Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Seven

PRESENT TIME
CLASSROOM
THIRD PERSON'S POV

Imogen Jensen and Jessica Davis both sat in their shared classroom together.

Imogen so badly wanted to tell Jessica about what Clay told her this morning, but she didn't know how Jessica would take it. She knew she felt horrible and had mixed feelings about it, but Jessica didn't know the sweet, caring side of a younger Bryce that she knew.

"May I have your attention, please? Moments ago, we received some extremely sad news from the Evergeen Country Sheriff. Former Liberty Student Bryce Walker was found this morning and has been confirmed dead."

Jessica's eyes slightly looked over and Imogen met her gaze, the two of them sharing a look. Jessica could see the sadness in Imogen's eyes, and Imogen could see the conflict in hers as Principal Bolan continued in the announcement.

"This is the only information we have at this time, but we ask that you keep his family in your thoughts today. Crisis counseling services will be available for all students, and we encourage everyone who may need help to reach out."

When the two girls left the classroom, and went out into the hallway, they noticed that people continued to look at them as they passed by. Imogen was thinking in her head, of course people would be thinking, who else would be the ones to kill him if not two of the girls that he raped.

"Jess, Imogen, wait up." Alex Standall said, once he caught them in the hallway, but the girls continued to walk.

"What do you want, Alex?" Jessica asked.

"I want to see how the two of you are doing." Alex said, which made them both stop and turn around.

"How are we doing? How am I doing? Everyone is looking at us like we must be glad that he's dead. Like we did something." Jessica said, and Alex shook his head.

"But the two of you didn't do anything." Alex said, and then he took a step closer to Jessica. "Jess. .-" She cut him off and backed away from him.

". .-Don't. Okay? Just don't." Jessica said, turning on her heels and walking away. Imogen looked at Alex and gave him a frown. She knew that it hurt Alex when Jessica broke up with him, again. And she really did feel bad, but maybe this was the sign they needed that they weren't meant to be a couple. Alex only gave her a small smile back.

Then she followed after Jess.

―

LIBRARY
THIRD PERSON'S POV

"We need to talk about Imogen." Ani said to Clay Jensen as they sat in the library. They were sitting in a different part than Imogen was. Imogen was sitting by herself with a book in her hand. Clay noticed that over the summer. . well actually ever since she quit cheerleading that Imogen has gotten back into her love of books.

"What about my sister?" Clay asked, immediately becoming suspicious of Ani. She reached into her bookbag and pulled out a piece of paper that she had found in Bryce's room last night.

"I don't know if this is anything. I really hope it isn't anything, but I found this in Bryce's room last night." Ani said, unfolding the paper and setting it down in front of Clay. He first examined the paper and saw from the pencil colored over in dark, whatever was on this page, Bryce had completely erased it, but with Ani shading over it, you could still see some words that were on the page and the first thing Clay noticed at the top of the page.

Imogen's name.

"You were in his room?" Clay asked, looking at her.

"I put in front of you, a paper from Bryce with your sister's name on it, and your takeaway was that I was in his room?" Ani asked back, when Clay said nothing, Ani looked back to the paper. "It means that he was writing to her just before he died." Ani continued.

"But. . writing to her why?" Clay asked.

"Can't stop thinking about you. Replaying that night in my mind." Ani read what she could uncover from the note, and Clay looked on in disbelief. Bryce wrote this to Imogen? He didn't want to believe that.

"Jesus!" Clay said.

"He was thinking about her, and he planned to reach out. And if he did. ." Ani trailed off, as they both looked up and looked through the glass of the room they were sitting in to look at Imogen who was still deep in the book she was reading.

"Ani, this is my sister we're talking about. She and Bryce have a lot of history before all the shit of last year even went down. I don't think she would kill him. The guilt would kill her." Clay said.

"What about Jessica? They're best friends, and Bryce hurt her just like he hurt Imogen." Ani said.

"You really think one of them could've done it?" Clay asked.

"I know Imogen is your twin and Jessica is your friend. . but do you really think neither of them could?"

―

"She's never here this late." Ani whispered to Clay. It was now after school and Imogen was still in the library, this time with a different book in her hand from the one that they saw her reading earlier. Clay had no idea how Ani knew that much about Imogen's schedule, but he knew for sure that she was never here this late.

"Is she waiting for someone?" Clay asked. Imogen looked up and caught her brother looking at her, and then rolled her eyes when she watched him try to look away and write on his paper.

"What do you want, Clay?" She asked.

"W. .-What?" He asked. Imogen rolled her eyes, standing up and walking over to them, because she was irritated, because she knew what Clay and Ani were thinking. It was the same thing that everyone in the damn school had been thinking since Bolan made his announcement.

"Look, I don't know anything about anything, and neither does Jessica. We haven't seen Bryce since court and we don't know how we feel about it, okay?" Imogen slightly lied. She has seen Bryce since court. She went to his house over the summer, but decided not to tell Clay about it, because she didn't think he needed to know. Clay immediately nodded his head.

"Okay, yes. Sorry." Clay quickly apologized to his sister. He learned last year during trial not to push his sister too hard on things she didn't want to talk about or still needed to process.

"So, he hadn't been in touch or anything?" Ani asked, and Imogen's eyes immediately snapped to her and they slightly narrowed.

"Why do you care? About Bryce? Because you live in his guest house? Thought you weren't around him much?" Imogen snapped at her, and Ani shook her head.

"I guess I don't. . really." Ani said.

"Good. So drop it." Imogen said, before turning around and walking away from the two of them. She grabbed her bag and left the library and when she walked out. Ani turned to Clay.

"She's lying. I know for a fact she's talked to Bryce since court because I saw it happen."

―

Imogen. . talking to Bryce? Goodness, about what? You'll find out next chapter :)

Don't forget to vote/comment.

xoxo.