She hears a lot of "yeah, my feelings for you have kind of... evolved..."
This isn't exactly helpful, but... is it possible that the object of interest suddenly realizes that he's talking to a much younger girl? This would have weirded out boys in my HS badly, and much more as a dating relationship than as a member-of-club friendship. As I recall, a girl had to be at least 16 or 17 to be considered relationship material for a boy 3-4 years her senior, even if she was always around and had the same interests, etc. Just another possibility for cause.
My instincts say that finding a couple of peer friends closer to her chronological age is important here.
