Beyond the Reasons || JUSTIN FOLEY

Fourteen

HOUSE PARTY
IMOGEN'S POV

"Hey, so what's up with you and Winston? Are you, like, friends?" I asked Diego. I feel like I always ask him questions while we're in the middle of making out, but like... I just don't feel anything when I kiss him. My kiss with Jeff had more sparks going through me than Diego's do. His kisses especially feel nothing like Justin's. He's really just a distraction, and I'm starting to get bored of him.

"We've hung out, why?" Diego asked as he leaned in to kiss me again.

"No reason, just... I don't know, he rubs me the wrong way and you two don't seem like you have a lot in common." I said and Diego raised an eyebrow.

"Well, he was friends with Monty, so..." Diego trailed off as he kissed me.

"No... I was friends with Monty, since the 5th grade. Winston saw Monty at a couple of Hillcrest parties, that doesn't make them friends." I said. I mean, Monty basically told me that he liked guys when I visited him in jail when he asked me if it would've made a difference, but I'm pretty sure the football team didn't know that, so I wasn't going to say it now.

"I mean, yeah..." Diego said.

"And did he tell you that Monty beat the living shit out of him that night?" I asked.

"No, that's not true," Diego said while shaking his head.

"You can literally ask anyone from Hillcrest, they were all there. Monty did it outside, in front of all of them. They saw it happen. I mean, I probably know Monty better than anyone, and I've only seen Monty beat the shit out of people that he didn't like, or something people who messed with me, not people that he considered to be his friends." I said while shrugging my shoulders.

"Why are you telling me this?" He asked.

"Because I don't know what Winston's told you, but I wouldn't trust him. He didn't know Monty as well as I did. Hell, Winston didn't even know Monty as well as you did." I said and then I leaned back into kissing him. I could tell by the way he was kissing me back he was thinking about what I was saying.

So I had him right where I wanted him.

―

DR. SHARPE'S OFFICE
IMOGEN'S POV

Clay went batshit crazy, again, which isn't a surprise. And then he threatened Winston in front of everyone. Which wasn't a good move since Winston is already suspicious of us and he's probably filling Diego's head and trying to make him suspicious of me too. I don't know why Winston is so obsessed over what really happened to Bryce when he knew Monty for what? Two seconds. The story is they hooked up, twice. Was he seriously that obsessed with him after two times?

Yesterday during gym class, we have to save the fake dummy from a gunshot wound. Honestly, this is all so terrifying, my biggest fear has always been an active shooter and knowing that Tyler almost did it, is terrifying enough, but now they make us do drills like this. We're not EMT's, we're not trained professionals... we shouldn't even have to come to school and be worried about things like this, it's not fair. School is supposed to be our safe haven's away from home, but lately, school has been a horrid nightmare. And I was explaining all of that to her.

"How about... instead of making us do drills like this, they make it less likely that we'd actually get shot at our own fucking high school? Wouldn't that make more sense?" I asked her. I was pacing the room because doing that really caused me some unrest. It made me feel uneasy, even though it was fake, knowing it was fully possible for it to be real one day.