Not the Same

Doubt

Jack's POV

          I watch as Kian takes the photo from the officer and looks at it. "No, these are not them," Kian says. "None of them have the eyes of the first attacker. The first attacker had green eyes."

          "Are you sure," the policeman asks.

         "Well, I saw it in a dream and this was all I could see," Kian say.

        "Dreams aren't always the most helpful source," the policeman says. "These were the only people around the time you was attacked. Call it circumstantial evidence, but I'm going to bet these are our guys."

        "But," Kian say.

       "Kian, he is kind of right," Ricky says. "Dreams aren't always the most clear. Plus, he's trained in this. He knows what he's doing."

       "I...guess," Kian says.

      "Thank you for your cooperation," the officer says and exits our apartment. There was an awkward silence in the room after he left.

      "Soooo," I say. "Julia and I better get home."

      "Yeah, we should get home," Julia says. "We'll see you later."

      "Okay, see ya," Kian says as we exit the apartment.

      Julia and I walked out of the apartment complex to her vehicle and we climbed inside. Julia started the car and we drove back home. "Hey, do you think dad actually hurt Cam," I ask Julia.

       "Honestly, I don't know," Julia says.

       "Dad has always been secretive ever since the incident with mom," Julia says. "Plus, Cam did say that dad didn't do anything to him."

       "As far as we know," I say. "We've never been around when Cam gets those bruises."

       "True," Julia says. "I'm going to ask Cam where he got that black eye and see if it lines with what dad said."

       "Good idea," I say. "I hope we're wrong."

       "I do too," Julia says. "But if he hurt Cam, who knows, maybe he was the one who ambushed Kian."

       "Kian said he was attacked by multiple people," I retort. "Who would the other people be? We don't know anyone here besides Kian and his friends."

      "Yeah," Julia says. "But, let's not jump to conclusions. One step at a time. In the end, we'll either be right or wrong."

       With those last words, Julia pulls into the parking lot, exit our vehicle and head to our apartment. We walk into our apartment to see that dad wasn't home yet. I go over to my room and see Cam lying on his bed throwing a baseball straight up into the air. "Hey," I say, slipping off my shoes.

        "Hey," Cam says coldly. Julia comes walking in shortly after. We go and sit down on my bed and watch Cam. "Can I help you with something?"

       "Oh, I was telling Julia how you got that black eye, but my mind blanked. I was hoping you could tell her. Sorry to ask," I say.

       "It's fine," Cam says, still throwing the ball up. "You see, one day at work, I was putting some stuff up in storage. After putting one of the boxes up, I tripped over one of them. I ended up banging my head into something and voilà."

      "Sorry about the bruise," I say.

     "Whatever," Cam says. "It'll heal. I'll just need to be more careful, but I'm pretty sure it won't happen again."

     "Since dad's not home yet, I'm going to go start dinner," Julia says.

     "I'll help," I say.

    "You do that," Cam says. I could feel the coldness in his tone.

    Julia and I walk to the kitchen and start making dinner. "Well, either he's suffering from amnesia or someone is lying," Julia says.

    "Yeah," I say. "Plus, did you notice the tone in his voice. He's never been like that."

    "He normally helps with dinner," Julia says. "It's like he's not even Cam. Plus, I hate when he plays with that baseball or any sports ball while he talks to us. It's like he has to be the stereotypical guy 24/7. No offense."

    "It's fine," I say. "But you have a point. He does act differently. He's usually on YouTube or something social media related. It's not been the first time he's been like this though."

    "What do you mean," Julia asks.

    "Well while you were at college and Cam and I were in school, Cam would always be like that," I say. "It wasn't until the problems when he went to college that he was Cam again."

      "Oh," Julia says.

      The apartment door opens to see that it was dad. "Hey dad," I say.

      "Hey Jack," he says.

      "Where have you been," Julia asks.

      "More questioning," he answers.

      "Kian's out of the hospital," I tell him.

      "Good," dad says. However, his tone was off. "I just want all this crap to blow over."

      "You can't blame Kian for being concerned," Julia says.

   "I know," he says. "But it makes me and the business look bad. I mean, what are people going to think if there are rumors of the boss physically abusing his own son."

   "It'll get better," I say.

    "I hope," he says as he plops down onto the couch. While we let dinner cook, we walked over to dad and sat down with him. "Where's D...Cam?"

     "His room, playing with that stupid baseball," Julia says.

     "How could you call that baseball stupid? It was Cam's first homerun ball. That meant a lot to him after everything that happened."

     "Yeah," Julia says. "You're right."

      I glance over at dad and saw he had a small scratch under his eye. "Hey where'd you get that scratch," I ask; Julia taking notice.

      He reaches up and touches the scratch. "I'm not really sure. Maybe it happened while I was asleep," he says.

      "Come on," Julia says. "Dinner should be ready. CAM GET IN HERE!"

      As we walked to the kitchen and set out all the food. Julia and I gave each other knowing looks. Looking in her eyes, I could tell she was thinking the same thing. Something was definitely up.