Hypothesis: 80-90’s movies ruined Gen-X relationships with unrealistic expectations

Case in point:

Best Friend turned true love trope.

Arch enemies turned true love trope.

Never met in person but fell in love across a room, in passing trains, through email, one night wandering around a foreign city.

Nerd guy crush on hot girl gets surprise makeover and they fall in love.

Nerd girl crush on hot guy gets makeover and he confesses his love.

Smart girl assigned to tutor football star/new student/wanna be rockstar and they fall in love.

The two never actually meet or are together too much and fight or are separated by an ocean or kept apart by feuding families or they come from different classes, they are different races, they speak different languages.

The rollercoaster begins, will they, won’t they, why aren’t they, why should they, how can they, what are they?

There’s music.

There’s crying.

There’s some listless driving around the city or pithy jokes from the ever single best friend.

Then.

Lightbulb moment.

Love gets requited by running across a field, an airport, a school cafeteria, a beach toward each other.

Love gets requited by them being trapped together in a basement, an empty school at night, on an island.

Love gets requited by a comedy of errors leading them to discover each other’s affection by finding a letter, a mistaken email or overhearing a conversation.

Love gets requited by one confessing their love under a bedroom window, during a wedding, in the middle of the school play by singing a song, bringing them flowers, interrupting the show for their own speech and then the two run off together in a hot red sports car, walk slowly down a dimly lit street, sit holding hands on a hilltop watching the sun set and ‘The End’ comes up on the screen and it’s done- relationship status solidified.

Cue cool music – roll credits.

Hypothesis proved.