CASSETTE(Asqarini) CASSETTE
By:Asqarini

“Oh no! This wouldn’t have happened if she'd kept her hands off!”
Mia felt bad. Her face turned red, her voice sounded upset. She kept calling the girl’s name, the girl who caused her madness, Sinta.

“Arghhh.... I hate her!” she shouted.

Mia walked back toward her bedroom. The only place that made her feel comfortable, no longer there. She was not feeling the same now, because her day was already ruined. Because of Sinta, her day was bleak. Mia took her cell phone and sent a message to Sinta.

***

It started two days ago. It was a sunny Sunday morning, when she got company. That day her friend Linda came over. On her way to Mia’s house, Linda met Sinta, and when she knew that Linda was going to meet Mia, she wanted to come along. The truth was Linda did not feel comfortable with her presence. As usual, nobody really liked Sinta. But, Linda couldn’t refuse her. Besides, she knew that she needed company to visit her best friend. So, they went together to Mia’s.

“Ding dong!” The door bell rings.

Mia came down the stairs to open the door. She was very happy that Linda came to her house. She was surprised with Linda’s company, but tried to ignore it. Then they went to the bedroom. Mia told about her experience in Bandung. But, a few minutes after, the phone rang, she received it and spoke quite long. The two girls stayed in the room. Sinta looked at the cassette collection, near the bed, and saw Alanis Morissette’s new album. She took it and played it on tape. Linda was still busy reading the magazine when all of a sudden Sinta started to tell about her journey to where Mia went in Bandung. Linda ignored her, because she'd heard it a hundred times. Her face showed how desperate she was. But she kept silent, though she wished Mia would come back soon. For five minutes, Sinta kept on talking, making Linda feel bored. Then, she remembered something and asked about the tape.

“Hey where’s the song?”

With that, she made Sinta stop talking and she checked the tape. She pushed another button and then the music was on again. They listened together. Not long after, Mia finally came and started to talk a very long talk.

***

Two days later, Mia went back home from school, and no one was in the house. She took her tape from where she usually stashed it and turned it on: but a moment after she heard no music, but instead the voices she knew very well. It was her friend’s voices.

“What? What’s going on? Wait a minute! They recorded their voices on my cassette? They must have pushed the record button! No way!”

Mia checked the tape again, to make sure that the voices were really her friend’s voices. She played it over and over; no doubt about it, it’s them. She got panicked and confused. Her cassette, Alanis Morissette’s album with the singers real autograph, was a gift for her birthday, from her cousin in Canada. And now, it was broken.

“I can’t believe this?” she mumbled to herself; trying to manage her anger, she took a deep breath and tried to calm down. She took her cell phone and sent Linda a text. “Linda, what did you do with my cassette, yesterday? There are you're voices on it.” She typed. The message was sent. Not long after, Linda replied.

“No, I didn’t do a thing with your cassette. I swear” was Linda’s reply text.

“But it is a recording of your voice and Sinta’s?” Mia sent another text reply.

“I was reading a magazine, the one who played the tape was Sinta. How come our voices are on the cassette?” Linda asked back.

Mia didn’t have time to reply again; all she needed was to ask the last person who was also there, Sinta. She had to ask for an explanation. She tried to call her number but it was off. Then she decided to text her.

“Did you break my cassette? Your voice is on it; what did you do?” she sent the message right away. Mia couldn’t accuse Linda. She knew her best friend, Linda, and she was telling the truth. Mia waited for a very long time, but Sinta’s reply never came through. And the phone kept offline until the day after.

***

The next day at school lunch break, abruptly, Mia came to Sinta and asked for answers from her. She came right at her and gave her the look.

“You broke My Alanis?” she asked Sinta and at the same time tried to calm down.

“Broke what?” Sinta replied with that innocent look. Mia was losing her patience.

“Didn’t you read my text?” the tone got a little high. “What did you do with my cassette? Now your voice is on this cassette!” Mia could not say another word.

“But I didn’t do….,I just….” Sinta tried to explain, but Mia ‘s voice stopped her short.

“If you ever want to use any of my belongings. You should ask for my permission first! You’ve made me mad at the wrong person, Linda, and I even thought she was the one who broke it. How come you didn’t ask?” Mia could not help herself.

“I thought if it’s fine with Linda, it’s fine with me…” answered Sinta. Her voice was low.

“Cause she’s my best friend! And she never broke my stuff!” Mia replied with a high voice.

“I think…” she replied. But Mia continued, and did not give Sinta a chance to say anything more. “Well maybe it’s time for you to do things with responsibility? from the moment you came with Linda that day, somehow I sensed something would happen… and you know? I should’ve listened to my friend’s warning about you!” Mia couldn’t talk to her again. She left Sinta alone.

Sinta was really sad and felt hurt about what she heard. She knew that it was hard to do the right things and to have others accept her. She hoped that coming to visit Mia would make Mia like her, and she could be a part of her gang, truly welcomed. Maybe she could really make friends with a popular girl like Mia. But that stupid thing she did at Mia’s house would make it more hard for her to find friends. She would be lucky if no one would hate her.

At that time, Linda, who had been observing them, came walking up to Sinta. “Hey, what was that?’ asked Linda.

“Nothing,” Sinta tried to hide her emotions. She walked away and left Linda. She did not want to tell anyone about it.

***

“She didn’t even say sorry.” explained Mia.

”Well maybe it’s because she didn’t know what to say. But you shouldn’t have talked to her like that. I saw her face Mia. She really looked shocked” answered Linda. Then she continued, ”Mia, listen, maybe she’s a little bit annoying, and has a tendency to be irresponsible, and she just can’t stopped talking about her life, Oh My GOD?!, but I think she didn’t mean any harm. You should have seen her that day. I think she was really sad, you know?”

“Well,…uh…” Mia sighed and took a very long breath. ”I don’t know, Lin, perhaps I was too hard on her and yes, I admit I said something horrible to her. But it’s my Alanis, a gift from Canada. I just got angry!” Mia tried to explain things. “If only she‘d asked for my permission first. Well….I don’t know….Like…right till now, she didn’t even text me or anything and say sorry, or at least look like she felt sorry about it.”

“If only she would talk to me, maybe things would be different,” Mia thought to herself.

It took time to replace the broken cassette with a new one. Sinta knows that Mia still feels upset, and doesn’t want to talk with her again. But she really wishes she could say sorry. That day someone put something on Mia’s desk. Someone who tried to fix her stupid mistake.

***

Jakarta, year 2006

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