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AS CASSIE WALKED down the stairs sleepily, her phone began to vibrate in her hand. She had no idea who would be calling her around nine am. When she brought up her hand to glance at the caller ID, she paused for a second and with little reluctance, answered the call.
"Cas, please tell me you heard the news?" Zach Dempsey said bringing a load of questions to come up in Cassie's head.
A million scenarios roamed through her head, about a dozen of them surrounding Justin. However, she was taking time and time she would take.
"Zach, what is it?" She asked, almost afraid to hear his answer.
"Turn on the news channel," was all he said before Cassie was speed walking to their small living room.
Reluctantly she flipped on the tv and chose their small town news channel. And with regret, she watched as a body bag on a stretcher was wheeled into an ambulance almost carelessly. As if the life that used to walk around in that body didn't matter to the paramedics, because of the many they've taken care of.
Cassie's hand flew to cover her mouth in sorrow, the headline screaming at her focus: 'Parents of downtown pharmacy lose only child, Hannah Baker'. The reporter then began to dwell onto Hannah's personal life, where she went to school, what grade she was in, how old she was. Cassie felt pathetic saying the word was as she described her.
"Cas, you still there?" Zach questioned with worry.
"This is horrible," Cassie replied, her voice cracking unsubtly.
"I know we weren't that close to her," he started surprisingly.
"Going after someone else's boyfriend is real low of you, especially since you're new," Cassie said above a whisper after approaching her locker.
Hannah closed her locker slowly, "I swear I didn't know he was dating someone. I thought he was into me."
"Next time, ask before you go around kissing or whatever you did with strangers—"
"We just kissed, Cassie," she interrupted knowingly.
"Well, he's all yours now," Cassie said, biting her lip with misery at the memory of catching the new girl and her ex boyfriend getting heated in the middle of Bryce Walker's living room.
"Zach—"
"I just thought you should know before Justin tried telling you as an excuse to call you. Is he still trying?" He asked from the other line.
Cassie turned the tv off, "yes. I don't know what to do. I'm not sure if I want him back, but I don't even know if I can give him my heart again, Zach."
"It hasn't been that long. He needs to try harder if he wants you back—"
"Bryce told me he's a mess—"
"Yes, he is, but he'll get over it soon, and start working up to his word," Zach commented, and through the line, his scoff was heard.
Then there was silence. It wasn't because they had nothing to talk about, it was because there was too much to talk about. It couldn't be said on this day though, and the two of them knew that. Although they hadn't been close friends or maybe even friends with Hannah Baker, Cassie would like to think she should still respect that she took her life yesterday, (and for whatever reasons she felt approved of her decision).
"I'll see you in two days, Cas. Take care of yourself," Zach reminded her and they said their goodbyes.
❁❁❁
A WEEK LATER when Cassie came from her morning run to her front door porch, she halted before her 'welcome' doormat. On top of the greeting laid out for visitors was a rectangular package. What scared her the most was the big sloppy letters written in sharpie strewn across the top of the package paper.
'CASSIOPEIA DYLAN JAMES'
"What in the hell..." she trailed off, picking up the package.
Studying the handwriting, she thought of him. The same him who broke her heart in seconds. Evidently, it was the same him who sent the package. She knew his handwriting by heart. She was the only one he sent letters to.
Cassie brought it inside, grabbed a pair of scissors, and began to confiscate it in the walls of her bedroom. She ripped off the package paper and found a shoebox. Removing the lid, she found cassette tapes sitting inside. Each one had a little doodle on the back and after examining them, Cassie found they all had a number painted with nail polish on the front. They went in order from tape one to tape seven.
Before she could make any decisions, she thought about calling Justin for the sole purpose of asking what the hell this was and what were on these tapes. Refraining from doing so, she found an old Walkman in her mom's junk drawer, pulled out tape one and slipped it in the Walkman.
[ 'Hey, it's Hannah. Hannah Baker. Don't adjust your whatever device you're hearing this on. It's me, live and in stereo. No return engagements, no encore, and this time, absolutely no requests. Get a snack. Settle in. Because I'm about to tell you the story of my life. More specifically why my life ended. And if you're listening to this tape, you're one of the reasons why' ].
Cassiepressedpause, and pushed the Walkman away from her place at the edge of the bed. That was her voice, Hannah Baker's voice; the girl that had just taken her life only a week ago in a bathtub. It was hard to take in all at once, but one thing had been made clear through the first minute and a half of the tape: Cassie James was one of the reasons Hannah Baker took her life.
