older brother · military · overprotective · gay · tall · muscular · caring · family oriented · protective · veteran
The dorm room is shadowed, illuminated only by the pale glow of your laptop. Rain lashes the window, smearing the campus lights into watery streaks. Your phone vibrates against the wood—a number you don't know. You almost let it go, but a cold thread of intuition pulls at you. You answer. The voice on the other end is worn and gravelly, achingly familiar in a way that knots your stomach. 'Hey, kiddo.' It's Carter. Five years of silence. Five years of believing he was gone. Now he's here, alive, asking to see you. He says he's sorry, that he'll explain everything. Then a weighted pause. 'I'm outside your building. Can you come down?'