I think i love my bestfriend who is a girl like me?!?!

Ok so i met this girl at the start of last year when we both started the same high school, we became friends very quickly and it was just like a normal friendship. But now something feels different about us, i care for her more than any of my other friends and always do whatever she wants an i hate to see her upset. It started to feel different about 6 months ago, i cant really explain what changed but it just did and i felt very strongly about her. She is a boarder at my high school and im a day girl so we dont see each other all the time but we are in most of the same classes and always sit together. For some reason when i see her hugging another friend or something like that i get really jealous. In every class we sit together in the always touch arms on the desk and play with each others hands alot and are always just touching each other. Im quite a cuddly person and always touch other friends legs under the desk and stuff but it feels different with her, i get nervous and have a lump in my throat. also when we talk to each other we always hold eye contact for ages and sometimes i notice her just staring at me out of the corner of my eye. today i had a really weird experience with her, we were talking and then kind of stopped the conversation but then just held eye contact for ages and i was just thinking oh my god this is weird and she keep looking down at my mouth? and yesterday i noticed something on her laptop and it was a folder with my name in capitals, i was really curious because theres no one else in our year with my name and i am wandering what that folder had in it but i never got to see. its really hard to read her and see if she likes me or not and i dont know if im a lesbian or not? People have said to just be honest with her but i dont want to risk losing our friendship and i told my mum i feel this way about her and im not sure if im lesbian or not and she was really supportive and trying to think up a way to find out if this girl likes me the way i like her or not.

I don't know if you are a lesbian but I think you are reading what you want to see in your inter reactions with your friend.

You have a crush on her. The best way to figure it out is not to spill your feelings...but to spend LESS time around her for a few weeks.

I think it is possible to have an infatuation for someone of the same gender even if we're not homosexuals. But you don't need to go any further in your relationship with this friend to find out if you're a lesbian. Who turns you on the most, guys, girls or both? You need to figure this out even before you find out whether she fancies you or not.

If you decide to invest in this relationship no matter what, and if later you find out that you're not a lesbian, one of you or both of you can get hurt.

Go slow. Discover yourself. Then you can enjoy every moment with her.

You don't have to be a lesbian to be attracted to girls! Or just a girl! However, that doesn't seem to be the part of this that's worrying you. The best thing would be to ask directly but thats so hard to get the courage to do. You could always hint at the subject through texts or IMing. Something along the lines of asking if she'd ever date a girl, or maybe talk about some female celebrity and mention like "Ugh she's so pretty I have such a crush on her". Small things to hint at the fact that 1. You might like girls. Then however she reacts to that could lead you into 2. You liking her. I wish you the best of luck!