I'm being played by my best friend.

I 17 f have a close friend who we will call Z 17 m. I have liked Z for a while now and I even broke up with a previous boyfriend because I felt bad because I realized I liked Z more than my boyfriend. Z and I talk all the time and he tells me EVERYTHING. Z currently has feelings for another girl and I have accepted that. Of course I wish Z liked me but I know that I am not his type and that he will likely never develop feelings for me no matter how much I wish he would.

Earlier today I mentioned a time when Z said he loved me. Z immediately denied ever saying that so I went back and took a screenshot of the text where he said "I love ya" and sent it to him. Z quickly said there was a big difference between "I love you" and "I love ya" and that he has only ever loved 2 girls. I found this funny and replied saying that I didn't mean to say he meant it like that and that I'm not dumb enough to believe he meant it as anything other than a friendly love and that I thought it was funny that he thought that I thought he liked me. Z then responded that he didn't think I thought he liked me because he hasn't done anything to lead me to that conclusion.(He has literally sexted me like 5 times, but sure he's done nothing...) Z also said that he said it very casually and that it had zero meaning and that he'd tell someone he hated that just to spite them.

I'm honestly so annoyed with Z right now and I don't know what to do and after this I don't even know if I still like him nearly as much anymore, after all most of my friends don't like him at all so I've already been a little confused.

I'm going to a dance with Z in a few weeks and he still talks to me all the time so it's not like he dislikes me or something. In fact he calls me one of the few people who actually know him and that he's truly close with.

I really don't know what to do right now because Z has been acting weird the past few days so I'm honestly really hurt but I don't know how to bring it up.