CHAPTER THIRTY THREE
"exile."
TRIGGER WARNINGS - MENTION OF RAPE, SEXUAL HARASSMENT, GUN USE.
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"Just tell me what happened, Natalie." The police officer explained across the table from her.
"I've answered this, officer. Clay wasn't going to kill Bryce." Natalie observes the video once more. "He was angry and Justin calmed him down but he wouldn't have killed him."
"And you are sure about that? Are you sure he didn't want revenge for the court case of the day?" The officer asks causing Natalie to put her hand on her face, annoyed with the situation.
"You're talking crazy. Clay isn't a killer." Natalie shook her head.
"What happened to the gun after that night?" The man asks.
"I don't know." Natalie stutters. "They got rid of it after I left. I went back with them to make sure Clay and Justin got home okay."
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"Why didn't you tell me about this?" Nora asks as her daughter gives her an eye roll. The last thing she wanted was to be questioned after hours of being at the police station.
"You never asked." Natalie shrugged.
"Well I don't often ask my children if they had an altercation with a gun." Nora scoffs. "So you knew Clay and Justin had a gun and didn't give this information?"
"They got rid of it, mom. I don't know if you know this but there isn't a lot that goes on in Justin's life that I don't know about." Natalie shakes her head.
"I can't believe I've been letting you spend time with these volatile boys." Nora looks up from her desk to Natalie. "How well do you know Clay?"
"Well enough to know he's not a killer." Natalie says. "I mean, mom. Bryce beat him, if anyone was the bad example, it was Bryce."
"Natalie, dear. Be honest with me. Do you think Bryce and Clay ever had any reason to fight that concerned Ani?" Nora raises an eyebrow causing Natalie to take a deep breath.
"Um, no. I guess I didn't really pay attention to Ani's relationships." Natalie shakes her head, starting to wonder herself.
"I'll take your word on Justin, Natalie but Clay may be capable of things you don't realize." Nora sighed as she released Natalie from the room.
-
Natalie sat in between Justin's legs on his bed as they scrolled through her instagram page together. They didn't like to listen in on Clay and Ani's conversation, all they heard was them talk about robots but they did seem to be getting very close.
"Do you think we should leave? I think they may need a room soon." Natalie chuckled up at Justin.
"Clay? Yeah, right. I don't even know what they are talking about." Justin smiled down at his girlfriend as Lainey entered the room causing Natalie to jump to the other side of the bed so Lainey wouldn't get onto them about being too affectionate.
Ani started to introduce herself to Lainey and Natalie quickly entered the conversation. "Hey Mrs. Jensen, if Ani and Clay date, will I still be your favorite daughter?"
"Only if you stop calling me Mrs. Jensen, Natalie." The blonde smiled causing her to chuckle. It was always an inside joke between Justin and Natalie that Ani and Clay would get together but she didn't ever really think about it.
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Natalie made her way to school towards the middle of the day which had become a trend since her brother had passed. She saw Jess at her locker and made her way quickly towards her.
"Justin and Clay are with the police." Natalie said quickly, causing Jess to close her locker. "They found the security footage from my old house when Clay showed up with a gun."
"What? Are you serious? Shit." Jessica shook her head as she leaned against the locker.
"Look, I know we're all team Ani and never really suspected how we told her every illegal thing we've ever done and just trusted her but she's really starting to get to the top of my list." Natalie took a deep breath.
"I mean, she did start asking about the tapes and Hannah and Clay." Jess looked at the ground as Natalie saw Ani approach.
"I have to go." Natalie says quickly as she made her way to the end of the hallway, trying to get a hold of Justin again from the station.
"Just got picked up. Going home. Call you later." Natalie read the message from Justin and walked towards her next class.
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"Here's our apology, Nat. Dad left me a watch and you some expensive necklace on the counter." Bryce said as she entered the kitchen.
"Wow. So sweet of him. No note or anything." Natalie rolled her eyes as she continued to still put the necklace on.
"Hey can I ask you something?" Bryce raises an eyebrow as Natalie turned around and nodded her head. "Are Ani and Clay Jensen a thing?"
"Um, I don't know." Natalie shrugged. "They're friends, they're pretty close. Why?"
"Just wondering. Gotta keep up with the Liberty gossip." Bryce shook his head and went back to reading his newspaper. Natalie shrugged it off as nothing.
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Ani walked up to Natalie's locker and as the girl noticed, she slammed it quickly to walk away. "Natalie, wait up."
Natalie took a deep breath before turning around. "Hey Ani. What's up?" She raises an eyebrow.
"I was just, um, I was just gonna ask you about the night of Bryce's death." Ani shrugs and Natalie notices Justin walking in from the corner of her eye.
"Sorry Ani, Justin's here. Loved catching up, see you at home." Natalie said as she made her way down the hallway, hugging Justin quickly.
"You okay?" He asked as they began to walk to their shared next class.
"I think I should be asking you that question, Justin." Natalie says, turning to face him. "But Ani is asking around, she is putting her nose where it doesn't belong. I'm this close to snapping, J. I've already gotten in trouble this week and I can't risk doing it again, she just makes me so angry."
"I know, I know. I don't really trust her either." Justin shook his head. "But Clay does and so does Jessica."
"How was the station? Do they really think you did it? I told my mom that it couldn't possibly be you." Natalie crosses her arms.
"They don't. But I can't say the same for Clay." Justin shrugged with a sad face causing Natalie to take a deep breath. "Did you know that Ani and Bryce were hooking up?"
"What? No, that can't be true. I mean, you know that him and I were becoming closer. He would have told me." Natalie shook her head.
"That's what the cops are saying. This all is so fucked up." Justin rolled his eyes at the situation.
"I'll fix this." Natalie says before kissing Justin quickly and the two walked into class.
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"Do you guys have any idea where he was before he came home?" Ani begged again as she followed Natalie and Justin, who clearly didn't want to talk to her. Justin felt Natalie getting angrier with every squeeze of his hand when she would speak again.
"He wasn't killing Bryce." Natalie said aggressively as they started to walk faster but Ani sped up to them.
"How do you know that?" Ani says, slapping her hands to her side in disbelief.
"Because that's not who he is. I think I know these people a lot better than you." Natalie says in a passive aggressive tone.
"He brought a gun to your house, Natalie. You two were there!" Ani exclaimed causing even Justin to get angrier and swing himself around, bringing Natalie too.
"One night!" Justin raised his finger up. "The rest of the time, he's the kinda guy that would save your life if it needs saving."
"Do you honestly call yourself his friend and still think he could be a killer?" Natalie state's, taking Justin's side. "Or are you just trying to deflect from the fact that you fucked my brother when you knew he was a rapist?"
"What makes you think that?" Ani said and Natalie rolled her eyes, noticing the lies from a mile away.
"You know, Ani. The reason you will never truly be apart of this friend group is because we don't keep secrets from each other." Natalie said but almost immediately regret it, realizing how bitchy it came out.
"So where were you that night, Natalie?" Ani asks and Natalie's hands began to clench up after being accused of killing her own brother. Justin had to do something.
"You know what, Ani? Fuck off." Justin rolled his eyes as he grabbed Natalie's hand and they stormed off. Natalie was completely raged out.
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"We agreed, not at the funeral." Jessica discussed as Casey was back to school after the altercation with Natalie only a few days before.
"No, you said not at the funeral. We didn't agree." Casey crossed her arms.
"People were mourning! Natalie was mourning. They were in pain!" Jessica said as her voice began to raise.
"Fuck fucking Natalie's pain. What about your pain?" Casey asked. "And every other girl he raped? And every girl who got attacked in the fucking clubhouse or at every party? What about the girl who went out to hang out with friends and got raped on the basement floor?"
"Casey, I get it." Jessica shook her head.
"No, you don't. You don't get shit. You're best friends with the two people who lied straight to your face about you being raped." Casey rolled her eyes, beginning to walk away.
"I don't have to defend my choices to you! You don't know my friends. My personal life has nothing to do with this!" Jessica shook her head.
"Your personal life has everything to do with it, are you fucking kidding me?" Casey says, returning back to Jess. "This is a fight that you started, Jess. If you can't finish it, that's fine. But you are not going to stand in the way of those of us who actually want to make a change!"
"But you're not making anything change! You're making noise." Jessica exclaimed.
"I am making them uncomfortable! I am reminding them that their actions have consequences. When I shout , they look in my direction and they see the pain that I feel every minute." Casey said passionately. "I will make them understand that I will never yield from this and I am not okay! You defending the girl that slept with your boyfriend and let you get raped is not okay!"
"Things are always way more complicated than you think." Jessica said, getting angrier.
"Not this one, this one seems pretty fucking simple." Casey scoffed causing Jessica to storm off.
-
"Question." Bryce says, knocking on Natalie's slightly open door.
"Is this about trigonometry? Because it's the seventh time this week you've asked about it." Natalie shrugged as she looked up to the door.
"Negative." He chuckled as he walked in. "There's this girl and we've been hanging out a lot and I think she likes me. But I'm kind of a monster so she wouldn't like me. I guess I just don't know where to go from here."
"Girl advice? I thought you've had this down since Kindergarten." Natalie laughed before realizing it was a genuine statement. "Okay, okay. Does she laugh at your jokes?"
"Most of the time." Bryce shrugged, looking at the picture of Natalie and Justin on her night side table.
"Well she definitely likes you then" Natalie nods, looking back at her homework.
"How can you tell?" Bryce asks.
"Because your jokes aren't funny." Natalie winked.
"Thanks for the advice, Nat. No wonder you scored Justin Foley." Bryce said sarcastically with an eye roll.
"Hey, Brycey. Who's the girl?" Natalie raises an eyebrow.
"You don't know her." Her brother shook his head before returning to his own room.
She thought it was some girl he met at a party. But Natalie knew it now that it was Ani. She couldn't believe she hadn't seen it earlier.
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A/N : Power couple - Justin and Natalie. Dynamic Duo - Jessica and Natalie. My babies. It's been so long since I updated this story but I am finally back and I could not be more excited. So Justin and Natalie will face some hardships soon but that's okay. My chapter question is WHAT OTHER FICTIONAL CHARACTER DOES NATALIE WALKER REMIND YOU OF? I would say Serena Van Der Woodson from Gossip Girl. Both made their fair share of mistakes but truly they care deeply about their friends and family just want to be loved! Can't wait to hear what y'all's answers are. Remember to vote, comment and leave feedback if y'all enjoy! Thank you!
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