Search Results: getting teased by a guy

We met 6 months ago and we became friends very quickly. She has always been very kind and sweet to me but like in a friendly way, not a romantic way.

The thing is, i noticed that about a week ago she's been getting closer to me than before. She now sits next to me when she can and smiles a lot more to me than before. We have always flirt and tease each other a lot as well when we're alone. She starts the conversations like 90% of the times, but she has always done that tho. She usually isn't that friendly texting tho but that's maybe because she doesn't like texting?

There was this time this week where she wrote my name on her notebook and when i noticed it she smiled and blushed and draw a smiley face next to my name. I don't know if that means anything but it was weird.

Yesterday tho she did something she has never done before. We were standing next to eachother and she suddently grabs my hand and hold it for like a minute. I didn't even ask her why she was doing that because i wasn't expecting and didn't know what to say.

She's actually 2 years older than me by the way. I'm 18 and she's 20 yo.

Does this mean she's trying to send me a message, that she likes me. Or is she just playing with me? She has a lot of male friends, actually her best friend is a guy, but i've never seen her holding hands and all that stuff with those guys. She also never texts me first and when i text her she replies with few words :(

What do you think and what should i do if she does like me?
Thanks :)

So I've had a crush on this girl for a long while from class and now I want to tell her that I like her. Unfortunately, whats keeping me from asking her is the people she hangs out with. These guys are kind of like the "bad boy" kind of group but not really. I don't know how to explain this, but what I do know that if I do ask her in front of them, they will poke fun at me for asking her or tease me about it for the entire year.

These guys also have a habit of making things seem more dramatic than it already is so I can already picture them embarrassing me in class. Also, please don't answer back telling me to "man up", I just don't want to deal with these guys. I'm somewhat confident of a guy but these guys are the main problem I would have to deal with. There are like 6 people that talk to her so any one of them are close to her at anytime of day. (also don't tell me to just say "Hey can I talk to you for a sec?", the guy will already know what I'm going after) and Lastly, I can't ask her after school because she has to be picked up quickly.

Now the two choices I really have are:
Option 1:
• Ask a close friend for her number
• Proceed to call her and tell her my feelings for her
• Advantage by calling: I can tell her everything that I feel about her with upmost detail

Option 2:
• Tell her in person
• Disadvantage: Risk getting publicly embarrassed by peers. (I also have a super small high school less than 600 total students, I hate these guys also)
• Advantage (?): Telling her in person might impress her

I don't know guys. Just tell me the pros and cons of each and tell me which you would choose. If you have any experience with this, that would be super helpful. I'm just super conflicted right now and I could use some advice. Thanks!