He Should Have Said

• Lachie Lyons , Grade 9
• Short Story
• 2015

He should have said hi. Hi to the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. He should have complimented her flowing strawberry blonde hair, her flowing curves that suited her to perfection, the simple way she held herself, instead he shied away from his angel on earth and stuck to what he knew. A girl he had known his entire life. But he was in love, And not with his girl.
It broke his heart to hear that this girl had found her ‘the One’ an older with short, shaved hair and punkish clothes and makeup. He should have said what he was feeling, that she wasn’t destined for him, but me. Instead he congratulated them and imagined a different world where he was the one who got the girl, not the bad guy who was in love with another’s girl. They became friends, even as the couple got even closer. It killed him inside to see them openly holding hands or snuggling up to each other in their chosen corner. He became one of the group, alas one of the outliers and he strove to work his way into the heart of the group and into the heart of the blonde haired beauty.
The day that could have brought change came when He was at her house just chilling, him feeling out of place as it was him at her place and not the angels little demon, the two had broken up. She had decided to play music from her mums vinyl records, she absent mindedly picked one and placed it on the player. As the opening bars played to the song “you’re beautiful” by James Blunt, he took a good look at her, in her tight fitting farm style flannelette singlet and her snap-back hat to compliment her rounded freckled face. He should have said as much as he was thinking, instead he mumbled the words imagining he could scream those words to her. “I saw your face, in a crowded place, and I know it will never be, you and Me.” he stuttered after the song finished, this song is exactly how I feel. Bewildered she asked him to repeat what he said. He should have said it again with all the love he felt. He should have asked her then and there for her to be his girl, his one and only. It should have been him on the Hawaiian beach kneeling on one knee with a diamond ring in his hands. It should have been him standing at the altar, saying those two words. I do. It should have been his life she would forever be a part of.
Instead he said nothing and was the one at the back of the church, those many years later, watching his angel fly to where she could never be reached, the arms of her love, still wearing his punk makeup. He sat there thinking, if only I had said.