we were talking to matt and lanie about that night and lanie asked clay another question.
"so you didn't see bryce after that?" she asked. "over the summer, this fall?"
"no." clay replied.
"you have no contact with him at all?" lanie asked. he looked at me and justin.
"no, no contact at all." clay replied.
"never went over to his new house? threatened him again?" lanie asked.
"no." clay replied.
"can you think of any other reasons why the police would suspect you?" she asked him.
"it's mrs. walker, she's out to get me. look, you have to believe me. i didn't do anything." clay told his mom.
"clay, we believe you. we just... the more we know, we can better protect you." matt told him.
"there's nothing to know."
"dennis has agreed to represent you. he started out in the PD's office. he knows criminal defense." lanie said.
"i'm not a criminal."
"we know." matt said to clay.
"clay, we need to take action. we need to protect you." lanie said.
"so, what... what can i do?" clay asked.
"nothing. dennis was very clear about that." lanie informed him.
"you don't wanna give the police or mrs. walker anything they could use against you." matt said.
"we'd like you to see dr. ellman." lanie informed her son.
"why?" he asked.
"it's just a check in. this is a tricky time. it might be useful to... talk it through." matt said.
"so you think i'm like... crazy?" clay asked.
"we don't." matt reassured.
"mental illness might come up—"
"we don't! we just thought it might be with talking to him. but right now, you guys have to get to school." matt interrupted. justin and clay got up to go into their outhouse.
"right now, analeia is asleep, but she has milk in the fridge, ready for when she wakes up." i said, hugging them both.
"have a good day, kiddo." matt said to me. i smiled and walked away. i walked into the outhouse and saw justin cursing to himself.
"where's clay?" i asked.
"guess." justin said to me.
"he went to go see mrs. walker, didn't he?" i asked, crossing my arms.
"yeah. he did."
"and you didn't try to talk him out of it?" i asked.
"yes, i did, kylie. but you know as well as i do that he never fucking listens to anyone." he replied. i pushed my hair back and sat on his bed.
"alex is still juicing. he screamed at me yesterday and now the whole school knows we're back together." i said to him.
"are you fucking kidding me?" he asked.
"don't, justin. look at me. don't." i said, holding his face to face me. he softly kissed me.
"i love you." he said to me.
"i love you, too." i replied, smiling. we walked out and went to school.
when i got to school, i sat in my class and opened up my books. suddenly, alex sat next to me.
"thanks for sending justin to smack me down." he said to me.
"oh my god. i didn't send justin to do anything." i groaned, not looking at him.
"look, i'm sorry about yesterday." alex apologized.
"whatever." i replied.
"porter's here with the sheriff." alex told me, causing me to look at him.
"wait who?" i asked. "porter? counselor porter? what the fuck, why?" i asked.
"it's gotta be about bryce, right?" alex asked.
"but what would he know?" i asked.
"a lot about last year. didn't you talk to him about shit?"
"not really." i replied.
the bell rang.
"i gotta go. i'll see you later." i said, getting up and leaving. suddenly i was stopped in my tracks.
"kylie andrews, you mind coming into the office?" mr. porter asked. i shook my head and followed him. he began asking me a series of questions about clay.
"he sent around a picture of tyler and keyed zach's car." mr. porter said.
"he wanted people to feel the way hannah did." i replied.
"but did clay ever confront you?" porter asked me.
"no. because i didn't know about the tapes or what happened to me." i replied. "but when i found out, he said he would burn the tapes if jess and i wanted him to."
"but then he published hannah's tapes, violating your privacy and jessica's?"
"he asked jessica. but like i said, i never knew about them. once i did, he stayed by my side." i said to him.
"but then he put pressure on you to go to the police and to testify?"
"he believed that i was strong enough to tell my story even when i didn't." i replied.
"but he put pressure on you?" he asked.
"so did you! and look, if i never tell my story, bryce never gets arrested, so—"
"so, what? the ends justify the means and what he did is okay?" mr. porter asked.
"no, it makes it not black and white." i replied. "you all want to paint him as this bad guy, but the fact is he's not." i said to him. "look, when my boyfriend, jeff, was killed and i became homeless, clay and his family took me in. when shit went south, clay was always there. he helped me get out of an abusive relationship and when i became pregnant, clay moved into an outhouse, turned bedroom, so that i didn't have to use the guest room when my daughter got here. i would probably be dead on the streets if it wasn't for him." i said to them.
"alright. thank you. you can get back to class." sheriff diaz said.
later that night, dennis was at the house and we were going over what happened today.
"well, they pulled in tyler, kylie, everyone." dennis replied.
"it's a dirty way to do it." lanie said.
"mr. porter said most of the people defended me. he said he was trying to get them to say good things about me the whole time. who knows if it's true." clay said. justin and i looked at each other.
"shit... it's true. he kept trying to get me to get angry at him, and he smiled and nodded at me. i couldn't figure out why, but that's why."
"kylie? did he do the same thing?" dennis asked.
"yeah. once i defended clay, he did the same thing to me." i replied.
"look, they may have tried to defend you, clay, but any statement they made about your history with bryce can still be used against you. they're building a case against you and they're moving fast, so we need to be talking next steps." dennis said.
"what does that mean?" clay asked.
"well, in the absence of another suspect, we need to be prepared for a strategy for your defense." dennis replied.
"this is just to be prepared. that's all, clay."
"montgomery de la cruz." clay spoke out loud, causing me to look up at him. "they need to be looking at monty. he had something to do with it." clay said to him.
"why do you think so?" dennis asked.
"i can't... i can't say, but i know." clay replied.
"why can't you say?" matt asked.
"clay, if you know something, anything about anyone who might be implicated in this, now is the time." lanie told him.
"someone did this. it wasn't me."
"then who?" dennis asked.
we all looked at each other.