Questions: Guy's Behavior

Last summer my i told my guy friend I liked him, because i thought he liked me back (he told me i was fit, pretty, had nice eyes, and "not like other girls"). I did it over text, but he said he wasn't going to stick around for college, and said he didn't want anything too serious. A couple of weeks later, we hung out in person, and even put his arm around my shoulder on a roller coaster. Then while he was driving me back to my house, he wanted to talk about us, and he said "I'm going to ask you right now. Do you like me?" I told him I never liked him and that I was just confused, because I thought that if I admitted that I like him in person he would just reject me again. He said "Yeah, I guess I see you as just a friend, and I didn't want you to think I was leading you on." We didn't speak for months after that. I reached out to his friend a while ago, and even his friend thought that we had something going on. Is it possible that that night in the car, he had regretted rejecting me? Is it possible that he liked me back but was afraid of commitment?