Editor #100
If your past rejection has left you sour, you should not generalize and believe that girls are the heartless ones and guys are the only ones capable of falling in love. Your experiences do not speak for the entire human population. You are just one unlucky guy in a population of millions of high school kids.
Of course, there are other guys that feel the same way after frequently running into romantic mishaps in high school. One particular convention that comes to mind is that guys are usually the ones who do things outwardly with the intention of impressing a girl, whereas a girl will not make it as blatantly obvious that she is aiming to impress a guy. Guess what: There are girls that wonder why guys do not fall in love. Too often we see the romantically unfaithful male archetype in movies, books and our own lives, and this convinces girls that guys cannot be trusted. People misunderstand the opposite gender all of the time.
The emotion of love is absolutely present in girls, just not the ones with which you have involved yourself. Perhaps these girls do care about you but not to the degree that you expect. You have let your guard down for a girl and it is only natural for you to expect that she do the same. Considering that all girls are wired differently, it is possible that this girl, being an adolescent, has not yet matured to see that you care deeply about her. Another possibility is that you have not matured yet, and the emotion you feel for her —“love”— is really a mislabel. There is a significant difference between the love of a couple that has been married for 50 years and the love that two teenagers feel for each other. Take a moment to determine whether your love is true, or if it is not that serious.