Elizabeth Jensen had told Jessica Davis that she would go to her court hearing to support her, so she sat in the back of Tony's car as he parked it in front of the court house. He quickly got out of the car to help Alex out of the passenger side. Elizabeth and Clay stepped out of the car. "Thanks for the ride, Tony." Clay stated as he put his backpack over his shoulder.

"Oh, I'm coming in with you guys." Tony nodded.

"But you're on the witness list." Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows.

"Yeah, they check it." Clay finished for her.

"I got my brother's ID." Tony smiled. "I haven't slept in two nights. I just want to know what I'm looking at in there."

Elizabeth looked towards Alex. "What if you're on this list?"

"I'll just wave my cane and cry." Alex chuckled as he lifted his cane. "It works every time."

Alex started to try stepping up the stairs. "Wait, I think there's a handicapped entrance." Tony stated as he stepped closer to Alex, trying to stop him.

"I don't think you're supposed to say handicapped." Clay sighed.

"Take my arm." Tony stood next to Alex, offering his arm for him to hold.

"Fuck you guys." Alex shook his head as he slowly stepped up the stairs with his cane.

When the four teenagers arrived in the courthouse, Jessica was on the witness stand and was discussing the 'hot or not list'. "I had found friends." Jessica spoke as she stared down at the list. "That list just messed up everything."

"And was this list typical to your experience at Liberty High?" Hannah's Mother's lawyer as Jessica as he took back the list.

"Yeah." Jessica nodded. "Hannah was already labeled a slut. That list just made everything worse." Elizabeth looked over at Hannah's mom who was covering her mouth with her hand. "That's just what they do to girls at our school. I mean, I found these-" Jessica pulled out a pile of pictures from her pocket, "just this morning in my math class."

"Objection, those photos were not submitted as-"

"They take one photo, and it defines you." Jessica lifted up to photos of her at the dance the year before with the words 'a drunk slut' written on them in red sharpie. "Then, it becomes your job to prove everyone wrong. This is what they were doing to Hannah, and now they're doing it to me!" The judge stopped the conversation, bringing the photos to question, as they were not submitted as evidence. Along the way, both parties had accepted the pictures as evidence, so the trial continued.

"Ms. Davis," the attorney for the school spoke as she stepped towards Jessica, "did you report these photos?"

"No."

"So, you're telling me that you expect the school to take action to protect you, but you don't tell them when an incident they're supposed to protect you from occurs?"

"If I felt like I could trust the school, maybe I would have." Jessica retorted, rolling her eyes. "Maybe Hannah would have. Oh wait, she did and look what happened."

"Move to strike is not responsive." The attorney stated.

"The jury will disregard the witness's last answer." The judge leaned forward to speak. Elizabeth scoffed, leaning back in her seat.

"Ms. Davis, did you report the hot or not list?"

"No."

"Because in fact it wasn't the list that broke up your friendship, was it?" The attorney paced in front of Jessica.

"It was." Jessica furrowed her eyebrows.

"Do you know who put your name and Hannah's name on the list?" The attorney asked another question.

"Yes." Jessica nodded looking straight at Alex.

"Who?"

"Alex Standall." Jessica sighed before she spoke.

"And wasn't it true that Alex Standall was your boyfriend, and that Hannah was jealous of that?"

"No." Jessica shook her head softly. "We were all friends at first. For a while, if you saw one of us, you saw all three of us." Elizabeth nodded as she remembered to to years before that. "Our relationship started heating up." Jessica stated as she began speaking about her and Alex. "But, I tried to be sensitive to Hannah. Actually, Hannah was pretty okay with it, even though I chose a boy over my friendship with a girl. When Hannah found out that he made that list, it was too much for her."

"So, you blame the hot or not list and the culture at Liberty, but isn't it true that Hannah's jealousy ended your friendship?"

"No, it was the list."

"After you broke up with Alex, did your friendship with Hannah resume?" The attorney stepped forward.

"No." Jessica shook her head.

"Because you started being friends with Elizabeth Jensen, Hannah's former best friend." Elizabeth's eyes widened.

"No." Jessica frowned, furrowing her eyebrows.

"So you and Elizabeth aren't friends." The attorney twisted Jessica's words, trying to make her say things that weren't true.

"No, we are, but-"

"Hannah was jealous of your friendship with Elizabeth, just like how she was jealous of your relationship with Alex, correct?"

"That's not true." Jessica stated, locking eyes with Elizabeth in the crowd.

"How do you know?" The attorney crossed her arms over her chest. "Jessica, isn't it true that Hannah Baker was jealous and vindictive, and that's why your friendship ended?"

"No." Jessica whimpered out.

"Well, the prosecution claims that it was the hot or not list, but it was simple Hannah's own jealousy, isn't that correct?" Jessica just stared at the attorney as if there was something she felt as if she needed to say. "There's no other reason, is there?" Jessica stared off. "Jessica?" Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows as she watched her best friend. "Jessica, are there any other reasons that we haven't mentioned?"

"No. There are no other reasons." Jessica spoke as tears fell down her cheeks.

"I see. No further questions, your honor."

The four friends moved outside the court room, and Clay grabbed his backpack. "I gotta go."

"You're leaving?" Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows.

"She's not done." Alex stated as he sat down on a bench.

"I've heard enough."

"Yeah, me too." Tony nodded as he turned to Alex. "You coming?"

"No, I'll leave when she's done."

"I'll come too." Elizabeth sighed. "I don't think I can make it through any longer."

*

Elizabeth Jensen sat in her bedroom, staring out the window. After Clay and Tony dropped her off at her house, they disappeared for the rest of the night, and Elizabeth was quite curious as to where they had gone. Everyone else in her house was asleep, so she quietly snuck into Clay's room, which was right next to hers.

As she walked into the bedroom, she heard something land on the ground, and she was confused. "Ow, what the fuck?" The stranger whispered as she turned on the lights. Clay was sitting on his bed with a look of fake innocence plastered across his face.

"What's going on, Clay?" Elizabeth questioned as she moved closer to him.

"Nothing." Clay shook his head, as he stood up, trying to push Elizabeth out of his room. "I was just simply reading AKR, nothing more."

"Clay, what's going on?" Elizabeth repeated, knowing he was obviously hiding something.

"I said nothing. Well, not nothing. Alien Killer Robots." Clay repeated, but Elizabeth didn't believe him. She cocked her eyebrow before beginning to search around his room. "Just go to bed, Liza."

"Not until you tell me who the fuck in is your room."

Clay sighed as he gave up. "Fine." He nodded. "You can't freak out, though. I know you'll want to, but you can't."

"I promise I won't freak out."

"Uh- so- I- uh- found someone on the street, and they needed a place to stay, so they're uh- staying- uh- here."

"Who's staying here?" Elizabeth furrowed her eyebrows, not understanding what Clay was trying to tell her.

"Uh- well-"

"Me." Justin Foley stood up from underneath Clay's bed. He looked as if he hadn't eaten or slept in weeks, even months.

"Uh-" Elizabeth stared blankly at her ex-boyfriend. "No." She shook her head frantically as she faced her brother. "For the sake of mental health, he cannot be here."

Clay crossed his arms over his chest and cocked an eyebrow. "Eliza, your mental health is already down the drain. Having him here won't make it any worse." He shrugged. "In fact, it might actually make it better."

"You're wrong." Elizabeth looked back at Justin quickly and then right back at Clay. "You're very very wrong." She started to walk out the door. "Clay, this is the worst idea that you have ever come up with."

"I know you're mad." Clay tried to stop her by grabbing onto her hands.

"Obviously, you don't." Elizabeth's eyes snapped up to look at her brother. "You wouldn't have done this."

"He was homeless." Clay pointed to Justin, who was beaten up and looked more dirty than Elizabeth had ever seen him. "He was living on the streets."

"He can't stay here." Elizabeth shook her head. "He just can't, alright."

"He has no where else."

Elizabeth finally looked over at Justin who was nodding. "Please, Eliza." He finally spoke up. Elizabeth knew that she couldn't say no to him. She was still in love with him, and she honestly didn't know if that would ever change.

Elizabeth sighed, nodding. "He can stay, but I still don't like it."

Rewritten
Word Count - 1575

An: Here's the next chapter! I have the next one ready to upload too, so I will do that in the morning!

Thank you to everyone who is still supporting this story!

Have a nice day, lovelies 💕