The last tape

Chapter fourteen (FINAL CHAPTER)

It had been a year now.
A year since she'd heard Hannah's tapes, a year since she'd made the statement against her rapist and a year of fighting.
Skye felt destroyed when she found out she wasn't the only one, to have the beautiful Jessica Davis bang on her door at 3am, said beauty now stained with tears as she admitted Skye and her shared the same abuser.

It was then that she'd learnt about the original thirteen tapes, that Clay himself even had an appearance on them. They'd argued for hours after that, she was mad that he never told her, but after a while she realised what did it matter? Clay was in the same boat as her, someone who a dying girl wanted to help. So just like Jessica, Skye had turned up on Clay's doorstep and they'd made up, cuddling up in his small blue bed sheets and watching cheesy movies.

The trial didn't go easy because why would it? Bryce was a popular boy and when his friends heard of the allegations they started sitting on the witness stand and proclaiming Skye had made up the whole story to get back at Bryce for breaking up with her.
It was then that Bryce's lawyer brought up Jeff.
Jeff was a good man, he never deserved to be accused of being a villain just so some rapist can get out of what he did.
There were no excuses for rape.
Whether Skye cheated on Bryce or not.

And Skye had shouted that from the witness stand as well.

For a couple weeks Skye was afraid she'd lose the case, that Bryce would walk out of there a free man and she'd be ridiculed forever but almost a year into the case her saving grace came forward, despite being frightened.

It was a good job Justin Foley was in love with Jessica Davis, of course he wouldn't let her rapist roam free.
Maybe it was because he was a man that they believed him, or maybe it was because his statement meant they had enough witnesses, Skye liked to believe it was the second.
All in all, Bryce Hall was thrown in jail, sentenced to a shorter time then she would've preferred, a case she will continue fighting, but for now she could sleep at night knowing he wasn't out there.

She could sleep besides her now boyfriend, Clay Jensen.
Some made up rumours that they were just each other's replacements for Hannah and Jeff, but wasn't it natural to fall for someone who had also experienced grief?
Skye would never stop loving Jeff and Clay would never stop loving Hannah and Skye was okay with that. That wouldn't stop the pair from falling for one another, although to be fair, it was inevitable.

The only thing that still bothered our protagonist was where her tape came from.
Clay explained he was instructed on the tapes to pass them on, but being the last person he knew of, he had kept them stored underneath his bed, unsure of where to place them. He had also let her know that he only knew of thirteen.

One day, Clay, Skye and Tony, a good friend of the pair were relaxing in his car, radio turned up and arms swinging in the summer air. It was then she realised something that had been under her nose this whole time.
Tony owned a Walkman. It was poking out of his pocket as if he meant to place it there, but why now? Why after a year.

They'd stopped in the park on top of a large hill, something about seeing the sunset? Skye liked the idea at the time but now, she just wanted answers.

"I like your cassette player." She'd pointed out as they got out of the car, "thanks, I like tapes better than CD's." His reply was simple and seemed meaningless, but Skye never viewed tapes the same now.
"You ever recorded them?"
She was chill about it, asking as if Tony was like a musician, which from what she knew he wasn't, but he caught on quick.

"What- like she did?" Tony usually said her name, he'd never shied away from it like others, out of respect, but right now, Skye assumed he felt it more respectful to the pair in front of him not to mention Hannah's name.
Skye wasnt going to beat around the bush this time, she'd spent all of her life doing that up until she walked into that police office with her now boyfriend, and she was never going back to being that way.
"Why did you have the tapes Tony?"

Clay stopped in his tracks,
What did Skye mean? Tony wasn't on the tapes.

"She asked me to deliver them." It was a short answer, one that just left Skye more confused.
"Then why didn't you stop her-" Clay had now stepped in front of the boy and interrupted Skye in confusion, "YOU KNEW?"

"You think I knew she was going to do what she did?" Tony began to shake a little, "of course I didn't! I thought they were nothing!"
Silence overtook the world around them.
"It wasn't till I recalled her words to me that I felt something was of- she had-" he gulped, "she had thanked me for never harassing her.. god that's so horrible, thanking me for something no one should do anyways.."

Tears threatened to spill from Tony's eyes, Skye could tell he was keeping it in for them.
"When I started listening I tried to stop her but I was too late- so I decided to send them. It's what she wanted anyways.."

Clay nodded in understanding but Skye just shook her head and marched up to the boy, holding herself back from grabbing him by the collar.
"No, no! Because what about me? Why wasn't I included in the main thirteen?"
If anybody walked past, they would be very frightened by the trio all crying in that moment, albite curious.

"When I took them out to listen I saw your tape at the bottom of the box-" Tony started, "there was a note attached saying to deliver it straight to you, that no one else should hear it, that if someone else did get a hold of it it was supposed to be destroyed."
Clay suddenly felt guilty about hearing the girls tape despite Hannah's wishes and bowed his head.

"So I slipped it in your bag."

Tony was in tears at this point, arms and legs shaking as he went to sit on a nearby log, "I'm sorry you guys went through what you did."
The pair sat besides their friend, a comfortable silence embracing them as they did so.

"We're sorry too Tony."

And just like that, the fourteen tales of Hannah Baker were free to the world and their rightful owners.
Just like that a group of people so unlike each other suddenly shared a common ground and just like that, Skylar Miller decided to never be invisible again.