Only if I said it Sooner

Anonymous

As long as Henry could remember, the first time he laid his eyes on Sally in seventh grade, he instantly fell in love with her. He became good friends with Sally, but he was never able to gather up the courage to express his feelings for her. As high school came along, Henry moved to the other part of town. Henry went to a different high school and he felt the distance between him and Sally growing.

Henry was a tall boy with a lean, muscular build. He had thin black hair and was the class clown. He was likable and easy to get along with. Because he was a class clown, no one really took him seriously. Sally also had black hair. She was not too fat, but also not too skinny either. She had a sweet personality that could make any boy fall for her the instant she talked to them.
***
As the years flew by, they were now both seniors in high school. They would occasionally talk here and there, but that did not stop the distance between them from increasing. One day Henry decided that he would go and visit her. He asked his friend Thomas to give him a ride to her school. As soon as they got there, Thomas instantly fell in love with Sally as soon as he saw her. The thing is, Thomas did not know how Henry felt about Sally. The three of them hung out and soon went home. Henry noticed that Thomas was acting weird around Sally.

“Why were you acting so weird today?” asked Henry from the passenger seat.
“Oh, it’s nothing.” replied Thomas. “So is your friend single?”
“Why, do you like her?” asked Henry shockingly.
“Yeah, she seems like a nice girl.” Responded Thomas hesitantly.
“Oh…” asserted Henry.

Henry tried not to show how shocked he was to hear that Thomas also liked Sally. His heart slowly sank as he played it off cooly. Thomas and Henry said their goodbyes as Thomas dropped Henry off at home. Henry could not help, but listen to sad songs as he tried to fall asleep. Each and every song that he listened to, he was able to connect to it and notice a deeper meaning in it. He slowly slipped away into sleep as the rain pelted his roof lightly.

The next morning the sky was gray and cloudy. Not a ray of sunlight was to be seen. Henry thought that he should make his move on Sally, so he asked her out on a date to go watch a horror movie. She accepted it, but out of nowhere, Thomas also got into the mix. Since neither Sally nor Henry could drive, Thomas offered to pick the both of them up. Henry’s plan for a date, suddenly turned into a disaster.

After the movie, Sally sat in the passenger seat of the car, while Henry sat all by himself in the back. Henry noticed that Sally and Thomas were deep in a conversation, so he just decided to be quiet. He felt as if he was not even there. Thomas dropped Sally off first. As Sally got into her house, Thomas turned around and asked Henry,
“So how did I do?” asked Thomas.
“You did good…” replied Henry. “I’m proud of you.”
“Man, I was so nervous, but do you think she likes me too?” questioned Thomas.
“I don’t know, it seems like it though.” answered Henry.

Upon returning home, Henry felt depressed. He felt that Sally would never like him no matter what he does. He thought to himself,
“Maybe it’s best if I just give her up to Thomas. Thomas likes her and she seems to like Thomas back as well. As long as she is happy, I’ll be happy as well, even though I’m not going to be the one with her. Maybe I’ll just wait to see if one day, she sees how I truly feel about her. Yeah, that’s the only thing I can do.”

Accepting his loss in this competition, he listened to more sad songs. He felt hurt, depressed, and most of all, stupid. He had waited 5 years to gather up his courage to tell her, but it was too late. His friend likes her and she seemed to like him back. There was nothing that he could do at this point. He just had to accept it.
“If only I had told her how I felt sooner…” he thought.