Having a secret crush is a special kind of torture and magic rolled into one confusing package. You see them and your heart does backflips. They smile at you and you forget how words work. You analyze every tiny interaction for signs they might feel the same way, then convince yourself you're reading too much into it. You have entire conversations with them in your head while barely managing "hey" in real life. It's beautiful and terrifying and completely exhausting.
These quotes exist for everyone currently experiencing that specific brand of chaos—the people who have feelings they're not brave enough to share yet, who wonder if their crush has any idea, who lie awake replaying every interaction and trying to figure out what it all means. Maybe you're crushing on a friend and terrified to ruin the friendship. Maybe it's someone you barely know but can't stop thinking about. Maybe it's been going on so long you've basically accepted you'll just love them quietly forever. Whatever your situation, these words capture that unique feeling of wanting someone from a distance, hoping they might want you back, and being too scared to find out for sure.
Short Secret Crush Quotes
Quick truths about hidden feelings. These short quotes say everything about crushing on someone quietly.
- I like you more than you'll ever know.
- You have no idea what you do to my heart.
- Every time you look at me, I forget how to breathe.
- I'm falling for you and you don't even notice.
- You're the reason I check my phone constantly.
- I wish you knew how I feel about you.
- My heart races every time I see you.
- You're always on my mind, and you have no clue.
- I'm scared to tell you but dying to show you.
- You make me nervous in the best way.
- I like you way more than I should.
- Every smile you give me means everything.
- I think about you more than you think about me.
- You're my favorite what-if.
- I'm hiding feelings I can barely control.
- You occupy my thoughts constantly.
- I wish I was brave enough to tell you.
- Every time you talk to me, I melt inside.
- You have no idea you're my everything.
- I'm in love with someone who doesn't know it.
Quotes About Hiding Your Feelings
Keeping feelings secret is hard work. These quotes talk about hiding how you really feel while dying inside every time you see them.
- I'm getting really good at pretending I don't have feelings for you. On the outside I'm calm, cool, completely normal. On the inside I'm screaming every time you're near me, analyzing every word you say, and replaying every interaction for the next three hours.
- "The hardest thing is watching the person you love, love someone else." Even harder? Watching them live their life completely unaware that you exist as anything more than a friend or acquaintance. They don't even know there's something to reject.
- I have to act normal around you when nothing about how I feel is normal. My heart is doing Olympic-level gymnastics but I'm sitting here talking about the weather like I'm fine. I'm not fine. I'm very not fine.
- Every time someone asks if I like you, I lie. I say no. I laugh it off. I change the subject. Meanwhile internally I'm like "LIKE? I'm obsessed with this person. I think about them constantly. I've mentally planned our future together." But out loud I say "Nah, we're just friends."
- "Hiding your feelings for someone is like holding your breath. Eventually you have to let it out or you'll suffocate." I'm currently suffocating and too scared to breathe. This is fine. Everything's fine. I'm definitely not dying inside.
- I see you every day and pretend I don't care. Pretend I'm not looking for you the moment I walk in. Pretend my heart doesn't skip when you're nearby. Pretend I'm not memorizing every detail about you. I deserve an acting award for this performance.
- The worst part about having a secret crush is the lying. Lying to friends who ask if I like you. Lying to myself about how serious these feelings are. Lying to you by acting like I don't care when I care way too much.
- "I'm an expert at hiding feelings I shouldn't have." Been practicing this skill for months now. I can smile at you like a normal person while my internal monologue is having a complete meltdown. That's talent.
- I have to watch you date other people and act happy for you. Have to hear about your relationships and give advice. Have to pretend I'm not secretly hoping they all fail so maybe eventually you'll notice me. I'm a terrible person but also a good actor.
- Nobody knows about you. About how I feel. About the fact that you're the reason I show up places. I keep you secret like a treasure I'm protecting or a wound I'm hiding. Maybe both.
- "The feelings I hide could fill entire books." If people could read my mind when you're around, they'd be shocked. So I keep it locked down, buried, hidden. Safe from rejection but also safe from possibility.
- I've become really good at acting like I don't care when you talk about other people you're interested in. Nodding along, giving advice, being supportive. Meanwhile I'm dying inside thinking "what about me though?"
- Every conversation we have, I'm performing. Performing calm when I'm nervous. Performing casual when I'm intense. Performing friendly when I want to be so much more. It's exhausting being in character all the time.
- "Hiding feelings is protecting yourself from pain while simultaneously guaranteeing it." Can't get rejected if I never tell you. But also can't get chosen. It's a lose-lose situation I've created for myself.
- I watch you from across the room and make sure you never catch me watching. I listen for your voice in crowded spaces. I light up when you acknowledge me and then immediately try to dim it down so nobody notices. This is my whole existence now.
- The secret's getting heavier. The feelings are getting stronger. The hiding is getting harder. Eventually something's got to give but I'm too scared to let it be my confession. So I keep carrying it.
- "I smile through the pain of watching you not choose me." Every day. Every interaction. Every time you talk about someone else. I smile and nod and die a little inside.
- I have to act like just your friend when I want to be so much more. Have to keep it light, keep it casual, keep it safe. When really I want to tell you everything. Want you to know. Too scared to risk what we have for what we could have.
- My feelings for you are the biggest secret I'm keeping. Bigger than anything else I'm hiding. Because this one could change everything or ruin everything. So I stay silent and suffer quietly.
- "The hardest role to play is pretending you don't love someone you love completely." I'm playing this role every single day. And I'm tired. But I'm also too scared to quit the performance.
Quotes About Crushing From Afar
Distance makes crushing harder. These quotes talk about liking someone you barely know or can only admire from across the room.
- You don't even know I exist and I think about you constantly. We've barely talked but I've imagined entire conversations. You're living your life completely unaware that someone across the room is basically obsessed with you.
- "I love you from a distance because up close I'd probably forget how to speak." You make me nervous just by existing near me. So I admire from afar where I can't embarrass myself by saying something stupid.
- I know nothing about you except what I've observed and somehow that's enough for me to be completely gone for you. I notice which coffee you order, what you laugh at, how you talk to people. I'm basically a detective of someone who doesn't know I'm investigating.
- We're basically strangers but you feel significant to me. I've built up this whole idea of who you are based on tiny interactions and distant observations. You're probably nothing like what I've imagined but I'm attached to the fantasy.
- "Crushing on someone from afar means falling for the idea of them while hoping the reality matches." I don't really know you. But I want to. And I'm too scared to try.
- I see you everywhere. Or maybe I'm just looking for you everywhere. Either way, my day includes multiple sightings of you while you remain completely unaware I'm tracking your patterns like a creep. This is healthy behavior obviously.
- Every time you walk by, time stops. You don't notice. You're on your phone or talking to someone or living your life. But for me, everything pauses. I watch you pass and then spend the next hour analyzing if you looked at me.
- "The hardest crushes are the ones where you're basically invisible to them." You see me but you don't SEE me. I'm background. I'm nobody. And I'm completely in love with you anyway. Fun times.
- I've memorized your schedule. I know where you'll be and when. Not in a stalker way—in a pathetic-crush way. There's a difference. Maybe. The difference is I don't do anything with this information except torture myself by being nearby.
- We've made eye contact exactly three times and I've replayed all three instances hundreds of times analyzing what they meant. Probably they meant nothing. You probably don't remember them. But I remember everything.
- "Liking someone from a distance is safe but also the loneliest thing." Can't get hurt if we never interact. But also can't get happy. Just stuck in this weird in-between of wanting and not having.
- I know your laugh. I know your smile. I know how you take your coffee. I know these tiny details about a person who doesn't know my name. That's my life right now. That's where I'm at.
- You're everyone and no one to me. Everyone because you occupy my thoughts constantly. No one because we're strangers. We've never had a real conversation. You have no idea I exist in any meaningful way.
- "Crushing from afar means hoping they notice you while simultaneously hiding whenever they look your way." I want you to see me. I'm terrified you'll see me. Both things are true at once.
- I've built an entire relationship with you in my head. We've had conversations, gone on dates, shared moments—all fictional. All in my imagination. In reality, we've exchanged maybe ten words total. My fantasy life is better than my real one.
- Every time you're nearby I panic. Do I look okay? Should I say something? Am I staring? I end up doing nothing and then beating myself up later for being such a coward. This happens weekly. I never learn.
- "The person you like doesn't know you exist. But you know their entire schedule, their favorite things, their friend group." Imbalanced doesn't begin to describe this situation. But here we are.
- I wish I was brave enough to introduce myself properly. To start a conversation. To exist as a real person in your world instead of just an observer. But fear keeps me at a distance. Fear and the certainty that you're way out of my league.
- Watching you live your life from across the room is bittersweet. Sweet because at least I get to see you. Bitter because that's all I get. Just watching. Just wanting. Just hoping someday I'll be brave.
- "Distance is safe. Distance means no rejection. Distance also means no possibility." And I'm stuck choosing safety over possibility because the idea of you rejecting me is worse than this current torture.
Quotes About Wanting to Tell Them
The urge to confess is strong. These quotes capture that internal battle between wanting to tell them and being too terrified to actually do it.
- I want to tell you so badly. The words are right there, stuck in my throat, desperate to come out. But fear holds them in. Fear of ruining what we have. Fear of making things awkward. Fear of hearing that you don't feel the same.
- "Every time we talk, I almost tell you. Then I chicken out and we keep talking about normal things while I scream internally." So many missed chances. So many moments where I could have said something but didn't. I collect these moments like regrets.
- I've written the confession a hundred times. In my notes app, in my journal, in my head at 2 AM when I can't sleep. I know exactly what I'd say. I just don't know when I'll be brave enough to actually say it.
- The urge to tell you is getting stronger and harder to ignore. It's like pressure building up. Eventually it has to release. I'm just hoping when it does, it doesn't destroy everything.
- "I'm one courageous moment away from telling you and one coward moment away from never telling you." Which moment will win? Stay tuned. I'm as curious as you are.
- I almost told you yesterday. The moment was there—you were asking about my life, actually seemed interested, and I almost just said it. "I like you. I have feelings for you. This is me being honest." But then the moment passed and I stayed silent like always.
- My friends are tired of hearing about you. They keep telling me to just say something already. "What's the worst that could happen?" they ask. And I list all the ways it could go wrong while they roll their eyes.
- "Keeping this secret is becoming harder than telling you would be. But telling you feels impossible." Stuck between two hard choices. Suffering in silence or risking everything by speaking up. Currently choosing suffering.
- I've practiced what I'd say. How I'd bring it up. The exact words I'd use. I have a whole speech prepared that you'll probably never hear because saying it in my head is way easier than saying it to your face.
- Every day I wake up thinking "today's the day I tell them." Then I see you and all that courage disappears. Tomorrow, I tell myself. I'll definitely tell you tomorrow. But tomorrow never comes.
- "If you could read my mind, you'd know everything. But you can't, so I have to find words. And words feel inadequate and terrifying." How do you tell someone they're everything when you're afraid of being nothing to them?
- I want to tell you. But I also don't want things to change. Right now, even if you don't know, at least we're still normal. If I tell you and you don't feel the same, we can't go back to this.
- The secret is burning a hole in me. It wants out. It needs out. But fear of rejection is a powerful lock keeping everything contained. So I burn quietly and pretend I'm fine.
- "One day I'll be brave enough. One day I'll take the risk. One day I'll tell you." But which day? How long do I wait? How many chances do I let pass before I realize I'm just stalling?
- I imagine telling you all the time. I imagine every possible response. The good ones where you say you feel the same. The bad ones where you laugh or look uncomfortable. The worst ones where you stop talking to me completely.
- My courage comes and goes. Some days I'm ready to tell you everything. Other days I can barely make eye contact. There's no consistency to when I feel brave, which is why I'm still keeping this secret.
- "The words are ready. They're there, prepared, waiting. It's just that the fear is also ready. And the fear is winning." Every single time, fear wins. Fear of rejection. Fear of awkwardness. Fear of change. Fear is undefeated.
- I keep hoping you'll somehow just know. That you'll figure it out from how I look at you, how I act around you, how I show up for you. That I won't have to say the words out loud because you'll just see it. But people aren't mind readers.
- Telling you feels like jumping off a cliff. I don't know if I'll fly or crash. I don't know if there's water below or rocks. I just know it's scary and once I jump, there's no going back. So I stand at the edge and look down and don't jump.
- "Maybe tomorrow I'll be braver. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you. Maybe tomorrow." Tomorrow is my favorite lie I tell myself. Tomorrow lets me put it off forever without admitting I'm never going to tell you.
Quotes About Hoping They Like You Back
Hope is what keeps you going. These quotes talk about looking for signs, analyzing everything, and hoping maybe they feel something too.
- Every time you smile at me, I wonder if it means something. Every time you text first, I convince myself it's a sign. Every time you choose to sit near me, I think maybe you feel it too. I'm probably reading too much into everything but hope keeps me going.
- "I analyze every interaction like it's a test I need to pass and the subject is 'do you like me back.'" Every text gets examined for hidden meaning. Every look gets interpreted. I'm either very observant or completely delusional. Probably both.
- Was that flirting or just being friendly? Are you interested or just nice? Do you think about me or am I the only one obsessing? These questions consume me daily and I'll probably never know the answers unless I ask directly, which I won't.
- Sometimes I catch you looking at me and my heart explodes with hope. Then I remember you look at everyone and I'm probably not special. But what if I am? What if those looks mean something? This is the cycle.
- "Hope is the thing keeping me in this torture. The tiny possibility that maybe you feel something too." Without hope I'd give up. But hope keeps me checking my phone, looking for signs, imagining possibilities.
- You remember little things I mention and I convince myself that means you care. You ask about my day and I think maybe you're interested. You laugh at my jokes and I believe maybe you like me. I'm grasping at straws and calling them signs.
- When someone mentions relationships around you, I watch your reaction. Do you look at me? Do you seem interested? Do you give any indication that you're thinking about someone? Spoiler: I never get clear answers but I keep watching anyway.
- "Maybe these feelings aren't one-sided. Maybe you're hiding yours too. Maybe we're both too scared to say anything." I hold onto this possibility like a lifeline. The idea that we're both suffering in silence is weirdly comforting.
- Every touch, even accidental ones, feels significant. You brushed my hand reaching for something and I'm still thinking about it three days later. You touched my shoulder and I felt it for hours. I'm either in love or losing it. Both probably.
- I look for signs you might like me back while simultaneously telling myself I'm imagining things. This internal argument is constant. "That means something." "No it doesn't." "But maybe." "Definitely not." "Unless..." I'm exhausting myself.
- "Hope says maybe. Fear says definitely not. I'm stuck between the two." Some moments I'm convinced you feel something. Other moments I'm certain I'm delusional. The uncertainty is killing me but I can't stop hoping.
- You treat me differently than others, or at least I think you do. But maybe I'm just noticing more because I'm paying such close attention. Maybe everyone gets this version of you and I'm not special. But what if I am?
- When you talk about what you want in a relationship, I listen hard. Do I fit that description? Could that be me? Am I someone you'd consider? I'm checking boxes against your criteria like a job application.
- "The way you look at me sometimes makes me think maybe this isn't one-sided." But then you look away and I convince myself I imagined it. Did I imagine it? Or are you hiding feelings too? I'll never know unless one of us speaks up.
- I notice when you find excuses to talk to me. When you show up places I am. When you ask friends about me. Or maybe I'm seeing patterns that aren't there. Maybe this is all coincidence and wishful thinking.
- Friends say they see something between us. They swear you act different around me, that there's something there. But they're not inside your head. They don't know for sure. Still, their observations feed my hope.
- "I'm holding onto tiny moments like they're proof when they're probably nothing." That time you chose me as your partner. That time you saved me a seat. That time you remembered something small. Straws. I'm grasping at them.
- Sometimes the tension between us feels thick enough to cut. Like we're both dancing around something neither will acknowledge. Or maybe that tension is just me projecting feelings onto you that you don't have. Who knows.
- You could end this torture by telling me you don't like me that way. Or start something beautiful by telling me you do. But you say nothing and I say nothing and we both just exist in this unclear space forever apparently.
- "What if all these signs I'm seeing are real? What if you're dropping hints I'm too scared to fully believe?" I live in this question. This possibility. This hope. And I'm too afraid to confirm or deny it.
Quotes About Crushing on a Friend
Friend crushes hit different. These quotes talk about the specific torture of having feelings for someone who sees you as just a friend.
- The worst part about liking my friend is I can't even distance myself to get over it. You're in my life constantly. In my friend group. At every hangout. I can't escape you and I can't tell you because I don't want to lose the friendship we have.
- "I went from 'I love hanging out with them' to 'I'm in love with them' and I don't know when that shift happened." One day you were my friend. The next day you were my everything. And you have no idea anything changed.
- I have to watch you date other people and pretend to be supportive. Have to hear about your relationships and give advice like a good friend when really I'm dying inside thinking "what about me?" This is actual torture.
- Every time we hang out, I wonder if you can tell. If you notice how I look at you, how I find excuses to be near you, how I laugh too hard at your jokes. Or if I'm hiding it well enough that you see me as just a friend still.
- "The friend zone is real and I'm living in it while secretly wishing you'd notice me differently." You friend-zoned me before I even had feelings. Now I'm stuck here unless I say something and risk losing you completely.
- I know too much about you to be having these feelings. I know your bad habits, your flaws, your annoying traits. And I love all of it anyway. That's how I know this is serious and also why I can't tell you.
- We have this great friendship and I'm about to ruin it with feelings. Or not ruin it because I won't say anything and I'll just suffer quietly forever. One of those two options. Both bad.
- "Being their friend when you want to be more is like being given a front row seat to the show you desperately want to be in." I'm close to you but not in the way I want. It's proximity without intimacy. It's terrible.
- You tell me everything about your love life. Who you like, who likes you, who you're talking to. And I sit there acting like a supportive friend while internally screaming "WHAT ABOUT ME?!"
- I've tried to get over you. I've tried to see you as just a friend. I've tried to kill these feelings. Nothing works. You're my friend and I'm in love with you and I don't know what to do about it.
- "Falling for your friend is risky because confessing means potentially losing them entirely." If I tell you and you don't feel the same, can we go back to normal? Or is the friendship over? That risk keeps me silent.
- The flirting we do feels real to me but is probably just friendly to you. When you call me cute, I melt. When you're touchy with me, I die. But you do this with everyone so it means nothing. Or does it?
- I've been friend-zoned so hard I'm like the president of the friend zone. You introduce me as your friend. Talk about me as your friend. See me completely as a friend. While I'm over here fully in love with you.
- "I wish I could go back to before I caught feelings when our friendship was simple." Now everything's complicated. I overanalyze everything. I can't be normal around you. I've ruined it for myself.
- Every time you hug me as a friend, I wish it meant more. Every time you choose to hang out with me, I read into it. Every time you text me, I hope it's leading somewhere. But it never does because we're just friends.
- You keep telling me about people you like and asking if you should go for it. And I keep saying yes because that's what a good friend does, even though I'm dying inside wanting you to like me instead.
- "The line between friendship and something more is blurry but I've definitely crossed it on my side. You're still on the friend side though." We're in different places feeling different things about the same relationship.
- I treasure our friendship. It's important to me. Which is exactly why I'm too scared to risk it by confessing feelings. Better to have you as a friend than lose you completely by wanting more.
- Sometimes I think about just telling you. Getting it over with. Knowing for sure. But then I imagine the awkwardness after, the friendship changing or ending, and I shut up and suffer more.
- "Loving your friend secretly is the safest and most painful option." Safe because the friendship continues. Painful because it's not enough. I want more but I'll take what I can get rather than risk losing you.
Famous Quotes About Secret Crushes
People have been crushing secretly forever. These famous quotes capture that universal feeling of hidden love and secret longing.
- "I am catastrophically in love with you." - Cassandra Clare
- "The worst thing about having a crush is that feeling isn't mutual." - Unknown
- "I wish I could turn back the clock. I'd find you sooner and love you longer." - Unknown
- "And in that moment, I swear we were infinite." - Stephen Chbosky
- "I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once." - John Green
- "Whatever souls are made of, his and mine are the same." - Emily Brontë
- "The truth was, he now belonged only to my past, and it was time I begin to accept it, as much as it hurt to do so." - Tammara Webber
- "I'm scared of walking out of this room and never feeling the rest of my whole life the way I feel when I'm with you." - Dirty Dancing
- "I love you, and I will love you until I die, and if there's a life after that, I'll love you then." - Cassandra Clare
- "The heart wants what it wants. There's no logic to these things." - Woody Allen
- "I would rather spend one lifetime with you than face all the ages of this world alone." - J.R.R. Tolkien
- "We accept the love we think we deserve." - Stephen Chbosky
- "I wish I knew how to quit you." - Brokeback Mountain
- "You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope." - Jane Austen
- "I cannot let you burn me up, nor can I resist you." - Virginia Woolf
- "I am yours. Don't give myself back to me." - Rumi
- "If I know what love is, it is because of you." - Hermann Hesse
- "I love you and that's the beginning and end of everything." - F. Scott Fitzgerald
- "You should be kissed and often, and by someone who knows how." - Gone with the Wind
- "I've tried so many times to think of a new way to say it, and it's still I love you." - Zelda Fitzgerald
Quotes About Living With Secret Feelings
Sometimes you just live with it. These quotes talk about accepting that you have feelings you might never share and learning to exist with that reality.
- I've accepted this might be forever. These feelings might never go away and I might never tell you. This could be my life—loving you quietly from whatever distance our friendship allows. It's not ideal but it's manageable. Barely.
- "Some feelings aren't meant to be shared, they're meant to be felt alone." Maybe mine are those feelings. Maybe I'm supposed to carry this myself. Maybe telling you would be selfish. Maybe silence is the right choice even if it hurts.
- I've gotten good at functioning with this secret. At seeing you regularly and acting normal. At hearing about your life and being genuinely happy for you while secretly wishing I was more involved in it. This is my normal now.
- Living with unrequited feelings teaches you things. Patience. Self-control. How to love someone without needing them to love you back. How to be happy for someone even when their happiness doesn't include you. Hard lessons but I'm learning.
- "Sometimes loving someone means loving them from a distance and being okay with that." I'm working on being okay with that. Not there yet. But working on it. You're worth loving even if you never know about it.
- I've built a life that includes loving you secretly. It's part of my routine now. See you, feel things, hide feelings, go home and think about you. Repeat daily. It's exhausting but also oddly stable.
- Maybe one day these feelings will fade. Maybe one day I'll meet someone else and these feelings for you will finally die. Maybe. But until then, I'm just living with it. Carrying it. Managing it as best I can.
- "You learn to live with it. The constant wondering. The hidden feelings. The what-ifs that never get answered." This is my reality. I've learned to function in it. Not happily. But functionally.
- Some days are harder than others. Some days I see you and I'm fine. Other days seeing you hurts because I want what I can't have. But both types of days, I survive. I keep going. I live with it.
- I've accepted you'll probably never know. This secret might die with me. You'll go through life never knowing someone loved you like this. And that's okay I guess. Not everything needs to be said out loud.
- "Living with secret love means finding happiness in small moments—a smile they give you, a conversation you have, their laughter at your joke." I collect these moments like treasures. They're all I get so I appreciate them completely.
- I don't expect anything from you. These feelings are my problem, not yours. You don't owe me anything just because I feel things you don't know about. I'm responsible for managing this, not you.
- Sometimes I wonder what would happen if I told you. But then I remember I'm probably better off not knowing. Living with uncertainty is easier than living with definite rejection. Maybe.
- "There's a weird peace that comes with accepting this is how it is. The fighting stops. You just exist with it." I'm at that peace place sometimes. Other times I'm fighting again. It goes back and forth.
- I've learned to celebrate your happiness even when it doesn't involve me. When you're excited about something or someone, I'm genuinely happy for you. My love for you includes wanting good things for you even if I'm not one of those things.
- Living with these feelings has made me stronger in weird ways. More patient. More selfless. More capable of loving without expecting anything back. These are good qualities I guess even if the circumstances that taught them suck.
- "Some secrets we keep to protect ourselves. Some we keep to protect others. This one does both." Telling you would hurt me if you don't feel the same. And might hurt you by making things awkward. Silence protects us both.
- I've made peace with the fact that some feelings never get returned. That you can love someone with everything you have and they can feel nothing. That's just life sometimes. Painful life. But life.
- Maybe keeping this secret is its own form of love. Loving you enough to not burden you with feelings you don't want. Loving you enough to stay in your life as a friend even though I want more. Maybe that's the most loving thing I can do.
- "In the end, I'd rather have you in my life as a friend who doesn't know how I feel than not have you at all." That's the truth. The friendship is better than nothing. So I'll keep the secret and keep the friend. And somehow that's enough. It has to be.
Last Thoughts
Having a secret crush is one of the most universal human experiences. Almost everyone has been there—crushing on someone quietly, hoping they notice you, terrified to actually tell them how you feel. It's beautiful and painful at the same time. The quotes in this article exist to validate what you're feeling, to tell you you're not alone in this torture, and to maybe give you words for feelings you can't quite express yourself. Maybe you'll get brave and tell them. Maybe the feelings will fade with time. Maybe they already know and they're crushing on you too.
Whatever happens, know that what you're feeling is real and valid. Secret crushes are hard but they're also proof that you can feel deeply, that you're capable of strong emotions, that your heart still works even when it hurts. And who knows? Maybe someday this crush won't be secret anymore. Maybe you'll look back on these feelings as the beginning of something real. Or maybe you'll look back on them as a sweet memory of what could have been. Either way, you'll survive it. Everyone does. Even if it doesn't feel like it right now.