Just Give Me A Reason || 13 Reasons Why

13

Zach Dempsey

"It's fine babe. I got it." Jade smiles as I pay for both our lunches.

"Thanks sweetness."

"It's the least I can do for my badass girlfriend." I see Alex sitting by himself so we go over to him. "Can we sit here?"

"It's not like I have the upper body strength to stop you so..."

"Well maybe if you showed up for PT yesterday, we could have worked on your left hook." We sit down.

"Well maybe I didn't feel like it. Wouldn't you rather hang out with you ambulatory friends?"

"No I like my non-'ambillitory' friends."

"Am-bu-latory." My girlfriend corrects. Alex drops his drink. "Alex? You ok?"

"Yeah. Yeah. I just remembered something. I almost remembered it." I look over and see Monty staring at me.

"Babe? Babe?" My girlfriend snaps me out of my thoughts. "Did you hear me?"

"No sorry."

"I said that you should give Alex one of your juices."

"And I said it's fine." Alex argues.

"Nah man here." I slide my juice towards him.

"Dude seriously you need juice more than me."

"Oh trust me Alex he gets enough juices from me." My girlfriend winks.

"And I've just lost my appetite." Alex says as he pushes his food away.

<>

"This History test is gonna be the death of me." I complain.

"Jade, you're smart." Bryce says. "Give him a hand."

"If I gave Zach a hand, we'd never get any work done." She winks.

"Why don't you ask your boyfriend with help in History?" Monty taunts. "Oh wait, he's brain damaged."

"You're just jealous he had a brain to damage." Bryce says.

"If I don't ace this test, I might drop below a C." I argue.

"Play the dad card again. Metcalf will let you slide."

"It's not a fucking card Bryce!" Jade snaps.

"Jade—No I know."

"Fucking forget it." She says. "I'll see you after class Chlö." She storms up the stairs.

"Thanks Bryce. Really. I appreciate it. Fucking dick." I chase after her. "Jade!"

"What?" She shoots around. "I'm sorry. I just—I hate when people think of it like that."

"I know. I know. Me too." I kiss her head. "I'm doing another picture. One with his face this time."

"Good. I want that bastard gone ASAP."

<>

Jade Adams

"Why the fuck did you bring my name up in court?" Bryce yanks Marcus into one of the library chairs.

"Let's do this later." Marcus looks at Zach and myself.

"Yeah we can totally go..." I say.

"No." Bryce says. "Whatever you have to say, just say it."

"We're all brothers and sister here." he glares at Zach. "Right?"

"Yeah." Zach says and I nod in agreement.

"I saw an opportunity to do you a favor so I took it."

"A favor? You think this is a favor to me?"

"I planted a seed for you. Now if you get called up, they already think Hannah liked you. And if she came onto you and you let her down gently, who knows what lies she made up?"

"Well fuck me." Bryce says. I narrow my eyes. "That's some high-level Jedi shit right there." Chlöe comes over, drops her bag, sits on Bryce's lap and the two begin to make out OD hard.

"Are we that bad?" I whisper to Zach.

"Not in public we aren't."

"Thank God." Marcus gets up and leaves first before Zach and I do. "Hey Bryce?" He breaks away from sucking his girlfriend's face. "A little advice? Marcus is a fucking politician. And politicians are dogs."

<>

"So I'm gonna go to Monet's while you're at practice."

"Um... about that... It's the car..."

"Where's your car?"

"Alex and Jess skipped school and took it." I sigh.

"Fine. Ok. I'll be at the library." I leave my boyfriend and go to the library.

"It feels weird being in here." Jeff says as he sits down next to me. "Clay and I used to sit at that table." He points to it.

"You don't have to be here if you don't want to. If it's... too much." He sighs.

"Everything is too much. Being here, being with you. It's all too much."

"It's ok to cry you know. I did. A lot."

"I know you did."

"You've been watching me?"

"Non stop."

"I'm sorry about Zach. I never meant to move on that fast. I never meant to move on period." He takes my hand.

"It's ok. I'm not mad at you. I didn't want you to be hung up on me forever. I wanted you to find someone."

"Yeah?" He nods.

"You're my best friend first and I will always want what's best for you."