Chapter 7

                                    

                                          
When Clay arrived back home after confronting Bryce about what he had done to Hannah, he was just hoping that he could somehow manage to get to his room without being seen. But to his surprise, when he got to his house, he saw the Baker's car parked in the driveway. Feeling confused by seeing the additional car in his driveway, Clay slowly dismounted his bike and walked towards the garage. 
                          
After putting his bike away, Clay entered the house, knowing very well that he wouldn't be able to make it to his room unseen. "Hey, Pal. Where have you been?" Clay's dad asked when the man saw his son walk past the doorway to the living room, where everyone was gathered. Hearing his dad's voice, Clay briefly paused, closing his eyes as he knew what was to come before sighing to himself and backtracking his steps until he was standing in the doorway. Before Clay could even get a word out of his mouth to say something, he saw the immediate concern take over everyone's faces as they saw his bloodied appearance. "What happened to you, Clay?" Mrs. Jensen asked instantly, her protective side showing as she stood up from her seat and was at Clay's side in a matter of seconds. "I-uh, fell off my bike." Clay said, slightly stuttering at the beginning of his sentense. Mrs. Jensen examined her son and his noticable injuries. "Are you sure that's all that happened?" Mrs. Jensen asked skeptically, not fully believing her son. "Yeah. Mom, I'm fine. I just got distracted. That's all." Clay said, becoming slightly irritated as his mom kept examining his face, touching one of the many still-slowly-bleeding cuts in the process. Deciding it best not to argue with her son right now, Mrs. Jensen took a step back and nodded her head. "Well, why don't you go upstairs and get cleaned up?" She suggested. Seeing as Clay was going to do that in the first place, he simply nodded his head with an "ok" before walking away and heading up towards his room. 
                          
"Was that really caused by you falling off your bike?" A voice asked, gaining Clay's attention as he had just started cleaning the blood from his face. Clay turned his head to see Hannah standing in the doorway of the bathroom with a look of worry on her face. "And, before you say anything, I want the truth." She said before Clay could come up with another excuse to cover up what really happaned to him. Clay took a deep breath and sighed. "No. That's not what really happened." He said as he glanced down, looking at the dried blood on his shirt to keep from looking at the look Hannah was giving him. "Then what really happened, Clay?" She asked, stepping further into the bathroom. "I might've done something different from what I told you I was doing earlier." Clay said, referring back to when he told Hannah he was going to Tony's house after he walked her home. "So you lied about borrowing some stuff from Tony?" Hannah questioned. Clay only nodded his head in response. "Yeah, I did." He said quietly. "Why did you lie to me, Clay?" Hannah asked, her voice sounding hurt that he would even think about lying to her. "Because I didn't want you to worry about me or try to stop me from doing what I really did." He said, finally looking back up at his friend. "What did you really do?" Hannah asked, stepping a little closer to Clay, as her voice took on a worried tone again. Instead of saying something, Clay glanced at his bag that was resting against the counter. He then crouched down and rummaged through the bag, in search of one item in particular. As Clay looked through his bag, Hannah simply watched him. When Clay found what he was looking for, he stood back up, the item in his right hand. Hannah stared at the small plastic object that was in Clay's hand. "What's that?" She asked, clearly confused. Clay sighed, knowing he'd have to come clean about what he did. "I talked to Bryce." He said simply, never once looking away from the girl standing in front of him. "You talked to Bryce?" Hannah asked incredulously. Clay nodded his head slowly with a flat smile. "I got him to confess about what he did to you." Clay said, a small smile taking over his face at the end. Hearing this, Hannah became speachless. Never in her life had she thought someone would care enough to do something like that for her. "And he beat you up?" She asked, being able to figure the rest out for herself. "Yeah, he did." Clay said with a small nod. "But getting beat up was definitely worth it." He added. "I can't believe you would do that for me." Hannah said, taking a final step closer to Clay as she picked up the small washcloth that Clay had been using. She then turned the sink on and got the washcloth wet again before gently dabbing it against Clay's face to wash away the remaining dried blood. "I'd do anything for you." Clay said quietly, smiling a gentle smile as a noticable blush took over Hannah's face. 
                          
Once Clay was cleaned up and changed into a clean shirt, he and Hannah hung back in his room. "Hey, why are you and your parents here, anyway?" Clay asked curiously. "My parents were asking me about that night I said I stayed with a friend, so I told them that when I was out on a walk, I started to not feel too good, and that you let me stay the night. They knew about you already, though, since I had mentioned you to them before. And they just wanted to officially meet you and your parents, I guess." Hannah explained. Clay nodded his head. He then sighed as he stood from his bed, Hannah following his action, and the two teens slowly made their way back downstairs to join the others in the living room again. 
                          
Once Clay and Hannah entered the living room, they saw everyone talking. Clay and Hannah made their way into the room and sat beside each other on the vacant couch. "You must be the boy Hannah calls "Helmet" all the time." Hannah's mother said as she gave Clay a small smile and made Hannah blush slightly at the mention of the nickname she had given Clay so long ago. Clay gave Mrs. Baker a warm, gentle smile in return. "I am. My real name is Clay, but I guess Hannah prefers to call me Helmet." He said, introducing himself to Hannah's parents. Hannah's parents smiled at each other before turning back to Clay. "Well, I'm glad we finally get to meet you and your folks, Clay. I've been wanting to meet the person Hannah spends so much of her time with." Mr. Baker said. 
                          
After a while of talking with Hannah's parents, the Bakers saw the time and decided that they had over stayed their little visit. As Clay and his parents said goodbye to the Bakers, Hannah pulled Clay into a firm hug, feeling the need to thank him for what he had done for her. "You're the best guy a girl could ever hope to be friends with, you know that?" She asked him with a small smile. Clay smiled in return, though on the inside, his hopes of being more than friends had just been shattered to a million tiny pieces, because he knew he had just been friend zoned. "Well, you deserve only the best after everything you've been through." He said, talking quietly so Hannah's parents wouldn't hear them. Hannah smiled a soft smile at him, still keeping her arms around him. Hannah then leaned forward and planted a quick kiss to his cheek before fully pulling away and joining her parents as they made their way to their car to leave. 
                          
After Hannah and her parents left, Clay had gone to his room, saying that he was tired and wanted to turn in early. 
                          
So now, Clay was lying in his bed, staring at the ceiling above him and the giant galaxy poster that decorated it. As Clay just stared at his ceiling, he couldn't help but think back to what Hannah had said to him. He had been friend zoned, and he didn't need to know much to be aware of how rare it was to get out of the friend zone, or even to be able to get out of the friend zone at all. All he knew at the moment was that any hope of being more than a friend to Hannah Baker was nothing but a lost cause now, because she obviously saw him as just being a friend to her, and that's all she would ever see him as now. Clay couldn't even put it into words how he felt when he knew he likely had no chance of ever going anywhere with Hannah in a relationship. 
                          
With the rejection still fresh in his mind, Clay sighed to himself in defeat as he turned on his side and slowly let sleep take over.