The Carter Project ✓

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THERE WAS SOMETHING fishy going on.

Of course, that was always the case when it came to living in apartment 8-B since Carter Abrams moved into 8-C across the hall. Parties, ragers, kickbacks, OC's — whatever other names people our age could come up with for parties. People I knew from school and even ones I didn't know coming in and out of his place, his parents yelling every so often at each other, packages he ordered coming to his door, and food deliveries coming through in the late hours of the night. There was just plenty going on over the for just one boy and I had easily come to despise that fact.

Then again, it was Carter Abrams which felt like a statement within itself. He was, put as nicely as it could be, the most typical boy I had ever met but to the tenth degree. He was terribly charismatic but just as reckless and wild, a perfect storm in the form of a person who had swept up most of our junior grade level at St. Thaddeus College Preparatory in his shenanigans. It wasn't hard to imagine why everyone was drinking the kool-aid, he was a rather attractive individual with his tousled brown hair and bright green eyes. He was very athletic too; he was tall, muscular, and he used to play sports for the school until this year.

This year, he started forming a band with two of his best friends, Jack and Ryan who were equally as disastrous as he was. Which now meant them constantly hanging out, recitals that went late into, arguments over musical choices, and just general chaos but completely amplified to a higher plane.

In all honesty, I felt as if I wouldn't have minded his presence in my life. At least under different circumstances. Like if he lived two or more floors below me, or better yet, nowhere near me at all. I didn't generally associate with him during school time anyway because my boyfriend, Landon would pick me up early and take me to debate practice before Carter had even woken up. But my nights were usually all about him. As soon as school was over — or a little later than that, because he loved to hang around after school and do whatever delinquents like him loved to do — we would both be in our homes a hallway apart but way too close for each other's comfort.

Like now, of course, on a Sunday night. It was only seven o'clock and there was already noise wafting from under his door and right under mine. Thankfully, I had gotten all of my homework done Friday night or else my grades would be suffering, but something else was struggling right now.

My relationship, so to speak.

Landon had come over tonight because he told me he wanted to talk about something and his parents were hosting a work party at his place so he couldn't be there. Of course, if he was trying to avoid distractions, then he came to the wrong place. I was surprised to have secured a 3.8 grade point average while living right next to the spawn of Satan himself, and I knew that the extra 0.2 points were as good as mine if it weren't for him.

He seemed to have something serious to say by the way his nose would slightly twitch whenever he was interrupted, the fact that the circumstances of our meeting was causing delay to whatever message he wanted to tell me.

"How do you deal with him," he asked, pointing at the door that led out into the hallway and ultimately to Carter's house. "Like, it really is always like that, right?"

I chuckled, hoping to make this situation a lot less weirder than it already was. Like I said, there was definitely something fishy going on. "Yeah, babe. Welcome to my life," I said. "I probably will not be getting into an Ivy because this idiot keeps me up all night and makes it impossible for me to study."