Loyalty or Betrayal?

I believe in the need for loyalty versus betrayal. I have been betrayed plenty enough times in my life, more than I care to try to relive, and it's the worst feeling in the world to know that someone you trusted beyond anything would crush you, even if it's without intent. Friends, family, potential relationships, it doesn't matter where it comes from, but loyalty is a must if the connection is to last any length of time. Once the loyalty starts to go, so does the relationship with any person. One very big betrayal was committed to me, and from the worst possible source; from my one time best friend and the one I thought I loved. Just a year ago, I met him and became friends with him. I started to feel for him but tried to ignore it, not wanting to face the possibility of destroying my relationship with him, as my best friend. The summer went on, and we got closer and closer until I finally couldn't take it anymore and told him how I felt about him. I wasn't expecting anything from him nor did I really want anything from him, I just needed him to know. After he found out, he always made jokes about it, but I didn't care. He was my best friend. Finally, at the end of summer, I felt like he might feel the same way about me, and then the next day, I found out he was dating someone and had been for a week. He never told me any of it, and I was in shock. We still remained friends though, and I even became friends with his girlfriend. Months went by, I moved on completely, and they broke up. Then...something strange. He started becoming extremely clingy and I was worried and confused that I could like him again. Then he confessed, leaving me wildly confused. But I said yes to going out with him, with my parents approval. They didn't want me to date anyone, and definitely not him. I told him, and he said it was fine. And then....he disappeared. Completely left me hanging emotionally, had fun with all his friends but me, and he had said he loved me. I was depressed, I didn't know what to do because I TRUSTED him, how could I not? Even as every day he spent almost every minute with his ex girlfriend, and hardly any at all with me. This misery lasted 2 months. Until one day, he called me, sparking happiness in my mind. Then...are you ready? "I don't know how to tell you this, but...I like someone else." BAM! Out of nowhere! I thought things were okay! And when did he tell me he no longer liked me? I found out he had liked her for a month, and had stopped liking me a week after confessing. The only reason I thought I liked, maybe even loved him, was because he had told me he loved ME. Also, I later found out that he had still been making out with his ex girlfriend while I thought the one he liked was me. So much for trusting him. I couldn't get over it. Oh, I stopped liking him within 24 hours, realizing I never really had re-liked him. But the betrayal? The breaking of my trust with disregard to my feelings? The asking her out the very next morning? How could I forgive it so quickly and remain friends with him? Well, I did. I did my best, and I still talk to him, but it's not the same at all. That betrayal changed everything, as well as his new girlfriend. I am no longer his best friend, and he is no longer mine, and sometimes I get irritated with him for no reason that he can see. I really think that we would still be best friends if he had told me immediately when he realized he had no feelings for me, rather than leading me along in misery for 2 months and then breaking me. But what can you do? He clearly didn't believe in me to remain his friend after him telling me, or he was too cowardly to tell his best friend how he felt. And then, after that betrayal, there was another we both committed; we drifted away. to be continued/edited/etc it's too storylike but there you have it