Everything I Never Knew I Could Ever Have
This fanfiction is based on the events of the movie Love, Simon, not the novel it was based on.
Chapter 3- Touched
10 Years Later
"My favorite memory from high school is..." I stopped, unable to process coherently. My gaze flicked to the side, instantly finding Bram standing in the crowd, always drawn to him. No matter what. His eyebrows were crinkled in that way they used to when he was concerned. "Uh.." I managed, really feeling the spotlight on me. I felt dizzy by the swell of emotion in me "When I met the love of my life," I said and there was a profound silence after that, and I couldn't look at Bram. I handed the mic off blindly to the next person and turned to leave.
Attending the class reunion was a mistake. Ten years after the life-altering senior year. Five years of college and four years of navigating the real world and failing to achieve anything other than mediocrity. College may have landed me my career, but after two years, my relationship with Bram disintegrated. Distance and stress were relationship killers. We tried to be friends, but even that faded away after I started dating Mike. Mike made me happy and I enjoyed our time together, but unease always lingered in my mind. I just couldn't love him for even a tenth as much as I loved Bram. Bram touched my soul. I tried to write it off to first love fever, but even after I ended it with Mike, I never found anything at all recognizable as a grand love story in the years that followed. I was starting to think that I already had my one chance and I blew it. This past year I focused on my career; single and reconnecting with myself. That's what I told myself.
Leah was worried about me. We were still friends, after all these years later. Nick and Abby were still Facebook friends ...and friends I saw a few times these past 10 years. But I spoke to Leah about once a week. I was her man of honor at her wedding last year. A few weeks ago, she and Paul just started trying. It freaked me out. Here I was, single at 27 and no closer to a family of my own. I walked over to my parents' house after parking on the curb. But I stopped and just stared at it. It was dark, save a light in their bedroom. Nora was in college. I breathed evenly and just felt cold looking at it. I had just replayed my love story with Bram in my mind back at the class reunion. This house was the first place Bram and I ever laid down together. It was the first place I ever sent him a message. It was where our love bloomed. After all these years the house is exactly the same. I thought I was unrecognizably different. But after laying eyes on Bram tonight, I connected with a past self I'd forgotten was still inside me. It felt good, pretending to be young again; even for a moment. I knew in that moment what 17-year-old Simon would do. And so, I turned and climbed back into my car.
