How can I fix this without putting in the effort?

Hi I’m stacey and am suffering from liking a very confusing guy. I’ve known him for three years now, but the only time we ever see each other is during the summer for four months before high school starts again. I’m pretty certain he and I both had the “love at first sight” spark, and he was the one to approach me and make the first move. But it was towards the end of the summer, and we were both only 15 and so we both had to go our separate ways. I also didn’t have any contact info at the time, so neither of us stayed in touch.

The second year, I fell more in love more with the guy, and during those four months we had some of the best moments ever shared—except that neither of us shared any physical contact, and he didn’t really confess any feelings or anything like that. I was too scared of rejection, and I was kinda waiting for him to make the first move like he did the first time we met. But he didn’t make any physical contact, which is surprising because outside of how he treats me, he is a very physical person, and he was kinda becoming really shy around me. But this time by the end of summer, I got his number and on the last day before school started, I thought he was going to confess that he liked me….but he never did and instead fled the situation.

During the first month of school, I will admit I was a bit too clingy and was texting him a bit too much, but only because he was never texting me, and sure enough he ghosted me for about three months. That would be my fault. But regardless I sent a well written apology note telling him to stop ignoring me, and I finally got him to reach out again. His explanation was, “I’m 90% you used to have (maybe still have) a crush on me, and I used to like you too, but now I don’t so I ignored my problems.” I fixed this out and vouched for just being friends, and just like that, he wasn’t ignoring me anymore. The only problem was, I still kinda had feelings for him until April when I finally thought I was over him and I was super happy being single.

Apparently, I wasn’t over him because the day summer started in May, I saw him again, and I couldn’t help falling for him again like previous years. And the thing was, the first day of summer, all he did was look at me, or look in my direction. And he still had that spark in his eyes from previous years. But he wouldn’t talk to me. And whenever I talked to him, he always uses this quiet voice—which is quite contrasting because he is usually VERY loud. Throughout this summer, he has stared at me from afar and looks as though he wants to talk to me, but doesn’t—or at least doesn’t know how to, and this is leaving me in confusion on what I should do.

So far, I’ve kinda been keeping my distance because he’s the one who stopped liking me, and I was the one who vouched for being friends. I’ve reached out a few times, but I’m really scared of a) getting rejected again, and b) making the same mistake I made last year. My friends have told me to get over him (forget it I can’t) and have also told me to stop caring about the situation. I don’t know if that’s good advice, I’ve tried to pretend like he doesn’t exist whenever I’m around him, but I feel like that’s just damaging any chance I have with him. On top of that, all these other guys who I am totally not interested in are asking me out, and I keep having to say no to them because I’m stuck on this guy who I can never get. I only have about a month left, and maybe less because he’s on vacation and I’ll be on vacation soon, and I really need to know what I can do to make him approach me and stick around during the school year (we go to different high schools) without showing him that I’m needy and clingy.