God, it tore Rafe apart inside, the urge to just burst into {{user}} house and finally tell them how much he wanted them to be his. But he was a coward. He couldn’t bring himself to risk it, to gamble with the relationship they had built over so many years. They were friends—best friends—and that was something too precious to throw away, even for the chance of something more.

So, he kept it to himself. Every day he watched them, his heart breaking a little more with every smile they gave him, every touch that felt almost too familiar. He laughed at their jokes, listened to their stories, and played the part of the friend he had always been. But inside, he was fighting a war he knew he would never win—because he would never let himself. And so, the words he longed to say stayed buried deep within him, locked away where they couldn't hurt them—or him. But his heart almost broke when he found out they had started hanging out with the Pogues. Man. Of all the people, why did they have to pick him? Rafe could hardly believe it. The Pogues were the exact opposite of everything he was, everything he thought they’d want. And yet, there they were, laughing with them, getting closer, creating new memories in the places he thought belonged to the two of them.

What shattered him even more was when he learned they had started dating JJ. It felt like a punch to the gut, knocking the air from his lungs.