Over the head of everyone who finds you attractive there is a small gold light, and under it a timer that shows how long. Only you can see them.

Your best friend's timer says three years. The girl you've liked since ninth grade gives you three seconds.

0:00 Four people in this cafeteria

1:00 You tell her right there

2:16 The next morning

3:25 Experiment one

4:32 The guitar case

5:43 One chord

6:51 Last period on Friday

7:53 After the show

9:03 Nobody takes your fries

10:05 The three-ten

11:13 Cable in the booth

12:17 The last day of school

13:12 Quiet for a long time

Sources:

- Hall, J. A., Xing, C. & Brooks, S. (2014). Accurately Detecting Flirting: Error Management Theory, the Traditional Sexual Script, and Flirting Base Rate. Communication Research. https://news.ku.edu/2014/06/03/flirting-hard-detect-study-finds

- Willis, J. & Todorov, A. (2006). First Impressions: Making Up Your Mind After a 100-Ms Exposure to a Face. Psychological Science. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16866745/

- Moreland, R. L. & Beach, S. R. (1992). Exposure effects in the classroom: The development of affinity among students. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1016/0022-1031(92)90055-O

- Guéguen, N., Meineri, S. & Fischer-Lokou, J. (2014). Men's music ability and attractiveness to women in a real-life courtship context. Psychology of Music. RETRACTED by the journal in 2020: https://retractionwatch.com/2020/10/09/heard-about-the-study-claiming-men-who-carry-guitar-cases-are-more-attractive-its-been-retracted/

- Eastwick, P. W. & Hunt, L. L. (2014). Relational mate value: Consensus and uniqueness in romantic evaluations. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24611897/

- Place, S. S., Todd, P. M., Penke, L. & Asendorpf, J. B. (2010). Humans show mate copying after observing real mate choices. Evolution and Human Behavior. https://www.psych.uni-goettingen.de/de/biopers/publications_department/placeetal2010

- Stinson, D. A., Cameron, J. J. & Hoplock, L. B. (2021). The Friends-to-Lovers Pathway to Romance: Prevalent, Preferred, and Overlooked by Science. Social Psychological and Personality Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/19485506211026992

- NASA Science. Messier 31 (The Andromeda Galaxy). https://science.nasa.gov/mission/hubble/science/explore-the-night-sky/hubble-messier-catalog/messier-31/

What-if parts are our own extrapolation, labelled in the sources: the lights, the timers, the school and its people are made up; "most of your lights are a tenth of a second that got lucky" is our reading of Willis & Todorov, not a measurement.

#whatif #animation #crush

Only you can see that your best friend's light has been on for years. Do you tell them, or do you say "not you, obviously"?