Confused..............why didn't he tell me? or why didn't anyone...? was it just bad timing?

Coming out to one's family is probably the hardest thing to do - we can understand that your brother might have thought that you would not accept him as being gay and maybe he just wanted to hang on to the friendship of little brother for a bit longer and not lose him by telling him. You are a very good guy and we think that your brother is very lucky to have you - he probably doesn't know how lucky he is yet! Just be yourself and remain cool, he is very nervous about coming out and remember straight people don't have to come out to anyone. Good luck P&P :-)