Any ways to approach him about it?

Hey there Tyler, It's hard to deal with rejection, especially if it's not really clear how they feel about you. I think he's being a little unfair on not saying how he feels about it and trying to say what he thinks you want or don't want. He is deflecting. Try asking him about how he feels about you instead. Do you know his sexual orientation? It's possible he's not interested because of that, there is also the age issue and this might really scare him because he can get into trouble for it. You might need to wait a few years before he's comfortable with anything with you.