Prologue
“Happy birthday to you!”
Everyone around started cheering and singing for Mateo.
The heartthrob of Silver Oak High School.
Every girl wanted to be with him, and every guy wanted to be him.
He had everything that a girl could want except the one thing that truly mattered to him: genuine connection. Beneath the charm and popularity, Mateo longed for someone who could see past his facade and appreciate him for who he really was.
Amelia watched as the girls surrounded him and flirted with him.
She knew that she had no chance.
She was known as Amelia, the plain-looking girl.
She wore glasses and had braces, which most of the time got her bullied by the popular.
Mateo would try and stand up for her, but that was enough, especially when he would target her whenever he wasn't around to intervene.
Amelia stopped wearing braces but things didn't get any better when they found out she grew up with Mateo.
“Amy, now it's your chance to go and tell him how you feel especially when you two basically grew up together”, her best friend Katherine encourages her.
“But what if he says no…what if it backfires on me…”
"Are you sure you want to do this, Amy? What if he doesn't reciprocate your feelings? What if..."
Katherine knew that her best friend had a crush on Mateo but she also knew that he might not reciprocate the same feelings towards her.
Amelia knew her best friend would always be by her side, but this was something she needed to do before they went to college and their separate ways.
"Katherine, calm down. It's not like I will tell him that I want to marry him. Sometimes it is better to tell the person you like them before it is too late. I don't want any regrets for doing this. Besides, I like him a lot, Kate..."
Katherine tried to understand her best friend, but how could she when Amelia's world revolved around Mateo?
"Okay, I am always here for you to give you the support you need," Katherine tells her friend.
Amelia had decided that on his birthday, she would tell him about the feelings she had for him.
She had also brought a gift for him. Something he always wanted but never got.
Amelia scanned the room to find him standing with his friends chatting and smiling.
She took a deep breath and slowly approached him.
"Happy birthday, Mateo. Can I talk to you in private, please?" She asks him.
"You can tell me what you want to say. Besides, I have no secrets between my friends," he tells her, pointing at his friends who were around him.
"Ummm... I like you, Mateo. Will you go out with me?" Amelia says it shyly, hoping that he will at least say yes or think about it.
Instead of answering, Mateo started laughing along with his friends, except for his best friend James.
"I don't think I would want a date with someone like you. Look at yourself, and then look at me. We are completely different. So the answer is no," he tells her without caring that her eyes are filled with unshed tears.
After that humiliation, Amelia ran away from the party, as she didn't expect to stay after what happened.
Thankfully, Katherine didn't get to see that humiliation when she came back from the bathroom. But she found Amelia gone.
But when Katherine walked to her table to grab her bag. She couldn't help hearing one of the girls talking about how Mateo humiliated her best friend Amelia.
She walked straight to Mateo and grabbed him by the collar.
"Where is she? And don't think about lying to me."
"Who are you talking about? Your best friend? The four-eyed girl? Well, she left because I turned her down. Besides, who in their right mind would want someone like her as their girlfriend?"
Katherine didn't even wait for him to finish his sentence when she kicked him in his stomach.
"You are never to go near her, and if you do, I will break every single bone in your body."
As soon as Katherine left, James helped his friend to one of the chairs.
"What you did was wrong? You could have just told her no instead of humiliating her like that..."
"James..."
"No, Mateo. I have always been your best friend, but this time you have gone too far, and I don't think she will ever want to be with you in the future. And I hope that she finds someone better than you," James said. "I have to go before I do something that we will both regret," he added, getting up from the chair.
James couldn't even look back to see his best friend's face.
Mateo stared at the small paper bag that Amelia had dropped when she ran. He slowly moved to pick it up.
He opened it to find the one thing that he had been searching for but couldn't find the one he lost.
Amelia did!
But how?
Mateo thought he had lost a one-of-a-kind trinket, but now it was in his hands. He marveled at its intricate design and felt a wave of nostalgia wash over him. Memories of their previous adventures flooded back, igniting a spark of excitement within him.
It was something that his grandmother left him before she passed away.
Mateo turned it upside down to see the inscription that his grandfather wrote for his grandmother.
“You became half of my soul the moment you said yes to being with me. And as long as you are breathing so will I”
His grandparents’ relationship was one-of-a-kind. It lasted more than any other relationship that Mateo had seen.
Their love for each other was something he always wanted to have in his future.
It was the most special trinket that he ever had and cherished it but unfortunately, almost a year ago he lost it while camping with his family and hers.
Could she be the one who found it? But where? I looked everywhere for it but couldn't find it and Amelia did it.
Regret, a word that is so small yet the impact it's heavy. It might be just a word but the experience will always last a lifetime.
