𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙏𝙔 𝙁𝙄𝙑𝙀 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟯
❝ 𝗙𝗥𝗔𝗠𝗘 𝖮𝖥 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗠𝗘 ❞
❪ 𝘼𝙉𝙂𝙍𝙔,      𝘠𝘖𝘜𝘕𝘎 𝙈𝘼𝙉      ❫

𝟰𝟱. ╱ ✷ ❝ 𝗂'𝗆 𝘀𝘂𝗿𝗲 𝗂𝗍'𝗌 𝗃𝗎𝗌𝗍 𝖺
𝗺𝗮𝘁𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗳 𝘁𝗶𝗺𝗲 𝖻𝖾𝖿𝗈𝗋𝖾 𝗂'𝗆 𝗂𝗇
𝗍𝗁𝖾 𝗳𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗲 𝗈𝖿 𝗯𝗹𝗮𝗺𝗲
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

"𝙄 mean, what does a killer look like? I'm actually asking. Because we had no idea. We thought maybe Jessica had it in her but wanting Bryce dead and actually going through with it are two very different things. It takes a certain kind of person, but who?"

"Do the flowers make it seem like were trying too hard?" Lainie messes with some flowers sitting on the kitchen table, Matt standing next to her.

"A little." Riley shrugged her shoulders, being honest with her aunt.

"Are we flower people?" Matt questioned his wife, "I feel like we're not flower people."

"We're not."

Matt nods his head, "I agree with the niece. We should just be us."

Riley smirked, "I don't think we should do that either."

"Hush, you!" Matt playfully scolds his niece, greeting Clay as he walks in, "Hey, Kiddo. You ready?"

"For?" Clay asked.

"Are you serious?" Riley's jaw drops at her cousin's words, "Justin's home visit, dumbass."

"Watch your language, please, Riley." Lainie turns her attention to her son, "The social worker is going to be here any minute."

"That's today. Awesome. Do I have to be here for it?" He asked.

"Clay, it's very important that we show them that we're providing Justin with a happy, healthy home environment." Lainie tells her son.

"Are you...you still feel about all this, right?" Matt asked, looking between his son and niece, "The both of you?"

"Oh, yeah. No, totally. I'm good. I...just had something I had to do." Clay shoots a look to his cousin, "I'll figure it out. Happy, healthy, got it. All good."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝙏𝙃𝙀𝙉 the news bulletin went out. You know the one I mean."

Justin races down the stairs, wrapped in his bathrobe from having just gotten out of the shower, phone in his hand, meeting Clay and Riley by the stairs.

"They are particularly high strung today." Clay informs Justin.

"Hey, Bryce was shot."

"What?"

"Do what?" Riley's eyes grow wide as she stares at him in disbelief.

"The Evergreen County Register reported it this morning." Justin tells them, handing his phone over to Riley so that the Jensen cousins could read the article.

"And suddenly, there was only one person who came to mind."

"Shot....with a gun."

"It's fucked up, right?" Justin asked in a whisper.

"Don't....don't say anything to them yet."

"Believe me--,"

"I just, uh, have to, uh...make a call real quick." Clay tells the two, them watching him as he walks out the back door to where their bedrooms were.

"Why is he acting so weird?" Justin asked the blonde.

"It's Clay, when the hell is he not acting weird." Riley sighs before making her way up the stairs.

"One person, one student at Liberty who'd had it the worst and had been through the most. And that was Tyler Down."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝙒𝙃𝙔 did we think Tyler had a gun? Well, because it wouldn't have been the first time. You remember Spring Fling? The false alarm? Yeah, there was nothing false about it."

"So, I stepped in front of him." Clay tells Ani as they watch him at across from them at a table in Monets.

"In front of his gun?"

"And I asked him not to do it."

"Clay, that is insane." Ani tells him.

"Yes, it was a really bad choice. That....I think I'd make again." Clay says to her, "Exactly the same way."

"You're a mad man." Ani shakes her head.

"I get it. You think it was wrong."

"I think it was stupid. And brave." Anie says, "But it doesn't mean you have to be the hero all the time."

"It kind of does though. Until we know he's okay."

"You've got to put on your own mask first. When a plane loses pressure and there's no oxygen, you've got to put on your own mask first."

"Is yours on?"

"Sure. So how can I help you with yours?"

"Nothing happened back then, and everyone, Clay most of all, dedicated themselves to helping Tyler get better. But you couldn't help but wonder what if Tyler had killed anyway? What if he killed Bryce?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗪𝗘 gotta stop at the ATM on the way." Justin tells Clay as they enter the bedroom to grab their stuff for school, Riley following them inside.

"What? No. Why?" Clay questioned him.

"Because Jessica, she needs a fancy date after everything." Justin tells him, "Dude, what is wrong with you today? We have a free pass for once."

"Tyler asked me and Tony to get rid of another gun." Clay says to Justin and Riley, causing the two to stop and look at him in disbelief, "Because he was quote, "done with it". And we think he might have it at school."

"Fuck. You don't think that he--,"

"Look, I don't want to, but...Jessica's watching him next two periods, but we gotta get there."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝘼𝙉𝘿 let's face it, it was easy to think those things about Tyler because, well, Tyler was weird. All those characteristics they say killers have, lack of social skills, a fascination with death, a deep-seated feeling of rejection from the world...Tyler had them all."

"You wouldn't know it just by looking, but deep down, Tyler had the ingredients of that killer cocktail. Angry, young and man."

Riley, having gotten to the school faster than Clay and Justin due to her always driving way pasted the speed limit, quickly catches up to Tyler just as Monty and the football players walk past him.

"Looking good, Riley." Monty smirks at one of his friends as she loops her arm with Tylers, "What would Scotty boy say if he saw you getting cozy with this freak?"

"Get lost, Monty." Riley rolls her eyes at the boy.

"Tyler was unpredictable, you see. He seemed primed to snap all over again. I wouldn't find out why until much later. None of us would. And it would leave Riley in pieces."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝘼𝙉𝘿 the day we learned Bryce was shot, we all felt responsible. But no one felt more responsible for Tyler than Clay. Clay needed to believe Tyler could be saved. Otherwise, in a way, Clay pulled that trigger too."

"I'm just saying, it's a guy, with binoculars, watching people." Clay rants as he walks out of the movie theater next to Ani, Tyler and Riley following behind them as they shared what was left of their popcorn. "That's the whole movie. How is that not boring?"

"Clay, everything that you watch is boring to you." Riley rolled her eyes at her cousin.

"Uh, that's what makes it so great, right?" Ani asked, trying to defend the movie, "I mean, he is stuck behind glass, in a wheelchair, and he still figures out how to play the hero."

"Totally agree." Tyler nods his head in agreement.

"Thank you, Tyler."

"I feel like we just watched two very different movies. Riley, back me up!"

"Not getting in the middle of it."

"The camera was cool." Clay shrugged.

"Exakta VX." Tyler names it off, pointing back at the movie poster behind them, "Classic."

"It is not about the action, Clay. It's about...," Ani trails off before looking behind her, "Help me out, Tyler, Riley."

Riley holds her hands in the air, "Like I said, not getting in the middle of this lovers fight."

"Well, terrible things happen every day. But we never really stop to notice, you know? If we spent a little bit more time watching and listening, you know, to...our neighbors, to life around us, you know, maybe the bad things wouldn't happen so much."

The three look at Tyler as he eats more popcorn.

Tyler, seeing the looks on their faces, looks at Ani, "Or is that, like, not what you meant?"

"That is exactly what I meant, you brilliant, brilliant man." Ani reaches up to kiss him in the cheek, sending Riley into a round of giggles at the look on Tyler's face.

"I'm gonna go get...a free refill of popcorn. To take home, so...,"

"And I'm going to drive him home before I head to Jeff's house." Riley sends her cousin a small smile, "Monthly dinner at, so."

"Who's Jeff? I thought she was dating Scott?" Ani looks confused.

Clay sighs, "Jeff is...was Riley's best friend. Died, car accident."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝙄𝙏 was hard to know, thought. Was Tyler lying to us? Or just being Tyler?"

"Okay, if he has it and we get it from him, what then?" Justin asked, sitting next to Riley and across from Ani and Clay in the library. "Do we turn him in?"

"First, we make sure he doesn't hurt himself or anyone else, and then .... we'll figure it out."

"Do you think you can do that again?" Riley questions her cousin, a worried expression on her face, "Do you think that you should, Clay?"

Ani turns to look back at Tyler to find him looking over at them from where he sat at the computers, and she turns back around. "Well, let's just prey it's a non-issue."

Justin scoffed, "Okay, but how can we know for sure?"

"Yeah." Zach's voice catches their attention as he hobbles over to them on his crutches, "How can we know?" Riley moves to help him sit down, laying the  crutches against the table, "And, uh, why aren't we calling the police?"

Clay looks over at Justin and Riley in disbelief, "Seriously? You told him?"

"Zach is just as much a part of this as we are." Riley shrugged her shoulder.

"He's been pretty clear he doesn't want to be part of this." Clay argued.

"Guys." Zach interrupts the dispute between the two boys. "We should call the cops."

"Do you really think that?" Asked Clay. "Or is this just your chance to do what you wanted to do all along?"

"Look, forget about Spring Fling. Forget about everything, okay? Somebody shot Bryce. Tyler has a gun." Zach argued, "Besides, do you really want someone who has a gun around your cousin who has been afraid of guns since she was fourteen?"

"Dude." Justin shoots Zach a look, knowing that Riley wouldn't want Ani, someone that they hadn't known long and that she didn't full trust, to know about her past.

Clay looks at his cousin with a guilty expression as he sighs, "Look, I know. But he didn't have any reason to kill Bryce, did he?"

"Actually .... he did."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝙒𝙃𝘼𝙏 are you doing here?" Zach moves towards Tyler, who was walking away from the vending machine after getting a snack. "It's summer."

"Um ... waiting for Justin and Riley."

"Oh, so it's Justin and Riley's day? To babysit?" Zach asked, a smug smirk on his face.

"We're hanging out." Tyler tells him, confusion laced in his words at the jock standing in front of him.

"And they just let you roam the halls?"

Tyler lets out an airy laugh, "They're both in class. They know I'm here."

"Soo ...," Zach blocks him from walking away, "What? You're all better? You're, like, safe now?"

"Why do you hate me?" Tyler asked.

"Tyler, I don't hate you, okay?" Zach says to the teenager standing in front of him, "I'm scared of you. And to be honest, I don't trust you."

"Well, I don't trust you." Tyler says, "And I don't trust you won't call the cops."

"Yeah? Well ... I'm not the one you need to worry about." Zach tells him, turning to walk away.

"Wait, what's that mean?" Tyler calls out to him.

Zach turns back around to face him, "Bryce saw what happened at Spring Fling. He knows everything."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗪𝗛𝗬 would you tell him that?"

"Because he was .... I don't know why." Zach sighs just as the bell rings.

"And then, Tyler caught onto us."

Clay hurries to stand up as Tyler rushes out of the room, pointing at Zach as he does and tugging Riley up, "No cops. And you, come with me, he'll listen to you."

Riley reluctantly follows after Clay as the two chase the boy down, finally coming to the conclusion that he'll be in the photo development room.

Tyler turns around to face the two, "Hey, Clay, Riley."

"Ty."

"You can look of you want." Tyler motions towards his backpack that was sitting on the table next to him.

Riley watches as Clay walks around the table to look inside of his backpack, not feeling the gun they were looking for just as someone else walks into the room.

"So, you still coming over to my house after school?" Tyler asked Clay, hands behind his back.

"Yeah, yeah, for sure."

"Cool. Can't wait."

"I'll stay with him." Riley sends his cousin a tight smile as Clay heads for the door.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗦𝗢 nobody's talking about Bryce." Tyler walks down the hallway with Riley and Tony, the blonde's nails tapping against her phone screen as she updated Scott on everything that was happening.

"I feel like a lot of people are talking about Bryce." Tony tells him.

"Not to me."

"Maybe no, but .... everyone's still talking."

"About how he got shot in the head?" Tyler asked, scoffing at the look Tony and Riley send him, "It's online. Tony, RJ."

"What?" The two asks in sync, cursing under their breaths as two police officers walk past them.

"Neither of you called the police?"

"Is there a reason we should've called the police?" Tony asked him.

"Tony." Riley hisses, hitting him on the shoulder.

"No, that's not--,"

"Because if we called the police, we're all in a shitload of trouble. You ... you know that, right?"

"Is that the only reason you didn't call them?"

"Did we help Tyler escape the darkness? Or was there never going to be an escape? We were just kids. How could we help someone change?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝘼𝙍𝙀 you still picking me up from the airport Friday?" Scott asks through the FaceTime call with Riley as she sits in the library.

"Yeah, I have Tyler Friday night though so he's coming too." Riley sighs as she gives him a half smile.

"Although with the circumstances of why I'm coming home this weekend, you don't look so happy." Scott frowns.

"Believe me, I am happy, it's just ... I don't know what to even feel. And with everything going on around us and people blaming people for Bryce's death, I just ...," Riley blinks back the tears she was threating to release.

"Do they ... do they blame you?"

Riley scoffed, "Not yet, but with the way Ani snoops and blames it on everyone else, I'm sure it's just a matter of time before I'm in the frame of blame."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝗘𝗩𝗘𝗥𝗬𝗢𝗡𝗘, minus Tyler and Alex, sits in Monet's, Justin and Riley dressed in their work t-shirts due to the shared nightshift they were on together.

"Tony and I will get rid of the gun." Clay tells the group.

"Because we just believe him?" Zach questioned.

"We believed you." Clay fires back at the Dempsey boy.

"So, where's Alex?" Zach asked with a shrug.

"He's on a ride-along with his dad." Jessica answers him, head behind held up by her hand. "Guess it's the only time they get to spend together nowadays."

"Yeah, okay, see, this is the things, guys. This is a murder investigation. And we're hiding Tyler and his gun--,"

Justin nudges Riley, turning his phone so that she could read the same article as him, "Bryce wasn't shot."

Clay looks over at him in confusion, "There was a hole in the back of his head."

"So the papers guessed it was a gunshot." Riley says, crossing her arms over her chest in a protective manner, "They were wrong."

Tony takes the phone from Justin's hands.

"It's saying he was beaten." Justin says.

"This ... this is fucked up." Zach begins to stand up, Justin trying to stop him, "No, you know what? You guys do whatever the hell you want. I don't want to know about it. Not anymore."

"They think it might be blunt force trauma and they're looking for the murder weapon." Tony looks up from reading the rest of the article. "They're dragging up the river on both sides of the bridge.

"Holy shit."

"The river?" Justin takes his phone back, "Let me guess, is that where you guys dumped Tyler's guns?"

"Correct."

"So, new plan needed for this one then." Clay looks around at them.

"Whatever you guys do with it ... I don't want to see it." Riley shakes her head as she stands up, hands shaking slightly at just the thought of the guns, "I can't, or I'll have another panic attack."

"Give me the gun." Justin spoke up as Riley leaves the table, "I'll deal with it."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝘽𝙀𝘾𝘼𝙐𝙎𝙀 maybe the person you're looking for isn't so obvious. Maybe there's someone you haven't even thought of yet. Because we all have a past."

"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 something in the mail. I'm....Lee, I'm so fucking sorry."

A tear rolls down Riley's face as she listens to the voicemail from Bryce again, a crumbled-up photo of two little kids smiling into the camera laying on the desktop in front of her.