A/N: In case there's any confusion, this chapter is all sort of a flashback. It's just describing the things that happened during and right after the trials. The next chapter will go back to present day.
_______
Over a year and a half had passed since I walked out on Calum that day.
Our trials had come and gone, ending with, what I believed to be, not so surprising results. Calum was clearly guilty, having been caught red handed on the surveillance cameras of the plaza. There wasn't really much he could argue. He was well acquainted with courts and jails in town, and they knew before the evidence was brought forth that there wasn't anything to debate.
He had done it, and that was that.
I, on the other hand, had been a different story.
No one had ever expected that I would be present in a court room unless it was to observe my father at work. Instead, I was on trial for an actual crime, and since we were related, my dad couldn't be the judge for my case.
I had alternately been given an older, pepper haired lady with a constant frown matted to her face. At the sight of her, I immediately assumed she had already made her decision that I was a "good girl gone bad" and there was no way to save me.
My dad had felt the same way and made a point of hiring the best lawyer he could find: Christopher Thompson. Mr. Thompson fought hard for me, constantly replaying the surveillance footage and insisting that I "couldn't have known Calum was stealing because I was already headed towards the door when Calum picked the lock".
He also kept asserting the fact that I had never committed a crime before and even going as far as to pull up my grade and volunteer work history. What else he had done, though, completely faded into the back of my memory because all during the trials, I could feel him staring at me from across the room. Day after day his eyes bore into the side of my head as I focused forward.
As much as I had missed him, he was the one who put us in that situation, and that was something I wasn't ready to forgive him for.
Eventually, all the chaos came to an end when the sentencing was given.
After striking up a plea deal, I was let off with basically just a slap on the wrist: 200 hours of community service. For me, it was nothing. I spent a majority of my life volunteering around the city anyway. What was a few more hours?
Calum hadn't come out so lucky. Due to his past and current probation violations, there had been no mercy.. After agreeing to a plea deal similar to mine, he was to serve five years in prison with a possibility of parole after two and a half.
It wasn't until his fate was read aloud that I realized what was truly happening.
This was it.
By the time Calum would be getting out of jail, my life would have moved on. I would probably be finishing up at university, interning at some establishment and trying to decide upon my future.
And his life would just be starting over.
My chest had been heavy as I was guided to the doors, Jack on my right and lawyer on the left. I could feel him staring at me again. Every thing in side of me was screaming for me to ignore him. I couldn't look at him. If I did, I knew that I would-
Damn it.
I hadn't been able to fight the urge. It all seemed to go in slow motion has I slowly turned my head and was burned by his gaze. Dark circles encompassed the skin around the warm, russet pools that ignited when I peered up into them. Everything around him blurred instantly.
He was all I could see.
His mouth tugged up into a hint of a smile.
My entire facade crumbled as I watched him mouth, "I love you".
Unlike last time, I could see the uncertainty of us and where our relationship was headed and with that in mind, I plucked up the courage to say it back.
The words had barely left my mouth when my dad stepped in front of my view of Calum.
