𝘾𝙃𝘼𝙋. 𝙎𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉 ─── 𝖲𝖤𝖠𝖲𝖮𝖭 𝟭
❝ 𝖳𝖧𝖤 𝗕𝗟𝗨𝗘 𝗦𝗣𝗢𝗧 ❞
❪ 𝙏𝘼𝙋𝙀 𝙏𝙒𝙊, 𝘚𝘐𝘋𝘌 𝘈 ❫
𝟢𝟩. ╱ ✷ ❝ 𝘂𝗻𝘁𝗶𝗹 the hurricane
𝗵𝗶𝘁𝘀 ❞
"𝗪𝗔𝗡𝗡𝗔 𝗘𝗡𝗧𝗘𝗥 𝗧𝗛𝗔𝗧 stupid costume thing tomorrow?" Scott leans against the counter of Monet's as Riley and Skye stand behind the counter.
"No, thank you." Riley shook her head with a laugh as Clay walks up to the counter, "Skye, can you...?"
"Yeah, sure."
"Hey. You work here?" Clay looks over at his cousin, raising an eyebrow at the boy dressed in a Liberty High baseball varsity jacket, as the two smile at each other as they joke around. He had seen the boy around school a few times, and had seen him hang around when Jeff was still alive, but he had never really seen him around anyone other than Bryce and his gang of friends.
"You drink coffee now?" Skye asked him.
"Yeah. I mean, just sort of started." Clay shrugged.
"Look at our little Clay, all grown up." Syke teases, "So, do you want one now?"
"Oh, right. Uh, a..small drip, please." He said, "Black."
"Que Macho." Skye turned around to grab the coffee grounds.
"Is that a lizard on your neck?" Clay questioned, noticing the tattoo on her neck.
"It's an alligator." Skye says, "I got this one at the same time Riley got her tattoo."
"Don't expose me like that." Riley glares at the girl playfully as Clay looks at his cousin in surprise.
"You have a tattoo?"
"It's behind her ear." Scott says with a wink as he goes to stand up.
"Leave!" Riley points to the door behind him.
Scott held his hands up in mock surrender, "I'm going. I'm going. Catch you later, Riles."
"How many do you have now?" Clay asks Skye, "Tattoos?"
"Why? Do you want to give your opinion? Everyone else feels entitled to."
"No, I just - I just wondered." He said, "I like the alligator."
"Remember that story I use to tell about my parents every time we drove over a bridge?"
"I remember. No, wait. I forgot."
Riley smirked, walking by Skye and smacking her ass playfully, "I remember."
Skye smirks back at the blonde, turning back to Clay, "When I was little, I use to cry every time we drove over a bridge. I don't know why. My mom used to try to distract me-,"
"-and she would tell you to look for a purple alligator in the water, and you'd forget you were scared." Clay says as she turned around.
"Yeah, and that's the story." Skye said as Clay took his backpack off to grab his wallet, "It's on the house."
"Oh." Clay looked back at the sound of the door opening, finding Alex standing there, who nodded once he saw Clay.
ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ
"𝙔𝙊𝙐 𝙒𝘼𝙉𝙏 𝙀𝙑𝙄𝘿𝙀𝙉𝘾𝙀, Alex? You want storm clouds and thunder? Let's go to E-3 on your maps everyone. The Blue Spot Liquor Store...where butterfly met hurricane. The Blue Spot was a block and a half away from my first house there. It seemed like nothing."
"Until the hurricane hits."
"Because when you put my name on that list, you put a target on my..well, it wasn't just my ass. You made it open season on Hannah Baker."
"Hey, Lee, just bought your cousin a cold one." Bryce came out of the Liquor store, and around the corner where Riley sat between Monty's legs on the hood of the black car that belonged to Bryce.
"There he is! Jensen!" Justin yelled as Clay turned the corner, "Come drink with us, buddy!"
"I, uh, thanks, but I gotta get home for dinner." Clay tells them, trying anything to get out of the current situation he had found himself in.
"Oh, that's cute. Come on. You come all the way out to Blue Spot." Justin puts his arm around the boy's shoulder, "You let Bryce-y buy you a beer."
"No, I really gotta-,"
"No, the least you can do is drink with us." Justin touched the back of his neck, "Come on. Drink your forty. Alex, you're up, man!"
"Oh, yes. I love it, I love it." Bryce takes the bottle from Monty, "Freak versus Geek! Time trial. Forty ounces."
"Let's go!"
"Don't you have a convert?" Clay asked Alex.
"I did, yeah, but...actually, I quit Jazz band." Alex tells him, "It's just pointless."
"Oh, look!" Bryce exclaimed as Tony's car stopped on the other side of the road, "Your boyfriend's waiting for you."
"The record is seventeen seconds." Zach wraps his arm around Bryce's shoulder, "It was eighteen with Bryce, but for such a small person, Riley can hold her liquor."
"Okay, we can't all be giants like you are." Riley kicked Zach's leg, and in retaliation, the boy turns and smacks her bare thigh, "Ow! Shit, you dick!"
"Wait. To drink it all?" Asked Clay.
"Yes. To drink it all." The group - minus Riley - laughs.
"Riley!" Monty wrapped his arm around the blonde's waist, "You haven't taught him anything have you?"
"Clay doesn't get out much."
"There's two ways you leave, Jensen. Buzzed or beat down." Justin said.
"Come on, Jensen, don't be a bitch!" Zach laughed.
"Alright, here we go. You ready?" Bryce asked, "Five, four, three, two, one!"
Riley watches her cousin closely as he gulped down the beer, glancing briefly at Tony.
"You got it! Come on, you got it! Go, go!"
"Come on, Jensen!"
"No turning back! Let's go!" Bryce cheers.
"Come on, keep going!"
"Go, go, go, go!"
"It's so fucking close! Go, go! So close! Oh, my God, Jensen!" Bryce yells as Clay finishes his beer before Alex, "Attaboy! What the fuck!"
"Clay!" Riley called out, sliding off the hood of Bryce's car.
"Where are you going?!" Monty called out to his best friend, "Riley, I'm your fucking ride home!"
"I'll see you at school tomorrow!" She called over her shoulder, grabbing onto Clay's arm to steer him in the direction of Tony's car as he started to stumble, Clay being a lightweight when it came to alcohol of any kind.
Riley pulls him back into her chest as a car speeds past them, honking their horn.
"Hey, really appreciate your help." Clay tells Tony, moving away from his cousin.
"Looked like you were having fun with your friends." Tony stated.
"Why are you following me?"
"I wasn't. I saw you with Alex." Tony looked over at Riley for a brief moment as he looked back at Clay, "I thought you were on his tape."
"Why were you with Mrs. Baker earlier?"
Riley looks down at her feet wide eyed.
"Look, if you can't trust me, Clay, I can't help you." Tony says, "Riley and I can't help."
ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ
"𝗛𝗘𝗬." 𝗖𝗟𝗔𝗬 𝗪𝗔𝗟𝗞𝗘𝗗 into the house, Riley already sitting down at the table since she had gotten to the house after having Scott come pick her up since Clay had rushed off after Tony, leaving her stranded at the Liquor store.
"Here he is."
"Sorry, I'm late. I got a little distracted on my way home." Clay walked into the kitchen.
"Said you'd be here half an hour ago. Where were you?" Lainie asked.
"Uh, I was with a friend. She was in trouble, and I - I didn't believe her, so I checked it out and it was true." Clay says, eyes squinted, "She was telling the truth."
"Are you drunk?"
"I think so."
"Oh, boy." Riley mumbles under her breath.
"Wow, this is escalating fast." Matt says.
"Tell me about it." Riley sighed with a roll of her eyes, rubbing her temples at the stupidity of her cousin.
"Drinking on a school night? Riding your bike while drunk?" Lainie questioned.
"I'm sorry about that."
"How much did you drink, son?" Matt asked him.
"Just one beer. It was a big beer thought, and it's disgusting." Clay tells them.
"Alright, enough. You are grounded." Lainie says before looking over at her niece, who held her head in her hands and silently cursing Clay out in her head, "And where were you to stop him?"
"It wasn't her fault, mom." Clay slurred.
Despite being drunk, and sore of pissed at Riley, he was always going to make sure his cousin didn't get into trouble because of him.
"Where were you?" Lainie repeated as her niece didn't answer her question.
Riley scoffed, "Clay is not my responsibility!" Riley tells her aunt, a shocked expression on her face.
"Alright, both of you are grounded."
"I didn't even fucking do anything!" Riley hisses, standing up from the kitchen chair.
"I don't care! For two weeks, you both will go straight to school, and come home afterwards, no activities, no hanging out with friends." Lainie tells the two of them.
"Okay, before we get to the sentencing phase, let's all just sit down to dinner." Matt says, "You need some food and water in your, and then we can talk about-,"
"No, I don't, actually. I'm not that hungry." Clay tells his dad, "Um, I think I'm just gonna...go to my room."
"Riley, you're the oldest! You're supposed to be more responsible than this? You're behaving just like your father!" Lainie looks up at her.
"Mom!"
"Lainie!"
Riley scoffs, "Just like my father, huh? Last time I checked, I didn't kill my wife before shooting myself in the head, and I sure as hell didn't leave my fourteen year old daughter an orphan!"
Just as she turns to leave and go upstairs, a loud gasp left her lips as Clay puked his guts up on the kitchen table and the food.
"I'm sorry."
"Come on." Riley mumbled as she grabbed Clay by the forearm and let him up the stairs, "get in the shower, and I'll come check on you in a little bit."
ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ
"𝗟𝗜𝗧𝗧𝗟𝗘 𝗥𝗜𝗟𝗘𝗬 𝗝𝗘𝗡𝗦𝗘𝗡 is grounded." Justin smirked over the FaceTime call as he sat with the others in Bryce's pool house.
Riley rolled her eyes, "It's your guys' fault."
"Sneak out and come see us." Monty shoved his face into the phone screen.
"Yeah, no thanks." Riley tells him, "I gotta make sure Clay doesn't choke on his own vomit tonight. I'll see you guys tomorrow at school."
"Get some sleep, Lee." Justin gives her a soft smile before hanging up the phone.
Riley lets out a sigh as she locked her phone.
Standing up, she grabs the throw blanket from her bay window and makes her way into Clay's bedroom. She quickly checks on her cousin, pulling his covers over his body before walking over to the couch he had in his room and laying down, letting a sigh leave her lips as she looked up at the ceiling.
"Riley?" Clay's soft voice calls from his bed, as he turns his body to look at her figure in the dark room.
"Yeah?"
"I'm sorry."
ミ⛧ ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬ ⛧ﾐ
"𝙏𝙃𝙀 𝘽𝙐𝙏𝙏𝙀𝙍𝙁𝙇𝙔 𝙀𝙁𝙁𝙀𝘾𝙏."
"It started with Justin, then onto you, Alex. And then the rest of you. Maybe these tapes will start a new butterfly effect. Who knows? Everything affects everything. Shh. For this next one, you need to be very, very, quiet. Because you're about to do something very wrong. Be careful."
"And don't get caught."