She said she wasn't interested. I'm confused. Girl-Help!?

There's this girl who I've had crush on forever, but have always been too nervous to speak with her routinely, or show her my funny side. Anyways, the past couple months I've noticed that she's starting glancing at me more and more. So, I finally mustered up the courage to tell her that I liked her, but that I wasn't very good at talking to her. She was about to respond when one of her friends walked up. She said she'd talk to me later, and I left. Later that night, she emailed me, saying she didn't return my feelings. I'm a little disappointed, but really confused. Why all the glancing? Am I just eye candy, or are there other factors? Is this one of those situations where girls say something, but mean something else? We're going to different colleges in a couple months.....