All in a moment's work

Some things are instantaneous. And there's always a very specific moment when they happen.

Like getting crushes.

And getting over crushes.

There's always that one moment when it happens, and that one moment when you get over it.

When I was ten, there was a guy in the same class as me, but in another section. The only time I saw him was during the morning assembly, and after school when we hung around in the school grounds waiting for the school bus. And I remember very clearly what the moment of my crush was. He was at the cricket ground, teaching a six-year-old first-grader how to hold a cricket bat. And as I stood behind a tree and watched him, just like that, in that very moment, I got a crush on him.

A couple of days later, for the first time ever, I heard him speak. And just like that, the moment I heard his voice, crash went my crush. There was just something about the way he spoke, that in a moment, I just lost my crush for him.

I proceeded to develop a crush on his best friend, who had just moved into my neighbourhood. That also happened in a moment. The moment was when he came to me and asked me, "Hi. What time does the school bus reach your bus stop? I'll be taking the bus with you from tomorrow." There was something so innocent in the way he looked at me and asked that question. That was the moment of my crush.

A few days later, he came to my house to return a comic book I'd lent him. I remember the day very clearly. I was cleaning my bicycle. It was upside down, and I was using an old toothbrush to clean the insides of the mudguard, when I saw him (through the bicycle spokes) walk up to me. In yellow shorts. And I strongly suspect they had tiny red flowers on them. And that was it. It was the end. That was the moment when my crush was over.

Fast forward to the present. Cute French exchange student who breathes life into some of my most dreary lessons just by his mere presence, interrupts the hapless professor to enquire why the campus does not have condom-vending machines.

And just like that, my crush evaporates.

All in a moment.

Is this what differentiates a crush from a non-crush perhaps?