After The Reasons

This isn't about the past!

Nobody speaks. Everyone stays silent and everyone doesn't look anywhere but me. Everybody in this room is focusing on the five words that just came out of my mouth. Not even Jessica knows what to say at this minute... everyone is silent. "That was the hospital. I had asked them to call me with updates for all the patients that came in from the shooting." I explain in a hollow voice, clearly trying to process the information that I have been told. "Somebody is dead?" Ani asks. I nod my head, "Yeah, somebody is dead." I confirm. "What do we do now?" Charlie asks. I look at Tyler who looks pale and scared. All of the colour in his face has drained and his eyes are bolted open, he really didn't mean for anybody to die. But somebody is dead now. "We've done this before." Zach says snakily to Charlie. "We know how to cover up a murder... we've done it already." I say, not moving. "I'm sorry, you're planning on coving this up? You're fucking joking! HE KILLED SOMEBODY! We all left Crestmont four years ago. We all got out of this shithole of a fucking town and we got to see what it was like to live a 'normal' life! One that girls didn't kill themselves and leave tapes that had to be passed around to people so they could know all the things that they did to drive her to slice her fucking wrists open in a bathtub! A life that we didn't shoot ourselves in the fucking heads because life in this fucking town was too much! A life that girls who used to be your best friends get raped by the guy that you think is a a friend, a guy you think is a 'good guy' on the inside but you had to break down the 'jock' frontier. A life that those girls boyfriends didn't sit outside of the fucking door, listening to their girlfriends get raped but do nothing to fucking stop it! A life where your friends didn't show up to school dances with fucking machine guns because they were attacked and raped in the school bathroom! A life where nobody was murdered and nobody was to blame! A life where people drop down dead at prom! A NORMAL FUCKING LIFE!" Alex shouts. Zach turns to Alex and glowers at him. "You're one to fucking talk, Alex! That girl that killed herself, YOU were one of her fucking reasons! YOU put her name on the 'Hot-Or-Not List'! YOU are the reason that Hannah and Jessica fell out because you said Jessica had the worst ass and Hannah had the best even though Jessica was your girlfriend! YOU are the reason that she was being objectified daily by the guys in Liberty! Because of that list everyone branded her as a slut and easy hookup, which led her to be sexually assaulted and then raped by the king himself! YOU were the one who shots himself in the head because you felt so fucking guilty that a girl was dead because of YOU! It was YOU who tried to take the cowards way out! YOU were also the one who heard Hannah Baker cry as Bryce Walker raped her in his hot tub! YOU heard her crying as he took away everything. YOU also helped cover up what happened at the Spring Fling because you knew that that's just what you needed to do! And the best one of them all... YOU were the one to kill Bryce Walker! And you did it on purpose!" He spits. Alex stands with a clenched jaw as Zach tears into him, saying nothing. Everyone stands in silence, not sure what to say or whose side to take. "So its all my fault? How about we take some other things into consideration here! Justin Foley had two tapes! He hurt Hannah Baker so badly that she had to make TWO separate tapes, explaining what he did to her! Justin was the one who first gave her the 'slut' reputation because he send around a picture of her in her underwear and said that they looked up when they didn't. He also sat outside of the room where his girlfriend was being raped and he didn't try to help her, hell he didn't even tell her that she had been raped for months!" Alex starts shouting. "Shut your fucking mouth right now!" I snap. "Justin was a horrible person sometimes, he could be evil. But he did not send that picture of Hannah around school, Bryce Walker did! His girlfriend was so drunk so he left the bedroom to get her a glass of water! When he left that room, his 'best friend' went in and started to rape his girlfriend. Justin barged into that room and tried to pull him off, but Bryce was much bigger and stronger so he just threw Justin out of the room and locked the door. Yeah you're right, he didn't tell her for a long time after it happened and he told her that they ad hooked up instead. But he didn't do that to hurt her, he done it to protect her because he loved her! So before you talk shit about my dead brother in his own fucking house, get your damn facts straight!" I shout at Alex. Nobody gets to come in here and talk about Justin like that, I wont allow it. "This isn't about who killed Hannah Baker or who killed Bryce Walker or who Justin Foley was or the tapes! This is about Tyler!" Ani says. "I'm sorry you guys. I really am. You don't have to help me, I'll understand." Tyler says, finally speaking. "Okay, if you don't wanna be here, leave. Leave now and forget that you ever came here tonight and go back to your perfect little lives outside of this fucking town. Any takers?" I ask and wait for somebody to leave. Nobody budges and I nod my head, "Good!" I look and Jessica and she sighs heavily. "Let's cover up a murder then..."