Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Twenty-Six

"You look beautiful." He said. I don't know why, but the words sent a tingle up my body, and my breath hitched in my throat. "Sorry." He quickly said.

"For saying I look beautiful?" I asked.

"Yes." He said.

"I uh. . I can't believe you're like really going to be living with us." I said, walking over to the bench fully and sitting down next to Justin. He nodded his head.

"Yeah. . is it going to be weird?" He asked. I shook my head.

"Not for me, no." I said.

"I just, can't believe your parents are adopting me. Which like, why anyone would want to do that, I don't know." He said, which made me frown. He was never shown love at home, so he feels like he doesn't deserve it.

"I do." I said softly. Justin turned to look at me, and then turned his whole body to face me.

"Do you ever think about it?" He asked in a softer tone, his eyes looked down before looking back at me. "Doing what Hannah did?" He asked. I was surprised that he asked me a question that heavy, but I shook my head.

"No. I don't. With everything that happened, I. . I never thought that was the way to go." I said, turning to face Justin, and I laid my hand down on his knee.

"I've had some shitty days. . but, I always wanted to live." He said, and I nodded my head.

"Yeah." I said.

"I wanted to be alive."

"I know."

Justin continued to look at me, and I felt the magnetic pull. It was like something about him that I couldn't stay away from. I leaned in as he did and let him kiss me. I haven't kissed him in nearly 7 months. The familiar feeling made me feel warm on the inside. I stood up in front of Justin and reached behind my back and unzipped my dress letting it fall so that I was just in my underwear in front of him. I was ready for it, I knew I was. I sat down on his lap, as his arms wrapped around me, and lips immediately kissed the top of my breasts, before coming back up to my lips.

You could probably guess what happened next.

•

I stood in the bathroom, looking in the mirror and putting some lipstick back on. I had to fix myself up after the encounter in the locker room. Then the stall door opened and Chlöe came walking out. As much as I felt sympathy that she couldn't testify against Bryce because she was scared, the fact that she chose to continue dating him. That's what I have a problem with, and I don't want to be associated with her.

"Imogen." She said.

"What?" I snapped, turning to walk out.

"Please?" She said, and I turned back around.

"What? What do you want?"

"I don't know what to do." She said, and I shook my head while scoffing. What to do would've been to break up with Bryce the minute she testified. Like I said, I understand she got scared on the stand with him staring right at her and she couldn't testify against him, but after? After everything that's happened and she still chose to stay with him?

Pathetic.

"You don't know what to do?" I asked her.

"Imogen, I'm pregnant." She said. Those three words sent me in a state of shock. She was pregnant, with Bryce Walker's baby, and my eyes widened as I now understood the words that had just came out of her mouth.

What was she going to do?

•

"Wait, no, no, Imogen don't go outside."

Is what I heard when I was about to walk out of the doors, but Justin's hand was on my wrist and he pulled me back. The urgency in his voice made me worry that something was wrong, and the fear in his eyes let me know that something was.

"What's going on? Where's Clay?" I asked, and Justin's silence worried me. Did something happen to my brother, is he okay? "Justin, what's going on?" I asked.

"Tyler it outside. . and he has guns. A lot of them." Justin said, which made my eyes widen.

"What?!" I exclaimed.

"Clay's trying to talk him out of shooting up this entire dance." Justin said.

"What!?" I exclaimed again, and then I tried to walk past Justin to get outside, but he grabbed my waist. "Let go of me." I said.

"You're not going out there." He said.

"And you're not the boss of me." I said, getting out of his grasp and quickly running outside, where I saw Tyler holding a gun, and when Clay turned around and saw me, he shook his head as I approached them.

"Imogen, go back inside." He said, and I shook my head before walking closer to them. Tyler had the gun fixated on my brother as I slowly walked up to them.

"Tyler, listen to me. . I don't know what happened, or why you feel like you have to do this. I know that I haven't always been the nicest person to you, and that's on me, but please. We can talk about this, you don't have to do this. Violence only begets more violence, this isn't the answer." I said, shaking my head.

"This gets things done, so no one knows not to mess with me. Now listen to your brother, and go back inside." He snapped, and I shook my head.

"If you're going to go through with this. . you might as well shoot me right now." I said to him, and then I took a deep breath. "So what is it going to be, Tyler?" I asked. He looked back and forth between me and Clay before Tony came up in his car.

"Tyler. . give me the gun." Clay said.

"Hurry up, now!" Tony said. He was risking everything by getting involved with this because he was on his third strike, and I heard the police sirens in the distance, it wouldn't take long before they got here. Tyler handed his gun over to Clay before getting in Tony's car and Tony sped off. I let out a deep breath and looked at Clay as I heard the sirens get closer.

"Imogen, go inside. . no need for you to get in trouble with this too." He said, and I shook my head before laying my hand down on his shoulder.

"Me and you, Clay-Clay. . we're in this together."

•

Well a SHIT TON went down in this chapter, and this is the last part of season two so this book is officially on hiatus since season 3 hasn't been released yet, and after season 3 has been released, give me a couple months before I start typing chapters of season 3. When I 'watch' stuff to type it, I'm not really watching it, so I actually want to watch and process season 3 before I start inserting Imogen into stuff.

Don't forget to vote/comment.

xoxo.