Friend being jealous of me and his friend.

Short version at the bottom!

I have this friend who I talk to rather regularly. He is gay and I have on more than one occasion told him that I like him and would like for us to be in a relationship, only to be shot down, repeatedly. It has gotten to the point where I am not even serious about it, I just mess with him and he knows this. I do realize how ridiculous this sounds, but we are good friends and it is how we are, we mess with each other. But the fact is that he knows full well that I like him.

Yesterday he introduced me to one of his friends, who is also gay, the pretext to which was - "you have a lot of stuff in common, you might like each other". The three of us talked for a bit and then went our separate ways. We all had fun and it was a rather good conversation. Later that night, this new friend contacted me inquiring if I had any feelings towards my friend (which came up in the conversation earlier) and I told him that I do not love him but do like him. He then asked if I wanted for us to try and become friends (as in, try to become boyfriends). I agreed hesitantly, because I stood nothing to lose.

Today I was talking to my good friend and everything was relatively good, until I decided to add our (by now mutual) friend. At this point my friend stopped talking, became distant and generally irritated. After some drama, I came to the conclusion that he is angry because I was not paying attention to him, but instead was diverting more attention to this other guy who I just befriended. He really made a big deal out of it, got depressed, started breathing and almost began to cry.

Me and this guy are close, but we do not live nearby (about 3 hours by car) which from what I understand is a problematic factor for him, in choosing whether to be in a relationship with someone or not. I asked him why he and this guy were not boyfriends and the distance was the first factor he listed. I really like this guy, so my judgement on this is clouded. Is his reaction normal for a friend, or is there something more that he might be feeling towards me, that I might be missing (hoping that I am not)? Or is it that he actually has feelings for this other guy (which after some discussions about it, I seriously do not believe to be true).

Short version: A friend who I like but does not like me (or so he says), introduced me to one of his friends, then went on to be jealous of me talking with said new friend, to the point of getting depressed and almost crying about it. Not sure if he has feelings for me or if it is just friendly and feels ignored. He is adamant about not liking me but despite this we are very close and I believe that distance is why he ignores the possibility of a relationship. All this can be in my head, due to my feelings for the guy.

 

The situation is mostly resolved. I now have a friend who wishes to get to know me and become my boyfriend. Still I would like to hear at least some opinions of people who have maybe been in such situations before.