Chapter Text
“Are you paying any attention at all?”
Cater blinked slowly as his eyes refocused from the bright alluring sunlight streaming in through the windows to the dimmer interior light of the Heartslabyul dorm lounge. Trey had that bemused smile on his face - the one that always made Cater’s heart skip a beat - while he waited for a reply.
Right. A reply.
Cater twirled his pen and gave his study buddy what he hoped was a charming wink. No one ever took his flirting seriously, which was good since he only ever meant it seriously for one person and Cater was sitting next to him.
Who, of course, didn’t seem to take his flirting any more seriously than anyone else. Sadly.
“Yeah, totally! Just giving my eyes a break. Which was your idea, you know,” Cater added with a tap of his pen to Trey’s notebook.
Trey hummed, clearly not buying Cater’s excuse of listening to Trey’s advice for once. “A break from, what was that? An entire five minutes of studying? I believe I said once an hour.”
“C’mon,” Cater whined. “Old Man Trein is gonna fail me, no matter what I do. He hates me.” Cater flopped dramatically against Trey’s shoulder. Sure, maybe he was taking advantage of his dorm mate’s friendliness to invade his personal space and sure, maybe it didn’t help his lowkey (high key) crush on Trey, but he loved how Trey simply bore his weight and kept him from tipping his chair over.
Which he totally hadn’t done before. Nope. No pix. Couldn’t prove it.
He could almost hear Trey rolling his eyes. “Maybe if you spent more time paying attention and less time on Magicam during his class.”
Cater straightened and gestured to his phone where it sat on the table. Trey had made him swear not to touch it for an hour and he had twenty-six minutes left. Not that he was counting. “Not my fault History falls during prime social media hours. It’s been studied and they’ve proven that’s when posts get the most views!”
Trey shook his head with a half grin, pushing Cater’s notes pointedly over his phone. “If you would put the same kind of effort into class as you do to Magicam, you could be successful at both.”
It was always that half grin that did Cater in and made him fall in line. Trey had deployed it during their bargaining to get Cater to put down his phone and study. Cater was weak for that grin. That, and Trey’s seemingly unwavering faith in him.
Yep, he had it bad for his bestie.
Too bad he couldn’t do anything about it. Sometimes, he thought he caught Trey watching him in a way that wasn’t always exasperated by whatever trouble Cater had gotten into that day. Sometimes, he thought Trey leaned into him just as much as Cater did. Sometimes, he thought Trey would make a move on him. But he never had and so Cater didn’t either.
Cater twisted a lock of hair by his ear, trying to play it cool. “Aww, Trey. You think so?”
Trey turned back to his own notes, his smile a little softer and, Cater thought, more sincere for it. Totally swoon-worthy.
Okay, Cater thought most of Trey’s looks were swoon-worthy. He never understood why more people weren’t clamoring after Trey when he looked like he did. And acted like he did. And he was smart and resourceful and observant and, sure, he had the third scariest scowl of anyone on campus, but it was easy to turn that frown upside down. Cater should have had competition for Trey’s attention, but he didn’t and he was grateful for that.
“Why don’t we find out together?” Trey asked.
Cater nudged Trey playfully with his shoulder, his own smile as sweet as Trey’s pastries. Even if Trey didn’t like him like that, Cater would appreciate the bond they did share. “Yeah, okay.”
Yeah, Cater was definitely hashtag Crushing It, hashtag And I Dont Mean Studying, hashtag Maybe One Day.