Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Twenty-Five

PRESENT TIME
OUTHOUSE
IMOGEN'S POV

"Of course that's the picture they'd use." Clay said as he, Justin and myself were all sitting at the counter in the kitchen and looking at Clay's laptop. Of course there were tons of articles online about how Clay was the main suspect. Ever since Justin, 'broke things off,' I've been avoiding him. Sure, I'll be in the same room as him, as long as Clay or one of my parents are in there too, but I don't say anything to him.

He really hurt my feelings by first lying to me, and expecting me to believe that he cheated on me, and then just breaking up with me, after clearly saying that he didn't want what we had to end. I'm so sick of boys and their mixed signals.

"Yeah, dude, that is not your best look." Justin said back to him.

"You're also not looking that great right now, either. Did you sleep at all last night?" I asked my brother. He honestly looked a mess. Exhausted, strung out, I know he didn't sleep.

"Yeah." He said, taking a sip of his coffee, but I didn't believe him.

"Are you having nightmares again?" I asked.

"Not again, they never stopped." Clay said, which made me frown.

"Shouldn't you be talking to someone?" Justin asked, and I nodded my head.

"Dad did suggest going back to our therapist." I said.

"Shouldn't the two of you?" Clay fired back at us. What would Justin have to talk about? Okay bad question. Justin would have everything in the world to talk to a therapist about. He never met his father, his mother was a drug addict who just let any kind of man around him, then the whole Seth period of his life, right down to Bryce's murder.

We all have a lot of baggage.

"Who do I talk to? What do I say? 'I didn't kill Bryce. I'm not crazy?' I feel like that actually makes me sound like a crazy person who killed Bryce." Clay said, and then Clay's phone started to vibrate and Justin looked down at it.

"Mrs. Baker? Sorry. Is she back in town?" Justin asked. Oh, I didn't know she was back. I know she was in town, the week of the Homecoming game, because we met up and talked. It was nice to see her again and to catch up. She really has been doing well lately and I was so happy for her. She was living in New York.

Just like Hannah always wanted to do after high school.

"What?" Clay asked taking his phone and looking down at the screen, and then he wordlessly stood up from his seat, and walked away. Justin looked at me and she sighed.

"Mim. .-" I cut him off.

". .-I'll see you guys in school."

―

LIBRARY

"Yeah, she texted us. Said she wanted to check in and see how we were doing, or whatever." Jessica explained to Clay. The two of us were in the library when Clay found us, and he considered that since he and I were no longer around Justin we could actually be candid about what happened.

"And how is she doing?" Clay asked us.

"Fine. . I guess." I said, shrugging my shoulders.

"Did she mention me at all?" Clay asked, and I noticed Jessica roll her eyes, which I was about to do as well. He has Mrs. Baker's number, and I'm pretty sure for a fact, if she contacted me and Jess, she definitely tried to contact Clay. His dumbass just probably didn't answer her calls.