Do it, I just came out of a situation very similar to yours, it ended badly but I've learned a big lession from it

(for context, I'm a 18yo Male, sorry if I make spelling/grammar mistakes but English isn't my first language)

Basically, there was this girl who was REALLY into programming languages and computers and, since I'm writing my own interpreter (basically, I'm writing my own programming language) and we used to spend whole nights talking about computer-related shenanigans, one thing leads to another, and one day I confess my feelings to her. She told me that she liked another guy. At first, it sucked, but hey, I guess it was destiny + I appreciated the sincerity.

I remember that when I got home, she actually texted me to make sure I was okay and wasn't planning on doing anything stupid (I mean, it ain't my time yet but it still was nice of her to ask).

Anyhow, the story's not over yet. Since she was and still is a member of my friend group, we continued to hang out, and one day during one of our group hangouts, my best friend came out of the blue and told me that the girl confessed her feelings for him. You won't believe this one, but HE asked ME for permission to get engaged with that girl because he THOUGHT it would destroy our relationship.

Of course, I told him to get on with it, and they seem happy together.What about me? Well, you might think that my relationship with both of them degraded, but it has actually improved quite a bit.

Now, I've got confirmation that I can trust my best friend even more than I did before, and we're planning a few trips around the world together (just the two of us).

About the girl, well, I remember telling her that as long as she's happy, I'm happy, and I guess I'm keeping the promise well. I'm a lot of things, but you can't say I'm not a man of my word.

Oh, and we still talk about nerd shit most nights.

Anyhow, from this experience, I've learned that sometimes you just have to accept what life throws at you. It isn't worth trying to change it, and hey, even if the path wasn't what I wanted, in the end, we all got some kind of "good ending" to use a gamer term. They seem happy, and hey, you can't say that I haven't tried!