My Best Friend's Boyfriend | BxB

34. I'm A Fool

The days morphed into weeks and before Gale knew what was happening, the term was halfway gone. It all went past him in a sort of haze, and he preferred it that way because it protected him from what was going around him.

If Olivia thought he had been thinking all about football a year ago, she had another thought coming. It possessed every single free minute of his outside school work, and it was showing. Coach had called him just the other day, and later on Evan, Matt and Scott had received the same summon. The national under 19 coach had invited them to attend training camp with the national under 19 team in August during the holiday. Gale knew even though his parents were supportive of his ambitions, they had made it clear that he would have to clear high school first, and that seemed a long way off. Maybe if everything went well he would get called to the team since he already played sort of professional with the school team and he would always be in training. There weren't any promises from the scout, and there were several another great players invited, but it still felt like a dream come true. At least he had a shot at the team.

What he hated most was when after dinner and homework, his exhaustion didn't take him straight under and he started thinking. He might have held his tears back that first day, but he had let them spill once or twice when the pain got too much and he didn't know what to do.

What could he do?

Other than stand back and watch his best friend live her happily after with the guy he was in love with.

Because he was in love, right? Otherwise why did it hurt so much?

It was after training, and he was making his way to his truck when Olivia joined him, just from her volleyball practice. She still wasn't done bothering him, and the harder she pushed the harder Mellisa came at him too. It almost drove him crazy and made him just want to yell.

"Any plans for the weekend?"

Why would she ask that?

"It's Monday, Olivia. The weekend is a long way off, I don't even know my plans for the week itself."

But he did. Football, class, football, class.

"Okay then want to go out Saturday? There's this new movie showing you might want to see."

Gale stopped in his tracks and looked at her. She stopped too.

"Have you, by any chance, forgotten that we dated then you slept with another guy and we ended that right there?"

She puffed her cheeks. "I said sorry, Gale. Can't you just forget about that?"

Fat chance.

"And in case you haven't noticed, I think more and more of football and football only nowadays, and I remember that was an issue with you."

"Can you forget whatever I said all that time ago? I can't even remember half of what I said!" She claimed, ending it with a giggle.

"Well I'll remind you. You said Eddie knows how to treat you right, so how about you go bother him? He wouldn't mind."

"I didn't know you were the type to hold a grudge this long," she complained.

He glared. "You don't know me at all." He looked past her only for his eyes to land on Matt, who was openly staring at them even though he was supposedly talking to Kellan and Trevor. His heart lurched, and he felt that familiar ache start up. He sighed and looked down at Olivia. "Bye."

But she wasn't going to let him go that easily, and she grabbed his hand. "Come on Gale."

"Okay fine whatever I'll think about it," he snapped, then snatched his hand away and rushed to his truck, needing to get away as fast as possible.