Very close friend seems to not want to speak with me after we went to a concert together

I am so sorry for how long this is. I’ll do my best to keep it as short as possible.

I (21M) have been very close friends with my (19M) coworker for about 10 months now, and I would consider him to be one of my best friends. When I first started there we were both very shy around each other and only talked casually about similar interests (mostly music). Then one of our coworkers there got us talking more since the three of us would get into shenanigans at work, which got me and him a little closer. When our other coworker quit, we just naturally moved on and started conversing more with one another.

After a few months of us talking, we started becoming pretty good friends. He got me back into CD collecting, and that started becoming a thing we would do. We would bring our new CD’s to work and show them to each other. I even ended up buying him this one CD he wanted. Then one day I asked him if he wanted to play Xbox, and we started playing Xbox together for a little bit. Then it moved to us hanging out. We started going on hikes that would last for hours, going to these really beautiful spots. Before I had never been into hiking much, but he really got me into it and I started enjoying it. We also frequently go out to these nice restaurants (Red Lobster, Outback, etc.), and typically I pay for the bill since he does all the driving and because I like to treat my friends. We typically do this after our long, strenuous hikes. After about 5 or 6 months of us being friends and hanging out, I started developing a crush on him. He’s cute, we share lots of the same interests, and we always have a great time when we hang out. He was totally unaware of my crush until I ended up confessing about a month ago (we’ll get into that soon).

Then, after about 6-7 months, he started acting strange, becoming more distant at work. When I tried striking up conversations, he was very short, blunt, and rude to me and cut them short. I was very hurt when he did this because it seemed to come out of nowhere. One day I calmly asked him to just talk to me because we went from talking all day, every day, to not talking hardly at all, and of course his behavior towards me. He picked me up that night and we had a very long talk. He says he has issues with getting close to people and pushes them away, and that he feels like he’s never really had a person he could rely on. So basically he was trying to push me away. That’s how him and his ex girlfriend broke up. I assured him I wasn’t going anywhere and that I know what it’s like to have people betray your trust, and I could never do that to someone. After that talk, things seemed to have gotten better, much better. We went back to talking lots at work, cracking up carrying on, and we even started hanging out much more frequently. We go into stores, goof off and buy gross things for each other to drink, we still go hiking, and we’ve been to each other’s houses. I’ve even met his grandma and sister, and he’s met my mom. That’s really the only family he has, and my mom, brother, and grandma is really the only family I have.

At this point I even started having hope that maybe my feelings could be reciprocated. About a month ago, I decided I would tell him about how I felt. I kept the crush hidden for a good while due to past rejections and fear of ruining the friendship. However, I did finally get the courage to tell him, and it went pretty well even though he did reject me. He told me that unfortunately he isn’t into guys, but my personality is almost perfect to him, and basically that if I wasn’t a guy, then yeah. He did also tell me that he didn’t view me any differently and that my confession changed nothing between us. It sucked to be shot down again, but at least me and him are still friends.

Fast forward to about two weeks ago, things are still going great between us even though I’m still kinda sad about the rejection. He called me on the 17th and invited me to go along with him to Washington DC to go see My Chemical Romance live. Of course I said yes, and it was one of the best concerts I have ever been to. I could tell how much fun he was having, too. He was singing all the lines, getting really into it and following along with the crowd… I don’t think I’ve ever seen him have that much fun before. Even after the concert, we were having a good time talking together on the walk back and in the metro. The drive home was a little quiet, but I can understand considering at that point he was on hour 6 or so of driving. I ended up falling asleep at about 3AM and we didn’t get back to my place until 6AM. When I thanked him for everything, I was met with silence. I told him to go home and get rest… nothing. I told him bye, and he sped off really fast. I just chocked it up to him being tired because of the total 10 hour drive, but… I still wondered about it.

The last weekend we worked together (the 21st-23rd), he wasn’t talking to me. He was acting strange again just like he was before when he was trying to push me away. Being blunt, short with answers… I tried talking to him only to be met with sarcastic responses. I don’t understand. I tried asking him what’s wrong, but he just says everything is fine… I told him he can always talk to me if he needs to as well and that I’m here for him. I texted him last Sunday night, but he hasn’t replied to me or talked to me in over a week. We just had a great time, and now this? I am so hurt and confused and wish I could just let it go… I tried asking him this Saturday if he was doing ok and that I’ve missed talking with him, but no response.

Does anyone have any advice of how I can go about handling all this? I don’t want to leave him as a friend… I’ve seen his good side and I know in my heart he’s a good guy. He also deals with a lot, so I’m being as patient as I can with him. Any advice is appreciated, thank you for taking the time to read this mess.