I need help being a better friend

For most of my life I have had very few friends, and most of them aren't close and are very surface level, these days its mostly, "we play games together and laugh for a couple of hours", and thats fine. I attended an all boys high school and had very little social life there, and none outside of it.

Recently though, I made a friend in college with whom I enjoy their company in a more sincere fashion, and feel more able to be myself with. The problem i'm having is, I have no idea how to be a decent friend outside of my very limited experience. I don't even know how to express basic affection for a friend. I've never really been "close" to anyone since I was like 11 or 12, even with my family. I want to be able to be a better friend so that they can get the same enjoyment that i get out of talking to me that I do them, but I am worried that is not currently the case.

I've heard people say online that friendships with guys just aren't that fulfilling, so maybe i'm just trying to do something I'm not built for, but I really want to know how to be a better friend.

I don't know how to casually ask about their life, how to have more personal conversations without getting uncomfortable, etc. In fact, one time when they mentioned something really hard they were dealing with once, I just kind of froze up, not because I didn't care, but because in none of my relationships have I ever had to outwardly express sympathy before. I straight up didn't know how. None of my other friends have ever talked about that stuff with me, and I have never felt comfortable talking to them.

Most of the time I don't even know what kind of things people talk about.

I can already feel the friendship straining a little. When we first met, we could talk for hours on end, now sometimes I don't know what to say or talk about with them at all like I used to, and I don't know if its because of me being paranoid and freaking out when we talk now, or if our conversations are just drying up because they don't get the same joy from talking to me that I do with them.