When you lead a girl on, you keep her waiting. For a text. For a phone call. For a night out together. For all of these things that are never going to happen.
When you lead a girl on, you trick her into giving you attention. You fool her into wanting to talk to you, into wanting to be with you and only you.
When you lead a girl on, you ruin her chances of finding love. Since she doesn’t want to ruin what she thinks she has with you, she never looks at any other guys. She doesn’t flirt with them at bars or answer their late night texts. She saves herself for you, because she doesn’t realize you haven’t been doing the same for her.
When you lead a girl on, you keep her up at night wondering when you’re going to take the leap and invite her out to dinner. You keep her up at night hoping that one day she’ll be falling asleep next to you instead of next to a text from you.
When you lead a girl on, you turn her self-conscious. You make her wonder why you aren’t there when she needs you. Why you’ve been acting so distant today when you were so touchy yesterday.
When you lead a girl on, you feed her false hope. You make her daydream about what it’s going to be like to hold you in her arms. You make her fantasize about how your lips are going to taste and where your first official date will take place.
When you lead a girl on, you’re lying to her. You’re telling her that something is going to happen between the two of you. That it’s only a matter of time until you switch from being friends to being boyfriend and girlfriend.
When you lead a girl on, you waste her time. Time that she could have been spending on other people. The kind of people who are authentic, who don’t lie to her or string her along in order to feel better about themselves.
When you lead a girl on, you break her heart. You take the high hopes she had for your relationship and squash them into pieces. You turn into another one of her disappointments.
When you lead a girl on, you’re being a coward. You’re too afraid to tell her that you don’t want her the way she wants you, because you’re worried she’ll leave. You’re worried she’ll stop giving you all her attention.
When you lead a girl on, you’re basically saying that you don’t believe she deserves the truth. You’re basically saying that you think she deserves to be used for your own selfish agenda.
You’re saying that she doesn’t deserve the love she’s been looking for. That she deserves to be strung along by someone like you instead.
When you lead a girl on, you’re letting her know that you don’t care about her the way she wishes you would. You’re letting her know that you are just another one of her mistakes. 
Holly Riordan is the author of Lifeless Souls, available here.
