You Don't Know

Chapter twenty-three

- four months later -

"Hey, mate. What are you doing?" Nick asked, as he walked over to Collin.

"Uh... nothing." Collin answered, a little too quickly. He was hiding his phone behind his back, but Nick had seen how he had put it there, so it was for nothing.

"Oh, c'mon, Collin. Please don't tell me you're stalking Ena's Instagram again!" Nick said while he rolled his eyes at the childish behavior, that he had observed over the last four months, of his friend. "I don't get it. Just call her already! Or do you want me to tell her that you are stalking her?" Nick asked teasingly.

"No! Mate, please don't tell her." Collin started to panic at the thought, but that was exactly what Nick wanted.

"Then tell me why, for God's sake! You obviously still love her and I know for a fact that Ena didn't want you to leave. So why don't you talk to her?" Nick snapped slightly annoyed. He was sick of all the drama, when it seemed so obvious to everyone else that Collin just had to go talk to her.

"Because she doesn't love me! ... I saw how she looked at Jack that night when she found him. And the way he looked back at her... They are meant for each other... And anyway, I told her to fuck of. There is no way I'd still have a chance."

"But Ena broke up with Jack... for good. She made it clear that she didn't want to be with him anymore." Nick desperately tried to convince Collin.

But without success. "Didn't want to or couldn't?" Collin looked at Nick reproachfully before he walked away and returned to his work, leaving Nick once again frustrated about the situation between Collin and Ena.

***

Over the past four months, I thought I was doing alright; with everything really. I had caught up on a lot for university, I had spent so many amazing afternoons with my friends, and... I didn't think about Collin all too often anymore. In the beginning it was so hard. Everyday anything had reminded me of him and it had hurt so bad, I would've cried all night long, but eventually it got better.

Also, I hadn't talked to Jack again. I still saw him in court sometimes, but we never spoke more than a simple 'hey' or 'bye'. It was weird that we were treating each other like that, after we once were so close, but it was right. Nick kept reminding me of that, and I was grateful for it.

Jack's parents had also finally been informed about... well that Jack was still alive, and it was heartbreaking to see their reunion. They were so overwhelmed and almost couldn't believe it. And when Jack told them what had happened, they were even more shocked. But they are his parents after all, so of course they still loved him and supported him throughout the whole court proceedings.

After about those four months, the court proceedings were then finally over, and it was the day that Jack would be brought to jail. Some guy got nine years and Paul even more, because he got convicted of Frank's murder on top, so everyone was quite content with 'just' five years for Jack and a justified punishment for the man responsible for the death of an innocent man and a good friend.

Albert, Nick, Lia, Jack, their parents, Lia's boyfriend, and I were standing in front of Lia's and her boyfriend's apartment, where Jack had stayed the past four months, while two other policeman stood next to the police car on the side of the street. Thankfully they had allowed us to properly say goodbye to Jack before they would bring him to jail.

"Okay... I guess this is it then." Nick was the first to say his goodbyes. "I hope you'll be alright, man."

Jack, thereupon, gratefully embraced Nick in a brotherly hug. It was heartwarming to see the two of them like that, but at the same time it was heartbreaking. Everyone had tears in their eyes.