"More specifically, why my life ended. And if you're listening to this tape, you're one of the reasons why. I'm not saying which tape brings you into the story. But fear not, if you received this lovely little box, your name will pop up. I promise."

Smoke fanned around Lola as she exhaled. She was sitting across Monty's lap with her light pink bong in hand, phone in the other, looking through her Instagram feed. They were hanging out at Bryce's poolhouse with everyone else. Narcotic smoke filled the room from passing blunts between the group of high school friends. 

Monty was playing video games, Call of Duty most likely. Bryce and Justin were wrestling on the floor, and Zach and Marcus were talking. Jessica was also seated on the couch, playing on her phone next to Lola, but they didn't speak. Them being next to each other was comfort alone.

Three weeks after she met Hannah.

There it was, the Crestmont movie theater. Lola had a date night with Monty, and it was her turn to choose where they went, so she decided her second favorite place in Crestmont. She was wearing an old black skater dress with a floral print on it. Lola had on the ratty purple vans that were one size too big on her and a light layer of lipstick. She also had Monty's letterman jacket on and styled her hair in a ponytail. Montgomery was wearing a flannel, white t-shirt, and jeans.

They walked up to the ticket booth, and Lola handed the worker some money, asking for two tickets to see Dunkirk, a movie that she had been begging Monty to take her to see. Why? Because Harry Styles was in it. 

When she got the tickets, she grabbed Monty's hand and dragged him inside. He groaned, not wanting to be there, but for his girlfriend's sake, he was. When they got up to the confections counter, the worker's back was to them. Lola immediately recognized the curls belonging to the new girl of Crestmont. 

"Hey, Hannah," Lola calls out, catching the attention of the girl. 

"Oh, hey, er-," She goes to respond to Lola though she forgets her name, she doesn't remember her. That's unusual because no one forgets Lola Foley.

"Lola, we met Kat's party," She answers for her.

"Oh right, Lola Foley, Justin's sister, right?" 

"Yeah."

Hannah moves her gaze to Montgomery, who stood there with his classic resting bitch face.

"Oh, sorry, this is my boyfriend, Monty De La Cruz; he's one of the athletes at Liberty High. You also met him at the party."

Monty nods his head in Hannah's direction, looking a bit annoyed his girlfriend was taking forever. Hannah looked a little intimidated by his tall figure. 

"Anyway, can we get a large popcorn, some skittles, and two beers?"

"You know I have to ask for I.D even if you're my classmates." Hannah chuckles; she would probably give it to them anyway; she just had to follow "procedure."

Lola and Montgomery both open their wallets, sliding two fake I.Ds across the counter. Hannah looked a little confused, blinking at the I.Ds before bringing her gaze back up to the couple. She takes them and checks them in the light. According to the I.Ds, Monty was 23 years old, and Lola is 21. 

Hannah nods and hands the I.Ds back to them. She then turns around and starts grabbing their snacks. A bag of skittles from under the counter, one large popcorn probably to share, and two beers from the tap earned with the fakest of I.Ds.

She sets the snacks on the counter by the cash register, "You're total is $7.54."

Montgomery nods and hands her the money, wrapping an arm around his girlfriend's waist.

"Oh Hannah, since you're new, I want to take you on a tour of the town. Is that ok?" Lola asks, going to reach for the snacks.

"Oh, um- sure."

"Ok perfect, I'll meet you at your house tomorrow after school, and then we'll go from there. Sounds good?"

"Yeah, sounds fun."

"Great," She says and leans over the edge of the counter to hug. Hannah doesn't process the hug right away but eventually reciprocates it.

She gathers all the snacks off the counter, handing the beers to Monty. She starts to walk away with him into the movie theater before she turns her head one last time, "Have a good night Hannah." 

She disappears into the theater before Hannah responds. 

"You took forever," Montgomery starts to complain when they get to their seats.

"Well, I'm trying to help a girl out, and we missed a lot of previews anyway."

"Yeah, whatever."

The two teenagers missed most of the movie anyway. They were too focused on kissing each other till they ran out of breath in the empty back row. Montgomery initiated the makeout because he was, like always, too horny to pay attention to anything other than Lola. They had spilled popcorn along the ground by accident. 

When the movie ended, they walked out, laughing and holding hands. Lola's lipstick was a bit smudged. She had a few hickeys on her neck, and her hair was messy and out of place. Monty had a hickey on his jawline and many lipstick marks on his neck, including the bit of lipstick that smudged at the corner of his mouth. His hair was also messy; like usual, there wasn't that big of a difference. They walked through the building's front door, and Lola had yet to spare a second glance in Hannah's direction.

It was okay though, Hannah didn't need to worry. She would hang out with Lola tomorrow and probably become friends with her because Lola was that type of girl. The girl that everyone loved. The girl was kind to everyone even if they didn't deserve it, but sometimes that kindness was like a punch to the face.

Present

Lola had a coughing fit after taking a hit from her bong. She was lost in a daze and not paying attention to her intake. This made the people in the room look at her. After she stopped coughing, she looked back at them.

"What? I'm fine; I wasn't paying attention," she says, and they go back to what they were doing. 

Jess puts her phone down and moves Lola to sit next to her, like a rag doll. She takes the bong sets it down on the table. Lola leans into her side, her eyes slightly red and bloodshot.

"Are you sure you're okay," Jess whispers to her friend. Lola shakes her head no. Since she's listened to the tapes, she hasn't been okay. Whatever Hannah had said, there was a bunch of lies that Lola didn't want to believe. Lola tried to be kind to Hannah, but Hannah turned out to be an annoying, lying, manipulative bitch.

"Do you want to talk about it?" Jess asks, trying to get Lola to open up to her.

"Not really; I was thinking about Hannah." Her face turns into a pout. 

"What about her?"

"How she was lying and manipulative."

Jessica hums in agreement the checks her phone. Her arm is wrapped tightly around Lola is snuggled closely into her side. Jess kisses the top of her head before standing up. Lola whines a bit before making grabby hands at Jess. 

"Please don't leave."

"I have to; my dad is going to kill me. It's already 10:00, and we have school tomorrow."

"Fine. Say hi to your parents for me, please."

"Will do! Bye Lola, come on Zach, you're my ride."

"Bye, Jess!"

Jessica gets ready to leave. She hugs all of the boys and kisses Justin goodbye. Zach bro-hugs all of them, including Lola. Once they leave, Marcus goes back into the main house with Bryce, leaving Monty, Justin, and Lola. 

She turns to her boyfriend, "Do you have to leave?"

"I haven't been home in a few days. I need to check on my sister and deal with my dad. I'll pick you up tomorrow."

"Okay, see you tomorrow," she pecks him on the lips before he walks away. "Love you."

Monty freezes for a second, "Yeah, you too." 

He walks out of the poolhouse and closes the door behind him. Justin watched the whole interaction, which was very painful to see. He felt bad for his sister, but he didn't know how to help her. He tried, though.

"You know he doesn't actually love you, right?" He asks her, moving to sit on the couch next to her.

"What are you talking about? Yeah, he does."

"Are you that blind, Lola!" He yells at her, making her flinch.

"Are you sure you're happy with him? You've been stuck in this relationship, and has he ever said he loves you? What about the tapes? Was Hannah right when she said your relationship was toxic?" 

He continued to call her out. She sat there while he yelled at her and criticized her relationship, small tears streaming down her face. Her twin never yelled at her unless it was necessary. She was also high, and because she's an emotional stoner, his words hurt a little more than usual. She was also a little mad Justin was interfering with her relationship.

"What the fuck, Justin. When did it become your place to talk shit about my relationship. It's my relationship, and I don't remember you ever being in it, so kindly, fuck off. And for your information, Monty has told me he loves me, you've just never heard it."

From there, she laid on one of the couches, away from Justin, ready to ignore him for the rest of the night. She soon fell into a light sleep with dried tears on her face. She heard some shuffling and then Justin laid next to her, wrapping his arms around her. She was startled. Justin usually took forever to apologize.

"I'm sorry," He said, "I shouldn't have yelled."

She nods and snuggles closer into him. He kisses the top of her head like Jessica had done earlier that night. They both fall asleep. Just a pair of twins, 2 hours apart, with nothing else in the world. Just a brother and a sister, no cassette tapes, no Hannah Baker, no boyfriends or girlfriends, no toxic relationships, just them. A little peace for just one night.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 

"You're going to the park with Hannah?"

Justin had started taking a liking to Lola's new friend. Hannah had also started taking a liking to Justin. They had decided they were going to meet at the park, leaving Lola alone at home. Her mom and her mom's boyfriend were nowhere to be seen, for which she was thankful. She was doing homework when Justin left and still doing homework when he came back. This was before the incident, when Lola still had straight A's.

He walked into their shared bedroom, a smile on his face. 

"How'd it go?"

"It was amazing. She's amazing."

Lola looked at him suspiciously, "You kissed her, didn't you?"

He scratches the back of his head, "Uh- yeah, maybe."

Lola pats him on the back before walking to the bathroom to get ready for bed. While in the bathroom, she hears Justin's phone ring multiple times. She smiles to herself; he was probably texting Hannah.

They get ready for school the following day. Montgomery picks them up in his Jeep to take them to Liberty High. When they get there, they join their group of friends, Jocks plus Lola. Justin is showing them a photo he took of Hannah last night. When Lola gets a good look at it, she sees Hannah on the slide at Eisenhower Park. She's wearing a dress that flew up, making her underwear showing. 

"What the fuck is that, Justin," She asks, venom in her voice.

"It's just a picture, don't worry about it."

Lola didn't want to be around the boys when they were acting like that. They were all talking about Hannah in the most degrading way. She had missed Bryce send the photo around, though, to everyone in Justin's contact. She walked away to get to communications before the bell rang. She didn't want to be in that class, but Mr. Porter recommended it to the office staff after she had gotten into a fight. 

When she got there, she sat at the empty desk across from Hannah, starting a conversation.

"So, Justin tells me you guys kissed on your date last night," She stated, trying to get some juicy details from Hannah.

"He told you?" There was a slight panic in her voice.

"No, I guessed; why?"

"Oh, nothing."

"Okay, so how was it?"

"Justin didn't tell you."

"I mean, he did, but I want to know what you think of him."

"Well, he's super sweet. His smile is everything. I noticed you guys have a similar smile. He's perfect and so fun to hang around..."

"All because of that damn smile"

Lola smiled as Hannah talked about her brother. She seemed to like him very much, and Lola was happy Hannah found someone, even if it was her brother. 

Mrs. Bradley had started communications when a bunch of phones started going off. Lola and Hannah looked confused until Lola's phone chimed. She looked down at it and saw it was a text notification from Justin. She opened it. 

Justy 💙

*One attachment*

The second she opened it, she regretted it. Her hand flew up to her mouth and she immediately looked at Hannah. Everyone else also stole glances in Hannah's direction, making Lola believe they got the same text as her.

"A rumor based on a kiss ruined a memory that I hoped would be special. In fact, it ruined just about everything as you'll soon see."

She looked over at Justin and glared at him. "What the fuck," She mouthed at him from across the room. He just shrugged in response. She was so mad at him. Hannah trusted him and he sent around that awful photo of her. She looked at Hannah with a sympathetic smile but Hannah just frowned.

"See, I've heard so many stories about me now, that I don't know which one is the most popular. But I do know which is the least popular: The Truth. See, the truth isn't always the most exciting version of things, or the best or the worst. It's somewhere in between. But it deserves to be heard and remembered. The truth will out, like someone said once. It remains."

Word count: 2431

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