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Hey, everyone. I'll try to keep this short, but no guarantees. Sorry for the wall of text, just bear with me.

Let me pose my question now, so you can have it in mind while reading my...story, if you will.

Do you think he finally has feelings for me, and if so should I do anything about it?

Now that that's out of the way, let's add some context.


I am, in this respect, a typical teenager because I have romantic feelings for my best friend and have for a long time.

The timeline of...us, I guess, goes sort of like this [Measured in my years of high school, mostly through marching band seasons]:

Freshman year: He spoke to me once [to criticize me on something stupid I was doing anyway], and was obnoxious. Bad first impression, I was impressionable, so I disliked him. Later I signed up for a band fundraiser at Borders, and he just happened to end up at the same shift. He was still a jerk to me, but it was...less hostile. So, I changed my mind.
Didn't speak to him again until the next year.

Sophomore year: For some inexplicable reason, we just couldn't stay away from each other. We were great friends, although it really didn't make sense to anyone but us---actually, it didn't make sense to us as far as I can tell. Most friends wouldn't push each other, hit each other with glowsticks/etc, throw things (coins, Starbursts), etc at each other. Nor would they 'threaten' to throw me over a fence...but I digress. Nonetheless, we were friends and sometime near the end of this I realized I liked him. Near the end of the year, a friend of mine (acquaintance of his) leaked that fact. Didn't speak to him again due to awkwardness until summer.

Junior year: Spent a lot of time trying to keep things from being awkward while trying to figure out what he thought of me. This is about when I started noticing weird coincidences. Didn't think I'd ever see him in school outside of band class, but then it turns out he's in my psychology class--and had the seat next to me. Our schedules ended up so I ran into him (literally ran into him, damned corners!) at least once a day.

Got my hopes up, asked him to homecoming, part 1 of Me Trying to Be Like Everyone Else (MTtBLEE). He ended up saying 'I don't know if I'm going' and ended up not going after all. Our [unattractive] mutual friend ended up asking ME the next week and I said no but that's not relevant.
Things were awkward for the rest of the day; the next day we had a marching band competition and I ended up sitting next to him in the stands and everything was back to normal.
Nothing else related happened until June.
I, being the idiot I am, asked him to prom. Insert part 2 of MTtBLEE. Got the same answer as before, but this time he DID attend. Unfortunately all I could think of all night was if I should approach him about his failure to notify me he was going, about if he likes me, etc.
This actually would have been less of a problem if prom hadn't been on his birthday.
Eventually, I sucked it up and asked him anyway. I could recreate the conversation but in basis it ended with him saying he's 'impartial to everyone' and 'doesn't really know how [he] feel about [me]'.
Amusingly, he was the only one in his group without a date.

Senior year (aka, now): Hadn't spoken to him since the prom failure, but he decided to go to the community college for a year, conveniently meaning he could come back for band every day he wanted. Meaning he was ALWAYS here during band camp to bother me. I started noticing yet another pattern; I could tell when he was going to arrive, accurate within about ten minutes.
Eventually I got over myself and started talking to him again.
Somehow, I ended up being our band teacher's Teacher Assistant.
I can't exactly specify how or why, but we suddenly started texting nonstop about a month ago. There has not been a single day where we have not had some kind of conversation. Every day I TA (aka every other day) he comes in during my block to either help me or get in my way, depending on what I'm doing.
Now here's where I start getting confused.
I invited him to my friend's game night, and he accepted knowing he would know absolutely no one else there. Mind you, he's perceived as socially awkward to most of the universe except for me because I know he just enjoys irritating people.
He invited me to laser tag instead of our mutual friend [see Junior Year, paragraph 2] and it was epic. There were some...nuances of his behaviour that I can't really explain at all without sounding weird. But there was something different. And it was...nice. If you really want me to, I can try to explain in another post...
Then, this past weekend, we went again. There was a guy working there who recognized him from several weeks of coming, and me for being with him for the past two times. Both times I've gone he's asked my friend if I was his girlfriend. Both times he's insisted 'no, just a friend'. But last week the guy took my friend aside and talked to him for...a while. I don't know how long nor do I know what they said, but I do know some of it was about me. And after that, my friend was acting really...jittery. More nervous, I guess. No, agitated; that's the word I'm looking for.
And the texting is still going on even now, talking about absolutely nothing and everything at once.
--
That's it.

Oh, there is a major point that I have left out here, but I'm not sure where to put it. So I guess I'll just...put it here?
He has bipolar disorder. So sometimes things get...interesting. But he has it well controlled, although he and his body don't really like some of the things his meds do to him.

So, I ask you again, if you have waded through the mush of my situation to this point: Do you think his feelings have changed, and if so should I do anything?

I'm not sure if he'll do something. He seems to have gotten more comfortable, since he's asked me to laser tag (not a technical date, since neither of us said so, I guess) but there's obviously still something holding him back.
And all of my friends who know him also think we're going out, even my parents. Probably his parents, I haven't seen them in a while so I'm not sure. The only people who don't think we are are myself and him because we know better.

Considering everything that's happened, I wouldn't hold it against life to have everything be one big coincidence. Again.

And he's...definitely good at hiding what he's thinking. Or, he is to people who don't know him. Now that I'm starting to talk to him on a constant basis (right now, even), I'm getting very good at telling when he's lying or avoiding things.

The last time I confronted him about it we didn't talk for a few months, that's the only reason I'm wary about this. Every time I've confronted him about it something's gone awkward somewhere...but we eventually get over it. I just don't have enough time left in school to have an 'eventually' situation again.

Neither of us know where we're going to go to college yet. If he knew where he was going, he'd be there since he's technically in college.
I've filled out all my applications but I haven't been accepted anywhere yet.

And if we end up not going to the same college, we could probably figure something out. Considering the amount of nonverbal communication we have now, I don't see how it'd be a problem.
I know about the whole 'You'll meet new people and might lose touch or lose your feelings for him, blah blah blah'. So far I've met other people while knowing him, while at camp, etc, and haven't thought as much of them as I have of him.

In short, I don't know if I'll see him after I graduate, but all things considered I'll most likely run into him here at home if nothing else.

Oh. If both our cellphone numbers/emails stay the same, then yes, we would have contact.

Due to something stupid that just happened, I'll probably let it go as it will for the moment. Thanks. c:

Yeah. So, I asked a stupid question the other night and led a conversation down a very dangerous road.

In the process, I learned two things.
A: Neither of us should stay up past 3AM since it leads to both of us being snippy and doesn't end well.
B: He puts up a front for everyone since he's that uncomfortable being himself. In his words, he's only himself around "maybe three people, ever." Did not indicate I was one of them.

I'm giving up on figuring out if he has feelings for me for now, since I don't even think I know the real him.

I know his bipolar factors into it. He's also just naturally an awkward person, which doesn't help. He said it's mostly because he "hasn't had enough social interaction" to be himself around everyone. So he'll get over it. Not so sure about the jerk factor, though. He's just...cynical. Don't think he'll outgrow that.
Don't be sorry, there's still time. Lots of it. And nothing 'didn't work out' since nothing ever happened.
Oh, hey, my optimism isn't completely gone. Cool.

It never occurred to me to ask him that question because every time he told me something like this, it was because I asked about it; he didn't volunteer the information. Something about not wanting to 'burden' his friends and classmates with things, I don't exactly remember. He actually sounded like he didn't want to tell me and was only doing so because I asked him about it.
You must've misinterpreted something along the way. I'm not going to cut him out of my life by any means, regardless of the outcome of this situation.
Also, dating. Funny joke. I had one "boyfriend" my freshman year, that's all I've ever had. Every other guy I know now (excluding the one we're discussing here) is either unattractive and likes me or mocks me/hates me. Or is just awkward around me. Somehow he's a combination of the last two...
I am letting things happen as they will, I just don't really understand what he's avoiding.

I guess it also doesn't help that my best friend of ten years has just cut me out of her life this weekend so I'm kind of...really confused about everything. Bad timing, yay.

No problem. I was just...in a bad place last night. I'm thinking more clearly now. It's obvious he does trust me, he just has a weird way of not saying so. And I'm so done with the friend that dropped me anyway. xD
I'll be fine. Everything'll be fine, if it isn't already. Thanks for your support.