“I Know She Likes Me, But She Rejected Me”: 13 Reasons Why

Most guys – and some ladies – have been in this situation:

You like a girl and she also appears to be into you. Whenever you’re together, you feel each other. She reciprocates your efforts, laughs at your jokes, and even subtly touches you once in a while.

All seems to check out as far as green lights go. But to your surprise, when you decided to ask her to be your girlfriend, you met with a resounding – and maybe even embarrassing – “No”.

Now, you’re confused, wondering what could have gone wrong. Questions begin to pop into your head like, “Was she playing games?” or “Was she leading me on just to reject me?”

I feel you. In fact, most guys have been in your shoes. This is why I’m writing this article to clarify why these things happen.

Now, there are a lot of reasons why this happens. I’ll start with the most common reasons and go down from there. You can decide which of them resonates with you the most based on how your experience with the girl has been. Let’s get to it.

1. You suddenly appear desperate to her

When a guy and a girl are just casual with each other – no romance or profession of love from anyone – there’s usually that tension between them. Especially if they’re both good-looking.

This is why people say a guy and a girl cannot be ordinary friends.

At that stage of casual friendship, they both still try to impress each other. There’s a degree of tension whenever you’re together because there’s still that suspense of not knowing what to expect.

Now, the problem usually arises when it’s time to make a move. Some guys think because the girl appears to be cool with them, she’ll say a resounding “Yes” when they ask her out.

But most girls are more complicated than that. Just because she appears to be feeling you doesn’t mean she would say a huge yes. A lot still depends on how you ask her out.

Some guys will suddenly deviate from that chilled self and suddenly become desperate, texting and triple texting her, or giving her 10 missed calls because doesn’t give them a huge yes right away.

And when you behave like this, you quickly deviate from that chilled guy she enjoyed spending time with to someone desperate for her attention. You suddenly become a turn-off for her.

2. She already has a boyfriend and was just playing mind games with you

This is toxic, but it happens.

Some girls already have a boyfriend, but will still not mind leading you on, getting your attention, and then rejecting you just to feel good about themselves.

She’ll innocently tell you, “Sorry, I like you, but I already have a boyfriend.” Then she’ll pretend that all the signs and the leading on that she’s been doing didn’t happen.

When you come across girls like this, don’t feel like your mind was playing tricks on you when you were seeing the signs. It wasn’t.

She just wanted to play with you all along. She enjoyed the game, it boosted her ego, and then she turned you down to feel like the ultimate price.

If you can handle the tension, confront her about it. Ask her why she was leading you on all this while she knew she already had a boyfriend. If you approach this well, she’ll feel embarrassed for her childishness.

3. She has friend-zoned you

Another reason why a girl will like you but still reject you is that she already friend-zoned you.

Being in the friend zone can be confusing for some guys. Why?

When you’re in a girl’s friend zone, she might come to you whenever she needs someone to talk to or when she needs help with something. And all the attention can make you feel like something is going on between the two of you.

But when you summon the courage to ask her out, you get the classic “You’re a great guy, but sorry, I don’t see you that way” response.

That’s just another way of saying, “I like you as a friend, but sorry, you’re not the type of guy I’ll have sex with.” Ouch!

4. She might reject you because she isn’t sure about you

For mature ladies, accepting to date a guy isn’t just about emotional feelings, or how cute the guy is. They pay attention to other things like his character, whether or not he’s mature enough to commit or if you’re compatible with her.

So she might be feeling you, laughing at your jokes, responding well to your texts, but still reject you because she doesn’t think you’re the type of person that will be able to commit to a relationship long-term (if that’s what she’s looking for).

Maybe you’re the player type or she thinks you’re too good-looking to focus on one lady.

5. She just isn’t ready for a relationship

If a girl isn’t ready for a relationship, for whatever reason, then just liking you won’t be enough to make her get into one.

People choose to take a break from dating for several reasons. It could be that she just went through a terrible breakup and she wants to take some time off. Or she’s working on her self-development so she can be a better person without being distracted by anything, including dating.

If this is why, then you might just need to be patient with her. Be there for her, make her feel safe, and let her know that you’ll be a plus for her in her recovery or self-improvement. If she likes you, she’ll eventually come around.

But if you can’t wait, or you think she isn’t worth the wait yet, then you’re also free to move on. The choice is yours.

[Interesting: Why Women Play Hard to Get When They Are Attracted to You]

6. She’s recovering from an experience

So many people have had it rough in the dating world. People have been victims of cheating, violence, and abuse, both in dating and in marriage.

And when you manage to get out of one of these terrible experiences, you should take some time out and breathe before jumping into another relationship.

So your girl might have just gone through one of those experiences and wants to take some time off to heal.

7. You could have read the signs wrongly

Maybe she rejected you because she didn’t like you as much as you thought.

This happens all the time. You see a nice girl who is always welcoming, smiley, and nice to everybody and you start catching feelings, thinking she only behaves that way to you.

Sometimes our minds can play tricks on us, making us see what we want to see.

Before you assume a girl’s attitude towards you means she likes you, observe how she behaves around other people. It could be that the signs you were reading about her actions are just how she naturally acts around her friends.

8. She has commitment issues

Another reason a girl might reject you even if she likes you is because of commitment issues. Some people just want to keep it casual. No strong feelings, no serious dating, just casual hookups here and there.

This is no more a surprising thing in today’s age of sexual liberation and hookup culture. We now have more and more people proudly saying they don’t want any sort of commitment.

And you know what they say, “commitment is not for the faint-hearted.” To commit to you means she’ll have to let go of every other guy’s attention. This will even be more difficult if she’s a pretty girl who gets a lot of attention from different guys every day.

She may not just be ready to give all that up to be in a relationship with one guy, even if she likes you.

[Also read: 5 Signs She’s Interested, But Playing Hard to Get]

9. She feels you’re moving too fast

Some guys can get carried away by the idea that a girl is into them. Quickly they’ll ask her out on a first date, and then a second, and within a few days they want her to meet her friends, and talk to her family.

And all of a sudden, she feels overwhelmed by it all and asks for a break. This happens all the time.

The simple solution is to not get carried away and get too excited because a pretty girl said yes to you. Take your time and also pay attention to her. Does she look okay with all the big moves you’re already making in the relationship?

If not, take a step back and take things more slowly. Some people get overwhelmed and even scared when a relationship moves too fast.

10. She doesn’t think you’re in her league

Sometimes you meet a pretty girl, you’re both into each other, and the chemistry is all over the place, but when you make your move, she turns you down because you’re not as rich as the kind of guy will want to roll with.

Maybe she’s thinking of how it will be when she introduces you to her friends. What would they think of her dating a guy who doesn’t even have one of those fancy cars?

It sounds petty and painful, but more guys have gone through it than you might think.

For most girls, just liking you isn’t enough. You need to be able to fit into that social class of a guy she’ll want to show off. This is why a lot of girls will even date a rich guy they don’t like so that they can show him off.

11. Timing

You might meet someone incredible and hit it off right away, but sometimes, the timing just isn’t right.

Maybe she’s in the middle of a big life transition, like moving or starting a new job. Or maybe she’s got a lot on her plate and just can’t commit to something serious right now.

It’s not that she doesn’t like you, it’s just that she can’t give you what you need at this moment.

It’s frustrating, sure, but it’s important to respect her boundaries and be patient. Who knows? Maybe down the line, the timing will be right, and you can pick up where you left off.

In the meantime, focus on yourself and your own goals, and don’t be afraid to keep putting yourself out there.

12. She feels you’re too good for her

Sometimes a girl might turn you down despite having feelings for you just because she’s insecure.

It’s possible that because she’s never dated anyone as good-looking as you, she’s now afraid that she’ll not be able to keep your attention.

Girls like this assume that every other girl out there will be a competition, and she’s not just ready to take that risk and get her heart broken by a pretty boy.

So she just decides to lie low and wait for a less good-looking guy whose attention she’s sure she can sustain.

13. She may not know what she wants

Some people don’t just know what they want.

For instance, a girl might see you at the gym, talking to a bunch of girls and making them laugh. And all of a sudden, your value will increase in her eyes. Now she wants to have you for herself.

And this will motivate her to flirt with you, and get you to notice her. But she doesn’t do this because she likes you. She simply does it to get your attention for herself. But the moment you go for her, the magic dies. Now she doesn’t want you again.

This is a sign of a girl that doesn’t know what she wants. And there are plenty of them out there. Be careful.

Final words

It can be confusing when a girl who appears to be giving you all the green lights suddenly rejects you. The first instinct is for you to start thinking you did something wrong, or that you screwed things up.

But this isn’t true most of the time. Sometimes it has nothing to do with you.

However, whatever you do, don’t go back to her and start pressuring her to tell you why she rejected you. That never works out well.

You want to take a step back and evaluate what really happened. Depending on what caused it, you can decide what to do about it.

In my experience, the majority of the time this happens, it’s just one girl playing mind games. A mature woman will not lead you on if she isn’t interested in having a relationship with you.

Also read: 6 Signs She’s Not “The One” For You