Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Twenty-Two

PRESENT TIME
JENSEN HOUSEHOLD
IMOGEN'S POV

"Yo! Mimi, you ready? Let's go!" I heard Justin exclaim when he and Clay walked inside of the house, but I was sitting in the dining room with my parents and Dennis. The police named Clay as their person of interest this morning, and I had a feeling that everything was only going to go downhill from here. Justin and Clay both noticed all of our faces and they immediately knew something was wrong.

"What happened?" Clay asked.

"Clay, honey. . sit down." Mom said. I stood up, so Clay could take my chair and I walked over to stand next to Justin.

"I don't want to sit down." Clay said, and I rolled my eyes, and then my parents and Dennis looked over towards the three of us, but they were mainly looking at Clay as Dennis spoke.

"You've officially been named a person of interest by the Sheriff. He held a press conference this morning." Dennis said.

"A press conference?" Clay asked.

"What does that mean? 'A person of interest?' What the fuck is that?" Justin asked.

"Character assassination is what it is." My dad said, starting to get upset, but my mom laid a hand down on his arm.

"It's a tactic." Dennis said.

"It means nothing, legally." Mom said.

"It doesn't feel like nothing. It feels like they're about to arrest me!" Clay exclaimed.

"They can't arrest you. They don't have enough evidence. So they try to put public pressure on you. They don't have the evidence to call you a suspect, but they want you scared." Dennis said.

"Well done, then!" Clay exclaimed.

"Maybe it's best if you all stay home from school today." Dad said.

"No." Clay immediately protested. "No way. We're not doing that." Clay said, and he started to walk away and I sighed. See, it's at times like this, stressful times, where Clay gets a lot stupider than normal.

"Clay. .-" I started to say, but he cut me off and turned around towards me and Justin.

". .-You two can stay home." Clay said.

"No, of course not. We've got your back." Justin said, and I nodded my head.

"That's what we do." I said.

"Let's get a coffee on the way and talk." Clay said to us, and I nodded my head, before involuntary reaching down and grabbing Justin's hand, and by the time I realized I did it. . the gesture was too late to take back. Justin and I talked about when to tell my parents we were trying things again, and I hadn't decided yet.

"Wait, Imogen, Justin. . are you two. . again?" My mom asked, pointing to our hands, which I was still holding Justin's hand in mine because now I was nervous.

"Let's talk about it, later. Love you, Mom. Bye."

―

MONET'S

"Austin James. I write for the Evergreen County Register. Just want to chat about the case." Justin and I heard when we walked back to the table where Clay was sitting at with our coffees in our hands. I was carrying Clay's, and Justin offered to carry mine and his. We had them all in to-go cups and I can't believe a reporter or journalist or whatever was trying to bait Clay right now.

"Hey, get the fuck out and get the fuck away from my brother." I snapped, and he looked up at me and Justin and shrugged his shoulders.

"Just enjoying a cup of coffee." He said.