I stormed back inside after the awful interaction with Jason. I slammed the door behind me, pissed off at his lack of self-awareness… and his over awareness of and tendencies to butt into other people’s business. Maybe also the fact that what he said annoyed me, but that didn’t change the fact that he was right. Which managed to annoy me even more.

“God I can’t believe him!” I muttered on my way in. 

Milo must have heard me- or the loud slamming of the door- because he immediately asked, “What’s wrong? Did something happen with Jason?” I always loved when he got worried about me. I couldn’t help it, he was just so cute. 

“No- well yes but I don’t want to talk about it…” I said, making my way to my room. However, I was stopped by his hand on my wrist. 

“But-” While his concern for me was undeniably adorable, him touching me and reminding me of something I could never truly have was not something I could handle right now.

I pulled my wrist from his grasp, “Seriously Milo, I can’t right now.” I said, and slammed yet another door behind me, sliding down the frame like I was in some sort of depressing movie.

Tears began to fall down my face as the words that Jason had said raced through my mind. The fact that it was so obvious to him that I was hopelessly in love and couldn’t do a damn thing about it, that he was straight, no less. And all I could do was sit there and cry like a pathetic loser, stuck in my own thoughts and emotions.

I eventually cried myself to sleep, right there on the floor. Not the most comfortable place, but apparently good enough for the broken mess I was. 

“Hey El?” I heard a voice wake me up from a somehow deep slumber as I felt a sharp pain in my back. “What’s blocking the door?” 

The sharp pain was apparently the door I had fallen asleep in front of. “Me,” I mumbled in response, rolling away from the door and sitting up while Milo opened it.

“Is everything okay? Why were you lying in front of your door?” He asked, walking over to me to help me up. 

I took his hand and stood up, both of us now sitting side by side on my bed to continue talking. “I’m fine,” I definitely wasn’t, but while I somewhat enjoyed his worrying, I didn’t want him to feel too bad because of me. “I just… fell asleep… in front of… my door,” I said, realizing how not-fine that statement sounded. 

He eyed me, but didn’t comment on my current mental state. “Ok… well I wanted to say that I’m sorry for earlier, I shouldn’t have tried to pry.” He said, taking my hand in his.

Luckily the darkness of my room hid the deep blush that appeared on my face at the sudden touch. “It’s fine,”

“But it’s not. I need to be able to respect your boundaries and I’m sorry I didn’t. Jason just… I don’t know what it is about him but he really pisses me off. He just gives me bad vibes and judging by the state he left you in, I don’t think it would be too far-fetched to call him an asshole,” He said, waving his hand around as he talked- or closer ranted- about his hate for Jason.

“It’s ok, you recognized your mistake and that’s what matters. Also Jason’s fine, he just… stated the truth and I happened to not like it,” I said, looking up at him, even though he was once again looking at the ground.

“Well I’m glad you think so.” He said, looking back at me with his gorgeous green eyes. For some reason it seemed like he hesitated for a moment, “What ‘truth?’” He asked.

Of course, I couldn’t tell him about what Jason had actually said, so I left it at, “Nothing to worry about,”

“Well I’m glad my best friend isn’t mad at me,” He said, smiling. While the words always stung, being reminded that we would never be more, the hug he gave after soothed the hurtfulness the words brought on.

“Me too,” I said, hugging him back.