Ok, i need help getting into a guys mind. this may be a lil long but plz help...and no rudeness?

ok ima start from the beginning-my best friend has this boy..their not really going out but you can obviously she likes him and he likes her. but she (the girl!) got grounded and he hasnt seen her. and since he is my friend i hang out with him a lot. i never actually noticed before that he was a touchy-feely (like touching your arm, head, etc.) but when i was hanging out with him we went to this place called "the tubes" theres water you can swim in and all that; and i go there alot with my other guy friends and just hang out so i wasnt expecting anything different. well he would pretend to push me in the water by like holding my shoulders and shoving me but never actually letting go and i noticed his grip was a little tighter than necessary and at a few points he actually pulled me close to him...soo there i didnt know what to think of that at the point of time but then he played the game of throwing objects down a girls shirt...if you know what that is great dont read this next part but if you dont its pretty much a guy..or girl finds any small object they can and attempting to throw it down their shirt..well i dont really know if that means anything but at least in my school with my group of friends thats pretty much screaming "I LIKE YOU" and the other thing is ok so we were txting each other and heres what he pretty much said "your cute and skinny and any guy should have you" pretty much this exact words but its to complicated to type everything out. so yah. was he like...flirting in an odd way? i kinda think because him and my friend arnt actually dating that in a guys mind its ok? i have no idea. i dont want to hurt her so i also dont want to rat him out if it wasnt anything. so please someone help...just tell me if hes getting at something here or not coz i just really dont know and im sorry this was so long i just hadda type it as it was so yah. to who read this and helps me thank you so much! :)