Flashback: Nicola (part III)

I kept seeking for Nicola for long. Seeking means I tried to call him, and I worried. There wasn’t much else I could do: I was a student, quite penniless, I needed to attend my classes, and the last times I had news from him he was in Brazil, not exactly next door.

6 months of worrying worn me out. I realized that, although we would always be friends, we probably were not meant for each other, and slowly, I let myself move on. I don’t mean that I stopped worrying about him or anything. I just realized I needed to have a life besides Nicola.

After eight months he called me. He said he was going to stop by in Milan and he wanted to know if we could meet, he had so much to tell me. I wasn’t so sure, but I agreed, at the condition that we would spend the night at Andrea’s place.
It was a long, great night. He told me how he got in trouble with the cops back in Brazil, and stayed hidden for a long long while, and I never knew more than that (I even wondered if he had been in jail?).

Although for a while he even stayed in Italy (which meant communication was much easier, and even meeting could have been possible), I knew things would never be the same again. I guess it was a mix of me growing up and facing reality, and of what had happened. I could not idolize Nicola anymore, I finally saw the real him, the good and the bad.

Through the years, we always stayed in touch, and we also met a few times, in the way old friends do: dinner together, and a few hours of chatting.
I would have liked to be able to spend more time with him, but we live far apart, and we live also so differently, that it’s probably better like this. We always call one each other, when things get tough or when they get better, but we both know the sparkle has gone a long time ago.

What is more precious to me, is that I’ll never forget the time we were given together.