𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙁𝙊𝙍𝙏𝙔 𝙉𝙄𝙉𝙀 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟯
❝ 𝖧𝖤'𝖲 𝖠 𝗚𝗢𝗢𝗗 𝗣𝗘𝗥𝗦𝗢𝗡 ❞
❪ 𝘐𝘕 𝙃𝙄𝙂𝙃 𝙎𝘾𝙃𝙊𝙊𝙇, 𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉 𝘖𝘕
𝘈 𝙂𝙊𝙊𝘿     𝘿𝘼𝙔, 𝘐𝘛'𝘚      𝙃𝘼𝙍𝘿     𝘛𝘖
𝙏𝙀𝙇𝙇     𝘞𝘏𝘖'𝘚     𝘖𝘕     𝙔𝙊𝙐𝙍     𝙎𝙄𝘿𝙀 ❫

𝟰𝟵. ╱ ✷      ❝ 𝗌𝗁𝖾   𝗱𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗿𝘃𝗲𝘀   𝘁𝗼   𝗸𝗻𝗼𝘄   𝗐𝗁𝖺𝗍   𝗁𝖾   𝖽𝗂𝖽   𝗍𝗈   𝗒𝗈𝗎. ❞
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗡𝗜𝗡𝗚 : 𝗗𝗘𝗧𝗔𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗗 𝗠𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡𝗦 𝗢𝗙
𝗥𝗔𝗣𝗘 𝗧𝗢𝗪𝗔𝗥𝗗𝗦 𝗘𝗡𝗗

     "𝗔𝗥𝗘 you . . . afraid of me?" Clay asked, moving close to Ani, causing her to back up more towards the beds and away from the Jensen boy. "Seriously?"

"Clay . . .,"

"What do you think I might do, huh? And you were searching my room, for what?"

"I don't know."

"Why were you asking around about me today?" Clay questioned her, dripping water from the rain onto his bedroom floor.

"Why didn't you tell me about that night?" Ani changed the subject from her to him. "With Bryce? And the gun?"

"It was a stupid mistake, and nothing happened."

"What about Hannah? You never told me about her."

"Why would I?" He asked, "There's plenty of shit you didn't tell me, isn't there?"

Ani laughed, "You really hated Bryce!"

"Yeah, I did. I told you that." He raises his voice, "Multiple times!"

"You hated him enough to point a gun at him."

"Uh-huh. Keep going."

"Why does nobody know where you were on Homecoming night?" Ani asked him.

"Jesus, how many people did you ask?"

"Justin said that you got in at one-thirty, Tyler said that you dropped him off at eleven." Ani tells her what she had learned from some of the people that she had asked, "That's two and a half hours!"

"You did a fucking timeline?"

"Where were you?!"

"I was driving around! Okay? Trying to clear my head!" Clay yells at her.

"Until one-thirty in the morning?"

"Yeah, my fucking heart was broken!"

"Just don't — don't shout at me."

Clay looks at Ani with sadness in his eyes, "You think I killed him?"

Ani shakes her head, "I don't want to."

"You think I could do something like that? That I could . . . I could kill a person? A human being?"

"I don't know."

"Get the fuck out of here. Go." Clay says to her, watching as Ani doesn't make a move to leave the small bedroom, "GO!"

The sudden sound of Clay raising his voice, causing Ani to jump in her skin before she raced around him and out of the bedroom, outside into the pouring rain.

"Yes. I was terrified. I thought I knew him best. But when I walked out that door . . . I wasn't sure I ever did."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬! We're gonna be fucking late to school!" Justin rushes into the blonde's bedroom to find her jumping around as she tries to get her shoe onto her foot.

"I know, my alarm didn't go off." Riley tells him as she finally got the shoe on and pushed her blonde hair out of her face.

"How did – what the hell is that?"

"What is what?" She asked as she turned around from grabbing her phone and keys off of her computer desk.

"This!" Justin grabs her by the hand, holding it up so that she could see the ring that she still had resting on her finger.

Riley's eyes grow wide as she begins to stutter, "It . . . It's a promise ring."

"A promise ring, my fucking ass! It's on the wrong finger!" Justin tells her before moving to close her bedroom door, "You and Scott are engaged?!" He quietly hisses so no one could hear them as they passed by.

"It's . . . it's not an engagement ring." Riley takes her hand back, sighing at the look on Justin's face, "Okay, fine! Fine! Scott and I got engaged the day before the homecoming game."

"And you didn't tell us?!"

"We were going to! But then Bryce went missing, and we figured that we would keep it to ourselves until the investigation was over and he was found." Riley tells him, "But then Bryce was found dead, and we decided to wait until after it was over. Seems like it's lasting longer than we thought."

"Riley, I was supposed to be your best man!" Justin whined, stomping his foot in a childish way before a smile overtook his face, "I'm happy for you, Lee."

Riley smiles softly at the Foley before they two hug each other. "Thank you."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝙄 wasn't sure anyone truly knew Clay at all. Though we all knew he didn't always make the best choices.

"You don't fuck shit up cause you're still in love with her!" Justin stans in the school hallway, Alex standing in front of him as Riley tries to break the two of them apart.

"You don't have any idea what you're talking about!" Alex yells back.

"She's fucking scared of you, Alex." Justin keeps the argument going, both ignoring Riley as she yells at both of them to break it up.

"What, so she sent you to fight for her, man? Fuck that!" Alex shoves Justin harshly.

"Alex! Justin! Fucking stop!"

"Alright, Roid Monster! Take a fucking breath."

"Yeah, I'm the monster. What are you on today, Justin? Does she even know?"

"Know what? Just move on. Just leave her alone and move on."

"Can both of you just move on and get to class!" Riley yelled, each hand on a boys chest as she stands in the middle of them.

"Why, so you can let her get raped again?"

"Fuck you!" Justin shoves Alex back.

"Fuck you!" Alex is quick to retaliate, shoves Justin as well but that ends with him accidentally shoving Riley and knocking her to the ground.

"Hey, guys. Guys! Stop it! Stop!" Clay rushed towards the two boys, breaking them apart.

"Riley, are you okay?" Justin moves to help her off the floor, dusting her back off.

"What the fuck?" Alex asked as they notice Sheriff Diaz and another officer standing in the middle of the hall as Mr. Porter walks up to them.

"Holy shit."

"What the fuck is he doing here?"

"Mr. Porter knew Clay's secrets. Mr. Porter knew what Clay could do at his very worst."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗟𝗢𝗢𝗞, I'm telling you; it was Porter with the Sheriff." Clay sits at a table with Tony, Tyler and Riley.

"Why the hell would he come back here?" Tony asked.

"It's got to be about Bryce, right?"

"What if he knows about me somehow?" Tyler asked the three.

"How could he?" Clay asked, shaking his head, "It has to be about Bryce."

"Mrs. Adams." Vice Principal Childs walks into the classroom, "Tyler Down is needed in the principal's office."

Tyler glances at the three of them, Riley mouthing that it'll be okay to him as he stands up and leaves the classroom with the short haired woman.

"If this is about you and they're starting with him–,"

"We're fucked."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗜 𝗥𝗘𝗔𝗟𝗟𝗬 miss you." Riley sighed; phone pressed against her ear as she leaned against her locker, the hallway empty.

"I miss you, Riles." Scott smiled even though she couldn't see him.

"So, um—,"

"Uh no. That's never good." The Reed boy chuckled.

"Justin knows about the engagement." Riley lowers her voice as she talked to her fiancé just in case someone was walking through the hallway.

"How did he figure it out?"

She sighed, "My alarm didn't go off this morning, so I didn't time to take the rings off of my finger. He came to get me, and he saw them."

"Well, that's one less person to have to tell." Scott joked.

"Scott! Dude, we got practice! Talk to your girl later!" The voice of Scott's roommate, Eddie, called out before some fighting was heard and the boy's voice became clearer in her ear, "Don't worry, Riles, I'm keeping a good eye on our boyfriend!"

Riley laughed, throwing her head back at the boys' words, "Thanks, Eds! Don't let him get too out of control over there."

"Wouldn't dream of it! Ow, dude! That was my fucking Legos!"

"Give me my phone! Riley, I love you. I'll talk to you tonight!"

"I love you, too."

"I love you, Riley!"

She laughed again, "Love you, Eddie!"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗦𝗢, 𝗬𝗘𝗔𝗛, I don't really want to speak to you probably ever again, but. . . ," Clay trailed off at the table in the library where Ani had been sitting, unzipping his backpack to pull out a piece of paper,
". . . you should probably see this."

"What is it?"

"A letter." Clay sighed, hands on the table in front of him, "From Mrs. Walker to her son saying that she hates him and that she'd be better off without him."

Ani looks at him, paper in hand, "Clay, you don't actually think Mrs. Walker has anything to do with this?"

"It's all in there. And if makes perfect sense when you think about it. Parents are always the first suspect, but no one looked at Mrs. Walker because, well, she's Mrs. Walker." Clay tells her, using his hands to talk, "That's why she's had it out for me this whole time. She's trying to pin this whole thing on me."

"Where did you get this?" Ani questioned the Jensen boy, lying the paper down on the table.

"From her desk."

"What? When?"

"This morning."

Ani leans forward, "Clay, you went to — are you serious? Did my mom see you?"

Clay slightly rolls his eyes as he looks up at the ceiling before looking back at her, "She answered the door. I told her I was there to talk to Mrs. Walker."

"Okay, do you have any idea the trouble you've made for me?" Ani asked him, her tone angry.

"I'm sorry. I'm about to go to jail for murder. Can we save the cultural ramifications of us knowing each other until after I'm out from under this—,"

Ani cut his words off, "Okay, it's not a cultural thing, Clay! My mum sat there with the police, and I said I didn't know you, that I wasn't caught up with you."

"So, that's your story now?" Clay asked, "That you don't know me? What's your story about Bryce? That you never went into the main house. Your mother kept you apart? That you're this sheltered little
girl—,"

"You're being crazy!"

"You've been lying to everybody. You fucked him!"

Ani sends a shocked look in his direction before turning her head to look around, catching the eye of Zach and Charlie. She looks at Clay, leaning closer, "What did or did not go on between me and Bryce, it does neither of us any good if the whole bloody world knows. So, calm the fuck down!"

"Zach Dempsey, you're wanted in the office. Get your things." Mrs. Childs walks into the library.

Zach packs up his things and grabs his crutches, following the woman out of the room.

Clay glances back at Zach before looking at Ani, leaning closer, "The Sheriff's in Bolan's office right now with our old counselor Mr. Porter, who I know is going to tell them that I'm unstable and that I act out when I'm angry. And he's pulling every one of my friends to back him up. I do not have time to calm the fuck down, alright?" He slides the letter closer to her, "You're either with me or against me."

"Mrs. Walker didn't kill her son." Ani shakes her head, not believing in Clay's accusation.

"How do you know?" Clay asked, "Tell me, Ani, how do you know?

"Clay was grasping for straws, behaving like a desperate man. And desperation is dangerous."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗢𝗞𝗔𝗬, 𝗪𝗛𝗘𝗡 Clay found out that you were in a relationship with Hannah, did he confront you?" Mr. Porter asked as he sat in the chair in the office with Zach next to him.

"Uh, I guess." Zach shrugged.

"You guess?"

"Yes. Yeah."

"So what happened?" Porter questioned.

"Um. . . well, he yelled at me, but I totally deserved it." Zach tells their old counselor with a shrug.

"Right, and when he yelled at you, did he threaten you?"

"No."

"Did he attack you?"

Zach scoffed, "No."

"Alright, did he ever apologize?" Porter kept questioning the Dempsey boy.

"No disrespect, Mr. Porter, but why are you asking me this?" Zach questioned this time.

"I'm just trying to help the Sheriff understand everything that happened her over the past year." Mr. Porter tells him.

"With Hannah?" Zach asked, "What happened to her?"

"And how that impacted Clay."

Zach nodded his head, taking a moment before he spoke up, "Clay and I, we're not friends, really. Okay? Riley is one of my best friends and with that, Clay comes along. And there is a lot of stuff that me and Clay don't agree on, but I respect him. He is a good person, and he always tells the truth. So, no.. . I didn't need him to apologize to me, because he was right."

"I mean, look, it's high school. It's hard to know who's on your side. Even on a good day."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗬𝗢𝗨 𝗥𝗘𝗠𝗘𝗠𝗕𝗘𝗥 in the audio when Clay goes over to Bryce's house to buy drugs?" Mr. Porter asked Alex.

"He was lying. Clay doesn't do drugs." Alex quickly shut Mr. Porter down.

"You never saw Clay use drugs?" Mr. Porter asked.

Alex is quiet, thinking back to the time when Hannah was still alive that he and a big group, Riley included, did drugs together in the basement of Jeff Atkins house, but didn't voice his words out loud.

"Alright. In the tape, he confronts Bryce, accuses him of sexual assault."

"Yeah, which was true. Bryce raped Hannah."

"Then it sounds like Clay escalated the conflict by throwing the first punch?"

"Clay didn't go there for revenge. He allowed himself to get the shit beat out of him so we would know the truth, and I admire him for that." Alex defends the Jensen boy.

"For taking justice into his own hands?" Mr. Porter asked, "Alex, he could've gone to an adult."

Alex scoffed, "Hannah went to an adult! Clay knew that no one would believe Hannah unless Bryce confessed. It was never about hurting Bryce; it was about justice for Hannah."

"I thought Clay was just spinning. Until I saw the Mr. Porter they were talking about. And that changed everything. Clay released the tapes, Bryce got off . . . Porter got fired. Porter was part of the damage done. He was hurt. Like so many were. And were going to be."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗜 𝗗𝗢𝗡'𝗧 want to rewatch The Notebook again! You and Justin really need to
find—,"

"The man in Bolan's office, with the Sheriff, that's the Mr. Porter you were talking about?" Ani rushes up to the cousins at Clay's locker, cutting them off from their conversation.

Riley crossed her arms, eyebrow raised, "We only know one Mr. Porter that would be at this fucking school."

"Calm down." Clay runs his hand down Riley's face, laughing as she slaps his hand away with a glare before he looked at Ani, "Yes, why?"

"I know him. Ani tells the cousins, causing them to look at her, "He's been to the house. He and Bryce argued."

"Bryce argues with everybody." The blonde rolled her eyes.

"I believe . . . I believe Bryce said something about the mana choking him." Ani says, Clay and Riley looking at each other in disbelief, "And then Bryce left, and he, Mr. Porter, said to Mrs. Walker, "It could get ugly"."

"What could get ugly?"

Ani shook her head, "I don't know."

Riley scoffed, "That really doesn't surprise me."

"Ani, Porter's in there trying to bring me down. Can you remember anything else?" Clay asked her, "Or maybe there's more at the house?"

"Clay, I can't . . . I can't just go looking around.

"Riley! I need your brain!" Luke Holliday walks over the group of three, a sheepish look on his face, "Actually, I need your anatomy notes."

She playfully rolls her eyes at the football player, "Come on, Thanksgiving, there in my locker."

"Will you stop calling me holidays?! My last name isn't even spelled the same!"

"Keep me updated!" Riley calls out to her cousin before she and Luke turned the corner.

"Was he grasping for straws? Suspecting Mr. Porter or Mrs. Walker? Didn't you take a look at them, too?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗠𝗘 about that fight in the hall last semester."

"I started that fight, not Clay." Justin sits in the office with Porter and the Sheriff. "Bryce lied in court about Hannah."

"And did that make you angry?"

"Yes."

"And did it make Clay angry?"

"We were all angry." Justin answered him, "Things just got out of hand."

"Do you think that Clay took that opportunity to attack Bryce?"

"No. He was beating the shit out of me. Clay tried to pull him off, to protect me." Justin remarked.

"It feels like Clay went after Bryce more than once in the past year?"

"Didn't you?" Justin grilled the old guidance counselor.

"We're not talking about me."

"Maybe we should be." He sits up.

"Well, maybe we should be telling the truth about Clay and about how he brought you back to Evergreen against your will."

"No, he got me off the streets."

"He took revenge on Tyler, on Courtney. He told the entire school about Riley's drug overdose."

"No, he tried to get people to own up to what they did." Justin stated, "And leave Riley's past in the past, okay? Don't ever talk about her."

"Including you?" Mr. Porter asked, wanting to get off the topic of Riley since it seemed to make Justin more angry.

"Yeah. Including me."

"He acts out of emotion. He goes after people."

"He doesn't go after people." Justin defended his adoptive brother, "He doesn't "go after people". He tries to do the right thing, always. You know that! I don't know what you're — He's a good person. And if he acts out of emotion, it's because he fucking cares! Which is more than most people in this fucking school. He saved my life."

"But would Porter really go after Clay?"

"He sent a picture of Tyler and keyed Zach's car." Mr. Porter now has Jessica in the office.

"He wanted people to feel the way Hannah did."

"But did Clay ever confront you?" Porter quizzed her.

"No." Jesscia shakes her head, "When he heard my tape, he told me he'd burn the tapes if I wanted him to."

"But then he published Hannah's tapes, violating your privacy?" Porter asked.

"No! He asked me first."

"But then he put pressure on you to go to the police to testify?"

"He believed I was strong enough to tell my story when I didn't." Jessica says.

"But he put pressure on you?"

"So did you!" Jessica gave him a look, "And look, if I never tell my story, Bryce never gets arrested, so—,"

"So, what? The ends justify the means and what he did is okay?"

"No. It makes it not black and white. You want to paint him as this bad guy, but the fact is, he's not."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬, 𝗛𝗢𝗪 have you been?" Mr. Porter asked the blonde who sat in the chair in the office, a blank look on her face and her arms crossed over her chest, covering the band logo on her t-shirt.

Silence fills the room, the blonde not opening her mouth as she bit down on her teeth, jaw clenching.

"Riley, how has Clay been these last few months?" Porter asks but once again, the eighteen-year-old keeps quiet.

"This is—," Sheriff Diaz curses under his breath, slamming his hands down harshly onto the table, "Answer his questions."

Riley, who hadn't even flinched at the harsh sound, looks up at the man, "My father killed himself in front of me, he scared me. You? Not so much."

"Riley, how has Clay been these last few months?" Porter repeats his question.

With a roll of her eyes, the blonde turns to him, "Clay's fine. And if you're gonna use these conversations that we give you to accuse Clay of killing Bryce, don't bother. He didn't do it. Clay is the same innocent boy that he was when I had to move in with them."

"But Clay hated Bryce, didn't he? Hadn't he disclosed to you his distaste for Bryce before?"

She scoffed, "Please, you think Clay is the only one that hated Bryce? Look around, everyone hated his guts. I hated Bryce with good reason, but did I want him dead? No. And Clay didn't either. He's a good person and all he's ever done is try to help the people that he cares about. Now, can I go? I'm missing a really important test."

"Yeah, you can go back to class."

Riley stands up, grabbing her bag and walking to the door. Reaching for the doorknob, she paused and turned around to look at the back of Mr. Porter's head while Sheriff Diaz looked at her, "I hope for Mrs. Walker's sake that the person that did this to Bryce is found, but me? I'd like to look whoever did it in the eyes and shake their hand because he did everyone a favor. Bryce was a bad person . . . and he got what was coming to him."

And with those last words hanging in the air, Riley opened the office door and walked out.

"So, what went on between Porter and Bryce?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝐂𝐋𝐀𝐘 𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐂𝐇𝐂𝐄𝐒 down to grab the box of skittles from the vending machine, turning around and jumping as he finds Porter standing behind him, "Jesus!"

"Mr. Jensen, I think we should talk." Porter tells him.

"Why should I talk to you?" Clay asked him, leaving the room he was in with Porter following behind him.

"Hey. Maybe I can help."

Clay turns around, walking closer to him in disbelief, "You're trying to set me up."

"You think that's what I'm doing?" Porter asks him.

"So they won't look at you or Mrs. Walker." Clay claimed.

"They've already looked at me and Mrs. Walker." Porter responds, "And I think they decided that they have their man, and that's you."

"But they don't know about you and Bryce, at his house, do they?"

"What do you know about that?"

"I know that you and Bryce were in contact." Clay stated, remembering what Ani had told him and Riley that morning. "I know that you talked to Mrs. Walker about what to do about him, and a few weeks later, he's dead."

Porter sighed, "I imagine you have some questions. I'm at the family counseling center, doing field world for my degree." He pulls out a card with his number on it, holding it up for Clay, "Call me when you want to talk."

Clay rolls his eyes, taking the card for him, "You know, I thought . . . even after everything, I thought you were a good person. I thought you cared about kids. What the fuck happened to you?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     𝗔𝗡𝗜 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗦 into the robotics classroom where Clay was, putting her bag into the desk, "Porter was trying to help him."

"What? How do you know?"

"I saw Porter with a journal. Bryce had one just like it." She pulls the book out of her bag, holding it out to the Jensen boy, "It's not a coincidence. Porter gave it to him."

"What does that prove?"

"Nothing." Ani pauses before holding it back out to him, "Until you read it."

Clay takes the journal in his hand, shaking his head as he glances back up at the girl standing across from him, "What's it say?"

"It says Porter got him to keep a journal. For therapy. And I should warn you, there are — there are things you won't like in there."

"About you?"

"Yes." Ani tells him truthfully before pausing, "And about Bryce. About who he was becoming before he died."

"What about the letter?" Clay questioned.

Ani shakes her head, "I don't know. Maybe Porter does."

Clay draws his brows together as he looks at Ani with a confused look on his face, "Why are you helping me if you think I'm a murder?"

"Uh—, " Ani stuttered, "I don't know what to think."

"You can believe the best of Bryce but the worst of me?" He asked.

"I'm afraid I believe we're all capable of the very worst."

"Including you?"

Ani stares at the boy in front of her, all kinds of questions swarming through her mind, but all she does is grab her bag and walked out of the room.

"Of course, I wanted to believe that Clay was innocent. Because if Clay did kill Bryce . . . he did it because of me."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗦𝗢 𝗬𝗢𝗨 were counseling him?" Clay sits across from Mr. Porter in Monet's.

"After I left liberty, I went back to school, for my master's in social work." Porter begins to explain to him, "I was doing intern hours at the family counseling center, like I told you. Mrs. Walker, she tracked me down there.

Clay raises his eyebrows, "You specifically? Why not a real therapist?"

"Hmm. Bryce had been to three already and fooled them all." He says, "And she knew he wasn't gonna fool me. And I guess we both had something to prove."

"And the journal?" Clay taps the book that rested on the table, "You have it to him?"

"Yes. We met here as a matter of fact."

"She didn't really want to help him." Clay shakes his head, "I mean, not if she hired you."

"Yeah. Well, thank you for that."

"I mean—,"

"Yeah, I know what you mean." Porter looks up from the journal, "But she did. And she wanted him to get better."

Clay shakes his head, reaching down into his backpack to pull out the letter he had found that morning in the Walker home, the same letter he had shown to Ani, "But she wrote this."

"No, she didn't." Porter shakes his head, looking down at the paper.

"But . . . the letter is from her, about how much she hated him."

"Bryce wrote that letter himself. In his mom's perspective."

"Aren't you violating, like doctor-patient confidentiality?"

"Well, he's dead. And . . . I'm not a doctor." He says, sitting up straighter. "And you have his journal and the letter that he wrote. I gave him some referrals, and, to the best of my knowledge, he never went.

"Did he break up with her?" The Jensen boy asked, "The . . . girl?"

Porter shakes his head, "I don't know. That was the last time I saw him.

Clay shakes his head, glancing out of the window for a few seconds before going back to looking at Porter, "So if you've got nothing to hide, how come you're helping the cops set me up?"

"I'm not, Clay. They wanted me to help them make their case." Porter begins to tell him, "But I know you, and I believe that I know your heart. So, I called kids who I hoped would stand up for you, and they did."

"And I'm just supposed to believe you?" He asked, "That you're trying to help?"

Porter sighed, "That's up to you, Clay. Now, I know from experience that it's hard to trust anyone, but there are people that are on your side. And there's one other thing. When I spoke to Tyler today, there was something different about him since I saw him last year.

"Yeah. He's, uh. . . he's been through a lot."

"But have you seen any sudden changes in behavior? Did you notice anything like that?"

"Sudden change?" Clay is confused.

"He's been through trauma." Porter tells him, before taking a big pause knowing that what he was about to say would cause some problems for the boy in question and Riley, "And I bet you money, Montgomery De La Cruz has something to do with that. Just . . . watch out for him okay?"

"I will. I promise."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

"𝗜 𝗝𝗨𝗦𝗧 told them the truth." Tyler stands with Clay in the photography classroom, "I mean, not the whole truth, but the truth. That . . . you're a good person."

"Thanks, Tyler."

"Yeah."

"How about you? How are you doing?" Clay asked, Porter's words circulating around his brain, "Everything okay?"

"Pretty much, yeah." The Down boy shrugged, "Why?"

"Look, I'm sorry that I haven't been around much lately." Clay begins to apologize to the boy for his absence.

"You've got some stuff going on, so. . .,"

"Yeah." Clay lets out an airy laugh, looking down at the ground. "Yeah. Tyler . . . did Monty do something to you?"

"What?" Tyler's speech becomes shaky as he looks at the boy in front of him, "What do you mean?"

"I think . . . you've been through something you haven't told anyone. Maybe last spring?"

Tyler can feel the tears stinging his eyes as he thought about somebody knowing what had happened to him, someone other than outside of he and Bryce Walker. "No. No. I mean, not . . . not really. Who have you been talking to?"

"Mr. Porter . . . . noticed something today. But I've noticed somethings, too." Clay keeps his eyes on the boy, worried about him, "You don't want anyone to touch you. You won't use the bathrooms. You wanted to die.

Tyler takes in a sharp breath.

"Ty . . . Tyler, what is it?"

"I . . . I can't." Tyler shakes his head, not meeting Clay's eyes anymore.

"Okay. Okay, you don't have to." Clay shakes his head.

"Okay." Tyler sniffled.

Clay blinks hard, "But you can tell me. You know that, right? You know I care about you. And at this point, you can tell me anything.

Tyler brings his hand up to cover his mouth as he begins to sob, crossing his arms over his chest, "I . . . I was . . . I was in the bathroom . . . when I got back from my diversion program. Monty came in and he . . . he was mad about the field and he . . . he . . . smashed my head on the mirror and on the sink. And then, he and . . . Taylor and Kenneth . . . they held my head in the toilet. And . . . Monty . . . he got a mop, and he . . ." His voice comes out shaky as he tries to finish telling Clay what happened to him, "He pulled my pants down, and he put it . . . in . . . in me."

Clay stares at the boy in disbelief, a million thoughts going through his head, but the main one being how he was going to tell Riley what one of her best friends had done to the boy she had slowly begin to take under her wing.

"And he . . . pushed it in my hole, and . . . and in and out . . . until I was . . . bleeding, and they . . . and they left me on the floor." Tyler covers his face with his hands, a mortifying cry leaving his lips.

"Oh, god. Oh, Jesus. Tyler." Clay can fell himself start to cry, moving to stand closer to the boy, "Tyler, I am . . . I'm so sorry that happened to you. I feel like . . . I feel like I want to hug you right now. Would that be alright, if I hug you?"

Tyler nods his head, letting Clay wrap his arms around him in a hug, wrapping his own arms around the Jensen boy as he began to cry into his arms.

"It's alright, man." Clay holds him as Tyler's harsh cries are muffled by his shoulder

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗦 back into the room, water bottle in hand, holding it out to Tyler, "Here you okay."

"Thanks."

"Tyler, do you want to tell someone?" Clay asked him, "An adult?"

The boy looks down, "I told Bryce."

"Bryce?"

"Yeah, he. . . came to see me a couple weeks ago. He wanted to know what Monty did." Tyler said, "I finally got up the guts to tell him. He was shocked. He was actually upset. And he asked if I wanted his help."

"Bryce offered . . . . offered to help?"

Tyler reaches over to his bag, pulling his phone out, "He left me a voicemail just before he died." He clicks on a few things before Bryce's voice filled the air.

"Tyler. It's Bryce . . . Walker. Listen, that thing we talked about, I'm dealing with it. Your all good. Take care of yourself, man."

"Tyler, if he went to Monty about this . . . and threatened to turn him in . . . we have to tell somebody."

"No! No, please, Clay, I can't." Tyler pleaded with the teenager.

"No. No, of course not." Clay shook his head, "You don't have to tell anyone until you're ready. But please . . . ask for help when you need it. Okay? Please?"

"Okay." Tyler nodded.

"But . . . you have got to tell Riley." Clay tells the boy as gently as he could to not upset Tyler more than he already was, "Because the two of them still hangout every now and then . . . and she deserves to know what he did to you."

"Who to trust? Who to believe?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

𝗗𝗘𝗡𝗡𝗜𝗦 𝗦𝗔𝗧 at the table in the Jensen house, the family sitting around him, "Well, they pulled in Tyler, Jessica . . . everyone."

"That's a dirty way to do it." Lainie spoke up, looking at her son.

"Mr. Porter said most of the people defended me." Clay says to him mom and the lawyer, "He said he was trying to get them to say good things about me the whole time. Who knows if it's true?"

"I stood up for you." Riley spoke up, looking straight at her aunt as she spoke, "I seem to be the one that always believes you in this house."

"Riley . . . ,"

"Shit!" Just sits up in his chair, "It's true. He kept trying to get me to get angry at him and then he smiled and nodded at me. I . . . couldn't figure out why, but that's why."

"Look, they may have tried to defend you, Clay, but any statement they made about your history with Bryce can still be used against you." Dennis looks at him, "They're building a case against you, and they're moving fast, so, we need to be taking next steps?"

"What does that mean?"

"Well, in the absence of another suspect, we need to focus on a strategy for your defense."

"This is just to be prepared." Matt tells his son, "That's all, Clay."

"Montgomery De La Cruz."

Riley's head snaps up at the sound of Monty's name falling from her cousins' lips, eyebrows pinching together in confusion.

"They need to be looking at Monty, he had something to do with." Clay avoids looking in Riley's direction, feeling her intense gaze burning right through him.

"Why do you think so?" Dennis asked, writing the boys name down on the papers he had in front of him.

Clay sighed, looking down at the table, "I can't . . . I can't say, but I know."

"Why can't you say?" Matt asked, glancing over in Riley's direction, knowing that his niece had been best friends with Monty for as long as he could remember.

Clay looks at him but doesn't say anything.

"Clay, if you something, anything about anyone who might be implicated in this, now is the time." Lainie tells her son.

Clay shakes his head, "Someone did this. It wasn't me."

"Then who?" Dennis questioned.

"So, Clay was back at square. But not quit. He knew Monty had a motive, that he was caught up with Bryce. But Monty wasn't the only one."