6 months earlier
Cassy stood in front of the Kappa Kappa Theta house, suitcase and a duffel bag in hand.
"Cas! Oh my god, I´m so happy you´re here." Lila ran towards her and embraced her in a tight hug which Cassy quickly replied. "Is that all you brought with you?"
"I don´t need much to be happy." Cassy answered with a smile once they pulled apart. "Please tell me we´re roommates."
"Unfortunately, you have to be with someone in your year, so no. But both our roommates won´t arrive for another month so we can do sleepovers. Just like old times." Lila grinned from one ear to another and Cassy nodded.
"Just like old times." She repeated as they went into the sorority house and got her settled in. "Do you maybe wanna watch the notebook tonight and order pizza? For the old time´s sake, you know?"
"I´d love to, but I can´t tonight, I´m sorry. I´m meeting with Rebecca. You should join us, you´ll like her." Lila explained and Cassy nodded hesitant. "Oh come on, be a bit spontaneous." Lila begged and Cassy agreed reluctantly. A few hours later when the sun went down Lila, Rebecca and Cassy sat on the roof of the house.
"You got something with you?" Lila asked Rebecca cocky but she just inspected Cassy with a suspicious look. "She´s cool, she won´t talk." The redhead assured and Rebecca pulled out a clear plastic bag with what Cassy supposed were drugs.
"Are you serious, Lila? You´re doing drugs now?" Cassy asked shocked as Lila prepared a line of coke.
"Calm down, everyone does. Here you should try it." She advised her friend who declined without a second thought.
"So you´re the daughter of fraudsters?" Rebecca turned to Cassy who quickly hit Lila on the upper arm.
"You told her?" she shouted embarrassed and Lila giggled, saying that it´s not that big of a deal. "It is for me. That trial ruined my family´s reputation!"
"They´re not even your real family!" Lila answered with a cheeky smile a she was clearly high from the drugs. Cassy closed her lips, not wanting to discuss any further and looked around with a sigh.
"I should probably go to sleep. It was a long journey." She said standing up and walking towards the door that led back into the house and to her surprise Lila didn´t call after her whatsoever. All she heard was one of them doing another line.
The Keating group was at their new client´s house. Her name was Gretchen Thomas and she was accused of killing the family´s nanny while being under the influence of sleeping pills. Gretchen was preparing for her daughter´s birthday party while talking to her attorney and her team and Cassy watched in disbelief as she tried to avoid any conversation about her trial. After Annalise finally got her to focus and talk to her, Gretchen admitted she didn´t want to take the stand and would want to go to prison for her sin. Knowing that, the Keating 6 were each assigned a member of the family, when they got back at the house and were tasked to prep them for taking the stand.
"Anyone else feel like we´re doing all her work for her?" Michaela complained as soon as Bonnie left the room. "I was fine with it before exams, but now that everyone else in our class is locked away in their apartments studying, we´re falling behind, working as free labor."
"You know who doesn´t care about exams?" Asher approached her with a smug expression. "This guy, cause I got-"
"Mention the trophy again and I´ll bash your face in with it." Michaela threatened him seriously.
"Okay, whatever shooting star. You guys all be boring, study." Asher turned to the rest with a happy smile. "I´ll be at the bonfire partying it up, mackin´ on the chickadees." He sang twerking at Laurel and Cassy who stood next to each other talking about the members of the family they got, throwing him an annoyed and disgusted glance.
"Probably talking about you." She whispered to Cassy with a wink as she passed her and Cassy hit Asher with her file.
"What is wrong with you, you pervert." She joked before following Laurel to the couch. She wanted to sit down but suddenly froze as the memories of Sam harassing her the other night came back to her. It didn´t take long for the others to notice something was going on as she was standing in the middle of the room, her body tense and her lower lip trembling. Laurel, who knew what had happened, quickly cleared her throat and Cassy snapped out of it and looked over to her.
"Would you mind bringing me a water bottle from the kitchen, cause you´re still standing?" she pretended, to get Cassy out of where she suspected the kiss happened. Cassy nodded, mouthing a thank you and left the room, feeling as though she could breathe again. She knew this wasn´t how she could continue working and she needed to do something about it. She just didn´t know what.
5 months earlier
"Hi, are you Cassy?" a brunette girl entered the room while Cassy was lying on her bed, listening to some music. She looked up with a nod. "I´m Kendall, I´m your roommate."
"Oh, hey so nice to meet you. Welcome." Cassy greeted her as she stood up and watched the new girl put her suitcase on the bed. The two talked for a long time about where they were from and what they were about to study when suddenly Lila walked by the open door. "Would you excuse me for just one minute?" Cassy asked and quickly followed the redhead. "Lila, where are you going?"
"The roof. Have a date with Rebecca, wanna join?" Lila asked with a huge grin on her lips and Cassy frowned.
"But I thought we were supposed to hang tonight?" she wondered disappointed.
"Well, you can hang with your new roomie, right?" Lila answered emotionless and without a single regret.
"That´s the third time this week that you cancel our plans." Cassy remarked as she crossed her arms over her chest.
"Sorry." Lila simply shrugged before going upstairs to the roof.
"Everything okay with you two?" Kendall suddenly stood behind Cassy in the hallway and she quickly turned around, pushing her emotions down.
"Yes. Everything´s great." Cassy lied with a fake grin. "How about I help you unpack?"
"We could watch a movie later if you want. I got the notebook on DVD." Kendall offered and Cassy smiled genuinely, agreeing to her plan.
The Keating 6 returned to their client´s house to interview and prep each family member. Cassy got the grandfather who was more interested in watching a sports game on TV than listening to her.
"So, could you tell me the relationship your daughter had to Elke?" Cassy asked him, preparing a notebook and pen to write down his answers.
"Well, I´m sure she loved having her here and have her entertain the kids. Gretchen was always working and stressed. Elke was more of a mother to them." He replied not taking his eyes off the TV.
"Maybe don´t say that in court. Gives her a motive – jealousy." Cassy advised him and the old man scoffed.
"Well, she was jealous of Elke and my grandchildren´s relationship. They talked to Elke and not to their own mother." He explained and Cassy raised her eyebrows.
"Are you suggesting that your daughter knowingly killed the nanny out of jealousy?" she asked when he suddenly shouted at the TV that some player broke the rules and didn´t get punished for it.
"Look pretty-girl, my daughter is not violent but when she´s on those pills, she´s a different person. I´m saying she would never do that, but the drugs…who knows." The grandfather stated and Cassy cringed at the nickname he gave her before ending the interview, seeing as it didn´t make any sense at that moment anyway. The next day they all went to court, where Gretchen´s son was testifying. Annalise has just finished her questions to which Cody answered perfectly, when the prosecution started questioning if he was lying to protect his mother. Cody got upset by the questioning and revealed that he and Elke were in love and were meeting every night.
"Plot twist." Cassy whispered to her peers when they stood up to leave the courtroom as the judge adjourned the trial. Annalise stormed out of the courtroom shortly after them and went straight up to Connor with a furious look in her eyes.
"Are you good for anything or can you only do your job when you´re screwing evidence out of someone?" she asked him and Connor was very embarrassed but also hurt by her remarks.
"Annalise. We were all blindsided by this." Bonnie tried to calm her down but only got more of her anger back.
"No, you were blindsided. Because you can´t do your one simple job, tell me when something´s coming my way." The attorney hissed before walking away to talk to her client in private. In the meantime the students returned to the house and studied while no one was watching them.
"How does it feel to have your ass handed to you, just days before she hands out our final grades?" Michaela asked Connor cocky. However he clicked his tongue and pulled something out of his bag.
"I´m not worried, because I got a copy of her exam from last year." He showed it to the group who all looked up, desperate for it. "Which I am more than happy to share with my study group, if they have something to give me in return."
"I´ll trade you all my notes." Wes sprung up and agreed to his terms.
"And I´ll give you copies of all of Kan´s old outlines." Laurel promised and Connor smirked.
"I have every criminal-law hornbook ever written." Michaela stated and Connor turned to her.
"I think three people are enough." He faked a smile and Michaela rolled her eyes.
"Don´t you want to be part of that study group?" she suddenly asked Cassy who only watched it all play out.
"Photographic memory." She replied, pointing to her head and Asher scoffed.
"God I wish I was a genius." He said quietly but Cassy didn´t really bother to say anything to it.
"If you want to have my outlines I´ll be more than happy to trade for-" Michaela started but Cassy cut her off.
"I don´t want to be your study buddy, told you that beginning of the school year. And not forgetting anything is not always fun." Cassy explained looking to Michaela first and then to Asher. Laurel´s phone suddenly started buzzing and she left the room to pick up, leaving the house shortly after, saying she´d be back in a bit. The rest continued studying while Asher went to talk with Bonnie about leaving early the next day when suddenly Sam came home. He peeked into the living room for a brief moment, meeting Cassy´s eyes who was angry and confused and guilt-ridden. She stood up, wanting to confront him about it but Bonnie was quicker and followed him to the kitchen.
"You okay?" Wes asked concerned when he saw her hand shaking.
"I´m fine." She quickly grabbed her shaky hand and held it to cover it up. "Probably had to much coffee."
"Yo, what´s up guys…so, I´m doing this little party tomorrow before the bonfire, you guys can come if you want." Asher suggested and they all kind of looked at him unimpressed and unmotivated.
"I´ll come." Cassy smiled, seeing as Asher got a little less tense and less afraid no one would show up.
"Sorry, I´ll rather study than go out…besides the bonfire´s not really interesting to me anyway." Connor explained and Wes nodded, agreeing with the gay man.
"I have more important things to do." Michaela also declined and Cassy could clearly see that Asher was hurt.
"I´m sure other people will come as well. It´s gonna be lit tomorrow." She tried to cheer him up and it worked a little.
4 months earlier
Cassy and Kendall sat in the living room throwing grapes towards one another and trying to catch them with their mouths.
"I did it." Cassy screamed triumphally while chewing on it and Kendall giggled.
"So, that´s one for you and 27 for me." She replied and both laughed when suddenly the front door was shut close with a loud bang and they saw Lila run upstairs. "Go." Kendall convinced Cassy who quickly stood up and followed her friend to her room. Lila was lying on her bed and sobbing into her pillow.
"Are you okay?" Cassy asked concerned when she closed the door behind her and sat down on Lila´s bed. "You wanna talk about it?"
"You wouldn´t understand." The older girl cried and Cassy sighed, stroking her friend´s back for comfort.
"Then explain it to me. No more secrets. Tell me what´s bothering you, you know I´m always there for you." Cassy assured her and Lila exhaled deeply.
"Can you do something for me?" she wanted to know and Cassy was quick to say yes. "Just get out of here and leave me alone!"
"What?" Cassy was taken aback, never having heard Lila speak like that.
"Fine, you know what I´ll leave." Lila shouted at her while getting up from her bed and running out of the room. Cassy could only guess that she was going to the roof but she didn´t think it´d be wise to follow her. She was deeply hurt by what Lila said.
The Keating 6 were still at the house, although they were working on their case now. Connor just returned from talking to Cody about what he said on the stand and told them that Elke gave Cody an STD.
"Trichomoniasis?" Michaela asked interested to which Connor shrugged and she quickly walked to a folder looking something up. "I majored pre-med in undergrad and I still remember everything, including that there´s a specific antibiotic that treats trichomoniasis." She explained, her eyes scrolling down the papers. "Tinidazole, I knew it."
"Knew what?" Laurel asked confused and Michaela stood up with a cocky smile.
"That I just won the case for us. Good luck with your little study group." She answered, pointing to Wes, Laurel and Connor before heading to Bonnie.
The next day, the day of the bonfire, they were back at court, ready to see what Michaela found out. Annalise called Gretchen´s husband to the stand and asked him about his wife´s sleeping behavior, especially what would happen if she drank alcohol. He explained, that she was impossible to wake up if she only had as little as a glass of wine and that she had just closed a big deal the night of the murder and they celebrated it.
"What did your son Cody tell you that day?" the attorney asked and Mr. Thomson was confused as to what she meant. "Didn´t your son Cody tell you that he was experiencing some painful urination?"
"Well, yes but I- I had-" he stammered and Annalise proceeded by asking him about when he had the same symptoms a few months prior.
"Medical records show that Mr. Thomson had a prescription for Tinidazole, which is a medication used specifically to treat trichomoniasis."
"See what happens when you use your brain instead of your penis?" Michaela whispered to Connor who was rolling his eyes at her comment.
"That drug was for Cody, not for me." The witness on the stand lied but Annalise quickly replied that it was prescribed three months before his son told him about it.
"The truth is, you needed your own because you too were taking part in a sexual affair with Elke." The defense attorney explained sternly and Gretchen´s husband shook his head while pressing his lips together. "And when your son came to you, he revealed that he was also sleeping with her, a woman you thought solely was yours, and you became jealous."
"This is ridiculous." He waved it off but Annalise didn´t give in, fueled with the rage by her own cheating husband.
"At dinner that night you encouraged your wife to drink a glass of wine, because you needed her out to go to Elke´s room and stab her to death. Then you got your drugged, type-A wife out of bed, showed her the bloody, terrible mess you made, knowing full-well that she would try to clean it up." Annalise explained her theory and everyone could see the husband breaking under the pressure, as his eyes welled up and his lip trembled.
"Oh my god he didn´t…" Cassy whispered, shocked by that man who would have let his wife go to prison for him.
"I´m so sorry." He admitted in a broken voice and all spectators gasped in shock. The judge ended the trial while police arrested the real murderer and Gretchen shouted at Annalise that she ruined her family. All students, except for Cassy, waited outside the courtroom, while she was waiting for Annalise.
"Mrs. Keating?" she asked in a quiet voice when her professor finished talking with her client. "May I speak to you in private?" she wondered and Annalise nodded, sending Bonnie and the rest home while they retreated to a quiet corner in a hallway. "There´s no right way to ask this but…was your husband having an affair with Lila?" Cassy asked quietly and to her surprise Annalise didn´t move a muscle.
"What makes you think that?" she questioned and Cassy looked around while fiddling with her hands.
"He was inappropriate with me." The student whispered, her voice on the verge of breaking and Annalise sighed, closing her eyes, asking what exactly she meant with that. "He was touching me sometimes when it wasn´t called for and…"
"And?" Annalise asked impatiently, already fearing what Cassy was about to tell her.
"And he kissed me the other night. I pushed him back, I swear and I feel terrible about it, I do…I just didn´t know if I should tell you or not. I was so ashamed, I thought that maybe I gave the impression that I was interested, which I´m not I promise." Cassy sobbed quietly as she felt horrible for telling her professor about this but Annalise put her hand on her arm and comforted her, telling her to look at her.
"It´s okay. You don´t have to feel ashamed for it, okay? I´ll handle it. He won´t come near you again. I´m sorry I have put you in that situation by suggesting the counseling." Annalise apologized and Cassy nodded surprised by the nice gesture. They left the building and each went their own way home.
3 months and a week ago
Cassy mustered up all her courage as she knocked on Lila´s door. She knew that the conversation she was about to have with her friend would be hard. Lila told her to come in and so she did.
"Hey you. Wanna watch Friends with me?" Lila sat on her bed, her laptop on her lap and Netflix running in the background.
"Actually, I thought maybe we could talk." Cassy sighed as she sat down on the other end of her bed and Lila closed her laptop and nodded. "I feel like we grew apart ever since you graduated and that makes me really sad because we used to be so close and not keep secrets-"
"This again. Cas, you gotta stop acting like we´re still in high school – we´re not. You´re not gonna be my only friend forever." Lila cut Cassy off and she shook her head as a reply.
"I don´t want to be your only friend. I just want to still be your best friend, because you´re still mine. I need to know that you are there for me no matter what because I´m there for you no matter what." Cassy explained and Lila scoffed, standing up and leaving the room. "Where the hell are you going?" the younger girl asked following her to the bathroom where Lila started taking off her make up.
"You are such a hypocrite, you know? ` I´m always there for you, no matter what´. No you´re not! Rebecca is." Lila almost shouted at Cassy who looked at her through the mirror.
"Reb- Are you kidding me right now?" Cassy wondered if Lila was joking but judging by the look she gave her she wasn´t. "I have always been there for you. I always came to comfort you. YOU were the one that sent me away. And I´m sorry if I can´t understand what you´re going through but you never tell me anything anymore."
"Well, maybe there´s a reason I don´t do that." Lila replied, trying her hardest to remove the waterproof mascara but only smudging it.
"Are you for real? Lila look at this." Cassy said holding up her hand, revealing a bracelet with one half of a heart. "You bought us those years ago and said that as long as we keep them on, we´ll forever be friends. I see you took yours off, do you want mine back too?"
"Wow, okay." Lila threw the make-up remover wipe she used in the trash bin and stormed off past Cassy back to her room.
"Lila! Stop walking away, we need to talk about this!" Cassy yelled as Lila stomped into her room and threw her door shut behind her. "Lila!" she huffed as she opened the door and stepped into the room.
"I don´t know what you want from me. I did everything to help you here and this is how you repay me?" the ginger beauty lay on her bed and had smudged mascara all over her eyes.
"This- Lila do you hear yourself? Ever since I came here you´ve been nothing but absent! Telling me you made a virginity pack with Griffin? Sneaking onto the roof to do drugs with that skank, sneaking away in the middle of the night? Where are you going?" Cassy inquired, tears also rolling down her cheeks.
"It´s none of your business!" Lila crossed her arms and turned to the other side.
"Lila…We were best friends…we used to talk about everything…why are you shutting me out?" Cassy cried and she could hear Lila sob before she sat up and faced the younger girl.
"Well, we aren´t best friends anymore. I don´t need you." Lila huffed and Cassy whimpered as she stepped back, shocked by her reaction.
"Don´t say that Lila…don´t say something you don´t mean." She sobbed quietly and Lila stood up walking towards her friend, causing Cassy to step back out on the hallway.
"I mean it…and I don´t want to have anything to do with you. Leave me alone Cassidy! You are just some poor ass bitch who thinks she´s so much better because she´s so smart. Well, let me tell you, you´re not! You would be nothing without me-" Lila insulted Cassy who couldn´t take it anymore and slapped her right across her face, leading to both gasping in shock.
"Oh my god Lila I…I didn´t mean to I´m-" she wanted to apologize but Lila shut the door and left her former friend standing in the hallway.
Cassy stood in front of a mirror at a gas station toilet, fixing her hair and make up and looking at her cute outfit she was planning on wearing to Asher´s party and later the bonfire. It was a red blouse her mother gave her once and she loved how it hugged her curves, knowing full-well Asher probably wouldn´t be able to resist that and she´d be able to tease him a bit. Just when she sat down in her car to drive to his place, she got a call from Frank.
"Hey, wasn´t expecting to hear from you. Are you coming to the bonfire tonight?" she greeted him but wasn´t met with nearly as much motivation.
"Cassy, I need to speak with you. Could you please come over to my place?" he asked her and she frowned.
"Yeah, sure. Everything alright?" she answered but Frank simply hung up. "Frank? Hel- Are you still there?" she said as she looked down on her phone, only to see her lockscreen light up. She drove off to Frank´s apartment and not even a second after knocking on his door, Frank opened the door and pulled her in.
"What´s going on?" she asked, seeing the tube with her saliva and the pictures she once gave him, lying on the coffee table. "Frank?" Cassy asked again when he didn´t answer her but only looked at her with a guilty and serious expression.