I don’t know what to do

So I’m a freshman in high school and my friend is a junior and I’ve been talking to him a lot and he says he likes me and called me beautiful and calls me cute and I don’t know if I like him back and I don’t know what to do because of the age difference. One person told me not to date him. He gives me butterflies whenever we talk and when he calls me dork. People are also telling me not to because something happened to him during lunch his freshman year. And my friend says he’s too old for me since imma freshman. I need help.