13 Reasons Why

Chapter 24

TAPE SIX
-Jayden-
"I've learned that there are people in this world who will stab you in the back, then proceed to ask you why you're bleeding. Pretend to care that you're hurt, and then expect everything to go on, completely fine. Jayden, don't even pretend for a second that opening line didn't make you realize that this was your tape. Because you are the sixth reason I killed myself, congrats. What you did to me is downright disgusting, okay? It involved the first reason I killed myself, miss Kenzie. I won't sugarcoat this in any shape or form. Jayden, you pretended to be my best friend, just to get me away from Hayden. So that she could have him all to herself. Saying it aloud, it sounds like some petty, juvenile plan thought up by a second grader. Yet, you and kenz thought why not do it to Annie. I didn't believe it at first. Then you put me in a group chat with Kenzie and spelled it all out. Then of course you asked me not to make it public. I didn't tell anybody, not even my mom. But I cried for the next three days. When we first became friends, I thought that somehow stars had all aligned, and god placed you right in front of me. I thought we were best friends. The truth is, Jay, we're just enemies who share stories. I'm not even depressed about this anymore, just plain mad. What makes it okay for you to fake a friendship? For you to tell me I was your "ride or die" and then the next day say "I never want to see your face again, and I never want Hayden to see it either"? Best friends, true friends, don't leave you for other friends. I should have seen the "end" in best fri"end". You and I were inseparable, but then you realized Kenzie needed something. She saw I was getting close to Hayden, and I guess you were fake enough to dump my butt for her. My parents would ask if I wanted to hang out with you, and I would have to lie. "Jayden is sick", or "she's out to dinner with her family". They bought it. Part of me wished they hadn't. I wanted my mom to go: "Are you guys still friends?" And I wanted to tell her we never were. That you humiliated me, manipulated me, and that we were never, ever friends. Fake friends were never friends. Wow... just, wow. "