How can I get closer to him MORE than a friend?

We're friends, but we haven't hung out. He hangs out with almost all girls (also kinda my friends) but he isn't gay (I like JUST figured that out). I kinda wish I was as close to him as they are, like they flirt with him a lot but don't have feelings for him.

My gorgeous friend posted pics on twitter at his surprise bday party a few months ago (I wasn't close with him then), and one of them was her kissing his neck and him smiling/laughing!!! She doesn't even like him like that! How can I possibly compete with that? How can I be closer to him? I don't think I'm good at flirting. It made me jealous and feel a little bad about myself.

But...He compliments me a lot and we walk with each other to some classes and wait with each other after school. We've had really deep conversations. We would definitely have lunch together but our schedules don't cross at all.

What do you think about my plan: Hang out with our friends and him a couple times then sometime in the summer, call and ask him to hang out for a day downtown and at the park and have him assume it was kind of a date by the end.