Moving on

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Gay guy here. Fresh out of high school, with no experience dating or having sex, I became friends with another gay guy with fairly similar interests to me. I never was really into him sexually or romantically. He was really into me though, and foolishly, I decided to date him thinking I wasn't going to magically meet someone else I was into, and might as well compensate for lacking any experience with those things from high school.

Ended up getting attracted to someone else though, and I broke off our relationship after a year. It was a bad situation, and I was entirely at fault, naive/idiotic/etc. He didn't take it as terribly as I take breakups (for instance), but was pretty broken up for a bit. We've drifted apart a bit since.

It's been a handful of years now. We're cordial but don't talk too often. I suppose this is the proper relationship we should have at this point. I feel pretty bad about my actions, and would want to be better friends, but it isn't too feasible anyway, we live in different cities. I would talk to him more online, but it's often me initiating conversation, and I don't want to impose if he's moved on, or still trying to move on or something.

What's the proper way for us to regard each other in this situation? Also, if you've been in a situation like this, how do you suppose I should feel (or mention or not mention, atone or not atone, etc) about by past with him? How do you suppose he feels about me?

tl;dr- staying friends after a breakup- what's appropriate and normal?