𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙏𝙃𝙍𝙀𝙀 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟭
❝ 𝗘𝗜𝗦𝗘𝗡𝗛𝗢𝗪𝗘𝗥 𝖯𝖠𝖱𝖪 ❞
❪ 𝙏𝘼𝙋𝙀 𝙊𝙉𝙀, 𝘚𝘐𝘋𝘌 𝘈 ❫
𝟢𝟥. ╱ ✷ ❝ 𝘁𝘂𝗿𝗻 the tape
over 𝗳𝗼𝗿 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 ❞
"𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝙊𝙉𝙀 𝘼𝙉𝘿 Kat moved away before the start of school. She was the kind of friend that couldn't be replaced, even by falling in love with the boy she left behind."
"Hey." Justin walked next to the brunette girl as she walked towards the entrance of the high school, "Hannah, right?"
"Right."
"Justin. Foley." He introduces himself, "I saw you at the party the other night."
"Yeah, I saw that too." Hannah tells him, "You're drier now."
"Yeah, well, Riley always keeps our spare clothes in the trunk of her car for emergencies." Justin says, "It's not the first time that we've needed a change of clothes."
"Was it profound?"
"Huh?"
"You're change?"
"Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Totally." Laughed Justin, "So, uh...Kat's gone."
"Yeah, sucks. You talk to her?" Asked Hannah.
"Yeah, I mean, you know, like a little."
"Yeah, me too. A little." Hannah looks up, finding the boy smiling down at her, "I, uh, I should get to class."
"Oh, yeah, yeah." Justin chuckles, "So, I'll see you around, then."
"I guess you will."
"Being Kat's boyfriend was kind of the only remarkable thing about you, Justin. You were my Kryptonite."
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"I WAS AN office assistant third period. So, I knew where you were third period."
Riley sits at a desk in her math class, listening to the teacher drag on and on about the lesson that they were going over.
She was leaning back in her chair, Justin sitting behind her with his head down as he uses her as a shield so that he could sleep during the period, knowing that the blonde in front of him would let him copy her notes and homework later on.
"Alright, so that's just the even numbers, one through forty." Mr. Bates spoke, "You've got to show your work. Yeah, you heard me say it, show your work. And Miss Jensen, that means don't let Mr. Foley copy your homework tomorrow before class."
Just then the bell rings.
"Alright, dismissed. Thank you."
"You are gonna let me copy your homework, right?" Justin mumbled as the two of them walked out of the classroom, both shooting smiles at Mr. Bates as he eyes the two, only for Justin to run straight into Hannah.
"Whoa! Careful there." Hannah tells him.
Riley raises an eyebrow as she pulls her phone out the back pocket of her shorts, texting Jeff.
"Hannah." Justin chuckled, "I'm sorry about that."
"Geometry with Bates. No wonder you're in a hurry."
"Oh, you have him, too?" Justin asked.
"Fifth period. The worst ten hours of my day." Hannah laughed, "Speaking of, gotta go."
"Oh, yeah, great. Um..I'll see you later?" Justin stammered, Riley standing behind him with a smirk on her face as she looked between the two.
"You will!" Hannah called over her shoulder.
Justin turns around to find Riley looking over at him with a smirk on her face, "What? What did I do?"
Riley shrugged, the smirk never leaving her lips as she turned around to walk to her fourth period class, "Nothing, Jay. Nothing at all."
"You didn't answer my question! Are you going to let me copy your homework!? Riley Nicole!" Justin calls, running after the blonde.
A squeal leaves her lips as she noticed the boy coming after her, quickly taking off down the hall and trying her best to dodge the people walking to their next classes.
"Mr. Foley! Miss. Jensen! No running in the hall - oh, why do I even bother with the two of them?" Mr. Bates shakes his head after walking out of his classroom to find the two running off down the hallway.
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"I EVEN DECIDED to like basketball for you, Justin."
"Jensen's!" Hannah called out as she watched the two cousins look for a place to sit, Riley's main focus being on the basketball court, more so Zach and Justin then the others, "Clay Jensen! Helmet!"
THe familiar nickname caught Clay's attention, who pulled his cousin along with him to sit next to Hannah, "Oh, hey. Sorry. Through here."
"You get lost on your way to the library?" Hannah asked the male Jensen, looking down at Riley for a brief moment, who wasn't even paying attention.
"Oh, uh....Coach Patrick assigned the game for history homework, so...,"
"So, sit." Hannah tells him, "You always stand and fidget. It makes me anxious."
"Tootsie Roll?" Clay offered, passing down the bag of sour skittles in his hand down to Riley, who was sat a seat below him on the bleachers.
"How can you seat those?" Questioned Hannah, "Seriously, what does that look like to you?"
"Like it's all good and sweet in the world." Clay says before taking a bit of the chocolate candy, "Mm, I don't figure you for a sports person."
"I want to get the complete high school experience." Hannah says, "I didn't peg Riley for a basketball fan."
Clay snorted as he looked down at Riley, "Ry, which school sports team are for? Out of the many that we have?"
"Baseball." Riley answered quickly.
Clay watches Justin smile over at Hannah and give her a head nod, before the Foley boy looks down a seat and sends Riley a wink, blowing the blonde a playful kiss and in return, she blows him one back, "Justin is the complete high school experience?"
"Shut up!" Hannah nudged him, "Don't be jealous, Clay. You'll fill out. Someday. Maybe. Is your dad alos thin and nervous?"
Clay takes a second to answer, "Yeah, pretty much."
"What about you?" Hannah poked Riley in the shoulder, "Is your dad thin and nervous?"
The Jensen boy watches as Riley's shoulders tense up, a frown appearing on her face, making him wrap his arms around her shoulders from behind as a form of comfort.
"Yeah, my dad is pale and thin," Riley tells her bluntly, not even taking her eyes off the basketball game. "He's also buried six feet under in a little pine box in Crestmont Cemetery, right next to my mother."
Hannah's eyes grow wide, "Oh, I'm - I'm sorry."
Riley shrugged, "Don't worry about it."
ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ
"𝙃𝙀𝙔, 𝙃𝙀𝙇𝙈𝙀𝙏." 𝙃𝘼𝙉𝙉𝘼𝙃 walks over to where CLay and Riley were walking towards Riley's car, looping her arm through his.
"Hey."
"Can you email me your French notes?" Asked Hannah. "I can't understand Madam Steinberg. It's like she's speaking German."
"Sure."
Zach's car rolls up next to the three teens, Justin leaning over the side, "Ride home?"
"Thanks, but no." Hannah denied his offer, gesturing towards the school buses, "My chariot awaits. Bye, Jensen's. See you, Justin."
The group watched Hannah walk off the sidewalk and towards one of the school buses.
Justin looks Clay up and down for a few seconds before he licked his lips, grabbing his bag from the floorboard of the car and got out, "You guys go."
"Whoa! No way! The bus?" Zach called out after the boy.
"Yo, bus with hot girl, car with idiots?" Justin shrugged before getting onto the same bus that Hannah had gotten on.
"Hey, Zee." Riley smirked, hands sliding in the back pockets of her jean shorts, "Hannah doesn't ride the bus. She walks home."
Zach and Marcus let out laughs as Hannah gets off the bus just seconds before it took off, Justin sticking his head out of the bus window.
"Hey, where the hell is this thing going?!" Justin called out to the Baker girl.
"No clue! I don't take the bus either!" Hannah called out to him.
"Seriously?! Hannah Baker!"
"Call me!" Hanna yells back, "Handsome."
"Want a ride home, jokester?" Riley laughs as she asks the brunette girl, "We can just throw Clay in the backseat."
"Yeah, that would be great." Hannah grinned, both of them linking arms and walking away from Clay and towards the student parking lot.
"What? Hey! My legs are too long for the backseat!"
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"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."
"BOO!"
"MOTHER FUCKER!" Riley screamed, spinning around to find Tony laughing behing her, "I hate you so fucking much!"
"You and I both know that's a lie, little one." Tony chuckled, leaning against the side of her car, "So, how far is he?"
Riley sighed, "He's still on Justin's tape?"
"He's going slower than the others." Tony said.
"Clay was in love with her. It'll take him some time. Besides, it took us three days after hearing them to actually send them off to Justin." Riley shrugged, "Now, can you change the oil like you promised you would?"
"Of course. Pop the hood."
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"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 onto the steering wheel. It's still a playground rocket, but every time I turn the wheel to the left or 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 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, but I guess we're even now. Sort of."
Clay sat in the park, listening to the last bit of Justin's tape.
A car pulls into the parking lot and the engine shuts off before two doors open and close at the same time. Looking over, her find Tony and Riley leaning over the fence that separates the playground from the parking lot.
"Hey, Clay." Tony speaks up.
"Hey, Tony. Riley." Clay looks at his cousin in confusion.
"You okay?" Asked Riley.
"Yeah, I'm fine."
"Is that my walkman?" Tony questioned the Jensen boy, already having known that he had taken it from his car.
"Uh..yeah, I was gonna ask-,"
Tony cuts him off, "It's no sweat. Just be careful listening while you ride, though. You don't want to hurt yourself. Again."
"You're right. Thanks."
"Eisenhower park." Tony looks around before glancing at Riley.
The blonde licks her lips before speaking up, "That must mean you're about ready for side two."
Clay turns to look at them in shock and disbelief.
"Night, Clay. I have to get your cousin back home. Tony tells him as both teens push off of the fence, "Take care of yourself."
"See, I've heard so many stories about me now that I don't know which one is the most popular. But I do know which one is the least popular. The truth. See, the truth isn't always the most exciting version of things, or the best of the worst."
"But it deserves to be heard and remembered. The truth will come out, like someone once said. It remains. So, thank you, Justin. Sincerely. My very first kiss was wonderful."
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"𝗣𝗢𝗥𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗧𝗦 𝗧𝗢 see me about Hannah." Justin says as he and Zach stood with Riley.
"Probably about this fucking lawsuit." Zach tells him, noticing that Clay was looking at them, and nodded his head in the direction of the Jensen boy.
"Which one is he on?" Justin looked down at the blonde.
Riley crosses her arms over her chest, "Last night he was at the park. So, he's almost too Jessica's."
ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ
𝙍𝙄𝙇𝙀𝙔 𝙎𝙄𝙏𝙎 𝙄𝙉 her seat in class as phones started going off all around, including her own.
"Oh, my God. Seriously, Justin?" One of the girls questioned after checking her phone, "Why would you send that?"
Justin looks at her and shrugged.
Gasps were heard around the room as everyone looked at their phones just as Mrs. Bradley walked into the room, "Okay, everyone, settle in. Today, we're discussing ways to navigate difficult interactions."
Riley pulls her phone of of her back pocket, seeing a couple text messages from Jeff, Leah and Scott, and one from Justin.
Choosing to ignore the ones from the other three, the blonde opened the picture message from Justin, jaw dropping as she looked at the picture of Hannah going down the slide at the park, her blue underwear on display for everyone to see.
"People, at least nod in the direction of our no device rule, okay?" Mrs. Bradley spoke, "We are talking about ways to address conflicts with your peers, all right? How can we communicate more effectively without the use of emojis? All right, I need two volunteers for a little role playing exercise."
Riley turns to look at Justin with an eyebrow raised.
Once he locks eyes with the blonde, he mouths "Bryce." causing the girl to scoff and roll her eyes.
"What came after my first kiss? No so wonderful. I'm not angry you betrayed me. I'm angry that I trusted you in the first place."
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"𝗛𝗘𝗥𝗘 𝗖𝗢𝗠𝗘𝗦 𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬." Riley mumbled to Tony as her cousin rushed towards them.
"What the hell, Tony? Riley?"
"Hey, Clay." Tony closes the book he had been reading.
"What's the deal?" He looks between the two of them, "How do the two of you fit into all of this?"
"We're not on the tapes, if that's what you're asking. Riley tells him in a soft voice.
"Did you two help her do it?"
"No, we did not." Tony answered.
"Did you guys know she was going to?" Clay questioned.
Riley shakes her head, "No."
"Then how the hell-,"
Tony cuts him off, "Listen to the tapes, Clay."
"Is that all I'm gonna get?"
"Hannah wanted it done like this." Riley tells her cousin, calmly.
"How do both of you know this?"
"We can't tell you that. You have to listen." Says Tony.
"What if I don't? What if I can't?"
"Then it will only get worse." Tony shared a look with Riley, "Trust us."
"Worse than Hannah being dead?"
"I'll see you around, Clay." Tony grabbed his stuff and kissed the top of Riley's head before he walked away.
Clay looked at his cousin, "Riley, am I 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. 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 have no idea what you were truly doing, but you'll find out."
"Turn the tape over for more."