His Favorite Flower

Chapter 30 (Finale)

I was facing Simon and for some reason the air felt cool and light. I was clutching my backpack strap and eyed Simon curiously. 

"Sure, what is it?" 

He took one step forward and his eyes softening. 

"I heard about you and Alex, I didn't know you two had feelings for each other. I thought.."

"What is this about Simon?" I interrupted. 

"I was wondering why you declined that time I invited you to the fair and then I got my answer when I heard about you and Alex."

It felt awkward with him and more serious this time speaking with him. 

"Yes, I'm sorry that I declined your invitation but at the time I had feelings for.."

"I like you Flora" 

The words I had longed to hear for three years were finally uttered but it was too late and it became of no use. 

"Simon" 

"I'm sorry Flora that I didn't realize it sooner, you have been a good friend to me ever since we met and I had liked you before and I didn't do anything but instead be with someone else."

Hearing him say this felt out of place and it felt wrong. I know how heartbroken he was when Dahlia broke up with him and then came me, comforting him and becoming close with him again. It was out of this opportunity that he would be as close to me as he was when we first met. 

"I'm sorry that I cannot reciprocate your feelings" I say with a serious tone. 

"You have once before, starting in middle school."

That was when I had full realization that he knew. I had known that he had liked for a bit due to a mutual friend of ours at the time. He had told her he had thought of me that way. But in no way he had known about me liking him. 

"You knew?" 

He nodded. "I overheard you talking with one of your friends one day, you said that you liked me"

I felt cheated. "You knew during that time and it was when you liked me as well but you still got into a relationship with Dahlia" I said with my voice cracking. 

"I -I" He didn't know what else to say. 

"Did you actually like me Simon, or was it because I liked you in the first place and it just seemed convenient" 

"No, how could I?"

"Simon if you actually liked me, you wouldn't have gone with Dahlia and led me to believe that I could've had a chance." I pause and then I have the courage to say everything I wanted to. "This is what you're trying to do now. Now that Dahlia is gone suddenly you have feelings for me." 

"Flora" He says with disbelief. 

"We haven't talked to each other like we did in middle the entire time you were with Dahlia, three years Simon, and I liked you the entire time. You've changed and so have I. The Simon I first liked is not the same one now and I realized that I wasn't going to continue having feelings for someone who would never be able to reciprocate them the same way" 

"That isn't true now" 

I take in a deep breath and look up slowly at Simon. "I know how much you felt for Dahlia, the way you looked at her and the way you smiled every time you would see her. I understood it because it was the same way I loved you." 

He couldn't believe how strong my feelings for him were at the time and I could tell that he was upset at himself for not realizing how much it hurt to see him with Dahlia.