So, me and my friend (F19), let’s call her Kat, met in high school, when I was a junior and she was a senior. We became really good friends and ended up going to the same college together. (Currently I’m a freshman in college and she’s a sophomore.)
Kat has this friend (19GF), let’s call him Pluto, who I also met in high school. We were acquaintances for the year before he graduated and were disconnected afterwards. Turns out Pluto also goes to the same college as us. While I’m not surprised, as it’s an arts college and we have all expressed our liking for it, I was kinda caught off guard. I’ve gotten to know him better due to this and I’m afraid I’ve started to like him romantically. I’m very unsure if he likes me back and I’m stuck in how to approach this. I have bad experiences with relationships in the past, although I’ve healed, I’m slight afraid about liking someone. Me and Pluto had a conversation about our opinions on relationships and he expressed a similar fear.
Yet, Pluto is closer to Kat then I am and I’m afraid he just perseveres me as just “Kat’s friend”. Although there have been some instances that prove me wrong. For example, making romantic jokes/play flirting, hearing from multiple sources that he talks about me a lot, and the bracelet. (The bracelet was a gift that I made him earlier this year, on Valentine’s Day. It’s probably not a big deal but he’s worn it every day since and talked about how much he likes it publicly.)
My biggest conflicting thought is hearing that he does a lot of this stuff with other people too, especially his best friend. They act like they are dating but swear they aren’t. I’ve checked/asked both of them but I’m still a little iffy on it. At the moment, I don’t care if the y like each other because I haven’t expressed anything to Pluto, but I really want to. Any advice on how to go forward?
Any advice would be appreciated.
TL;DR: I have a crush on a friend who I’m getting mixed signals from after reconnected with him after a couple of years. I don’t know how to confess without embarrassing myself. Any advice on how to proceed?