Just Friends (A Real Man, 19)

Just friends.

That’s what I thought we were … until we weren’t, until my love for Mia was too consuming that I couldn’t ignore it anymore. Until I couldn’t deny it.

And when we’d lost someone close to us both—her brother, my best friend—it was that life-changing moment that I told myself to man up.

It was that loss that drew us closer, that made me realize I’d been a fool to stay back.

But we’d always been just friends.
Two words that meant a hell of a lot more than I wanted them to.

Two words that were this wall between us.

Two words that I wanted gone when I looked at her.

There was a time when I would have been fine with that title. But that time had passed.
I was done being just friends. I was ready to finally make Mia mine. I just hoped she felt the same way.