Chapter 38

                                    

                                          
Clay smiled to himself as he woke up at 9:00am on a Saturday morning. The teen had talked to his boss at the Crestmont theater about starting to work there again, and the older man had happily agreed, saying that Clay could start back when he felt he was ready to. The 18-year-old admired how nice his boss was, given that the man had heard about what happened to the Jensen boy through the news. The older man had been accepting, easily welcoming Clay back to the theater, as well as the people who had been working the day he talked to Hannah on the Crestmont roof. Clay came out of his thoughts and made his way towards his bathroom to take his usual morning shower and get ready for the day. 
                          
When Clay returned to his room to get dressed, he paused and glanced down at his desk to check his phone. But as he went to pick up his phone, he paused mid-action when he spotted the polaroid photos sitting on his desk. Clay picked the photos up and looked at them. One was a picture of Hannah and Zack kissing behind the theater during one of her shifts, another of the two leaning on the Crestmont theater consessions counter and staring into each other's eyes, but a more recent photo he had found in his locker was of Hannah and Zach cuddling close together down at the docks. Clay sighed at the three photos, still not too sure how to approach the situation. 
                          
Clay tossed the three polaroid photos back on his desk with a sigh before picking up his phone and placing it into his jean pocket. Clay then left his room to head downstairs to the kitchen for some breakfast before his work shift. Once he got downstairs, Clay smiled to himself when he took notice of the wonderful aroma that filled the room. He would never admit this out loud to anyone, but during the seemingly long time he was in jail, Clay truly missed his mother's cooking. He never thought he would say that, but some thingd just happen that make you realize you would miss the little things a lot more than you think. 
                          
"Morning, Pal." Matt Jensen greeted his son as he saw him enter the kitchen. Clay would never confess this either, but he also missed his dad calling him "Pal" when he was behind bars for those couple of months. Instead of commenting about the unliked nickname, Clay playfully rolled his eyes with a small smile. "Good morning, Dad." He replied back. Clay then walked over to where his mother was, grabbing a plate and filling it with some of the delicious-looking food she had prepared. After fixing himself a plate of food, Clay took a seat at the circular kitchen table. Once she had fixed herself a cup of coffee, Lainie joined her family at the round table, taking a seat between Matt and her son. 
                          
"Clay, there's something we want to tell you." The older woman spoke after taking a sip of her coffee and sharing a glance with her husband. "Ok. What is it?" Clay asked curiously, giving his parents his full, undivided attention. "After Thanksgiving, the three of us are going to be spending the holidays with Aunt Taylor, Bailey, and Kasey." Matt said, placing his newspaper down on the table after folding it neatly. "We are?" Clay asked, smiling a little. "Yeah. We discussed it back when they were staying here with us." Lainie said. "Why are you telling me this now?" Clay asked, genuinly wondering why his parents were telling him about their Christmas plans so early. "We figured you would want to know ahead of time so that you could have some time to think about some gift ideas for them." Matt said with a small shrug of his shoulders. Clay slowly nodded his head in agreement. Bailey and Kasey were pretty easy to shop for since they were young, so finding something for them wouldn't be too hard. But Aunt Taylor was a little harder to shop for, because she wasn't very picky in what she liked, so you never really knew what to get her. It was kind of a shot in the dark when shopping for Aunt Taylor. 
                          
After Clay had finished breakfast, he said goodbye to his parents before leaving the house to drive over to the theater to begin his work shift. When Clay arrived, he saw that Hannah hadn't shown up yet. This made Clay smile as he had hoped he would be able to surprise his girlfriend. Stepping inside, Clay talked to his boss for a few minutes before going over and getting settled behind the consessions counter as he waited. As Clay stood there, patiently and axiously waiting, his mind kept going back to the polaroids he had back home that someone had unanimously been slipping into his locker. Wanting to distract himself, Clay took some candy boxes and began stacking them into a tower while he waited for his girlfriend to come in to start her Saturday shift.