Sigh
I should have seen the signs, I should have picked up on the subtle details, but I didn't. Out of the blue one day in middle of a study session with one of my really good friends, she turns to me and says this:
I like you, do you like me?
At first, I was only a tad taken aback, it took that long for it to sink in. And the complications, the tripping over my words in effort to explain things, to apologize if she thought I'd been leading her on, to straighten out the way the relationship existed for me.
I was fifteen, trying to work out if we were friends only because she'd had the hots for me, trying to figure out whether I could deal with that, trying to let her down without losing her.
We had a rough spot or two, then, me being undeniably straight and thoroughly surprised by her question, her alternating between complete letdown and subtle come-ons. But it worked out in the end