Solangelo One Shots

The One That Got Away

A while ago someone suggested a one shot based on the one that got away by Katy Perry, so here it is! I put the video above in case anyone wanted to watch it. I don't know who requested this but comment if it was you and I'll give you credit! Edit: it was @IreadbooksIsuppose who suggested it, so thank you so much!!

Brief Backstory: Basically after Will, Nico never found anyone else who he loved as much. Consumed by his loneliness he adopted an orphaned girl who went on to make a family when she was older. This is Nico talking to his granddaughter, Willow.

Willow's POV

The main thing I noticed about my granddaddy was his wrinkles, although even the lines creasing his weathered face couldn't mask his loneliness. He was sitting in the old wooden rocking chair he always sat in, rocking back ans forth as he stared forlornly out the window, watching the rain splash down onto the grass outside. "What are you thinking about?" I asked, hopping up onto his lap. I was only five and I was easy to support, and Granddaddy wrapped his arm around me.

"Nothing of your concern, Willow," he sighed, not taking his eyes off of the fat raindrops. They were coming down on the roof, making it sound like giants were bouncing big rubber balls on our ceiling. "Why don't you go out and play with your brother? He's having a great time in the rain." I wrinkled my nose.

"It's gross out there. I don't like being in the rain. You can't like being lonely all the time."

"I can't help it," Granddaddy said with a small chuckle. "I love you and your mother very much, but there's still a hole in my heart where someone else used to be."

"Who is it?"

"His name was Will," Granddaddy sighed, his eyes taking on a far off, dreamy look. For the first time in my life I saw the sadness leave. "He was the love of my life. I never got over him."

"What happened?"

"He died," Granddaddy sighed, and the sadness came back, this time worse than before. His deep brown eyes got cloudy, his face dropping.

"Don't be sad," I pleaded, tugging on the sleeve of his shirt. I couldn't read very well but I was pretty sure it said something like Sunshine on the front in curly black writing. "Tell me about Will. What was he like?"

"He was like an angel," Granddaddy said. "We were just out of high school when I met him, at one of his concerts. He was an amazing musician, with a voice sweet as honey and his hands so skilled that the sounds that came from his guitar filled me with an immeasurable happiness. I knew at once when I saw him that I wanted to be with him for the rest of my life. Life and love is precious, Willa. Cherish it while you can before it's too late. If I learned that lesson earlier in my life, maybe I would have been happy."

"What happened after the concert?" I begged. It sounded like Will would have made an amazing grandpa. He would hug me when I fell off my bike and he would make Granddaddy happy. All I wanted was to see Granddaddy happy. When he started talking about Will, it seemed like he was.

"After the concert we started dating, and it was bliss," Granddaddy continued. "I was his muse and with my help he wrote gorgeous, flowing songs. His small band, Sunshine, started to get big, and it seemed like everything was falling into place. We shared a tiny apartment together, his income from the band and my job at a coffee shop just barely playing the bills, although we didn't need money for happiness. We had each other." Granddaddy took a deep breath, his eyes getting a little bit teary as he looked back at the rain. I couldn't help but think that his eyes looked a little bit like the sky, sad and wet. I hugged him tightly.

"I'm sorry for making you sad," I said. "You don't have to keep telling the story, if you don't want to." Nico shook his head, glancing down at his lap before glancing back up at me.

"No, Willa, I'll keep telling the story. Not once since I was with Will did I tell anyone about him. I need to get out my story now, no matter what. For his twentieth birthday he got a guitar, a beautiful instrument that he only loved second to me. I could hear him playing it late into the night, beautiful strumming filling every corner of the apartment. So many times I would beg him to come back to bed but he was obsessed with the guitar, playing it for hours on end. Then, one night, we got into a fight." Granddaddy squeezed his eyes tightly, his voice wavering. I could see the sadness come back for just a second before Granddaddy pushed it away as he kept telling the story.

"I can't even remember what we fought about. It was something stupid, I know that. Something that shouldn't have ended how it did. But when I was younger I had a temper, and that night it got the better of me. That's another lesson, Willa. Never let your anger get the better of you, please. It will only result in more sadness for everyone around you. Instead of being angry be happy, and be kind to everyone around you. If I had done that the night of the fight, my life would be very different today."

"How would it be different?" I wondered. My voice came out quieter than I had intended. Granddaddy's story had stolen my voice.

"I saw Will's guitar, sitting in the corner. I had painted it for him and it was a symbol of our love." A tear rolled down his withered cheek, identical to the ones outside. "It was beautiful and without thinking I smashed it." He reached into his pocket, pulling out a black and yellow piece of wood, tiny splinters sticking out from the sides. "We painted it black and yellow because we used to joke that we were polar opposites. He was the sun and I was the moon. We even gave each other tattoos, another symbol of our love." He flipped over his wrist and there, barely visible in lines and lines of wrinkles was a small moon tattoo.

"I had never seen him that angry. We got into a huge fight, ending with him storming out the door. I never saw my sunshine again." A tear leaked out of Granddaddy's eye, stopping in one of his wrinkles. "I didn't see him for the rest of that night or the next day, and it was only from a newspaper article I found out what happened. Local young man crashes car off of a cliff, is announced dead. I don't know why he went off of the edge. He was always such a careful driver. Maybe something flew into his face or maybe he was blinded by his anger. Either way, I never found out and I never will. His funeral was the worst day of my life. I sat there with fifty other people that Will died loving, and I had to watch as each of his family members and close friends gave a speech when I knew I had a part to play in his death." More tears were falling out of his eyes and they rested in the folds of his face.

"I dated after that, but it was never the same. I loved Will and I could never find that kind of romantic love again."

"It's okay, Granddaddy," I promised. "I didn't mean to make you sad."

"You did nothing wrong, Willow," Granddaddy answered. "Life gives you lots of beautiful things to love and cherish. Life found me your mother and in turn gave me you. Will was just the one that got away."

Hi guys! I'm not sure how good it is at the end. I'm exhausted, but I tried. Anyway, I hope you liked this one!

Nina