You'll finally get to know Carter a little more in this chapter! The first chapters have been about Jeremy as his development is a bit more difficult to write, but there will soon be more Carter chapters!!

Enjoy :)

Carter's POV:

It's weird to think that I can't get that one boy out of my head... he's stuck there, slowly eating at my every thought. I keep wondering what he might be doing right now, why he ran away from me, what I did wrong to scare him off.

He seemed to be into what we were doing and then I was like "hey, kid, let's not go to far because I sure as hell can last longer than seven minutes and I know it's just a game but you have a girlfriend" and he ran off.

I've had plenty of one night stands and made out with lots of guys at parties, but this one guy, Jeremy, is stuck on my mind. It was one of the best kisses I've ever had, even though I could tell he was nervous.

Yes, I was a little bit high and coming down from it, so I was way more relaxed and encouraging, but it wasn't like I started touching him when he told me no. As soon as he started panicking I backed off, but he didn't even let me know what was going on or how I could help before he sprinted off.

I keep hoping I'll see him around campus, but from what Janelle mentioned to me, he's a high school student so he'll only be here when he's with Amanda.

Their relationship is a bit strange, honestly.

They seem more like best friends, like how Janelle and I are, as opposed to lovers. However, Janelle said that they've been together since Amanda was a sophomore in high school and Jeremy was a freshman, so that's four years of being together.

I'm friends with Amanda, but we're not as close.

More of the kind of relationship where if she were to get stuck on the side of the road and didn't have anyone to call, she could call me and I'd help her out.  Or if she needed help in a class or wanted to carpool, but we wouldn't really just hang out or have a texting conversation for fun.

There's a brief knock at the door to my bedroom and then Janelle walks in without waiting for an answer.

"The point of knocking is to wait for me to say 'hey, come on it' or 'don't come in, I'm naked,'" I deadpan, looking at my best friend as she begins to dig through my closet. "Sure, Janelle, you can totally borrow a shirt! Don't even bother asking!"

I get up and reach for the top shelf of the closet, grabbing the red Coca Cola shirt that she likes to steal because it's way too big on her.

"Oh, wait, you didn't ask," I finish, throwing her the shirt. "Don't get it stained and wash it before you give it back to me."

She grins as she takes my shirt. "I made you breakfast in return," she says, and that definitely has me on my feet.

"What'd you make?" I ask, grabbing a shirt that was laying on the ground and doesn't smell like BO or anything nasty.

"Eggs and toast. Obviously."

I sit at the table and before I can even ask, Janelle grabs the ketchup out of the fridge with a grimace on her face.

"Why can't you use hot sauce like a normal person?" she whines, as if that's going to stop me from putting an embarrassing amount of ketchup on my eggs. "Disgusting."

I shove a fork full of eggs into my mouth. "I can hear you over the sound of my chewing these delicious, ketchup smothered eggs," I say with a muffled voice.

She continues to gives me a grossed out look, intentionally sitting in a different spot than she usually does so she can get as far away from me as possible.

"You don't have classes today," she comments, pouring herself a glass of juice.

"No, I don't. Thanks for reminding me."

She gives me a pleading look. "So would you be willing to pick up some groceries? I'll pay you for half, obviously."

We have an agreement that Janelle usually does the shopping, though I don't mind doing it once in a while, and I usually just Venmo her for half of it. We've been friends for a long time and whenever we go out to get food we take turns paying, but in the apartment we split it so it's free game for everyone.

"Yeah, I can make that work," I agree. "I'm going to work out in the park first because the pool is being used for some high school state competition."

I got into Rowan and I was offering a swimming scholarship, so that's paying for a lot of my college experience. It's a decent school, albeit most of the students are more here for the every night parties as opposed to the actual education.

The education piece is important to me, but I've always been a great student so my primary focus is on swim. That means making sure I'm working out every day, even if the pool is closed and coach gave us the day off because of it.

Janelle puts the dirty pans in the sink and I start washing them despite her protests.

"Your class starts in fifteen minutes and it's a ten minute drive," I remind her.

"Not everyone needs to be five minutes early to class," she mumbles.

I have a paranoia with being late and I'm usually thirty minutes early and I sit in my car until I can go in five minutes early. When I was younger, my dad was always late to events and it irritated me so I'm always early now.

"Bye!" I call as she leaves the apartment, and she's scowling about it the whole time.

I was the dishes and put them on our drying rack. Our apartment stays clean which is really nice and for not really scream "two college students" but we both hate when everything is trashed. It's stressful and if we want to be messy, that can stay in our respective rooms.

I'm not the cleanest person in my own room, as there's lots of clothes on the ground, but there's not moldy food or gross trash all over the place.

My phone dings with an incoming text and I grab to make sure it's not Janelle messaging me about forgetting her bag or something important.

Akira: I have your shirt

Me: is it covered in vomit?

Akira: No! I washed it :)

Me: you can drop it off later. i have to work out and get groceries so come over around three-ish? you don't have class today, right?

Akira: Nope, I'll be at your place round 3 :)

Akira is one of my friends whom I've known since freshman year. We had a chemistry class together and he was way more advanced than me and offered to help me out.

Yeah, we fucked around more than we did study, but I passed the class with a high grade so I can't even be upset about it.

I put on a pair of sweats and a black short sleeved shirt since it's not too cold out. I rarely wear a sweatshirt when working out because it always gets way too hot.

My phone and apartment key are tucked into my pocket that zips up on my sweats so that they don't fly out while I run. I put in earbuds and shuffle the songs on my phone and then run toward the park that sits just outside of the college campus.

I run for an hour around the park before I slow down and start walking to cool down.

That's when a familiar face catches my eye.

Well, sort of familiar; I only saw him when he was screaming at me on the floor of the closet and when he was asking in shock if I was gay.

"Hey!" I call, taking out my earbuds and jogging toward him.

Jeremy makes eye contact with me and his eyes glimmer with recognition before he turns around and runs away from me.

I pause in my tracks and gape at him as he sprints off. I could easily catch up with him, especially since he seems to be limping a bit while he runs. There's no reason to be concerned because I don't know him, but I can't help the slight fear in my gut when I see him run-limp away.

I guess he doesn't want to talk to me.

He was really upset when we played that damn game and kissed, but I don't really see the big deal. I apologized to Amanda when he ran away at the party and she texted me after and said she wasn't upset with me and she didn't know why Jeremy panicked so badly. It was just a game and it wasn't like we were going to go further than kissing.

Even if wanted to...

I need to get my head out of the gutter! That guy has a girlfriend, and even though he really seemed to enjoy me feeling me up, he isn't mine and I'm not going to be a home wrecker.

Amanda and I are sort of friends, though, so I could just be friends with her boyfriend.

He was probably just nervous because he thought he was cheating on Amanda or something like that.

When I get back to the apartment, I text her.

Me: hey! can i have your bf's number?

Amanda: Um, why? He's a little unsure about you after the party 😬

Me: because i think he and i could be friends. he seems pretty chill and you said he doesn't have a lot of friends

Amanda: Fair point. Just be nice, okay? And don't take it personally if he ignores you.

Me: i just wanna apologize to him for kinda jumping him a bit and i'll be nice! thanks!

She sends me the number, but there's a knock at my door before I can text him.

I open it up and see Akira, holding my grey shirt that I wore to the party.

"Thanks," I say, stepping out of the way so he can come in. "Want to watch a movie or something?"

"Sure," he says, walking to my room and laying down on the bed, making himself at home.

I lay next to him and turn on the TV, putting on some random cooking show. From the way Akira is looking at me, I don't think I'm going to be able to fully focus on the show anyway.

"I bought more condoms last week," I tell him, and that's all the invitation he needs.

Akira rolls on top of me and I help him pull off his shirt. It's not intentionally rushed, but we're fuck buddies and we both know that a relationship wouldn't really be right for the two of us, so we don't really take our time. The reason we play around is mostly because we're both single, gay, and neither of us has an STD or anything potentially contagious.

Our lips connect for the first time today, and within minutes, my cock is throbbing and down his throat. He's pretty good at sucking me off, but I think it's gotten old because there's not really an emotional connection and it's always been the same.

"Okay, pull off," I tell him and he listens to me, laying on his back.

I put in a condom and spend a few minutes prepping him before I push inside of him, kissing his lips.

He moans against my lips and scratches my back while arching his.

I kiss and bite along his neck, only leaving small marks his collar bone so he can at least cover them up.

There's very little warning before he comes, but his clenching around me pushes me over the edge as well and I finish in the condom, panting as I collapse on top of him.

Once we've caught our breath, I grab a baby wipe from my desk and clean both of our chests up.

"Post sex cuddling sound nice," I say, and Akira nods, already half asleep and cuddling closer to my chest.

I'm close to falling asleep when I hear my door open and see Janelle, who looks at the two of us and rolls her eyes with a smirk.

"Did you at least get groceries?"

I give a totally innocent smile. "You know, that's gonna be a negative, boss."

"Damn you thinking with the wrong head," she comments, shutting the door to my room behind her as she leaves.