How does he view me if he acts like that?

There's a guy I know that I'll call "PETE" and we're moderate friends (I say moderate because I don't know if he considers us friends, but I consider him a friend)...anyway...I'm a shy girl, I'm sweet, and I have that coy/innocent thing going but I love sports...anyway...this friend of mine, like around me he'll always talk to me about sports stuff and things like that (he LOVES and ADORES sports) and he'll do things like tease me and give me little nicknames like Red Dog or The Terminator (don't ask cause I don't know lol) and like one time I was sitting down talking to a mutual friend (who is male too) and Pete comes over and playfully kicks me and starts talking to the mutual friend.

So why does he do things like that to me...I don't know what you call it. It's not roughhousing but like playfully pushing me or teasing me. He's never mean when he does those things...in fact he's gentlemanly around me too but he tends to be comfortable playfully hitting me in the arm sometimes or teasing me or just being retarded around me...or even trying to scare me from time to time by like sneaking up behind me and like screaming while he bear hugs me from behind.

But around other girls for example he's never like that. He'll talk to them and everything and joke with them...but I don't see him smacking them around lol...