{zach dempsey ff}
Lily Walker seems to have the perfect life. She lives in a big house, she has perfect grades and she's popular.
"Inside the world of beautiful people, champagne and rolled-up notes, prenups and broken homes, surrounded, but still a...
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Over the past five months a lot of things had happened, a lot of changes had been made and things looked more uncertain than they had ever felt before. The trial was about to start as Olivia and Andrew Baker were set to go against the Evergreen School County in a blood bath that would probably do more bad things than good. Both sides had asked students to testify, hoping to cement their story and neither side backing down.
One member of the student body that wanted to testify but couldn't, was Alex Standall. He was recovering from a brain injury that had kept him in a coma for weeks; no one knowing if he would ever get better. But now he was preparing to go back to school, despite his parents not liking the idea. Jessica Davis had also taken time off, after revealing to her parents what had happened that night of the party and was preparing to go back to school the same day as Alex.
Lily had permanently moved into the Dempsey household, moving most of her clothes into drawers that Zach had cleared for her and being happy to share his bedroom with his girlfriend for as long as she needed to. She hadn't talked to her parents since they returned but she knew that they weren't happy with her for moving out without talking to them first. Sadly, they didn't know about the tapes and even if they did, they would believe Bryce over anyone else, even their own daughter.
Now that she was partially free from the choking hold of her brother, she had decided to become her own person and had made some of her own choices. For example, she was now a part of the cheerleading team and had befriended Jessica, despite the awkward circumstances. Not many people knew about Zach and Lily's relationship because they hadn't announced it, but she was someone to confide in and liked having her mind taken off her own problems. Most students knew that Lily wasn't living with Bryce, and assumed that she was staying with family as they were used to seeing her around jocks. No one ever asked questions, they just assumed stuff and, in this case, Lily didn't care, because she was happier than she had ever been before.
"Alex and Jess are coming back today." Lily said as Zach parked his car in the school's parking lot.
"I know, hopefully they'll be okay."
"We just have to keep them away from Bryce and they'll be fine."
The couple got out of the car and walked towards the main entrance of the school together. Their hands brushed against each other's as they entered the school but they didn't hold hands; they had decided to keep things more secretive after what had happened to Alex. They didn't need more attention drawn to them than what they were going to have today; they wanted things to be as easy and as normal as possible for both of their friends.
As Zach was taller than his short girlfriend, he spotted their friends first and pushed through the crowd of students to get to them. "I'll take that."
"I can carry my own books." Alex replied, but allowed Zach to take the books from him.
"Well, clearly you can't, so let me help you, don't be a dick."
