I feel so guilty but I can’t shake the feelings. I want her but I can’t have her. I can’t have her because she’s my best friends’ sister…I can’t tell Mark, he’d kill me. Mark and I have been best friends since I can remember, practically my whole life.

We grew up together in this small town in Wyoming, where nothing changes except the time. Everybody knew everybody, including their business. It was sunny usually, but soon winter would set in, as it was the end of September. Leaves would quickly be changing to deep oranges and reds, yellows with some lighter shades of green, then the leaves would slowly start dying, and fall to the ground, as a rusty brown color, and crunch like crumpled up paper when you step on them. The homecoming dance was around the corner, and I knew who I wanted to ask. I knew Mark would be upset, because his sister, Rebecca was in a way almost like my sister. I’d grown up with her too, but recently I’ve developed feelings for her, and I figured she had too. I had to come up with a fool proof plan to where she couldn’t turn me down, no way, no how.
So late one night I snuck out of my tiny house, and drove to hers. I got the chalk out of the passenger seat of my old 1999 red Chevy pickup truck and made sure that the lights were shining onto the driveway, then began to write “homecoming” in large letters. The final touch was to sign who it was from…nervous and trying to decide if I had made the wrong choice, I decided to just go for it. I began to write my name, D, A, N, and it was done, and I couldn’t undo it, I breathed a sigh of relief but it was masked with nervousness for what Rebecca would find when she went outside to drive to school. I’d hoped she would say yes. The next day at school, I waited for her at her locker, anxiously. Finally, I could see her coming; she hugged me and told me “yes, I would love to go to homecoming with you.” I couldn’t be any happier, but I knew I would still have to hear the wrath from Mark, and I wasn’t looking forward to hearing it.
Fast forward a few weeks later and here we were, the day of the dance. I was wearing my dad’s old tux with a purple tie to match Rebecca’s purple dress. I was going to her house at 4 to take pictures with her, Mark’s date, and Mark. The dance was at 7. Man was I nervous, going to homecoming with a pretty girl like Rebecca. As I walked up to their door like I’ve done so many times before, I was anxious and nervous as heck. All I wanted to do was turn around and leave, before I threw up. I rang the doorbell and waited to see her coming down their big, long staircase in her purple dress that ended just above her knees so you could see her long tan legs. She looked beautiful. Her blonde hair was long, and curled, and her perfect blue eyes shined brighter than normal, like two stars in a dark night sky. Next we took pictures. Me putting on her corsage, and her trying to gently pin my flowers on my tux without poking me. I have to admit, I was nervous, but she looked cute doing it, so I wouldn’t if cared if I got poked once or twice.
Next we went to dinner as a group, and truthfully I just wanted it to be over so we could go to the dance, I have been looking forward to this for weeks now. Ever since the day I wrote the words “homecoming? From Dan” on her driveway, I’d waited for this moment, and I didn’t want to wait any longer. I was getting impatient. Finally, dinner was over and we waited outside of the high school in the long line of students watching others come and get in line.
It was now 6:45. We had fifteen minutes and it was going by slower than ever. Every few minutes, I checked my phone waiting to see the time go by. After what seemed like forever of waiting, it was finally time to go in. I handed a teacher our tickets, and as we entered the massive gym. I saw the lights off, and the strings of lights up. They barely lit up the room making it dim, but not too dim. So I could still see how gorgeous Rebecca looked. It was decorated just how I had imagined, and the theme seemed to be under the sea. Waves of paper up on all of the walls, sea animal cut outs laid out around the floor in the corners, and different assortments of punch flavors in bowls, some red, green, and orange. We danced all night, and I saw lots of my friends, and I was really truly happy for the first time in a long time. But that quickly stopped when the feeling of nervousness set in when Mark had saw us kiss. I figured he would be mad, but surprisingly he was pretty happy about it. After a couple of weeks of not talking and said that he thought we would make a cute couple. Soon after that I asked her out, and things went well until I realized she was just a gold digger and was only with me because I bought her things when she asked and on holidays. We ended up breaking up, and I truly regret going after her because Mark and I are no longer as close as we used to be. He decided to take her side on the whole situation, but that’s alright. From this I learned that life doesn’t always go your way and you can’t expect everything to be perfect; and I’m okay with the fact that they aren’t.