>>17 Did she know how you felt? It sounds like you were just hoping she would catch on -- girls aren't mind readers! X_X

Love is trusting yourself enough to desire to trust someone else with you physically as well as emotionally.

The trusting yourself part is important, and comes first for a reason. You've got to be happy and confident about yourself before you can be happy and confident with someone else. This is why a lot of unhappy people find someone to "love" and end up leaving them later on -- they believe someone else will make them happy, when the reality of the situation is that they need to make themselves happy.

Lots of people can say "I love you" without trusting the other, and lots of people trust others without saying they love them. People say they "love" someone to make themselves happy, or to make someone else happy, or because they feel obligated or even just accustomed to saying it. This is why the term "love" is thrown around so much, even in relationships that are doomed to fail.