I have a crush on my best guy friend, how do I know if he likes me back?

I'll try to be as unbiased as possible. Well I've known this guy since 1ST GRADE! And he's always been just my friend. At one point in time I knew he liked me, but i had no feelings for him what so ever. Now we are juniors and he is in my anatomy cl and orchestra. Recently we've started holding hands and flirting a lot more. He's always making "black" jokes towards me, i'm not offended though cause he's really funny and i'm sure he doesn't mean it. Seems like we like each other huh? well to fit in the unbiased part. He doesn't seem like the type of person at all who'd ask someone out. he's extremely smart, tall, HANDSOME, funny, athletic (he's on two sports teams), and plays the cello. That is slightly the opposite of me. I'm SHORT, tiny, average when it comes to academics, not athletic at all, but I beast the violin and viola. I just feel like i'd never have a chance with a guy so perfect. But when I hold his hand, and we're staring at each other, it truly feels right. In anatomy he wants to be my partner for this weird foot examination thing. I don't know how i feel about that though haha. So how do I know if he likes me without ruining our great friendship?