Totally in love with my best friend? creepy or normal?

So, the basic punch line is that I have fallen in love with my best friend and don't know what to do.
We are both 18 and I have known him for 14 years. Last fall when we went out he started to like pay for our outings and inviting me to stuff and so on and I didn't get the hint. I was going through a really bad time, so I really didn't think about the deeper meaning of him inviting me to a 30 Euro dinner. So around christmas, we went to my favorite sushi restaurant and then he told me that he was in love with me. Me, back then still going through some pretty rough stuff was not in love with him. I blew him off very gently and our friendship was on ice for 2 months.
The last few months we've been okay but the past days and weeks I started developing feelings for him, not bestfriend-ish not sisterly, romantic feelings and step by step I started falling in love with him.
At first I thought it was just a phase and that my feelings for him would pass but I realized that I actually love him, or at least I think I do. I haven't told him yet. I know for a fact from his best buddy that he's not over me, so the chance of the two of us getting together is like 99.9999%.
The thing is that it still feels so weird for me, I mean after that long time he's like family. I really do wanna take our relationship to the next level but the thought is still kind of weird because for such a long time he has been my best friend and not more than that. What do you say?