KISS & TELL
" 'till someone gets hurt ! "
EPISODE SEVEN; CHAPTER ONE
｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆
disclaimer: a chunk of this chapter is about Hannah and Zach that i wrote out from the episode because i couldn't work out how i wanted to skip it. sorry !!
RORY HAD NEVER been one to be jealous until Hannah Baker moved to Crestmont. Everyone began to notice the glares she would give her supposed 'friend' whenever she gained the attention of a boy, or when she ate lunch with someone other than herself. That was one of the main reasons most people who weren't already popular stayed away from Rory. They were scared they would become close with the girl, spill their secrets then as soon as they began to stray away from her, all their confessions would become public knowledge.
And that's why most people felt sorry for Hannah Baker for the first few days of school, until she spent the night at Eisenhower Park with Justin. And because she had gained a reputation so early on in the year, Hannah couldn't escape her friendship with Rory because she, quite literally, had no one else. She couldn't go back to Jess and Alex, although they seemed to be quite close to Rory now, and Clay wasn't exactly the best at comforting people.
That's why Hannah Baker ended up being one of the loneliest people in Liberty High.
It was in Communications class when Rory began to notice that something was up with Hannah. Her head was hung low at her desk and she didn't seem to be taking any notice of the other 20 people around her. Rory had been twirling her hair around her pen during the current presentation, occasionally laughing with the girls around her at it all.
"And so, just because I don't have a skinny ass body doesn't mean I'm fat." The girl at the front sniffled out her concluding statement, glancing over towards Rory's desk where all the girls sat laughing at her. Sheri came to her side and hugged her gently, guiding her back to her seat.
"Maybe she should try a diet." Pratter's shouted from the back of the class, earning some smirks and mutters from every student.
Hannah lifted her head to reply. "Seriously, Pratters?"
"Come on Baker, it's what we were all thinking." Rory laughed back, before turning to her group again and giggling more.
"I'm just saying, alright. If you're getting fat shamed, you know, just..." He paused to take in the rest of the class smirking, "don't be fat." A few loud chuckles escaped the lips of certain people, some tutting at his remarks and some finding it hilarious.
"Pratters," Zach started, "that's like someone saying to you, 'don't be an idiot and a dickward'. You just can't help it."
"Exactly, thank you." He nodded politely at Zack before grinning that someone understood his point.
"Totally not on your side, dude." He laughed back as him and Justin made faces to express their confusion on the way Pratters took the comment. Zach and Hannah locked eyes as he did this. They smiled at each other until Hannah looked shyly away. The bell rang to signal the end of class shortly after their interaction, but both stayed behind to view their compliment bags. Rory, however, left swiftly with Justin to go do God knows what before their next period.
"I always feel stupid." Zach said as he walked up beside Hannah as she spun around the stand her compliment bag was on.
"What? Looking?" Hannah asked as she peered into her bag.
"Yeah." Zach laughed under his breath, trying to play off his embarrassment.
"Yeah, these are the stupidest, most embarrassing things I check every day, no matter what." She said sarcastically as she pulled out a few white paper strips. She glanced down at the first one, seeing a tiny drawing of a bunny smiling up at her.
"You get a good one?" Zach asked as he tried to view what Hannah was grinning at.
"Nothing earth shaking." She replied as she neatly folded the paper back up. "You?" Hannah asked politely.
"Nada." He sighed. There was an awkward silence between them as Zach began to leave. "It's kinda soul-crushing, you know?" He grabbed his backpack straps and shrugged, smiling at Hannah before leaving completely. Sheri had been standing behind the pair with a worried look on her face and Hannah only noticed when her counterpart had left.
"What?" Hannah asked as she turned to face the girl.
"What's the deal with you and Zack?" Sheri asked. Her eyebrows were furrowed and her lips were turned down disapprovingly. Hannah's jaw dropped as she began to assume what she might be hinting at.
"I thought he was single, oh my God, I'm so sorry. It's just he asked me out the other week at lunch and I said no but then I presumed he still wasn't dating anyone, I'm so-" She began to stumble over her words and her cheeks turned a bright red. The more she apologised to Sheri, the more flustered she became.
"You're still friends with Rory Price, right?" Sheri interrupted the panicking girl. Hannah looked up and her lips stop trembling.
"Yeah, why?"
"Zach Dempsey isn't seeing anyone right now, but-"
"Then why did you get annoyed before?" Hannah interrupted, becoming annoyed with Sheri for making her worry for no reason.
"But," Sheri continued loudly, "He used to date Rory. They were together for, like, two years. They broke up the summer you came to town."
"So what's the problem?" Hannah stuttered, still not understanding her point. If Zach and Rory weren't a thing anymore then what was the problem? It's not like she would be making him cheat and be messing up her best friend's relationship.
Sheri scrunched her face up at Hannah's unknowing persona. "Ex-boyfriends are off limits. I learnt that the hard way."
"What do you mean?" Hannah asked. Sheri didn't seem like the type of person to make up petty things to stop her friends from dating people.
"She says it's, like, 'just the rules of feminism' or something." Sheri said, imitating Rory's voice. Both girls chuckled at the impression until they hear a third voice joining in the laughter. They both thought they were alone in the classroom and the sound of another girl surprise them greatly. They looked around until they noticed Rory leant against the door.
"Are you coming, Hannah?" She said, her voice slower than usual, with a sickly sweet bitterness to it.
"Yeah." Hannah said as she hung her head down low, holding onto the strap of her bag and following Rory. The blonde girl smiled sarcastically at Sheri and winked as she turned out of the door frame.
Hannah and Rory both walked in silence until they reached Hannah's locker, which they stopped at so she could get a different book out.
"Look, I'm not mad at you for whatever you were talking to Sheri about." Rory sighed as she leaned against the other lockers. Hannah nodded in acknowledgement and her shoulders dropped to show her relief. "But I am kinda mad about the whole Dempsey thing."
"But that's what we were talking about." Hannah said, pulling a face in confusion as she closed her locker and the two began walking again.
"Oh. I thought you were just talking about what had happened in class." Rory shrugged.
Hannah pulled a face again, "Why would you have been mad about that?"
Rory ignored the question completely and began talking again as she pulled out her phone and simultaneously began to text someone. "Anyway, you could have at least asked me first because usually ex-boyfriends are off limits. That's just the laws of feminism." She said as she looked up from her phone to see Hannah's expression before resuming the texting. Hannah smiled as Rory said the statement exactly like Sheri had mocked her a few minutes prior. "But since it's Dempsey, you can have him."
Rory smiled at Hannah like she had just given her a car. "Uh, thanks?" She muttered as they stopped by a wall. The blonde girl held her hand out to tell Hannah to wait as she began to text again.
"Also, Zach is still a virgin so you could probably only get to 3rd base on maybe the second date bu-"
"Are you serious?" Hannah asked, her mouth wide in shock. She couldn't believe the words that were coming out of her best friend's mouth.
Rory looked up from her phone and was confused at Hannah's reaction. "I thought after everything with Justin taking it slow wasn't really your style."
Hannah laughed bitterly. "Are you kidding me? You're supposed to be my best friend and you still believe all those shitty rumours?"
"It's not a rumour if it's true, Han." Rory scoffed. The brunette girl shook her head in disbelief. Tears started to prick at her eyes and her face was again turning red. She couldn't believe that Rory still thought she was some kind of slut. Hannah felt embarrassed that she even had to be having this conversation with someone so close to her.
"I'm done." Hannah said as she walked away.
"Oh, fuck you Baker." Rory yelled down the hall, catching the attention of all the students around them. They all smirked as Hannah sped past them, desperate to hide the fact she was crying from her peers.
"Is she still a dramatic ass?" Bryce asked as he came up beside Rory with Zach next to him. The blonde girl rolled her eyes and nodded as she turned to face her two friends. "Dude, I'm kinda getting sick of her shit."
"That makes two of us." Zach scoffed, looking down the hall at his former crush. Bryce and Rory looked at each other sceptically before smirking at their friend.
"Are you telling me that little Zachy doesn't have a thing for Hannah anymore?" Bryce laughed and slapped his back. Zach laughed at Bryce's teasing and shrugged his hand off his shoulder.
"I mean if you were looking for a sure thing, count her out." Both boys switched all their attention to Rory as she said this and raised their eyebrows to urge her to continue. "That's what this whole thing was about. Hannah got mad at me when I talked about her and Justin. She's not as easy as we all thought."
"I find that hard to believe." Bryce smirked as he slung his arm around both his friends' shoulders and began walking with them. "You two seem pretty pissed off at her, what are you going to do for revenge?"
Rory rolled her eyes and simultaneously stepped out of Bryce's hold with Zach. "We're not in 5th grade anymore, Bryce." She sighed as they reached her own locker.
"Oh, come on Price. You're not one to let shit like that slide." He smirked once more as he could tell that she was contemplating it. Zach sighed as he gave in to his anger at Hannah.
"I'm down if you are, Gia." He said, surprising both his friends.
"Way to go Zach." Bryce laughed. He knew Rory well enough to know that she would join Zach after he used his nickname for her. "You're both in her communications class, aren't you?"
"Yeah." Rory said as she shut her locker and led the boys down the hall again. "Why do you care?"
"From what Zach has been telling me, she seems pretty hung up about those compliment bags." Bryce said, catching up to the girl so she was in the middle of the two boys as they walked.
"What are you saying?" Zach asked, becoming irritated by Bryce's input.
"I'm saying, Dempsey, that you take her compliments. She'll get pretty pissed off if she finds that bag empty for the next few weeks." Bryce's suggestion made the other two look at each other and silently question whether they should use his plan. No words needed to be exchanged after this as the trio could tell from a glance that Rory and Zach agreed to carry out Bryce's idea.
They didn't speak at all as they walked together, even when they all split down different halls to go to their separate classes. Hannah should have thought twice before messing with them.