I (M20) am going on the first date of my life tomorrow with a girl (F20) I dont like. Im dreading it.

TLDR: Tomorrow I have the first date of my life with a girl I cant see as anything other than a friend. Do I let her know prior and cancel or give it a chance?

I (M20) am a junior in college, and for the past 2 years Ive held a staff/managerial position in an on campus club. This club has been the biggest part of my college experience, and where Ive met basically every friend I have here. Starting this year we had a few new staff members elected, including a sophomore who we’ll call Megan (F20). I had loosely known Megan before she’d become a member of our staff, but I’d never personally interacted with her one on one.

Flash forward to Halloween this past October where we were at a Halloween party hosted by a mutual friend. Up until this point she has made a few off-hand comments about how she thinks Im attractive, but at this party she was basically stuck to me like glue. Whether I was outside on the porch, talking to someone else, or playing a card game she was there. Now obviously even my romantically inexperienced self had noticed after this that she clearly liked me, but I guess I’d hoped nothing would come of it.

But as if that wasn’t enough to let me know, these last few weeks her “crush” (I hate that word) on me has been one of the worst kept secrets Ive ever seen. Ive had more than one person briefly mention her liking me as an obvious fact, and Ive also heard her referred to as “you know who” in conversation with me. Ultimately, it all came together a few days ago when I was hanging out in the club’s space. I entered the room and in about 5 minutes it cleared out except for Megan and I. She used this chance to ask me out to dinner and a movie on Monday (now tomorrow), and, caught a little off guard, I agreed. Maybe I shouldve shot her down in that moment, but my I guess my lack of experience with situations like this and fear of hurting her feelings got the better of me.

In the days that have followed I have been constantly thinking about it, and dreading it. You see, the problem is that I just cant at all view her as anything other than a friend. I dont think shes a bad person or anything, in fact I enjoy interacting with her, but when I imagine any romantic involvement with her I just cringe and feel uncomfortable. I have had so many thoughts about if I should just cancel it and make up some excuse or how best to let her down easy. The problem with asking anyone in my real life is that so many of my closest friends are mutual friends with her, and they seemed excited for me/even helped set it up. So Ive come to reddit to ask, despite having never posted on here.

Do I cancel the date before it even happens? How do I do that? I dont think its a good thing for either person to enter a one sided relationship, but do I still give her a chance? I have been wanting to get in a relationship for a while and beggars can’t be choosers, but I just cant ever see myself liking her romantically.