Maddie Dempsey and Justin Foley were what people thought were the cliche highschool romance, and maybe at first glance they were, but when you look deeper into the story, the way Hannah Baker did, you'll see so much more.
{From: 5.18.18 Until: 6.30...
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"Maybe it wasn't my fault, maybe none of us can say who we truly are. Maybe we're more than what the world sees." Hannahs seemed to be in deep thought while speaking her words and the words made a small sad smile come onto Maddies face. Sure Maddie was one of the people who never truly said who she was or what she was fully feeling and she knew several of those people, Justin was one, Zach was one, Hannah was one, and now, everyone else on the tapes were too.
"Or maybe we're less. Maybe none of us are who we seem. I always kinda liked Marcus." Hannahs words made Maddies scrunch up in disgust, Marcus was what Maddie would call a pig. Marcus thought he was higher than everyone else around him, he had to one up everyone else. And sure a lot of people do that, even Maddie did sometimes but it was different the way Marcus did it, because he had to put people down or lie to make himself seem better.
"He always seemed like a good guy. Then again they almost always do. Marcus welcome to your tape." Maddie didn't know that Hannah and Marcus really knew each other, then again she barley knew half of the stuff that had already been said, all she knew was that Marcus now had a tape and for some reason it didn't completely surprise her.
"What was it? Did you want to see if the rumors were true? Or did you just want to start some new ones of your own?" The way Hannahs voice tightened made Maddies chest do the same. She must of been referring to when the rumors of her sleeping around started to circlate. She already hated Marcus, just the thought of what he might have done made it worse, but she clicked play again not completely ready to hear what the snob of a boy had done.
"And I just keep thinking, If only someone else could of had me on their list, then maybe. Maybe, it could of all been different." The statement made Maddies eyebrows furrow once again. Marcus had gotten Hannah on his list? How? There was no way. Hannah was a sweet, shy girl with the wrong reputation which she didn't deserve. And even with all of that, there was no way Marcus could or should have gotten her.
"My parents were highschool sweethearts. So shoot me. I still believed in romance." Another sad smile came to Maddie. Sure Maddie wasn't lucky enough to see a lot of happy moments within relationships until she was ten, but that didn't mean others weren't as lucky. Maddie, even as a teenager who lost most hope for romance still held the tiniest of hope for someone to be romantic with or to her. Someone who would throw her birthday parties even when she claimed to not want them, someone to make a huge ask for prom even though she'd say yes to even just a text, someone to lay down rose petals and give her sweet notes. And she got who she believed to be one of the last men who would think to do that.
"I waited for you Marcus. And I just had to sit there. Wondering. Imagining. Playing over all the different situations in my mind. And all the while thinking that they all knew. Everyone in the whole place. That I'd been stood up. On Valentines day." Hannahs voice was sad and strained and it upset Maddie, had Marcus been so cruel as too take the time to invite Hannah to a date and then to stand her up and leave her? That kind of stuff never made sense to Maddie. Did men not have the balls to simply say "actually rain check." Or too even say "I don't want to go on a date with you." That was one way Maddie knew guys were assholes, because they could do things like that and never feel bad.
"I decided to give you one more chance. Stupid Hannah. And then you finally showed up. Except you weren't alone." Hannahs voice was now a mixture of boredem and annoyance and it made her believe that Hannah was unlucky enough to catch Marcus bringing another girl with him to where-ever they were going to have their date.
"And again you were funny Marcus. And I thought maybe..maybe just maybe it was gonna be alright. I couldn't move. I couldn't get up and leave. Or scream. Anything would have been better than sitting there thinking that somehow this was my fault." Hannahs words made Maddie sick to her stomach as she tried to not picture what she was talking about. She realized that Marcus must of brought some guys with him instead of another girl and Maddie wasn't sure how much more she could listen as she brought her arms around her stomach.
"Thinking I'd be alone for the rest of my life. But through it all I wanted to believe there were good guys in this world. I knew there were. I believed it." Maddies sudden stomach ache began to lift itself away from her as she realized what she was describing didn't fully happen, though that didn't make it any better.
"Fun fact. I did some resarch on tombstones the other day. The best one I could find was by this writer called Henry Charles Becalski Jr. On his tombstone he has an engraved picture of a boxer. And beneath the boxer. Two simple words. 'Don't Try.' I wonder what will be on mine." Hannah ended the tape with those words and then the click that was heard seconds after the silence that drowned out through the earbuds Maddie had in. She took her earbuds out to hear yet again nothing but silence. The classroom was working on a packet that Maddie had already done most of and she decided she'd simply finish the rest tonight and turn it in since it wasn't due till tomorrow. As she was slipping her earbuds and walkmen into her backpack there were a few voices heard coming through the hallway. Even though this was a normal thing since the teach never let them shut the door everyone sill had the tendency to look towards the door.
"Are you feeling me now Mr. Krabs?" The voices shouted with laughter as they ran through the halls and looked into the doors. The whole classroom was soon filled with laughter from even the teacher. Maddie even began to giggle until she seen the boys pass by, first it was Bryce, then Monty, then Zach, Justin, and soon it was more than half of the jock row that was jogging down laughing and saying things that made close to no sense, and this was not what kept her from laughing since normally it was always her friends that did the things like that, it was the boy that was in the back of the running line that made her face straighten up almost on an instant. Maddie hated this, she was beginning to hate and dread even seeing any of the people that were on the tapes and then something struck her mind. Why wasn't she mad at Justin? Would she be mad at Zach? How many more of her friends had a tape? But the one thing that she kept trying to keep from her mind came up in a large wave refusing to leave her mind. Would she hate herself?
