Maddie sat in class, this time they were supposed to be writing a poem, though she hadn't even started it. Maddie never slacked off in class, practice, work, or even at home so when she was slacking off in English, her favorite class, it caused confusion though nobody said anything as she had one headphone in and her hair down covering it from being seen.
"See, I can guarantee that one of the reasons you're still listening is that you want to know who are the others? Who else is responsible for my death? Well, you're going to learn soon enough." Maddie slightly shook her head and then stopped the motion not wanting any more attention than what she was already getting. She didn't want to know about the others, she didn't want to know what the others did, not now anyways, she couldn't handle the waiting nor did she think she could handle all of the things put onto the tapes. She was only listening because she wasn't going to have Hannah die an unhonorable death and never know why, she also wanted to know what she did. She still didn't know and she was completely at war with herself for not seeing the signs of someone in obvious need or help.
"And, of course, they're going to learn about you too. If they haven't already." This statement made her stomach turn and she jerked the earbud out of her ear so she couldn't hear the next sentence, she clicked the pause button. She looked beside her with her hair still down covering half her face and then sighed smoothing her hair out. While she sighed she put her head in her hands then smoothed her hair back, Justin had heard her tape, Zach had heard her tape and who knows how many other people. The bell rang and Maddie grabbed her bag but the teacher had called her back, but she still catching the confusion written on Justin and Zachs face as they stood waiting for her. "Yes?" Maddie asks.
"You've never done this sweetheart, what's going on with you? You didn't pick up your pencil all day. Should I call home?" She asks making Maddies eyes jolt open as she wildly shakes her head. "No I'm sorry it won't happen again I just had a rough night." Maddie says hoisting her bag up on her shoulders, she was upset that she was being threated with a call home when there were kids who didn't even bring a pencil and it was an every day occurance. The teacher nods letting her leave and Maddie sighs walking out feeling both Justin and Zach arm wrap around her shoulders. "You didn't do anything? It was english class Mads." Zach says sighing.
"You guys heard my tape. Please tell me what I did." Maddie asks looking at the ground as she spoke in a broken and cracking voice. Justin and Zach both looked at each other, neither of them liked when she was upset, hurt, or sad so to hear her voice sound so forced made their hearts race trying to figure out what to do. "Mads we can't you have to listen to it yourself. We're right here for you though." Zach says and Maddie nods as she takes in a deep breath and smiles. "Alright lets do this." She says refurring to their practice which was called early as they all had competitions coming up or games. Zach and Justin laugh as they look at each other and nod. Both of them grab one of her arms picking up her body, grabbing her legs,making it look as if she was sitting opon their arms, and run her into the gym. The almost soundless gym was soon filled with the laughter of the three teens once they set her down the coachs yelled at the same time. "Dempsey!" Coach Jensen yells making her run to the locker room to change while the coach for the basketball team yelled for the boys. "Dempsey! Foley!" The boys run to their locker room. Sometimes since they all practiced in the gym along with the wrestling team and the cheer squad Maddie and Zach would be confused since they were called by last name but they tried to keep it at bay so they wouldn't get yelled at for messing up.
Sweating and out of breath Maddie walks over her bag and grabbed her water bottle taking a drink of it. Maddie threw her bottle in the trashcan and walked out with her practice bag hanging on her shoulder and her backpack on her back. She walked two feet until she was bumped into by a figure running, in result of that she fell to the ground but a pair of arms went under hers so she didn't fall completely. The strong arms pulled all of her body weight up and let her stand on her own two feet. When Maddie turned around she was met by Bryce, her brother and boyfriends bestfriend, she smiled at him as he picked up all of her things that had managed to fall from her bag and handed them to her. "Here you go." He said with a smile.
"Thanks Bryce." Maddie said with a smile but before they could say anything else both Justin and Zach walked up. "We need to go." Justin said in a tight voice as he turned her around and they walked out with Zach speed walking behind them. "What the heck guys?" Maddie asks she asked setting her bags in the back of the car as Zach did the same. "Just stay away from him from now on alright?" Justin asked and Maddie nodded.
Maddie sat in her bed as she threw all of her stuff into her bag after finishing most of it for homework. She plugged the headphones in and laided down closing her eyes letting Hannahs voice and memories consume her.
"What feeling paranoid? On Edge? Yeah. High school does that to a person. You never really know who you can trust. And who you can't. Don't stop moving. It's all part of the game. But, remember, it's not a game. Not at all. Okay. Enough with the small talk. It's time to meet the star of Tape one side B. So, without further ado, let me introduce my former friend. Step up Jessica Davis." Maddie felt like she could breath slightly better, like there was a weight off her shoulders though she knew it would be back on when she got to the next tape and every tape after that until she heard her own tape. She didn't know Jessica all too well, she knew of her from nights when she woud stay with Hannah and they would talk endless nights and Jessica was one of the many topics to come up and she knew she was dating Alex.
"I met Jessica a couple of weeks into sophomore year. Apparently, we needed to be conunseled. Do adults even understand how friendships work? Porter was the replacement for Mrs. Antilly, who moved to another school district. Which, as it turns out, was very unforunate, but, that's for another tape. Thus began the story of Monet's, the story of a friendship." Maddie couldn't help the small smile that made it's way onto her face. She had always loved hearing about friendships, mostly how they were made, she had already heard this one so the smile was very short lived when she knew that this was a tape that would end up showing Jessicas true colors. Though, to her knowledge, Jessica had done nothing extremly bad Hannah might not have told her everything either.
"It was a hot chocolate friendship, good for cold moths, but maybe not perfect for all seasons. For a while, we were the kind of friends you wished you had. We did did disgusting things like shop together and compare what we bought, and talk about boys. And just like that two became three. And like before you know it you're best friends." By now Hannahs voice didn't sound forced or in pain, no, she sounded happy to remember and relive the first memories they had together, it made Maddie smile. Her voice sounded almost light, as if she was flying up out of their hearts and mind but Maddie made a promise that she would never forget Hannah, she had yet to break a promise, that she knew of.
"There was nothing two hot chocolates and Alex's coffee drink du jour couldn't fix. You need friends. Even just hot chocolate friends. Especially when your life goes down the drain. Day after day, drink after drink, we lifted our mugs and we lifted each other. In spite of our differences, we were what we each needed at that moment in time. Three drinks against the world. Two hot chocolates and what ever Alex was drinking." Maddie smiled as Hannah seemed to love the two of the teens she was talking about during this tape, though she knew the bad was close to come she couldn't help but wish these moments were all that Hannah felt.
"I'm not great at math, but here's one thing I learned for sure: one plus one plus one is not a simple equation. Alex was the first to stop coming. He found other friends. He traded up. We were still friendly in the halls, but that's it. Then it was down to Jessica and me. But then, Jessica stopped coming too. We all went our separate ways. Or so I thought." The way Hannahs tone tightened Maddie knew this was where the tape got bad.
"It was fine, Jess. It was. You're the kind of girl that boys like to like, not spread rumors about. You're the nice girl, the kind that becomes a cheerleader. When Jessica has something on her mind, she lets you know. And I knew what she wanted to talk about. Alex's list." Maddie knew the list they were talking about, maddie got best body, she figured that was Justins doing. She remembered Hannah had gotten best butt she only knew that because Zach had handed the girl the paper and had said congradulations.
"You see, that's just how it works in high school. Boys talk, girls listen and everything gets messed up. Or at least that's how it was with us. Right Jess? Friendship. It's complicated." She heard the sigh in her voice and she noticed that she had resited her first line making Maddie hope soon this would be the end of her tape, Maddie didn't know what she was hoping for. She didn't want to hope the people did something wrong, but she didn't want to hope that they didn't either. All she knew was she didn't want to go to school with someone she would be afriad of because they had hurt Hannah but from the way the tapes were going it wasn't going there, though it was still hard to listen.
"Loosing a good friend is hard, especially when you don't know why you lost them in the first place. Like I said it's complicated." Hannahs voice stopped as there was a click from the walkman showing that it was over, she rewinded it and placed the tape in the clear plastic holder and put it in the first slot. From the looks of outside she knew she couldn't listen to another one so she slide the shoebox under her bed and went under her covers and closed her eyes drifting off into what would hopfully be a peaceful dreamless sleep.
{7.9.18.}
~~~Authors Note~~~
So this book already has close to 400 reads with only like seven or eight chapter up and I mean to some that's nothing but to me that's honestly really heart warming because I like to take my writing very seriously so thank you seriously. Also please let me know what stuff you want to see and if this book should speed up in general or in certain areas or if I should keep everything slow? Love you all❤️