— Illicit Affairs

MEN WILL NEVER understand the pressures of being a woman in todays society. It's either you're shamed for your relations with other people, your weight, how you look, how your body looks, how many times you've had sex, if you've never had sex, if you're smart, if you're dumb, or if you're just an average person.

Natalia always compared a woman's life to a thrifted chair. As stupid as that sounded, she knew it was true. People would stand on it, sit on, set things on it, and use it until it snaps. People will stack their belongings onto it until all of the legs are gone.

Today, Natalia felt as the leg on one her chairs would snap any second. She sat with her hands shaking in her lap. She was wearing jeans and some ugly floral shirt her mother picked out. Her parents insisted she looked nice.

It felt stupid, sitting there all anxious.

One wrong word or slip up and it can effect the whole case. Hannah's parents could win or the school could win. Natalia couldn't have guessed this is what she'd be doing this time last year.

When Natalia was put on the stand, Clay caught her eyes. He had seemed nervous for her too. He knew what they'd bring up. For legal reasons, they would not be able to play the audio, but they could describe it.

When Sonya looked Natalia in her eye she clenched her jaw.

"Hello, Miss Bexley." Sonya smiled as she walked around the table to stand directly before Natalia.

"Hi." Natalia smiled, but her tone wasn't as sweet as usual. More sharp and angry than anything.

"How did you know Hannah Baker?" Sonya quizzed. Natalia parted her lips and looked to her stick and poke tattoo on her thumb. A little heart. It was obvious who had done it.

"I met her at a party. It was at her house." Natalia responded, fidgeting with the ring Hannah had given her. "She was quiet, but kind. Kat actually introduced us."

"Did you know Hannah well?" Sonya asked and Natalia swallowed, furrowing her eyebrows.

"In the end, I think I knew her better than a lot of people. She was my bestfriend." Natalia replied.

"Did she ever come to you about her struggles?" Sonya inquired and Natalia nodded with a straight face.

"She did, and I did talk with her. Everyone kind of thinks negatively, but doesn't act on it. I just... I just figured it was one of those things where she'd act on it." Natalia responded and Sonya nodded.

"So, you knew Hannah was struggling and you didn't tell anyone?" Sonya questioned.

"I did. I just didn't use her name." Natalia told Sonya. She walked around a little bit and eyed the jury.

"Who did you tell?" Sonya questioned and Natalia pursed her lips.

"The school. I told Mrs Bradley because I heard of someone's anonymous note. As far as I know, she didn't tell anyone." Natalia told Sonya and she walked around nodding.

"And nothing came of it?" Sonya asked. "Or did you never even ask?"

"Don't accuse me of lying." Natalia spat and Sonya looked to the judge.

"Your honor, strike as non responsive." Sonya practically snarled before looming back to Natalia.
She got much closer than before and smiled at her with a grin that made Natalia's skin crawl. "How about this audio clip we have in evidence?"

"Which one?" Natalia quizzed and Sonya backed up to pick up a piece of paper. She returned and slid it over to Natalia.

"It's a transcript of an audio recording of you and Justin Foley, presumably having sexual intercourse.
Now, they jury may take a look and read the text." Sonya said which made Dennis stand up.

"Objection, your honor, how is this relative to the case of Hannah Baker?" Dennis quizzed.

"There has been liable proof of Justin Foley and Hannah Baker having relations, continue." The judge said making Natalia clench her jaw.

Natalia resentfully looked down to the phone with spite. Her lips parted as the transcript literally said everything they did, which she should've expected.

A tear managed to escape Natalia's eye, she wiped it away, afraid of ruining her makeup. Her stomach churned causing her to become nauseated.

Her eyes found Clay. He had been the person who'd give her strength in tough situations. He had been her shoulder to cry on. He made her tears stop. She was going to fight. For herself, for Hannah, for all of the people dealing with this.

✺ ✺ ✺

"Justin, I don't know what to do," Natalia panicked as she paced back and forth. Justin closed the window as he came to comfort her. "Monty is sending it all over, my parents are going to school tomorrow. Everyone's texting and calling saying I'm a slut, and fucking Hannah Baker won't stop giving me fucking puppy dog is eyes in the hallway."

"Bex, calm down. Okay? We're going to get past this." Justin assured her as he loosely gripped her upper arms. He tried to look her in her eye, but her vision blurred from the tears.

"You're going to get past this. I heard some girls talking and they were saying how sexy you sounded and how much of a whore I was." Natalia said between the hiccups that escaped her mouth.

"I'm sorry, Natalia. I am. What do you want me to do?" Justin asked, pulling her in by her elbow. "He threatened that if I wouldn't he would."

"I want you to take the video. I don't want that shit on my phone. I can't show anyone or fucking Bryce will—" Natalia swallowed her tears and let out a deep breath. "Just do this for me. That's all."

"Okay, send the video now and you can delete the video," Justin told her. Natalia scrambled to pull out her phone. She slid into her messages and sent the hidden video to him. "It sucks. We had a little too much fun making the video."

"Shut up, make it locked in a folder, and don't ever mention it again," Natalia spat as she stepped back from Justin's grip. "I'm sorry if I fucked things up with you and Hannah."

"I texted her. I'm just gonna let her cool off." Justin responded as he watched Natalia cool down herself.

Natalia was visibly upset, so Justin stepped forward. He wrapped his arms around his friend and felt her stiffen up before melting into their hug.

Justin would understand, and he knew that. This was just one of the simplest things for him to do.

✺ ✺ ✺

NATALIA BUNCHED UP her fists as she stared at Sonya. Her blue eyes darkened drastically as her pupil widened due to her crying. Sonya looked to the judge prepared to say something else when Natalia sighed. A sigh that told everyone she was ready to reveal something.

"The audio was faked," Natalia told her. Sonya's features twisted due to her confusion. "And I have proof."

✺ ✺ ✺

MOMENTARILY, NATALIA HAD been allowed to use the bathroom since there had been a recess due to the new information. She seen Clay, Jessica, and Tony all standing outside. She let out a deep breath and walked to them. Clay stood up to greet her since she'd obviously been upset.

"Why did you let everyone think it was real?" Tony asked and Natalia looked down to the ground as him and Jessica stood up.

"I was falling over drunk at a party at Bryce's place and he'd been watching me. I didn't know, but he had talked to Justin about how if Justin didn't fuck me, he would. So, Justin came up with some stupid idea. He sobered me up and told me the plan, and..." Natalia trailed off and Jessica raised her eyebrows.

"You guys didn't even have sex?" Jessica quizzed and Natalia shook her head, disgusted.

"He's like my brother. He only wanted to protect me." Natalia told her truthfully.

"You've been awfully quiet," Tony stated as he looked to Clay. He played with his hands as he looked up to Tony bashfully. "You knew."

"Look, I didn't want to make things worse and meddle." Clay replied in his defense.

"And I thank you." Natalia said before looking to Jess and Tony. They both grew really quiet like they'd been thinking about something.

"This could help ruin Bryce." Clay spoke up. "I think Sheri's almost here. She said she'd put it into a thumb drive."

Natalia looked down and nodded.

The truth was Natalia hadn't even been completely honest. There was more than one thing that could rip Bryce off of the pedestal.

✺ ✺ ✺

ANGRILY, NATALIA SLAMMED her laptop as she stared down at the article that had been written.

Apparently, she was a jealous nymphomaniac who stole Hannah's almost boyfriend due to jealousy, and the worst part is they said Natalia only chose to be Hannah's friend because of guilt.

Her phone rang. She had missed her classes due to her speaking, so she decided to skip even more and come in later.

In her mind, she couldn't believe how she was made out to be the villain. A villain who pined over Hannah's sloppy seconds.

Her hand nervously reached for her phone and saw that Clay had been calling. Natalia didn't know what else to do but answer his call. She was very interested in what Clay had to say.

"Nat, hey," Clay greeted over the phone. His voice seemed like it was stressed, trying to make it seem like he was excited to talk to her. "I didn't see you this morning, are you coming in?"

"Yeah, I'm coming now. Is everyone talking?" Nat quizzed and of course she knew everyone was.

"Not really. I think everyone will be too invested in what Zach has to say anyways," Clay says since he went right after her. Her and Zach exchanged a quick greeting and she left, not offering her support.

"How good is Natalia at fucking again? I forgot." Montgomery's voice was heard on the other line and Natalia's face dropped as she could hear Clay's exhale.

"I have to go." Clay mumbled as he hung up on Natalia. She didn't have time to utter another word as he hung up.

Natalia's eyes widened and she stood up. Clay was going to himself into trouble again, wasn't he?

✺ ✺ ✺

CONVENIENTLY, NATALIA ARRIVED at lunch time. She wasn't focused on eating or talking casually with people. She was on the look out for Clay. It wasn't hard to spot him, he was hovering over what looked like Justin Foley. She furrowed her eyebrows and pushed through everyone.

Everyone was confused on whether or not to look at Justin or Natalia. For now they stared at Justin.

"What do you mean you're out?" Clay asked Tony as Natalia swooped in. They both looked at her.

They all briefly looked up at Bryce and back at Natalia.

Clay and Tony began to pick Justin up, helping him out while everyone watched. Natalia looked straight at Bryce who held an evil grin on his lips.

The girl followed Clay and Tony. Justin needed to be back at Clay's where the situation could at least be sort of under control.

✺ ✺ ✺

NATALIA WAS IN class when her phone vibrated against her leg, assuming it was Clay, she answered and indeed saw a text message from Clay. Except, he wasn't as chill as normal and that's saying a lot because Clay was never chill.

Clay👽
I guess the attention isn't on you
anymore. Stay away from Zach,
he's a piece of shit, and you'll
thank me.

Her eyebrows furrowed as she stumbled across another notification. It was from their local paper. All she seen was Hannah's name, Zach's name, and suddenly her own. She read the whole article and widened her eyes.

"Frequent sexual intercourse?" Natalia quizzed, out loud making a few people look to her with interest.

The worst thing was, she was once again was called a boy obsessed teenage girl who'd been jealous of Hannah Baker. Natalia needed to set her story straight.

Or maybe Natalia wasn't as innocent as she thought about herself.

— Savior Complex