Its Not Living (If Its Not With You)

¹

                    2 years earlier                        

"Hannah! Your shift starts in 20 minutes!"

"Shit", the girl muttered under her breath as she jumped out of her bed and threw on her uniform as she had a shower the night before. She put on a small amount of makeup and ran down the stairs. She gave her mother a kiss on the cheek before she grabbed her mother's car keys and a slice of toast and running out the door.

She had been driving her mother's car ever since they moved to town and she got her drivers license. Her parents hoped to get her a car of her own when they had the money. She turned the key and started the car, and turned on the radio as Love Me played through the speakers.

She got to the Crestmont movie theater 5 minutes before her shift started. When she got there, she was greeted by the manager and a boy with jet black hair and looked around her age. She couldn't deny that she thought he was really cute.

"Hannah, meet Clay Jensen. Clay, meet Hannah Baker. She's going to be giving you some training as she's a great worker here, and she's your age. I hope you enjoy working here at the Crestmont."

Hannah smiled over at the boy and he gave her a small smile back. The manager gave them a pat on the back each and walked away. Hannah turned back to Clay and smiled again.

"Nice name, Clay.", Hannah says to the boy, earning a chuckle from him.

"Well, the name Hannah isn't so bad either.", he threw back, admiring her beauty at the same time. She giggled at his remark.

"OK, let's get started, Jensen. Stay by the counter a second, I'll be back."

Clay nodded his head as Hannah walked off. She came back a minute later with a sheet of A4 paper. It had 'Trainee' written on it. She taped it into his chest, and the pair started laughing.

"OK, for real, let's get started."

Hannah started the training with Clay, and added in the tip of only putting the butter on top of the popcorn if the customer is cute so they'll come out for more. While they were on gum scraping duty, they started chatting.

"So, what are you interested in?", Hannah asked Clay.

"Uh, nothing much, just movies and music, and I play guitar. You?", he replied, a bit nervously.

"Same, except for the guitar bit, I could never learn a musical instrument. What kind of movies and music do you like?"

"Mostly just sci-fi and The 1975, their music is gr-" Hannah interrupted him.

"Oh my God, I love them so much! I saw them live 2 years ago! What's your favourite song by them?", she said excitedly, fangirling hard. Clay chuckled at her enthusiasm.

"Uh, I have a few. Love Me, Girls, Robbers and Milk have to be my top few. I don't have any of their albums though, I don't own any CD players or anything like that, but the power of the internet helps."

Hannah and Clay chuckled. "Mine are Somebody Else, Menswear, Love Me, Change of Heart, You, Paris and Robbers. I have the two albums and the EPs. I'm kinda obsessed with them."

The two laughed again. "That's a good list. Its great having someone who likes the band as much as me. By the way, are you going to be attending Liberty High?", Clay asked her, very into the conversation.

"Yes, I will be. I'll be a sophomore. Is it good?", Hannah replied.

"I'm a sophomore as well. Well, its not great, but I'm sure you'll get on better than me. The whole school thought I was gay for my entire freshman year. You don't wanna know the things they said."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Clay. Kids are assholes. I know from experience."

Hannah looked at her feet, feeling guilty. She didn't want to tell Clay the reason she left her old town. After all, they had just met. Maybe another time.

Clay looked up at the clock, seeing that his shift was nearly over.

"Jesus, its 2 already! The time has flown! What time do you get off?"

"Now, as well."

They stared at each other for a few seconds. Then, Clay spoke.

"Would you like to go to Monet's for something?", he asked her nervously.

Hannah looked at him with a confused look.

"Oh, its a café. I don't drink coffee so I'll just have a hot chocolate if we're going. Wanna come?"

"I would love to go to Monet's with you. Let's just get changed into our non gum covered clothes and let's get going."

                      15 minutes later               

Hannah met Clay outside the Crestmont as he was putting on his helmet to get on his bike.

"Nice helmet."

Clay turned around and smiled at the girl.

"Thanks. Want a ride on it?"

Hannah decided to tease him a bit.

"A ride on the helmet?"

"No, the bike, stupid."

The two laughed again.

"Just kidding. I'd love to but I'm driving."

"You have your own car?"

"My moms. I got my drivers license a while back. Wanna go in the car?"

"Its alright. I'll meet you there anyway. See you in a few minutes."

"See you then."

And the two teenagers took off in separate directions towards the same destination.