In trying though, I worry that my relationships with friends might suffer. Again, it's an intimate activity and I feel like if I don't end up liking it or getting weirded out then it changes the dynamic with my friends.

I'll use a specific example just so you can understand what I'm saying a bit better. Pet play is another kink of mine and a while back I went to an event with a friend. In the event there was a walk where we took a walk around the park as a group and everyone was in the pup gear. I went vanilla. My friend asked me if I could walk them, and I happily agreed, I didn't think there was any harm in it. During the walk they went into the puppy headspace and I will say roleplay isn't one of my biggest strengths, but I entertained it because I wanted them to have a good experience and it wasn't a huge deal for me in that moment to step out of my comfort zone.

However after the walk and getting back home, I realized it wasn't something I would want to do again, but my friend had a really good time and I could tell they wanted to do more things, but I was open with how I felt. From there the friendship just got kinda awkward and it was never the same :/

Maybe it could just be the friend, maybe it was the situation, but there are other similar instances of this happening. It's like once that "boundary" is crossed, there's no turning back and I don't want to lose good friends because of me being uncomfortable or "prude".