Not quite friends yet.... advice needed please.

This is mainly just for me to get my thoughts written down, but advice would happily be taken.

So there's this guy, his name is Shawn, and to be quite honest I'm crazy about him. I cant stop thinking about him. He lives about an hour away from me. My friends are all trying to push me to ask him to homecoming, but I just dont think I can. I'm afraid that if I do and it backfires, I'll lose any chance I had to at least be close to him. We've only met 3 times, and we've only said a hand full of things to eachother. I just dont think now is a good time to ask. I feel like we havent quite hit the friends stage yet you know? Like we just see eachother occasionally and sometimes talk. Ashlyn told me to ask him to homecoming as a friend and then ask him to the Christmas dance as a date, but I just dont think I could do that. It would definitely make things easier, but honestly, I'm scared. I've never aske a guy out before, I've never been that vulnerable. I work hard to keep it that way. I guess I just dont know what to do. Advice would certainly be welcome.