Got a secret crush on a pal?

Carrying a torch for a friend can be a recipe for heartache. Should you come clean about your crush and risk rejection, or is it better to keep your feelings under wraps?, reports The Sun.

The Sun's readers share their own experiences of languishing in love limbo in order to get to the heart of the matter.

Toonatic tells us his story: "I had a crush on an old friend of mine. When I eventually plucked up the courage to tell her, she told me she felt the same way and we ended up in an amazing relationship for two years.

"It didn't work out in the end and we're still sorta good friends, but I don't regret it for a second. Sometimes you just have to take the risk! It's not good to keep all those feelings bottled up."

Fighting forbidden feelings is commonplace for trashpalace: "I used to have the very VERY bad habit of telling my friends whenever I had a crush on them.

"Most of the times we would just laugh it off and we'll carry on being friends, but it did make my friendship with one of them a bit awkward. In fact I don't think we're friends anymore."

Stuck in crush hour?

Unfortunately, theprofessional's tale has a rather sad ending: "I was in love with my friend for years, kept it secret all that time because she was with someone. In the end I couldn't keep it quiet and I came out and told her, as told in The Sun.

"She told me that she felt the same, but that she loved the guy she was with too and had already started building a life with him, She said that if'd I'd said something earlier, things could have been different.

"Those words broke my heart and have haunted me ever since. My advice? If you think there's a chance they might feel the same, just come out and say it."

But what if the roles were reversed?

ScienceGirl tells us what it's like to be on the receiving end of a crush: "Eventually he came clean about it but I didn't feel the same way.

"I let him down gently, and we talked through it. Seemed like we'd gotten past it.

"Fair play to him, it took a lot of courage to talk about it. But things were never really the same between us after that and we kind of grew apart."

It's a double-edged sword for NightryderBM: "Whatever happens, once you tell your best mate that you have feelings for them the relationship you have will change from that moment on.

(As reported in The Sun)