Chapter 22

                                    

                                          
Hannah couldn't believe, nor did she want to believe what just happened to Clay Jensen. He had been arrested for sexual assault. The more Hannah thought about it though, the more she realized that the police sketch of the wanted suspect looked like him. Hannah couldn't help but think about everything going on as she currently sat at a booth in Rosie's Diner, waiting for her friends to show up so she could break the news to them, being as it only happened just last night. Hannah sat quietly at the table, glancing around the diner anxiously, as well as looking out the window for any sign of her friends showing up. It really didn't help that Hannah hadn't got any sleep last night either after everything that happened, leaving her exhausted and drained of some energy. 
                          
"Hey, Hannah." A voice greeted suddenly. Hannah looked up, being greeted by the kind faces of Alex, Jessica, Tony, Skye, and Justin. Hannah was a bit confused at seeing Justin there, as she hadn't invited him, but she brushed it off for now. "You said you wanted to tell us all about something?" Tony asked as he took a seat beside Hannah. The others followed suit as Skye, Jessica and Alex took a seat in the empty booth chair across from Hannah while Justin sat down next to Tony. "Yeah. And are you ok? You look tired. Like you didn't get much sleep last night." Justin said, sounding slightly concerned. "I don't know if you guys already know, but what I need to tell you is about something that happened last night." Hannah started. "Last night? Does this have something to do with the guy that got arrested for sexual assualt?" Alex asked in a quiet tone, not wanting to get unwanted or unneeded  attention. "My dad told me they made an arrest, but he never told me who it was that got arrested." The boy added. Hannah sighed before slowly nodding her head. "Yeah. It's about that. I know who they arrested." She said, glancing down at the table. "What? Well, who did they arrest?" Skye asked. "Let me ask you guys something first." Hannah suggested. "Who did that police sketch of the suspect look like to you?" She asked. This got everyone thinking. "I thought it kinda looked like Clay, honestly." Skye said, sounding slightly confused. Hannah nodded in agreement. "They arrested Clay last night." Hannah said, shocking everyone at the table as they all knew that Clay would never sexually assualt anyone. "What?" Tony exclaimed after having done a spit-take from hearing Hannah's words, the news taking him completely by surprise. "Last time I checked, Clay didn't rape anyone though." Jessica said, sounding as surprised as Tony looked. "I mean, from what I know, he always asks if it's ok before doing stuff. He never just does stuff without asking for consent or anything." Tony added after composing himself after his spit-take. Hearing that from Tony made Skye, Hannah, and Jessica smile the slightest bit. Any guy who always asks if a girl is ok with what he's doing is a guy the three girls would want to date. "Wait, so what happened last night?" Alex asked curiously. Hannah then went on to explain everything that happened, starting from when Clay came home and told them about his run-in with a guy running him off the road, and ending with seeing him get forced into the back of a police car and taken away. 
                          
"Wait a second, I think I figured it out." Justin said after a few moments of silence. "Figured what out?" Jessica asked curiously. "I think I know why Clay got arrested when we all know that he didn't do anything." Justin said. "Care to share your theory with us?" Alex asked. Justin glanced at Alex, resulting in the boy giving him a small smile. "Well, to start off, I was the unanimous tipper." Justin said. "I overheard Mr. Walker talking to that guy he hired to kidnap Clay." He said, slightly shocking his friends as they hadn't known who the unanimous tipper was. "So, my theory is that the Walkers are behind this whole thing. I think that Bryce's dad wasn't all that happy with how the trial turned out, because he strongly believes that Bryce would never go as far as raping someone. I think that they had Clay kidnapped and maybe had this whole plan to make it look like Clay was the rapist rather than Bryce. You know, make it seem like the first guy that was put behind bars was completely innocent and falsely accused." Justin explained. "You mean like a setup." Skye suggested. "Yeah. Exactly like that. I think that Mr. Walker believed that the whole taped confession thing was nothing but Bryce being accused of something he didn't do. And that it was just Clay needing to put the blame on someone." Justin said. "No matter how much I wish I didn't agree with you, Foley, I think you may be right about this whole thing." Tony said. "Ok. So, say Justin is right about all of this. What are we going to do? I mean, Clay still doesn't remember what happened to him, and we don't have any good, stable proof about Justin's theory being right." Jessica said. "Maybe I can talk to my dad about it." Alex suggested. "That might be a good idea. Maybe see if you can convince him to go check out that warehouse where they found Clay. I mean, who knows? Maybe there's some evidence there, like security cameras or something." Skye said.  "And besides, I bet Clay will remember stuff soon. I mean, he did remember that night he showed Hannah the moon." Tony said with a small smile. "Wait, he remembered something about me?" Hannah asked, a small, hopefull smile appearing appearing on her face at hearing Tony's words. "He did. He remembered it that day we saw a movie when you were working." Tony told her, smiling brightly at her. Hannah now had some fresh hope that Clay would get his memories of her and their relationship back soon.