How It All Goes Down
When Just Listen opens up, we are told that our narrator—teenage model Annabel Greene—isn't looking forward to her junior year of high school. That's because she's had a falling out with her best friend Sophie, a total mean girl who's popular and has a hot boyfriend.
As soon as Annabel gets into the school parking lot, it's clear that her fears weren't unfounded—Sophie immediately walks by and spits some rude insults at her. Oh, boy. Annabel is pretty much ostracized at school and spends her lunches sitting on the same wall as a boy named Owen Armstrong, who's a loner because it's rumored that he's been arrested for fights. He's always listening to music on his headphones, so it's not like they ever even talk.
At home things aren't much better. Annabel's sister Whitney is staying at home with them because she's going through treatment for her eating disorder, and her mother is overbearingly involved in her modeling life (even though modeling isn't what Annabel wants to do). Their eldest sister Kristen is in New York City and going to school after having quit modeling.
As time progresses, Annabel becomes less isolated when she starts talking to Owen, who is truly obsessed with music and has a show at the local radio station. She begins to listen, and with his encouragement, starts arguing with him about his musical taste over lunch, even though she's usually terrified of telling people what she thinks.
At home Whitney is slowly improving thanks to a new therapist who has unorthodox methods. She's even starting to write and hang out with other people around town. Annabel comes over to Owen's house once and finds his little sister and her friends pretending to be models. While there, she and Owen almost kiss but are foiled by his little sister. They finally kiss soon after when they go through a car wash and listen to music together… because nothing says romance like a car wash.
As Annabel prepares for the upcoming fall fashion show at the mall though, she hears that another model—her former friend Emily (who chose to side with Sophie in their fight)—was assaulted by Sophie's boyfriend, Will Cash. This brings back the memory of Annabel's own rape by Will Cash, which happened over the summer and is at the root of her rift with Sophie. Annabel begins to feel terrible since she could have prevented Emily's rape by pressing charges.
After the fashion show, Annabel goes to a music show that she promised Owen she'd go to, but is distracted and distraught by the news of Emily's rape. Owen's friend Rolly asks her to introduce him to her former best friend Clarke—whom she ditched for Sophie when they were kids. She sets up an introduction (even though Clarke hates her) and runs outside to her car, driving away without telling anyone.
After that Annabel is alone again. Owen won't talk to her at school, and she feels utterly isolated. Right before Christmas break, Emily approaches Annabel in the library and asks her to come to Will Cash's trial to testify, since she knows that he raped Annabel as well. Annabel cries in the library by herself and Clarke approaches her to ask if she's okay, and to tell her that Owen is worried about her.
When Kristen comes home, she and Whitney tentatively strike up a relationship again even though Whitney was previously not talking to Kristen. They go to a literary reading where Whitney reads an essay about the time she broke her arm when she was eleven. She finds out that Kristen's film for her college class was about the same thing, and they all go home to watch it.
Annabel decides to go to the radio station to find Owen and explain herself to him. He's mad at her for not talking to him for months, but after she tells him everything about how she was raped, he is there to support her. He also encourages her to testify.
Annabel comes home and approaches her family to tell them everything that happened to her. The next day, her parents and sisters take her to the courthouse to testify at Will's trial. Owen is supposed to be there, but doesn't show up—but Will Cash is sitting in the front row with a black eye, and Annabel realizes that Owen got in trouble for punching him in the face. When she exits the courthouse, she sees Owen waiting outside and he confesses that he punched Will Cash and is in trouble with his mother. They kiss again.
A couple weeks later, Annabel is covering for Owen at the radio station because he's been grounded from doing his show. Clarke is there, and she and Annabel are tentatively forming a friendship again. Everything is better at home—Kristen and Whitney are talking again—and Annabel's even told her mother that she's quitting modeling. It's onward and upward from here on out.