I (19 F) over the past like 5 or 6 months have fallen deeply in love with one of my closest friends (18F), the feelings were (are?) very much reciprocated, she's the one who admitted to having feelings first. The kicker is that there's a bit of distance between us (nothing too extreme, it wouldn't be too much of an inconvenience to regularly visit if we fully committed to it) which I initially was unsure about, but I just love her so fucking much that it grew to not even matter to me. That was not the case for her.
About 2 weeks ago she messaged me in the middle of the night saying that she doesn't think she can handle a relationship right now and that she wasn't sure what it is, but the conclusion that she's come to is that its hard for her to love the way she needs to with like any amount of distance between us and no sign of closing it any time soon and that's making her really depressed.
I was/am understanding, I love her and I want to accommodate her needs in every way that I can, but we've hardly spoken in these 2 weeks. We went from talking all day long every single day to days of no talking with some dry conversation occasionally mixed in. This isn't for lack of trying on my part, I try to regularly keep in touch and just see how she's doing and stuff like that.
I don't know, I've just gotten to thinking so much and I'm just really scared that she's gone for good, or that she never actually loved me, or whatever. So yeah, I guess what I'm looking for is someone to share any insight that they have, I don't know if I should give her some space to work stuff out or if I should keep consistently showing that I'm there for her even if she doesn't do the same for me. I don't want to give up on her or us or anything, but how can I be sure that she hasn't?
tl;dr I am deeply in love with one of my best friends, I think she's deeply in love with me, she doesn't feel like now is a good time for a relationship for her and I don't know what to do