's Riley, come on!"

Justin and Clay share looks with each other before running after the boy.

"Wanting someone dead. Well, maybe that says less about who you are and more about what you have to lose."

"Once you start to think about it. I think it's entirely possible for a kid to kill another kid. And if a killer is sat beside you in class, you might not even know it."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀 𝙈𝙄𝙉𝙐𝙏𝙀𝙎 𝘽𝙀𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙀

𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 sits in her desk, staring blankly at the chalkboard ahead of her as her nightmare from the night before flowed through her mind.

"May I have your attention, please?" Principle Bolan's voice cuts in through the PA system, knocking the blonde out of her trance, "Moments ago, we received some extremely sat news from the Evergreen County Sheriff. Former Liberty student, Bryce Walker, was found this morning and has been confirmed dead."

Riley's lips part in shock as tears pool in her waterline and her breathe gets caught in the back of her throat. Everything around her grows quiet as she feels the blood pounding in her ears, feeling her throat closing as she struggled to breath.

Standing up, the blonde can feel her hands start to shake as a sob leaves her lips, causing everyone to turn in the direction of the Jensen girl.

"Riley?" Jessica sits up straighter in her chair, eyes focused on the girl in worry. "Riley, hey."

Not a word leaves the blondes mouth as she stumbles towards the door of the classroom, Monty jumping up from his seat and racing towards the blonde before she can hit the floor.

White noise fills her ears, and her eyes grow blurry with unshed tears as she clutches tighter to the jacket Monty is wearing, knuckles turning white the harder she hangs on to him.

"Riley? Riley, hey, listen to me. Listen to my voice!" Monty calls out to the blonde, who pays him no attention, "Riley! Riley!"

"Hey, somebody go get Justin." Jessica jumps up, rushing towards the blonde in the floor, "Get Justin!"

"I'm on the track team too, I'll go." Josh, one of the baseball players states before he sprints down the hallway, disappearing from everyone's view.

After what feels like hours, but in reality, was only a few minutes, Riley can see Justin dropping to his knees in front of her.

"What the hell is happening?!" Jessica calls out in a panic, looking down at the blonde who was physically shaking in front of everyone.

"She's having a panic attack." Justin doesn't take his focus off of Riley, "Riley, hey, Riley, listen to me. Focus on my voice only, okay?" He takes one of her shaking hands, placing her palm on his chest, right on his hearts so that she could feel him.

"What are you--,"

"Just trust me!" Justin says, keeping his focus on the blonde in front of him, pulling her out of Monty's arms and into his own, "Focus on my heartbeat, Lee. Focus only on me."

Riley closes her eyes, taking a few deep breaths as she listens to the sounds of Justin's beating heart, finally being able to breathe again.

"That's it. You're doing so good. That's it." Justin smiles softly, pressing a kiss to the top of her head.

"He's dead." Riley's voice is quiet, only the four surrounding her in the floor being able to hear her, "Bryce's dead."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

" 𝙅𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝘾𝘼 Davis probably had more reasons than anyone to want Bryce dead. Was it such a stretch to wonder whether she might have taken justin into her own hands?"

"We need to talk about Jessica." Ani spoke to Clay as they watched Jessica from the window in the computer lab.

"What about Jessica?" He asked.

"I don't know if this is anything." Ani reaches down to the bag sitting next to her feet and pulls out a folded-up piece of paper, "I really hope it isn't anything, but I found this in Bryce's room last night."

"You were in his room?"

"Is that your takeaway? It means that he was writing to her just before he died."

"Writing to her why?" Clay questioned, looking down at the paper.

"Can't stop thinking about you. Replaying that night in my mind." Ani reads from the paper that she colored in so that she would be able to see the words."

"Jessus."

"He was thinking about her and he planned to reach out. And if he did...,"

"The note didn't prove anything exactly."

"You really think she could do it?"

"But it raised a question."

"You really think she couldn't?"

"If Bryce had actually given it to Jessica, what would she have done?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝘼𝙉𝘿 finally, as your outgoing student body president, it is my distinct honor to announce next year's president-elect...Jessica Davis." Courtney stands in front of the entire school in the gym, a wide grin on her face.

Everyone begins to cheer for the Davis girl, Riley being that loudest for one of her best friends who just so happen to be sitting in front of her when the blonde leaned forward to place a playful kiss to her check.

Jessica stands up and makes her way over to where Courtney is standing behind the microphone sitting on the gym floor.

"Uh, thank you."

"You're welcome, baby!" Riley cheers for the girl once more, earning laughs from around her.

Jessica smiles widely as she stands in Courtney's place, "Uh....I know my speech was .... well, people had different opinions on my speech. And yeah, the administration did talk to me about it, but the thing they were mostly upset about what the profanity. I was like, "seriously? that's what you heard?" Fuck that. I'm pissed off. I'm gonna be pissed off until things actually change. Until the predators and the rapists are gone for good."

"Fuck rapists!" Casey stands up and yells, "Fuck Bryce Walker!"

"Never again."

"They think she's awesome." Ani walks over to Clay and Riley once the assembly was over, "I think she's awesome ... and sort of terrifying."

"You're right.'

"Look, the other day, you tried to warn me about Bryce." Ani spoke to Clay as Riley walked away from the two of them, "I thought I knew the whole story, but .... when that girl shouted Bryce's name just now ...,"

"Jessica never told you?" Clay asked, turning to look at her.

"She never said who it was."

"And you never put it together?"

"I didn't think it was a girl at Liberty. I didn't know the whole history."

"Yeah, there's a whole history." Clay told her, "And a history with Riley, but that's her story to tell you."

"I'm sorry." Ani apologizes, "That I shut you down."

"It's alright." Clay shakes his head, "I have this thing where I think I know what's best for everybody, Riley says that's not good for my health, and I keep not learning my lesson that I actually don't know shit."

"I think you know a lot." She smiled at him. "You know the whole history."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

" 𝙅𝙀𝙎𝙎𝙄𝘾𝘼 was angry. We needed to know just how angry."

"She's never here this late." Ani says as she and Clay look over to where Riley and Jessica were sitting, keeping their eyes on the Daviss girl.

"Is she waiting for someone?" Clay asked.

Jessica looks over to catch Clay and Ani looking over at her, "What?"

"What?"

"Look, I don't know anything about anything." Jessica stands up and walks the short distance to the two spying teenagers. "I haven't seen Bryce since court and I don't know how I fell about it, okay?"

"Okay, yes, sorry."

"So, he hadn't been in touch or anything?" Ani asked.

"Why do you care, Ani?" Riley now stands behind Jessica with her arms crossed over her chest and an eyebrow raised. "About Bryce?"

By now Jessica and Clay were also looking at the girl with questionable looks on their faces.

"I guess I don't really."

"Good." Jessica tells them, "So drop it."

"Clay, do you have your house key?" Riley asked as she walks back over with her bag on her back.

Clay looks up at her a teasing smirk on his face, "How are you always forgetting your keys?"

"It's a talent of mine." She shrugged her shoulders and taking the key that he holds out for her. "Thank you."

Ani waits until Riley is out of earshot before she turns back to Clay, "I know for a fact she's talked to Bryce since court because I saw it happen."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝙃𝙊𝙇𝙔 shit, are you serious?" Scott stares at Riley in disbelief as they FaceTime, the blonde sitting at her bay window, "Bryce is really dead?"

Riley sighs, "Yep. They fished him out of the river early this morning. Announced it over the PA this morning and caused a panic attack, which was the highlight of my day so there's that."

Scott frowned, "I feel horrible that I'm not there right now. Seriously, I'm thinking about changing schools just so that I'm closer. I hate that I'm not just a drive away when you need me."

"You are not giving up your dreams just because we're going through hell here." Riley tells him, "It's better if you aren't involved in all of the drama anyway."

"Riley, baby, I've been in the drama since the beginning. And I'm worried about you." He has a frown on his face.

"There's nothing to worry about, I'm fine." Riley smiles softly just as she hears her uncle calling for her, "Hey, Matt is calling me, I better go see what it is that he wants."

"Okay, I'll talk to you later. I love you."

"I love you."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

" 𝙔𝙀𝘼𝙃, that'd be great. I have to be home by a certain time." Ani spoke as she, Jessica and Riley walked out of the classroom together. "It's really lame, but..,"

"That's fine." Jessica shakes her head.

"Hey." Alex walks up to the three girls, causing them to stop and turn their attention to them. "My parents are both working splits tonight, so house to ourselves."

"Oh, amazing." Jessica smiles at him, "Oh, I actually have to study with Riley for Spanish tonight. Maybe this weekend?"

"Okay, yeah. Sounds good."

"Cool."

"Alright."

Riley raises an eyebrow, smirking as she notices Jessica walking away as Alex leans down to kiss her, making the Davis girl kiss him back.

Ani looks at her with the same expression.

"What?" Jessica looks at the two as Alex walks away.

"I didn't say anything." Ani holds her hands up in surrender.

"My face said everything." Riley smirked.

"Shut up!" Jessica tells the two, shoving Riley playfully. "Say it."

"It's not my place." Ani says, "But there didn't seem like a great deal of passion behind that kiss."

"Fuck! Do you think he noticed?" Jessica looks back in the direction that Alex had gone in.

"I don't know what boy notice. You think nothing, and then---,"

"We're having awful sex." Jessica pulls the two to the side, lowering her voice as she spoke. "I mean, awful. And I think it's me. I thought I was ready, but .... you know, all the stuff that I should feel good about just ... makes me feel nothing. And he tries so hard, I feel bad."

"Maybe you should try figuring it out on your own first?" Ani suggested to the Davis girl, causing Riley to slap a hang over her own mouth to stop the laughter from spilling at the look on Jessica's face.

"You mean like ...,"

"Masturbate."

"Shhh! Jesus!" Jessica looks around.

"So, I'm guessing you've never ...," Ani trails off, laughing a little, "I have to get to my next class but we'll go shopping after school."

Riley smirked, "You know what I think the problem is? I think it's awful because it's not Justin that you're having sex with. You don't want sex with Alex because you want it to be Justin. You know how I know that you want it to be Justin? Justin has a big mouth and I know what happened at the spring fling between the two of you."

Jessica's eyes grow wide as she looks at the blonde in front of her, "He told you?!"

"We tell each other everything. There are no secrets between Justin and I, which is crazy because I keep everything from Clay."

"Oh, what do you know about having a sex life? Your boyfriend is states away at collage and you are stuck here for the next few years!"

"There are multiple ways to have a sex life while your boyfriend is at collage. Phone's do exist, you know?" Riley smirked, "Besides, Scott likes to try new things, so it spices things up between the two of us. My sex life? It's fucking great."

Jessica grinned, "You are such a fucking bitch!"

"I know, help me sleep at night."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝙄 have never felt that way with sex before, have you?" Jessica asked the two girls sitting across from her as they giggled. "Like you have complete control over your own body."

"It's just different when you're by yourself." Anie tells her.

"No need to worry about making some embarrassing face." Riley smirked.

"Oh, my God, and if your boobs are doing something weird." Jessica's works make the two laugh, "Except....uh....there is this one part that didn't totally feel healthy. I started thinking of someone that I shouldn't have. Someone really bad for me. It's fucked up."

"Hey, whatever. It's just a fantasy, right?" Ani asked, shaking her head. "It doesn't mean anything."

"Well, I think it's part of this whole thing of, like....taking back control over my own body, you know? Rewriting my own story."

"Right. Yeah, like...you have to think about this person in order to get them out of your system for good."

"Yeah. Yeah, maybe that's it." Jessica leans back in her chair.

"Riley Nicole!" Justin calls from behind the counter, causing the blonde to turn in his direction, "You're supposed to be fucking helping me!"

"I'm coming, twinkle toes!" Riley calls back, shaking her head as she stands up from her chair, "He's so fucking needy."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗦𝗢 you're saying all that sex stuff ended with her--,"

"Maybe sleeping with someone she shouldn't have." Ani answered Clay after retelling him the whole encounter that happened between her and the other two girls.

"But she didn't tell you who?" Clay asked.

"Which leads me to believe it was someone .... really bad."

"Wait, Bryce?" Clay asked, earning a nod from Ani, "That's insane."

"She wanted to reclaim her power, rewrite her story." Ani argued with him.

"Jesus, Ani."

"I know. I know. It's .... No. No, there's no way."

"Yeah, but why else would she lie about seeing him?"

"Well, because he's dead."

"But why not tell us the truth?" Clay asked before coming to a realization, "Because you live with Bryce and I live with Justin."

"What if Jessica had acted on her fantasies and if things had gone very wrong?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝙎𝙊, how was your first day?" Clay asked Justin as he and Riley come into the shed-turned-bedroom after working at Monet's all day, well Justin worked all day while Riley had the day off but chose to annoy the Foley boy on his first day.

"Uh, turns out I'm a fucking genius at making lattes." Justin tells him, throwing his stuff onto the table and opens the refrigerator to pull out a plate with leftover food and a bottle of water to hand to Riley, "Oh, how come you're all dressed up?"

"Because I have a date." Clay answered, walking into Riley's view, the oldest of the two cousins looking at him in confusion. "Kind of a date. I mean, I'm hanging out with Ani at night some place."

"Shit." Justin and Riley looking at each other, trying not to laugh.

"You asked her out." Riley laughs.

"Kind of." Clay shrugged, a look of confusion spreading across his own face, "It was hard to tell. I...I asked her if she wanted to eat dinner...with me and she said yes."

"Okay. yeah, that counts." Justin chuckled. "Okay, so don't talk too much, cause you tend to get nervous and then just talk."

"Don't talk about other girls." Riley says, Justin nodding in agreement.

"And if she wants to have sex with you in the Prius, I would say just....think about it first."

"Wait. If she wants to what?" Clay asked just as Justin gets a text.

Justin pulls his phone out of his back pocket, unlocking it with his password of the day he and Riley became best friends, his smile slowly falling from his lips, "What the fuck?"

"What is it?"

"Uh, just...something I gotta deal with." Justin vagally states, "Where the fuck is the Village Motel?"

"Don't you have Tyler tonight?" Clay asked.

"Yeah, I got it." Justin turns around to look back at him, "Okay? Have fun. Go!"

Riley watches as Clay leaves before she turns to Justin, "Go.

"What?"

"Obviously, you have something to deal with so go do it. I'll take Tyler." Riley sends him a smile, "He's actually pretty good company...when you get passed the nerdy shit that he talks about."

"Thank you." Justin grabs her face, roughly pressing his lips against her forehead, "I owe you one."

"Yeah, you definitely do. And I expect you to tell me what was so important that we messed up Clay's babysitting duties."

"I will, I promise."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝘼𝙍𝙀 we supposed to be messing up Clay's schedule?" Tyler follows the female Jensen from her car towards Monet's.

"No, but had a thing he needed to deal with, so you get extra Riley time!" She flashes him a bright smile, thanking him as he holds the door open from him, "What Clay doesn't know will not--,"

"Clay?" Tyler questions, holding onto the strap of his backpack.

"--hurt him."

"Tyler? What are you doing? Where's Justin?" Clay asked the Down boy.

"He never showed. Riley came instead." Tyler points in her direction, the blonde sending her cousin a tight smile and a little wave.

"Wait, so you're just here by yourself with Riley?" Clay asked, looking up from his position of sitting at the small wooden table he sat at with Ani.

"Yeah. Should I just get her to take me back home?" Tyler asked, unsure of himself.

"Oh no, don't be silly. Join us." Ani tells the two, "Both of you."

"Are you sure?" Tyler asked. "I mean, 'cause it kind of feels like you two are...on a date, or..,"

"No." Clay shakes his head, "Definitely not a date. Here, sit down."

"You are a fucking idiot." Riley hissed into her cousin's ear as she and Tyler sat down at the table.

"Tell me about it."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗜 knew it." Ani smirked as she sits across from Clay in Monet's. "You totally thought it was a date."

"Whatever, can we focus? You said you think it was Bryce who texted Justin that night. Why?"

"Tyler and Riley found you, then I went home, and I found Bryce." Ani says, "I didn't put it together then, but he absolutely mentioned Justin. Said that he had been drinking at the Village Motel?"

"If Bryce told Justin about Jessica....," Clay trails off, turning his head towards the counter where Justin and Riley stood playing thumb war with each other before the two noticed the two sitting watching and gave them an innocent smile.

"I think Riley knows who he was texting also. She said it herself, those two don't ever keep anything from each other." Ani glanced over at the blonde, "We should definitely talk to him. What time does he get off?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬 and Ani watch Justin and Riley from Clay's car, "What do we even say? I mean, do we just ask him what happened?"

"Maybe we give him an out, say it was self-defense, or....they were fighting and Bryce hit his head."

"Wait, look." Clay tells the girl as Riley heads off in the opposite direction of Justin after doing a stupid handshake the two had made up one night, watching as Justin gets into Jessica's car with her. "What do we do? Do we follow them?"

"I don't know." Anie says, "I think we have to follow them so that we have the option of having followed them because if we don't, we won't."

"I totally understood that, which is frightening, but yes."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘 on, Tyler, keep your head up." Tony spoke to the boy he stood in the ring with.

"Come on, Tyler." Alex makes a move to stand next to Riley on the outside of the ring.

"Come on, Ty. You got this!" Riley cheers for him, pulling down the sleeves of Scott's oversized Liberty Varsity Jacket over her hands.

She cheers louder for him as he boxes with a random guy from the gym.

"Alright, I'm callin' it." Tony calls out to Tyler, making his way into the ring. "You win."

Tyler throws his hands into the air, a big smile on his face, "I won!"

"You're on fire today, Tyler." Alex smiled.

"On fire and fast as hell." The guy he was boxing stated proudly.

"Yeah."

"I mean, you were fighting like you were angry."

"Angry? No. No happy." Tyler laughs, taking the padded helmet from his head.

"You fought free." Tony tells him, "What's that about?"

Tyler shrugged.

"Well, it was fucking awesome." Alex high fives him, "Let's hit the heavy bag."

Tony turns to Riley with a smirk, "For old times sakes?"

"I think my mother was right, that the good person really is indistinguishable from the bad. The trick was trying to tell who just wanted Bryce dead, and who could actually kill."

"But if the killer wasn't Jessica, then who was it?"

"Who, out of everyone we knew, would be most likely to pull the trigger?"