Does my crush REALLY like me?

This boy named James in my school is something of a player, but only because all the girls like him. He has recently gotten a bad haircut that no one likes, except for me, so the number of girls liking him has lowered considerably. I put a note in his locker saying that I like him, and he just found it in his back pack a few weeks ago. He asked me out that very day he found the note, but the day of the date, we couldn’t go because he didn’t have my # because I didn’t give it to him. On the last day of school, we exchanged #s and he asked me out once again. I couldn’t go because I had a dance recital. He asked me if I could go out on only 2 of the summer days, and at the time I did not why. I tried calling him about a week after school ended, because he wasn’t calling me, but no one picked up. I called 3 more times, but each time no one picked up. 3 weeks into the summer, I began to get very discouraged because I thought that he did not want to contact me anymore. I had just recently found out from his best friend that he is on vacation with his family. He does not have a cell phone. I am wondering why he did not tell me about this. Is this just a series of unfortunate coincidences, or is he trying to break up with me discreetly?