"I killed her."

I breathed out, finally releasing the antagonizing feeling that had built up in my chest.

Tony didn't say anything. He kept his eyes on the road ahead of us, pulling the car to a stop in front of Bryce's. He put the car in park and turned to me, finally allowing me to see emotion in his dark eyes.

"It wasn't just you. We all killed Hannah." He said, reaching out as if he were going to lay a comforting hand on my shoulder, but I moved back until I was pressed against the door.

"You said you weren't on the tapes." I pointed out.

"I wasn't. But I could have stopped her just as much as you could have, Foley. We all could have." He tapped his fingers against the steering wheel in a strange pattern, possibly some sort of Morse code.

"Who else is on there?" I asked.

"You didn't look?" Tony seemed genuinely surprised.

"No. I. . . who else is on them?"

"Jessica Davis, Alex Standall, Tyler Down. Would you like me to go on?" My heart sunk even further into my chest, my hands clenching the arm rest until they lost color.

Jess. My Jess was on the tapes? And I. . . I had to be the one to pass them on to her?

"Oh, that's right. You and Jess are a thing. How do you think Hannah would feel about that?" He said it jokingly, but the glare that he held in his eyes told me it was the furthest thing from it.

"Who gives a shit about how a dead girl feels? What she's doing is bullshit, Tony. You can't tell me otherwise." I cracked under his dark look, "She was a drama queen that wanted attention, needed it, craved it." I spat out, clenching my hands into fists at my sides.

"Nothing Jess could have done would have resulted in Hannah killing herself."

"You don't know that, Justin. You haven't listened to the rest of the tapes."

I dropped my head into my hands, running my fingers through my greasy hair, my eyes stinging.

"Why should I finish them? So I can hear why a drama queen put a guilt trip on everyone? Nobody deserves this, Tony. You've listened to them. Do we really deserve to feel this, the guilt, after she's gone?" He didn't respond. Instead he reached in back and pulled out a box similar to the one that had been in my room when I got home from practice yesterday. He pushed the first cassette tape into the stereo, and for an instant, I thought I may have to relive the torture of my tape.

"Step-by-step. That's how we'll get through this. One foot in front of the other."

I felt my throat closing at the sound of Hannah's voice. Tony's eyes softened at the sight of me.

"I know it may sound like it, but I wasn't completely alone the beginning of my freshman year. Two other freshman, both featured here on Hannah Baker's Greatest Hits, were also new to the area. Alex Standall and Jessica Davis."

I stopped the tape, kicking my duffel bag with a growl.

"It's bullshit." I whispered, "It isn't fair, Tony. We didn't do anything wrong, we didn't-"

"Justin. Calm down." Tony started the car again, his eyes lingering on Bryce's for a fraction of a second. I started to question whether he was at the party that night, if he could possibly know that Bryce-

"Where are we going?" I stared out the window, watching Bryce's mansion blur into nothing.

"Since you're the first, I have to help you get through the tapes to insure that you don't destroy them." He explained, sending me a quick look, "You don't seem incredibly stable either, man, if I do say so myself."

Stable? Is he joking? Did he not understand the tapes, feel the anger and pain, the guilt rushing through his veins at the thought of her blaming all of us for a decision she made?

"I had high hopes that you'd be able to make it through them. But I followed you to the park, to see what you were going to do with the tapes. I really thought you'd make it through the first one without any problem. There was something that happened, Justin, wasn't there? That Hannah didn't say on the tape."

"Can you just let me out? I've got-"

"You've got to finish the tapes, Foley. I made an obligation and I'm going to make sure that you get through them before passing them on to Jess." I shook my head, watching Tony's dark hand stretch out in front of me and hit the fast forward button. Skipping through most of Jess' and stopping on Tyler Down.

"For example, you'd better be quiet-extremely quiet- if you're going to be a Peeping Tom. Because what if they heard."

I stared out the windshield and into the darkness with a disgusted look.

"What if she. . . what if I. . .found out?"

I turned to Tony, but his expression had been wiped blank, a clean canvas. No emotion on it whatsoever.

"Guess what, Tyler Down, I found out."

I clenched and unclenched my fist on my lap, disgusted. Tyler Down, the little bitch that seemed to be everywhere I turned with his little camera taking pictures, had been spying on Hannah?

"Who knows where I'm standing right now?"

Tyler's.

"If you said, "Outside Tyler's window," you're right."

My head whipped up in surprise, my eyes on Tony's hand on the stop button.

"What are you doing?" He looked almost as if he were smiling.

"I thought you didn't want to listen to them." He stated.

"He's a pervert. How. . . why didn't you do anything?" He shrugged, tapping his fingers along the steering wheel again. We were in park, a house with the lights still on outside the window.

"It wasn't my job. But you, Justin. You can do whatever you want." He didn't have to say anything else. I got out of the car, leaving my stuff in as I stalked up the driveway and toward the front door. I stopped on the first step of the porch, my lips parting when I saw a woman inside sitting with a toddler on her lap. Tyler was no where in sight.

I walked around the house and to the back, hoping that his room was there.

I found him sitting in his bedroom, his face buried in his laptop. I glared, clenching my hands into fists as I walked over to it, ready to start pounding on the glass. I stopped again halfway, thinking about what I was doing for the first time since I got out of the car.

His parents would call the cops, he would cry until I let him go, with absolutely no idea why I was beating up in the first place.

So I took a rock from the rock bed and chucked it as hard as I could at the window. My throw didn't come close to Jeff Atkins, but it was enough to crack the window and startle Tyler. I crouched down beside the house, watching him open the window and run his hand across the crack with a frown. I waited until he ducked back into his room to jog back out to the Mustang. Tony started the car as I got in and sped off into the night just as Tyler's from door opened and he came running out in nothing but a pair of boxers.

*

I walked into school ten minutes early. After dropping the box off at the post office, the box I knew would have already arrived at Jess' house by now, I had caught a ride with Zach and rushed into the school before he could ask any questions.

I hadn't wanted to send it to Jess, Tony had threatened me before dropping me off in front of Bryce's. He had threatened to send his own set if I didn't send mine. So Jess would have to sit through the torture of them either way. He had also insisted I listened to the rest of the tapes, but I had wrapped the box back up the second I walked into Bryce's place and got it ready to drop off in the morning.

"Wow, Justy! You look like shit!" Bryce slapped a hand on my back, a grin plastered on to his face. I stared at him, everything in me fighting the thought of attacking him there and then in the middle of the hallway.

"Thanks, man." I muttered, shoving my shit into my locker. Zach leaned against the locker behind me, flicking the back of my head.

"Don't tell me that Baker girl's got to you." He joked, but I flipped him off.

"Stop talking shit, Dempsey." He raised an eyebrow.

"Did someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed?" He taunted, as if he were waiting for me to throw the first punch. I ignored the next comment Bryce made before ducking into Physics and leaving my friends behind.

*

I sat at an empty table, getting weird looks from most of the cafeteria. Who would have thought that Justin Foley would be sitting alone?

The boys were waving me over, but I couldn't bring myself to sit with them, not right now. My eyes fell on Tyler instead, hunched in the far corner of the lunchroom with his camera on his lap, stabbing at his food silently, deep in thought. He had no idea I knew, not yet.

My eyes drifted to the next table, to a familiar face. Jensen. Clay Jensen. He had been a friend of Hannah's, and Jeff's. And now, now he was sitting alone, just as I was. It made me question whether he had gotten the tapes, if he was on them.

I shoved my untouched, ice cold food into the trash before grabbing my backpack and standing up. As I headed out of the cafeteria I brushed up against Jess, her hand squeezing mine as we exchanged a look.

Her look of innocence and happiness. Her smile bright and wide. The smile started to fade when she saw the expression on my face, and I knew she was about to ask, and I wouldn't be able to answer her.

I tore my hand away, our eyes still locked as I backed away down the empty hall. She stood there, frozen in place, oblivious to what would be waiting for her when she got home.

I finally forced my eyes away from her and stared ahead of me, my lips moving but nothing coming out.

"I'm sorry, Jess." I skidded to a stop in front of Hannah Baker's memorial in front of her locker, my hand brushing against the picture of her smiling in the middle of a frame made out a flowers. Delicate and fragile like she had been.

"I'm sorry, Hannah." I whispered, touching the picture, feeling the tears I had been holding back for the last twenty-four hours threatening to escape my eyes as I headed for the front doors to leave the school. Once I was outside I stared around me, letting out a shaky breath as I came to the realization Tony had been wanting me to come to, the realization I had forced out of my mind with denial.

I killed Hannah Baker. 

***AN***

Hope you guys enjoyed! 

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~ChasingMadess24