December 27 - Lost

His big fear was that the moment he was locked into one option, another, better option would present itself.
The fear had its roots in the spring of his senior year when after hemming and hawing for several weeks, he said screw it and asked Sally Fulton to the prom. The same afternoon, he found out that Jill Kressler had broken up with her boyfriend in order to ask him to the prom.
Jill Kressler.
He'd had no idea Jill was into him. If he had, he never would have asked Sally. Not that there was anything wrong with Sally. She was fine; it's just that, well, Jill was Jill. Piss funny, into cool stuff, and smart. And hotter than hell without being girly. And she liked him.
If only he'd held off on asking Sally--for one hour!--he could have gone with Jill instead.
But no. He was, well, he didn't want to say 'stuck' with Sally, but that's how he carried himself that night. He sulked his way through the prom, barely talked, barely danced, and Sally had a bad time, and that was the only night they ever went out. (Do I even have to tell you that Jill ended up going with a totally undeserving moron?) It was a terrible night all around. And then they all graduated a few weeks later and Jill went one way and he went another and that was it.
And it was all because he'd settled too quick. And so his M.O. became Something better could be just over the horizon, so don't lock yourself into anything until you're positive. Until you're absolutely sure.
Only thing was he never let himself get to the point where he positive, where he was absolutely sure. He always pulled the plug before it got anywhere near that point.
He dated sporadically in college, but never seriously. His eyes were always wandering, he was always distracted. This girl is great and all, but what else is out there?
After graduating, all of his friends got hitched, one by one. All but him. They tried to set him up for a while, but then gave up when they started having kids.
Years passed.
As did many promising women, but he wouldn't let himself get lost in their charms. Sure, a lot of them were great, but he'd held out for The Right One for so long; he could wait a little longer. At that point, he wasn't going to pull the trigger just to pull the trigger. He wasn't going to go all in on a four of a kind when a straight flush might be right around the corner.
Years later, at his 50th high school reunion, he was still single.
And it was great to catch up with everyone and see how they all turned out, and in the middle of all this, texts and emails suddenly started flooding into the reunion with shocking, impossible news. Someone found a TV and they all stood in numbed silence as they watched CNN's coverage of the End of the World.
They had 25, maybe 30 minutes before the bombs hit that would kill them all.
Many people held their loved ones and watched the story unfold on TV. Others wandered away from the TV in a daze.
Some collapsed to the floor in tears and prayers. And others paired off and tried to find a place with something approaching privacy so they could go at it one last time before the world came crashing down.
As more and more people paired off and disappeared, he searched the dance floor frantically. This was it. Time to forget about possible future regrets and find someone. Now.
And then magically, there she was. Sally, his old prom date.
The grudge she'd held against him for ruining her prom was long gone, of course. And even if it hadn't been, she would have found a way to forgive and forget in that moment, because there was no more time to waste. It would all be over soon.
He realized that now. He'd wasted too much time.
But no more.
There was still a chance to make the final moments of his life worthwhile and share it with somebody for once. It wasn't too late. He grabbed her hand.
Yes.
Yes, let's go.
They started across the room, and then there she was, Jill, the one who'd wanted to go with him all those years ago. Standing alone.
He stopped.
They looked at each other.
Sally noticed.
And tugged at his hand.
And then let go of it.
He started to walk over to Jill, but then stopped when her husband came running back to her with a bottle of wine. They joined hands and left.
He turned around to grab Sally, but she was gone.
And then the bombs hit.