Please be careful of those who pretend to be ace to get closer to you when you're ace

When I was 16 and in college I was going through quite a lot. One of my friends we'll call him Z he was there for me for quite a lot of it and we had a great time with my other friends. I'd been asexual since I was 14 and I never hid it, even openly telling my friends because I'm just not that person who is ashamed of it. I'll mention it probably once or twice and not again.

I had a lot going on in this year, and honestly I should've paid more attention to the red flags that were coming up.

So Z said he was also ace after a few months. It made sense, he never had a gf, he seemed so respectful of women being raised by a single mother and a sister. He definitely had some sort of crush on me but I didnt like him like that and really couldnt have made it clearer. He started pilling emotional concepts on me like 'oh I've never held a girls hand' 'how do I know if someone likes me?' he was basically leaning into nice guy™️ territory with some of the other things he'd say. I sort of took it as harmless because yk hes ace, and he just was a really good friend.

Eventually it spiralled into asking me for photos, first of my face, which I sent a few just because I thought it was a' how's my day going, what am I doing' sort of thing and he knew I had no confidence and was trying. But then he asked for 'other kinds of photos* which I said no to. He then tried to kiss me which I had a freeze response to unfortunately.

I do not trust guys as it is. In following years I had a stalker, was gaslit by the teachers, and then a few other guys liked me but they *never* claimed they were ace as well.

Just make sure you really get to know people first :')