perfect? - montgomery de la cruz

Anxious

Ashley hadn't even gone through the front doors of Liberty High before Clay had grabbed her arm and dragged her away.

"Clay, what the fuck!", she exclaimed and pulled away.

"I need to talk to you", he said.

"Nope", she said and tried to walk away but the skinny boy stepped in front of her.

"Why not?"

"Because you're a dick", Ashley said and scoffed at him.

"Well, let's forget about that for a second because Tony literally just told me that he's going to give the tapes to Hannah's parents", he revealed and looked worriedly at her.

Ashley just looked at him with a surprised face.

"He wouldn't... he wouldn't do that, I'm so fucked.", she stuttered and turned around with her hands on her face.

"There's nothing on your tape that insulates that you're getting abused", Clay reassured and looked at the very anxious girl.

"Yeah, well they can literally just get a glance of my face and they'll know, so...", she snapped at the boy.

She immediately felt bad since it wasn't Clay's fault at all and gave the skinny boy a quick smile and a quiet "sorry".

She couldn't understand why Tony would sell them out or more specifically, she couldn't understand how Tony would sell her out.

"I..I need to go", she stammered and walked away from Clay who stayed behind.

When Ashley sat down in class, she had a lot of question on her mind.

Why would Tony give the tapes to Hannah's parents?

Why didn't he tell me?

What are they going to do with the tapes?

Are they gonna sue someone?

He's not in school so I can't fucking ask him about either.

She was so distracted by her own mind that she didn't hear Bryce and Monty asking for her attention.

"Ashley!"

"Huh?", she quickly turned around and looked at the two vicious boys.

"You have a lot to think about?", Bryce chuckled and looked at her like she was a piece of meat.

She immediately got uncomfortable and gave him a fake smile.

"Where's Justin and Jessica?", Monty asked and looked at Justin's and Jess's empty seats.

"I haven't talked to Justin since that night...", she lied and looked at her suspicions boyfriend.

"Jess is staying home for a few weeks", Ashley continued, knowing that Jess wasn't coming back for way longer than a few weeks.

She turned around and let out a deep breath filled with anxiety. She was killing herself with all these thoughts and Monty was starting to notice that something was bothering her.

Listening to the teacher wasn't ideal so she just sat there, looked out of the window and didn't notice when Mrs. Bradley asked her a question.

"Ms. Bennett!"

Ashley quickly got out of her thoughts, looked at the small Asian woman and just blurted out "sorry?".

"Please pay attention", she chirped and continued on with the lessons.

Ashley sighed loudly and mumbled "whatever, screw this" and walked out of the classroom. She could hear Mrs. Bradley yell after her to "please sit down".

The empty hall was completely quiet except for Ashley's footsteps. She was looking at her phone when she heard more footsteps.

When she turned around and quickly got pinned against the lockers by her boyfriend.

"What's wrong babe?", he teased and got closer to her so she basically could feel his breath on her forehead.

"Nothing", she quickly responded and avoided eye contact.

"I can tell that somethings up just by looking at the expression on your face", he said while smiling the most mocking smile.

His hand was grabbing her wrist and his other hand was slowly moving its way up to her throat.

"What's bothering you so much that you can't even stay in class", he asked again and squeezed her throat while smirking.

She could feel the air not getting to her and immediately started telling him what was bothering her.

"Tony's giving the tapes to Hannah's parents", she murmured and looked away from her now angry boyfriend.

"Really? What did I tell you huh?", he said and squeezed even harder on her throat.

He saw that she didn't know what he was talking about just by looking at her eyes.

"You become friends with some faggot and somehow he still manages to throw us all under the bus", Monty growled and let go of her throat but grabbed her hair instead, he was standing too close for her to do anything.

Even if she tried to do anything, she knew she would lose. Monty was way taller and way strong than her.

"You're not even on the tapes", Ashley whispered and noticed that her eyes were starting to tear up but she was sure of one thing. She was not crying in front him.

"It's not that hard to guess that the bitch is talking about me on your tape", he said and let out a deep breath.

Ashley started to notice something that she had never noticed before. Monty was scared about what Hannah's parents would do if they realized who Hannah was talking about when she was talking about the abuse. Montgomery De La Cruz was scared.

"I'll make sure nobody knows, I swear", she said and tried to pull away from her boyfriend. The try to escape from him failed since he just took away his hand from her hair and grabbed her throat again.

"You better do that or I'll take care of it and you don't want me to take care of it", Monty threatened and then let go of his girlfriend and walked away.

Ashley stayed in the hall. Alone. She just needed some time to think about how she was going to handle the situation with Tony. She didn't know if she should keep him from giving the tapes or just let him do it.

Maybe it was better if he gave them away. Maybe Hannah Bakers family could help her get away from her abusive boyfriend.