found (clay jensen)

soap and leather

shoutout to @1775rik for being a god with suggestions.

A/N: for story purposes, Isabelle is in the same grade as Clay and Jeff is a year older, in the flashback they're a year younger. also to clear things up, i've changed the character from a Y/N to "Isabelle" or "Ellie" as a nickname

Enjoy!!

"Wait up!"

I pick up my pace so I'm practically running as I hear Clay's exasperated voice behind me.

"Hold on! Hey, Ellie!" The name makes me freeze and I stop, turning around to see him gasping for breath. "Oh thank god you stopped. You're fucking fast." He halts before me and keels over with his hands on his knees.

I roll my eyes and cross my arms tight across my chest, swallowing down the tears starting to spring towards my eyes.

"Yeah. I am." My voice sounds defiant and venomous, and I wince as his face pangs with guilt.

"Are you okay?" he asks in a lowered voice, looking over his shoulder and pulling me to an empty classroom for a more private conversation.

"No! I'm not fucking okay!" I yell, throwing my arms out as the tears I fought so hard to keep down start to stream down my face.

He reaches out for me and I flinch away, heat burning in my chest.

"I can't do it anymore! I might as well just fucking kill myself already." My voice comes out squeaky and pained.

I instantly regret my words as Clay steps back, his face full of emotion and undisguised fear. "Please don't say that," he says so quietly that it is almost indistinguishable.

"Fuck, Clay, I'm so sorry. It's just Bryce and a bunch of stuff from my past, I didn't mean it. I'm not going to kill myself, I swear on it."

I'm beginning to calm down now that I am separate from Bryce. I can breathe now that Clay is with me.

My mind flickers back to Hannah's words, whispered into a microphone, only hours before she ended her life. I force it out of my mind and focus on Clay as his eyes fixate on the ground.

"What did he do to you?"

His voice is deathly quiet, and a terrifying rage burns in his icy blue eyes, still staring at the floor. I wince as I remember how he had found me that night, naked in the grass.

"Is that what happened, the night that- uh, that I found you, ya know, how you were?" He searches my eyes desperately, finding an answer in my silence.

I watch as the pieces click in his brain and he looks up at me with a face full of shock and anger. His face hardens and he runs a hand through his hair, gripping it and turning back to the classroom we had come from.

"I'm gonna kill him. I swear, I'm going to fucking kill him!" he yells, his hands ball into fists and fear grows inside me.

"Don't," I whisper, the knot in my stomach flying up to my throat. I grab his hand as he turns to go, and he waves me off as he storms toward the classroom. "Please, Clay, stop."

He's just gonna make it worse, Bryce is going to hurt him just like he has hurt everyone else around me. I think rapidly, panic rising in my throat.

"Clay!" I scream as he opens the door, and turns to me with a steely face.

"Ellie," he says softly, his hands still clenched into a tight fist.

Beneath his hard expression and his trembling shoulders, I see a shred of guilt as he avoids my eyes.

"He has to pay for what he did. To Hannah, and to Jessica, and now —" Clay nervously jerks his head to the side as he spits the words out angrily, "and now to you."