Ah Rose, I know how you feel... I experienced something similar when I was a student (about 13 years ago now, eek!). I was happy to be his friend at first, but then it became clear that he had feelings for me (which I didn't want to reciprocate). He started getting very clingy and the slightest bit of attention from me (eg saying hello when we passed each other at university, after I'd been ignoring him for months!) would be interpreted by him as an invitation to get close. On the surface, he would say all the right things to make me think he would respect boundaries, but his behaviour was very different. At no point was I scared, it definitely wasn't serious stuff, but just perplexing and annoying... eg, when I first got to know him, he asked if he could phone me in the evenings, and he asked me what time our family had supper so that he didn't disturb us, BUT then he'd phone every night at supper time! He'd ask me what I was doing and I'd say "having supper!", to which he'd reply "Oh, sorry, well I won't keep you long then..."
. A small thing in the grand scheme of things, but after this happened regularly that I knew it wasn't just a once off mistake, I began to wonder if I'd really want a friend, let alone a boyfriend (like he wanted to be), who didn't seem to listen to me or respect even the small things. Eventually, things came to a head when he wanted to take me out for coffee after a week of late night studying and multiple tests (mine, not his - he was doing a different course). I was exhausted and told him "any night but tonight - I'm really tired and want to go to sleep", but he was so insistent that I eventually agreed, just so that I could "break up" with him. I was very rude, but luckily for me, he seemed to finally understand the rudeness and he left me alone after that. I had been very polite before (firm, but polite), and yet he never got the message.
It was only much later that I was able to really reflect on what had happened and the part that I had played in allowing the situation to get to that point. I thought I was setting boundaries, but I was actually quite wishy-washy back then. I've since learned how to be assertive now without sacrificing my gentleness and ending up being rude.
So, Rose, knowing what we do now... for some reason, you've created this situation in your life... what is it reflecting for you?!