TROUBLED || thirteen reasons why

037.

The atmosphere in the car is suffocating the next morning when Clay pulls up to school. Bryce's testimony is today, but Tristan couldn't even bare to go. Tristan fumbles with her hands in the back seat as Justin and Clay give each other a worried look.

"Tris, you gonna get out?" Justin asks softly, knowing how uneasy his sister is feeling right now, but not wanting to make her feel worse. Tristan glances up, and Justin's heart breaks when her innocent eyes meet his. She doesn't deserve this.

"You don't have to go to school today, Tris. Clay's parents would understand," The boy continues to comfort her, but she shakes her head.

"I need to ask Caroline." She simply says. Her thoughts have been circling on person. Caroline. And how she ended up at the Clubhouse. Why was she there? What happened to her? Did something happen to her?

"You don't have to do it today..." Justin continues to press, hoping she will give in and go back home. She doesn't need to be at school at a time like this. Especially if he wasn't going to be there to look after her. The thought of something happening to her today while he isn't there, makes Justin sick to his stomach.

"I do though," Tristan argues back, although her voice is timid. She looks out the car window before taking in a deep breath, "I need to know."

Tristan grips the door handle and gets out of the car. She looks back at Clay and Justin who are both watching her before walking towards the school. Tristan slowly walks to her locker, thinking the best place Caroline is at is their lockers. She turns the corner and sees blonde hair peeking out of the blue locker. Tristan gulps as she heads towards her friend, "Hey."

Caroline looks back and smiles at her best friend as she closes her locker, "Hey, Tris, how are you doing?"

Tristan looks down at her feet before back at Caroline, "Can we go somewhere to talk?"

Caroline squints in confusion, "Is something wrong? Is this about..."

Caroline doesn't finish her sentence, but Tristan knows she was talking about Bryce, "No, I just need to talk to you, privately."

"Okay," Her friend responds, with worry in her voice. She follows Tristan outside and they sit on a bench underneath a tree. "What's going on, Tristan? You're worrying me."

Tristan breathes in, trying to stall the inevitable question for as long as she can. The girl meets Carolines worried eyes, "Have you have ever been to a place called the clubhouse?"

Caroline's eyebrows furrow before she quickly pulls her face to be expressionless, "What? I've never even heard of that?"

Tristan's mouth goes dry as she reaches in her back pocket and grasps onto the polaroid holding her best friend's image. The girl bites her lip and flips the picture over so Caroline can see it. Caroline takes the photo out of Tristan's hand and her eyes scan the polaroid.

"Where did you get this?" Caroline's voice is quiet, and her gaze makes Tristan nervous.

"Justin and Clay." Tristan whispers, taking the photo from her friend and putting it back into her pocket, "They found a whole box of photos like these... Did anything happen when you were there?"

Caroline raises her eyebrows in confusion, "What do you mean if anything happened?"

"Caroline, there's photos of those boys having sex with girls or... or worse," Tristan's voice gets caught in her throat as she thinks of how many girls these boys have hurt.

"Tris, nothing happened," Caroline grabs ahold of her friends hand in an attempt to ease her racing mind, "It was just me, Daniel and Scott Reed. They invited me there after the Halloween party. All we did was smoke weed and play poker. Nothing else happened, I promise."

Tristan squeezes her eyes closed as she can relieve her brain from the thoughts of something happening to Caroline. She looks at her friend with tears brimming her eyes, "You promise?"

Tristan barges into the Jensens' home that afternoon as quickly as she can. She runs up the stairs basically screaming for her brother, "Justin! Justin! Clay!"

She bursts through the door and both Clay and Justin immediately stand up, "What? Tris, are you alright?"

She ignores their questions as she wraps her hand around her brother's arm, "Caroline- she said- nothing happened, she's okay. They didn't get her."

Justin watches as his sister frantically tells him about her friend and he is relieved at the sight of her being okay. He grabs her and engulfs her in a hug, wanting nothing more than to shield her from the world. But he has already failed at that.

Tristan wraps her arms around her brother and lays her head on his chest, her body finally being able to relax under his comforting embrace. After a moment, she opens her mouth to ask the question they all knew she was eventually going to ask, "How was court today?"

Justin and Clay share a glance before focusing back to the girl still in Justin's arms. Justin clears his throat, "It, uh, it was tough."

"Bryce lied about everything." Clay adds quietly as he watches the girl let go of her brother and wrap her arms around herself. Clay can't even imagine what the girl must be feeling and he wants nothing more than to help Tristan release her pain.

"Tris," Justin whispers as he carefully puts a hand on her shoulder, making her look up at him with sad eyes, "We're going to get him. He's going to pay for what he did to you, Tris. I'm going to make fucking sure of it."

Tristan releases a heart wrenching sob and falls into her brother's embrace once more. Justin wraps his arms tightly around the girl and he promises her that he will bring her justice, even if it's the last thing he does.

okay so I was updating this story and I saw where I posted the first part of this just over a year ago!? thats literally insane to think that it has been a year already lol