Ryan's POV

I looked around my backyard once again and sighed. My porch and lawn were covered with people. My team was here, my friends were here, well, most of my friends were here.

I can't believe he didn't have the nerve to show up. The one person I wanted to see more than anyone, and he was MIA. All the times I was there for him.

I was at my home, celebrating one of the biggest wins of my career, a win that locked me into the round of 8, when I knew I pretty much had to win in order to advance to the next round.

He said he couldn't make it. He was busy. I bet he has no idea that I saw the Instagram post that he was tagged in talking about Fortnight. My best friend had ditched me to play video games. Fuck him.

Last week, I did something crazy. I confessed everything to him, told him how I felt, how crazy I was about him, in a romantic way, not just as friends. He smiled at me, but gave no indication that he felt the same, then told me we would talk about it later. I told him to forget about what I had said if it was going to affect our friendship. He's been avoiding me since.

Fuck Chase Elliott!!!

I grabbed another beer, ready to turn this buzz I was working on into a full fledged drunken binge. This was a party. I was supposed to be celebrating, however, my excitement over winning Talladega was diminished, because the person who was missing was the one who meant the most to me.

Chase fucking Elliott can kiss my ass. I'm sick and tired of this one sided friendship. All the little flirtatious remarks he's made to me. The little secret looks and touches. I'm tired of him leading me on.

Unfortunately, my attempt to drown my sorrows was sidetracked by a commotion in the backyard.

"What the fuck are you doing here Bowman? Who the hell invited your sorry ass?" I could hear Bubba yelling.

I looked up just in time to see Bubba take a swing at Alex, and Alex go down. Before I could react, several guys from my team were separating the two.

Great! That's the fucking last thing I needed.

What was Alex Bowman doing here? I personally had no beef with Alex, but we had never really hung out together. I knew he and Chase were friends, being teammates, but we had never really talked much. Alex had a girlfriend who kept him pretty busy.

Bubba continued to hurl insults at Alex and I just wasn't in the mood for it. Right now, I just wanted to be alone.

"Party's over everyone. Go home." I shouted to everyone hanging out in my yard. Bubba began to protest. "Go home Bubba. I'll talk to you later." Bubba glared at me, but for once kept his mouth shut.

Everyone began to quietly pack up their belongings and file out. No questions were asked, maybe they realized I meant business.

I saw Alex head off, towards the front of the house, blood running out of his nose. "Alex, wait. At least get yourself cleaned up." Despite my foul mood, I didn't want him to leave like that. I felt bad for the guy.

I showed Alex to the bathroom. Blood continued to pour from his nose. "Lean forward." I said, taking a clean towel and handing it to him. "Apply pressure." I said, noticing droplets of blood hitting the floor.

I grabbed another towel and wiped the floor with it. "Just sit tight and keep applying pressure. I'm going to go and get some ice." I explained.

Maybe once he stopped bleeding all over my bathroom, then he could explain why he was here. He had to have known Bubba would be here.

I returned with an ice pack. The bleeding was subsiding a bit. I held the ice pack to his nose and he winced. "Sorry." I mumbled.

"You don't have to do this Ryan. I'll be fine. I should probably take off anyway. I'm sorry I busted up the party."

I couldn't help but notice he appeared sad. Like something was on his mind, other than being punched out by Bubba.

"What's going on Alex? What brings you by tonight?" I asked. I was curious.

"I uh... I. I wanted to talk to you about Chase. I didn't know you had a party going on." Alex replied, looking a little embarrassed.

His nose had finally stopped bleeding, so I got another towel and wet it, and began to clean the dried blood from his face.

Before I could ask him what about Chase, his hand covered mine. "It's easy to see why Chase is so crazy about you." He murmured, almost to himself.

"What are you talking about Alex?" I asked confused, his hand was still covering mine.

He blushed a little and removed his hand, he cast his eyes downward.

"You really have no clue do you? Aside from being gorgeous, you are also very kind and caring." He spoke in almost a whisper.

Was Alex coming on to me? I suddenly realized I hoped he was. Something was drawing me to him, something in his eyes, his embarrassed expression, but I wanted to know what he had to tell me about Chase that was important enough to have him driving over to my house instead of calling or texting.

"I mean, what makes you think Chase is crazy about me?" I tried to push aside the really weird thoughts running through my head about Alex.

"I...uh...I guess you could say I have a thing for Chase. We uh. We got together and I uh...I told him about it and he said he was into you." Alex's was now as red as the dried blood that had been on his face. I also couldn't miss the sadness that filled his hazel eyes.

Suddenly, I was angry. Not at Alex, but at Chase. What exactly did he mean when he said he and Chase had gotten together? If Chase had these feelings for me, why didn't he say anything when I told him how I felt about him? Why did he leave me hanging? What about Alex's girlfriend? How did she play into this? I was full of questions and I couldn't push past the thought that I was being played. Not just me, but Alex was being played too.

"Alex, I had no idea you were...uh..." My voice trailed off.

"Into guys?" Alex finished.

I nodded. "Don't you have a girlfriend?" I asked.

"We broke up a few months back. I've known for a while. I tried to deny it, I tried to hide it. Jenna was just a cover up to keep anyone from suspecting anything. But you...I never suspected you were into guys either."

I could feel my face heat up. "I never knew I was either, to be honest. There's just something about Chase."

He sighed. "Don't I know it."

I realized I needed to hear the whole story. As much as it would probably hurt, Alex's confession had left me with more questions, and I needed to know the answers.

"Why don't you start from the beginning. What exactly has been going on with you and Chase?" I asked.

Alex began to look even more uncomfortable. I watched his adam's apple bob nervously just before he spoke. "We've kinda been flirting for a few months. Just little touches here and there, some suggestive talk, but that seemed to be the extent of it."

I found myself getting angrier. Chase had been doing the same thing with me.

I nodded my head, indicating for Alex to go on.

"On Friday night, we uh. We got together. We were together. He said you were too busy doing the Blvd thing and didn't have time for him. He said you weren't into him that way." He looked so sad. I really did feel bad for him. "We ended up spending the night together." Alex said softly."

I was beyond angry at this point. Chase knew how I felt about him. I had told him days prior how I felt and he blew me off. I asked him to do the Big One On The Blvd with us and he had blown me off on that too and then he made me out to be the bad guy. Even worse, was to find out he spent the night with Alex.

Alex continued on. "Last night I called Chase. I told him how I felt about him and he said our night together was a mistake. He wanted to be with you, but you turned him down. I guess he was basically using me to to get over you rejecting him."

My blood was boiling over. "He's lying Alex. Mother fucker. I confessed my feelings to him last week and he didn't say anything." I raked my hands through my hair angrily. "I think he's jerking us both around."

"Why would he do that to you Ryan? He would be a fool to not want you. You're fucking perfect, and...just forget it." Alex sighed.

Now I was certain he was coming on to me, and I was even more certain that I wanted him to. I guess I was so blinded by Chase, I mean how could you not be, that I just never noticed anyone else before.

I tentatively reached out to touch the corner of his lip that was beginning to swell from Bubba's fist. Alex caved to my touch, his eyes on my own lips. I wanted him to kiss me.

Hell, I wanted to fucking kiss Alex Bowman.