TROUBLED || thirteen reasons why

023.

Tristan walks by her mother who is passed out on the couch as she heads out the  door. Caroline's Jeep is parked in the driveway, and the blonde girl is touching up her makeup through the rearview mirror. Tristan gets into the front seat and lets out a deep breath.

"What's your problem?" Caroline raises her eyebrow as she finishes swiping on her pink lipstick.

Tristan turns towards her friend, "Zach took me home yesterday."

"Oh shit."

"Yeah... Like I thought he made it clear that we weren't on, like, speaking terms. But he's the one asking me if I wanted a ride home? What the fuck? What is his fucking problem?" Tristan exasperates, putting her head into her hands. Zach Dempsey will be the death of her.

"I didn't mention this to you before, Tris," Caroline eyes Tristan as she speeds down the highway,  "But Zach has been asking me about you. I don't know, he sounds like he's worried about you."

"Caroline, you're honestly siding with him? How can he be worried about me and tell me that he misses me, and still hang out with those fucking assholes." Tristan grumbles, rolling her eyes at the fact that Zach still talks to Bryce after everything that has happened.

Caroline frowns hard, knowing how much her friend is hurting. She reaches over and grabs Tristan's hand and squeezes it, "Hey, I'm here for you."

Tristan Foley pulls her hood over her head as she tries to escape the crisp autumn air. She enters the halls of Liberty High School, and students quite their conversations as they sneak glances towards the girl. She knows that rumors have started to spread since the party, and nothing has been easy for her since that night. Justin still hasn't returned, and each day that goes by, the more Tristan believes that he will never come back home.

After Bryce's threat, Tristan has kept her head low and that is what she is doing right now. She trudges over to her locker and glances around her before unlocking it. She prays to God as she grabs her books, and in that moment she hears someone clear their throat behind her. Tristan peeks behind her and sees a dark haired girl wearing a cheerleading uniform who is arrogantly looking the girl over.

Tristan waits for the girl to say something, but when the girl continues to hold the egotistical smug on her face, Tristan tries to shove past her. Tristan knows that a crowd is forming around them, since no one else has had the courage to come face to face with her. The girl steps in front of Tristan and her voice silences the hallway, "So Tristan... Is it true that you had sex with Bryce? I mean he is your brother's best friend and a star athlete, why wouldn't you at least try to get with him, right?"

Tristan's eyes fill with tears and she tries to move past the girl, but once more the girl steps in front of her. Tristan lets out a shaky breath, "Move."

The girl ignores Tristan and continues to taunt her, "Oh! I'm sorry, that's right! You didn't have sex with Bryce! No! He 'raped' you,"

The girl laughs and so do people in the hallway. Tristan squeezes her eyes shut. She can feel the girl step closer to her, "Tristan, we all know that you're just a fucking slut who was asking for it. If you think that anyone will believe you and your brother's fucking lies, you're more stupid than I thought."

At those words, Tristan shoves the girl away and runs towards an exit. Sobs fall from her mouth as people in the hallway 'ooh' at the girl's backlash towards Tristan. She slams the door closed as she covers her face with her hands as she cries. She has never been this ashamed and embarrassed in her life. Tristan is about to start walking home when she hears the infamous words 'fight! fight!' coming from inside the hallway she was just in.

Tristan battles against her better judgement and reaches for the handle for the door. Once she steps back inside, the commotion is too overbearing for her. She tries to navigate where the fight is coming from, and when she finally notices where everyone's eyes are looking, she fights to get to the front of the crowd. Her shoulders drop when she sees what is happening.

Blonde and dark hair are scattered onto the floor as two girls are screaming and punching each other. What Tristan doesn't understand is why the girl she would least expect to help her is throwing punch after punch to the girl that was just making fun of her. Tristan quickly decides to intervene and runs to get in-between the two.

"Caroline! Get off of her!" Tristan yells, grabbing the blonde girl's arm and trying to pull her off the other girl. Tristan sees the blood coming from the other girl and even though she knows she deserves it, she doesn't want to see her ex-friend get in trouble. "Caroline!"

"BREAK IT UP!" A loud voice booms through out the hall way and two teachers make their way through the dispersing crowd and grab ahold of the three girls. They immediately take them to the main office and sit them outside of Mr. Porter's office.

"I'm bleeding, this bitch punched me!" The dark haired girl exclaims to Coach Patrick as she points a finger at Caroline, who rolls her eyes in response.

The door opens and Mr. Porter sticks his head out, "Angela, come in here, Vice Pricipal Childs and I need to speak to you."

The girl stands up and glares at Tristan and Caroline before following Coach Patrick into the room with the other school officials.  The two girls remaining in the hallway stay silent.  They both sneak glances at each other, but neither saying a word to one another.

Tristan sighs, "Why did you do that, Caroline?"

"She was talking shit. I'm not going to let anyone do that to you."

"We're not friends anymore... You didn't have to do that," Tristan says looking at Caroline and her bloody knuckles.

"I'm so fucking tired of all the bullshit going around with you, and Jess, and Justin. And I'll be damned if a bitch like that is going to talk that way to you." Caroline smiles at Tristan.

"Thanks, that means a lot." Tristan whispers to the girl.

"I'm only going to believe what you tell me, and you can do that whenever you want. I shouldn't have said those things to you before. I know you care about me and I knew you were going through some shit, and I wasn't there for you." Caroline looks away from her friend and shakes her head.

Tristan's eyes blur with tears, "It's not your fault, I shouldn't have hid anything from you. I just- I don't know, Caroline. I'm sorry."

Caroline grabs Tristans hand and squeezes it, "Hey, I'm here for you. Always."

___

So how about that flashback?

So this is how Tris and Caroline became friends again and dang what will Caroline do to protect her friends

there will be more flashbacks in this act and they will look like this in ~italics~ just so you'll know hehe

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