Bi-sexual/bi-curious friend, old crush - need help & advice dealing with him

Hi, first time posting here in quite a while.
I'll cut to the chase and explain the situation in summary, hopefully people will be kind enough to offer advice and ask questions!


So me and my friend just got talking over messenger again after leaving school, I told him a lot more about myself, my sexuality more about my past and so on.
So we were talking from time to time and catching up for about 6-8 weeks, then all of a sudden we get flirting over chat and he comes out as bi-curious to me and the chat leads on and says he wants to try stuff with me to find out.
During the chat it became apparent that when in the right "mood" he was more than curious, and certainly had an interest in other men - initially he claimed it was more the excitement rather than physical attraction but as time went on I've become sure that's a part of it too.

So after this chat happened, he said he was confused - didn't speak to me for a week.
I tried to reach out in a supportive way, later on he claimed he was drunk when he said all that and had thought about it and he wasn't bi-sexual.

We kept in touch over time, and eventually it started up again after a few weeks, it's been on and off a few times but he's always backed down as we get closer to trying stuff, or fades away.

He's not particularly open with me, I can't get a good idea of his thoughts about it, how anxious he is or whatever.
We've talked about sex a lot, and during the chats it became clear that he was probably more than curious and its a mix of anxiety and social/family pressure holding him back.

I recently got quite angry and argued with him about it, I wanted him to realise that all I wanted was his trust & to support him while going though this - not just be there for a sexual trial.
He finally admitted he wasn't ready, and after some prompting said there probably was sexual desire between both of us.

We've kind of dropped the subject for now - I'm not sure what to do now. We were never particularly close to one another. But obviously we are way closer now.

I feel like I need to hang out with him in person, haven't seen him all this time and we talked about meeting a lot, to well have sex. I think if I talk to him about it where he can't dodge any questions or shut down I can help him with his internal struggle - he'll loosen up.

Any questions or comments, please go ahead! Really stuck here with how to approach this, I definitely have feelings for him and want this to work out, thanks!

 

He wanted to meet a few times, and we got rather close to, but said he wasn't ready.

I'm unsure how close to stay with him, it's difficult for me.

And I'm wanting whatever I can get, yes I'm attracted to him.

I could do with a new perspective from a bi-sexual that was closeted for a while and struggled internally, it seems very much that's it easier for him to stay straight so that holds him back.