I (25M) pursued my friend’s (25M) crush (20F) but then rejected her

So first, I need you to give you a little background on myself in order for you to understand my mindset going into this.

I don’t want to make it seem like I’m bragging here, but I have achieved pretty much all my life goals by the age of 25. Most importantly, as of this year, I am no longer obese. I used to weigh 355 lbs in December 2022, and now I’m down to 215lbs standing at 6’4.
I did not socialize IRL from August 2022 (when I broke up with my last gf) up until February 2025, pretty much at all tbh. I was on the grind, so to speak.

So this year, I started going out again. Raving more specifically. For the first time in my life, girls were approaching me and the kinds of girls that I didn’t think I’d ever have a shot with in my life. This naturally got my confidence up through the roof. I started thinking and acting like I was ‘the baddest b in town’, as I often say half jokingly.

During this time, one of my best friends that I have known from high school, so 10 years at this point, was crushing on this girl he met at uni. He never had a girlfriend or even a romantic situation in his life. He had helicopter parents and missed out on a lot of adolescent experiences bc of that. You have to understand that this person is not emotionally mature and has diagnosed stress and anxiety issues he’s dealing with. He didn’t know how to flirt with her as a result ,and ofc didn’t have the courage to ask her out or anything like that. So he turned to me for advice. I would answer his phone calls at 4 AM while at a rave just to walk him through his overthinking spirals and emotional rollercoasters. I even answered while on a date once and got the girl to give him advice, too.

After a while of this situation not progressing at all and his obsession taking a toll on his already not great mental state, I ended up meeting the two of them at a cafe with some other friends of theirs. We chatted and this girl was super easy to talk to, she was interesting, had unique style, had a lot of similar interests to both me and my friend, I could totally see why he liked her so much.
I tried to bring a wingman, invited them both to my house for BBQ that weekend, and the girl loved that idea. She was very excited.

So the BBQ happens, and the two of them show up along with about 7 other people. As the day/night progressed, it became quite clear that she was not interested in him at all. Zero chemistry, zero tension, nothing. Her and I talked quite a bit, tho. It was just friendly chatting ofc as I didn’t even consider her anything more than my friends crush. However, by the end of the night, I ended up gifting her my entire manga collection bc I was honestly quite drunk. My friend didn’t like that one bit, but she loved it. I ended up inviting them to stay the night and suggested continuing the BBQ the next day. They accepted.
The next day comes, and immediately, I can sense that the girl is not talking to me the same way she was the day before. She’s was giving me a lot of compliments, telling me what she likes in a guy while describing my features, showing me pictures of her from different events, etc. It seemed like she took that gift as a sign that I liked her. I, however, didn’t care that much at the time and brushed it off. They left in the morning, and nothing that interesting happened, we were definitely close during the night, tho.

After that night my friend started acting defeated and loosing hope because everyone told him that he probably didn’t have a chance ,and I, for whatever reason decided to fuck with him. So I started telling him about everything she said the day before. I also started telling him that I was going to get with her since he’s giving up. At first it was only meant to be a joke (maybe a bit of a cruel one) that lasted that one phone call and then I was going to drop it. However the two of them kept inviting me to cafes and walks, we even started playing minecraft together. During that time she kept flirting with me and I started doing it too. It wasn’t a joke anymore, I really started to like her. One day I invited the two of them over for a coffee at my place and while they were there I ended up inviting them to a rave that was happening that weekend. The girl was ecstatic, she literally jumped out of her seat when I suggested it. When they were about to leave ,my friend was in the bathroom ,and she was drinking water. I looked her in the eyes, she choked on her sip, laughed and said that she could’nt wait for Sunday.

That Friday my friend got really depressed and pretty much lost all hope of being with her. He was crying and saying he didn’t want to go to the rave bc he couldn’t stand the sight of her getting with another man there. Honestly I was to blame for this because I was literally telling him that I’m going to try something with her that night and told him exactly how I was going to do it. After he told me all of that, I felt really sorry for him, so I called his sister and the two of us hyped him up to finally get it over with and tell her how he feels. We knew he would get rejected but we got his hopes up just so that he would gather the courage to say something and move on with his life.

So the day of the rave comes. My plan was to go in with them and vanish instantly upon entering. And that’s exactly what I did. After a while I check my phone and there’s a text from my friend with the time matching the exact time I separated. It said ‘she told me not to tuch her or took at the the whole night’…
I didn’t want anything to do with it so I just kept dancing with a girl I met there. Eventually we went to grab some water and she told me she was going to the bathroom ,and I said that I would wait for her by the entrance as I needed some fresh air. So I’m just dancing there when I feel someone grab my arm. I turn expecting a girl I was with the whole time, but it wasn’t. It was the girl I came there with. She practically begged me to take her up front and ‘teach her hownto dance like I do’. Honestly I was hammered at this point so I did it. We went towards the front but my friend was following us, he was literally right beside her the whole time.

The two of us danced, she was looking at my eyes, glancing away and smiling softly. We got closer and closer together. There was no mistaking what was going to happen. Me realizing that that was that, decided to pull back and tell her I was going to vomit ,and that I needed to go to the bathroom. She followed me there with my friend following her. I was texting him, practically begging him to get away from her, saying that he was just hurting himself further by staying near her, that he should go and meet up with my other friends who were there (5 single girls and only one guy btw). He refused, so I asked him if he was ok with the two of us getting together. He said no.

I really didn’t want to keep hurting him, even tho I was an ah up until that point, I decided to give it up and leave once again. I got out of the bathroom and said that I needed to go find a friend of mine and that the two of them should wait for me by the bar. The girl wasn’t happy about it but she stayed. I went and met up with those friends I mentioned earlier. I told them about the situation and they told me not to go back and stay with them. So I did. After a while someone grabs my hand again. It’s her. She asked me why i didn’t return, i give some bs excuse and introduce her to my friends. She starts asking me to dance with her again, I tell her to wait a bit. I text my friend begging him to just start dancing with one of my friends, who are in the know now, but he refuses still. She asks me to dance agin and I just waved her away with my hand, like she was bothering me (ah move…), she sat down for a while after that, danced alone for a while, rejected some guy that approached her and then said goodbye and left with my friend (I really should’ve given these people names).

This guy drove her home after all of that while she was telling him how charming, cute and funny I was. She was also complaint to her friends about me ‘rejecting’ her. She apparently said ‘it’s like I’m not pretty enough for him or something’. She went back to her hometown after that night. My friend got super mad at me and doesn’t talk to me anymore and she got mad at him for whatever reason. Her and I kept talking here and there and I suggested a date, which she’s open to. She came back 3 days ago and I still haven’t hit her up.

Is it worth it to try and at least salvage the situation with her and hope that my friend will accept it in time?

tl;dr
I was trying to be a wingman for my friend, until I saw that the girl liked me and not him ,but them I started feeling sorry for him and rejected her when she wanted to be with me.