Distant Mirage || 13 Reasons Why [ 0 ]

28

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MAY

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Bailey sat beside Clay in the library early that morning, her head rested on her arms as the strong painkillers in her system made her drowsy. Her soft breaths barely made a sound as her eyes remained closed, fingers curled around her arm. 

'I set up a schedule,' Clay unlocked his iPad; 'Who picks him up in the morning, who takes him between what classes, after school, nightly check-ins. If we spread it around, it's not that bad. I'll text you the URL. It's password protected.'

Jess took it off him to assess the work, 'There's, like, the insanity of us doing this at all, and then there's the insanity of, Oh, my God, you built a website.'

'I didn't build it per se, it's really just storage space.'

Alex took the device next, 'That's a lot of coordination. My brain injury hurts.'

'How long do we have to do this?' Cyrus asked.

'Until he gets better,' Justin shrugged.

'So forever,' Jess drawled.

'People do get better. They do.'

'I guess we get to summer and see how he is. And maybe senior year it'll all be fine,' Clay suggested.

'Take me off it,' Bailey mumbled. 

'What?' 

'Tyler and I have an arrangement and it doesn't include me babysitting him three times a day. I'll help out when I can, but you need to take me off this for it to work.'

'I don't understand.'

'You want to know, you talk to Tyler. It's not up to me.'

She raised her head to look at the boy, but her gaze flittered to Justin for long enough to see the concern in his eyes. 

'Got it?' She pressed. 

'Uh, yeh,' Clay nodded. 

'Good.'

She pushed herself up to stand, throwing her bag over her shoulder as she staggered away. She found herself moving on autopilot, heading to the gymnasium for gym. She laid down on the top step of the stands, her leg hanging off the side as she dumped her bag beside her. Her eyes fell shut and she fell asleep surrounding by her classmates, before they dispersed off to play dodge ball down below. 

Coach Kerba paused as he walked by, spotting the girl. He sighed, walking up the steps to sit beside her. He shook her gently, murmuring her name as he tried to wake her. Bailey stirred after a second, squinting as she pried her eyes open. She groaned, rubbing her face with her hand as she sat up slowly.