Unsure of how to handle this..

So a few months ago I met a guy and we became good friends. I knew he was interested in me but I only saw him as a friend. So at first he liked me and wanted to be around me all the time and I didn’t, but I really enjoyed his friendship. It took me a while but one day I finally liked him too. So we officially liked each other. I realized I liked him the day before I left on vacation so I wasn’t going to see him for 2 weeks. During that 2 weeks, we decided to get to know each other as more than friends.

So this guy, he’s quite insensitive. But he really opened up with me and showed a different side to me. During my vacation, we texted all day and talked on the phone every night and it was as if we were dating already. We talked about our soon to be first kiss and this scared me. One I was nervous, and two I felt like kissing would be the ultimate crossover from friends to more than friends.

So I get back and we spend the day together but things are weird. He nots being flirty or romantic, he’s holding my hand but that’s about it, everything seems uncomfortable. We kiss a few times and each one gets better but still it seems awkward.

The next day, he was completely different. He wasn’t texting me or calling me and didn’t want to hang out with me. Whenever I was around, he didn’t say much and seemed distant. I talked to a friend and I told the friend that he was being weird with me. I suppose that friend told him what I said because the next day my guy said “we need to talk”.

We met up and the first thing he asks me is what did I tell my friend. I told him what I said and he admitted he didn’t like that. But he apologized for how he was actinf and said he wanted to forget the kiss because it was too soon and it made things weird. He said he wanted things to go back to normal and for there to we no weirdness between us. I respected him for talking to me about it, but I didn’t believe much of what he said. I asked him if he still liked me (which I regret asking, even though he said yes) I expressed to him that I was for sure he THOUGHT he liked me, but after kissing me he realized he didn’t like me and therefore didn’t want to be around me. He said “I never said that”. He’s right, he didn’t say that but that doesn’t make me wrong either. Even before I liked him, he always wanted to talk to me and spend time with me. He said he wanted things to go back to normal but he isn’t talking to me at all, so really things have not been “normal”. When I asked if he still liked me as a friend or more than a friend, he said both and that I was “still cute”.

After that, we texted briefly throughout out the day but that’s it. The texting was decent and friendly but I felt like he was only texting me because he felt bad for me, and I didnt like that at all because even though i miss him, i dont want to come off as im sad without him. Maybe the first day I came off that way, and I regret that.

So Its been 12 days since we last talked and now I’m really sad. Usually by now I would of gotten all desperate and started texting him and sounding needy but I decided to take a different route this time. Because I know for sure I want him back and needy is not a good look. But I want him to miss me! Really miss me.. So I haven’t contacted him, and instead of “accidentally” bumping into him, I do what I can to avoid running into him at school. Now I’ve never devised a plan to get someone back before so this is a first. But I wonder, will this really work on someone who was never my boyfriend? Technically everything “ended” in a good way to where were still considered “friends” but since we haven’t spoken, I don’t know where we stand. Any advice?