I’m (23M) afraid I’ll lose a good friend (23F). What can I do to keep her?

I met a girl 5 months ago. we had a lot in common, so we hit it off from the start, texting each other pretty much all day talking about random stuff. she had a boyfriend though, so I knew better than to fantasize about being with her (me being single and all). 2 months later, it all took a left turn when she broke things up with him. it was a 3 year long relationship, so she was deeply hurt during this process. she had few friends (not unlike myself, in fact she’s the only real friend I’d made the past few years), and no one she really felt comfortable confiding to, so I turned out to be her main “emotional support” friend. we kept on talking everyday, played games together and such stuff. in her own words, I was one of the big reasons she was able to heal after such a rough breakup.

Well, it turns out I wound up catching feelings for her, due to being so exposed to her problems on a daily basis, and being able to share my own troubles and thoughts. so this week I confessed. I knew she would very likely not reciprocate, but I just wanted to get rid of this awful feeling I had pent up inside of me the past month. so yeah, she rejected me. I told her no problem, but I’d need some time for myself, so that I could collect my thoughts and move past this rejection or else I’d end up screwing everything up between us. she agreed. told me she’d give me some space.

And so it happened. this tuesday I confessed. no contact for three days after talking everyday for months. this friday, yesterday, I texted her, congratulating her on women’s day, just a regular message to test the waters. she didn’t answer. later that day, I asked her whether she was upset with me. she told me “yes, that day, after thinking about it, I did get really upset. but now I just chose not to talk to you anymore”. my heart sank. I’d went through all this no contact route just so I’d try to preserve our friendship. once again I texted her, telling her I valued her purely as a friend, that I wanted her to be around me still, no romantic pretensions involved. she told me she gets me, but just doens’t want to deal with this at the moment. then, today, I text her: “Ok, take your time figuring things out. I just ask of you to talk to me once you feel more certain, I want to understand what you’re feeling so that I can also let you know what’s inside of me. can you do this?”. I sent this in the early morning. no answer as of yet, night time.

I’m just so confused. why would she keep me in the dark, when I’m the one that is having to deal with unrequited feelings? why did she make the decision to break things up without telling me anything? why can’t she just talk to me, straighten things out so we can decide what’s better for us? this has been eating me up inside. I really don’t want to lose her, but I just don’t know how to reach out at this point.