Ouch, I'm about to be the bad guy here. I'm going to tell you the same advice I'd give someone in your situation whether it was a guy or a girl. It sounds more like infatuation to me, which is really easy to confuse with love. It's basically sexual, romantic feelings. Love is a lot, lot more than that. And of course there are many, many kinds of love. You're young and you're still sorting all of these things out.
It just sounds to me like you don't really know a whole lot about her. You say it's a friend and that's cool, but I think it's a good idea to get to know her better before you consider really pursuing anything. Also, really look at the feelings you're having and ask yourself what they are. Is it purely physical? Is it something about her? Her personality?
There are real difficulties in having relationships with friends. One is that your friend may not feel the same way, and that makes things incredibly awkward. If you have a friend who is very open-minded and you can have a good, clear-headed talk about it that's okay. If she can say, "I'm not interested but I'd still like to be friends," and you both just agree that's the end of it, it's possible to still have a friendship. The problem is that it's not all that uncommon for it just to turn the whole thing into awkwardness and having one friend questioning the other's motives, etc. It adds a whole level of things that make things complicated and make it harder to keep the friendship working.
On the other hand is the opposite problem, one where you hit it off and actually go out for a few months and then break up. It's incredibly difficult to keep a friendship going after that.
I've been in both of these situations and lost good friendships before as a result, and I've known people who have as well. I'm not saying that it would never work, and in fact some of the best relationships start as friendships. Actually, my pseudo-boyfriend (long story) and I actually started out as friends while he was seeing someone else, and awhile after they broke up we started going out. That's still one of the best relationships I have, friendship or otherwise.
What I am saying is to be careful and be very aware of what you stand to lose if you do go for it. I've tended to be someone to err on the side of caution and choose to be friends. Sort out your feelings first and get to know her better. If you reach a point later on when you really feel like a relationship can work out, and you still have feelings for her, then you can think about taking it to the next step. I just think it's best to be cautious and not rush things through because you could lose a friend if you do.