Hey fellow internet users. I have a rather unique (for me, anyway) situation that I have no idea how to handle.
Okay, so I met a girl online (I know, I know) and chatted with her off and on for a few weeks. We had some good talks, and so when I was looking for someone to go to a concert with some friends and I, naturally I decided to ask her. She said yes, and the date was set.
We had some fun talking and were waiting for the band to come on stage (we were back in the lawn sitting on a blanket). Nervous laughter abound, and when I went to pat her knee (it's something I tend to do when I have no idea what to do) she grabbed my hand and cuddled into me. No problem, I figured. I've cuddled with plenty of people, so that was no big thing for me. The whole rest of the night there were some really, odd moments. Not bad odd, but more like "woah, wait a second" kind of vibes. We left before the end to avoid the mass of cars, got some fast food, and dropped her off. There wasn't any other contact in the car, because frankly I'm not a big touchy-feely kind of guy to begin with and I was longing for my own space.
A week later she contacts me and basically asks me to ask her out. Thinking to myself "okay, maybe another date could be fun" I agreed. We ended up hanging out at the mall for a few hours, slumming stores and chatting away. There was no hand-holding or any other overt physical contact, as I'd come to the decision that I liked being her friend more than I liked the idea of being her boyfriend. The date ended with two quick hugs, which felt awkward to me. I considered kissing her goodnight, but something in my brain told me not to.
Anyway, that was about two weeks ago. I've been quite busy with college and work, but she's religiously contacted me. Enough so, actually, that I'm starting to get a bit weirded out by it. In fact, the next day after the date she sent me an email, FB message, and a text asking if she could come down and spend the day with me (she lives two hours away from me, fwiw). Now I'm the first person to admit that I have a rough time picking up on signals from a woman to save my life, but this gal was spelling it out like it was a public service announcement.
I guess that brings me to my dilemma. She called me again tonight to ask me out but I had to decline due to a research paper that's kicking my butt. She was quite understanding and said to call her when I could get together. About fifteen minutes later I got a text that was meant for a friend of hers telling them how great and busy I was and referring to me in a manner that, as a guy with numerous younger sisters, I translated as "he's more or less my boyfriend."
I've got only bare minimum experience when dealing with this sort of thing. Like an idiot I assumed that if I just kept things friendly that the distance and unavailability of me to travel up would take care of things, but I'm not sure it is. I'll readily accept that I could be overreacting, but I can't help shaking that sense of nervousness that I had with her on the first date. I'm more than willing to listen to any and all advice you wonderful people could offer to me, as I'm completely and utterly stumped on what to do.