I know it's summer, but in just a month, I’ll be back in class and the thought of feeling lonely there again is really weighing on me. For the past two years I’ve struggled in my class because everyone seems to have friends and I don’t. I’ve always been on the shy side, so I didn’t talk much in the beginning, and now my classmates don’t even want to reach out to me or start a conversation with me.
There is one exception though. There's this one guy. We actually get along pretty well. He’s offered to help me a few times – once I needed a special tool for camping and he offered me to come home from school with him so he could lend it to me. He’s started conversations, and even tried to encourage me to open up more. Once I had a "breakdown" about a personal situation in front of him and he helped me and it seems that he values and respects me for opening up like that. We don't talk often though so I’m not sure how to take our connection to the next level and become real friends. I’m usually more reserved, and he’s outgoing, which makes it tough since I don’t have other classmates I can naturally chat with to create a more relaxed environment. I was thinking about asking him to meet up sometime but I fear that he will not want to and I will ruin my chances.
I could really use some advice on how to approach this and hopefully build a genuine friendship.