If you have a crush on someone, the two words that you never want to hear, or even think about, are the dreaded ‘friend zone’! It means that the object of your affection has decided that you are more friendship material than relationship material, and it absolutely sucks! Of course, there does come a time when you have to give up and accept the situation, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a go first! Here is how to get out of the friend zone.
Before you do anything in this direction, you need to have a hard think about whether it is actually worth it. If you have a great friendship with the person, are you ready to risk that ending if you give it a shot and then still don’t succeed in winning their heart? You can’t put that kind of cat back in the bag, so before you make efforts to take things in a romantic direction, you need to come to terms with the fact that you might lose the friend for good if it doesn’t work out.
The best way to test the waters is to start flirting with them in a way that definitely signifies something more than friendly banter. This shouldn’t be anything in the physical realm, more things like holding eye contact for a bit longer, being more inquisitive in your conversations, giving more subtle compliments, laughing at all of their jokes, etc.
After you have done this flirting and have made it clear to them that there is more than just the normal interest or connection, then make the effort to withdraw a little bit and not make yourself so readily available. They will start to miss your presence which will, in turn, force them to think more about you, and look more forward to whenever they might see you next. It’s a classic case of playing hard to get after making some progress with your flirting work!
Try to organise situations in which you can spend alone time together rather than as a big group. I’m not talking about tricking them into going on a proper date or anything, but more finding common interests and finding organic and natural ways to suggest doing more things as a pair.
At the end of the day, even after all of this more subtle work, you still have to find a time to tell them how you really feel eventually! It isn’t fair on them or on you to harbour these feelings for too long, because being open and honest is ultimately the best policy, and it's the best footing for the beginning of a relationship if things do happen to turn out in the way that you were hoping!