DESPARATE for ANY HELP interpreting if my friend might like me

Haven't posted on here for a while, so apologies if I rant a little.
About a year ago I told one of my close friends that I had non-platonic feelings for her.
I'm demisexual, so I fall hard for the people I know and care about. Maybe it's a hormonal teenager thing, but my emotions got so intense at certain points that I thought I would die for my crush, that my life would be empty without her, that I could never love anyone else.
Still, I confessed to get it over with, to stop the guilt that I was keeping this from her. I did it in a nonconfrontational way as she has reinforced many times that she is straight, and having that talk helped me slowly close the book on that one and a half year crush.
I have this friend that I've known for several years, but we only see each other once a week in this one extracurricular sport that we share. Despite the limited contact, I see her as one of my good friends. Although we don't talk a whole lot about ourselves and our lives, I feel like I know her. We have shared a lot of experiences unique to us, lots of joking and laughter, and plus there's always been a lot of physical contact because of the sport. It's true that I've only seen her in this one setting, but I do think we have an emotional connection.
About 10 months ago, I started to develop feelings for this extracurricular sport-friend. I started thinking about her more, being self conscious about how I looked around her, and even comparing her to my previous crush. Back then, it wasn't serious. I think my fading feelings for the other girl helped slow the growing feelings for this one. But in any case, it was unexpectedly tolerable for a while.
A few months later, things were changing: I was completely over the previous crush, leaving room for this new one. I started getting more nervous around her, started thinking about her at all times of the week when I didn't normally see her, and started overanalysing every interaction. I'm scared about how far I've fallen in the past months and I'm dreading going through the same intense stages as last time.
I'm not sure if I have more cause for hope this time around, or if I'm deluding myself. This friend has not outright told me that she is straight. Not exactly cause for celebration, since most people don't come out as heterosexual, and we don't share a lot about our lives outside of the sport so I wouldn't be a priority if she did come out.
I'm also not sure what to do with what I have picked up from our conversations. Anyone, feel free to help me interpret this one instance I remember quite distinctly. We partnered with each other in this one drill that had awkward positioning. And I mean awkward. It had me lying on my back, my legs wrapped around her waist, her kneeling between my legs with her thighs pressing against mine, her hands on my shoulders pinning me down. Her torso was hovering inches from mine, her face even closer than that. In other words, it might have looked quite... compromising, without context. I guess I looked hesitant, because in the drill I was supposed to move even closer to her. Her response was to laugh and tease, "Chill, it's not like we're having sex." Now, I don't even believe I blush, at least not visibly because my skin tone is not fair. But I can fully believe that my face did heat up, and she giggled, "Oh my god, your face is turning so red." She teased me about it for another minute, and I couldn't think straight. For all of the easy banter we've shared, I had nothing to say to her. I don't even remember how I got her to move past that.
I don't know how much there is for me to draw from there. It is an exceptionally unique circumstance, and we were the only ones doing exactly that drill. It was a reasonable joke to make, and I can see how it might have been a thoughtless attempt to lighten the mood. At the same time, I want to read into it. My own mind was only on getting the positioning right; I wasn't really thinking about how awkward the position was, and with such proximity to my crush. What does it mean that her mind went there? Does it mean that she might be LGBTQIA+? What did her teasing mean?
There hasn't been such an event since. I do notice that she looks at me a lot, especially when she doesn't think I notice. Sometimes I'll approach her and she'll start off in a bad mood, but after a few minutes we're laughing and joking and sharing eye rolls. A lot of the times when we do drills, she pretends to look for someone else because she says I'm unproductive, but she chooses me anyways.
Does it mean anything? I have no idea what is just wishful thinking. I really want to get replies telling me that she could feel the same. But if I'm deluding myself, I'd want to know that more than any false hope.
That was clearly a long rant so I apologize for anyone reading my unorganized rambling. I REALLY appreciate any advice that anyone has, or a best guess as to how to interpret it. It's not a lot, and I know that, but I'm hoping. Thanks so much to anyone reading this!!

 

That sounds like a great idea, thank you. I'm terrified of doing so, of course, but I'll see if I can work myself up to it. It would also be difficult to bring it up casually because typically my parents pick me up from practice, and hers will do the same for her about 50% of the time. (I came out to my parents by accident a couple of months ago, because I know that they are homophobic although they don't say it much. Things are kind of still not normal between me and them, but they just pretend it never happened and continue sprinkling homophobia into conversations.) I have no idea how I would tell them not to pick me up without raising flags, especially if I'm trying to make this a casual, spur of the moment thing. But it's great to hear that it isn't just me finding it hard to figure out what she thinks.

Imagine a world where liking somebody wasn't so complicated, and you didn't have to worry about ruining friendships, homophobia, coming out, whether or not they are straight, etc. Half of the people on this forum would lead happier lives.

 

Thanks for the suggestion, I think I can work with something under the pretense of training more outside of practice. That's a really nice way to do it.

I've had a couple of months to adjust to this new weirdness with my parents, so it doesn't bother me much now. Before I had come out to them I was terrified that they'd kick me out of the house, or tell me that I'm diseased or deluding myself. It honestly could be a lot worse than it is, even if they are unsupportive. Whenever they make these comments or laugh at a homophobic joke, they will subtly glance my way, so I know that they're relating it back to me. I can't fathom what's going through their heads.

In any case, I've at least come to terms with my own orientation so my biggest problem seems to be falling hard for these people that I see as friends. It takes up way too much of my headspace, and I tried hard to get rid of those feelings, even by avoiding the crush and distancing myself as much as possible. I was only able to start moving on once I had admitted those feelings to my friend. I don't want to have to repeat that over and over any time I have a crush on someone. Does it ever get less complicated? Will I just go on alienating every friend I have until possibly in the distant future, one of my friends is capable of liking me back? That's why if there's a subtler way to do it with this girl, I'm all for trying it out. Thanks for your help!