How to ask a girl out?

Friend leads to either close friend or relationship, or stays at friend (casual). What I was trying to say (but probably got muddled up) was that if you don't know the person well, the best way to scope out how they feel about you and vice versa is to spend some time with them. How you spend that time affects whether you go towards close friends or relationship. Just don't stress or rush things and you'll do fine in most cases. If you seem to be getting negative responses, don't push, just quietly back off without making a big deal of it.

If she ends up being a close friend, so be it. Close friends are worth something too. (I think I'm restating rather than disagreeing, lol.)

Forcing something to happen never works.