3 YEARS LATER
FLASHBACK

[italics is rue's narration]

When Zelena Lincoln was 14 years old, her life changed forever. After arguing with her parents about a high school party she wanted to go to with Nate, she snuck out after they told her no and went with him anyway. Benjamin was a good brother, he didn't give her up for as long as he could, but their parents eventually figured out that she snuck out.

So they went to go pick her up.

After embarrassing her in front of the party, Zelena was pretty pissed as she sat in the backseat of her parent's car and argued with them the entire way home. None of them saw it coming. The asshole that came barreling through a red light going way over the speed limit because he was drunk and hit their car head-on.

Their car skidded off the road and rammed right into a pole. 

―

Zelena Lincoln was in the backseat of her parent's car, on her side after the vehicle had crashed. Her head was pounding, her ears were ringing, and she could barely see straight in front of her. "Mom? Dad?" She called out for her parents, but she didn't get a response. She coughed while reaching into her back pocket to grab her phone, which surprisingly stayed secure, and she dialed the first person she thought of.

Nate Jacobs. 

"Zee? Are you okay? I know it was pretty brutal, your parents dragging you out like that." Nate Jacobs said. He answered on the first ring. He always answered when Zelena called him.

"Natey..." She sniffled, which immediately put Nate into red alert mode. "Natey... I need your help." She whispered.

"Baby, what happened? Talk to me, Zee." Nate said, his voice going softer. Over the years, he's developed small pet names for her that have made her feel good whenever she heard him say them.

"Accident... car flipped. I'm stuck, and my parents aren't responding." Zelena cried. As she tried to move, she felt a sharp pain in her leg which made her cry out. Her cries for help and in pain made Nate flinch, hating that she was hurt and he wasn't there to protect her.

"I'm coming, Zee. Where are you? Can you see what street you're on?" Nate asked.

Zelena averted her eyes, trying to look up. She couldn't see the streets, but she could see what was around her. "We're at the intersection by the ice cream shop we always rode our bikes to," Zelena said.

"Okay. My dad and I are in the car. He's calling the ambulance, and we're coming, Zee. Hang in there, okay? I love you." Nate said, and Zelena sniffled.

"I love you, Natey." She said before hanging up the phone, and then she looked up to the front seat. She could see both of her parents bleeding, and they were barely breathing.

"Zelena." Her dad coughed out, which made her lookup.

"Daddy... I'm sorry. I'm so sorry." She whispered, and he shook his head while coughing more.

"You don't have to be sorry, baby girl. We love you; you know that, right?" Anthony Lincoln said.

"Yes, I love you too, Daddy. I'm sorry." She said. Her dad weakly reached back for her hand, and she grabbed his before looking at her mom. "Mommy?" She whimpered in a small voice, but her mom didn't respond, and she didn't see her chest moving either, indicating that she wasn't breathing.

Amara Lincoln died on impact.

"Mommy..." Zelena said, starting to cry more, and then she turned to her dad. "Daddy, just hang on, please. Nate and Mr. Jacobs are coming, and they called the ambulance too." Zelena said. Anthony mustered up enough strength to squeeze his daughter's hand one last time.

"I love you, Zee." He whispered to her before he also took his last breath. Zelena could feel her father's hand go limp in hers and his hand dropped from her hold, making her cry more. Both of her parents were dead, and she was blaming herself. If she hadn't gone to that party, they wouldn't have had to come and get her; this accident wouldn't have happened.

"Zelena!" She heard her name being shouted, and she weakly coughed as she looked out of the side window to see that Nate was approaching the car. "Zelena, hey... hey, I'm here." Nate's voice grew softer when he saw the tears in her eyes.

"Nate... I can't move, my leg... it hurts so bad." Zelena said. Nate looked through the flipped car to see that Zelena's leg was bent and not in the way it was supposed to be.

"Okay, I'm going to climb on top of the car and get you out from the window, okay?" Nate said. Zelena didn't respond, but Nate climbed on top of the car, seeing that the back window was rolled down, which he knew Zelena did. She loved feeling the night air on car rides, the cool breeze as she listened to music and imagined a peaceful scenario for herself.

"Zee, I need you to reach up to me, please," Nate said. Zelena slowly lifted her arms, and when Nate saw her hands come out, he carefully reached down and pulled her out of the car. She gripped Nate's shoulder but cried out in pain when her leg moved. "I'm sorry, baby, I'm sorry." He whispered to her as he fully pulled her out of the car.

Cal Jacobs moved to the bottom of the car, seeing Nate pull her out, and reached his arms up. "Here, son. Give her to me so you can get down." Cal said. Nate looked hesitant to give Zelena to his dad, mainly because he never viewed his dad the same way again after finding those videos. But reluctantly, he did. Cal carefully held Zelena in his arms as Nate got down from the car, and then Nate immediately took his best friend back.

"Zelena, honey... are your parents still in the car?" Cal asked, and she nodded her head.

"But they're dead... they're dead, and it's my fault."

―

Zelena was never the same after that incident. Her leg was broken. She was on crutches and in physical therapy for months. Since her brother is five years older than her and was 19 at the time, he was able to become her legal guardian. He came home from school to take care of his sister and took classes online to get his bachelor's degree. Although Zelena blamed herself for the incident, Benjamin never blamed her.

He was there to hold her when she had nightmares. He stayed with her when she was scared to fall asleep by herself. He was... and is a really good brother. Zelena was broken on the inside and didn't let anyone know because she didn't want to feel like a burden.

As the years went on, she started to act out. She hung out with Nate almost every day, and he vowed that he would never let anything happen to her. The night of the accident, he hated that he couldn't protect her, and he promised her it would never happen again. Zelena also turned to sex and drugs as her coping mechanism.

She realized that when she watched Cal's videos with Nate, in a weird way, they turned her on. Made her curious about sex, but not in the way that it should've. She lost her virginity as soon as her leg was healed; she was tired of waiting. She met a random guy at a party, got drunk, and had sex with him.

[stealing from Maddy for a second]. Zelena also studied porn. Although it did turn her on, she also studied the girl's movements when she was in the mood. How they sucked dick, how they bucked their hips, how they made their male partners feel good, and like they were the ones who were actually in charge when Zelena knew she was going to be the one in control the whole time.

Of course, she kept up her perfect virgin image around Nate because she knew he would lose his shit if he knew that any guy had ever fucked her. Zelena and I got high at a party together once. It was the anniversary of my dad's death and the anniversary of her parent's death. She didn't want to feel anything, and I was right there with her. Granted, the summer before our junior year.

We both overdosed.

―

a few things. 1. to all the people who said or will say, "why wouldn't zelena call the police first" you've clearly never been in shock. i've been in two car accidents, and both times, I called my mother first before calling the police, so it's not abnormal that zelena would call nate before calling the police.

2. how I'm setting this up. zelena and nate are connected obviously through their parents and being literal friends since birth. zelena and rue will be connected through drugs and rehab, etc. obviously, rue will see that nate is toxic, and zelena will see that jules is toxic, but seeing that these girls are drug addicts and in denial, it'll get interesting.

3. also, I will not be changing anything nate does. he's still going to be the devil that he is because that's the complexity of his character, and i love how deep and complex nate's character is, and zelena's will be just as deep and complex as you'll see.