Falling for my Best Friend

So I'm a 21 year old college student, the girl in question is 20 years old and she's been my closest friend for about 9 months now. Her boyfriend broke up with her back in April and I was right there for her. We were really close until June, when school broke for the summer. We live about 40 minutes from each other right now, and she's always been bad at communicating electronically, but I'm just afraid that maybe she's realized I have feelings for her and they aren't mutual.

She means the world to me. We're so alike in every way, and if I ever lost the friendship with her it would utterly destroy me. She's been stressed out lately, but when we do hang out and I get her to smile, it makes life worth living all over again. I just want to be able to tell her how much she means to me, let her know she's the most beautiful person I've ever seen and I'd like nothing more than to have the chance to make her happy. I just don't know how to go about it. We're close friends now, and I want to know the easiest way to find out if she's got the same feelings for me is. Something that, if it isn't mutual, still has a chance of saving our friendship. At the end of the day, the risk may just be too high. If that's the case, I'd rather stand by and just be her friend. I'm just afraid of seeing her get into another terrible relationship with an abusive boyfriend and have to sit by and watch her get her heart broken. I know I could do better, but is that the best choice?

Tell her, otherwise you'll spend the rest of your life wishing you had.

Every time I read one of these "I'm in love with my best friend" it makes me want to punch a baby. Why? Because I went through the exact same thing and I can tell you that the chances of you and her becoming more than friends is slim. I told my friend I had feelings for her and about 3 weeks later she broke up with her long distance boyfriend. Then she became distant. Then another 3 weeks later she started dating a new guy. That was it for our friendship and I cut off all contact with her. The funny thing is that she is now back with her first long distance boyfriend.

If its bothering you that much then tell her how you feel. Yeah its scary as sh*t and there's a good chance your friendship will never be the same but at least you will know that you took a chance. Personally though, I would start meeting other women because you may find out that your feelings for her aren't as strong as you think they are.

If you say losing the friendship would utterly destroy you then you have the wrong feelings invested in this "friendship" and it will never work out because of it. Grow a set and ask other girls out on dates and stop depending on your "friend" to fulfill your fantasy of having a GF.