The flower you never saw

One.

"Haha, I won." Dan smiled but his ocean-like eyes mocked me.

"Nothing new about it." I tilted my head to meet his glaze which was celebrating his victory, and whined.

I was panting and trying to take possession of my breath.
Guess he noticed how tired I was and decided to take a little break before going back to the town.
As they say, A tired body leads to injury.

Before I could even get off my bicycle he was already rested on top of a stone, patting the spot next to him, notifying me to join him.

I soon joined him as he wished.

The distance between us was very little, only a few inches apart.

He suddenly leaned over and wrapped his arms around my shoulder and pulled me close.

We were friends and friends do this all the time so it was nothing new.
But if you don't think of them as just a friend then the sudden gesture will make any friend blush a little, same as me.

"You know what? You need to kind of focus on your strength, you never know when you have to fight someone" he laughed. It was a genuine one and not a laugh of mockery. He wasn't wrong in fact I don't think he has ever been wrong.

"Yeah maybe"

Daniel Craig Ferguson. In short, Dan.
My mom always told me stories about prince and heroes when I was young. She told me how brave they were, how mesmerizing they were.
And growing up with Dan by my side, I believed that I was friends with one of those princes from the fairytale.
He was everything my mom told me about.
He was beautiful to the utmost and did everything to perfection.
There wasn't a single thing he couldn't do.
He was held in high regards by all who knew him.
He could effectuate almost everything.
He was both physically and mentally active.
Despite him being a year younger than me, he was much more of a man than I was.

He could converse with the locals and was never afraid to get his opinion across, unlike me.

Everybody desired to be friends with him, unlike me.

He had that body every girl died for, unlike me.

He was energetic and extroverted, unlike me.

He stood out the most in every sport he played, unlike me.

He was totally different from me.
We were like the sun and the moon, nothing in common.
But still, our friendship was strong.
We both knew each other better than anyone else.
He would play football while I sat at the back with my game.
He would call me time and again to make sure if I saw him do that amazing pass or goal which I did all the time.

I admired him, I admired his existence.
And before I could notice, the admiration turned into devotion.

I started to notice how my heart skipped a beat whenever he laughed,
How I felt a warmth inside me whenever he told me 'I love you',
How I felt a crimson tint creeping on my face whenever he hugged me or
How I noted every little thing about him
but he never knew.

I wasn't planning on telling him yet or anytime soon.
I would keep this to myself forevermore if it means saving the friendship.

What if he didn't like me?
What if he liked someone else?
What if laughs at me?
What if he feels disgusted that his friend likes him?
How will he react?
More importantly
Will he accept me as a homosexual person?

I was scared...
scared of those whats and hows.
After all, he was so far above me in every sense
And part of me knew that protagonists were supposed to fall in love with another protagonist not with one of the side characters.