Cassette 3: Side B
- This tape will talk about Valentine's Day. Hannah says that before Valentine's Day, the cheerleaders put on a fundraiser for cheer camp.
- For five dollars you could get a list with five phone numbers of people at school who were a good match for you. You filled out a survey describing yourself and your ideal partner.
- In her survey, Hannah described an actual person at their school. She doesn't want to say his name... yet. That person didn't end up on her list of matches.
- Clay remembers the list. He'd used the name Holden Caulfield – the main character from The Catcher in the Rye, the book they were reading in school.
- He filled it out as if he really were Holden. No wonder his list of soul mates was pretty weird!
- Clay thought of the whole thing as a joke, for entertainment purposes only.
- Hannah, on the other hand, was really stressing about whether to even turn in her survey. It might just open her up to more abuse from guys who'd heard the rumors about her.
- Finally she decided to take a chance and do it.
- Clay realizes that if he'd filled his survey out as himself, Hannah probably would have ended up on his list. He wonders if he would have called her.
- He remembers applying for the job at the movie theater just because Hannah worked there. But they never talked seriously; Clay was too afraid.
- On the day the results came out, Hannah went to the office and paid her five bucks.
- A cheerleader, whose name isn't revealed on this tape, gave her the list.
- On the list was the person this tape is about: Marcus Cooley.
- Hannah liked him; he was really funny and cute. And as Hannah and the cheerleader talked about Hannah's list, Marcus called Hannah on her cell phone.
- He said he was watching her. She looked up and saw him through the glass.
- Marcus asked her out, and they planned to meet at Rosie's after school.
- The cheerleader was really excited and wanted to know if she could tell the other cheerleaders about this success story. Hannah told her she could, but to wait until tomorrow, just in case it didn't work out.
- Hannah says on tape that she isn't giving the cheerleader's name because she was super nice to Hannah that day and isn't to blame for what happened with Marcus.
- Clay is pretty sure that the cheerleader is Jenny Kurtz. He remembers that Jenny seemed upset when she heard that Hannah had killed herself.
- Back on the tape, Hannah says that the listeners should now go to Rosie's.
- It's not that Hannah really trusted Marcus. He himself wasn't so bad, but she definitely didn't trust the people he hung out with.
- But if she wanted other people to look beyond the rumors about her, she had to give other people the benefit of the doubt, too, right?
- So she went to Rosie's to give Marcus a chance.
- Clay turns off the tape for a minute when his phone starts ringing. It's his mom: she wants to make sure he's okay, and she asks if he needs anything.
- He asks her if she can get the rest of the tapes from the garage and bring them to him at Rosie's. He says he's going to be working on that history project there with his friend.
- Clay returns to the tapes to hear the rest of Hannah's story about Marcus.
- Hannah waited at Rosie's for Marcus for half an hour. She felt very nervous and awkward, because you don't really go to Rosie's alone. It was pretty obvious she was waiting for someone.
- She was about to leave when Marcus showed up. He said he thought Hannah was probably kidding about the date, but he decided to show up just in case.
- He took her to a booth and had her get in first, so she was smushed in between him and the wall.
- Right away, he put his hand on her knee, then started moving it up her leg.
- He wouldn't stop when she asked, and she ended up pushing him out of the booth. He fell on the floor and then left, calling her "a tease" (8.257).
- On his way to Rosie's, Clay passes the Crestmont, the movie theater where he and Hannah worked together. He wishes he'd reached out to her.
- He also wishes he'd he used that rock on Marcus.
- The Crestmont is closed, and Clay stands outside, remembering the night Bryce Walker came into the movies with a girl.
- The girl left the movie before it was over. She looked like she was crying, and she had her hand on her wrist.
- Bryce came out after the movie and talked to Hannah for a long time. She was laughing and smiling like she liked him.
- Clay remembers wanting to tell Bryce to go, but he decided that Hannah could handle herself.
- When Bryce finally left, Clay tried to talk to Hannah about him, and Hannah said she knew just what kind of a guy Bryce was.
- So why was she talking to him? He remembers Hannah telling him, "You don't need to watch out for me, Clay" (8.291).
- Clay feels like he should have watched out for her, after all. He did try, but she wouldn't let him in.
- Now Clay imagines Hannah asking him the same thing he's asking himself: "Why didn't you try harder?" (8.293)