Friend's crush problems?

last night, my friend's crush asked her to our schools semi-formal/sadie hawkins dance (girls ask guys, so he wasn't really supposed to do that. but he did know that it was a sadie hawkins). unfortunately, my friend had to say no since she will be on vacation. she also said "vacation ruins everything". so her crush went on to say that he "liked her as a friend" and "wasn't ready for a relationship". he also said he only wanted to go to this dance so he could "hang out with my friends". before this happened, a lot of people have told my friend that he has a crush on her. it was so obvious (or so we thought). we have no idea what to think! someone help us!