its funny you mention your story.
its how my current GF and I got together. During highschool, i liked her... alot ,but i was in the friend zone big time.. i knew it wasnt gonna happen.
how i got out of the friend zone? i moved on ... work , school, gym... pretty much stop talking to each other. Not because i didnt want to, it was because with all that was happening in my life, i simply had no time. Well guess what, 8 years later i found her on face book. I said "wow long time no talk" . We continued mesaging each other and i asked her if she wanted to meet at a timmy's to catch up. And now, we just made a purchase to our first home, have dog together and so on.
The time we had away from each other made us mature into adults and act differently. Hobbies changed, lifestyle changed , she changed .... but there was something that didn't.... i still liked her. i got out of the friendzone because i wasnt the same guy 8 years ago. ( physically and mentally )
So to OP,i know its tough but slowly pull away... so both of you can mature more and if you want to see if you and her can work out, the future will be the time do it. Not now.
Only because you want it so bad that if you get crushed, you'll be crushed so hard that you'll be weaping for weeks.
Everybody will have a happy ending . Even you OP