When I started college, I quickly made a group of friends. There was a girl among them. I got along with her better than anyone else right away. I spent the most time with her out of all collage friends; I walked her home since we were going the same way, and I texted and talked with her the most outside of class; we were constantly sending each other photos of what we were up to; we played video games togethers only two of us constantly. At the time, a lot of people joked that we were head over heels in love with each other, and many—even people who didn’t know us very well—asked in all seriousness if we were a couple; our friends, both mutual and personal, were shipping us. Back then, we’d just laugh and say, “No, we’re just friends.”
Toward the end of the first year, I even started thinking that, all things considered, I found her attractive and maybe I’d try my luck and hit on her, ask her out on a date.
Summer came, and maybe we saw each other less often, but we were still in touch—we were always texting each other and playing games and such, keeping in touch.
Then one day, one of her friends found her a boyfriend. The news was a bit of a bummer at the time, but I figured it was no big deal—we’d still be friends and I quickly healed from that. And we were still friends, but it wasn’t the same. Not only were we less close, but she was also acting… strangely. Often cold, nitpicking everything and mean, sometimes not even jokingly—it was as if she really wanted to hatefully tease me and hurt my feelings—and by our third year, I had the impression she wanted to have even less contact with me. At the worst moments, I was fed up with her behavior, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say that there were still moments of very good friendship between us, and when it mattered, she was there for me in my time of need.
We finished our bachelor’s degree and haven’t seen each other since; we’ve just texted each other from time to time. I started my master’s degree, and one day, one of my friends from my bachelor degree friend group dropped by for a beer. We sat there, chatting, and the conversation turned to girls—and to her. He told me it wasn’t just playful banter—everyone around us was genuinely convinced that it wasn’t just friendship or a crush, but that we were seriously in love with each other. He said that even he, who had been interested in her, backed off as soon as he saw how we treated each other. He said the only thing separating us from officially being a couple was a single date. And that her behavior afterward wasn’t because she didn’t like me as a friend or anything like that, but because she wanted to distance herself from her feelings for me after she started dating her boyfriend—and that was obvious, too. Ask anyone, they would say same or simllar thing, he said.
When I heard that, I was like, “Damn, really? Oh man, I totally screwed myself over by not asking her out. Oh well, what’s done is done. I’m disappointed, but that’s life.” I thought about it a little over the next few days, but it wasn’t a huge deal. Until one day, lying in bed that evening, I happened to hear the song “Too Little, Too Late” by Laufey. And that was like a dam bursting. Before I knew it, with a lump in my throat and a feeling as if someone were sitting on my chest, I burst into tears like a little kid.
I started analyzing our relationship.
Every time I walked her home, before we parted ways, we’d stand there hugging, gazing into each other’s eyes—sometimes I’d cup her face in my hands—and we’d talk for at least half an hour.
In the car, even when there was room in the front passenger seat—which was her favorite spot—she always made sure to sit next to me. We sat next to each other everywhere: in class, at a bar on a group outing, at a friend’s house. There could never be anyone between us.
Sometimes she’d rest her legs on my lap, and sometimes—during late-night drives just for fun or trips out of town—she’d rest her head on my lap and doze off.
At parties at friend's places, when we got too drunk and sleepy, we’d go to sleep together—not just side by side, but snuggled up, holding hands.
We had pet names for each other—and not just the classic “honey” and “sweetheart,” but even our own, made up by us and used only between the two of us.
“Jokingly,” she was jealous of the girls I’d mentioned haveing crush on sometime ago.
“Jokingly,” we got engaged a few times.
“Jokingly,” we spoke to each other and about each other as husband and wife.
We joked about having sex, often in very kinky ways—the kind of jokes you don’t use with other friends.
She gave me a frog necklace as a gift—exactly the same as the one she had, just in a different color.
She laughed and giggled even at my least funny and dumb jokes no one else would laugh at.
I cared a lot about her opinion—whenever she said something about my appearance, I would adjust myself accordingly for example.
She always listened to things I talked about even If it didnt interest her and I done the same for whatever she was talking about.
Things I didnt like- like clothes shoping, were so fun with her.
Before going to sleep, we always had to send each other a “Good night” message with hearts or kisses emojis.
I look at our old photos together and our old messages and see what others saw.
I remember how that first year of uni, was probably the most happy I ever been in my life and so much of those happy memories have her in center or ad.
I came to the conclusion that my buddy was right. The only thing standing between us and being a couple was kissing and calling ourselves a couple.
I realized something else, too. I didn’t just like her. I loved her. Long before I even realized I found her atractive. I loved her almost from the very beginning. Maybe not love at first sight, but as close to it as you can get. And she loved me, too.
And I didn’t realize that until two years after she got together with someone else.
And it wasn’t until two years later that my heart broke.
I feel like crying, screaming, tearing something apart, pulling my hair out, and going back in time to strangle my younger self for not realizing this sooner. I feel my heart bleeding, and for the first time in many years, I'm having dark thoughts. I don't know why this hurts me so much. It didn't hurt when that love ended, or during those two years. Why now, and why so much? I've always been very emotional and felt things deeply and intensely, but this doesn't make sense. My head is such a mess.
Does it hurt because I’ve only just realized my feelings and what I’ve lost?
Do I still love her, or is it just the memory of what we had?
I’ve had my heart broken more than once. Not many times, but I can say I have some experience. So why does this hurt more than any of the others, even though it happened later? Is it because, for the first time in my life, it wasn’t a case of somone liking me while I dont like them back, or of me liking someone who doesn’t like me, but rather a case of mutual feelings?
Did she really love me or not, or am I just imagining things?
If so, why did that love die?
Didn't she love me that much?
Did I wait too long to ask her out and this love rusted for her or she though I didnt feel what she felt?
Did distance of aummer kill it?
Why didn’t I notice those feelings?
Was I just a young, foolish man who, lacking experience, couldn’t recognize what was going on?
Was it a problem in my head—back then I had a lot of insecurities, issues with self-acceptance, and self-hatred. Maybe subconsciously I couldn’t believe that anyone could love me?
Or maybe I was afraid. Maybe I was a pathetic coward who cared so much about her that I didn’t do anything out of fear of ruining everything?
If only it were one of those things. What I wouldn't give to change the course of history so that we could meet now, when I'm older, wiser, and—despite still haveing a few demons—finally accept myself and have much higher self-esteem. Maybe then everything would have turned out differently.
Or maybe I was just a bad friend, and spending more time with me caused her love to die because of that?
Maybe it's not love that hurts me?
Maybe it's wondering what would have happened if I'd taken that final step.
Maybe we would have broken up quickly.
Mayby we would be for longer than that but still brake up and we would be exes today.
Or maybe we'd already be planning our wedding.
Maybe we would have gotten divorced.
Or maybe we'd be buried together.
So many things could have turned out differently after.
Whatever it was, I don't blame her and I'm not mad at her.
Only at myself.
For putting it off.
For not understanding my feelings sooner.
For giving up and not fighting for her.
That I had the kind of love story I'd always dreamed of, exactly the one I'd imagined at a palm of my hand—and I threw it all away.
I also partly blame myself for the breakup of our group of friends—because coincidently at the same time as she tried to distance herself, our group slowly began to fall apart, and in the end it split into two groups, and for the most part we don’t keep in touch with each other anymore as whole, only on idividual levels. Maybe if I’d been braver, things would have turned out differently. Or mayby its just coincidence and was unreleated.
If I could talk to my younger self, I'd ask him why he did that—why do I always have to deny myself happiness? You fool. You stupid, stupid fool.
I’m 22—I still have my whole life ahead of me. But this hurts so damn much. Maybe I’m overreacting, maybe I’m being pathetic—we weren’t even officially together, but I can’t deny my feelings. It hurts.
And I’m so scared. That she might have been the one, maybe my last chance at love. And I let her slip through my fingers. That I have fewer and fewer chances to find love as years pass, and even if I do find someone, that girl will never measure up to her for me, and I’ll only end up hurting this new love. I know its mayby stupid thinking, Im still very young, but I cant help this paranoia or whatever it is, dosnt help that I have OCD so its even worse.
I’d love so much to go back in time. Not even to change the future. Just to tell her that I love her, or at the time loved her, and that I’m so sorry I never told her that.
I’d love so much to run into her and get it all off my chest, to tell her about it—but I won’t do that. Doing that now is a stupid and selfish idea. She has a boyfriend, she has her own life, and I’m not going to make her sad, upset her, or throw her life into chaos just because I’m feeling down. I want her to be happy, even if I’m not and I dont want to losse her as friend too. I take full responsibility for the fact that nothing ever came of it—and with that, all the negative emotional baggage. I lost my chance and now I have to deal with it.
For the past few days, that damn song, “Too Little, Too Late,” has been haunting me. For the past few days, I’ve been thinking about almost nothing else, but I put on a brave face around others. I’ve already talked about it briefly with a few friends, but I don’t want to burden them with this or turn them into therapists for Romeo, who’s crying over a relationship that never officially existed. So, at home alone for the past few days, tears well up from time to time. I sit lost in thought or watch "South Park" because it’s geniualy one of the few things that can distract me and cheer me up for a while by making me laugh. And in the evenings, when my thoughts get too loud, I go for walks while listening to a specific album. I go wherever my feet take me. Sometimes to places I visit regularly, and sometimes they carry me to places where I have memories of her. Even though it hurts, I force myself to go there, focusing on just walking and not thinking about those memories. And I drink. Not much, and just beer, but for the past few days, I’ve been drinking in the evenings. I don’t get wasted, but I drink until I feel a buzz in my head. I know it’s one of the worst possible thing, and I’m trying to fight urge to drink—I don’t want to become an alcoholic.
I think I've gotten everything I wanted to say off my chest.
I know I might be overreacting or making a big deal out of nothing, mayby its just seasonal depression, but I had to get it off my chest.
Thank you for reading, and thank you in advance for any comments—whether they're words of support, advice, or any other thoughts you may have.