the reason | 13rw

f i f t y - o n e

"this is it," my mom said as she fixed my hair. 

"i know mom," i said and pushed her hands away. 

"how are you feeling?" elliot asked. 

"i don't know," i shook my head. "i'm nervous but i'm not, because i didn't do anything. i have faith i guess." 

"that's good," one of my lawyers said. "but don't get too comfortable, you have to me empathetic."

"of course," i nodded with a smile. 

i watched as the door flew open down the hall. i saw jessica and alex walk through. 

"can i?" i asked. 

"it'd be better if you didn't, we may need to pull jessica up on the stand later on. better you just smile and wave to your friends." my other lawyer explained. 

i nodded, "can we head in now?" 

"yeah, let's go." my dad said. 

....

"we'd like to put nicolette up on the stand." my lawyer said. the judged nodded as i walked up, sitting on the witness stand. i made eye contact with bryce and let out an exhale. 

"miss james," my lawyer said. "you have a lot of friends, correct?" 

"yeah i guess you could say that." i answered. 

"now were you directly friends with bryce walker?" 

"no, we only really knew each other through my brother." i said. 

"now, the summer before your freshman year, bryce had a small get together, correct?" 

"he had many of them and some parties." 

"at one in particular though, all the boys were swimming and you weren't comfortable getting in with them? how come?" 

"well i didn't know most of them that well, i'd only ever seen them around the house or at baseball games when i watched elliot. and there weren't any other girls there." 

"i see, so skip to a couple weeks later." she said. "you went over and stayed at bryce's house for a weekend, how come?" 

"my uh, my mom was going through a miscarriage and she was just upset. so was my dad and my brother wasn't home, he's gone on a trip with a friend. it pained me to be home alone with my parents so upset. bryce had told me if i ever needed anywhere to stay or any help, i could go to him." 

"so over this weekend, what happened?"

"not much," i said. "it was mostly just watching movies and hanging out. but on that sunday, hours before i was supposed to leave, bryce and i did have sexual intercourse. it was a very mutual happening. we did agree not to tell anyone though because it was my first time and i didn't want my brother to find out." 

"alright, thank you." she smiled and sat down. 

i watched at bryce's lawyer stand. 

"hi nicolette, my name is adam." he smiled. 

"hi," i said. 

"now see that weekend when you were at bryce's house, how are you so sure it was mutual?"

"well he actually instigated it." i said. "he kissed me first and proceeded to take my shirt off." 

"and you were okay with this, correct?" he asked. 

"yes," i said, "i told him verbally i was okay with it." 

"now at the party that was thrown at scott reed's house, you and bryce had a run in, in the kitchen."