TROUBLED || thirteen reasons why

060.

Tristan stirs in her sleep, the constant dinging of her phone intruding her unconscious state. She rolls over towards her nightstand and fumbles around until her hand finds her phone. The light blinds her as it illuminates her room.

12:31 AM.

26 new messages.

Zach.

She blinks away the sleep and sits up in her bed. Her foggy mind clearing as she tries to read the messages Zach has sent. But before she can process any of them, Zach's name appears across her screen. Tristan answers the call.

"Hello?"

"I'm outside... Can you come out?" The boy's voice is antsy, making Tristan quickly get out of bed and tread softly down the stairs. She creaks opens the front door and sees Zach leaning against the brick. He releases a breath as he engulfs the girl into his arms, "I didn't kill him, Tris. I didn't kill him."

"What happened?" Tristan breathes, weight finally lifting off of her shoulders.

"He drowned," Zach squeezes the girl tighter, thinking about that night, "I didn't kill him."

Tristan pulls away from Zach and reaches up to his face. Her thumb wipes away the wetness under his eyes and she smiles in relief. He didn't kill Bryce. She closes the space between them as her lips press against his.

That morning she wakes up to the smell of bacon cooking in the kitchen. Tristan quickly takes a shower and gets dressed for the day before heading downstairs to the wonderful smell of breakfast. As she walks into the kitchen, Matt Jensen flips his last batch of pancakes and looks over towards the girl, "Good morning, Tristan. We've got OJ, toast, bacon, and pancakes will be done in a minute. Go ahead and start a plate. They should be back any second now."

"Who?" Tristan asks as she grabs the orange juice from the fridge and eyes the man. But before Matt can answer, the back door opens and Lainie Jensen walks in, followed by Clay.

"Clay!" The girl jumps from her seat and runs to Clay, throwing her arms around him with a wide smile.

"What do you want for breakfast as your first meal a free man?" Matt laughs as he pulls his son in for a hug.

Clay rolls his eyes, "Ha-ha, you're hilarious."

"Does Justin know you're back?" Tristan perks up, glancing at the boy. He looks to his mother for a moment and shrugs. Tristan lets out a laugh before grabbing ahold of Clay's arm, "Come on, we have to go see him. He's going to freak,"

"Jensen, what the fuck!" Tristan was right. Justin rushes to the two and engulfs Clay in a hug as soon as they enter the Outhouse, "When did you get back?"

"Just now, we met bail." Clay says, his smile falling as he sits on his bed. The door open and Lainie Jensen steps inside, her heels clicking as she moves next to Justin.

"They just let you leave?" Justin questions.

Clay doesn't say anything for a moment, his face turning red. He lifts up his jeans and shows off his ankle monitor to everyone in the room. Justin snorts, "You got one on me, Jensen. I've never had one of those."

"Yeah, I'm breaking your records all the time." Clay retorts, he stands up abruptly and crosses his arms.

"It's brutal, but it's better than a jail cell," Lainie pipes in, "We had to agree to it to get the prosecutor into court this morning and get you RoR'd."

"I'm not complaining."

Justin looks between Clay and his mom, "So what? He can't leave the Outhouse?"