It had been weeks since the Winter Formal. Ophelia's nose was healing nicely. It no longer hurt unless she touched it. She didn't have to wear a bandage either. It was no longer broken, only bruised. She was able to hide the bruises now with makeup. It looked good, almost perfect. Almost like it never happened.
Montgomery invited people over to his house that Sunday because his father was gone. His mother was gone also, but that wasn't as strange. She leaves for weeks at a time, at least twice a month. Montgomery didn't like talking about his mother, so Ophelia never asked why she left.
Ophelia told her mom she was staying with Hannah for the night, because she planned to stay at Montgomery's. Ophelia's mom had no idea her Hannah were not on speaking terms.
Not since she confronted her at school.
Ophelia cleared her mind of that event, instead focusing on her boyfriend in front on her, who was now playing videos games with a couple friends.
Bryce was there. He's the one that brought over the console for Montgomery to borrow for the weekend. Scott was there, as was Anthony, Carlos, and Justin. They were all on the baseball team except for Justin.
"Hey, Jessica didn't want to come?" Ophelia asked Justin. She was hoping for another female to talk to while the boys played their video games.
"Nah, she's sleeping already. She has cheer practice tomorrow morning or something" Justin said. He was not playing the game, just drinking and watching.
"Mmm" Ophelia nodded.
Montgomery elbowed her, laughing. "I'm not enough for you, baby girl?"
She laughed too. "Of course you are," she said, giving him a peck on the cheek.
"Gross!" Scott piped up, "Stop acting like my parents."
Montgomery scoffed, and laughed, "Your parents can't fuck like us, Scotty."
The boys all let out a loud "ooooh". Scott said, "Damn, Monty, I don't want to picture my parent fucking at all."
He stuck out his tongue. "Just picture us then."
Ophelia stiffened. Montgomery spoke in a joking attitude, but that didn't stop each of the boys there from glancing at her. They tried to do it subtly, so she wouldn't notice, but she did.
Justin's eyes flickering down her legs, which were bare due to the fact she wore a skirt. Scott's eyesight pausing on her chest. The other boys doing a once over before looking back at the game. Then there was Bryce. He looked her up and down and made eye contact with her, before smirking and looking away.
Ophelia cleared her throat and stood up. "I'm going to go lay down for a while. I'm tired."
"Alright," Montgomery said, not thinking much of it. He did not notice how the boys in the room watched her ass while she left, due to his prior comments.
Ophelia changed in the pajamas she brought from home and crawled in Montgomery's bed. She snuggled up with one of his pillows, completely happy to be holding something that smelled like him. She had only rested her eyes for about twenty minutes before she heard Montgomery come in. She assumed he just came in to grab something, so she didn't turn around.
But he turned her. She saw him drink a few beers while she was out there, but now he smelled like he drank vodka.
"Hey, come here," he murmured. He pulled the blanket she had off of her.
She sat up now. "What?"
"Come here," he said again. He climbed onto the bed, crawling on top of her. He kissed her, passionately.
When he pulled away, she noticed the crack in the doorway. The boys in the other room were looking in.
She pushed him off. "Monty, what the hell?"
He looked towards the door. "Sorry." He stumbled over and shut it. He then got back on top of her, trying to kiss her again.
"Stop it!" she said. She crawled out from under him. "What are you doing?"
"Come on, O," he slurred, "Just real quick."
"Real quick what?" she asked, shocked.
He pulled her leg, bringing her back under him. He started kissing her neck, his hands roaming down the sides of her body. She did want to kiss him back, but she was not going to with people right outside.
When he grabbed the hem of her pajama pants, she shoved him again.
"Stop, Monty!"
He frowned. "Fucking hell, O. What's wrong?"
"I'm not doing anything with you while all your friends are outside," she snapped at him.
"Ophelia..." he groaned. He put his hand on her stomach, moving his fingers back and forth in a way that gave her goosebumps.
"Stop," she warned again. "If you don't knock it off I'm going home."
"Pff! I drove you, you can't leave."
"I will call an Uber."
Montgomery rolled his eyes, but got off of her.
"Fucking whatever" he muttered, heading out of the room.
Once he stepped out she heard one of the boys yell, "Blue balled!" And another one yell, "You wish, Monty!"
He slammed the door behind him. Ophelia went to sleep after that, now completely sure she didn't want to head out for the rest of the night.
Outside her room, Montgomery continued playing games with his friends.
"So, how long do you think you and Ophelia will last?" his teammate, Carlos, asked him.
Montgomery scoffed. "Fucking forever. Why? You fucking interested?"
"No," Carlos said, quickly to not upset his friend. "But she's like, hella smart. Don't you think she'll go off to some smart person college after high school?"
"Probably not," he said, not taking his eyes off the video game in front of him, "There's plenty of jobs here she could get-dude you weren't even fucking helping me!"
Justin, who was now taking his turn on the game, and who he had yelled at said, "I was! You just aren't fucking good."
Bryce spoke up. "You think Ophelia's gonna take a job in this shithole for you? You're lying to yourself if you think she won't go out of state for college."
Montgomery tried not to let his true reaction to Bryce's words show on his face. He tried to brush it off, despite worry clenching at his heart.
"She wouldn't move states without me."
"Oh, so Montgomery's going to college now?" Justin laughed. "Good fucking luck."
He chucked. "Fuck you. You ain't passing one class right now."
Bryce laughed at both of them. "You both got ladies out of your leagues."
Montgomery shook his head. "Ophelia and I already talked about it. She said she'll only apply to a school if I get a sports scholarship from them."
Justin said, "Hey, dumbass, you still have to graduate high school if you want a scholarship."
Bryce said, "Hey, hey, hey! You're both dumbasses. Never forget that."
This caused everyone in the room to laugh, Montgomery included. Later that night, when everyone had gone, Montgomery stayed on the couch in his living room, thinking of the prior conversation over and over again.
Would Ophelia really leave him?
She had only been in his life a few years, and they had been dating for a somewhat short time to be making these kind of commitments to each other.
She told him that she loved him, but can he really believe that? Can he really trust her on her word that she'll stay?
Montgomery realized in that moment that he needed Ophelia more than she needed him. Maybe he even loved her more than she loved him.
He could see her going away, meeting a better guy, starting a better life without him. But him? He would never find a better girl.
Montgomery stood, and slowly walked into his bedroom. Ophelia laid curled up on his bed, her beautiful outline visible to him because of the light the crept in through the door. His eyes caught sight of her bruised nose, and he cringed. He hated seeing the bruise, seeing what he did to her.
He took off his shoes and got into the bed, fully clothed. She didn't wake completely, only enough to turn over and cuddle with him. She nuzzled her head into chest, her small arms wrapping around his large torso.
He loved her. So much.
Montgomery was about to close his eyes, and try to fall asleep as well, but his eyes caught her phone on his night stand. He picked it up. Opening it, he wondered if he should check her messages. He didn't, he knew there was nothing new.
He went into her email. He browsed through it, until he found what he hoped he wouldn't.
An acceptance email from an out of state college, one far too respectable for Montgomery to be let into.
"What the fuck?" he said aloud. Ophelia stirred.
He continued looking through her email, suddenly finding more and more applications to various colleges around the United States.
"What the fuck?" he repeated.
Ophelia looked up at him, groggily. "Monty? What's wrong?"
Montgomery got off the bed, startling her, and turned on the bedroom light. The sudden light hurt her eyes and she covered them.
"Hey!" She complained.
"What the fuck is this?" he demanded to know, holding the phone out. "You're fucking applying to out of state colleges already?"
She was still disoriented from the abrupt ending of her sleep. "What?"
"Why the fuck are you trying to leave me already?!"
She sat up completely now. "Monty, what are talking about?"
"Stop, O! I fucking saw the emails! Okay? I fucking saw them!" Montgomery suddenly took her phone, and threw it at her with brute force.
The speed of the phone and the force it hit the pillow less than five inches beside her now had her completely awake. He threw to phone so hard that, despite the fact it hit a pillow, it cracked the screen. She flinched, flinging herself away from it.
"Monty, what the hell?" she demanded. She looked at her now cracked phone, eyeing the college emails. "Are you kidding me? Of course I'm applying to colleges! It doesn't mean I'm fucking going there! Look at my phone, you broke it!"
She was staring down at her phone, and did not see Montgomery coming at her with speed. He grabbed her right ankle, and yanked her completely off the bed. She hit the floor with a thud and screamed. She was too shocked by the situation to do anything else.
He kept hold of her ankle, holding her leg off the ground, and pulling her closer to him. He kneeled over her.
"You're a fucking liar, O," he told her, anger in his voice, "You told me you would stay here. You fucking lied to me. Right to my fucking face!"
"Monty-" she breathed, struggling to get out from under him. She had not yet realized the severity of the situation. "You're drunk!" she accused.
Montgomery let go of her ankle. He instead took a handful of her hair and brought her face up closer to his. Ophelia cringed not only at the pain he caused, but at the stench of alcohol on him.
"Bryce was fucking right," he hissed, "You're going to leave me in this shithole town, aren't you? Fucking aren't you?!"
"Stop!" her yell was more of a plea. Fear and adrenaline coursing through her body as she began to realize she was in danger. She was trying to loosen his grip on her hair, "Please, you're hurting me!"
He let go of her hair. She pushed herself hard against the floor, moving out from under him. She snatched her phone off the ground, and ran out of his room, making a beeline for the front door. She couldn't let the Winter Formal happen all over again. She refused to.
Montgomery was hot on her tail, however. As she reached for the front door, he ran and kicked out his leg, kicking her right in the back of the knee, causing her to fall, limp.
He caught her hair before she fell completely. She wished he hadn't caught her, because she would have rather hit her head on the floor than feel this indescribable pain and he pulled her body onto the carpet in the living room by her hair alone.
"Monty, stop! Please!" She was kicking her feet out in every directions, trying to get onto of his strong hold.
He yanked her head upwards, before tossing her back down. Her head bounced off the carpet, sending a ripple of pain down her body. He got back on top of her.
"Montgomery," she pleaded, "Stop, you're drunk. You don't know what you're doing!" Her throat was tightening with sobs from the sudden, unreasonable pain she was in.
"I'm drunk," he repeated, "Just a worthless fucking drunk that you can just leave behind, right?"
She struggled beneath him. He pinned her hands above her head. She felt like she was beginning to hyperventilate.
"No-"
"Why the fuck should I even keep living, right?"
Ophelia tried again to reason with her boyfriend, "Please!-"
Montgomery grabbed a beer bottle off the coffee table in front of the couch, and smashed it into the ground right next to her ear.
"Ah!" she screamed. She did not feel anything, but the motion alone terrified her.
Suddenly, she stopped from making any sound, or any motion and all, as Montgomery brought up the broken beer bottle and held it to Ophelia's throat.
She held her breath, as well as the tears that now brimmed on her eyes. When she couldn't hold her breath any longer, she took a deep one. Her throat rose and touched the edge of the bottle. Stray tears now falling freely. Adrenaline wearing off and terror filling her veins.
"Maybe I should just fucking kill you," he mumbled, "Kill you and then just fucking kill myself. Don't you think I should kill myself, O? I'll end up doing it some day, right?"
"Monty..." she cried, "...please, Monty, put that down..."
She was too scared to fight back, too scared to do anything but beg her boyfriend for mercy.
"I fucking love you," he told her, "I love you so fucking much it's stupid. And I won't be able to live knowing you're out there fucking some other guy."
"I won't," she tried, "Monty, I won't. I promise." Her words came out muffled through her now present sobs. "I love you. I only want you. I'm not-I'm not leaving you."
"And how can I know?" he demanded. His voice sounded like he was on the brink of tears as well. "How the fuck can I know you won't leave, huh? Just like my fucking mom. That bitch."
"I swear," she told him, "I swear to God, Monty."
His grip on her hands loosened. He brought the beer bottle down away from her. He let go of her hand.
She did want to stay with Montgomery. But as soon as he let her arms go, she pushed away from him again, and ran.
This time, she ran into the bathroom. She made it there quicker than Montgomery could catch her due to his intoxicated self.
She slammed the door behind her. Locking it, and pulling out the drawers from the sink next to the door to further block it.
He pounded on the door. "Open this fucking door, Ophelia!"
She fell back, and crawled into his shower tub. She huddled against the edge, pulling the curtain back.
"Ophelia!" He jiggled the door handle violently.
"I'll break this fucking door open!"
She gulped. She yelled at him, "If you break the door your dad will see it!"
Montgomery stilled outside of the door. For a moment, he was silent. Then he sent one, final, scarily violent punch to the bathroom door.
"You fucking bitch. You fucking bitch! Open the goddamn door!"
She covered her ears with her hands, shutting her eyes tightly.
He continued banging on the door. "Open the fucking door right fucking now! Or I swear to God you're fucking dead when I get it open!"
Alone in the bathroom, she started crying. Sobbing.
"Monty, stop!" She sobbed. "Stop it!"
He continued pounding and screaming at her.
In that moment, all she wanted was to be hugging him again, sleeping with him in bed. She imagined a different scenario, where someone else was being this cruel to her, and Montgomery would come save her. Then he would sit in that bathtub with her, hugging her until she calmed down.
But that wasn't the case. Montgomery couldn't save her. Montgomery was who she needed to be saved from.
Shaking, she padded down her pajama pockets. She felt her phone. She grabbed it out. It took her a few tries to open it, her fingers shaking so badly she could barely press the buttons.
Finally, she had her phone open. But who could she call? Who would come get her?
She couldn't call her mom, she doubted that her mom would ever forgive her for lying about being at Hannah's. Next on her list was Zachary, but she knew he would never call him. He wouldn't forgive Montgomery. And he would never be able to look at Ophelia the same. Jessica? No. They were kind of friends, but definitely not close enough for her to not be freaked out and disgusted by Ophelia for the situation. Ophelia realized she didn't have any friends to call.
But there was Hannah. She wondered, would Hannah come get her? Even though she was so cruel the last time she tried to help?
Ophelia decided to risk it.
She tapped her number, and put the phone to her ear, trying to drown out Montgomery, who continued to scream vile things at her.
She picked up on the fourth ring.
"Hello?" Came Hannah's groggy voice.
"H-Hannah?"
"Ophelia?" She sounded confused. "Are you okay?"
"Can-Can you come pick me up?" she asked her. She regretted being so confusing and vague. "Could you come? To Monty's? If not, I-I understand."
"Montgomery's?" Hannah sounded a lot more awake now. "What's that noise?"
She did not want to waist time explaining the situation, and how the noise was Montgomery threatening her.
"Monty's drunk!" Ophelia said in a loud whisper. She flinched as Montgomery slammed his fist into the bathroom door once more.
"What? Are you okay? Did he do something to you?"
"He's going to kill me," she told her, "Hannah, he's going to kill me."
"Send me the address!" Hannah demanded of her. "I'm on my way right now!"
"O-Okay," she told her, "can you-can you come around the back? There's a window in the bathroom."
"Okay," Hannah told her, "I'm pulling out right now. It's okay, Ophelia. It'll be okay. Just stay on the phone with me until I get there."
"I was able to crawl through the window," Ophelia told Zach. "Monty had calmed down by the time she got there. I think he might've fallen asleep, or passed out, or something. I don't really know. But I remember being too scared to even run all the way around the car to get in the passenger door. I just ran and hopped in the seat behind her, and made her leave immediately."
Zach had gone quiet, watching Ophelia. He continued holding her hand through the story.
"I told her what happened, and she convinced me I should go to the police. And...I agreed. I think in that moment, I didn't want Monty to go to jail, but I wanted him to get help. Anger management or something. I knew he would never go to something like that willingly, and Hannah told me that he would have to if he was arrested for...assault."
Ophelia didn't like saying that word. It felt wrong.
Zach processed what she told him. An aching in his heart as he really listened. She called Hannah, and he was so thankful that she answered and was able to pick her up. But she didn't call him? Because she thought he wouldn't be able to look at her the same? Montgomery was the only one he'd be mad at. He could never blame her.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered. "I'm so sorry that happened to you."
"It's okay, Zach. It happened. It's over." She spoke so relaxed that it bothered Zachary.
"Ophelia," he spoke, softly, "Why didn't you tell anyone about it? I mean, after Hannah died, and after the tapes came out?"
"I tried to tell someone, and look what happened."
He shook his head. "What happened? I don't know, Ophelia. No one knows because you haven't said a damn thing. I want to hear your side of Rep Night, tell it to me."
"It's complicated!" she let go of his hand, now pulling her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "It wasn't supposed to happen like this. But Montgomery found out that I called the police before he got arrested and-"
She stopped herself, her face wincing and straining as though she was blocking out a bad memory. Zach didn't think anything could be worse than the story he just heard.
"Did he hurt you again?"
Ophelia kept her eyes shut. Zach reached out and put a hand on her shoulder.
"It's, okay Ophelia. You heard Hannah. She forgave you for that. She understood, and so do I."
Ophelia wiped her eyes, suddenly showing anger towards herself. "I didn't even try to defend her. I didn't even fucking try."
She saw Montgomery waiting for her at her locker. He was pacing, upset and angry. Hannah had told her to stay away, so that's what she had been doing.
But he had been there all day. He made it to her locker before her every single passing period. She needed what was in there for her next class. So she decided to step out during her third period to take a trip over there. She excused herself, and made her way over. Opening it, she found herself trying to keep her eyes away from the many photos she had of Montgomery and her taped to her locker door. She sighed, grabbing the homework that she had due in the next period and a few more things she thought she would need in the next few days, and slammed the locker door shut.
She jumped, barely holding back a scream as she caught sight of Montgomery not far down the hall, moving her way quickly.
"Monty!" she gasped. "What-"
He pushed her when he reached her, sending her stumbling back.
"You know how fucking hard I'm been trying to talk to you?" he snapped at her, "I've been here all fucking day. I had to wait in the goddamn bathroom for hours just to see if you'd come out."
She took another step back from him. "D-Don't come any closer-"
"You know how fucking scared I was last night? When I couldn't find you? I thought you were fucking dead!"
She scrambled to reach something out of her jacket pocket. Mace. She held it up to him, and he immediately stopped where he was.
"You need to stay away from me, Monty. I-I mean it. Stay the fuck away from me."
He scoffed, and spit at her. It landed on the bottom of her jeans. "Did you really call the cops, O? Did you really try to sell me out?"
"Just...Just leave me alone."
Ophelia turned from him. Her room was the way he was standing, so instead she headed into the woman's bathroom, where he was not allowed to follow.
She set her stuff down on the corner of the sink. There was a girl at the sink that was just finishing washing her hands. Ophelia washed her hands for no reason. She then dried them on the top of her hair, as well as running her wet hands down her face. She was careful not to touch the makeup by her nose.
She flung around when the door swung open. Montgomery took a step inside, unashamed and unfazed by the fact it was a woman's restroom.
"Monty, you need to leave!"
Montgomery did not speak to her. Instead, he just kept her eyes on her as he neared the first stall, and slammed the door open. Ophelia winced. He did the same thing to the second stall, the third, and the fourth large one, checking to make sure that all of them were empty.
Ophelia felt her heart beating faster and faster as he went along each stall, and she realized that they were alone.
She could barely breath, taking quick shallow breaths as she saw him come to the same realization.
There was a mop and bucket in the fourth, largest stall. He grabbed it, still saying no words as he brought it forward.
He shoved the mop handle in the handle of the bathroom door, setting it between the door and the wall, ensuring the door stay closed if someone tried to open it.
He then looked back at Ophelia, staring at her with anger more intense than she had seen from anyone else. The type of anger she had seen the night before. She wanted to grab the mace in her jacket, but she was frozen. She felt like she was going to hyperventilate. She started shaking, fearfully.
He started towards her, and she sunk as far into the wall between the sinks as she could.
She opened her mouth to try to say something, but he already made it to her. He grabbed her by the collar of her shirt, and with brute force he slammed her to the ground.
"Ah!-" The pain of landing on the hard bathroom floor directly on her right shoulder arm made her scream. The pain was so intense, that for a moment she thought that he had dislocated her shoulder. He slapped a hand over her mouth, silencing her scream as quickly as it came out.
He reached into her jacket and grabbed the mace, putting it in his varsity jacket pocket instead. Ophelia, scared, did the only thing she felt she was powered to do. She bit his hand.
"Fuck!" he shouted, yanking this hand back.
She took the opportunity to try to call for help. "Help!-"
Montgomery slapped her.
She barely screamed, instead inhaling sharply, and bringing her hands to her face to cup her pained cheek.
Montgomery directly on top of her, one foot on each side of her waist, bending down to shove a hand in her face.
"You want to put me away?" he demanded. "All I do is fucking love you, and you want to send me to fucking jail?"
"No" she tried.
"You called the fucking police! I know you fucking did!" he accused. "You want me gone, you ungrateful bitch!"
He raised his hand in the air, getting ready to backhand her.
"I didn't!" she screamed, "It was Hannah!"
The name came out of her mouth before the sentence even processed in her brain. She regretted it as soon as she said it, but she couldn't take it back now.
Montgomery lowered his arm, eyes losing their anger. "What?"
She had time to think now. She had time to process what she would say, and what names to use. But, selfishly and fearfully, she still used Hannah.
"Hannah picked me up last night," she admitted, her body still shaking slightly from his presence, "She called the police. I begged her not to but she did anyways."
Montgomery shook his head, like he couldn't believe his theory was wrong. "You've been fucking avoiding me. And in the hall, you pulled out pepper spray. Fucking pepper spray."
"Because of last night," she said quickly, "I-I was scared of what happened last night."
Montgomery stood up straight, and stepped off her. He then sat himself down on the floor next to her. She sat up, cringing as her should ached at her movement.
"Fuck, O," he said, "I'm so sorry."
She didn't say anything back to him.
He moved closer, and watched her flinch away. He moved a hand into his hair, flustered.
"I'm sorry," he repeated, "I didn't believe it when I heard it. I shouldn't have fucking believed it."
She didn't respond again. She just placed a hand on her shoulder, wincing. "My shoulder..."
Montgomery moves by her, carefully taking off her jacket. She was wearing a long sleeve shirt with a low neckline. He brought it down further, so that it came off her shoulder. She held the neckline to her chest, so that her bra wouldn't become exposed.
Her shoulder was patched with red, and open cuts. Like a bad case of rug rash.
"Fuck, Ophelia. You're bleeding. I'm sorry."
He stood, grabbing a paper towel and wetting it, and then bringing it back to hold on her shoulder.
"I'm sorry," he repeated. "I'm sorry."
She didn't respond to his apologies. Instead she asked, "Do you remember what happened last night?"
He breathed in sharply, and continued to hold the wet paper towel to her. "Yeah. I do. And I'm really fucking sorry about that too. You have no idea how scared I was when I realized you were gone."
This time, she didn't respond because she didn't know how.
"Why the fuck did Hannah call the police?"
"I don't know," she tried to say.
"Did you...tell her about last night?" He was hesitant to ask, but she knew he already assumed she did.
"No," she lied, "she figured it out herself. I just told her I needed a ride, but she didn't believe me."
She thought for a moment, and then admitted, "She saw you hit me at the Winter Formal."
Montgomery stiffened. "Fucking shit. Did you know?"
"She only told me yesterday," she lied, playing it off.
Montgomery stood up, and walked away from her, then turning back suddenly.
"That fucking bitch. I should bash her fucking head in."
Ophelia looked to the floor, eyes off her boyfriend. He kneeled down next to her again. "Hey, you know I'm really sorry about that, right? The Winter Formal?"
Ophelia looked up at him, finally making eye contact. She touched her cheek, which still stung from the slap moments ago.
"You promised...that you wouldn't h-hit me again." She was embarrassed when she hiccuped in the middle of her sentence, but was proud of herself for not letting out the sob that was in the back of her throat.
His eyes hardened again, like he was suddenly panicked. "I didn't hit you, Ophelia. If I hit you you'd have another broken nose. I slapped you, and if you tell anyone that I hit you, you'd be a fucking liar."
She looked away from him again.
"Shit," he sighed, "I'm really sorry, though."
Ophelia knew calling the police last night would be a bad idea, followed by bad consequences.
"I love you, Ophelia."
But what she didn't know was that turning her boyfriend on Hannah would cause him to do something far, far worse.
"I love you, too."
Ophelia did not tell Zach the whole story when it came to admitting what happened at school the next day. Instead, she just said, "He cornered me in the bathroom. I-I got scared. I got scared because I thought he would do something worse, so I told him Hannah called the police, not me. It wasn't far from the truth. She's basically the one that made me."
Zach nodded, listening. "Did he...threaten you or anything?"
She hesitated, and shook her head. "No."
"He had to have done something, Ophelia. I know you, you wouldn't have just given her up-"
"I did," she insisted. "And what do you mean he had to have done something? What he did the night before wasn't enough to be scared? You wish he had threatened my life again?"
"No!" He said quickly, "I'm sorry, I just...it's better for us to have the full story, so that when we tell the police-"
"The police?" Ophelia asked, snapping her head up in his direction.
"Yeah" Zach said, "I mean, we don't need to tell them about Hannah but we need to tell them about what he did to you."
"No!" she told him. She hopped off the bed and in front of him. "I'm not trying to get Monty arrested. Even if I still think he needs help, jail isn't the way. He's too temperamental, he'd pick fights and get himself hurt."
"Are you fucking kidding me?" Zach asked. He stood to his feet, again, this time looking angrily at her. "Pardon my fucking language, Ophelia, but that son of a bitch deserves to go to jail for what he did to you."
"No, he doesn't!" she argued, "He made some mistakes, but that's it. He's better. He's trying his hardest to make up for what happened."
"He threatened to kill you" Zach said, "He-He held glass to your fucking throat. He's a psychopath, Ophelia. And-And I agree with Hannah, he'll actually kill you if you stay with him."
"Montgomery loves me" she told him, "He's a good person. It's his friends that cause him to do all this shit. Bryce fucking Walker is the reason he is such a jerk to everyone. You only see the bad side of him, not the good side he shows me."
Zach scoffed. "If his good side is breaking someone's fucking nose, then I don't want to see it."
Hearing his words, Ophelia seemed to deflate completely. Her shoulders slouched, and the energy she had to argue was gone.
"He's better now." Ophelia seemed to be talking more to herself than to Zach in that moment. "Things won't be like last time."
Zach fell silent, watching. He felt compelled by the despair in her eyes to comfort her. He grabbed her, pulling her forward into a hug. She wrapped her arms around him, hugging him back tightly.
"I didn't trick Hannah into going to Rep Night," she admitted. "She thinks it was all a plan but it wasn't. I didn't know what he was going to do, Zach. I swear to God I didn't know."
Ophelia lied to Montgomery. She told him that she would be there on Rep Night to watch the scavenger hunt and give the baseball team her support. She told him she would just be hanging out with Jessica, but she lied. She had asked Hannah to meet her there.
"So, tell me again why anyone else cares about Rep Night?" Hannah asked her. They were sitting on the crowded bleachers, watching teams running in and out of view. "I mean, we're not really watching a whole lot."
The bleachers were packed, like it was a football game.
Ophelia shrugged. "It's just like a party, people hanging out. Plus, it's a tradition. All the cute sports guys go, so all the cute girls started going, so all the guys that had crushes on cute girls started going, and all the girls who had crushes on the guys who had crushes on the cute girls who had crushes on the cute guys started going and...you get the picture. Everyone comes."
Hannah laughed. "I got more than the picture."
Ophelia cleared her throat. "How is Clay?"
Hannah smiled. "Gossip, already? He's good. He's not here, though. He said he's working tonight."
"Oh, that's too bad" Ophelia said, "It would have been fun to hang out with him."
Hannah agreed, "Yeah, but then again, now I can look at cute boys."
Ophelia laughed with her. The scavenger hunt wasn't extremely exciting to watch, but the over exaggerated reactions of the crowd made it fun.
Hannah and Ophelia spent over half an hour just trying to guess what every was going to the tree for, only to see people had hidden gold balls up there.
The two of them indulged themselves with pretzels and lemonade that the snack stand was selling. They were having so much fun that it seemed the same as before the Winter Formal. Before everything happened. Hannah was polite. She didn't mention Montgomery once, not what happened. She knew Ophelia wouldn't say anything if she did.
After an hour and a half, it finally looked like the game was almost over.
The soccer team had gotten all the items and won.
"Dang it!" Ophelia sighed. "Monty's gonna be so mad baseball lost!"
Ophelia regretted her words as she saw Hannah stiffen beside her.
"I'm sorry," she said quickly, "I didn't mean to-"
"It's okay," Hannah told her, "Just know...you can still call me...if he does get mad."
Ophelia shook her head. "It's not like that Hannah."
A boy from the baseball team, Carlos, had ran from the field and hopped onto the bleachers, coming to greet his girlfriend who had been watching him. He caught Ophelia's eye. "Wassup, Ophelia?"
She just nodded at him. She turned back to Hannah. "Hey, how about you and I go get coffee or something after this?"
Hannah shrugged. "I don't know. Are you sure you don't need to go see your boyfriend?"
Ophelia said, "It's fine, I can tell him that I'll just see him tomorrow."
Ophelia stood up, only to stumble as Carlos ran back onto the field towards the locker room. She could smell his sweat.
Hannah paused and said, "I don't know...I feel like by acting like everything is normal, it's like I'm encouraging it. Allowing it. Normalizing it."
Ophelia said, "C'mon, stop being so dramatic. We'll talk about this later, okay? I promise if you come with me, I'll let you ask whatever you need to."
She thought about it. "Okay, but not because of you. But because I want coffee."
Ophelia laughed. "Okay, hang on. I'll be right back."
Ophelia made her way down the ramp and to the locker room. All the teams had worn their jerseys during Rep Night, so they all had gone to the locker room to change back out of them.
Unfortunately for Ophelia, Carlos made it there before she did.
"What's everyone doing tonight?" Scott asked. "Do you guys want to get something to eat?"
Montgomery stripped off his jersey, as well as the sweaty shirt underneath. He stood there exposing his naked, muscular torso.
He laughed, sticking his tongue out. "More like who am I doing? Ophelia told her mom she would be staying at Jessica's after the game which means she will actually be in the back seat of my Jeep, if you know what I mean."
The boys 'ooh'ed, one of them adding a wolf whistle.
Justin, who was there for basketball, told him, "Damn, another reason why I need to get my own car. Our girls about to start using each other as excuses."
Montgomery fist bumped Justin, "Oh, you know it."
Carlos spoke up, "Nah, man, I think your girl is going out with Hannah Baker tonight. I just heard them plan to go to coffee."
Justin laughed at him. "Oh my God, your girlfriend is about to go out with Hannah Baker right now? Dude, Baker's such a slut, I bet they'll be finger banging each other by nights end if you let them go out."
Montgomery shoved him. "Shut up, Foley. She doesn't even hang out with Baker. She's with Jessica."
"Oh yikes" Justin said, "Dude, Jessica's not even here."
Carlos agreed, "Yeah, she was sitting by Baker the whole time I think."
Montgomery was angry. Not because he thought that Hannah and Ophelia would actual touch each other like his friends were teasing him about, but because he was worried what they actually would talk about. Or what they talked about during the game. What would they be talking about for Ophelia to lie to Montgomery about who she was with?
He threw on a clean shirt, and his varsity jacket, and left the locker room.
Ophelia got there after he left. "Hey Carlos, have you seen Monty?"
Carlos said, "Yeah, he went out to try to catch you before you went out with Hannah. I think he wants to go with you guys?"
She blinked. "Did you...tell him that?"
"Yeah," he said. "Why? You actually trying to fuck Baker without your boyfriend knowing?"
She crinkled her nose is disgust. "You're gross!"
He watched her leave, yelling after her, "Yeah, but that would be really hot! So if it happens you should film it!"
Ophelia made her way to the bleachers as quickly as she could. She got back to her spot, only to find Hannah gone.
"Shit..." she whispered.
"Hey, did you see where Hannah went?" she asked a girl Hannah had greeted when they first arrived.
"Yeah," the girl told her. "She got more lemonade, but it made her sick, so she went to the girls locker room."
"Thanks!"
Ophelia made her way back to the locker rooms, but saw nothing. She stepped out of them, and back into the parking lot to look for Hannah's car.
"Ophelia."
She turned and saw Montgomery. He was walking towards her. His hands in his varsity jacket. He looked so handsome. How could someone so handsome be so intimidating.
"Hey" she said, trying to play it off. "I was looking for you."
He shook his head. "You were looking for Hannah."
Her fake smile dropped. "Look, I was just saying 'hi'."
He shrugged, seemingly unfazed by her confession. "Okay, that's fine. She's right over here."
He beckoned her with his finger. "C'mon."
He spoke so casually. She followed him to his Jeep. She was confused as he opened up the back of his Jeep.
"What-"
She stopped herself, hand flying to her mouth as Montgomery pulled back the tarp he had in the back of his truck, exposing Hannah Baker. Tied up. And unconscious.