To say I love you...?

[Andy]

I met this guy last semester and I asked him to my fraternity's formal not knowing him very well. We ended up having a really great night. I started spending a lot of time with him fairly quickly. By the end of the month I was sleeping over at his apartment almost every night. He is so easy to talk to and I feel like I know him inside and out. I literally saw something about two sentences long he had anonymously posted on this Facebook page and (without knowing he posted it) guessed that it was him because I know how he talks so well!

The thing is, I haven't seen him since mid December because he is in Spain and is not coming back afterwards. But, I have talked to him almost every day since then and we Skype once a week and get carried away in conversation for hours. I am planning on visiting him this summer too, so I know I will see him again. I just have never had to tell someone I am in a relationship with that I love him.

I keep telling myself that he will say it back, I am almost certain he will, but I have this silly fear that he will not like me saying it. He is a very free spirited guy and likes to do things in the "now" and not worry too much about the future. I am a little bit opposite of this, and I think this is why we get along so well, because we bring something to each other that the other one is missing. Ultimately, I wonder if he will take "I love you" as a sort of determining moment that, in a sense, "ties him down" to me and keeps him from his freedom, at least the act of him saying it back. Therefore, I am hesitating to say it because I obviously don't know what he is going to say back.

Is this an appropriate time to tell him (it would be over Skype)? Should I wait until August when I will visit him (I don't think I can wait that long!)? Or maybe I should not say it ever because it won't be worth it to him? Or am I reading into this 500% too much and should I really just say it and fuck the consequences because life's too short?

Thanks guys.