I’m a 22 year old gay man and I have only ever felt love or at least close to love at least once in my life. This is probably a dumb thing to say but it’s how I’m feeling and just need to vent a bit. Back in high school I was in a science and math class, we had a project where two classes mixed together and 2 members of each class got put into a group to make a total of 4. One guy in my group, we’ll call him Bryan, was in my class but I never really talked to him. We only ever talked while working on the project, eventually I got to know him a bit. He was actually really sweet. We became somewhat friends and every once in a while he’d give me certain vibes but being a shy and truly one of the only LGBT people in my school I was bad at noticing. Let it be known, Bryan had been known as a ladies man, by the time we became friends I think he had around 4 or 5 girlfriends since the beginning of the school year. One day on a weekend, I decided to message him on FB. We chatted the entire day, I knew he had a girlfriend… I didn’t know her at the time and I probably should’ve kept my feelings to myself but I felt the need to tell him. “It’s me, i’m the person that likes you” he said “see that wasn’t hard, I’m glad you told me”.... “why , what do you mean?” He said “I kinda felt like it, and I’m glad you told me because I’ve been feeling the same way.” At this moment, the entire world stopped and for a moment I felt what it meant to be liked by someone. I had butterflies and I couldn’t handle it. At the end of the night, he told me his girlfriend had broken up with him. Maybe this could be my chance at my young romance moment, of course he just had his heart broken, I was going to give him as much time as he needed to deal with his feelings. I was glad I could finally feel that way with someone. Especially after not knowing his feelings towards me for a couple months. Eventually the school week continued, one morning when I walked into class, there they were, cuddled up together laughing and having a good time. I don’t think he was planning on telling me, eventually he got upset when I told him to forget I told him anything at all. I don't get it, I have to keep feeling this way toward you while you get to be with your girlfriend? He had every right to be with his girlfriend, but had no right to dictate my feelings towards our “potential” connection. TBH I’ve never felt that way about someone else since. Maybe it’s a way of my heart not letting that happen to me again. It’s worse now that my friends have boyfriends and i’ve never even had an opportunity to feel that way since high school. I never got to experience a high school romance and its really upsetting me right now.