AIO for cutting off my friend before he could presumably confess his feelings for me?
so I (19F) and my friend, I’ll call him Ben (20M) have been on thin ice recently and it’s pissing me off more than it should so I just want an outside opinion on whether or not I’m being cruel with how I went about this situation.
so me and Ben have been friends for a while, we met through mutual friends and he was kind of shy and quiet at first, I got to know him better because we have similar taste in tv shows or general media we like. I thought I finally found a friend that liked was a fan of most things I liked and finally had someone to share these things with because my other friends aren’t really into it, and I don’t want to force them to be.
It was nice because he gave things I like a try even if it wasn’t his thing, and he ended up liking it! He’s very kind and caring, and sometimes offers to do things like cover the bill or get me a small personal gift for my birthday. I felt really bad because I was broke and didn’t get him anything for his birthday but I was hoping to change that once I was able to, and he was understanding about that.
However, recently a few weeks ago I reconnected with an old friend (19M) that I had history with in highschool, and he reacted very strangely
As if mentioning him was a trigger for something, I just ignored it. And then he messaged me saying he was upset that he didn’t feel our friendship wasn’t reciprocated enough, so we talked it out because I understood where he was coming from, but I also argued that it may have felt that way to him because I didn’t ask him to do all those things for me and if he wasn’t able to he didn’t have to and it would make no difference. It felt like to me he was asking for me to give more than I could because that’s what he had been doing.
But after we made up from that argument, he was still sensitive about stuff I was posting on my story about dating different cultures and whatnot and how it was targeted at him, that he gave me another chance and was disappointed in me
that was where I drew the line because it started to feel like he has more than platonic feelings for me and is upset that I’m not behaving considerate enough about it, even though he never outright said it and refuses to acknowledge his behaviour
I was starting to get really angry because I didn’t appreciate his tone, it felt like he was scolding me as his girlfriend for exposing him when that was not our relationship at all. I’m kind of angry I have to lose another guy friend because he developed feelings for me.
So I asked him for space and he said okay but I checked and he blocked me on Instagram.
is this justified? Am I overreacting for being upset about his feelings?
EDIT: for context, the old friend from highschool was a guy I was close friends with, but he also developed a crush on me and we lost touch after that. Ben knows a bit about how we were close and needed space after graduation because he wasn’t the nicest person at the time
the old friend reached out to me and we hung out in person, I would be lying if I said I wasnt interested in dating him now because he’s grown a lot. It was when I mentioned we hung out that Ben kinda became a bit distant and upset.
Ben was never really one to act like this so it really threw me off guard, he’s usually supportive in whatever I do as I’m supportive in his career. Even after I drew a boundary and complained about his subtle but belittling tone, he became passive and over apologizing asking to just start fresh begging to stay friends. But I just felt uncomfortable with the possibility that he doesn’t see me that way so I lost my cool a bit