Time Passed Us By

By Ri

Guy's POV

When people say teenagers have no idea what love is, I laugh. I laugh and I laugh until either someone hits me on the head for being stupider or some teacher gives me detention. When adults say teens don't know what pain is, I laugh even harder.

I always loved you, I think. Something about the quiet way you smiled and the way you were so different from every other girl. Them, with their overdramatic problems and whining. I always hated dating in school, girls who cried and needed flowers when you didn't call them one night out of the whole week. Maybe because they knew it was so cheap and so fake that one night apart and they'd lose me and have to deal with the terrible ordeal of being single and having to find someone new to fall madly in love with by second period the next day. I'm not saying that every girl in high school was cheap and superficial, but none of them were as real as you.

Oh how I hated myself that night of the 8th grade dance. Caught up in the mood of the song and the dancing couples around me, I reached out to you. The way you smiled and reached to take my hand made my life. Then someone shoved into me and there were my friends pulling me away. The smallest moment of terrible regret, but then I was swept up into the thrill of the moment. That, more than any social standings was what kept me from you. I couldn't give up the spotlight.

I'll never forget that night. Graduation night. You know what they say, the end of the beginning, the beginning of the end and all that crappy, start of the journey stuff. But that morning, for the first time in what seemed like years, I awoke with a real honest to god purpose. Before the caps were thrown in the air and I got swept off to a half a million parties and get togethers and got drunk off my ass celebrating, I was going to tell you I loved you.

Right before the ceremony was set to start and I sat surrounded by my closest friends chattering with nervous excitement, anxiously glancing around the room for the sight of your face wondering what the hell I was going to say, our principle walked on to the stage. He was so white and so somber, I was sure someone had died. How right I was.

"Ladies and gentlemen welcome to tonight's ceremonies, I'm very proud of all you who have made it this far. But before we begin, I'd like to take a moment to remember someone who couldn't."

A picture of a beautiful face with that timid smile I loved so much flashed on to the screen behind him. I completely stopped breathing, stopped thinking and simply sat there a lifeless body frozen in time.

"-was a bright and wonderful girl with a future full of possibilities that will no longer have a chance. I hope you will remember what happened to this young lady before you ever get behind the wheel under the influence of alcohol. Will you all please participate in a moment of silence to honor her memory."

For the first time in years I felt warm moisture stream down my cheeks. My best friend sitting next to me punched me in the arm.

"Relax man, get a hold of yourself, she wasn't anyone important."

I tried to shake my head no, to scream at him, no she was important, she was more important than anyone. But they had begun calling names and everyones attention had turned to cheering for their friends as the walked across the stage, the perfect picture of happiness.

In the dead of night, I sit here in the cemetery of this church I have never attended in my life. I place a single white rose on your quiet grave. No one comes here but me. I hate myself. I hate my self for all those lost opportunities that I threw away for the spot light. I hate myself that you never knew I loved you. That fate was cruel and time completely passed us by.