Regardless of what is often portrayed in films and television, it is more than possible for men and women to be platonic friends.

That’s because many of us don’t simply think of other humans as potential partners, rather we value individuals for the array of things that they can bring to our lives.

And just because some friendships turn into more than that, doesn’t mean that will happen to all – or even most – male-female friendships.

The woman in this story was completely in agreement with this sentiment, and had a long-term friendship with a guy she met in her first year at college.

Unfortunately for her – and for their friendship – his intentions were rather different than he’d led her to believe.

Read on to find out what happened.

AITA for cutting off my friend after he confessed his feelings to me?

I (22, female) have been friends with this guy (22, male – let’s call him ‘X’) since the beginning of college.

We have the same friend group, and we also have the same classes so we meet each other on a daily basis, more often than we meet the others in the friend group.

We have always been good friends, and he has always considered me to be one of his closest friends, and like a sister to him. I have also considered him as a brother and nothing more.

But lately, I have been getting annoyed and angry at him for not respecting my boundaries and sort of invading my personal space, way more than what a friend should be doing.

Let’s see what he’s doing to overstep.

He sits too close to me, walks too close to me, or randomly touches me on the shoulder or head. And I have told him multiple times to maintain a distance and respect my boundaries.

I have even gotten angry at him and he said he’ll take a note of it. But again after a few days it’ll be same, with no change in his behavior. And so I have been trying to avoid him for these reasons.

So two days ago, his best friend came up to one of my best friends and asked her if X and I were dating, which my friend obviously refuted and said these rumours were baseless. I got angry and told X to let his friend know not to spread such baseless rumors.

X started siding with his friend and said he trusts him that he wouldn’t do such a thing. I obviously got very mad and started giving him the cold shoulder for a bit.

But she never expected what happened next.

The next day, X came up to me and confessed that he liked me and also that he was the one who asked his friend to spread those rumours.

I was in complete shock because I never had even the slightest hint that he ever liked me, and the fact that he repeatedly said I’m like a sister to him.

I told him that I didn’t share the same feelings, and that we could continue being friends, but we needed to maintain a healthy boundary now so that things don’t get too weird between us.

All of my friends, and even his, had warned him that you shouldn’t risk losing a great friendship over some feelings that you don’t even know are genuine or not, and that some friendships can remain platonic.

However, things have changed between them.

Now, I just feel very weird and awkward, and in a sense creeped out by him because all of what he was doing was because of him liking me.

I know I would be wrong to completely cut off a friend, but I just cannot pretend everything is normal and go back to being friends like we were before. I also don’t want to lead him on or want others to assume that theres somthing between us.

I also don’t feel that he would understand what a boundary means because, as I said, I told him repeatedly before and he never understood. I really don’t know how to approach this situation now and if my actions are wrong or not.

AITA?

She has made her feelings quite clear – as she has been doing ever since he started acting inappropriately – and if the friendship is important to him, he needs to listen and act accordingly.

It isn’t her responsibility to keep reminding him either, this guy needs to learn some respect and to keep his hands to himself.

If he doesn’t? Well perhaps it’s not a friendship worth trying to cling on to.

Let’s see what folks on Reddit made of this.

This person thought that the friendship was over anyway.

While others thought it was odd that she hadn’t picked up on his feelings sooner.

Meanwhile, others guided her on how to protect the friendship for the long run.

Unrequited feelings are never easy to deal with, and it’s a shame that things had to come to this.

However, both friends have likely learned something: him to be more honest about his feelings rather than acting immaturely; her to not allow her boundaries to be repeatedly crossed.

Whether or not their friendship endures, he needs to learn to take no for an answer.

If you liked that post, check out this story about a guy who was forced to sleep on the couch at his wife’s family’s house, so he went to a hotel instead.