How to break it to a friend that you like them?

Okay, so I have been friends with a guy that I’ve known for a couple years now. We are so alike yet so different that I can hardly stand it. I’ve liked him (I despise that word used like that but I a trying to avoid being too sappy.) since the very first day we met. Since then, I’ve been dropping hints and everything, but he is a little too nieve to get catch on. How, I’m not sure. Everybody else has. I recently asked how I can stop liking him and the collective answer was that I should ask him out. There are numerous problems with that, but the most pressing one is that I don’t have the self confidence to tell him how I feel. I’ve never done anything like that before and with the way I look, he may just never speak to me again. Help??