Why does he avoid touching me?

[Anonymous]

As the title says, there's this guy in my friend group who treats me differently than the girls in our group. With them, he'll touch their shoulder, knee, arm... but he's never touched me.

He doesn't dislike me I've asked other friends in our group and they've relayed good things he says about me to them, but why won't he touch me? It makes me feel like he's repulsed by me.

[ShiftingMonke]

You've got to look at other things to see how he feels. Yes, physical touch is a non-verbal signal, but there's body language and other cues that will help you better determine his relationship to you.

When together in a group, does he naturally face you, or does he prefer a certain side? When or if you make eye contact, is it a glance or do you feel his gaze wander? Does he put his hands in his pockets when you speak to him? There's more data to gather as to why he treats you subtly different than the rest.

[Asker]

He stands with his hands in his pockets quite often when speaking to me. What does that show?

[ShiftingMonke]

It's not uncommon for men to put their hands in their pockets when they are nervous or jittery. Does he do this when speaking to other women of the friends group? Are there any other ways he treats you differently from the rest of them?

[Asker]

Eye contact is a big one, as I do catch him looking at me; he immediately looks away when I notice. But as my post mentions, he won't ever get near me or touch me which just feels like it cancels out everything else

[ShiftingMonke]

I think he feels some kind of way about you. If he did not, he would not feel shame in holding your gaze. It also makes sense why he is afraid of touching you, or being close to you.
If he did, he may feel like you'll find out how he feels and either rebuff him or ridicule him. If so, he's putting boundaries on himself to reinforce how much of an opinion you're not.

Also consider that you're mutual friends with other people, and he likely doesn't want to make it awkward by propositioning a relationship or by having that relationship fail.
If you're interested in him romantically, I'd suggest catching him away from the others so he doesn't need to hide anything and ask him directly. Outside of that, the ball is in his court on how to proceed.

[the-mad-german]

Probably he thinks you're hot and thats the reason he does not touch you because he gets the heat ;)

[BarryLiverstone]

Maybe he thinks you are not attractive

[boggboss]

Ask him