Why Her? (13 Reasons Why)

Chapter 12

[One day later]

It was already morning and Zack and I fell asleep in his house.  We agreed that I'd stay with him the all night long and then go to school together. I woke up and he was still heavenly asleep, hugging me like a bear. "He was so akin to me when he shouldn't have", I thought. When my time to testify comes, this whole fantasy will end. My life would be over. Right in this moment I would've wished Flynn Dumitru to find me and give me an end once and for all.

I stroked his face once more until he woke up and looked at me strangely. It was five in the morning and he lived near the school.

"What's wrong?" he asked.

"It's a school day and you'll be late for your practice," I answered.

"My practice's at seven, Nessie," he grunted and settled upon me, "It's 5 AM. Do you wake up at this time?"

"In half an hour or so, yeah"

"You got my respect."

"You love me."

"I do."

"Well, I do more," I smiled and entwined his hands with mine, "You're warm."

"And you're cold, want me to turn off the air conditioning?"

"It's not necessary. i'm always like that," I took him off me and stood up, "Are we going to have some breakfast together or-?"

"My mom's here and she likes you, so I think we're going to have breakfast here," he answered sleepily, "I had to tell her you're my girlfriend so that I could be with you."

"What are we, anyways?"

"For me, you're my girlfriend, but it all depends on you," he answered.

I was giving myself a lot of mental facepalms. How couldn't I see it coming?

"I need a couple days for that, Zachy." I tried to mend it up, but it was a failure, "I need to be sure we're alright, even if Flynn is out there."

"Vanessa, stop thinking about others and start thinking about us. Or about you. Do you want us to be together?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Then, what's stopping you?"

The fact that I'm Vanessa Baker, the twin sister of the suicidal girl who lost her virginity to you? Or the fact that you fell in love with the master of lies who casually has an abusive ex-boyfriend? 

"Nothing, apparently," I laughed.

"Then we're a couple," he finished and kissed my cheek, "No matter what happens, okay?"

"No matter what happens..." I whispered.

I just wish that you'd keep your promise when all this shit comes to light.

[...]

During recess, I sat down with Jessica far away from the athletes, where I could see Zack clearly uncomfortable among them. The brunette was telling Alex about a threat poster they gave him. That is very, very, very bad.

"Damn it, Alex," she sighed.

"Yeah..." he answered.

"What kind of psychopath would do something like this?" I asked.

"Who did this?" asked Jess.

I looked beyond Alex's blue eyes when Scott Reed was walking past me, pointing at him with his hand as if it were a gun.