Really Like a Friend, Can't Tell if He Likes Me Back (or is even gay)

Hey,

So for the past year or so I've really liked this guy in my grade and I used to think he was straight but now I'm starting to question my assumption. A bit of backstory, I first saw him in my Freshman Language Arts class and from the moment I met him, I knew I really wanted to be friends with him and I immediately developed a crush. I only had one class with him and we sat at separate tables but every once and a while we would exchange a word or two on school projects or something. Let me say, he is probably one of the most if not the most attractive boy in our grade with blazing orange hair, super kind eyes, and a height of around 6'1". Because of this, everyone wants to be his friend and every girl has at one point had a crush on him, he probably gets said "hi" to in every hallway he passes through. The thing is, he's a huge bookworm and outdoorsy kind of guy (just like me) and he's never been in a relationship, so at least I don't know for sure he's straight.

The year continued and in the Winter, aiming to become a three sport four year athlete, I joined swim and it happened that he joined too. He had one friend in our lane that he talked to a lot more than me but other than that we were the top two swimmers in our lane and often talked in between sets and switched off leading the lane, this was kind of the first time I actually got to know him. Because of this, he began to say hi to me in the halls whenever we say each other and I said hi back at first but after swim ended I kind of stopped cause I felt awkward, even though he continued to raise his hand to wave (which he eventually stopped doing). Fast forward to May of last year, still my Freshman year, where our language arts teacher took our class on a weekend trip to a Shakespeare festival and we stayed in our teacher's log cabin in the mountains. While there, he was kind of part of my group of friends that explored the town during our free time and played card games while at the cabin so we became friends (sort-of) again. The year ended and I may have seen him once or twice over the summer at fairs and festivals but otherwise that was it.

At the start of Sophomore year (this year) I had two classes with him and in one them we started talking to each other and at this point I would say we were friends. He didn't do swimming but at the beginning of second semester I told him that I need a better 1st period class to switch into and he suggested switching into his class, so a week later, I do. At this point we had the first period of every day with each other and we sat next to each other in both classes, frequently conversing over things like cool hikes in the area, books we like, and sports. I even convinced him to do track but he ended up doing jumps so I didn't get to see him much because I'm our school's top hurdler. Every once in a while I would message him on Instagram and ask how his day was because "I was bored" and it typically led to us sending long paragraphs to each other about our weeks and what we wanted to do next week. Although we talked every day, I never had met with him outside of school and that's where things started to change this week specifically.

A bit of a side note, at this point I really started to like him, especially because we talked every day. However, I did notice that there's one girl that really likes to hang around him and clearly likes him a lot. He doesn't seem to ever initiate their conversations but he still talks to her. Of course, it annoys me a lot, but what can I do about it.

Back to the backstory, last night I messaged him asking how his week was going and he told me about this book he was reading, launching us into a long conversation about books and how we both like mild, adventurous books and movies such as most of the Studio Ghibli films. The conversation eventually died down but a couple minutes later he sent me a video of his homework and he commented on it saying it was really bland and boring. This had nothing to do with our conversation but I asked what class it was for and he looked at the message but didn't reply for ten minutes. I checked and saw that the girl that was always talking to him was online so he probably accidentally sent the message to me instead. Eventually, after 15 or so minutes he replied saying it was homework for the class we were in together but then abruptly sent something along the lines of "to kind of awkwardly change the topic of conversation, there's this really cool hill down 2nd street that you need to see. It's really naturey and there's a forest behind it." to which I immediately replied "Woah! we should go there sometime, I really need to explore *my hometown's name*'s cool spots more" and he essentially replied "yea we should" before starting another conversation on animals.

Although this may seem pretty ordinary for a friend to do, earlier in the week he talked about this rusty tower that he liked to climb at night at the end of a street and look at the moon and said "you should climb it sometime" and sorted of added "with me" quietly at the end but didn't mention it at all after that.

I'm really confused because it seems like he could like me because he said there was a "cute little stream" behind the hill that he mentioned and, not to stereotype, but straight guys usually don't describe a stream as cute when talking about somewhere they want to hangout with a friend. Also, he said one of his goals was to see me dance because I don't dance a lot and that kind of just seems like a weird thing to say? Anyways, I know I like him a lot and I probably am only noticing the things he does that support my theory of him liking me but I'm really not sure. Do you guys think there's a chance he could like me?

 

Also, even if I'm not sure if he likes me or not, should I tell him I like him or should I wait until we become better friends?