I really thought it was real this time

I (18F) have never had a boyfriend. Not because I haven't wanted to. I've had so many unrequited crushes but I really thought this one would be different. I had every reason to believe it would be different. This guy said so many romantic things to me that my friends even thought he was "love bombing" or if not, it was extremely obvious that he was into me. I'm not the type of person to jump to conclusions even with clear signs. It would take him saying "I have romantic feelings for you" for me to think "maybe he has romantic feelings for me". This guy said basically everything short of that. He insinuated multiple times he wanted to hang out with me outside of school. So when last week I asked him to hang out with me outside of school I really thought this could go somewhere. It ended up being a failure, like every other crush before it. He didn't overtly reject me, but he made a really vague excuse and hasn't texted me since, which I take to be a rejection. We'd been texting every day or almost everyday for two months, and now it's crickets.

I'll get over it just how I get over every other guy who doesn't like me. But this one especially stings because it was the first one where there it so truly felt like something would come from it. I hate that he led me on. I don't know what he thought he was going to get from it. If he was just trying to embarrass me, it worked. He fooled me. Does he want a pat on the back?