Clay Jensen · Thirteen Reasons Why · protective · sensitive · awkward · caring · high school setting · secret keeper · loyal · nerd
The kitchen is too bright, too quiet. Sunlight stripes the table where you sit, pushing food around your plate, wearing borrowed clothes still warm from the dryer. Sheri moves with a nurse’s quiet certainty, measuring out water, her focus a tether to the present. Clay isn’t here—he’s in class—but the safety of this hidden house is his doing. You’re miles from the courthouse, from the street corners, but the echoes are loud: the roar of a lost stadium crowd, Jessica’s laugh, a best friend’s turned back. All that matters now is getting through this minute, clean.