𝐑𝐈𝐒𝐊 . . . 𝐬𝐜𝐨𝐭𝐭 𝐫𝐞𝐞𝐝

𝟎𝟔. 𝐛𝐫𝐲𝐜𝐞 𝐰𝐚𝐥𝐤𝐞𝐫 𝐢𝐬 𝐝𝐞𝐚𝐝

06. bryce walker is dead

season three, episode three: the good person is indistinguishable from the bad

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"Bryce Walker is dead."

Nessa couldn't believe it. She couldn't believe that she was standing in the Liberty High School gymnasium, standing in between Zach and Justin, hearing the news. It was an out of body experience, hearing those four words.

Bryce Walker is dead.

She tried to hold her tears in, because she felt stupid for mourning her rapist. But, she wasn't. She was mourning her best friend since the sixth grade. She was grieving the loss of a person who made her world turn alongside the rest of their friends for years. She was crying because the Bryce that she knew before everything happened – the Bryce that would buy her an entire pineapple pizza for herself because everyone else hated it, the Bryce that would comfort her while she cried about a boy that didn't like her back – that Bryce was dead too. She didn't give a shit that her rapist was dead. Too bad those two people were the same person.

She also knew that nobody, not a single soul except Justin and Zach, would understand what she meant by this. How could they?

"Did they say what happened?" Zach asked Clay and Ani, and Nessa just looked over her shoulder, biting her lips together to keep from crying.

"That's all we know." Clay said slowly. "I just wanted to get to you three before it hits the news."

Nessa grabbed onto Zach's arm, leaning into him as Justin sprinted off. He ran over to the nearest trash can, clutching it before emptying the contents of his stomach. Nessa knew that this would hit him hard, and that nobody would understand why. Justin ran off, and Nessa's heart sank.

"I gotta go check on him." she told the group before running off behind him, picking up her pace as she ran through the halls and out to the football field, where Justin was standing with his hands on his head. She could hear his sobbing from yards and yards away.

"Justin!" she called out, still running to catch up with him. "Justin, are you okay?"

Justin shook his head as he turned around, meeting Nessa's eyes as she approached him. "No, Ness, I'm not. I'm...I'm fucking sad."

One person in a school of hundreds that understood a bit of what she was feeling right now. One person that may not judge her for saying what she said next.

"Yeah." Nessa admitted as her voice broke. "Me too."

"I've known him since I was 8, Ness." Justin said as he walked up to her, tears streaming down his face. "He was the first person that gave a shit about me, the first person to look after me."

Nessa nodded as she walked up to him, taking a seat on the turf of the field. Justin sat next to her, leaning onto her shoulder as he sobbed. Nessa cried with him, allowing herself to feel all of the complicated feelings that were in her mind, knowing that Justin would never judge her for crying too.

"I know." Nessa replied through tears. "He was one of my first long lasting friends. He protected me, until he didn't."

Justin sniffled, grabbing onto his own hands to hold in the anger and the sadness. "He was my fucking brother."