Search Results: he is older than i thought

Guy messages me every single day usually for morning till we go to bed. Casually in conversation said he talks to me more than anyone else. Hung out a couple of times, has tried inviting himself to things I am doing, and 95% of the time reaches out first. I rarely reach out first. If he doesn't respond or leaves me on read, usually hours later he'll reach back out or eventually responds to whatever it is he left me on read with.
Met about a month and a half before he left for college in another town, so now the ability to hang out is not quite as easy, I'm very busy with work and school, and of course he's in another town.
We played video games together, he would call me on the phone when we do instead of using a headset (haven't much since school started thought) and occasionally facetimes me. A couple weeks back we facetimed for 3 hours straight.
Downside, he occasionally calls me "bro" or "dude" and talked about a girl he'd met at the college that he was really frustrated with her cause he likes her but her immaturity bother's him. Told me what he was looking for with a girl (which, ironically was describing exactly what we have almost down to a T). I gave him advice on what to do, and that was kind of the end of him discussing girls with me. Other downside, I am older than him.
Cannot distinguish between if he views me as a good friend and buddy, or something more.
Is he just stringing me along and wasting my time, or am I just not being obvious enough about my feelings? Seems like he's getting a little bit distant now, unsure if it's because I'm not really showing interest because I've been afraid to because I am older than him.
Thanks!

Conservative talk show host Phil Valentine dies after battle with Covid-19

Phil Valentine, a Nashville-based conservative radio talk show host who had questioned whether it was necessary for all people to get Covid-19 vaccines, died on Saturday, his employer, WWTN Radio, announced on Twitter. Valentine was 61 years old.

"Please keep the Valentine family in your thoughts and prayers," the station said in the tweet.

His death comes more than a month after the host first announced he had been diagnosed with Covid-19. On his program, Valentine had repeatedly downplayed the importance of getting a vaccine against the virus, saying last December that he believed his personal odds of dying from Covid-19 were "probably way less than one percent."

"Phil would like for his listeners to know that while he has never been an 'anti-vaxer' he regrets not being more vehemently 'Pro-Vaccine', and looks forward to being able to more vigorously advocate that position as soon as he is back on the air, which we all hope will be soon," his brother Mark Valentine wrote on July 22.

Mark Valentine told CNN's Alisyn Camerota in a July 26 interview his brother was doing better but was "still very deep in the woods" and breathing with assistance.

"He recognizes now that him not getting the vaccination has probably caused a bunch of other people not to get vaccinated," he said in the interview. "And that he regrets."

Phil's "Vaxman" song parody:
https://soundcloud.com/philvalentineshow/vaxman