There’s a new fad in town, and they call it “friendlationships”. It’s more than a friendship, but not quite a relationship. It’s not even friends with benefits – it’s just two people who hang out with each other pretty exclusively, go to date-like settings, but never actually establish themselves as a couple.

Now, far be it for me to intrude upon the relationships of the world. I’ve never been one to follow the status quo, and you shouldn’t have to fit a mould to be accepted in society. But seriously, people… REALLY?!

Are we still in elementary school here? Are girls still icky? If you like her, tell her. If she doesn’t feel the same way, I’m sure you’ll find out. Yes, feelings might be hurt, but that’s the way of the world. To operate in a “friendlationship” indefinitely is cowardly on both ends. Just because you’re not sure of the other’s intentions towards you, doesn’t mean that you should hide from it.

How do you know you, or one of your friends, is in a friendlationship? You can expect to see one of these symptoms:

1)    Whenever you’re in a group setting, they’re always together. There may be flirting, but it never leads to anything.
2)    When you ask your friend about the girl, he gets SUPER AWKWARD and denies anything.
3)    When pressed, he will continually shrug you off

The thing about friendlationships is that they are damaging. Not just to the two involved, but to men in general. I mean, come on – these types of romances belong on crappy teen dramas. If you want something, be up front about it. These types of relationships thrive in a world where communication never really happens. Neither party (ladies are just as much to blame) really defines what they want, so they just end up going in circles, and never really growing out of it. It can be incredibly sad, and incredibly juvenile.

Think about it: worst case scenario, you tell her, she says “OMG NO WAY”, it’s embarrassing for a while, but you’ll recover. The best case scenario is she feels exactly the same way, and you get a relationship out of it. In this case, the pros outweigh the cons. If you wait around too long, she might find someone else, and then you’ll have lost your chance. Either way, the friendlationship won’t last forever. So grow some balls and go get her!