perfect? - montgomery de la cruz

Lying in court?

Ashley ran up to Jess in school. It was the first time she had talked to her friend since lunch yesterday.

"Hey, sorry I couldn't make it, yesterday, how'd it go?", she asked.

"Awful. I think I made everything worse.", Jess groaned.

"Nah, I think you're good.", she reassured her friend and hugged her side.

"If someone's going to make it worse, it's Marcus.", she added when she saw Bryce and his friends.

"Are you gonna watch?", Jess asked as the jocks came closer and closer.

"Yeah, I'm going with Monty and the guys so it's going to be interesting.", she answered quickly, she gave Jess a hug and walked up to Monty.

He hugged her and slapped her ass with a smirk on his face.

"Hey!", she exclaimed while laughing and lightly slapped his chest.

Scott and Bryce were next to the couple as they walked into the school cafeteria. She sat down in her usual spot. Monty's lap.

She kinda zoned out for few minutes but when she felt Monty's arm stiffen, she immediately got snapped back to reality. She saw that he was basically staring at Zach who was sitting with Alex.

"Hey, you're staring.", she said quietly so Bryce and the other baseball guys that had just joined them wouldn't hear anything. He quickly turned to the other guys again.

"Ready for court?", he whispered in her ear.

She nodded and pressed her boyfriend's hand. Bryce, Scott and Monty rose from the bench and said goodbye to everyone. Monty threw one last look at Zach then grabbed Ashley's hand and started walking.

They all got separated when they walked to class. Ashley stood at her locker when Clay walked up to her.

"Ash. Ashley.", he called out.

"Hey, Clay, what's up?"

"We have Justin.", he blurted out.

She took a deep breath, closed her eyes and put her hand on her forehead.

"What?"

"We found him. In Oakland of all places.", he explained quickly. It felt like he thought that she would get less angry if he said it quickly. Like she wouldn't react as much.

"I... I don't... I don't need this. Not right now.", Ashley sighed as she closed her locker.

"He wants to help."

"He said he'll testify, he's, um... a little too sick at the moment, but-"

"What do you mean sick?", she interrupted.

"From being homeless.", Clay answered and shifted with his eyes. Like he always did when he was lying.

"He's high, isn't he?", she asked and sighed loudly.

"How... how'd you know?", he asked confusedly.

"Because I know him, Clay! I've known him since I was kid. I know he's been struggling with drugs.", she ranted at the skinny boy.

"Look, he's at my house. We're taking care of him.", he assured her.

"If you want to see him or-"

"I don't.", she said coldly.

"Soon as he's better, gonna take him to the Baker's lawyer.", he explained.

"He can back up Hannah's story."