It’s now the middle of the COVID pandemic and I was finally starting to get used to being at a house with two other grown men. I know that it would take some time to adjust to living in a house with a person of the opposite gender let alone two people of the opposite gender to you but still, it’s awkward as hell.
Rant about how awkward my current living situation is over.
    Anyway, over my time in quarantine things started to change. Both mentally and physically. Regardless, I started to feel very weird about my relationship with Austin. I didn’t mean it in a bad way, hell, I actually love being a friend to Austin but something was changing. Maybe it was because I was spending so much time around Austin but I had a feeling that our bond was becoming less and less platonic. I had to hide it from him though because we were too good friends and saying that I had a crush on him was too risky of a move for me to pull. I had to come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to be able to confess my feelings to Austin no matter what.
    So, yeah, there’s that. I have feelings for my male best friend and I can’t even confess it straight to him. My feelings got so bad that I literally started blushing in the middle of a random conversation. Like here’s how it went; so Austin was just talking to me minding his own business then all of a sudden I start blushing out of literally nowhere! That's it. That's all that happened. We were just minding our business and I started blushing out of nowhere.

Austin saw me blushing and was like “Hey, are you okay? Your cheeks are turning really red.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just a bit dehydrated is all.” I say trying to reassure him.

“I’ll get you something to drink. Stay here, okay.” Austin says

“Okay.” I said.
   
    I was just sitting in the room minding my business when all of a sudden someone enters the room. It was Steven. He saw me in the room and was very concerned about this. Honestly I think he was just as concerned about this as Austin was. Except Steven actually wanted to know the truth about what was going on. It wasn’t that Austin didn’t care, I just couldn’t tell him the truth because our friendship was on the line.

“Hey Amberly.” Steven said with a slight smile.

“Oh, hey Steven.” I responded.

“What’s up? You look a little sick.” Steven asked.

“I’m fine.” I said.

“Are you sure?” Steven asked.

“Yeah.” I said

"Are you sure?" Steven asks again, this time with a bit more of a joking tone.

"Yes, I'm sure." I said. "Now get the heck out of here!" I continued.

"Uh yeah, you are not okay. I can tell that something’s up." Steven said. "Tell me what's wrong."

"You're not going to leave me alone if I don't tell you what's on my mind, are you?" I asked.

Steven shook his head. "Nope," he said innocently.

"Ugh, okay then." I said. "Come over here you idiot."

"Okay." Steven said then he walked towards the bed. Steven then sat on the side of the bed.

I took a deep breath. "Steven, I know you might not be the right person to ask about this but, have you ever developed feelings for one of your friends?" I asked.

"Well, no. I don't like the whole concept of love and crushes and all that." Steven said.

"Oh," I said. "Well, have you ever had to help somebody who's developed feelings for someone?" I asked.

"Way too many times." Steven said. "I'm practically a pro at helping people with crushes for some reason." He giggled. I giggled a bit too.

"Well, what if I told you that I had a crush on Austin?" I asked.

Steven gasped. "You have a crush on Austin?!" He asked.

"Uh huh." I said blushing for my dear life.

"I get it though. Austin is pretty hot." Steven said.

"Wait a second." I said. "You think Austin's hot but you also aren't into love and crap. I'm lost here." I said. I was very confused and rightfully so.

"Have you seen the pictures and stuff that he posts on social media?" Steven said. "I mean how can you look at this and say Austin ain't hot?" He continued jokingly as he showed me a picture from Austin’s Instagram.

"Okay, I will admit, Austin is pretty handsome." I said. "Austin’s looks aren't the only reason I like him though." I said.

"What makes you like Austin so much then?" Steven asks.

"I like him for the kind of person he is. You know what I mean?" I said.

"I think so." Steven says. "He’s easily one of the kindest people that I know.” 

"Shallow much?" I said.

"What do you mean?" Steven asked.

"You are being so basic with what makes me like Austin. It's just so weird." I said.

"Well, what makes you like him then?" Steven asked.

“Austin seems to be different compared to other men. He’s more loyal than most men, he seems to be more compassionate towards his female friends and he’s very vulnerable when it comes to his emotions. I don’t know why but I just find that so attractive!”

Steven smiled then said “That’s adorable and all but, I gotta dip.”

“Wait, what–” I said. That’s when I heard Austin coming up the stairs. “He better not have heard any of that.” I thought.

“Hey Amberly! Sorry I took so long, your dogs were just being so adorable and I just couldn’t resist the urge to play with them.” Austin said.

“It’s okay. When you’ve got pups in your house, it very quickly can become very hard to resist the urge to play with them. And I should know, I grew up around dogs and I could never focus on stuff when they were around.” I said with a playful giggle.

“Yeah, I grew up around animals for a lot of my life too. They are so adorable yet, so distracting.” Austin said. “Oh, here’s some water by the way.” he adds tossing me a bottle of water

“Thanks.” I said

“No problem.” Austin giggles. “Funny question actually, were you and Steven having some kind of conversation while I wasn’t up here? I’m only asking because like, as soon as I got upstairs, I saw Steven just rush out of the room.”

“Haha, yeah.” I said. “But, it’s nothing that you need to know about.” I giggled.

“And why not?” Austin said with a giggle.

“Because I said so.” I retorted. I stuck my tongue out right afterward. Austin and I kept joking about the most random stuff and soon enough, the blushing situation was 100% off my mind.

Or so I thought.

A/N:  Finally we have entered the crush stage of Austin and Amberly's relationship! Haha, sorry it took so long to get here this was the first attempt of a slow-burn romance and it ain't all that good 😅. But thanks for sticking around for it.