Im scared for my friend

Maybe im wrong and overworried again, that has been the case a lot lately so I PRAY thats the case again

He makes suicide jokes frequently, especially about ending his own life, he turns 18 soon and said very casually that he was going to k ill himself. The way he said it sounded like a joke but honestly thats very specific

Me and him have this joke that we hate eachother (even though he isn my favorite friend honestly, i get so pissed whenever he doesnt show up to school) and today most of the class left early, i said something like "aw everyone left already" and he said "i didnt, im still here" and i made a joke like "thats not good" expecting him to find it funny since he says stuff like that about me all the time but instead he just chuckled even though he seemed kind of hurt and said "oh, yeah im not gonna take that personally at all..." & acted weird for the rest of the day

He has set his "status" online to several different depressing things in past 12 hours, latest is saying hes "taking a vacation" from people which shouldnt be possible since hes employed and enrolled into school ???

I have already lost my favorite older cousin that i could barely even get to know, he was honestly really similar to me and he did it right when i made a mental decision that i wanted to start getting to know him so of course it shocked me pretty fucking bad, i almost lost one of my closest friends several times, i almost lost myself several times... everyone that i have lost, or have almost lost, aside from myself, have either been like an okder brother to me or have been an older brother to someone else. God DO NOT make me lose this friend too, do NOT tell me this is gonna happen just because i thought to myself "hes like my older brother i never had"

Again MAYBE im overthinking but this person has been talking about it so much lately and he owns a gun for some reason and obviously thats making this worse for me.

He is close to the deans at school for some reason,, hes one of those kids that are friends with the teachers, im planning on telling one of the deans at school about whats been going on. I wanted to just say "hey can you ask my friend if hes ok" but another friend of mine wants me to share everything, that im worried hes gonna hurt himself and etc

I dont know the point of making this post just wanted to vent sorry i hope i get to keep my friend ive been worried all day and im so tired of this shit happening over amd over and over anddd lmao