Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Thirty-Five

FLASHBACK
HOMECOMING NIGHT
THIRD PERSON'S POV

Imogen Jensen sat alone in her bed after her dad had tucked her in, and she was on the phone. No one had answered yet, but she was calling Justin Foley, and his phone only kept ringing. She didn't know it, but he was out somewhere getting high and that's why he wasn't answering. She wanted to ask him to go with her and Jessica to meet up with Bryce. She and Jessica had been talking and both girls were curious to know what Bryce wanted to give them.

"Okay, last message. I need you and I don't know where the fuck you are, but I'm worried. I. .-I need you. Can you just... Can you please call me back?" Imogen left another voicemail for Justin before taking a deep breath, and then she dialed another number.

Jessica's.

"Hey... Justin's not answering, but I'm ready... is there someone else you can call?" Imogen asked.

"Yeah... be ready to sneak out in like 20, okay?" Jessica said and Imogen took a deep breath.

"Okay."

―

THE DOCKS

"What the fuck are you doing here?" A badly beaten Bryce Walker asked when he looked up to see Alex Standall standing over him. He was surprised to see him there, thinking that maybe he had come to finish the job that Zach started.

"What happened to you?" Alex asked.

"F...Fucking Zach." Bryce stuttered out, while still breathing heavily.

"Wow, he kinda beat the shit out of you," Alex said.

"Why are you here?" Bryce asked and that's when Imogen and Jessica both walked up on both sides of Alex so that Bryce could see them.

"He's here with us," Imogen said.

"Hey, Jess... Imogen, you came." Bryce said. He sounded relieved to see them because he honestly didn't know if they were going to come or not. Part of them didn't want to. But the other part of them knew that if they didn't, they probably would regret it, and curiosity got the better of them as well. 

"Yep," Jessica said while shrugging her shoulders.

"So, what did you want to give us?" Imogen asked.

Bryce groaned as he felt pain everywhere on his body anytime that he tried to move, as he looked at the girls. "I made you a tape." He said which made both of them scoff.

"Are you fucking serious?" Imogen asked.

"Is that some stupid fucking joke?" Jessica snapped.

"No, no, no, no, no. Hey, hang on. Hang on." Bryce said. He laid back against the ground, letting out another groan of pain as he did and he reached inside of his Varsity jacket pocket and ended up dropping the tape on the ground, but he reached over his side and was able to grab it. "Fuck. Sorry, it's got... there's some blood on the case." Bryce said as he struggled to pull himself up into a sitting up position. "Here, please take it. Take it." Bryce said.

Imogen walked forward and snatched the tape from Bryce's hand before putting it in her own coat pocket as she walked back over to Alex and Jessica. "What's on it?" Alex asked.

"A confession. And an apology. It owns up to everything I did. You can play it for whoever you want. Or nobody. If you could maybe play it for Mrs. Baker, though. She didn't want to talk to me." Bryce said as he started to cough.