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trey first met cater at orientation. ironically enough, they were seated next to eachother at the orientation party, after being assigned to Heartslabyul. “hey-hey, could i snap a pic with you?” were the first words cater had said to him. trey was, of course, very much confused. after she explained what exactly magicam was, he agreed to be in one of her pictures. cater laughed at the picture afterwards, because apparently trey was posed very stiffly. after that moment, the two freshmen become fast friends.
over the years, they had gotten very close. as close as two friends could. trey had been there for cater when he had a meltdown during his first Halloween party, and when she became housewarden (and subsequently, when she lost her title to a freshman.) cater had been there for trey after he realised just how much at fault he was for riddle’s overblot. so yeah, they had gone through some stuff together. and while the green-haired cook wasn’t exactly capable of romantic attraction, he was certain his feelings towards cater were the closest thing he’d ever get to that. so to nobody’s surprise, they ended up becoming a couple. trey was the one who asked her out, actually.
after getting together, trey had thought he and cater would become closer. however, the opposite seemed to be true. the magicam-obsessed student seemed to start distancing herself from her boyfriend.
originally, cater seemed like the perfect girlfriend. he was doting, loving, affectionate and a total goofball. he really seemed to care for trey. but the more time they spent together, the more trey realised how… fake it all seemed. as if an AI was forced to watch a thousand hours of romantic movies and then asked to create the perfect partner. he regularly said I love you, they went on dates together, they kissed and were intimate frequently, and all the other classic things you do in a relationship.
but none of it was real. it was all manufactured. and it just… confused trey. why didn’t their kisses feel genuine? why did her i love you’s feel rehearsed? why was she spending more time looking at her magicam feed than looking at him while on dates? why didn’t he feel loved? instead, he just felt like he was talking to a perfectly designed wall, a barricade to keep trey from actually connecting with cater.
he really thought he had her figured out. he noticed very quickly that cater wasn’t a fan of sweets, even if he didn’t tell him that herself. the cook even noticed that he seemed to use her phone as a coping mechanism. but clearly, he wasn’t looking deep enough. cater had so many layers, so many faces and façades, trey never knew when he was talking to the real her. sometimes, he’d feel like he could see her façade cracking, or feel her slip up and say what was really on his mind. but those moments seemed to get rarer and rarer after they started dating, and trey wasn’t even sure if they were friends anymore. he didn’t feel loved by cater, it felt more like he was an obligation, like his classmate didn’t want to hurt his feelings.
of course, he had to confront her. but cater just… ignored all of it. all the accusations, all the begging, everything. instead, he just laughed it off and said trey was looking too deep into it. that was the final straw. he couldn’t take it anymore.
after their relationship ended, their friendship seemed to disappear as well. cater spent the rest of the year wandering around, not really making any other close friends. she felt uncomfortable talking to riddle or any of the other people in his friend group, and it made trey feel guilty. maybe if he apologised to her, they’d become friends again?
no, he couldn’t do that. clearly, cater didn’t care about their relationship, or otherwise he would’ve at least addressed any of trey’s concerns. and so they spent the year growing further and further apart, until they both graduated and moved on with their lives.