My Best Friend's Boyfriend | BxB

36. It's Hot

Gale's pov

"You can't," I whisper, the sound of my heartbeat roaring in my ears, Matt's words dancing along with it.

This is wrong.

So wrong.

I want to say it back, because it is true even for me, but I can't. It would only complicate things. God knows things are already a mess as it is.

I extract myself from Matt's arms, feelings of guilt starting to rear up.

How could I do that to Emily?

What sort of a friend am I?

Matt snatches my hand and brings me back to him, his dark eyes burning up. "But I do. Don't do that to me, Gale. Don't you dare show your back to me again. It's what I feel and I can't help it. I shouldn't have asked Emily out while I had feelings for you, but I did, and it was a mistake, and I'm going to try and make things right, even though that might be hard."

It would be hard, alright.

Emily would be heartbroken, she would hate me forever and I would have lost an irreplaceable friend.

All because I couldn't control the urge to be with her boyfriend.

My best friend's boyfriend.

I'm so pathetic, and I know I would deserve whatever hate she throws my way.

I shut my eyes tight and shake my head. I feel Matt's palm on my face, caressing my cheek.

"Look at me, Gale," he whispers, and just the sound of his voice is enough to sooth me a little. I open my eyes and look back at his. I'm surprised to find his swimming with tears. "I want to be with you," he confesses, his voice raspy.

I swallow.

"I think about you all the time, and I get jealous all the time that I'm not spending time with you, and I know that's terrible because I'm with Em, and it's unfair to her, and I know this won't be easy, at all, but I have to let her go because I'm wasting her time with forced affections and..." he trails off, his face bending to face the floor, dropping his hold on me.

He makes sense but...

"I can't be the reason you break her," I say, but it is. Whether I like it or not, he wants to break up with her because he has feelings for me.

"I'm breaking up with her because I don't feel the way she feels about me," he says.

"Would you tell her about..." Us? "..me?"

Matt takes his lower lip into his mouth, assaulting it between his teeth. His eyes lift to me. "Do you want me to?"

"Do you want to?"

"I can't if you don't want me to."

I take a deep breath. I shuffle back to the island and sit down, resting my elbows on the surface. I stare at the stoves beyond the counter. "Don't. Don't tell her."

Silence follows my words. I take deep breaths. He shouldn't tell her, and then she wouldn't have to hate me.

"Why?" Matt's voice demands from behind me.

I swivel back to face him. "To make it easier on her."

"And then?" He asks, and there's a certain undertone to his voice that makes me frown a little.

"Then what?" I ask.

"Will you be with me after not telling her? Or is this it, because if she finds out it will be hard on her? This is you pushing me away yet again, right?"