Billy's POV

"I hate it. I hate this feeling," I thought to myself. I was grieving. I was grieving the person I thought I could trust but ended up just stabbing me in the back. I shouldn't have done that. I shouldn't have given myself to him like that. Hadn't I done that, my heart wouldn't be broken into millions of pieces. All because of Tom.

It's not fair. I thought that he was the one. I mean as a friend, that is. I'd never opened up to anybody like that before. I... I need him. I don't know what to do without him. When I turned my back on him that day, part of me expected and wanted him to come run after me. I sound like a teenage girl that's in love. Maybe I even am; I don't know. It doesn't have to be a romantic type of love; I can just love him like a sibling, right?

And yet he just let me go. He chose Tom over me. I still want him to, I dunno, call me, but then again, he doesn't even have my phone number. I never gave it to him. Should I go after him? Or should I try to move on from him?

Tom's POV

I fucking like this guy so much. Even though I'm not showing it, my stomach's acids feel as if they're going to burn through my gastric mucosal barrier. My heart races, and my knees feel as if I need to get on the ground on all fours when he looks in my eyes. Sure thing, I've had a number of crushes in this school, but nobody's made me weak as Nate has.

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The fact that this guy is now mine and mine only makes me question reality. Is this part of my imagination? A hallucination? Because Nate is out of my league. His glasses suit his nerd persona so well. Sure, being a nerd isn't the only thing he is, but it sure makes him cute as fuck. I just feel this desire to protect him from the evils of the world, like Billy.

I want to show this guy the world. At least the physical world because for me, he is my world. My everything. I had no idea I even had the capacity to consider somebody so precious, but then Nate popped up and changed everything.

Nate's POV

Sure thing, I like Tom, but I still feel a tremendous amount of guilt for not reaching out to him to hopefully fix whatever we have left of our friendship. I should just forget him. He made his choice and abandoned me, and if I have an ounce of self-respect, I should just let him go. I do understand that I made a mistake kissing Tom, but I didn't think it through. Would I ditch Tom if he were to come back into my life? No. Maybe that's selfish of me, but I'd choose romance over friendships anytime. Romantic relationships are so much deeper and intimate than friendships. I know both are going to end the moment high school is over, so I'm just going with the option that's going to benefit me the most.