Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Twelve

COURTROOM
THIRD PERSON'S POV

Sonya stepped up to make her cross examination, and that's when Imogen's nerves came back. She knew how hard she was on everyone else, so she was nervous about the questions that she was going to ask. When she noticed Sonya looking at the pictures, she took in a deep breath, trying to mentally prepare herself for what's to come.

"Imogen, you say you don't know the meaning behind these pictures?" Sonya asked her.

"Objection. Asked and answered." Dennis said from where he was seated.

"Move on Miss Struhl." The judge said to her. She nodded her head.

"Let me rephrase. . Imogen, do you know who would want to ruin your reputation by putting up pictures like this?" She asked. The only person she knew that would want to keep her quiet is Bryce, but threatening her, didn't seem like Bryce's style to her.

"No, I don't." She responded.

"Now, you spoke on the bullying culture at Liberty, but failed to mention how you're apart of that culture." She said. Imogen started to get nervous. Surely both sides knew about the tapes. The one thing her mom did tell her was that the tapes weren't entered into evidence and she wondered why, Hannah told everything that happened on the tapes.

"I'm sorry, I don't know what you mean." Imogen said.

"Right now, who would you consider to be your best friends?" She asked.

"Uh, Jessica Davis, Montgomery De La Cruz and Zach Dempsey." She said, not sure where Sonya was going with this question.

"Montgomery has been named to be a big bully at school, would you agree with this? Have you seen him bully other people, and does the school know about it?" Sonya asked. Imogen thought back onto the many instances that she's seen, but they've mainly just been him defending her when Tyler was being creepy, or Marcus was being stuckup, or Bryce was being a pig, he never did anything Jeff didn't used to do.

"No, Monty isn't a bully. I've never been a bully either." Imogen said.

"So you've never done anything wrong by Hannah that's gone undected by the school?" She asked. Imogen's eyes met her mom's. Could she really sit here and lie under oath? Lie in front of her parents, in front of Hannah's parents?

"Yes. . I have." She said in a low voice. "It was over the summer. It was the peak of my life in high school. I had my best friend, Jeff before he died, I had my boyfriend, I had my other friends. It felt like nothing could stop me." She said.

"So would you really say it was the school that drove Hannah to her decision, or was it everyone else who pushed her to make that decision?" She asked. Imogen looked up at Hannah's parents, knowing the answer they wanted her to give, but she didn't know if she could. Is the school really to blame?

"Hannah. . she. . she was my friend. She was beautiful, kind, smart, funny. . but she also overdramatized certain situations. When the list came out, I told her to roll with it, that it wasn't a big deal, the boys would get over it. .-" Imogen was cut off.

". .-Easy for you to say, since you were given what? Best kisser?" Sonya asked.

"Sure, it's a compliment, and how is saying someone has a great ass isn't? All day after that list came out, everyone came up to me, teasing about how much they wanted to kiss me to see if the list got it right, but I just rolled with it, because it wasn't that serious. Hannah took it too seriously." Imogen said, she knew that wouldn't help the Baker's case, but she had to tell the truth.

"Did Hannah take anything else too seriously?" Sonya asked. Imogen looked at her mom and Lainie saw how much her daughter didn't want to be on the stand anymore, but there wasn't anything she could do. She already gave up the case, and they were iffy on letting Lainie sit in.

"No, no she didn't. The guys there, they make girls feel like objects, not people." She said.

"But you said the list didn't bother you." Sonya said.

"It didn't, but the culture at Liberty High is deeper than a stupid list. But you just have to know the right people and be able to keep your head down." She said.

"So you're saying Hannah didn't know the right people?" Sonya asked.

"If Hannah would've stayed around me, Jeff, and Clay. . maybe we could've saved her. I know mine and Hannah's friendship fell out, but I never wanted her to die." Imogen said.

"Why did your friendship fallout?" Sonya asked.

"Jealousy, lack of communication, normal girl stuff." Imogen said.

"Jealousy of what?" Sonya asked.

"At the time. . I thought Hannah was jealous of my relationship with Justin, which upset me because she had only kissed him, one time, and I've known Justin my entire life, so I was mad that she was jealous." Imogen said.

"Justin as in Justin Foley?" Sonya asked.

"Yes, my ex-boyfriend, now. But at the time of Hannah's suicide, we were together." She said.

"Why did you break up?" Sonya asked.

"I'm sorry. . but aren't I here to talk about Hannah? The reason my relationship with Justin ended has nothing to do with her." Imogen said.

"Did you break up because of Hannah's suicide?" She asked.

"No." Imogen said. She wanted the topic to be switched because if she kept asking her questions, she was going to be forced to say she got raped on stand. Bryce isn't the one on trial today.

"Is it true that Justin, your boyfriend at the time was the one who spread around that picture of Hannah to the whole school?" She asked.

"No. And he wasn't my boyfriend at that time either." She said.

"But the picture came from Justin Foley's phone." Sonya replied.

"Don't you know high school? Just because it came from someone's phone, doesn't mean that's the person who sent it." Imogen said.

"Did you send it?" Sonya asked. 

"Of course not." Imogen responded back. 

"Have you ever done something to Hannah, that would be considered bullying on school grounds?" Sonya asked. Imogen knew she had to answer, and she had to be honest. 

"No. . it wasn't on school grounds." She said. Sonya nodded her head before turning to the judge. 

"No further questions." 

•

Oh, this cross examination sucked. Sorry. There might be a flashback, I don't know, because I don't know what to do, so there's probably not going to be one. 

Comments are always appreciated. 

xoxo, Micah.