Straight or No?

[tuonda]

Hello everyone!

I really need to get something off my chest. I am a college student that has been trying to look for my (first) partner for quite some time. I have always been self conscious so it was a big step for me to officially announce to my friends/family that I was looking to pursue a relationship with a guy.

Anyway, I found someone in college. He told me in the beginning that he was, "as straight as a toothpick". Later on, he seemed to be giving me vibes that he might like me. To put a very long story short, he ended up getting a girlfriend, leaving me very confused and frustrated, wanted the "best of both worlds", and our "relationship" crashed and burned. In the process, I was left feeling very hurt especially because he made a comment that my weight was the main thing "holding him back".

After this happened, I noticed that I started picking up on vibes from confused "straight" men. I would try to pursue these vibes only to find out they actually had a girlfriend (sometimes in the same room as when they were flirting with me). Each time this happens, which to date has been about 4 instances in in the past year, I get more and more crushed emotionally.

Now comes what I'm concerned about at this moment. Once again, I found a guy who is flirting with me. My friends are insisting he is straight but from the moment I met him, he was throwing off vibes. I first met him when him and my friends all went out lunch. Nothing happened then but the week after, he came over and we all went to a party together. I had quite a bit to drink and he didn't because he doesn't like to drink so much. While we were together, I kept calling him the name of my "ex" (the one mentioned above) which, needless to say, was very embarrassing. He stayed with me the whole night though which I thought was sweet.

After that, we had three more encounters. The first was when he went on a road trip with me and this same group of friends. The second was when he came over to play board games with us and the third was just coming over to hang out. All of these encounters lasted at least 4-5 hours. In order to avoid redundancy, I'll summarize the actions that took place:

• We playfully flirt back and forth pulling pranks/jokes with each other.
  
• He likes to touch/kind of hold my hands a lot.
  
• We rough house quite a bit.
  
• He likes to get very close to me physically.
  
• One time when we were goofing around, he tried to write on my face with his pen in his mouth thus causing our faces to be really close for a few seconds (there was tension).
  
• I've caught him staring at me before. (We've both stared at each other with that "dazed" look in our eyes)
  
• The two of us ALWAYS separate from the rest of the group for the majority of the time we are around
  
• He likes to poke fun and, if he knows I have a certain pet peeve, he'll do it.
  

The list goes on and on. My friends, in the beginning, told me I was reading into all of this but now they are beginning to admit the behavior is suspicious of flirting. I have one friend who still fails to acknowledge it and tells me he is "confused at best". For the record, this guy has never told me his sexuality. All I know is that he hasn't had or has never had a relationship before except for, as far as I know, he pursued a very religious girl at college which fell flat.

I've tried texting this guy but he is horrible at responding. I thought at first that it was something directed to me only to find out he is horrible at responding to anybody. Unfortunately, this all started to form three weeks before school ended so now we are both back home so now texting is the only form of communication for us.

I so SO very much want to tell him about how I feel but my friends are advising me strongly not to as I might scare/offend him. First off, how do I know if he is intentionally or unintentionally flirting? Should I reveal my feelings to him or should I wait longer?

Thanks!