Please help out a 18 year-old virgin. Dont want to fuck it up.

First off, some words about myself so you understand my problem better. I recently turned 18, Im a guy and I have been living a terrible life to say the least. I was heavily overweight, didn't have any friends and was just miserable.

I knew I had to change and so I lost over 50 lbs like 2 years ago and tried to socialize a lot more in school while struggle a lot with social anxiety. I've now reached a point where I have a small group of friends I sometimes hang out with, and theres this special girl [17yo] who is part of this group. We've been texting and hanging out a lot recently and I developed feelings for her.

Because I never had a relationship before I have absolutely no idea how to deal with this tho. I've tried to hang out with her more just 1on1 without other friends hoping that it will maybe develop naturally but obviously she sees us as good friends at the moment so I need to make my intentions clear.

Now here starts the problem. First off Im anxious as fuck. I have a huge fear of being rejected, but even more so losing the friendship with her after I confess. Also, since we're in the same group of friends, Im so scared that I'll lose them all if I tell her.

So really I have no clue of what to do now. Ive contemplated just texting her about my interest and my feelings but I figured thats not personal at all, it would just be an easy way for me without being rejected in real life.

So a better option would obviously be meeting up with her and telling her in person but I have no clue how to tell her and honestly how I should react if she rejects me. Last thing that came to my mind would be just going in for a kiss when we're together and the moment is right but I guess that would be coming on too strong especially since Ive never kissed anyone before.

tl;dr: Developed feelings for good friend, how to tell her? Sorry for this long ass messy post but I really need your help, so please take a moment to read all and answer maybe.