Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Twenty-One

BRYCE WALKER'S HOUSE
IMOGEN'S POV

"The fuck are you three doing?" Bryce asked as he walked down the porch stairs to where we were. What we were doing was trying to prevent my brother from shooting Bryce, or shooting himself. Justin didn't take his eyes off Clay as he answered.

"Just hold on." Justin said.

"He's going to keep doing it. We have to stop him." Clay said, his eyes were directly on Bryce.

"Not like this, Clay." I said.

"I'm calling the cops." Bryce said, turning around to walk back inside.

"Just shut the fuck up and hold on, Bryce!" Justin snapped, this time he turned to look at him, before he was looking back at Clay, but just like before, Clay only had his stare hardset on Bryce.

"It's never going to get any better. You were right to run away." Clay said.

"No, I wasn't. That's why you and got me, remember? For Imogen, for Hannah." Justin said.

"Hannah wants him dead." Clay said.

"No, she doesn't, Clay. Hannah wouldn't want to keep seeing people get hurt. She wouldn't, okay?" I said, trying to talk my brother down while Justin inched closer to him to take the gun from his hands. Justin took the gun from Clay's hands, to which I let out a breath of relief.

"This is fucking ridiculous." Bryce said, turning around to walk back inside, until Justin cocked the gun. When Bryce heard the noise, he stopped walking, but he didn't turn around.

"You're going to go back inside and you're going to pour yourself another glass of whiskey, and you're going to forget that we were ever here, got it?" Justin said, but his eyes were still on my brother. Clay had taken his eyes away from Bryce and was now looking at the ground.

Bryce didn't say anything, so Justin and I each put an arm around Clay and led him back to the car. Justin opened the backseat door for him as I heard Bryce's voice. "I heard they just filed for another additional witness. That wouldn't be you by any chance, would it?" Bryce asked.

Justin walked to the passenger seat door, continuing to ignore Bryce. "You should be more scared than you are, Justin." Bryce said. Justin opened the passenger door for me before turning to Bryce.

"Bryce, I've got nothing left to lose. That makes me the dangerous one." Justin said. He has a point. When someone feels like they don't have anything to lose, there's no reason to lie or hold anything back. I got inside of the car, and Justin closed my door before getting in the drivers seat. We were silent most of the way back to the house, until I noticed something behind us.

Bright headlights.

"What the fuck?" Justin asked, he must've noticed it too.

"What is it?" Clay asked from the backseat.

"We're being followed." Justin said. I looked at Clay as he turned around to see the vehicle that was behind us.

"Are you sure?" He asked, as Justin made a turn. The vehicle that was following us, made the exact same turn, and Justin shook his head.

"We'll lose him." He said.

"Dude, it's a prius." Clay said.

"And I'm a fucking awesome driver." Justin said making a few more turns. He did eventually end up losing the car that was behind us, and we made our way back to the house. I looked at Clay as he turned around to check out the rear mirror.