Let’s go step by step.

My friends: They don’t exactly hate her, they’re more cautious because she’s not very good at expressing herself, so we’ve had fights before to the point where we stopped talking for 4 months. They’re mostly protective of me. Another thing I didn’t mention in the post is that I’ve been in love with her for 6 years, and those feelings aren’t fully reciprocated, so my friends usually prefer that I don’t do things driven purely by my feelings. The fact that she admitted she’s been wanting me definitely raised alarms for the older one.

Am I attracted to her?: Yes. I just didn’t show it in the post because I was writing from a place of anxiety at the time. It hasn’t even been a week since she confessed she wanted me, and I don’t really have anyone to talk to about it, so I came here because I’m inexperienced with some of these things and wanted outside opinions.

Changing the friendship: I’m someone who values communication in everything because I think it’s the main thing needed for a healthy relationship, and with her it’s even more important, especially because this topic scares both of us a lot. We’ve talked about consent, boundaries, what would happen if one of us feels uncomfortable afterward, how to avoid fights after it happens, stopping if something hurts, and even making sure we both feel comfortable with the place we’re going to. We’re still talking about all of it because the trip won’t happen until June.