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Then. Me and Hannah walked down the empty halls, skipping 2nd period, Maths. I don't think Hannah has ever done this before. I have, plenty of times, thanks to Zach Dempsey. Hannah is practically shaking next to me. "Hey, chill? We're not gonna get in trouble, people skip class all the time." I say. "Yeh, but what if Miss Meakin teaches them something important and we need it for a test we have coming up?" She asks. "Well if so, I'll just get the notes of one of my friends, it's gonna be fine, stop worrying." I say. She nods,"you're so lucky you're popular." "I'm not popular, I'm just likeable, and most of them are assholes anyways, I don't have many real friends." I say. She just nods. "So, what do you wanna do?" I ask. "I don't know, what do you usually do when you skip class?" She asks. "Uh, go home and stuff my face?" I say, smiling,"but that's only if my dads not home, I try to get out of the house as much as I can, he's an asshole."
"Well is you're dad home?" She asks. I shrug, "we'll soon find out."
We exit the school and hop into my car, putting on the radio. My favourite song comes on, Treat You Better by Shawn Mendes. Hannah looks at me, knowing that I once mentioned that this was my favourite song. I grin and start to sing as loud as I can. "I KNOW I CAN TREAT YOU BETTER THAN HE CAN!!" We both sing along until we arrive at my house, which is literally a 5 minute drive. I park around the corner just in case my dad is in. I tell Hannah to wait in the car as I run and check to see if I can see his car in the drive. I grin as a notice it's not there. I run back to the car and tell Hannah to come over, I'll just leave the car there.
Now I walk along the empty school corridors, alone. Skipping Maths, once again. As I glance at what used to be one of my best friends locker, a wave of sadness comes over me. I go up to the locker and stroke the picture of her. "God, I miss you." I whisper.
She left nothing behind for anyone to understand why she did it, that's what frustrates me the most. What did someone do to her that made her do something so horrible to herself? She used to tell me everything, then after a few weeks she shut down, I should've known then that something was wrong, but me being me, I went on without even asking how she was. What a fucking amazing friend I am.
As I stare at the picture I feel a strong arm sneak around my waist. I whip my head around to see Zach. I sadly smile. "Hey, how are you?" I ask, quietly. "Not great, I'm guessing you aren't either?" He asks. I shake my head sadly. Me and Zach have been friends since 1st Grade, cliche, isn't it? Because when Zach tried to ask Hannah out, I was jealous it wasn't me. Maybe that's when I started to drift away from her not realising what she was going through? Hannah had no one to go to right? And I was to busy being jealous. I hug Zach tightly, tears in my eyes. "God I'm such a shitty person." I say. "What? No your not!" He says, pulling away. "Do you really think that this had nothing to do with me?" I say, point to the locker and referring to Hannah's death. "You were a great friend to her Ella, I swear, anyone could see that." Zach says, looking at me with pity in his eyes. "Really?" I ask. He nods. "Really." He wraps his arm around my shoulder. "I don't think you should be at school at all to be honest. Take a day off, okay? I'll stay with you." He says. "No, you don't have to, I'll be fine alone." I say. "No, I'm staying with my best friend, okay?" He says. "Okay fine. My dad is away on business anyways, he doesn't even know about Hannah." I say. "Why haven't you told him? You're home alone and you're best friend has just passed away." He says. "He wouldn't come back for me, even if he did he'd be an asshole about it. Ever since my mom died all he cares about is his job, it's like he wants nothing to do with anyone anymore." I say. "Stay with me?" He asks. "No, your mom has done enough for me, she doesn't need my sad ass walking around her house." I say, laughing a little. "If you're sure, but I'll stay with you a couple day if you like?" He says. "Whatever you wish Zach" I say. We get into his car, as he gave me a ride this morning.
After a silent drive.We pull up to my house. I unlock my door, but I then noticed a box, a shoe box to be exact, on my doorstep with my name on it. "What's this?" I ask Zach. "God knows." He says. I shrug,pick it up and enter my house. It's quiet in my house, always has been. When my mom was alive, the house felt like a home.My dad is not a very fun person. My mom however, was. Makes me wonder how they ended up together. We used to always listen to loud music together with my brother as we helped her clean around the house and every Saturday we used to go to the mall, even if we didn't buy anything,it was still great. My dad isn't like that, he hates loud music and obviously doesn't like shopping.
I enter my kitchen and sitting at the table is my older brother, Ethan. "No fucking way!" I say, grinning. I run up to my brother and wrap my arms around him. "I thought you weren't gonna be back until next week!" I say. See, Ethan was sent to live with our aunt as him and my dad got into a pretty big argument, he's moving back to town now, he says he's staying here for a while, then planning on finding an apartment. "Aunt Maggie booked me an earlier flight, guess I was getting on her nerves, I thought she was joking!" He says, laughing. I pull away, smiling. "Yo Zach." He says, doing the 'bro hug' thing. I shake my head at them. "I heard about Hannah." He says. I nod. "I'm sorry, I know you two were close." He says. "Yeh" I say. Ethan clears his throat, awkwardly. "So, I need to catch up with my little sister, wanna get a milkshake later? Zach you can come too." He says. "Yeh sure, oh and before you ask, I'm not at school because you know" I say, gesturing to Hannah. He nods,"a milkshake should do you good then sis" I laugh. "Oh, Zach, now that Ethan is here you don't have to stay with me, unless you want too, because honestly I wouldn't mind." I say. "Yeh, I'll stay. My mom will just keep pestering me, so I'm pretty sure your place is the best right now." He says.
I nod. "Sleepover!!" Me and Ethan say together. Zach just shakes his head. "God I forgot what you two are like together." I then glance at the box. "Oh shit yeh! Pass me some scissors" I say to one of them. Ethan passes me some scissors and I cut the tape that was messily wrapped around the box. I lift the lid of and what do I see? Tapes. "What the hell?" I say. Zach picks them up and I notice they've got numbers on them. 13 is the last tape. "Hey, uh do we have anything that plays tapes?" I ask Ethan. "Uh, dads room?" He asks. I nod and run up to my fathers room. I open up the door and pull open the draw under his bed, he keeps all of his random things in there. To my luck there's a cassette player in there. I run back down stairs and place the first tape in there. Zach and Ethan look at me as I put the earphones in my ear. I start to play the tape.
Hey, it's Hannah, Hannah Baker
My eyes widen and I rip the earphones out of my ears. "What the fuck is this?!" I say. ---------- Word count 1435. Edited.
