hi guys so i’m a junior in high school and so is this guy we’ve been friends since like 7th grade and we’ve always been close in class and we never hung out outside of school until freshman year at track and then sophomore and junior year at track and not that we can drive we drive around doing a lot of stuff together. we always show up together to party’s and leave together. we know everything about each other and past relationships. when we’re with each other we never stop laughing and to me at least it was always just a best friend that happened to be a guy. we didn’t get super close until the past year. we say i love you to each other when we say goodbyes and stuff like that pretty causally and hug all the time. people started joking with us and making assumptions asking when we’re just gonna date and we always say it isn’t like that and everything and i honestly didn’t see it like that until a couple weeks ago and i realized how much i like him more than a friend. we were at a track banquet swimming it was just us and one other guy and the other guy brought up how it was awkward in the weight room the other day when everyone was talking how how we should date and how we like each other and are friends with benefits and i just laughed and then i thought more about it an dir got to me. we went and got ice cream after the banquet and i couldn’t stop thinking about it. i brought it up and he got really red faced and awkward and i mentioned how “it’s just me don’t get like that” and changed the subject cause it was awkward. we’ve went and had breakfast a few times since and i just wanna be with him in a romantic way. it just makes sense and everyone realized it before us. i don’t know if he feels the same or how to find out if he does or if it’s worth potentially ruining our friendship or if i’ve just heard people saying this for so long i believe it now. i would really just like advice on what to do. i don’t want potentially temporary feelings ruining a permanent friendship