It's tough, being best friends with the person you love. Especially if the feeling is... mutual?
Wait, what?
Truly, neither Mason Byrd nor Cody O'Neill wanted to be just friends. It's just that Cody was fast in the swimming pool but not so much...
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Mason
As usual, there were a few things Cody O'Neill utterly failed to notice at the bar tonight:
1) the brunette with the tray overtly flirting with him. If he'd given her the chance, she would have slipped him her number with the beer, later her tongue and perhaps even more. I preferred not specifying the 'more' part.
2) the way Zoey punched and teased him is actually her idea of hitting on him. She and Yue both thought Cody was cute. Cute, but also kinda cringe. Too many girls liked Cody.
3) the doorstep on our way out. He tripped, flailed his arms, then pretended nothing happened. Yue made a very valid argument with the cute but also kind of cringe.
Unfortunately, the list of things Cody O'Neill failed to notice tonight ended at these three points.
"Mace? Are you mad because of what Noel said?"
I felt Cody's questioning eyes on me. I kept mine on the street tiles, carefully avoiding touching the lines as we walked.
Mad? What gave him that idea? I'd only thought of 97 ways to kill Noel, before Cody and I pushed through the other half of the crowd. About 150 after stepping out onto the streets. Did that qualify as mad?
Should've never told my idiot brother, or Yue or Zoey anything.
Tell the bunch of progressive people you're hanging out with on a Saturday afternoon you're gay because it's the 21st century everyone, and nobody bats an eye.
Tell them not to tell Cody yet because you're in— in something, an unspecified magnitude of feelings (I'd carefully avoided the word 'love') with him, and everyone gapes like I just announced I thought Hitler was a swell guy.
They're all convinced I should tell him. I'm convinced they should all eat a dick. There was a subtle difference between telling someone you're gay, or telling someone you're gay and in love with them. Subtle however, was not their strong suit. Especially Noel was about as subtle as a brick through a window.
I told them I hoped they'd be supportive. Poor matchmaking attempts and obvious meaningful looks was so not what I had in mind when I said supportive. They just didn't seem to understand entire friendships go to shit because of the friend zone and the awkward. I had no doubt in mind Cody would react nicely to me being gay, but I needed to get over him first, before telling him anything.
"Mace?"
Cody sounded worried, his eyebrows drew together. I forgot to answer him, didn't I?
Whipping out my most convincing and only half-fake smile (because it was difficult not to smile at least a little bit real for Cody. The other half of the smile was the type I used for parents, work, and teachers), I shook my head.
"Nah, I'm not mad. Just not in the mood for crowds, and I actually want to watch a documentary."
Cody nodded deliberately. "Okay," he accepted my answer, but his brows still told a different story.
