Stories Behind Songs (One-Shots)

The One That Got Away by Katy Perry

The One That Got Away by Katy Perry

It's funny how you'd miss the person who you'd thought you'd never fall in love.

Yes, muscular blonde jocks with beautiful ocean blue eyes were common here in hallways here in Bellingham High but I don't hink anybody could replace Sam Jones.

When we were young, I always called Sam the Science Geek.  He was so interested in science and he would burst out anytime with scientific facts when we were in grade school.  I didn't know what happened but I think it was the status quo that changed him.  Come middle school, he changed his look and joined the school football team.  In short, he became a popular jock.  And not just a jock, he was a big player.  He constantly played with the girls here as if they were toys that he could just throw away if they didn't look all good and new anymore.

I, on the other hand, remained sa loser.  I was a loser since elementary until now.  I didn't care.  I thought that popularity was stupid and I should just be who I wanted to be - a math nerd who loved to listen to music and didn't care for anything.

Like most girls, I have  a type.  Normally, I like guys who were simple, funny and could play a musical instrument.  Being in love with music, men who played instruments naturally attracted me.  Sam didn't fit the description.  He was a popular, jerk of a playboy.

But even though, I wasn't close to Sam.  We had this unusual connection to each other.  I knew Sam ever since he tried putting on pants.  My mother was friends with his mother and so we saw each other a lot even before school.  When school came, we were classmates and I was delighted by the idea since I was terrified at the time.

Ever since sharing classes with him in my first year in school, I had always ended up being in the same class with him.  There were times when I was bored that I thought that maybe it was destiny or something but I usually dismissed the subject since I wasn't interested in him in any way.

But that all changed in my sophomore year.  One of my close friends, Tori, moved away so my our group now only had three members.  The same situation came to Sam so as you'd have expected, we were paired up to be lab partners that year.

I didn't hate it or anything.  I mean, Sam and I grew apart as time passed by so we weren't close.  On the plus side, I sucked at Science while he was good at it so I accepted it.  

At first we focused on making our experiments and projects as we were supposed to do but the two of us were fast workers so we usually finished early.  At first, we would separate and talk with our friends but we soon found out that our teacher was quite strict so we had to remain in our seats.  Seeing that the two of us were bored, we decided to just chat.  Who knew that talking to him would be so pleasurable?

At one time or another, all my friends had a crush on him. It wasn't wierd or anything.  He was just a jock and that's what happens but I was always the exception.  Being his childhood friend, a crush on him was never what I thought of him even though my friends like to teased me because of our history.

I first realized it when I was laughing at this joke he made.  It wasn't really that funny actually and yet I laughed like a whale.  I realized that slowly I was falling for him and no matter how much I hated it, it was real.  He was constantly in my thoughts and I didn't know how to destroy them.

I didn't tell anyone.  If anyone knew, that special relationship that Sam and I had would be gone.  And so I kept it to myself.  Not a soul knew about it.  There was no such evidence that could pinpoint me on having a crush on Sam.  No diaries.  No blogs.  Nothing.  I couldn't. I simply couldn't.  When my friends asked me who I liked, I would just lie and give them the name of some random guy who I thought was cute.

I was quiet and I knew that Sam had many admirers but I didn't think that one of them would stick to him.  Her name was Veronica and I liked her.  She was funny and optimistic.  She confessed to Sam and everyone knew that Sam felt the same way.  Still, I was quiet when this was all happening.  I couldn't tell anyone.  I kept my feelings to myself but deep down inside me, every part of my body was aching.  I just didn't have the courage that Veronica had.  I couldn't afford what Sam and I had.  Everytime I looked at the two of them, I keep thinking of what that would have looked like had I just plucked up enough courage to tell Sam what I felt about him.

They went out for months when the bad news struck.  In the middle of our junior year, Sam announced that he had to move to a different state.  At first, I thought he was joking.  His family has studied in Bellingham High all their lives and all of a sudden, they decided to move to a different state just for Sam's education.  It was kind of stupid.  And so I told myself that Sam would stay.

But things grew serious.  Papers came in and he told the teachers that he would move.  The fantasy I kept believing was fading away and reality was taking place. I was the kind of person who found it easy to hide her emotions and so I did.

Sam arranged an outing as a sort of goodbye party.  All my friends opted not to go since they thought it was probably filled with the popular kids but thankfully, I managed to convince my one friend, Sherry to go with me.

The outing was horrible.  Sam wasn't the best at doing these things.  Everything Veronica wanted, he gave it to her and so the rest of us couldn't voice out what we wanted to do.

I started reflecting on my thoughts in our car ride home.  Sam and Veronica said their goodbyes since they were going on separate cars.  Sam and I were stuck in the same car. Because there were so many of us cramped up in one car, I was seated with my ass stuck with Sam's.  I didn't like it at first but as the trip back home went on, my feelings changed.

At some point of the car ride, my head rested on his shoulder and all of the feelings I didn't want to show just burst free. This was what I wanted - Sam and me together and yet because of my cowardice, nothing happened.  Everything that I wanted to tell him was all bottled up inside me and they would never go out.

After the car ride, I said my goodbye to Sam for the last time. I had never felt this depressed about anyone leaving.  Sam was the one what-if in my whole life.  Who knew what could've happened had I just told him how I felt before Veronica ever did?  Now that Sam was gone, nothing filled my heart anymore.

Courage.  That was the one thing I lacked.  Even a dash of this would've been good and help him know of my feelings for him.  I was just too scared to face the fact that he wasn't interested in me.  My crush on him was just a small fantasy I lived in and now reality was ruining everything.  I loved him.

It's already my senior year and until now, I miss him.  Nothing in the world could replace Sam Jones in my heart.  I couldn't let that happen again.  The emotions that washed up in my heart was just too hard for me to handle.  The summer he left was one of my worst summers ever.  Nothing could please me but his smile and I knew that that would never happen.  And so whe I got over Sam and I started liking a different guy, I went straight for it and told him I liked him.  He was okay with it and a month after that, we started going out.

I couldn't afford it anymore.  The way I was hurt was just too much.  I know that right now that for something to happen, I had to pluck up a little courage and just go for it no matter what consequences I face. Because no matter what happens, Sam Jones will forever be in my heart not as the Science Geek, or as The Jock but he'll always be the one that got away.