TROUBLED || thirteen reasons why

014.

Tristan anxiously walks into school the next day, gripping her backpack straps so hard that her knuckles were white. She debates whether she really needs to go to her locker, in fear of running into Caroline. But when Tristan peaks around the corner of the hallway, Caroline is no where to be seen by their lockers.

Tristan looks around once more, before she carefully steps to the blue locker and turns her lock to open it. She is grabbing her history textbook when she hears someone softly clear their voice from behind.

"Um, can I get to mine?" Tristan closes her eyes and lets out a big breath. She peeks over her shoulder and sees the blonde hair of Caroline standing behind her.

"Uh, yeah. Just a second." Tristan stumbles her words as she puts her stuff up and slams the locker closed, stepping to the side so Caroline could crouch down and get to hers. Tristan wants to say something else to the girl, but the fear building in her chest forces her to turn around and walk away.

She curses at herself as she walks away and knows she should apologize to her friend for lashing out before she makes it even worse. Tristan is thinking about going back to Caroline when she notices Clay Jensen staring at her from where he is standing. The girl gulps before she turns away quickly and walks in the other direction.

"Tris!" Clay calls behind her, but she ignores him and keeps walking. Clay runs to catch up with her and reaches out to stop her, "Hey, Tristan, wait up."

"What Clay?" She sighs, nervous to even be looking at him. Clay opens his mouth to respond, but before he can, Tristan sees her brother's jean jacket get in the middle of them. Even with his back towards Tristan, she can tell by the venom in his voice that Justin is glaring at Clay, "Don't you have a fucking class to get to, Jensen?"

Justin doesn't give the boy the time to answer, and roughly grabs his sister and drags her with him. Justin and Tristan go up the stairs, and once they reach the top, Tristan shoves him off, "What the hell, Justin?"

"I'm sorry. Just.. don't talk to Clay okay? He's a fucking lunatic." Justin releases a large sigh and rubs the back of his neck. Tristan can see the desperation in his eyes and he looks to be on edge, "Just promise me you won't talk to him, okay? There's just so much shit going on right now."

Tristan nods her head, "Yeah, okay. Sure."

Tristan hates to think that Justin is worrying over her, and she smiles at him when he walks her to her class and doesn't leave until she is sat down.

At first, Tristan thought nothing of the gesture, but when he stupid brother is waiting outside her next two classes to walk her to her next, she starts to get annoyed. The bell rings and she packs her stuff up to leave her Public Speaking class. Her eyes involuntarily roll to the back of her head when she sees Justin standing outside the class, propped up against the lockers.

She tries to sneak past him without him noticing. "Tris, wait up!"

Shit. She feels Justin come beside her and matches his pace with hers.

"Justin. Can you fucking back off? Stop hovering over me." She huffs, not sparing him a glance as she walks to her English class.

He doesn't stop following her and tries to laugh off the situation, "I'm not hovering, Tris, geez. And I just want to spend time with you; we never see each other anymore."

"So you've been following me around all day because you feel bad about spending all your time at Bryce's rather than home? Whatever, Justin, I'm at my class so you can leave me now. I guess I'll see you in forty five minutes, when you're outside this class waiting on me." Tristan spits, pushing past him and walking into her class.