This guy I think is gay has done this. What do you think?

I have this friend who I whole heartily believe is gay and I've been talking to him about and getting him to open a bit. He's let me stay on the phone with him for hours on end just telling him my experience with dealing with it. Yet he goes back to denying it. I told him it's good to talk about it with people, and he said he has at school, in lunch with the girls at this table. He still denies it, but why we would, according to his exact words, go to school look somber, and have the girls ask him what's wrong. And he said he told them that his friend (me) has been trying to get him to come out, but he defended his straightness to these girls. Is that not gay?