Harrison Woods is a 17-year-old girl attending Arbor Coast High, a boarding school in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Her dark past including her rocky relationship with her parents and her esteemed older brother's suicide are the reasons she landed herself at...
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Jason testified first, leaving my side to make his way up to the stand. I didn't want him to go because he was the only person making me feel slightly at ease, but I knew that he had to go, and that him testifying would pay off in the end. I could survive sitting without him for a bit. The clerk next to the judge made Jason swear to tell the truth, and he complied before getting into the chilling details of his own memories of Otto, and what he remembered from the top of Mount Huron.
I was on edge the entire time he was up there. Otto's lawyer was ruthless, and didn't hesitate in asking the toughest questions. Even Jason seemed slightly caught off guard when it came to certain questions or statements.
I watched the jury's expressions as Jason spoke about the incident on the mountain, and the aftermath of getting shot by Otto. I was sure the jury could see his pain, and I'd like to think that they felt remorse for him, that there was no way they didn't believe his story about Otto cold-heartedly pulling the trigger. Even I got choked up remembering him in the hospital. I looked back at West once, sitting in the audience stands, and he was crying, too. He just sent me a weak smile before I turned back around, finding that Jason was done with his testimony.
He was helped down off of the stand and back to sit beside me, where he placed his hand on my shoulder.
"You're tense," he whispered. "It's okay, Harrison. You see what I did up there? Fucking baller."
Jason smiled at me, and even I cracked a smile at his words. His personality was just contagious. I was sure that he was the only person who could actually make me smile at a time like this.
"Jolene Wright, up to testify," the judge announced, and I spun around to watch as Jolene walked up to the stand. When she looked at me, I faintly smiled in her direction, but was met with a cold glare back at me.
Once she was sworn in, Otto's lawyer was summoned to ask her questions, and I felt myself getting jittery. I could barely sit still in my seat, but Jason kept a grip on my shoulder that calmed me.
"Miss Wright, can you tell us why you're here today?" Otto's lawyer asked, pacing back and forth slowly, as a typical lawyer would.
"I am here as a subpoena, requested by the lawyer of Harrison Woods," she told him, and he nodded. Otto's lawyer stopped pacing, then faced his body directly towards Jolene. She didn't look nervous in the least bit, and that confused me. She had been so on-edge just talking to me yesterday, surely she should have felt even more so sitting in a courtroom testifying against Otto.
What changed for her?
"Is it true that you were in a romantic relationship with my defendant, Otto Landry?" The lawyer asked.
Jolene nodded. "Yes."
"When was it that you and Mr. Landry started dating?" He continued.
