My ex-boyfriend used to be my best friend, now we're like strangers, HELP!?

I recently broke up with my boyfriend, Tom, who beforehand had been one of my best friends. I'm 16 and he is 18 (nearly 19) so he'll be going off to uni in september. Anyway we were incredibly close but we were both in relationships with other people, and he broke up with his girlfriend of 18 months about a fortnight after I broke up with my boyfriend of five months. After our break ups we became even closer and twenty days after I broke up with my ex, Tom and I were at a mutual friends party and he admitted to liking me and wanted to be with me. I was shocked that he liked me because I honestly wasn't expecting it at all but I was still pretty hung up over my ex, however I agreed to see how things went with Tom before we made anything official. A few days later we got together and it was pretty much the perfect relationship, everything was going smoothly, no problems, no arguments, we were happy. Then after a month all of a sudden he just broke the relationship off, for no defiant reason. I was completely in shock, as was everyone else because it was so out of the blue, not even his closest friends were expecting it. Even though we only spent a month together, this break up hurt more than my five months with the other guy, probably because Tom actually treated me so much better and acted like a boyfriend should. Everyone has said to me, he'll get back with you eventually he just needs time to think but I don't think that's the case, I think we were so much better as friends, so much better, and even though I loved being in a relationship with him, part of me during that time was saying: This is Tom, he's one of my best friends. After the break up, we talked a bit about what had happened, and he didn't seem to think that we needed space or time, but I think actually we do, he took me to my prom a couple of days ago and he acted like my boyfriend there (except without any kissing) and I was so sure he was going to ask me out again but he didn't and I ended up getting all upset and the next day which we spent together with a group of other friends, it was so awkward and we barely spoke to each other and it hurts so much because he and I were almost inseperable friends who could laugh together about anything and muck about like kids and know that we didn't look silly to one another. We would help each other out when the other one was down, he was the only person who texted me every single day after my break up with my ex just to see if I was okay, and I did the same for him after his break up. His ex before me though, is still seriously obsessed with him, even when I was with him she wouldn't leave me alone and she gave me hell, but she's sort of forced their friendship back together and I don't know how well that friendship will go but he seems alright about it. However I feel as though I can't do what she has done and just say 'hey lets go back to how we were' because that friendship took ages to get to where it was, and he was one of the most important people in my life and now I feel like I've lost him. I don't like to keep texting him or MSNing him because I don't want to annoy him, but I miss him a lot and I feel if I don't get in contact with him then he will think I don't want to be friends and won't make the effort back. He has been the first to contact me a few times since we broke up but its just not the same anymore and it has really seriously upset me and I don't know what to do. I don't know if I should tell him this, or not, or whether we should give each other space or whether that'll just make things worse. Has anyone else experienced a problem like this and can pass on any wisdom, it will be greatly appreciated! Thank you, and please no one leave any nasty comments or unhelpful advice because I really don't need that right now. Thanks again for reading this essay! :-)