—

It was finally the end of the school day and Mattias couldn't be happier to leave. With all the "gossip" of Hannah Baker and the annoying sound of his teacher's voices, he was ready to leave as soon as possible.

He stood outside his brothers jeep as he waited for the oldest De La Cruz to show up and take him home before leaving.

Monty had gotten into another arguement with their father that morning over god knows what and refused to return home until the man drank away any memory of why he was mad at him. Luckily for him, Mattias was helping their younger sister, Estella with her hair before school so he wasn't brought into the fight this time.

He heard the sound of footsteps approaching and took his eyes off the oil stain in ground to see who it was.

Monty, Scott, Justin and the Dempsey twins approached him. Justin hopped in the backseat of Monty's jeep without a word as Melani brushed past him.

Matti's mouth was moving before he could even stop himself,

"You okay?"

Melanie froze, having not expecting him to even glance in her direction.

"Huh?"

Mattias cleared his throat, eyes darting around before he lowered his voice, "From this morning? When you were crying?"

"You were crying this morning?" Zach's voice cut into the conversation before she could respond.

"No—"

Mattias furrowed his brows but didn't question her. He quickly gathered that she didn't want anyone knowing of the tears she shed earlier in the day.

"What the hell did you do to her?"

"I didn't do shit, Dempsey." Matti scoffed, appalled that the boy would just assume he was the reason for his sister's sadness.

Monty stepped forward, pushing his younger brother back as he glared at Zach. Zach could mess with him all he wanted, but he'd be damned if he tried something with Matti.

"Back off, man."

"You think it's so crazy for me to assume that someone like you did something to my sister?"

Melanie tried to defend him, "He didn't so anything--"

Monty's jaw clenched, "Someone like him?"

"Why don't you clarify what you mean, Dempsey--"

"How about we don't do that?" Scott stood in between them, refusing to allow a fight to break out,  "Are you okay?" The Reed teen asked, his eyes soft as ever as he spoke to his ex girlfriend.

Mel avoided eye contact, "I'm fine."

Justin perked up from the backseat, "You aren't fine if you're crying."

"Shut up, Justin."

He raised his hands in defense before leaning back.

"Mattias did nothing wrong, Zach. Can we go home?" She gave her brother no chance to answer before she was opening the passenger door and jumping inside, slamming the door shut behind her.

"I'll see you guys tomorrow." Scott started after a moment of silence, beginning his walk to his own car, "Get home safe."

"Bye, Scotty." Monty called out, tearing his eyes away from Zach, nodding for Mattias to get in the car before following suit.

•••

The car ride was silent as Melanie stared out the window.

She could see Zach from the corner of her eye opening his mouth to say something before shutting it seconds later.

"What the hell are you looking at?" She snapped.

"Why were you crying?"

Melanie huffed, "Because I miss my dead friend, Zach. Did you expect me to show up to school where everyone's taking about her and not be upset?"

Zach definitely understood what she meant. He's lost Jeff Atkins just a few days before Hannah died. He was triggered at any small mention of the Atkins boy. It didn't help that now he had to hide how mentions of Hannah Baker triggered him as well.

Melanie and a few others may know of the secret love affair Zach has with Hannah, but that didn't mean he felt comfortable showing how sad he got when anyone talked about her.

"So Mattias didn't do anything?"

"No, Zach." She rolled her eyes in annoyance, "I ran into him and he asked what was wrong."

Not that you need to know any of that.

"You should stay away from him."

"Jesus, Zach—"

"I'm serious, Mel. Those De La Cruz's are trouble."

"You're friends with Montgomery."

"I'm teammates with Montgomery." He corrected her.

Melanie turned to look at him, "You hang out with him all the time. And Bryce."

She made it a point to mention the Walker boy, hoping the realization would slap him in the face.

"I'm doing it to throw suspicion off the tapes. None of that is by choice. You can choose who you hang out with."

"Can I choose to end this conversation?"

He sighed, "Mel—"

"Seriously, Zach, I don't want to talk anymore."

•••

After dropping Justin off, the only noise that filled Monty's car was the static from his broken radio.

The sound was slowly driving Mattias insane and he couldn't help but reach over to try and adjust it.

Monty eyed him, seeing this as the perfect opportunity to speak up,

"It won't last."

"What?"

"Whatever you have going on with Dempsey's sister...end it."

Matti frowned, "There's nothing going on with Mel."

"You're telling me you're comforting her while she's crying instead of calling Scott or Zach to sort it out? Yeah, i'm sure there's nothing going on." He seemed to be growing more upset the more he talked about it, his grip growing tight on the steering wheel.

"She told me not to call Scott. The conversation barely lasted a minute." He looked away from his brother, grunting as Monty reached over to take hold of his wrist.

"She dated Scott. Her brother is Zach. You're the last person on her list of people she'd date. Don't get your hopes up, little brother. A girl like that would never date a guy like you."

Monty words slightly hurt Mattias, but he'd never admit that out loud. Did his own brother really think he was that horrible?

No doubt Monty was worse.

He could've rolled his eyes at the jabs his brother gave him, even knowing he was the worst out of the two.

He couldn't understand why he was so upset. Maybe it was because it was Montgomery telling him he wasn't good enough. Had it been his father, or even a random stranger, Mattias wouldn't have bat an eye.

Either way, this was the first real conversation he's had with Melanie and the two have been going to the same school for years. He couldn't deny that he'd admire the girl from afar, even a blind person could see how beautiful she was. But he'd never go as far to say that he wanted to be with the girl.

So why were Monty's words still lingering in the back of his mind?

—

A/N: deadpool 2 highkey ate, i won't even lie 😔🙌