Growing feelings - (Bertholdt x Reader) College AU

Uncomfortable distance

Things weren't like they used to.

After the festival, I still met Bertholdt and Reiner out of habit in our usual places, but something was off. I wanted to look like everything was fine, but I was still unsure of Bertholdt's intentions that night. Why would he try to kiss me, if he was with someone else..? Specially that person being Reiner... How could he do that to him? He was a dear friend to me, too... If they were together, I didn't want to be the one to come between them. 

They would probably be better off without me.

However at the same time, I couldn't just stop meeting them all of a sudden, because their friendship was precious to me and it was hard to let it go.

On the other side, Reiner also seemed a bit off, he wasn't the one trying for us to meet. I realised how much he was the glue that kept the three together, often finding new places to go, topics to talk about, and so on. His enthusiasm was catchy, but now that seemed to had faded away.

The feeling between the two was also a bit... awkward. I wondered why. Did Reiner found out what he tried to do?

As for Bertholdt, he seemed to be the one trying the hardest for things to get back to normal. But, he wasn't very good at that...

- (y/n) hey. - He aproached me one day while I was leaving class - do you want to have dinner with us today, we're going to that restaurant-

- Ah... sorry. I need to work on a project today, so...

- I see.

He wouldn't insist further after the first question, and would come back to try some other time. However, with exams arround the corner, it was easy to make excuses when he asked.

It was true that I was too busy studying for doing anything else, but I also wanted to forget that uncomfortable feeling.

I started to refuse every single attempt, and avoided meeting them.

I gave up on trying to get things back as they were.

And, eventually, he gave up too.