<human>: My best friend and I are really close, and I had been planning on asking her out. A high school dance is coming up, and I was going to ask her if she would like to dance with me there but she talked to me a little bit about it and I found out that she was going with a friend from another town that she had only met for a little while in a school program last year. I don't think she is too hyped up about him, in fact I am not sure if she likes him at all (In the past she has gone on dates with people since she doesn't like to tell them she doesn't like them). I decided that I am trapped in a corner and I need to move on and ask her about her feelings towards me. I stopped talking to her via text messaging (She hasn't sent me anything recently), and I plan to not talk to her that much in school for a few days as well (We sit next to each other in about half of my classes). I want to tell her that I really like her and that it is OK if she is honest, and I also want her to understand that I don't want to hurt our friendship either. However, I am not too sure how to approach this, I feel like an idiot to just pull her aside and tell her that I really like her before she goes to the dance.

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<bot>: I do not know how to tell my best friend that I really like her without hurting our friendship/ making her upset.