"Are you guys sure?" Clay's mom hands them each a lunchbox. "You can stay a couple more days."
"It's been two weeks. It's time for us to get back to civilization." Clay grabs his backpack off the floor then looks over to Bryce, who's silent.
"Yeah. We have to do it eventually." He looks a the front door.
"Are you sure Bryce?" Clay's mom is worried.
"Yeah."
"I'll miss my TV buddy." They both laugh.
"We still have the night to watch TV. Plus, we have The Good Fight to get started."
"I've never been so excited." They hug.
"Okay, this is starting to get weird." They all laugh.
"Now remember, I'm picking you both up right after school right here for your therapy appointments."
"We know mom." They walk out the door.
"And please, just be there for each other today."
"We will." Bryce and Clay look at each other and smile before getting into the car.
They arrive at school. Park. Then sit there. They just sit there in silence and stare out at the school. They watch as kids walk around outside the school. Bryce spots his group of friends hanging around a table right by the front door. He looks over to Clay.
"It's not too late to go back."
"It is." Clay smiles and looks at Bryce, giving him a quick kiss on the lips. "Remember our plan. We walk in together. I'll walk you to your first class. We'll just pay attention to the class and that will distract us until we see each other again at lunch. Then we have science together. Then we only have two more classes. Then we meet at the front doors. We go to the car. Then we go to the house."
"Ok." Bryce's brain is going into overdrive.
"We can do this. Because we're doing it together." He looks right in the eyes.
"Together." They get out of the car.
As soon as they start walking together, Bryce grabs Clay's hand and squeezes hard. Almost immediately people begin to stare. But it's not exactly like either of them thought it was going to be. While the majority of people are whispering to each other and just staring, there a good amount of people genuinely smiling towards them and saying 'hi'. That seems to calm Clay down a lot. Bryce, on the other hand, can only pay attention to his group of friends sitting by the door. He notices as Justin is the first one to notice them walking up. Justin looks at Bryce and smiles. He just smiles.
Then, as they get closer, the others seem to notice and start looking over. They all start smiling, but in a different way. They start saying things to each other, things Bryce can't hear, but can tell are not good. As they get to the door he can hear some of the guys saying certain words that make his heart race. Words that make it harder for him to breathe. But then, for a second, he hears Justin tell them to shut up. But they don't. They continue. And Justin stays silent.
"You good?" Clay turns to ask Bryce as they walk through the front doors.
Just then, as they enter the school and people begin to stare again, something in Bryce snaps. Something small, but something fragile. Breathing starts to get harder. The room feels like it's rapidly heating up. His chest is tightening, the pain slowly starting to push in. Gravity feels like it's pushing him. The more he tries to breathe through it the more it hurts.
"Bryce." Clay is getting worried as Bryce stares straight forward and begins to breathe faster. "Bryce." People are beginning to stare even more. "Come." He walks Bryce down the hall and to the nearest bathroom.
Clay pushes Bryce against the wall and stares into his eyes.
"Bryce. Please. Breathe." He's really starting to worry about him now. "Breathe." He's trying hard not to shout. "Please Bryce." He places his hand on Bryce's chest. "Just focus on my hand on your chest. Move it up and down." Clay begins to calm down as Bryce's breathing starts to slow down. "Just focus on me. I"m not going anywhere."
"Thanks." Bryce lets out a giant gasp of air as he starts to feel back to normal.
"It was no big deal." Clay takes his hand off Bryce's chest.
"It was. Thanks." Bryce grabs Clay's face and kisses him. "I don't know what I would do without you."
"Oh, you'd just be bored, lonely, and having awful sex with some b-grade version of me."
"Oh really?" They both laugh.
The bathroom door suddenly opens and a girl with long brown hair walks in.
"Are we in the girl's room?" Bryce looks around.
"No. I'm in the boy's room." The girl is smiling and just staring at the two of them.
"And why?" Bryce is very confused.
"Oh! Yeah!" She laughs. "I saw what happened in the hall and just wanted to make sure you guys were alright."
"We're good." Bryce is starting to remember people saw all of that.
"Thanks for checking. I"m Clay. This is Bryce."
"Nice to meet you guys. I"m Hannah. Hannah Baker."
"Are you new here?" Clay knows she must be.
"Actually, I should get going." Bryce chimes in. "I have class across campus."
"Oh, I was going to walk with you."
"It's fine. Your class is right here."
"You sure?"
"I'm sure." It still feels weird, but they move forward and kiss. "See you at lunch. Nice to meet you Hannah." He walks past her and out of the bathroom.
"You two are too adorable." It makes Clay happy to hear that from someone other than his parents or Tony. "And yes, I am new. Started last week. I'm guessing you two aren't by the way everyone is staring."
"Yeah… we were just away for a while. Did you hear anything?" He's a little curious.
"Well…" She looks away for a second. "Just a bit."
"Oh…"
"It wasn't all… bad." She puts on a smile. "Ok… to be honest I heard about everything." She starts talking fast. "And no, I did not look at the link. I would never do that. And screw all those that judge you guys. Outside of this town there is an entire world of people that will absolutely eat the two of you up." It's a lot to take in, but Clay can't stop smiling.
"Thanks."
"Now I should probably get out of the boy's room before a teacher catches me."
"Yeah." He laughs. "What's your first period?"
"Algebra 2. Mrs. Smith."
"Same!"
"Perfect." She intertwines their arms. "Let's get going." They walk out and to class.
