Zach was sent by his mother to bring a large bowl of soup to the Tristano household. Apparently, there was a car accident on the way home from the Winter Ball, and Ophelia had flown into the dash board, breaking her nose.

His mom made him take the soup, but he brought ice cream as well, but that had been his decision. When he rang the doorbell, it was actually Montgomery who answered.

"Hey, Dempsey" he greeted. He leaned against the doorway like he owned the house. "Whatcha got there?"

"It's for Ophelia" he told him. "She's here, right?"

"Yeah, she's upstairs." He looked unmotivated to bring her to the door.

"Can you tell her that I'm here?" he asked, trying to not become impatient. But the bowl in his hand was getting heavier and heavier.

Montgomery was unconvinced. "She's resting."

But Ophelia's mother appeared behind Montgomery. "Zachary! Come in, come in!"

Zachary smiled at Mrs. Tristano. "Thank you."

Montgomery begrudgingly took a step back, allowing Zach to enter.

He stepped inside, and her mother took the soup out of his hands, hurrying to the kitchen to set it down. He kept the ice cream with him.

"Hey, Zach" he heard Ophelia say. He looked to the top of the stairs, and his mouth dropped open.

"Holy shit..."

A large bandage was placed over her nose, but he could see the bruising coming out underneath it. There was also bruising just bellow her right eye, close to her nose. Her eyes looked more sunken in, and she looked like she lost weight.

"What the fuck happened?" he demanded to know.

Montgomery spoke for her. "This fucking asshole in front of us slammed on his brakes in a fifty mile an hour zone. I was barely able to keep from crashing into the son of a bitch. Ophelia's head slammed on the fucking dashboard."

Zach looked from Montgomery, back to Ophelia. "Were you able to get their plate number? You should have them reported!"

"Nah, the turned a corner and left too fast" Montgomery explained.

Zach, now more than ever, just wanted to hear what Ophelia had to say.

"Does it still hurt a lot?"

Montgomery did not answer for her this time, instead he waited, listening.

"Yes," she got out. Her voice was low, and it cracked, like she had not spoken in a while. "It stings. A lot. Like...a little reminder."

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Montgomery put his head down, looking away from her.

"I brought you ice cream" Zach offered. "If that'll help any. Sorry, I don't know if it will."

Ophelia didn't say anything, she just nodded, and looked towards her boyfriend.

"Thanks for coming over, Dempsey," Montgomery told him. He reopened the door for him, giving him an exit, imploring he left now. "We appreciate it."

Zachary was not able to eat after hearing Ophelia's tape for the first time. Everything Hannah said about anything had taken away his appetite, but Ophelia's is what really did it. The other stuff, he had known about. At least, some of it. He did not know Bryce was a rapist, but he knew he was a bad guy capable of bad things.

He knew Montgomery was also a bad guy, capable of bad things. But they used to be friends. He never would of guessed he was an abuser. But more truthfully, he never would have guessed Ophelia would stay with an abuser. Or that anyone would ever want to hurt her in the first place.

He did not believe the tape at first. He needed to hear Ophelia's side of the story to know it was true. But Ophelia didn't show up for school. In fact, she didn't show up for three whole weeks. And then she did, and Zachary saw Montgomery yell at her in front of everyone in class, and for a moment he believed every word Hannah said.

But Ophelia told everyone she was lying, so he believed it, and he tried to find things that made him keep believing her.

Montgomery saved her from Bryce, that was one. He didn't let her get raped like Justin had with Jessica. And Montgomery did talk crudely about Ophelia in the locker room, but he would not let anyone else say bad things about her. And he was sweet to her when she went to Bryce's Pool house, or when they all went out after football games.

Yes, Montgomery was a tool. He was an asshole who made everything sexual and had a lot of anger problems.

But now Zachary knew the truth.

Ophelia wanted to tell him the truth the other day, when they were alone. She didn't have the time to say the words, but her eyes told him everything.

Hannah wasn't lying. Montgomery hit Ophelia.

The only bit of hope that he had left came from Hannah only being able to produce one side of the story from Rep Night. Maybe Ophelia's side was better.

Zachary wanted to catch Ophelia alone again. He hoped now that Montgomery was suspended he'd be able to. But she was not there the first day. And then the second day, he had a hard time finding her. Finally, he did. At the end of lunch, when he had gone to his car to put away his lunch, he saw her getting out of Tony Padilla's mustang. Crying.

Zachary hurried over, and had no problem yelling at the smaller man. "What the fuck, Padilla? What the fuck did you do to her?"

When Zachary reached them, he gently moved Ophelia so that she was behind him. Guarding.

Ophelia put her hand on Zach's shoulder.

"It's okay," she told him, "He didn't do anything."

Tony put his hands up. "We just went for a drive, man."

"And how the fuck am I supposed to trust you?" Zach demanded, sudden anger and protection sprouting from nowhere. "Everyone at this school is turning out to be a fucking rapist!"

"Hey, hey, hey," Ophelia said softly. He turned him, gently. He didn't want to look away from Tony, she put a hand on his face to turn him towards her. "Is that what you're worried about? He didn't do anything, Zach. I swear."

Zach reached out and touched her face as well, this time to wipe off the tears she had. He was confused how she was able to go from so sad to so calm in such a short amount of time.

"Okay," he agreed. "Then what was happening?"

"First of all, I don't like the fact that you implied I was a rapist," he spoke, agitatedly. "Second of all, it's Ophelia's story to tell, if she want you to know."

Zach looked back at her, waiting.

She sighed, "Look, Tony was helping me...with listening to my tape."

Zach frowned. "Like...re-listening to it. Why would you do that?"

She admitted, "I think last time I listened to it...I wasn't in the right state of mind to process it..."

His face softened.

"I could help you," he offered.

She shook her head. "I don't think I could face your reaction to it."

"I've heard it before," he countered, "...and I think it would do better if you could...explain come things to me."

Ophelia said, "I can't, Zach. You're the only person I can't stand to see look at me like that."

Montgomery picked Ophelia up from school, like always.

"Do you want me to come in?" he asked.

"No," she told him, "I think my mom might be home early today."

She hopped out of the Jeep. He followed suit.

"You okay?" he asked, "You were pretty quiet on the ride over."

"I'm fine," she told him, "It's just been a long day."

"Who'd you eat lunch with?" he asked her.

She said simply, "Tony Padilla."

Ophelia moved to walk up to her door, but he stepped in front of her, blocking her.

"So not Zach Dempsey?"

Ophelia froze, and frowned at her boyfriend. "What are you talking about?"

"Bryce told me he saw you and Zach walking in from the parking lot right when lunch was ending. Did you go somewhere with him?"

Ophelia cursed Bryce's name.

"No," she said, honestly, "Tony brought me back and Zach saw and wanted to know where we went. That was all."

"So what did you and Tony talk about?"

She hesitated for a minute. "Just random stuff. I can't remember everything. We just went to get coffee."

"Mhmm."

Montgomery pointed to her backpack. "Let me see."

She rolled her eyes, handing it over. Montgomery opened it, looking through each pocket. He picked up the tape recorder Tony gave her. She held her breath. He pressed the play button.

Luckily, he did not have earphones in, and no sound came out. He turned it off.

Montgomery held his hand out, and she gave him her phone.

Montgomery typed in her password, and starting scrolling and pressing things.

"You unblocked Dempsey?"

She said, "Yeah, I mean, he helped me out the other day."

"How come you guys don't have any messages?"

"I just unblocked him the other day, we haven't said anything."

He said, "How the fuck do I know you didn't just erase them?"

"Seriously, Monty? You're mad if I text him and now you're mad if I don't?"

Montgomery, realizing his indecisiveness, handed her back her phone and her backpack.

"Sorry. But you know I fucking love you, right?"

"Of course I know."

He kissed her on the forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow morning, yeah?"

"Yeah."

Once again, Ophelia found herself in her bedroom, earphones plugged in, pressing play on the tape player.

I'm sorry I left you there, Ophelia. But more importantly, I'm sorry that I kept my promise and didn't tell anyone what Montgomery did. What he was.

A fucking woman abuser.

You didn't come to school for a few days. I tried reaching out, and asking if I could come over. You kept saying no. When I finally did see you, you told me you had been in a car accident. You told everyone that you were in a car accident. That's why your nose was broken. Well, to anyone else listening that heard that lie: the car accident was just Montgomery's fist. Sorry to debunk your story.

I told you I knew what really happened. I tried to comfort you, but you turned on me. You said I was drunk, and that I was seeing things. Then we stopped speaking for a while.

Until that night. A few weeks ago. I got your call. Four o'clock in the morning.

"Monty's drunk."

"Monty's going to kill me."

"I need you to pick me up from Monty's."

I came to you, Ophelia, without any grudges. I didn't care that you turned your back on me before, all I cared about was that you were safe.

I stayed at your house the next three days. We pretended that we had some sleeping pattern biology project so our parents wouldn't mind. Actually, Ophelia, I didn't even need to tell my parents. They were just so happy I was hanging out with you again, because they knew I had been sad when I stopped going over.

On the third night, you agreed to go to the police.

Alex, just so you know, we called your dad. He told us to go in the next morning to file a police report. As far I knew, that's where the abuse would end.

But it didn't. Two days later I saw you holding hands with Montgomery. We passed, in the hallway. You kept your eyes away from me. Montgomery didn't. He stared at me with so much hatred every time he saw me. You ghosted me again, not picking up my calls or text messages. I had to watch you from afar as you would appear at school with marking here and there that the average person may not even notice. But I noticed. And I knew they were from him.

Until Rep Night.

Did everyone on this little chat go there? It was a really big school event. Representive Night, the night each sports team goes and does a scavenger hunt. The first team to win gets the surplus of funding for their sport. The football team always won, but people went to watch too.

You invited me to the party. And I went. I was so happy, Ophelia. At that point, my anger towards you still being with Montgomery did not even compare to how happy I was to spend time with you again, the chance to rekindle our friendship.

But then I got roofied.

And the next morning, I woke up to topless photos of me on my camera roll.

I had no idea where they were taken, or how I ended up back in my room. But I had a text from your boyfriend.

'Talk again and these are going public'.

Ophelia, I know deep down that you would never do something as violating as this.

But I know you let your boyfriend do this to me, and I know that you led him to believe I was the one to blame for going to the police. It's okay, though. I forgive you. I've seen how violent Montgomery De La Cruz can become, and I'm glad that for a few instances his anger was directed at me instead of you.

I think if Rep Night never happened, I would still be doing this. Killing myself, that is.

But if it hadn't, I don't think you would be on these tapes right now.

So, Ophelia Tristano, my best friend, this is my final goodbye to you.

And I will offer you one last piece of advice. Us Liberty Highers gotta stick together, right?

Break up with Montgomery, or else he will kill you.

Ophelia was wrong. He could not handle listening to the tape alone. It broke her. Again. Just how it had the time before.

She was weak and alone. So she called him.

Zach arrived at her house half and hour later. He had walked so that her parents wouldn't notice his car that late at night. She let him in the back door, quietly. She took him to her room.

Ophelia laid on the bed. Zach sat at the end of the bed, watching her.

"So go ahead," she told him, "Go ahead and ask me what you want to ask me?"

She understood what she was allowing him, but at that moment she didn't care. Hannah's tape was so vague, so blissfully naive of what Ophelia went through.

Zach waited a whole moment before asking, "Did Montgomery really hit you?"

Ophelia sighed, and then sat up in her bed, facing Zach. "Yes."

"Jesus, O!" Zach was on his feet in an instant. He paced the room. "Why the fuck didn't you say anything?"

"Calm down!" she said in a loud whisper. "There was nothing to say. It was one mistake."

"It wasn't a mistake" he told her. His voice was quieter but still as furious. "He was mad at you and he hit you. Why was he even mad, huh? Because you were showing your fucking shoulders?"

"Look" she told him, "I'm not gonna keep talking if you won't calm down."

"And how the fuck am I supposed to calm down? How am I supposed to even trust that he only hit you once? You told me Hannah was fucking lying."

"Stop!"

Zach paused in speech, noticing how incredibly upset she was now. He sat back down and asked her, "Did this really only happen once?"

"Yes" she told him. "And it was not because of that, it was because of a lot of things that night."

Zach ran a hand through his hair. "So what happened the night at Montgomery's house. When Hannah said she had to pick you up. When...When you said you thought he was going to kill you."

Ophelia put her face in her hands and sighed deeply. When she looked back up at him she said, "I was just scared and dramatic. He was just angry and drunk. Really, really drunk. He wouldn't have done anything that bad."

Zach made the bold move of reaching over, and taking her hand in him.

"So tell me what happened."

A/N: Hey guys, so I decided to put her whole tape in this one, and in the next chapter I will try to explain everything further. There is a lot more to Rep Night than Hannah knew.

Let me know what kind of questions you guys have so I can make sure I address them in the writing.

Also, there is clearly a lot of stuff that happened to Ophelia that Hannah didn't know about so sorry if y'all hate Ophelia right now ? hopefully when things are cleared up you won't !