Does he like me? Should I ask him out?

He is my best friend. He makes me smile like never before. I admit. I have a crush on him. A big one too. He always calls me gorgeous, beautiful, cute, and pretty. He says: "I love you." a lot but, i'm thinking more best friendy kinda way more than dating way. We call each other sometimes to say "Goodnight. I love you." We text 24/7. We NEVER go a day without at a least saying Hi through text. We have "met up" to hug each other. We each play Xbox and we play together sometimes. We take pictures together and they usually are both of our lock screens on our Iphones. We have the same friends. (which are guys) They all say he always hides his phone when he texts me. He even changes the background of us when he is with them. He is also very shy to talk to me in person too. We have been best friends for almost a year. He always jokes around with me and always knows when I'm sad. We have hung out maybe about 30 times in person. We don't talk much in person as we do over text though. I'm kinda afraid he is embarrassed of me. I'm thinking it might be because he likes me and that we flirt kinda a lot over text somewhat. He always says I'm his and we're afraid of losing each other and he always gets jealous if I'm talking to his guy friends more than him. He is very sensitive. I feel like I really like him and I want to make our relationship more than a friendship but, I don't know exactly if I should. I don't wanna ruin our friendship we have. He means a lot to me. He is my everything. He says I'm his life/World. He always thinks he's annoying me if he texts me first and we always have to text before going face to face with each other. But, he comforts me and we both have a lot in common. He is really funny, cute, sweet, kind, and he is 3 YEARS younger than me. That's the problem. A lot of people say it's weird to date someone 3 years younger than you. He's in 7th and I'm in 9th. He's 12 & I'm 14.soon to be 15 in 4 months. & he'll be 13 in May. I don't mind the age difference at all! I really like him and he makes me feel really important and special and he always says I make him feel the same way. But, I don't know if he thinks the age difference is weird. I'm confused on where our relationship is and i don't know if i should DTF (Define the relationship) or not. I don't wanna make it awkward AT all. I got dared to ask him to slow dance with me at our upcoming dances and I don't want to make it awkward between us either by asking him. Just let me know what I should do.

I think he does like you. But give it more time. Don't ask him out just yet. See how things develop.