ace rants

Leading you on

Storytime: At camp, I found out a kid I had absolutely no interest in (not romantic, not platonic, nothing) liked me. He wasn't particularly annoying, he just was kind of... to put it short, the first conversation I saw him start was, "what kind of porn do you like to watch?" He also was a late bloomer or whatever, so he looked like an eleven year old, which made it even more awkward. But enough about that.

So I found out he liked me, and I try my best to act pretty friendzonable, and even after that, I'm very oblivious to people liking me, so this kid was the first one that I knew liked me while he still liked me. In other words, I have no clue how to act around him. At what point am I leading him on or being manipulative or whatever? 

I tried to be extra nice to him because if I liked someone, I'd feel better if they seemed to like me even platonically (well obviously, but you get my point). I don't think it was anything too bad, just asking his opinion about stuff, and trying to include him in the conversation and things like that. 

Written out, that doesn't actually sound that bad, but I was only doing it because he liked me, and I had no interest in dating him or even liking him back. And usually I don't go out of my way that much to talk to people. What counts as leading someone on? I feel like that's one of those bits of knowledge all allosexual people get that I missed out on. 

And I asked him to do small favors like getting me water and stuff because I knew he'd do it. But it didn't hurt him to get me water, right? At what point do I become manipulative? 

The laws of flirting and supposed flirting are weird