𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙁𝙄𝙁𝙏𝙔 𝙏𝙒𝙊 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟯
❝ 𝖶𝖨𝖫𝖫 𝖸𝖮𝖴 𝗠𝗔𝗥𝗥𝗬 𝗠𝗘? ❞
❪ 𝘛𝘏𝘌𝘙𝘌     𝘈𝘙𝘌     𝘈     𝙁𝙀𝙒     𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙉𝙂𝙎
𝘐     𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀𝙉'𝙏     𝙏𝙊𝙇𝘿     𝘠𝘖𝘜 ❫

𝟱𝟮. ╱ ✷ ❝ 𝗺𝗮𝗿𝗿𝘆 𝗆𝖾? ❞
▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁▁

𝗔𝗡 : from this point on for act three, whenever the text is bold, italic and underline that is Deputy Standall talking with Ani.

     "𝘼𝙏 𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙎 point, you may think you have put the pieces together. You may think you have your man. But you'd be wrong."

"They took all three of our laptops. Clay's backpack." Justin tells Matt and Lainie as the teenagers sat at the kitchen table, telling the adults about the police raiding the house the previous night.

"And my phone."

"And what, if anything, will they find on your phone?" Lainie asked her son, sitting next to her niece at the table.

"A text to . . . Bryce."

"Saying?"

Clay closed his eyes, looking down at his lap, "Saying . . . saying I wanna kill him. It was after homecoming and everything, and I came home, and I was sitting here, and I was mad, that's all. It was just words."

Riley throws her head back in disbelief.

"I deleted them, but . . .,"

"I will . . . talk to Dennis this morning, and we will all sit down with him after school." Lainie stated as Matt comes to sit down. "And you talk to no one about those texts. Or anything that has to do with the case. Either of you."

The teenagers look at each other.

"Clay," Matt spoke up, "Did Bryce do something to you? Did he . . threaten you? Did he say something to you on the field that night?

"No." He shakes his head.

"Then why the text?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙔 𝙒𝘼𝙎𝙉'𝙏 the only one without good answers. And there are secrets that can't be kept any longer. There are a few things I haven't told you."

"About Clay?"

"About everyone. Everyone has something to hide. Jessica had good reason to worry, it would turn out. Along with Riley. But so did Monty, who truly felt like his own life was on the line."

"One phone call, one question, and the whole life you've built out lies starts to come crashing down around you."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗧𝗛𝗘𝗬'𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗜𝗡𝗚 after you." Tyler sat in the passenger seat of Clay's car, the boy giving him a ride to school that morning while Riley and Justin rode in her car.

"Maybe."

"You said if Bryce knew about what Monty did to me, it might give them reasons to go after Monty instead." Tyler looks over at him.

"I know what I said, but . . . ," Clay shakes his head, turning to look at Tyler. "But don't worry about that, okay?"

"But if I told what I know, like, my story, wouldn't it help?" Asked Tyler.

"Not if it doesn't help you."

"If you're in trouble, if they have you under oath or whatever, then you might have to tell them—,"

"I won't. I won't. I promise." Clay tells the Down boy, "But . . . I might not be around all the time. You should think about . . . if you want to talk to someone else. I feel like Jessica might understand."

"And you . . . might not be around."

"Yeah." Clay nods, "And I think today should be the day . . . that you tell Riley."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬?" 𝗧𝗬𝗟𝗘𝗥 walks up to the blonde as she stands at her locker, his hands nervously twitching as she turned to look at him with a smile.

"Hey, what's up?" She asked, closing the locker door to lean her shoulder against them, eyebrows pinching together as she notices the nervous look on his face. "Ty, you okay?"

"Can I — I need to tell you something. Something about Monty."

Riley crossed her arms over her chest, tilting her head to the side, "What about Monty?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

          𝗔 𝗕𝗟𝗔𝗡𝗞 expression is painted across Riley's face as she stared at the wall in front of her after not only listening to Tyler explain every little detail about what had happened to her, but watching the video and looking at the pictures that the boy had taken the night everything happened.

Tyler sits next to her, his body turned to face her as he keeps a close eye on the blonde, "Riley? Are you—,"

"I think I'm gonna be sick." Riley's voice cracks as she jumps up from the stool that she was sitting on, heading straight for the small trash can in the room and throwing up the contents of her stomach until she couldn't anymore, and she was dry heaving. "Oh my, God. Oh my, God."

She begins to pace the room, running both hands through her hair as she finally lets the tears that had been building up in her waterline fall down her face.

"Riley?"

"He — He raped you. Monty — Oh my, God." Sobs tore through her lungs as her hands begun to shake, "Oh my, God. I've — I've spent the night at his house. I — I. Oh my, God."

The blonde's cries grow louder as she couldn't catch her breath at the thought of one of the people who had been her best friend for years — someone who had been there for her after the deaths of her parents, who had helped her through her own rape — had raped another friend of hers.

It made it sick to her stomach as she thought about all of the times that she had hung out with Monty since then, since the night of the Spring Fling where Tyler had tried to shoot up the school, how he hadn't acted any different than he usually did. But in reality, Monty had left Tyler hurt and bleeding on the bathroom floor and just the thought of it made her throw up again.

"I — I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." Riley cried, moving to wrap her arms around Tyler's neck, "I'm so sorry."

Tyler's arms go around Riley's waist, pulling her closer to him until there was no space left between the two of them, both of them now crying into each other's arms for the same, yet different reasons.

"I'm so fucking sorry."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗦𝗛𝗘 𝗪𝗔𝗦 probably trying to protect you, right?" Clay asked, him, Justin and Riley in an empty classroom.

"But now she's totally changed her story. I mean, she's saying she was in bed, but I have five, like, missed calls from her that night." Justin tells them.

"Did she leave you messages?" Riley's voice is horse and raw from the crying that she had done after Tyler had told her the truth about what had happened to him.

"Yeah. Just 'call me back' but it wasn't like . . . 'Hey, I'm in bed. Come sneak in through the window'. It was like 'call me back, I need something'." Justin stated, looking between the cousins.

"The other day, did the cops ask you about where you were that night?"

"I told them that I was at home." Riley sighed, "That Scott had stayed the night while he was here."

Justin shrugged, "Kind of. Just — I told them that I was at home. Should we tell them that we were all together?"

"And did anyone see you that night?" Clay asked, "Either of you?"

"No. Scott and I went . . . somewhere and then we really did come back to the house." Riley crossed her arms, biting down on her bottom lip.

"Just the dealer I bought from." Justin tells them.

"So, if we lie, and then . . . the cops pick him up at any point, then our story falls apart."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗧𝗘𝗟𝗟 𝗧𝗛𝗘 police everything." Ani sits in Monet's with Clay, "About me and Bryce, about why you texted what you did."

"I won't do that to you."

"Mum already knows everything." Ani shakes her head, sitting back in her seat, "I think maybe she always did, so. . . ,"

"She does?" He asked, "What did she say?"

Ani laughs, "A lot. And then nothing."

Clay nodded, keeping his eyes on the table, "So when you texted saying that you wanted to help . . . it was just because your mom found out?"

"No, it's because I believe you." Ani shakes her head, leaning forward on the table. "And I believe you're in a very dangerous moment, and I think you should tell the police everything you know about everyone, starting with me."

"No. Look, I'm not gonna do that." Clay denied, "I'm not gonna ruin people I care about when they didn't do anything."

"How do you know they didn't?"

"Did Jessica tell you she was with Justin the night of homecoming?"

"Yeah . . . why?"

Clay shakes his head, "Justin says that isn't true. He was alone, scoring drugs and getting high."

Ani sits back, "And you believe him?"

"I mean, it fucks up a lot for him to admit that, so I don't know why he'd lie." Clay tells her, "But why would Jessica?"

"Jessica wasn't angry with me because I ditched her at Homecoming. She was angry because. . . Bryce told me to leave, and I went."

"Have you talked to her about it?"

"Not yet." Ani is quiet for a minute before leaning forward, "But you know, maybe we need to think about someone who hasn't been accused yet. Someone who is friends with everyone."

"What do you mean?" Clay asked her in confusion.

"Do we know where Riley was during homecoming?" Ani asked, "Because from what I've heard, she had a lot of hatred for Bryce. And she has that cheque. So where was she?"

"She was with Scott." Clay shrugged, "He was back in Evergreen for Homecoming."

"Maybe we should ask him."

"Watching what Clay went through, I thought . . . it's surprisingly easy to make an innocent person look guilty."

"He didn't act like an innocent person."

"Do you blame him?"

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      "𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗦!"

A gasp leaves her lips as she's picked up off the ground, hands tightly around her waist as they spin her around.

"Put me down! Put me down! Put me down!" Riley kicks her legs as she yelled for Monty to put her down, "Put me the fuck down!"

"Whoa, whoa, what's wrong?" Monty sits her back on her feet, frowning at the girl jerks herself away from, "What the hell?"

"Don't touch me, you sick son of a bitch!" She spins around, harshly hitting at his chest as people in the school hallways turns to the sound of her voice.

"Riley! Hey, stop!" More arms wrap around her waist, this time Luke holding her away from the De La Cruz boy, "Riley!"

"Don't you ever touch me again!" A fire burns behind Riley's eyes as she glared at Monty, "Don't you ever touch me again! I hate you! I fucking hate you! Get off of me!"

Luke grunts as her elbow hits his stomach, instantly putting her down and backing up.

"I hope you burn in hell!"

Monty's eyes follow the blonde as she rushes down the crowded hallway, everyone whispering to each other as they tried to guess what was going on.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝘾𝙇𝘼𝙔! 𝘿𝙐𝘿𝙀, what's up?" Scott smiles over the FaceTime as he laid back on his bed in his dorm. "Ani."

"I just — we had something that we needed to ask you." Clay awkwardly smiled at his cousin's boyfriend.

"Okay, shoot."

Ani looks over at Clay, seeing the hesitation on the boy's face, before she looked down at Clay's phone, "Where were you and Riley the night of homecoming?"

"What's it any of your business?" Scott asked the girl, eyebrows drawn together. "I'm not about to make her mad at me because I tell you anything."

"Scott, we're — we're just trying to piece everything together." Clay tells him, "I'm gonna be put away for Bryce's murder."

Scott sighed, "Yeah, I've been keeping up. Look, Riley hated Bryce, okay? We know that. But you and I both know she wouldn't have killed him. It's not who she is."

"Then tell us where she was homecoming night." Ani said.

"It's not my place to tell. You want to know, ask Riley." He shrugged, "I have to get going. Got a study group that I have to get too."

Clay sighed, "Yeah, uh, see ya."

"Bye."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝘽𝙔 𝙃𝘼𝙇𝙁 time, there had been plenty of hard hits no the field, but nothing compared to what Jessica was about to do. It was going to change everything. For everybody."

"And that concludes our halftime show, bringing us to the second half! Liberty leads, fourteen to ten."

"I really don't miss any of this." Scott laughs, arm around Riley's shoulders as they sit in the bleachers, people cheering loudly around them. "Or any of them."

"What. The. Hell?" Riley's eyes grow wide as the group of Jessica's survivors ran onto the field, all of the girls beginning to take their shirts off with red painted handprints splattered across their bodies. "I don't care if this is for and against rapist, I see you looking at anyone and I'll cut it off."

Scott holds his hands up, "I only have eyes for you, pretty girl."

"You better."

"What's even going on?"

"Jocks are bullies!"

"They've officially lost their minds." Riley shakes her head, "Come on."

"What? Riley!"

"I'm not sticking around for any of this!"

"Ho, ho! Rape culture has got to go! Hey, hey, ho, ho!"

"This school has officially lost it." Scott shakes his head.

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

     "𝗪𝗘 𝗧𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗘𝗗 to Scott."

Riley looks up in disbelief as Ani and Clay sit in front of her in Monet's, the blonde having come to study for a test that she had in the comforts of her workplace so that she could enjoy the free coffee that she got. "You did what?"

"We called Scott to ask where you guy were after the homecoming game." Ani eyes the blonde, placing her hands on the table in front of her. "So, where were you?"

"None of your business. And it's so fucking funny to me that you actually think that I would tell you anything." Riley spat in the girl's direction, a glare on her face as she begins to pack her stuff up leave.

"Riley, we promised each other a very long time ago; no secrets between the two of us." Clay's voice stops Riley's movements as she looked at him. "Where were you after the homecoming game."

"Rosie's. I was at Rosie's."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      "𝙄 𝙃𝘼𝙑𝙀𝙉'𝙏 been in here in ages." Riley smiled as she and Scott sat across from each other in a booth at Rosie's, the waitress having come to take their orders just seconds before.

"I figured we could have a nice night together before I have to leave again." Scott tells her, reaching across the table to take her hand in his. "You know, take it back to where it all began."

Riley chuckled, "I'm pretty sure we're in the same booth we were for our first date." She notices the look on Scott's face, "What? What is it?"

"I was going to do it after we ate, but I can't wait." Scott says before he stands up from the booth, moving to stand on her side before dropping down to one knee.

"Scott, what are you doing?"

"Riley, from the moment I met you, I knew that you were the person that I wanted to spend the rest of my life with. When Jeff introduced the two of it, I truly believed what people say when they talk about love at first sight. We' been through so so much together, but I wouldn't have wanted to go through all the shit that we did with anyone else. You're the love of my life, my one and only." Scott smiles up at his girlfriend, who had her hands covering her mouth, "So, will you marry me?"

"Yes! Of course, I'll marry you, Scotty." Riley's bottom lip trembles as Scott quickly slides a pretty ring onto her finger, moving to sit next to her in the booth and pressing his lips harshly against hers, "I love you."

"I love you."

˗ˏˋ 𖤐 ˎˊ˗

      𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬'𝗦 𝗝𝗔𝗪 drops as Riley tells her about where she was after the homecoming game, looking down at the ring that she held out for them to look at, "You and Scott . . . are engaged?"

"Yeah." Riley nodded, standing up, "Scott and I are getting married. And then after, we went back to the house. Just like I told you."

Clay stands up, moving around the table to bring Riley into a tight hug, "Congratulations."

"Thank you, Clay." Riley closes her eyes, missing the glare that Clay had sent Ani's way since she had accused Riley of being the one to kill Bryce during the homecoming back.

"The truth was, no one's alibi seemed super solid."