A/N- Whoa. I'm simply blown away by the responses this story has received. OVER 100 REVIEWS! I know I've said it before but thank you all so much for the ongoing support guys! Oh and also, you might have guessed but Kaleo is my favourite band. If you haven't heard of them and like rock music, or simply music that really pierces the soul i definitely recommend checking them out.

Chapter 8

Hannah didn't remember the trip to the Jensen's until she was knocking on their front door. It was dark outside, going on ten o'clock. She wouldn't be surprised if Clay and his family were all asleep, but Hannah had to take that chance.

A woman with blonde hair and was rather beautiful answered the door. She was probably in her mid-forties, and had blue eyes the same colour as Clay's that shone with a keen intelligence.

"Can I help you?" said the woman as she looked at Hannah and her mother suspiciously.

"Oh. Uh, hi. My name's Hannah, Hannah Baker," said Hannah.

The woman's face instantly softened and she smiled widely. "Hannah! I had hoped I would meet you. Clay talks about you a lot," she said, shaking Hannah's hand. Hannah was startled by the strong grip Mrs Jensen had, but Hannah chalked that up to her being a lawyer. "I'm his mother, and I'm guessing the woman behind you is yours."

"Yes, this is my mom," said Hannah.

"Hello," said Mrs Baker.

Mrs Jensen smiled warmly. "What can I do for you Hannah?" she asked.

"I uh... well I-" stammered Hannah.

"Mom, who is it?" called out a voice from behind Mrs Jensen that instantly made Hannah feel a lot better.

Clay came up behind Mrs Jensen, and his face instantly brightened at the sight of Hannah, though he looked confused as well.

"Hannah? What are you doing here?" he asked.

"I needed to see you," said Hannah.

Mrs Jensen raised an eyebrow while Clay looked at her with a dumbfounded expression. Luckily, Mrs Baker cleared her throat.

"Mrs Jensen, perhaps I should explain everything to you while Clay and Hannah talk?" she suggested.

Mrs Jensen's looked confused, here gaze switching from Hannah to Mrs Baker, and she stepped aside, allowing Hannah and Mrs Baker into her home. Hannah felt rather intimidated by the woman, but at the same time mrs Jensen seemed to give off a caring air that was so reminiscent of Clay. Clay took Hannah's hand and led her upstairs while Mrs Jensen led Hannah's mom into the living room.

Before Clay could take Hannah into his room, Hannah stopped in her tracks.

"What's wrong?" asked Clay.

"I uh... I need to use your shower," mumbled Hannah, her cheeks burning from embarrassment.

"Why do you need to use my shower? Don't you have your own?" said Clay. "Is it not working?"

"No. It's just got a lot of bad memories I can't handle right now," said Hannah.

Clay's expression softened and he nodded his head in understanding. He led her to the bathroom and told her to come into his room, which was just down the hall. She smiled before closing the bathroom door. The bathroom itself was larger than the one at her house, but then again, Clay did live in the nicer part of town.

Hannah turned the shower on and while she waited for the water to warm up, she stripped off her clothes then hopped in. She made sure to make the shower as short as humanely possible for a teenage girl, which in her books equaled to ten minutes, plenty of time to wash her short wavy hair and her body, leaving no time to simply stand in the shower. Once she was done, Hannah turned the shower off and grabbed her towel, drying herself then got changed.

She left the bathroom and searched for Clay's room, which was pretty easy to find what with the poster of Optimus Prime plastered on the door. Hannah walked in nervously and scanned the room. There were certainly more posters and photos on the walls than in Hannah's room, and most of them were of various TV shows, movies, cartoons and video games. There were a few photos of Clay himself plastered between the posters, and the desk was situated where one could see into the street outside from the window. Hannah thought that all the nerdy posters and messy desk littered with books, spare pieces of papers and comics perfectly summed up Clay's personality and life, and she felt oddly at home being in there.

Clay himself was laying in the bed, his eyes closed with his headphones over his ears, listening to music which Hannah could vaguely hear. Sounds like rock music, she thought. He hadn't heard or seen him come in, so Hannah decided to make her presence known. She tip-toed closer to Clay till she was practically hovering over with him, and with a loud "LEROY JENKINS!" she launched herself onto his stomach.

Clay shouted in surprise when Hannah landed on him, and in the confusion the two teenagers ended up tangling together like some freaky monster in a bad science film. Hannah couldn't stop laughing as they righted themselves, while Clay was swearing his head off about teenage girls and lack of personal space.

"What the hell Hannah!" yelled Clay when they had untangled themselves from each other.

"What? I saw an opportunity and seized it," replied Hannah, still grinning widely.

Clay huffed in annoyance, but soon he too was grinning from ear to ear. "Are you ticklish?" he asked suddenly.

Before Hannah had a chance to fully process the question, Clay pounced and tackled her to the bed. He then pinned her to the bed with his knees and his fingers dug into her sides and he tickled her mercilessly. Hannah squirmed and roared with laughter, her arms swinging wildly as she tried to fight him off, but it was to no avail.

Clay eventually gave up and stared at Hannah devilishly, and Hannah saw his eyes sparkling with amusement. His pause however, was enough for Hannah to change the tide of the tickle war and she pushed herself up, throwing Clay down onto the bed. Before he could react, Hannah sat on his stomach, straddling his waist between her legs and her arms shot to his sides.

To Hannah's confusion, Clay did not budge or even smile at her attempts to tickle him. "You're not ticklish?" she asked.

"Nope," said Clay, an arrogant smirk forming on his lips.

"Oh God, of course I get into a tickle fight with a guy who's not even ticklish," groaned Hannah.

Clay laughed again. "I think you can get off me now," he said in amusement.

Hannah pretended to look thoughtful for a moment. "Hmmm, no thanks. I quite like it here," she said seriously.

She felt Clay's body stiffen slightly underneath her, and Hannah felt like she might have said something wrong. Her fears, however, were for naught when Hannah saw Clay's eyes darken as he stared at, no into her. Hannah's breath hitched in her throat as Clay slowly sat up, with Hannah still straddling him, till their faces were so close that Clay's breath tingled against her skin pleasantly.

Slowly, the two closed the gap until their lips met tentatively, as though they were simply testing the waters, which it probably was, Hannah thought. This was nothing like their first kiss at Jessica's party. That one was filled with alcohol-fueled desire which spurred them on to do more than just kissing until Hannah had panicked, while this kiss was softer, more hesitant and yet Hannah thought it was so much better than before.

There was nothing holding them back, no alcohol to cloud their minds and reasoning, yet they chose to hold back, because it was such a tender moment for the both of them.

When Clay pulled back, Hannah felt slightly disappointed that it hadn't deepened, yet at the same time she was content that Clay or herself hadn't pushed it further. Clay had a nervous, questioning look on his face, like he was unsure of if he had crossed some boundary he shouldn't have. It was so like Clay.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have..." began Clay.

"Shut up," said Hannah, a little more harshly than intended, but at least it got him to stop himself from saying something stupid. "If you're about to apologize, then i don't want to hear it because I liked it."

"You- wait what?" said Clay.

"I wanted you to do that," reiterated Hannah. "I wanted you to do that, and I liked it."

Clay looked dumbfounded for a moment. "Oh," was all he could say. "Can I kiss you again?"

Hannah laughed. "Of course you can," she said.

Clay didn't hesitate for a moment before he closed the gap again and kiss her, this time much more deeply, and Hannah relished in the feeling. Despite Clay being the one who initiated the kiss, he didn't force himself onto her, pressing her to turn it into something more. He was careful, letting Hannah take control. She ran her tongue along Clay's lips, and he eagerly complied, and soon their tongues were engaged in a dance that felt so right.

Eventually both Hannah and Clay had to come apart for air, both breathing heavily. Clay gave Hannah a goofy smile and she giggled at the sight. They pressed closer together to continue their dance, but a noise from downstairs drew them back into the real world.

Hannah sighed loudly and slid off Clay's waist and stood up, stretching her body out. She took a peek at Clay, and she blushed at the way he was staring at her, like she was the sun and he was a man who had just been cured of blindness. Why the hell was she into guys like Justin and Marcus, when the perfect man had been in front of her the whole time?

"We should probably head downstairs," suggested Clay, drawing Hannah from her thoughts.

She agreed and Clay led the way out of his bedroom and down the stairs, where her mother and Mrs Jensen were talking.

"... Sounds like a case of PTSD," Hannah heard Mrs Jensen say.

"PTSD?" repeated Mrs Baker.

"Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder," clarified Mrs Jensen. "It's what happens when somebody goes through a traumatic experience, and certain sights, sounds or memories can trigger negative emotions. It affects people differently. My grandfather had it after he served in World War Two. He used to panic whenever he heard a loud noise. In your daughter's case, she seems to freeze up and reject even being somewhere that she associates with a bad memory."

"Do you think she'll have another episode if she went back to school?" asked Mrs Baker.

"It's hard to say. But I think as long as she associates herself with people she trusts, she should be fine."

PTSD? Was that some kind of mental illness? thought Hannah. She looked at Clay, who looked a little pale and a bit shaken by what they had heard, but he offered her a comforting smile anyway before he announced their presence to their mothers.

Not much was said after that and soon Hannah and her mom were on their way back home, with Clay reminding Hannah excitedly to come back tomorrow.

oOoOoOo

Zach Dempsey may not be the most observant guy on the planet, but even he could tell that something had changed between Clay and Hannah. He, Alex and Hannah were hanging out at Clay's for the day, and were currently playing video games, though Hannah had only insisted that she watch.

But there was a thick source of tension in the air that was coming from Clay and Hannah, and it was driving Zach insane. The two kept casting furtive glances at each other, and if one caught the other staring, they would both turn away blushing like tomatoes. Alex too looked like he was getting annoyed and he kept sending Zach pointed looks to do something, but what could Zach do?

When the four went out to grab some lunch at Rosie's diner, the tension followed them. It only escalated further when Hannah saw the booth where Marcus had tried to grope her, so they avoided that part of the diner all together. Hannah and Clay sat opposite each other, with Zach sitting next to Clay and Alex next to Hannah.

Lunch was a fun affair, but still the tension didn't leave. When they returned back to Clay's and then eventually Zach, Alex and Hannah left for the day, Zach turned to Alex.

"You weren't the only one who felt that?" he said.

"I think the whole town could feel it," said Alex in that dry tone he so often used.

"What do you think happened between them?"

"Maybe they finally hooked up but don't want to tell anyone about it yet."

"It'd be about time if they did though," said Zach thoughtfully.

Alex smirked and patted Zach on the shoulder lightly. "That, we can agree on."

A/N- So Clay and Hannah finally kissed, but I'm going to let you guess as to why there's that sense of unresolved tension.