Mixed messages

I met this boy online. He was really attractive and I was rather surprised when he reached out to me. Anyway, we ended up meeting in person and I really enjoyed his company. We planned to meet up again other times but they never happened for whatever reason. sadly, we lost contact but I miss him. anyway, around the time we stopped talking, one of his friends decided to talk to me, and another one a month later. I had no interest in either one of his friends but decided to talk to them to see if maybe the boy had something to say to me. So when the first friend and I started talking he started asking me indirect questions about the boy but I didn't really give him an answer. Anyway, I eventually asked both of them why they decided to talk to me. The second friend said he wanted to "see what I was about" and after I asked, he stopped texting me. So now we don't talk. While the first friend played dumb and acted like he didn't know what I was talking about when I admitted that I did know know his friend. And now I'm just seriously confused. What does the boy have to say to me? And why is he hiding behind his friends? Or could it just me a coicendence that BOTH his friends just decided to talk to me?