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.
A couple nights later, Hannah and her parents were at the Jensen's house for dinner again. The group of five was in the den area just talking with the news channel on in the background. Everyone soon became quiet when Matt noticed that the news was talking about the arrest of the supposed sex offender. When the news reporters started talking about it, a mugshot was shown on the upper right side of the screen. As the reporters kept talking, the mugshot was all Hannah could focus on. There were two mugshots - a front view and a side view of Clay Jensen. Hannah couldn't help but notice how emotionless Clay looked in the photos. She also didn't miss the bright orange material of his shirt - no doubt one of those prison jumpsuit uniforms prisoners have to wear while doing time. While she kept staring at the mugshots of her boyfriend, she couldn't help but feel bad for him, because she knew he was innocent, but yet he was having to spend time behind bars. Though Hannah hoped that wouldn't be for very long as Alex had told her that his dad agreed to go check out the warehouse again, and Lainie had talked about recruiting a great lawyer she knew by the name of Dennis Vasquez to help her put together a trial to prove her son's innocence.
Alex was sitting at his desk in his room, just thinking about what has happened to his good friend - or even best friend - Clay Jensen. The boy couldn't help but think that what happened was his fault - like maybe it never would have happened if he and Jessica hadn't left Clay to go home alone that night. As Alex was lost in his thoughts, he heard the sound of his door being opened. "Hey, I thought we agreed that your door would stay open, Buddy." His dad said as he entered the room. "We agreed on it staying open 30 degrees." Alex said as he turned in his chair to face his dad. Officer Standall didn't reply. The man just sat down on the edge of his son's bed. "There's something I want to talk to you about, Alex." The officer said, glancing down at his lap. "What is it, Dad?" Alex asked curiously. "It's about that boy that got arrested. I know you two are friends and all, but I don't want you hanging out with him anymore." His dad spoke. "What? Why not?" Alex asked, a demanding tone in his voice. "I want you to be safe, Alex. I don't want anything bad happening to you because of him. I don't want you hanging out with a rapist." Officer standall replied. "He's not a rapist, Dad. He's my best friend!" Alex said angrily, defending his best friend. "You don't know that, Alex!" Alex's dad shot back, standing from the bed. "But I do know that!" Alex shouted as he stood up as well. "I don't want you hanging around that boy anymore. That's finale!" The man said demanded. "He's the kindest guy I've come to know. I'm not going to stop being friends with him because of what you say, and I'm certainly not going to abandon my best friend in his time of need. I don't care what you say!" Alex shouted as his dad stormed out of the room, closing the door behind him. Letting the words from the argument sink in, Alex couldn't stop the anger he felt towards his dad. As a way to let his anger out, Alex threw the first thing he could get ahold of to the ground, other objects and items soon following as Alex slightly trashed his room out of the anger he felt. As he angrily threw stuff to the ground, he felt tears well up in his eyes. Alex soon gave up and sunk down to the ground, leaning against his wall as he let the frustrated tears begin to fall. The boy didn't care about anything his dad had said. Alex knew that he was going to be there to support Clay through this tough time no matter what.
Tony and Caleb were walking down the street together, just talking and enjoying each other's company. A few days prior, Caleb had asked Tony on a date, to which Tony had agreed to. The two were just talking about a possible second date as they had left the Crestmont movie theater a while ago and had just been walking around together and talking. The two boys rounded a corner to the location Tony's mustang was parked. As soon as Tony turned the corner, he stopped in his tracks. What he saw before him was something that enraged him tremendously. His beloved red mustang had been bashed and beaten, with a piece of paper placed on the hood in front of the broken windshield. As Tony was frozen to his spot, Caleb slowly walked forward, reaching for the paper. "This is what you get for being friends with a rapist." Caleb read aloud, becoming shocked, himself. Not knowing what else to do, Caleb made his way over to Tony, dropping the note in the process. Seeing anger build up in the boy, Caleb was quick to turn him around and bring him into an embrace. "Hey, it's ok. It's going to be ok. We'll figure this out, Tony." Caleb soothed softly, feeling Tony lean more into his chest as his emotions took over and he began to let the tears fall. "We'll get it fixed, don't worry." Caleb said. "I don't care about the dang car!" Tony said angrilly, breaking away from Caleb and harshly kicking one of the slashed tires. "I care about my best friend more than a stupid car." Tony said, slightly calming down a bit. "And now this whole town views my best friend as a rapist, when that's not who he is at all." The angered boy rambled. Caleb stepped closer to Tony, placing a hand on his shoulder. "I know. We'll help him. I know I don't know Clay as well as you do, but I can tell he would never rape someone like people think or claim he did. He's a good friend to you, Tony. And any friend of yours is a friend of mine. Clay will need all the support he can get going forward, and we'll be there for him. Along with his other friends, too." Caleb said. Listening to Caleb's words, Tony calmed down again. "I just don't want him being put in jail for the rest of his life for something he didn't do." Tony said, his voice coming out broken. "I know you don't. I don't want that either." Caleb said, pulling Tony into a comforting embrace again. "We'll figure this out." Caleb said quietly. "They'll have a trial. And they'll most likely ask us to testify." Tony said, his words being slightly muffled against Caleb's shoulder. "And we'll answer any questions we can. Make sure the jury knows how kind-hearted and good of a person Clay really is." Caleb said. "I'll be there with you to support him through this whole thing. Until they find him innocent and let him come back home again." Caleb added. The two boys just stood there by the beat up mustang, just staying in each others arms and comforting one another.
Tony knew that his best friend would need him now, as well as his other friends, and the boy knew with every fiber of his being that he would be there to support Clay through this rough time, no matter what. And he knew that Skye, Jessica, Alex, and Hannah would all be there for him to support him through this time as well.