While painful, it's still rather therepeutic.
I saw Abby on the first day of high school, freshman year. At the time she had a short haircut, and while I kept thinking "what an ugly girl", I couldn't stop looking at her. Needless to say, her hair grew out, and she had just a fantastic personality. A sunshine girl personality. She was also quite attractive. Five feet five inches, thin as a wisp, bright blue eyes and a brighter smile, and just a pleasant girl to look at.
We talked and flirted throughout the first two years of high school, and for the second half of it, our social groups kind of combined, so I probably saw her in a group setting several dozen times in the next year. She always had a boyfriend, and I always liked her very much, although I never told her. She's a girl though, and I'm sure she figured it out. Junior year I had my first serious relationship, and lost interest in Abby. Senior year I had a different girl, and same deal, but always in the back of my mind was the inevitable "what if I had..."
I left for boot camp a couple of days before graduation and she enjoyed her summer. At the end of summer, I came back for boot leave, and for the first time, she was single. She and myself and a couple (mutual friends) went out several times. The second time, I picked her up, her mother winked at me, and Abby was wearing makeup. She blushingly giggled and said "I look like a slut". We had fun that night and she invited me to her cabin for that weekend. It was just going to be her and another girl. I said I'd think about it, and ended up deciding it wasn't worth the trouble.
I've been back home several times since then, and I've always seen her in a group setting. Last Christmas, I invited her out, just the two of us. While I find her to be the most attractive, intelligent, and sweet girl I've yet met, we're just not made for eachother, and it was a bit of an anticlimactic evening.
I didn't see her the last time that I was home, but on those lonely, cold winter nights (or the hot, sandblown desert days) I'll be thinking, once more, "What if..."
Sorry for the length, but I need to get this crap out every now and then. Great reading all of your stories.