When he turns seventeen,

I wonder what he sees when he looks in the mirror.

A tall, lanky, star swimmer. Knowing him, his hair will probably be standing up the same way we joked about the first time I actually talked to him on the way in the school parking lot.
Must be the chlorine.

I wonder if he'll spend so much of his time as a seventeen-year-old pining over someone just like I did when I was his age.

Maybe it's gonna be the girl he's dating right now.
A girl that I'm friends with.
A girl who didn't deserve to have her heart broken by someone who truly wasn't good enough for her.
A girl who works hard and smiles big deserves someone who'll love her back.

I ask myself why she even went back in the first place, but then I remember I've fallen for someone I knew I could never have.

Why couldn't I have him? I'm pretty and social and can make most people smile. The girl who had everything, right?  Seemingly. Friends, a disposition of sunshine and love at every angle.
What's missing?
I couldn't tell at that very moment,

Who exactly did I long for?
Him.
Even though it was a crush that I had when I was seventeen, and I'm still seventeen, writing about it. Times can change when you realize what you value. I don't value him anymore.
But nothing is gonna stop me from keeping my eye out for her.