Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Seventeen

JENSEN HOUSEHOLD
IMOGEN'S POV

My dad and I were in the kitchen, I think he was doing the crosswords in the newspaper, while I was doing my homework, with a cup of coffee next to me, when Clay came downstairs alone. After the tension of everything that happened last night, everyone just needed to breath and calm down. I don't know where my mom was, and I haven't seen Justin since last night either, so I don't know where he's at either.

"No Justin this morning? He's usually the first one up." My dad said when Clay came downstairs and into the kitchen. He said that to me too, well, he said he was surprised I was the first one down here because usually Justin is.

"He's. . not our problem anymore." Clay said, wait a minute, what did that mean? Is he gone?

"What does that mean? He's not our problem?" My dad asked.

"It means he's gone. . he took off." Clay said, sitting down with his empty coffee cup in his hand.

"Did you try calling him?" Dad asked.

"He doesn't have a phone." I said.

"Your mother gave him one, on the family plan." Dad said, which was a shock to both me and Clay. I had no idea that mom bought him a phone, and why didn't he say anything. Alright, so where did he go?

"Of course she did." Clay said, scoffing which made me roll my eyes. His behavior lately, was really starting to piss me off.

"Well, we should call him." Dad said, pulling his phone out of his pocket and then he sighed. "I don't have his number. I imagine the phone company will have it in our records." Dad said.

"Jesus, why do you care?" Clay snapped, which made my dad look up. "He had a bed, he had food, he had new clothes, and a new phone, apparently, and he didn't want any of it, so why don't we just let him go?" Clay said, which made me roll my eyes.

"Did you ever stop to consider why he might've run away, you idiot? He heard us arguing with mom and dad last night and probably felt like he was the reason for all these issues even though you were the one who snuck him in here, so if you didn't care, why'd you bring him here in the first place?" I said, rolling my eyes, adn then I looked at my dad.

"If you want to look for him. . I'll help you." I said. The situation between Justin and myself might be complicated, but that doesn't mean I want anything to happen to him. At least when he was here living with us, I knew he was safe and not out on the streets somewhere. My dad nodded at me before looking at my brother.

"Clay, what's this about? He's scheduled to testify on Monday, and that was so important to you, you smuggled him in here, as your sister said." Dad said.

"Where's Mom?" Clay said, of course changing the subject.

"Your mother and I had a. . disagreement last night." Dad said.

"Yeah, I was there." Clay said.

"And, she's staying with her sister for a few days." He said.

"Why?" I asked.

"Oh, just to give us both time to figure things out. The past few weeks have been stressful around here for all of us." Dad said.

"Let's move." Clay said. Now, I've officially come to the conclusion, that my brother has lost his mind. "Let's start over somewhere, just you, me and Imogen." He said.

"Oh, so just fuck mom?" I asked.

"Clay, it's. . it's not permanent. Your mom and I are just cooling off." He said.