When freshman screenwriting major Alex King met a girl at a friend’s high school graduation party, he knew he had to impress her. When he found out she was vegan, he started to think about where they could go for their first date. He decided on Frutta Bowls, a restaurant that specializes in serving bowls of fruit. But the catch: King is allergic to fruit. Still, the two went to Frutta Bowls for their date.

King asked for a chocolate bowl, which he said is the only meal at Frutta Bowls without fruit. It was out of stock so King ordered another meal – one with fruit, which triggered his allergies.

“They brought it to me and I ate it, and I didn’t say anything. I suppressed an allergic reaction until I got home safely,” King said. “She never texted me again.”

Freshman sociology major Bentley Kandel has felt the anxiety that comes with the pressure to impress a crush. When Kendel was a junior in high school, when he was joking that she was going to quickly drive away from the house they were at. After getting into the car, she accelerated, thinking she would go forward.

“I had it in reverse, so I flew backward into his friend’s car and left a huge dent in it,” Kandel said.

This was not exactly the dramatic exit she had planned. However, her crush was not as horrified as she imagined.

“He was laughing, but his friend was not laughing,” Kandel said. “I was trying to be funny and it went bad really fast.”

Ayden Best, a freshman software engineering major, tried a more methodical route.

“During high school, I liked the same girl for three years. I was a huge nerd so I didn’t really know how to talk to women,” Best said.

Best Googled “how to impress a girl” and found a story that suggested asking someone to borrow a pencil every day until they start liking you. He decided to put this theory to the test.

The next day in class, he worked up the courage to ask the girl he liked for a pencil.

“It worked for a little while, but after two months of asking for a pencil and not really doing anything else, the girl got annoyed and ended up buying me one of those 24-packs of pencils and giving it to me so I didn’t have to bother her anymore,” Best said.

While having a crush can be fraught with emotions, Best said there is never harm “shooting your shot.” His advice to those on this Valentine’s Day: “Just tell her how you feel, man.”