If you haven't already, please read Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher. You read it? Read it again. Now enjoy Prevent by ~dd626
Two steps behind her, I say her name.
"Skye."
She turns around. Her face looks very... despondent, like she'd given up on life. Hannah's voice echoes through my head.
Some of you did care. Just not enough.
And I'm sorry.
God, I was an idiot. Two weeks ago, I could have stopped Hannah from walking down that same stretch of hallway that Skye and I were now walking on. Standing on.
Skye gives me the same, eerie smirk she gave me on the bus. "Hello, Clay." As if she was challenging me to do something. But something looks off. Her eyes look... sad. Like that expression where one little breeze collapses everything. I couldn't let her walk away now.
"Skye. Where are you going?"
She only smirks again, but says nothing. Her baggy navy sweats seem permanently wrinkled. She isn't opening up to me, like I had hoped, so I change tactics
"I just wanted you to know that..." Oh God. I'm going to say the same thing that's been running through my head last night. "... that... that I'm always here for you. If you wanna, y'know... talk." Stupid Clay. I make that sound awkward. Skye must have sensed it, because she raises her eyebrows in amusement. At least the smirk fades a little.
"Clay, I've always liked you. Always. But Porter's waiting for you. So, see ya 'round." Skye turns and walks away, leaving me standing there, shocked. I think back to last night on the bus. Looking back at Skye's window, with her head leaned against the cool glass, eyes closed, it reminds me so much of Hannah, how defeated she looked when I saw her walking out of Mr. Porter's room and down the same hallway.
Out of her life.
I run after Skye. Something was definitely up. I round the corner and collide smack into her back. She turns around, looking surprised.
"Clay! What's going on?" She glares at me, demanding an explanation. Only, this time, her eyes look more like the pair of eyes I brushed off last night.
"What is it, Skye? What's happening in your life?" I ask hurriedly. God, Skye was always beautiful, but she chooses to hide in baggy clothes and avoid conversations with people. I watch her carefully as she frowns, marring her lovely features.
"What makes you think anything's wrong, Clay?" Skye asks. I notice a kind of caution and relief in her voice. Like she's happy someone noticed what was going on with her. I am again reminded of how similar Skye's actions were to Hannah's behavior before she...
God. I can't believe I didn't do anything.
"Clay?" Skye repeats, her blue eyes boring into mine. "What's making you think something's wrong with my life?"
I hesitate, wondering how to begin. Footsteps echo through my ears, but I don't know if I'm hearing Hannah's footsteps or Skye's.
"Skye, you've haven't been yourself lately-" That was the wrong thing to say.
"No. Really, Clay?" Skye snaps at me.
"I mean, since eighth grade. You're beautiful, you always have been. Everyone liked you and you were happy." I pause, waiting for Skye's reaction. She only nods once.
"But since we got to high school, you withdraw into yourself. You wear baggy sweats, never smile and only snap at people or refuse to answer them."
Skye blinks for what I just realize as the first time since running into her.
"Later."
My voice comes out, firm and insisting, yet pleading. "No, now. Please."
Skye hesitates, examining me closely. Then, with her back pressed against the wall, she slowly slides down to the ground. I see her face, no matter how hard she tries to hide it. I can swear that, for a brief moment, she looks relieved. Seeing her stoic expression falter, I take it as my cue to slide next to her. A teacher glares disapprovingly at us. Whatever. Better to be mistaken for a couple of truants than to let Skye slip away. The two of us sit there, not talking, probably not breathing. Both of us will the other to do something.
"I'm not leaving you, Skye," I tell her to break the ice. "If I have to follow you all day, then so be it. What's going on with you?" I don't mean to sound so nosy, but I really do like Skye, and I refuse to let her slip away, like I did Hannah.
Skye finally looks up at me with angry blue eyes, but the anger, I can see, is part of a facade. She's been wanting someone to confide in for so long, and now was her chance, but I see that she's being careful, gauging just how much to tell me. She sighs in defeat.
"Clay. My life...it just hasn't been easy since freshmen year," Skye begins, twirling her blond hair with a black fingernail. "New school, everyone divided up into cliques made of stone, more homework... it's just been so stressful. But, like everyone, I handled it all right. I learned not to procrastinate, that the teachers were stricter, the whole nine yards."
"But what-" I start to interrupt, but Skye's words tumble over mine, overriding anything I would've said.
"If you remember, I mentioned 'cliques made of stone:' no one would take in any outsider not worthy of her attention.
"Kat, well, she was different. She saw I was usually sitting by myself and hanging out alone, and she'd invite me to sit with her, to work on projects with her, go to parties, everything."
Kat. She was always nice to everyone, but she was never like Courtney Crimsen, who only used people. No. Kat's friendliness was genuine and she meant it all the time. I find it hard to picture Skye and Kat ever being friends, but then again, it wasn't until Kat told us she was moving away that I started noticing Skye.
"She was one of the few people who actually treated me like a human being, instead of that faux polite BS people hand you just whenever. So, all's well and good, then Kat announces she's moving, and suddenly... everything started falling apart.
"Kat's friends, the one she usually hangs out with, got jealous of my relationship with their friend. They started making up rumors about me, and everyone brought into them.
I find myself relating Skye's situation to Hannah when she was talking about her ex-friend, Jessica Davis.
You would rather believe some made–up rumor than what you knew to be true.
It was easier to accept. Easier to understand. For Jessica, the rumors needed to be true.
"One was that I still wet my bed. Yeah, sure, when I was two. Another was that I kept dating behind people's backs." Skye rolls her eyes. "That one doesn't even make sense. I've never had a crush, much less a boyfriend."
She's lying. I can tell. I also realize I know on whom Skye once had a crush.
Me.
"Those rumors snowballed-" I try not to visibly cringe at the word, try not to think about Hannah. "-and people began teasing me, disrespecting me. To them, I was only seen as the bad guy, while everyone else saw themselves as 'angelic.' Kat found out, and made sure it stopped, but unfortunately, it was too late. I slid into depression, and withdrew into myself.
"Freshmen year, Courtney Crimsen-" I feel my eyes widen at her name, but I quickly control my face. Skye can't know. Shouldn't know. Fortunately, she doesn't seem to notice my expression. "-started her entire sugar-coated façade; she thought she'd look like Mother Teresa helping her newest leper: me."
Skye's situation screams Hannah; I'm must be making a visible effort to control myself, but Skye's returning smirk tells me how good of a job I'm doing.
"I found that out when I asked her to hang with me after school. She 'politely' declined, and I found out later that Courtney was going to a college party."
Just how many people were played by Courtney Crimsen, our friendly neighborhood sweetheart? I roll my eyes at her sappiness. Skye sees this, and a sliver of a smile brightens her face.
"Few days after that, I heard her talking trash about me," she continues. "I confronted her, and she and her friends threatened to make my life miserable if I told anyone (as if they could now). Being young, impressionable, and gullible, I believed her."
The bell rings, and kids pour out of classrooms. The halls become congested with wandering eyes and obnoxious voices. Skye shuts up and glares eerily back at the kids who look our way.
"Get to class," a teacher absently calls over his shoulder as he passes, but neither me nor Skye make an effort to move. The halls clear up, the bell rings, and I wait for Skye to proceed with her explanation.
"It didn't stop her friends though; they started spreading nasty things about me, making sure anyone who might've come to my defense was 'conveniently' left of out the loop.
"Not many people knew, but when Jimmy Long found out, it started to change me personality wise."
I'm stunned to say the least. All I'm thinking is that the world is going down the drain, taking every shred of kindness and morality with it. I don't dare to ask what he did; I have a sinking feeling I can give an accurate guess.
"My God. Is this why you've changed? And all this because of rumors?"
Skye nods sadly. I want to punch Jackass Jimmy and kick his jackass.
"That's unbelievable," I say, astonished. "Why would someone spread such a stupid thing?"
"I'm not sure, Clay," Skye says, as if her mind is a million miles away. "But people tend to 'exaggerate' and twist things around if they're not juicy enough."
Another one of Hannah's reasons. Foley started bragging about how Hannah supposedly let him touch under her shirt, which began her reputation and downward spiral. This sounds too familiar.
"Skye, are you thinking about suicide?" The words tumble out of my mouth before I know what I'm doing. Saying. I freeze, like a deer in headlights, cursing myself for probably the stupidest thing I've ever said as I watch Skye, who doesn't react at all, no eye widening, gasp, red-faced, rapid blinking, nothing. She just calmly looks at me and...
"Yes. I was going to do it today. I was going to take pills like Hannah Baker did. I saw that life wasn't worth living anymore."
I am about to hand out the classic, "Don't do that, Skye," but something about her words stops me.
"Saw, Skye. You said saw."
She gives me a real smile. One that brightens her face and changes the entire atmosphere. "I did say just that. Clay, you've just shown me that you care enough to run after me and make me spill my secret, one that might have killed me."
I feel myself turn red. "Skye, you wer- are my eighth grade crush... And, um...I...well..." I'm acting dumb, red, and slow, like one of Apollo's sacred cows.
Skye unexpectedly leans over and gives me a full kiss on the lips. My first thought?
This beats Andrea's kiss by miles.
I want to make a point by writing Prevent. It doesn't matter if you know or like someone. You just have to show that you care. The main theme of Th1rteen R3asons Why is how one thing can snowball into something bigger. Please, think about your actions and make sure you can live with yourself in the future. Think about how you treat others. You might not like someone, but that doesn't mean that you can be mean or rude to him/her. At the very least, be polite and show respect for the person (s)he is. Being outright hateful of someone helps no one.
Thank you.
~dd626