Questions: Flirting

My crush and I usually get along but he infuriates me a lot sometimes and we have fights where we won't look each other in the eye or speak more than we have to for school work. This gets everyone in our class involved in the drama, because we are usually so close and laughing at some private joke together, so they can sense when we're mad at each other.

Why does this cycle keep happening? He's said repeatedly that he wants to provoke me... to do or say what? I always feel like he's waiting for an answer when he's staring at me. He knows I'm into him, so why does he need to test me. He denies it is testing and says he's provoking me. Is there a difference? He hates it when I try to figure him out, lol.

is testing seeing if I'm interested? He shouldn't need to do that because I've told him I like him. So then is provoking trying to get me to say or do something? If so, what?

We haven't kissed yet, but he calls me sweetie, darlin , puts his arm around me to cuddle and puts his face in mine so we are almost kissing but we don't. Is he trying to get me to make the final move? I was breathing his breath practically on our bus ride Saturday but it seems like he can't do the last part to actually kiss me, besides once on the cheek.

Lately, he's added face/cheek rubbing to our hugs. Is this a way to build up to kissing? I like it when he rubs his stubbly face on mine!