Courageous

CHAPTER SIX

Was it possible for his crush on Max to grow even more?

Yes. Yes, it was.

Carter wouldn't have believed anyone who came to him and told him he would have a crush on a boy while in college and when they would first meet, he wouldn't be able to find the right words to talk to him because he would be embarrassed by saying something stupid and blowing his chances.

No one, not even his brother Nick.

But that was the situation he found himself in that year. And while he had grown to be more confident around Max, he was still careful while being around him. Not that he didn't trust the guy or anything, he just wasn't exactly ready to be his true self yet. He was afraid of judgement. He had only shown the real Carter two times at him and he hadn't exactly gotten the vibe that Max liked that personality of his.

The first one was when he found him and Noah in the fountain, messing around. He had taken a picture of them while they were goofing around but he never talked about that incident since. The second one was when he took a picture of him eating cotton candy in the pier for his photography class. He felt so embarrassed at that because that meant his whole class had seen that picture at his presentation.

That didn't however, mean that Max and he had stopped hanging out.

Actually, they were hanging out a lot more than he does with Noah and Carter lives with him. His roommate had finally managed to ask Jasmine to be his girlfriend after three dates which is why he spent more time with her than in their room with Carter. He didn't mind though because he would be called Max over and they would have a blast hanging out together.

It was after three weeks of hanging out with him almost every single day that he decided that maybe he did need to let loose and be more like himself. Instead of being closed off and careful, he had decided to act like he did when Noah would be around.

Free.

He had texted Max half an hour ago while he was in his History of Arts class to meet him at his dorm at four o'clock when his class ended. He had waited for the minutes to go by but since he was very excited and nervous, time seemed to slow down which angered and annoyed him a lot. Every time something like that would have and Carter would have an anxiety attack.

However, this time he stopped himself from having one by texting his friend throughout the whole class. Noah seemed to always find a way to keep him calm and even Jasmine's occasional texts seemed to help too.

While texting Noah, he would get another text from her since his friend (after being granted permission from him) was explaining the situation to her. She would send him weird gifs that would make him stifle his laughs and cough to cover them and then, she could also send some motivational quotes she could find online like 'I would date you so hard and then marry the s**t out of you' or 'Don't worry about finding the right woman, concentrate on becoming the better man' and then she would edit the picture with the quote on it and cross the word woman and write man over it which also caused him to double over in laughter.

Some didn't even make sense which made him forget about the situation and let loose. He loved his friends for that -could he call Jasmine that even though they haven't exactly met each other yet? 

He liked her so he would.

Carter

Tell Jasmine that I finally approve

Noah

She will be thrilled lol

Once his class was over and got a warning from his lecturer who seemed to notice he was texting on his phone, he ran to his dorm. It was quarter to four and he needed to make sure the room was clean, meaning that every piece of his or Noah underwear was inside their respective drawers and not on the floor like they had left it last time.

(He didn't touch Noah's boxers; he used his roommate’s pencil to get them in the drawer).

Max arrived at his place thirty minutes after he was supposed to arrive. He was holding a takeaway bag in his hands which explained why he was late. He had gotten them some burritos and had even asked for two with hot sauce even though Carter couldn't handle it. He claimed he wanted to see how he would react or whatever but Carter was definitely going to eat that thing.

After eating everything and winning Max at FIFA for like the tenth time that week, Carter could tell his crush had realised his behaviour had changed. However, he never made a comment on it. Instead, he seemed to enjoy free Carter a lot more which he could tell by the way he was smiling (which was larger and way more frequently) and by how closer they were standing.

Usually, Carter would have put some space between them but Free Carter didn't. 

Even though he was freaking out on the inside.

"You okay? You seem kinda different today," Max commented as he was about to walk out of the door.

Carter's eyes seemed to have widened at his words to which the other male chuckled. A light blush coloured his cheeks as he looked down and cleared his throat, "Yeah, I'm good. Just being a little bit more free around you if that make sense,"

"It does," He gave him a warm smile that had his insides doing a flip, "See you later, Cart,"

Once he had walked out of the room and he had closed the door, Carter jumped in the air and raised his fist in victory. He liked him; he liked the real him! He was so happy that he couldn't help but smile like that cat from Alice in Wonderland. He didn't stop smiling till Noah came back from his date and commented that he looked extremely creepy like that.

If he was brave enough to show him the real him, maybe he could even find the courage to ask him out too.

Maybe...