UNEXPECTED

Chapter 13

A few months had passed. During those months, Jessica decided to speak up about what Bryce Walker had done to her, leading her to be pregnant. With this new information, along with Hannah's story of what the Liberty High Senior did to her, there was evidence to go to trial against Bryce Walker. Over the months that the trial began, both Hannah and Jessica grew closer as friends again, the trial against Bryce bringing them close again as they both supported each other through the hard times. When the trial was being held, Clay was always there, along with his parents, showing his support for his girlfriend and Jessica.

Over the course of the few months that had passed, Hannah began to get more nervouse than she already was about the pregnancy, despite how supportive her parents, Clay and his parents, and Jessica were about it. Even though she put on a brave face, Hannah had begun to have second thoughts about it. Being as she knew that the baby was Bryce's, and not a certain someone's, she began to think about some options that she still had, like putting the baby up for adoption, for example. Since Clay had made it a point to tell her often, Hannah knew that she would have his full support no matter what she decided to do, because she had told him about the second thoughts she had been having, making him well aware of her thoughts about other options.

Another thing that had recently started happening over the last couple of months was that Clay started getting this weird feeling that he was being watched or followed - almost stalked, perhaps. He would always be looking over his shoulder every now and again when he got the strange feeling. Still, he kept it to himself, because he didn't want Hannah to be worried about him, as he knew she already had a lot on her mind. Through this time, Clay had also noticed Tyler Down acting weirder than normal. But being as it was Tyler Down, Clay simply brushed the tall boy's weird behavior aside, although he still wondered about it in the back of his mind occasionally.

With the recent events that happened in the last week, Clay's focus was on Hannah 24/7 and how he always worried about how she was doing, especially after what had happened.

It started when he got a call from her at around 2:30 in the morning, and she had clearly been upset about something. When Clay had finally calmed her down enough to understand what she was saying, his worry for her escalated when she told him what had happened, and where she had been. She was no longer pregnant with her rapist's baby. She was currently heading back home from being at the hospital, and the doctor had informed her of a miscarriage taking place. Despite the circumstances of who's baby it was, the teen was still upset about the unexpected event that took place that night.

After hearing about what had happened, Clay was wide awake as he rushed out of bed and quickly put some clothes on before he quietly and quickly left his house and headed over to his girlfriend's house to be there for her when she they got home, knowing she would need the comfort he had to offer. When Clay got there, he saw the familiar car pulling into the Baker's driveway. Not wasting any time, Clay dismounted his bike, letting it drop to the ground as he wrapped Hannah in a warm, comforting hug almost instantly after she stepped out of the car. Hannah fell into the hug, the two teens both knowing the warm, comforting contact was something that the clearly upset girl desperately needed at the moment.

As the week continued on, Clay still kept quiet about feeling like someone was watching him, but he had also begun to receive these weird notes that looked to be small threats, but threats nonetheless. With everything that was currently going on, Clay decided to keep the small threat notes to himself, because he didn't want Hannah to worry about him, and they just seemed to be minor, almost like someone was just trying to scare him, or just mess with him. Still, the notes were always unanimous, because they were never signed by anyone, and he couldn't pinpoint who's handwriting the notes were in. Clay simply figured the notes were a stupid prank by someone just trying to scare him, so he payed no mind to them, and he began to ignore the feeling of someone watching him as well, thinking it was all just some prank or joke someone was pulling on him.

Instead of focusing on the notes that were possibly just a joke, Clay spent most of his free time with Hannah, simply being there for her and helping to cheer her up as best he could through the hard times of the unexpected miscarriage, the trial against Bryce, and everything else that was going on in their lives. And even if she didn't talk that much, Clay knew that she appreciated his comfort and the fact that he was always there for her and right by her side whenever she needed him, whether it be through the trial, or just everything in general. Clay even stayed with her during the nights too, with approval from her parents and his own, of course, and he knew she appreciated him staying with her to hold and comfort her through the hard nights as well.

Having all this stuff going on at the same time, Clay often found himself going off on long bike rides to clear his mind. Or he sometimes found himself sitting alone on a bench that was isolated at the top of a hill, overlooking a body of water. Clay would come here most of the time to think about things like the trial and everything else going on in his life, or when he simply wanted a temporary escape to be alone and away from everything happening with the trial.

Even after what seemed like weeks, Clay still continued receiving the random, unanimous, small threat notes. Some would be found in his locker at school, some stashed in his bookbag, and others were mailed to him in envelopes with his name written across the center.

Even with all that going on, Clay bit his tongue and decided to keep them hidden from his parents, Jessica (who he had befriended since Hannah was friends with her again), Tony, Skye, Hannah, and even Mr. and Mrs. Baker. It was hard to hide them from his mother, since she was always being a helicopter parent, but Clay managed to keep the notes to himself, even though he had to occasionally lie to his parents about what the mail for him was.