Did I lead him on?

I've been friends with this guy for about 6 months now - we met in the computer lab at the law faculty. He was talking to one of our mutual friends, and then he asked me for a scissors - and that's how we got to know each other.

Our morning timetable was very similar, so chances were, I'd see him at the computer lab every morning on a Monday and a Wed - and we would talk and do our work. It was just nice chit chat - so what are your lecturers like, how are you finding the study… He always acted very aloof towards me, as though I was just some study freak, always in the computer rooms. Which I am.

Six weeks later, he had a debating competition to go to one night and since I have done debating before, I was helping him - what to say, what to do if the adjudicator… blah blah blah. And I remember he was, that day, very funny, very talkative to me. Usually we would have polite chats but that day, he acted like I was his best friend. I asked him - why are you so … I don't know, excited today? And he said that he was just nervous about that night's debate.

Fair enough.

So he had the debate and the location was near where I was working my night shift. He came up just when I had just finished my break and said "we lost", punched the air with a fist and grinned. I laughed at that. Then I asked him how and he explained why. He got caught up with a few friends just then so I turned away and was sitting at the reception desk while the receptionist (my supervisor) had her break. He and his friends were chatting very fervently, clearly about the debate and for some reason, he kept turning to look my way - positively staring at me, eventually.

I gave him a smile at the first few glances, but after a while, it felt weird, so I just decided to avoid eye contact. But he kept looking and looking at me, with a faint smile on his face.

We didn't see each other much after that time, but when we did, he would always come over and have a chat with me - and the chats became more and more friendly - he asked about my family, what I intended to do in the future.

Three weeks later: I was in the computer room around the afternoon and he suddenly came in, which surprised him as he had told me that morning he was going home before 12. He came over to where I was and I said "Hi, I thought you had gone home." And he said, "Ohhh, so you think about me do you?"

I said "No, just that it's strange you're still here." There was a pause, he sat down next to me, and then suddenly said: Do you want to go to the end of semester university celebration with me? And, by his tone, it was clearly a date - he was asking me out. And I was so shocked, so surprised, it was all so sudden that I just said: "No!"

I always thought of him as a friend - I thought it weird that he suddenly became so friendly these days, but never did it cross my mind he was interested in me that way: more that he appreciated my help in the debate. He looked taken aback: it was clearly a slap in the face for him; and then said coldly "fine". And I wanted to be polite, so I asked him "are you going?" (Stupid question, I know - but please, what situation was I in then??) And he said "yeahhhh." And then of all the dumbest things I could have done, I said, "You look like the kind who would go."

"That's being too critical." He almost snapped at me, then left. I get the idea he was mad not because of my comment but because I fully rejected him. But I didn't lead him on did I? He's a nice guy, I don't want to let him think I was playing hard to get or anything, because I wasn't.