❪ 𝓦𝐇𝐄𝐍 𝓣𝐇𝐄 𝓟𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐘'𝐒 𝓞𝐕𝐄𝐑 ❫ 🪐 ˖ ׁ ⁩ 𓂃
𝟸𝟶𝟷𝟽  ⸻  ✸ 🕯️⭑.ᐟ
❝  𝖭𝖮𝖳 𝖲𝖮 𝖶𝖮𝖭𝖣𝖤𝖱𝖥𝖴𝖫 𝖥𝖨𝖱𝖲𝖳 𝖪𝖨𝖲𝖲  ❞

✦ ╮ 𝟎𝟏, ❝ 𝖳𝖠𝖯𝖤 𝖮𝖭𝖤   ,   𝗦𝗜𝗗𝗘 𝗔 ❞ ── .✦

          ❝ 𝑯𝑬𝒀, 𝑰𝑻'𝑺 𝑯𝑨𝑵𝑵𝑨𝑯. Hannah Baker. ❞

Emersyn Walker sits with her knees pulled up to her chest, staring off into space as her mind raced a thousand miles a minute, and she was so lost in thought that she didn't hear anyone come in until a hand touches her on the shoulder.

A started gasp leaves her lips, her body jerking in fright and bringing her out of the trance that she in.

"Whoa, Emmie, it's just me."

Her body relaxes as she brings her hand up to her face, wiping away at the tears that had fallen from her eyes, her legs dropping from the chair as she stands up, "What time is it?"

"Uh, almost time to leave for school." Bryce glanced down at the watch on his wrist, "It's six forty-five."

"Shit." Cursing under her breath, she runs her hand through her hair, "Shit. Fuck."

"Whoa, hey, slow down." Bryce reaches out to grab her as she sways, "You haven't slept in two days, you should stay home and get some sleep."

"No, no, I need to get to school." Emersyn shakes her head, "If I don't, my mind will wonder, and I really don't need that right now."

Bryce sighs, shaking his head as he watches his twin sister walk up the stairs and disappear around the corner, "Worrying about her ass is going to be the death of me."

────୨ৎ────

          𝐄𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐒𝐘𝐍 𝐋𝐄𝐓𝐒 𝐎𝐔𝐓 a long sigh as she parked her car in the parking spot between Bryce's Range Rover and Monty's Jeep, eyes locked on the school in front of her before finally turning the black Chevy Camaro off and stepping out.

"Emersyn! Hey, Emersyn!" Sheri Holland rushes to catch up with the blonde, looping her arm through hers so they could walk together, "I was looking for you! I need to talk to you about the cheer schedule."

"Why are you──,"

"Pep rally is tomorrow so I think you need to go with Zach." Sheri cuts her off, going on with the conversation that seemed to be one sided with the two.

"Look, Sheri, I──,"

"Sheri, hey." Bryce smirks, wrapping his arm around his sister's shoulders and pulling her into his side, "I'm gonna steal my other half away. Thanks. See ya!"

"Thank you." Emersyn mumbled as he holds the door open for her.

"No problem, little sister." Bryce kissed the top of her head before he walks away.

"You're only older by six minutes!" She called after him, hearing his loud laughter as he turned the corner.

"Can we talk?" Monty follows her to her locker, leaning his shoulder on the metal as she ignored him, "Come on, Emmie. We need to talk about──,"

"There is nothing that I want to talk about with you." Emersyn slams her locker door shut after grabbing the books that she needed. "I don't even want to look at you."

"Baby──,"

Emersyn shakes her head, "No. No, don't ever call me that again. I'm done, Monty."

"Emersyn." A new voice spoke from behind the two, both of them turning to find Zach standing behind them, hands tucked into the front pockets of his jeans. "Walk with me to class?"

"We're in the middle of something." Monty's jaw clenches as he eyes Zach.

"No, we're done." Emersyn tells him, quickly moving down the hallway towards Zach who throws his arm over her shoulder as the two walked down the hallway. "Thank you."

"Of course." Zach smiles down at her softly, "What was that about?"

She sighs, "I really don't want to talk about it. I just want to get through this day and go home and sleep. These fucking tapes have me going out of my mind."

────୨ৎ────

          ❝ 𝐒𝐎, 𝐓𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐀𝐑𝐄 a number of ways to get help if you need it, or if a friend does, okay? ❞ Mrs. Bradley, Liberty Highs communications teacher, walks around the classroom. "All of this information is on the board outside of my room, or outside of the main office. It's on the Liberty High homepage."

"Mrs. Bradley." Pratters spoke up sitting at the grouped-up tables of four with Emersyn, Zach and Justin. "Is it possible we could be done with all of this? It's been like a week. Isn't healthy to, like, move on?"

"Seriously?" Emersyn looks over at the boy with a glare on her face as the students talked over each other, throwing insults at the boy. "You're a dumbass."

"Okay, everyone. Thank you."

"No, seriously." He says, "I know, it's tragic but I don't want to keep being reminded all the time. It's depressing."

"We're never done with it, Mr. Pratters, which is why it's important to know the signs that someone you care for might need help. Are they withdrawing from friends and family? Is there a change in their appearance."

The blonde looks down at her hands as she twisted the ring resting on her finger before she turned her head to see Clay Jensen staring ahead of him at the empty chair that had belonged to Hannah.

Emersyn leans to the side of her, Justin bringing his face closer to hers as the two of them lowered their voices so that nobody ── especially Pratters ── couldn't hear them, "Does he have the tapes yet?"

"I don't think so." Justin denied, shaking his head. "I think he's getting them today."

"Emersyn, Justin." Mrs. Bradley's voice brought their attention back her, "Something that the two of you would care to share with the rest of the class?"

"No." Emersyn's voice is blunt as she looks back at the teacher with a hard look on her face. "I'm not sure the class would like to hear about how I've spent the last three days bleeding from a small hole in my body."

Mrs. Bradley clears her throat as the class snickers at the Walker girl's dry response to the teacher, "Just pay attention, please."

────୨ৎ────

          𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐄𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐅𝐈𝐋𝐋𝐄𝐃 𝐎𝐔𝐓 of school at the end of the day, Emersyn being among the group as she swirled her keys around her finger, pausing as she noticed that Courtney was talking to Clay as Tony stood off to the side, leaning against his car.

The two share a look with each other, Tony nodding as Emersyn bounced down the stairs, putting a bright wide smile on her face as she walked towards the Jensen boy and Courtney.

"Clay! Hey, are you ready to go?" Emersyn asked, wrapping her arms around one of his so that she was pressed up against him.

Freezing at the closer proximity of the Walker girl, he looks down at her confused as Courtney eyed the two of them, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, remember? You asked me for a ride home after school." Emersyn sends him a look, telling in to just go with it.

"Yeah, right! Uh, I did ask for a ride home. Totally slipped my mind." Clay nods, going along with the blonde, flashing a smile at Courtney, "See you later."

Emersyn's smile drops as the two walk away from the Crimsen girl, moving so that she wasn't as close to Clay as she had been, "You looked like you were having a fun time."

"So fun." Clay's voice held sarcasm as he spoke, "Thank you for that, by the way."

"No problem. Now, do you actually need a ride home?" She asked him, smiling at Tony as they walked by him. "I didn't see your bike this morning."

"Oh, yeah. My mom wanted to drive me. You know, see if I was okay." Clay nodded as they walked to her car, the blonde unlocking the doors just as Monty and Bryce were walking towards their cars.

"Hurry. Get in." Emersyn tells the boy, locking the doors behind her as they both got in, the car roaring to life as she twisted the key, "I really am not in the mood to talk to Monty right now."

"Do you remember the way to my house?"

"Clay, I was over at your house almost every day in middle school." She laughed, "Of course I remember where you live."

"Right. I ── uh, I knew that."

"Sure."

────୨ৎ────

          𝐀 𝐒𝐈𝐆𝐇 𝐋𝐄𝐀𝐕𝐄𝐒 her lips as she falls onto the couch next to Justin in the pool house, brushing her hair out of her face as she laid her head on his shoulder, his falling to rest on top of hers as the two of them sat in silence.

"I took Clay home today." Her voice is quiet as she spoke, "I saw the package outside on his porch."

Justin takes a deep breath, "He's got the tapes now."

"Yeah."

────୨ৎ────

          𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐍𝐄𝐗𝐓 𝐌𝐎𝐑𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐆, Emersyn lets out a groan as she wakes up, the sun shining bright in her eyes. Feeling an arm draped over her waist, she turns her head to find that she and Justin had fallen asleep on the couch in the pool house.

"Justin. Justin." Emersyn sits up, his arm falling across her legs as she shakes him, "Justin, wake up."

"Hmm, go back to sleep." The Foley boy mumbled as he pulled the blanket over his face.

"No, we need to get up for school." She tells him, bringing her arms up to stretch, groaning at the sounds of her phone cracking as she did so.

"I'm not going to school." He mumbled from under the blanket, "School is for suckers."

"Whatever, asshole." She playfully hits him as she stands up from the couch, "How do you want your eggs?"

"Scrambled!"

"Hey, I'm making breakfast." Emersyn tells Bryce as she walked through the back door of the main house, "Are you leaving early, or do you want some?"

Bryce raised an eyebrow, "Are you making French toast?"

"I wasn't going to, but I guess I can." She shrugged, "I'm gonna go take a shower first and get ready."

"Don't take too long!"

────୨ৎ────

          ❝ 𝒀𝑶𝑼'𝑽𝑬 𝑨𝑹𝑹𝑰𝑽𝑬𝑫 𝑨𝑻my first house in this shitty town. . . where I threw my first and only party . . . and where I met Justin Foley. The subject of our first tape. It was just a party. I didn't know it was the beginning of the end. ❞

"Justin, you were in love with my friend Kat. My only friend."

Clay walks into Hannah's house, music filling the air as teens laughed and talked with each other as he looked around.

"He came!" A voice fills the air as Kat and Hannah appeared at the top of the stairs, both of them holding red plastic cups in their hands.

"I win!" Hannah chuckled, "You owe me five dollars."

"Oh, my God."

"You bet on me?" Clay questions the two girls with a slight smirk on his face.

"Against you." Kat tells him as he laughed, "Last party, I saw Clay at. . . mm, my birthday, fourth grade."

Clay nodded, "I still remember that clown."

"Mm, oh my, God!" Kat turns to Hannah as she also remembered what he was talking about, "He was a heroin addict. My mother the social worked hired a recovering heroin addict. He had the shakes. Okay, uh, drinks. Come on. Excuse me."

"I just thought he was nervous." Clay says, both him and Hannah chuckling as they follow after Kat to the kitchen. "This is quite a turnout. People are happy to see you go."

"I really just threw it so Hannah could finally meet some people before I depart this realm." Kat tells him, "Though, I have been looking for Emmie, so she'll at least have a girl to be friends with."

"Emmie is good people." Clay nodded.

"I met Helmet." Hannah points to the boy, ignoring the familiar name that she had heard Kat speak of many times since she had moved to Evergreen.

"Clay doesn't count. You met him at work."

"I feel like that should count."

"Of course you do." Kat smiles, "Okay, refills. Clay, what is your drink?"

"Uh, sprite."

"Oh, my God, you are priceless." Kat laughed, "You are a gem. You'll have a beer."

"Do my eyes deceive me, or is that Clay Jensen I see?" A new voice asked, causing the three to turn towards the entrance of the kitchen as a tall blonde with a bright smile walked towards them.

"Oh, very funny." Clay laughs, wrapping his arms around her shoulders as they hug each other, "I come to stuff like this."

"What a liar!" Both Emersyn and Kat exclaimed, the blonde pulling away from the Jensen boy.

"Em, this is new girl, Hannah Baker." Kat points to the blonde, "Hannah, this is Emersyn Walker, also known as Liberty High's 'It' girl. She will be a good person for you to hang out. The It girl and Liberty's sweetheart."

"Yeah, Ems is friends with literally everyone." Clay shrugged, "Even the weird goth kids."

"Don't disrespect my boy Cyrus like that!"

"Emmie, tell Clay that he needs to let lose." Kat says to the blonde, not missing the way Hannah kept her eyes locked on the arm that Clay kept wrapped around Emersyn's waist. "Tell him that Sprite is not the answer to all of his problems."

"Sprite is not the answer to all of your problems." Emersyn tells the Jensen boy, "That's why you, my friend, will have a beer. Kitty Kat! Get him a beer!"

Clay chuckled, arm dropping from the blonde's waist as she moves away with Kat, "Sure, I like beer."

"Kat! Blake!" Tyler's voice cuts through the air, holding his camera up to his eye.

"Oh, pictures!" Kat sticks her tongue out as Emersyn turns to the side, hand on her hip as she gives a bright smile as Tyler snaps the picture.

"Ty! Email me that, please!" Emersyn calls out to him.

"You got it!"

Emersyn looks over at Clay with a raised eyebrow as her hands come up to his shirt, unbuttoning the first button on it, "Stop dressing like you're trying out for the choir, and loosen up a little."

"I've been trying to tell him that!" Hannah exclaimed, the two girls laughing with each other, watching Clay button his shirt back up.

"Emmie, we need another person for beer pong." Bryce walks up behind Emersyn, wrapping his arm around her shoulders as he pulled her close to him before he notices Hannah, "Oh, hey. You're, um, you're the new girl."

"Apparently." Hannah raised an eyebrow at Emersyn.

"Uh, I like your laugh." Bryce tells the Baker girl.

"Thanks. I like your understated sense of fashion." Hannah tells him, looking over his choice of clothing.

"I tried to tell him not to dress like a fifty-year-old man, but he never listens to me." Emersyn rolled her eye, pushing away from Bryce, "Hannah, this is my twin brother, Bryce. B, this is Hannah Baker."

"Wait, twins? But you don't──,"

"We don't look alike?" The twins cut her off in sync, a slight smirk on their faces as they notice the freaked-out look passing over her face, "Yeah, we get that a lot."

"And I'm officially freaked out." Hannah laughed. "Do you always talk at the same time?"

"Not really, no." Emersyn shakes her head, "We usually do it to freak our friends out. They hate it."

"Bryce!" Kat walks back over to the group with two red cups in hand, "Better go hit the keg and catch up. You're an hour behind."

"I'll see you later . . . I hope." Bryce tells Hannah before looking down at his sister, "You coming?"

"I'll be there in a few minutes." Emersyn tells him before he's walking away from the group. "Don't do that to yourself, Hannah."

Hannah looks at her in confusion, "What?"

"He's like, frat boy Darth Vader." Emersyn crosses her arms over her chest.

"He didn't seem that bad."

Kat sends her a look, "She was being kind."

"She kind of was." Clay spoke up from behind the girls, "And if Emersyn, his twin sister, is telling you no, then that's a sign."

Hannah looks away from them, "I think I want a beer too."

"Okay, then, Princess Leia." Kat spoke loud enough for Hannah as she walked away.

The Baker girl turns to look back at Clay before she turned to Kat, "Oh, my God, you're both nerds. Have fun!"

"Are you gonna tell her?" Kat asked Clay as soon as Hannah was gone.

"Tell her what?"

Emersyn scoffed, "Clay, we've known you our entire lives. You have that dopey look on your face when you like someone."

"Well, give me a break." Clay tells the two girls, "I'm not good with the . . . you know, and the gay rumors only recently subsided." He pauses, eyes finding Emersyn's, "Thank you, by the way."

"My pleasure."

"So, the stakes are high for you."

"It's like, around her, I can be different, you know? Like I'm the new and improved Clay Jensen; high school sophomore, archaeologist-slash-adventurer."

The girls share a look, both of them rolling their eyes.

Kat puts a hand on her shoulder, "Clay, sweets, you're a prize. But from my limited observations, she has terrible taste in guys."

"Neither of you will say anything to her?" Clay asked, looking between the two girls.

Kat smirked at the boy, "Only if it comes up."

"Kat! Ems!" Clay calls after the two, Kat quickly pulling the blonde away with her.

────୨ৎ────

          𝑬𝑴𝑬𝑹𝑺𝒀𝑵 𝑺𝑴𝑰𝑳𝑬𝑺 𝑾𝑰𝑫𝑳𝑬𝒀as she steps off onto the porch with the three, laughing as she notices Justin and Zach who had been wrestling in the wet grass where the sprinklers had gone off.

"Meet the boys." Kat tells Hannah loudly, pointing towards the two boys, "Justin Foley is mine, and Zach Dempsey for you."

"Zach Dempsey?" Clay asked, "Really?"

"What's wrong with Zach?" Emersyn asked him with a pout, "He's a total sweetheart."

"Yeah, to you maybe." Clay scoffed.

"I can't see!" Zach yells out, trying to wrestle Justin off of him as the Foley boy laughed loudly. "Not the mane!"

"Okay, yeah, he's kind of dumb, but he's the sweet kind of dumb, which is the best kind." Kat tells Hannah before sitting her cup down, clapping her hands together slowly, "Yes! Liberty High's star athletes, ladies and gentlemen!"

Both boys stand up from the grass quickly, Justin throwing his hands out with a smile on his face.

"So impressive." Kat stands with her hands on her hips, "Sorry, boys. Can't have you in Hannah's house soaking wet."

"Yo, seriously?" Justin asked his girlfriend.

"Look at yourselves." Emersyn laughed, gaining their attention, both boys looking at her with wide smiles on their faces.

Justin pulls his shirt off, arms out to the side with a smirk on his face, "Better?"

Kat and Emersyn look at each other with amused smiles.

"Improvement, for sure, but sorry, it's still a no-go." Kat tells them.

"Come on, it's not a party without us." Zach laughed.

Emersyn shrugged, "We'll take our chances. Dry off first, boys."

"You're loss, my ladies!" Justin points to both Kat and Emersyn.

"Idiots. I can't even. . .," Kat shakes her head, turning to walk back into the house.

"But they're sweet idiots." Clay teases as he followed after Kat.

"Emmie! Where are your keys?" Justin calls out to the blonde after ringing the water from his shirt and smiling, "I have clothes in your trunk!"

"You are not getting into my car wet, Justin Foley!" Emersyn calls out to him, moving down the steps of the house, "Justin! Don't get in my car!"

"I can't hear you!" Justin calls out, laughter filling the air as Hannah stands on the porch as she watches Justin and Emersyn running down the street.

"So, you see, that's where the trouble began. That smile. That damn smile."

────୨ৎ────

          ❝ 𝑰 𝑲𝑵𝑶𝑾 𝑾𝑯𝑨𝑻 you're all thinking. Hannah Baker is a slut. Opps. Did you catch that? I just said, "Hannah Baker is". Can't say that anymore. I dreamed our first kiss would take place in the park. I never told you that. ❞

"The dream starts with me at the top of the rocket . . . holding on to the steering wheel. It's still a playground rocket, but every time I turn the wheel to the left or to the right, the trees lift up like they're taking flight. And I'm scared . . . because I don't know how to fly."

"But you're there at the bottom of the slide to catch me when I fall. And that's all that happened. We kissed. Why? Did you hear something else? Nope. We just kissed. Sorry to disappoint you, but I guess we're even. Sort of."

Clay sat on the park bench, earphones into his ears just as two sets of car lights almost blind him as two familiar vehicles' pull up behind the gate, separating the playground from the road.

Leaves crunch under the feet of two people as they walk closer to the fence, the lights reveling that it was Emersyn and Tony.

"Hey, Clay." Tony greets the boy, who quickly pulls the headphones out of his ear.

"Hey, Tony." Clay spoke, turning his heads towards them, "Emersyn? The two of you are hanging out?"

"We met up for dinner." Emersyn shrugged, "Are you okay?"

"Yeah." Clay nods, his heart racing in his chest as he stared at two of his friends, "Fine."

"Is that my Walkman?" Asked Tony.

"Uh. . .," Clay picks up the Walkman from beside him, "Yeah, I was gonna ask──,"

"It's no sweat." Tony cut him off with a shrug, him and Emersyn glancing at each other, "Just be careful listening while you ride, though. You don't want to hurt yourself. Again."

Clay nodded, "You're right. Thanks."

"Eisenhower Park." Tony takes a deep breath as he looks off.

"That must mean you're about ready for side two." Emersyn gives him a half smile as she tucked her hands in the front pocket of the hoddie that she was wearing, "Goodnight, Clay."

Clay stares after the two of them in shock as they get back into their cars and leave.

────୨ৎ────

          ❝ 𝐇𝐄𝐘. ❞ 𝐁𝐑𝐘𝐂𝐄 𝐊𝐍𝐎𝐂𝐊𝐒 on Emersyn's bedroom door, greeting his twin sister as she yelled for him to come in, the two of them being the ones at the large home since their parents were in Aspen.

Emersyn looks up from her place on the hardwood floor of her bedroom where she had been stares down at her toes as she waited for the white nail polish to dry, the color sticking out due to her tan feet, "Hey. What's up?"

"Uh, I was just seeing how you were doing. We haven't really talked in a while." Bryce awkwardly shuffled into the room, sitting on the corner of her neatly made bed.

She shrugged, "I'm fine."

"Emmie. . . ,"

"No. Stop." Emersyn shakes her head, "One of my closest friends are dead and he's not coming back, Hannah killed herself and my ex-boyfriend . . . I'm fine."

Bryce sighed, "Okay. I'll believe you for now." He stands up, squatting down to her height so that he could press a kiss to the top of her head, "Love you, twin."

"Love you." She mumbles as he stands up and walks out the room.

As soon as the door clicks closed, a tear escapes the blonde's eye that she quickly wipes away and wraps her arms around her legs as her chin rest on her knees, more tears falling from her eyes.

────୨ৎ────

          ❝ 𝐏𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐓𝐒 𝐓𝐎 talk to me about Hannah. ❞ Justin leans his shoulder against the wall as he talked to Zach, Emersyn standing between them with her back pressed against the wall and her books clutched tightly to her chest.

"Probably about this fucking lawsuit." Zach has his hands in the pockets of his jeans, hat turned backwards on his head.

Emersyn sighs as she locked eye with Clay as he walked into the school, "I need to get to class."

"Do you want me to walk you?" Zach looks down at her since he was a lot taller than she was.

"No, I'll be fine." She denied, leaning up to kiss him on the cheek before doing the same to Justin, "See you guys later."

"Dude." Justin chuckled as the Walker girl walked away from them, "You have it down bad for her."

"What?" Zach chuckled nervously, "I don't ── I don't know what you're talking about. Besides, she just got out of her relationship with Monty."

Justin scoffed, "Yeah, well, I can guarantee that you'd be a better boyfriend than he ever was. Fucking dick."

"What happened between them anyway?"

"He──," Justin cuts himself off, shaking his head, "No. It's her story to tell. Not mine."

────୨ৎ────

          ❝ 𝑯𝑨𝑵𝑵𝑨𝑯 𝑩𝑨𝑲𝑬𝑹. ❞ 𝑬𝑴𝑬𝑹𝑺𝒀𝑵 grinned as she sits down next to the brunette, a wide smile on her face just as the bell rang.

"Emersyn Walker." Hannah smiles at the blonde before her eyebrows pinch together, "Has anyone ever called you Emma?"

"Uh, I don't think so. I have many nicknames." Emersyn shrugged, "Bryce and others call me Emmie, some people call me Em or Em, Mini Walker, Bryce's other half, uh Blake."

"Blake?"

"Emersyn Blake Walker, my full name." She nodded just as cellphone dinged all around them. "Justin! I'm in class with you, stop texting me!"

"Oh, my God. Seriously, Justin?" One of the girls in the class calls out soon after, making Emersyn frown and unlock her phone, frowning even deeper at the picture displayed on her phone screen. "Why would you send that?"

The picture was of Hannah going down the slide with her blue panties on display for everyone to see them.

"Seriously, Justin?" Emersyn spins around to look at her best friend, "God, you're such a fucking asshole!"

Justin's jaw clench at the anger in the blonde's eyes, looking down at the table since he couldn't stand when she was angry at him.

"What came after my first kiss? Not so wonderful."

────୨ৎ────

          ❝ 𝐈 𝐂𝐀𝐍'𝐓 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐈𝐄𝐕𝐄 you got me into this book. ❞ Tony mumbles to Emersyn as they sat together at lunch, " I can't believe you talked me into starting a freaking book club, with just two members!"

Emersyn laughed, glancing up to see Clay walking toward them, "There comes Clay."

"What the hell, Tony? Emmie?" Clay sits down in front of them, the two of them marking their pages in their books as they looked at him.

"Hey, Clay."

Clay looks between the two of them, "What's the deal? How do the two of you fit into all of this?"

"I'm not on the tapes, if that's what you're asking." Tony tells him.

Clay looks over at Emersyn.

"I'm not on the tapes either." Emersyn lied with a slight shake of her head.

"Did you guys help her do it?"

"No, we did not."

"Did either of you know she was going to?"

Emersyn shakes her head, "No."

"Then how the hell──,"

Tony cuts him off, "Listen to the tapes, Clay."

"Is that all I'm gonna get?" Clay asked, a devastated look on his face as he looks between the two of them.

"Hannah wanted it done like this." Emersyn tells the boy quietly.

"How do you know?!"

"We can't tell you that." Tony tells them, "You have to listen."

"What if I don't?" Clay questioned them. "What if I can't?"

Emersyn swallows the lump in her throat, "Then it will only get worse. Trust us."

"Worse than Hannah being dead?"

"We'll see you around, Clay." Tony tells him as he and Emersyn stood up from the table.

"Tony, Ems." Clay stops them before they can walk away from her. He paused for a second, "Am I side two?"

Tony doesn't say anything as he walks away from the Jensen boy.

Emersyn frowns as Clay looks up at her with glossy eyes, a pleading look on his face, "You aren't on side two. "

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          ❝ A 𝑹𝑼𝑴𝑶𝑹 𝑩𝑨𝑺𝑬𝑫 on a kiss ruined a memory that I hoped would be special. In fact, it ruined just about everything. . . as you'll soon see. ❞

Clay silently walks down the hallway just as Porter stepped out of one of the classrooms, Justin soon leaving the same classroom behind him, his stuff in hand as he eyed Clay down as he walked by.

"And stick around, Justin. I'm not through with you yet. I know you probably didn't mean to let me down. In fact, most of you listening probably had no idea what you were truly doing, but you'll find out."