A short story about regret.

This is my first story and I want to get into writing so if anybody has tips I would very much appreciate it.

"The average person lives 2,524,608,000 seconds; but it only takes ten of those to change your life forever." This caught Josh's attention. The words rang through his head. "Only takes ten seconds to change your life forever." The white walls plastered with  cheesy inspirational posters seemed so worthless now. He thought about all the seconds he has spent worrying about what would happen, he didn't realize what couldn't happen. Looking down at those pale scars on his arm, he realized how stupid he is to waste that precious time on trivial things. "Josh!" the teacher yelled. "Huh? Oh what?" "It's lunch time." It was lunch time. Walking through the line, he went through the same old routine. "Hello." the lunch lady said. "Hi." Josh said, monotonously. As he walked to the empty table he saw the girl who he thought was beautiful. Her bright green eyes, and her dyed red hair. He thought about what the teacher said, then went to the table, and sat down.

"Here lies Josh. He did not fear death, but he did fear life. He was scared of the things that could happen but didn't think of the things that wouldn't happen. He died alone. He died knowing nobody was there for him. It was his own doing." This is what Josh's tombstone said. He had the chance. He had the chance to change his life that day in the lunchroom, the chance to feel what love felt like. He gave it up. Those ten seconds were up. All his seconds were up. Regret fell over him as he sat in his plain, bare, room, waiting to die.

"Hello." the lunch lady said. "Hi." Josh said, startled. As he walked to the empty table, he saw the girl who he thought was beautiful. Her bright green eyes, and her dyed red hair. He thought about what the teacher said, then went to the table and sat down. "Hey," Josh started, "what's your name?"

Don't be one of those people who thinks back on their life with regret. Be one of those people that looks back on their life and would do it all over again.

Author's Note

Any constructive criticism is appreciated. There might be some punctuation errors so if you see one point it out.

Reviews

[ValyrieKiennan]

Watch your verb tenses! For example, when you say "he thought about all the seconds he has spent worrying..." it should be "had spent worrying". Also, explain the scars! You insert that snippet rather quickly, and you could do to elaborate here!

Consider expanding on the affection of Josh towards his fiery-haired love - there could be an interesting story in there!

I like where you finish off - you leave the reader with a message to take away. I wouldn't touch the ending!

Keep writing, you express yourself well!

VK

[WhiteIce]

Haha thanks! I thought about elaborating on the scars but I wanted to keep the story so that the reader chose what to think happened. I will definitely consider that though. Also, the story with the girl is a good idea too.

[ValyrieKiennan]

No problem! I like that, letting the reader inject something of themselves into the piece. Hemingway would approve!