I am friends with this guy who has girlfriend. I'm starting to like him (I don't feel consciously aware to be honest, but my dreams have been flooded with him, and I feel sad when we part and giddy when we do things, and there is quite a bit of butterflies and blushing) and this is a problem though he seems to like me too. There is tons of physical contact (such as holding hands, hugs, tickling, he puts his arm around my waist when we walk, etc.) and everyone, even friends and strangers are convinced we're dating.

Now, I'm not head over heels but interested.. Not prepared to go out and do anything to destroy his relationship, and I wouldn't be any more than a tad bit disappointed if this didn't go anywhere so I don't know what to do. What do I do? I'm not even sure if my feelings are real or just reactions to this new attention I've never experienced before. I've been told this is borderline cheating.. I'm aware of that. I've been told don't do anything stupid.. I've been trying. And I've been told to pull up the big girl panties and demand a straight answer.. This is where I'm struggling. I just cannot.. I've been asked by other friends if I liked him and even he's tried to get a tad bit serious with me on the terms of confessions I believe, and I just stutter.. No, not even stutter.. I open my mouth to say words and nothing comes out. Nothing. My brain just goes blank. It's not that I'm holding back.. It's the fact that I just simply cannot respond.. I sit there speechless as if these people were talking to me in some alien language until I find something that is a good distraction.

I have asked him once if he liked his girlfriend at all (from the way he sometimes talks about her or even forget she exists I was curious) and I didn't get a straight response either. I've asked him a couple other things and there is again a sort of dance around the subject response. Basically, we're both not going to admit anything, or do anything. We're stuck in this awkward/confusing stage where everyone thinks we're dating, we're not doing anything serious (NO kissing or anything of that sort) but know this isn't your typical close friendship, and no one is going to be admitting or breakup with anything or anybody.

So what do I do? Where do I get the courage to figure out my exact feelings, stop being so naive, scared and embarrassed about these feelings.. and ask for a straight answer? When is it possible to just do that..? How do people just do that anyway..?