how to get him to talk to me again?

I have a friend who's a cancer. we were hanging out for a while and i was into him. i did ask him to come hang out outside of the gym (where we met) but he would never come out. i stopped coming by and he said i should come by more. so i did hung out more with him had a great time talked about lots of stuff lots of jokes etc. he noticed i said hi to one other guy who i joked around with as friends. in the end i lost interest in cancer. so kept him as a friend. later down the road the other one moved closer and i said we should hang out. so we did and we hit it off great. i ended up liking him and seemed he felt the same. (i'd say jokes or give slight hits and he'd take them where as cancer would deny or brush them off so i figured he wasnt interested) i guess cancer noticed us always around each other.

i didnt rub anything in his face or anything (he was friends with both of us) and we stilled talked to him. just with the difference we were talking to each other a lot more. i gave the other one a card as a thank you once (I thought!) cancer had left but turns out he was watching in the distance and had just moved away.

he did know we hung out. and later came up and asked a few days later if we were going anywhere ... we both said we were going home. but the way he said it was more "so are you two a thing now or?"

since that day he started giving me the cold shoulder. he use to talk to me even when busy. andjust come back saying sorry was busy im back now. or say k i gotta run cuz i gotta finish something. instead i was ignored for 3 days until finally got a response and he told me he was busy but it was in a cold emotionless way. (I also stopped with him because he still seemed hung up on his pisces ex, and being me, I wont stand around to be nobody's second. i wont wait around for that)

As a friend he was awesome. how do i get him to open up to talking to me again? we had so much fun together. and to have him be so distant feels really weird.

To be blunt, it's not going to return back to the way it was. I've been in your Cancer friend's position before and I would (and have) react(ed) the same way as he did if the girl were to want to suddenly be as good "friends" as before. Basically you showed interest in him, he opened up, responded back eagerly and made efforts to see you, you guys had a fun time, then suddenly there's this other guy out there you hang out with and you lose interest in the Cancer guy. I'm not sure if you really imagine how much utter rejection he felt from you; I can say with no doubt in my mind that he went through a lot of anguish from both your actions. Now you suddenly want to hang out again more while you're interested in the other guy, basically having the best of both worlds? It's just not gonna happen. The very reason why you felt your friendship was so awesome was due to the fact that he devoted himself to it and saw you as something more than just a friend; he saw you as special and perhaps believed there was a future possible with you. But now he feels like yesterday's trash since what he gave into the relationship was basically rejected, and as an extension he feels rejected.

The friendship can be repaired in time if he's forgiving, but it definitely won't return back to the way it was before, and this I speak from experience. For example he won't prioritize your time or needs over his anymore whereas he may have done so in the past. He'll be far more "busier" and it will be harder to catch hold of him because he will be looking to move on, hang out with other people, or devote his time to another girl if he can find one. He will definitely not devote his time to someone else's girl since he'll feel it's a waste and not worth it.

i lost interest before me and the other guy hung out.(not Because we hung out. i stopped going to see him around november ... slowly ... and popped in to say hi every now and then. i stopped coming by as whenever his ex came by, he ignored me and she was all she payed attention to. I love her to pieces as i met her shortly after they broke up (Not knowing they had been a thing previously) and now she and i are friends. he had told me wanting to go back to an ex (before her) so i figured he'd probably go back. and i didnt want to be with him thinking "is he thinking what it'd be like still if he went back to the other one?" i went through that with my scorpio ex. his ex he'd run for and he'd ditch me if we were hanging (in our early years he'd be with me, he'd call her and be on the phone with her while im sitting there just waiting on the side)
so eventually i had told that ex if she's so great go back to her.

it almost seemed as though history was repeating itself with someone new so thats one of the reasons i slowly started stepping back. my intentions with the other one were mainly chilling as friends, since i had just moved back into town after a terrible break up with my scorp ex of almost 7 years and wanted a new association that werent connected with my ex.
I did find out that cancer did have a history of cheating in the past (with a very close friend's sister who i never met but i knew for years ... also the same ex he always thought of going back to)

it looked too messy like it would stir things up so i looked at everything first before stepping away.
as he also did business with this family (and so did me and my ex and they already knew my ex cheated as these people
were also our mentors so i already knew id get an earful of why would i put myself through it again etc)

i slowly stopped bringing him meals, so i did try to ease out of it slowly.

I do think the other one picked up on it as he backed away for quite a while after cancer asked us if we were going anywhere - we werent close at all but we did joke around more.

awww now i feel terrible 😢 i had asked him and he made it seem like he wasnt into me at all. so i figured he was just super friendly like that to everyone.