"Look, I was trying to help Hannahs case." Clay defends himself,

"By hiding Justin here? In the home of a lawyer whos firm is trying the case. Do you have any idea how that could look?" Lainie scolds her son,

"Its not just appearances we are worried about." Matt sighs,

"Matt, I am an officer of the court. Justin failed to respond to his subpoena. He's in contempt." she explains,

"Look, i was hiding him here cause i didnt have any other options, okay?" Clay holds his arms up in defense,

"what about the option of coming to us as promised?" she questions, referencing their past promise,

"i had nowhere to go. thats why he had no other options. My-My mom is a junkie. and her boyfriend is.. He's a dealer.. a-and not a very nice guy. I knew that they wouldnt take me back. Clay and Tony, they found me.. and saved me. He didnt tell you guys because I was too ashamed for anyone to know." Justin coughs.

"and hes sick— with the flu." Rae added,

"which is why we were waiting for him to testify." Clay added on.

"you can stay as long as you need Justin." Lainie says, "And Rae, do you need a place to stay?" she wonders looking at her with worrisome eyes,

"Uh, no, I was just about to leave anyways,"  Rae smiled, getting up, Waving to them goodbye, "bye guys."

Rae hadn't known how she ended up here, but here she was.

She knocked on the door. The dirty-blonde-haired boy answers.

"R—Rae?"

Rae woke up, rolling over to see Scott laying on the ground, a blanket and a pillow with him. Rae couldn't help but break out into a smile. A knock appeared on the door.

"Scott?" A woman's voice calls out.

"Shit." Rae mumbled, shaking Scott awake.

He groaned,

"your mom is outside the door." She whispered through her teeth, rushing into the closet. He stood up, opening the door. "Hey mom."

"Who's is that?" She asked, pointing to Rae's clothes from yesterday laying on the bed, "Scott! Is that girl you won't shut up about here? Rae, was it?"
His mom asked, Rae burst out laughing, Scott came to open the closet door, she step out.

"Oh! Hello dear! You must be Rae!" She embraces her in a hug.

"Yep, that's me." She spared Scott a wink, he rolled his eyes playfully;

"I'm Jennifer. But please, call me Jenn."

"Thank you for letting me stay here, Scott. Seriously I don't know where I would go if you didn't let me stay here.." Rae let out a sigh.

"It's not a problem."

She looked back up at him to see a wide smile painted across his features. "What?"

"Youre just really cute when youre shy. Not that youre always cute, like you're always really gorgeous just that you know, you look extra-" he meets her eyes again. "What?" He then noticed her grin,

"Youre rambling," she told him softly.

He chuckled. "Sorry."

Happy birthday Alex

She sighed as she looked away from the banner and back down, seeing Scott, Bryce, Alex, Jessica and Zach. Bryce had his hand rested on the back of Alex's neck, looking up at the banner.

"Oooh, sweet banner." Scott says, walking closer to them. "Is your mom bringing cupcakes later?" He teased,

"Oh I hope she brings enough for the whole class." Bryce adds on, his arm around his shoulder now.

"Maybe you'll get a new cane too, huh?" Scott finishes before walking forward and noticing Rae,

"And maybe some new friends." Bryce walks off. "Fuck you! You fucking rapist!" Alex shouts, causing a stare from almost everyone, mostly Scott. He clenched his jaw, staring back at Alex. He walks off his arm around my shoulder. Rae shook it off. "Dont,"

"Are you and Scott a thing now?" Sheri asked rae as She'd been writing notes for Mrs Michaels. "What?"

"You two are totally a thing."

She rolled her eyes. "No. No— What's even makes you think that?"

She shrugs. "You two have been hanging out a lot recently."

"Well yeah cause we have, but it's not like that— it's just— I stayed at his place last night."

"Oooh, and did what?"

"We didn't do anything, I just had nowhere else to go." She shrugged softly.

"You could've come over."

Mrs Michaels claps. "Well, Miss Holland and Miss Dempsey is there anything you would like to share with the class." Rae rolled her eyes. "No ma'am."

sitting on the bleachers, in the gym as the baseball team and cheer team are on the court doing some stupid cheer, "lets give it up! For our varsity baseball team!" Chloe over the microphone says, the baseball team sits down.

"Hey! How bout a hand for our new cheer captain Chloe right!" Bryce shouted, kissing Chloe.

Rae groaned, rolling her eyes at the sight, "Any of you guys got a bucket?" She asked the group of boys sitting in front her, earning a laugh from pretty much all of them, She hadn't been necessarily joking, but she'd take it,

"So sweet. And now! For our emcee of today's assembly! Marcus Cole!" She cheered,

Marcus rushed through— in a cheerleader uniform, running through the lines of girls, the baseball team cheered like a hound of dogs. "That's right! I, uh... dressed for the occasion. Who's impressed?"

Jeff,

I hope you've been watching over me, I hope you're proud, I made the cheer squad! Last year when I didn't make it you said 'it's okay, you're my cheerleader.'

I really miss you.

How's my dad? Is Hannah with you?

I think I'm falling for someone else.. and I know you used to tell me

'if there's another guy one day— he'd be one hella lucky guy, he just better not hurt you.'

I still feel really guilty about it, but you always liked him.. I know you can probably tell already but it's Scott— I really, really like him. I really wish you were here still. I've missed you every day. I hope you're not mad at me. I'm sorry I'm just now leaving these flowers and this letter to you, after all this time, but I really hope youre happy wherever you may be.

I love you forever,
Rae

Rae walked into the arcade, heading toward the table where her friends were,

"Why the hell is she here?" Jessica stood from her chair,

"Jess, ive had a really fucked up day so if you could please just shut the fuck up—"

before She could even finish, "you've had a fucked up day?!" She scoffed,

"Your boyfriend tormented Alex on his fucking birthday! 'Maybe you'll get a new cane'."

Rae huffed. "I didn't know he was gonna do that!"

She scoffed once more. "He's Scott Reed, for fucks sake, he's a fucking rapist!"

She clenched her jaw, "He is not a fucking rapist."

"Awe, look who's protecting her boyfriend."