☾ ⋆*･ﾟ:⋆*･ﾟ

°•. ┊ Delicate┊.•°
✧ ˚ ━ that meteor strike, act one

CHAPTER ONE — tape 1, side a

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Kat's Party

I was heading back into the house after getting some air, due to the amount of people in the house. I heard shuffling and guys bickering back and forth before getting knocked into and almost falling into the muddy yard. I turned and saw none other than Zach Dempsey and Justin Foley, soaking wet. "Watch it, Dempsey!" I scoff annoyed at the boy, after nearly getting trampled and my clothes getting wet.

"Ah that's my bad, Monroe." Zach apologizes, if you can even call it that. "Look what you did, Foley. You made me ruin Angie's outfit." I just stand there ready to tell them to forget it because it gave me a good excuse to bail on the party.

"Hey, I'm sorry Evangeline. I'm sure Kat could get you something else to wear." Justin says trying to make eye contact, which I am actively avoiding. "Kat, you think you could-"

"No, I'm good. I didn't want to be here anyways. I'm just gonna go home." I cut him off.

"You sure? I can grab you something. It's not a big deal, really." Hannah offers loudly from the porch.

"I'm alright, thanks for the offer though." I tell her. Clay and I share a nod and Kat smiles my way. I give her a small smile, we were friendly, but we weren't friends. "I'll see you guys at school, yeah?" I start walking away, Zach waves, but Justin jogs after me.

"Can we talk for a sec?" I sigh, but nod him on. "Well first, I feel bad about you getting wet, and I know you said it's not a big deal, but you're wearing something besides a hoodie, which means you cared about how you looked tonight." He laughs and I just smile and shake my head.

"I promise you Justin, it's fine. I hate parties, Atkins just guilted me into coming to this one." I reassure him. "You said first, so I'm assuming there's something else you wanted to discuss?" I ask. Justin shakes his head slightly, like he's snapping out of a trance.

"Yeah, um, I just, I know we haven't talked much since last summer. I also know that it's mainly my fault, but I miss you." His hands grab mine as he says the last part. They're freezing and still covered in water and grass, yet my hands feel like they're on fire under his touch. I pull away and look back up at him.

"I miss you too, but we run in different crowds and are very different people than we used to be." I speak honestly, while wishing I hadn't listened to the voice in my head for once.

"How can we run in different crowds? You're a cheerleader, a cheer captain actually, and talk to most of my friends and I know most of yours. Our crowds are the same. And so what if we're different people. I know you. I always will. You're the only person who truly knows me, so don't give me that 'we've changed and gone our separate ways' crap." I roll my eyes at his argument.

"But it's true. We may both be on, quote-unquote popular, sports teams or whatever the hell you want to call it, but we still run with very different people. I don't like your friends and you don't really know mine. I only talk to your friends when I have to. I can tolerate Dempsey, but other than that, your friends are assholes who constantly flirt with any and every girl, no matter how much they reject them." My voice is laced with venom as I spoke of his friends and their habits, only because I'm one of the girls they constantly torment. It rolls off my back at this point, but still annoys the shit out of me.

"None of them have done anything to you right? Cause I swear to god I will kill anyone who has laid a finger on you. I mean it, Evangeline." His tone causes me to look him in the eyes and what I see genuinely scares me.

"No, none of them have touched me, you idiot. Take a chill pill, damn." I calm him, by lying to him, which will probably bite me in the ass later.

"Good. I guess you have a point, we come from different crowds, but why the fuck does that matter? We used to be best friends. It was literally you and me against everyone else, so why do you care who else we're friends with? They have nothing to do with us. There's no rule that says we have to hang out with any of them, we just hang out by ourselves."

"I'll think about it." He gives me a 'really?' look, "I'm not making any promises, Foley." I start walking to my car and right before I shut the door, I faintly hear him and Zach get told they couldn't go in because they were going to drip water everywhere. I laugh to myself and went home.

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Now

That party happened over a year ago, oh how things have changed. Hannah and Jeff are dead. Justin is dating Jessica Davis. Dempsey is more of an asshole than ever. And me. Well, I'm spiraling into numbness, again. I am becoming the worst version of myself, only this time, I love it. Having feelings is overrated and exhausting. Not giving a shit is way easier and a lot more fun. Obviously there are a few things/people I still care about, but other than that, I'm free.

"-listening? Evangeline." I snap out of my own head. "Are you listening?" Coach Patrick asks. I just nod and go to lay my head back on my desk, not before I catch Justin staring from across the back row. I smile sarcastically and flip him off, just as the bell rings. I'm the first one out the door with Foley right on my tail. I hear him call my name as I rush past Clay Jensen and out the doors, not wanting to spend any more time in that joke they call a school. I start my engine and jump at the sound of someone pounding on the passenger side window. I unlock the doors knowing exactly who it is.

"What the fuck do you want." I state more than ask, not caring to hear what he has to say.

"I want to know why you're icing me out." He says. I look at him and laugh slightly, roll my eyes and look forward again.

"I'm icing you out because we broke up. We aren't friends. We're not together. We're just done. So, leave me the hell alone. Don't you have a girlfriend, Foley? Shouldn't you be worrying about her? Not here grilling me."

"Jess is fine, but yo-"

"Jess is not fine. She's losing it. You really haven't noticed? God, you're such a dick."

"Why the hell do you care about Jess? You guys aren't friends anymore."

"Oh my god, I don't care." Lie. "You should. For one, she's your girlfriend. For two, people are gonna start to notice that something's up, if they haven't already." Shit. Probably shouldn't have said that, but I'm not on the tapes, so he shouldn't think that I know about them.

"You're right, I guess, but nothing's up. We're all reeling from... well, you know." I stare at him blankly. He can't even say it. He's reeling from everyone knowing the truth about the shit he did. I seriously cannot figure out how Jessica is still with him. I get that it's not entirely his fault, but he let her be completely clueless for MONTHS about being raped and by someone that they both are still friends with. It irks me. "Look, I just, I worry about you, that's all. I know this can't be easy and I wanted to check in and see-"

"See if I was ready to follow in Hannah's footsteps, like I was years ago. Yeah, I get it J. No, I'm not going to do anything stupid like that. If we're good. Can you get out, so I can go home." I wasn't really asking. He just nodded and got out. Well that was a fun conversation. The tapes. As I said before, I'm not on them, but I am very aware of their existence and what/who they talk about. Hannah entrusted both Tony and I with the tapes.

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Receiving the Box

I'm sitting on the couch, waiting for Abbie to come back from getting what we needed to make dinner tonight, when I notice Hannah walking up our walkway and towards my front door. I moved to get up, but she never knocked and then I saw her walk away. I would've gone and asked her what she was doing, but my sister came in from the garage door and was about to drop the groceries, so I just helped her. I figured that if it was important enough Hannah would have knocked, or texted even. It was about 20 minutes later when I opened the front door and saw a box with a note on top. It reads;

Listen and follow the instructions. I'm trusting you. - H

So I did. I went and put it in a Walkman I bought about a year ago for an old school style mixtape I made for Sage's birthday. I put in earbuds and press play on tape 1, side a. After her beginning monologue I stop listening, slip on vans and am running faster than I have ever ran in my life. I have a car and could've gotten there faster had I drove, but I literally wasn't thinking about anything except Hannah. I'm sure you can guess where this is headed. I arrived too little, too late, but just in time to see them wheel her body out in a body bag. I wasn't the only one here. A few yards away is Tony Padilla standing near his bright red Mustang looking right back at me. I walk over to him and we both fall apart. She's gone. Fuck. Tony offers to drive me home, but I tell him that I just need to walk and think. I enter my house 2 hours after leaving it and go straight to my room. I press play once again and keep listening until I sat through every single tape. Most of the things I knew, but some I was very unaware of.

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Now

I'm once again pulled from my thoughts, only this time it's the sound of a notification that peaks my interest. It's Tony;

Clay has the tapes.

This is gonna be good. Their little club of liars is about to crumble. Clay won't fall into their web of bullshit. He's a good person and he cared about Hannah a lot. I think he was in love with her, but I do know that they liked one another. It sucks that neither of them acted on it fully, he probably could've saved her. It's not his fault. They both had multiple chances to make a move, but didn't, they were afraid of rejection, I wish they saw what the rest of us did. I replied with;

Good. We both know it's going to end with him. He's not stupid enough to hand them over to Bryce and he gives a shit about Hannah.

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The Picture

I walked into school with Hannah, we were talking about her 'date' or whatever it was, with Justin last night. She told me it was her first kiss and proceeded to ask who mine was. I refrained from sharing that mine was with Justin as well and just told her mine was with Scott Reed the year prior. It wasn't a total lie, Scott and I had kissed, he just wasn't my first. I pointed him out as he and Jeff passed us in the hall. "He's cute. I applaud thee." Hannah says the last part in an English accent and I laugh. I give her props for the old english/Shakespearean reference. Seeing as we're reading A Midsummer Night's Dream in English class. "I'll catch you later, yeah?" She asks as we get to her locker and I keep walking to mine. I say yeah and almost crash into Zach, again. Only this time it's my fault. I pass the little time I have before class by grabbing the History book I left here yesterday and shut my locker. I head to my first class, math, I hate math. Anything past Algebra 1 is pointless, unless you're going into a field that needs it. I take my seat next to Mack and the bell rings. We share a look when our teacher leaves to go refill his coffee mug, seeing as it happens every class, which gives us five or so minutes to do whatever we want. Weirdly, everyone's phones started to go off, Macks went off and she audibly gasped next to me.

"What is it?" I ask, curious as to what she was freaked about. That's when she showed me her phone. It was Hannah going down a slide, she was in a dress and due to the angle you could see her underwear. Fucking Foley. "I am going to kill him." Mack just laughs slightly. "I'm not kidding. I will strangle him with his own jersey." I am fuming. Our teacher reenters the room and tells everyone to settle. I don't pay attention to a damn thing in that class. The second the bell rings, I'm racing into the hall. I spot Justin walking with Zach out of Mrs. Bradley's room and make a beeline, fully ignoring Mackenzie's protests. "Foley!" I shout and his head snaps in my direction. He knows I'm pissed. I grab his arm and drag him out to the courtyard. "What the fuck!" I yell, shoving him.

"Listen, I know you're mad, but hear me out. It wasn't my fault!" He pleads. I laugh almost manically, waiting for the bullshit about to spew from his mouth. "It was Bryce. He took my phone and the rest of the guys held me off, so I couldn't stop him from sending it."

"So, Bryce just randomly took your phone and started going through your camera roll?" I ask, already knowing the answer.

"No, I showed the guys the picture and that's when he took my phone." Justin confessed, now he was then one avoiding eye contact.

"That's what I thought. Why the hell would you even take that picture anyways? You're such a pig. You probably showed them the photo and went on to insinuate that you guys slept together, am I right? Or am I right?" I am still fuming. There may as well be smoke coming out of my ears.

"I fucked up. I know that. But come on it'll blow over. Something else will happen and everyone will forget about the picture." He tried to find a bright side. There was no bright side. Hannah was now forever labeled by that one picture. One kiss. One night.

"No, it won't actually. Guys are different. If there was a picture of a guy floating around that insinuated he hooked up with someone, he would get a pat on the back. People would praise him for it. When it's a girl, we get called sluts, whores, easy, you name it. It's okay for a guy to have a body count higher than zero or one, but if a girl does, she's shamed for it. It's a shitty double standard that isn't fair. So, no Justin, it won't blow over, people will always think Hannah is easy and she'll be labeled a slut for the remainder of high school because of you and Bryce. Congratulations." I walked away before I changed my mind and punched him. I had to find Hannah to make sure she was okay, because this isn't something any girl should have to deal with. Especially alone. I couldn't find her before my lunch period began, luckily we have the same lunch. I found her as she was walking away from Jensen, looking very upset. We walked outside and talked about everything. I told her about my conversation with Justin.

"You're kidding? You said that? Well, thank you. You really didn't have to do that." She laughs.

"Yes I did. You're my friend Hannah and Justin shouldn't have done what he did. He's better than this, so I don't get what his deal is lately. Taking the picture is one thing, not great, but if you had a problem with it, you would have told him in the moment. Having the picture for some memory of the night, I get, but showing it to people, just pisses me off because he wouldn't normally do that. Not when I knew him anyways." I ramble.

"I wish I knew the Justin that you did." She tells me with a hint of sadness in her tone.

"Yeah, me too. I wish that Justin would still be around for people other than me." I laugh slightly, but I mean every word I say. We move off the topic and just discuss anything else we can think of. The rest of the day passes slowly and then I'm home and working on a paper. I hear a knock on my window and frustratingly close my laptop and go open it. "What are you doing here?" I ask him.

"I wanted to talk. Not get yelled at, yes I deserved it, but I want to actually talk." Justin explains as he stumbles into my room, closing the window behind him. "This place has changed a lot." He says while exploring my bedroom.

"Yeah, it's been a year so." I remind him, slightly uncomfortable.

"Have you thought about it?" He starts, "Us? Friends again?" He asks me with hope in his eyes.

"Uh yeah, yeah I've thought about it, but seeing the shit you pulled today, is this seriously the time to be asking me?" I chuckle, so not prepared for this conversation. Justin comes and sits on the end of my bed and I pull my knees to my chest, wrapping my arms around my shins. And that's all we do. Sit. Occasionally we lock eyes, but we don't say anything. We both jump at the sound of someone knocking on my bedroom door. "Yeah?" I question. It's my sister. "What do you want, Abbie?"

"Can I come in?" She asks.

"No. You cannot come in. Just tell me what you want." I state.

"So, Zach just asked me out." She tells me and I can tell she's smiling from the other side of the door.

"Okay and?" I ask, waiting for her to continue.

"Do I say yes?" Justin laughs at her utterly ridiculous question and very unsure tone. "Was that a boy?" I shoot him a glare before responding.

"What? No. It was me. Do you like him?" I inquire, knowing the answer.

"Yeah." She says quietly.

"Then say yes." I tell her.

"Really? Cause I just-" I immediately cut her off.

"Oh my god Abigail Marie. SAY YES!" I yell, frankly, over this conversation.

"Alright, alright. Pushy much." I hear her walk away.

Justin and I look at each other and start laughing. "Wow, who knew the Abbie Monroe was so bad at dating." He says, still laughing.

"Me. I did. Love her and she is confident to an extent, but when it comes to a guy she's really into; that confidence goes out the window." I say honestly. Our laughing begins to die down and we just go back to looking at each other. "Okay."

"Okay? Okay what?" Justin asked me, with a look of complete confusion on his face.

"Okay, we can be friends again. I missed you and this, more than I thought." I swear his face lit up like a Christmas tree when I said those words. It was nice to see him smile so genuinely. He tackled me in a hug and we decided to watch a movie. He was already here, so why not. I fell asleep about half way into Iron Man 3 and woke up the next morning to find no Justin and post-it note on my phone;

I didn't want to wake you. Left after the movie ended and went to Bryce's. See you tomorrow, Evangeline. -J

I am so going to regret this.

[word count: 3349]

lexi's letters; so, chapter one is done. lot of words and three different time lines. just incase it's a little confusing the end conversation where justin shows up at her window and they watch a movie is the same day as the picture incident. i feel like it was clear, but just making sure lol