Coming out to friends. Help?

Alright, so I identify as an FTM transexual and I really want to start coming out to my friends. I feel like I have to in order to be who I really am around them. This came to mind when I was over at my best friend's house, and she was helping me make an Xbox live avatar. I was hesitant with picking a character because I really wanted to choose male, but she was sitting next to me. She kept saying come on just pick any character, as long as it's a female one. I told her maybe I don't want to be a female one. And this lasted for a few awkward minutes till I gained enough courage to just select male.

Now backing up a bit, I'll give you some background information as to why I'm still in the closet with them.
Around the same time last year, I found out that another one of my friend's, who I'll call "G" was/is dating a transman, I'll call him "T". Now, T, helped me figure out who I was, even though we never met, during that time.
I knew I was different since I was five, but I really had no idea what a transexual/transgendered person was my whole life. I just never really cared to do research on it for whatever reason.
But he sparked a curiosity in me and it wasn't till then, did it finally click and I realized that I too fit in that category. Knowing this actually made me happy, because I finally figured out that I wasn't alone or a freak of some kind.

T came out to visit G two christmas' ago. I didn't get a chance to meet him, but of course G and her twin sister did. Now G's twin, "A", has a girlfriend who is known to be an attention seeker. After A's girlfriend met T she became obsessed with him and asked G how does one love a person like T. As though there had to be an instruction booklet on it.
A couple of months later, A's girlfriend decided that she too was trans…or perhaps third gender and is currently trying to pass off as male.

Why I tell you that part is because G was talking to me about A's girl/boyfriend last summer and said that she supposed begin trans was a cool thing to do now. That really hurt me, and I started thinking it was probably too late to say anything. So I just gave her a weak smile and changed the subject.

So if I do come out to my friends I don't want them to think I'm a fake and that I just say it cause I think it's "cool". I really do have and always had, these strong feelings of being in the wrong body. But I feel like I've hidden myself from them too well, because I'm still not passing, and I tend to wear many masks to suppress my feelings. I guess what I'm asking is, when the time comes to tell them, how should I go about this? What should I say to them? or is it really too late to say anything to them?
I'm completely lost, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

I'd say I'm pretty close to all my friends; but I've also never really spoken openly to them. It took me 20 years to finally open up to my parents and that was by force. As I've said I tend to wear masks and pretend that everything is okay.
All of my current friends met me in the 9th grade and that's when I started to be more of a "girl", because I thought whatever was going on through my head was just a phase and I needed to get over it. So I feel like that doesn't help at all. Which is making me really pessimistic over the whole thing.

 

Aww, thanks~ I think I might wait till later in the year to tell them, maybe I'll do it for national coming out day. I'm in no rush to do so anyways and I think if I wait a tad longer it might be best.