Welcome to Gaia! ::

Well, I my advice is to tell people. See, I had this good friend of mine. We were good friends for a long time (3 years). He had a relationship and I had sort of hinted at feelings, but he had never responded to them so I gave up. So then, I dated his little brother. Well, that didn't work out so well for many reasons, but after the break-up with said little brother, we were hanging out a friends house and he had had a couple of drinks. He told me he had loved me for years and had never known what to do about it. Needless to say, I ended up staying the night and we spent the whole night together. Less than two weeks later he left his girlfriend (who he wasn't happy with and just stayed with) of 2 years and we've been together ever since (over a year so far).
If I had just told him how I had felt I would have never dated his brother which is one of my biggest regrets because it really hurt him and me in the end. But that's just my story. I doubt it helps, but I sure do think it's useful.