Album Tapes

Two

Two

Getting home, I parked it a few houses away. My mom would be suspicious so I parked it in front of Barty Mayer's house instead.

I got in the house and locked the door, going downstairs and into my secret hiding place: the basement. I didn't do much but with a heart racing and nine people in it for you, you're sure enough to get exhausted very easily. Which surprises me since I used to be in the track team for about 3 years.

I opened the 'gift' and out came an album. It was now an album of Ariana Grande's. It read, Yours Truly. But with white paint had the name, Penny after the word Truly.

It had the number two at the corner.

I want it over and done. So I slipped the disk inside the player, and the television was black for a while.

And then it started.

A girl with blonde hair was there and it looked like a park in the background.

"Hello," she said. "I'm Penny. Penny del Winne. And you are watching my video diary. My album tape. And the reason I died,"

A static, crackling sound was heard and a muffled voice was shouting at her from the distance. But I can hear it: "THEY'RE COMING!"

"The reason I died is because of HIM." she says. "And I know, this is the second time someone died because of a boy, but I don't care. Because this is MY reason.

"Three hundred and sixty five days, we sent letters to each other. It was the school year, he was assigned to me as my pen pal. I wasn't allowed to complain. I wasn't that psyched, really. I had to check off the boxes of who I wanted as my foreign pen pal and I got him."

I heard of that story. I heard of Penny del Winne, the girl that sat a row behind me, having a relationship with her pen pal. Something the school faculty does not approve of for loving a stranger. That's why they stopped with the 'pen pal activity'.

"He came from England. Somewhere in a place called Manchester or something. I had a small obsession with British people back in the days but I stopped once my addiction had halted. I didn't turn back around for it. But guess what? It had to come back. It came back because of you and it became worse when I fell in love with you."

Not me. It wasn't me.

"And I hate you for it!" she shouted. "I HATE YOU, IAN LESTER!"

Then, the blackness. As usual. I waited for it. I don't know what to do. Maybe this was payback. Payback for the things I did wrong. I had to watch these tapes to find the one that had ME in it. Where I was the reason. I wanted to know already, so I can throw these stuff away. But I have to watch every single one because it's arranged in a specific manner.

The television had changed the scene. Now she was in a room. And I remember it because it was where I was just a few minutes ago. Possibly, an hour.

The post office.

"This rundown post office was here ever since I was a little girl. Ever since my mom and dad were children." she says. "It's so old that the blue paint job was chipping off the cream-colored walls. And the Twitter sign were repaired every month because teenagers always pelted it with eggs and toilet paper. Sometimes, even food."