13 Reasons Why

Chapter 33

(Katie) I wipe my eyes. Goodbyes are tough, and Annie had to say goodbye to everything for the very last time. Mia squeezes my hand as I take out the tape from the player. "Where's the next tape...?" I furrow my brows as I look into the box. That was the final tape. "It's not so much a tape, more like a letter." Mia explains. I turn back at her and raise my eyebrows. "Give me the box," she sighs and outstretched her hand. She goes to the edge of the box and removes a piece of tape. A piece of paper I hadn't noticed before falls into her lap. "Why isn't it a tape?" I say, trying to keep my tear-strucken voice even. Mia gives me a look as if it were obvious, "because she sealed the box and shipped it to L.A." Right. "Oh," I whisper. That's the thing, I'm not thinking straight. Everything is twisted and warped and spun around backwards, nothing is like it should be. And, hopefully, when I'm gone things will go back to the way they should. Mia hands me the note. "You want me to read it?" I have a lump in my throat, and I doubt I'll be able to get through the whole paper. "You know I suck at reading, I'm dyslexic, remember?" She says and winces as the words leave her lips. I usually feel a bit bad for my friend when she talks about her learning disability, but I just need to power through it and read Annie's note. "Read it out loud," Mia asks, her voice shaky, "if you can," she adds. I nod. "Have you read it yet?" Mia nods, "Yeah, but not very well. I'm stupid, and Annie isn't. She used words that I couldn't really understand that well. I don't know, I think it'd just help me if I heard somebody else read it, you know?" I nodded slowly. "That letter, though..." Mia blinks back tears, "shattered me from the inside out. From what I understood, it just totally and completely pushed me over the edge." I sit there, letter in my unsteady grip. I don't want to read this, I really don't. But I don't think Annie wanted to go through everything she went through. And she didn't get through it, she had to go through it. And even though she doubted anybody would, Mia and I are going through her death right now. I look at the letter. Okay...