What does he want? How do I make him understand?

So, this guy and I both like each other, but he refuses to date me because he's apparently a commitment phobe ("im scared of overcommitting to a girl and that will either scare her or make her lose interest in me") even though he's never actually had a relationship. Anyway, whenever we would talk, he'd always flirt with me and say things that keep me guessing about whether he was having second thoughts about a relationship. One time, after we didn't see/text each other for like 3 weeks, he texted me out of the blue with "guess who shot across my mind.." Of course, I thought it was me. No, it ended up being some actress from a movie he had just seen unless that was his way of hinting that it was me without actually saying it was me, but I'm done making excuses for him. But when I confronted him about what he wants, he says he just wants to be friends and nothing more. He won't ever be direct with his feelings toward me but instead be ambiguous and say all these robotic, obscure things like "in due time, my intentions will be revealed" or "im reserving if i miss you or not :)" so I was so fed up with all this crap that I just scrapped this situation and moved on cuz I figured if he's this confusing/manipulative now, then it's a good thing we're not together. So, I decided to date other guys. But one night, our mutual friend texted me saying that she had let it slip to him that I was seeing someone else. And according to her, he said "oh...she didn't tell me that" and was really disappointed and didn't talk so much after that. So, about a week after this, he asked me about the guys in my life. And I acted like I didn't know what he was talking about. Then, he said "I thought ____ said you went out on a date" and I danced around the topic. So, he said "do you know what I did when I found out? I cheered cuz I was so happy that you're dating someone!" which was interesting to me cuz obviously, it bothers him when I see other guys; he'll just never tell me. Anyway, I decided to ignore him because he always gives me headaches, and I need some space from him. But it seems to backfire cuz now he just texts me more. I would like to keep him as a friend, but he keeps trying to play with my mind (prob because he knows i still like him, and he's using that against me). And if I tell him this, he's gonna say that he's not doing anything but being a friend -__- but I feel like he's trying to string me along! I need to not talk to him, but he's making this impossible. I don't know what to do