Childhood friend is HOT

Theres this guy who used to really annoy me when we were back in elementary school but I think he did that on purpose because he liked me. I havent seen him in 6 years (now in highschool) and hes gotten really attractive. Some friends of mine at his school say that a lot of girls dont find him attractive because hes blonde so I'm hoping this means he wont play games with me. We're going to different schools now but have tons of mutual friends and we started snapping eachother recently. He also thinks I'm attractive and even admitted that he liked me back then. He really seems like a genuine guy, I can tell when guys have bad intentions, like just hooking up and not talking ever again after. We're both on the same level (what we've done) and I really want to be more than friends and he already wants to hang out but I dont know how to hint towards going on a date. I've never really cared about dating but it just feels different with him but I dont want to scare him off by being abrupt or annoying. I'm especially worried about being annoying so what should I do???? I want to be more than friends but I have no idea how to do that without scaring him off?  Please give me tips!!!!