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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."

"Don't be ridiculous," Landon said, cupping my cheek with his hand. "You're super smart, involved at school, and your grades aren't perfect but they're pretty damn close to it. Any Ivy would be foolish not to have you, and any other school would throw fistfuls of scholarship money at you. If it were me living here—"

He was interrupted by the sound of glass breaking across the hall at Carter's house and what sounded like a medium-sized group of people groaning and moaning about whatever contents they had lost when that glass broke — thus proving the point he didn't even get to make yet.

We were sitting in my foyer on the heather grey, plush couches that sat in front of the television. For a second, I considered turning on a show in order to drown out the party, but doing so would also drown out Landon who seemed like he was dying to be heard. The noises coming from across the hall would be a lot less audible in my bedroom but I felt as if my mom had ways of knowing if I let a boy in my room while she was gone, so that option was not on the table either. I guessed he would just have to make do with whatever he could get.

"What are you trying to tell me, Landon," I asked, leaning out of his hold on my cheek to look him square in the face. From this vantage point, I could see his nervousness plain as day and I knew that I was in for something brutal. Of course, I had no idea if at any point, I was actually going to hear it.

So my over-active imagination took over the reins instead. Was he transferring to a different school and thusly moving out of the state for good? Was he quitting the debate team because he finally caved to his dad's pressures and decided to pick up a sport? Was his car broken down and he was no longer able to drive me to school and help me avoid Carter? Weirdly enough, those were the worst words I could imagine slipping out from between his thin but strangely supple lips.

Landon wasn't the bad news guy, or at least he wasn't my bad news guy. He was the one who made me feel better about all of the stress I was shouldering throughout my day to day life, a lighthouse in the sea of troubles I navigated constantly. Whatever he was telling me couldn't have been as awful as all of the scenarios I had ran through haphazardly in my head. This wasn't going to be bad news, it would be medium news at its worst.

"Mia," he said with a sigh. "I think that you and I have to break up."

Well that definitely was a shocker, yet at the same time a let down. I knew we had to break up something, but what was it exactly? After a few seconds of staring him blankly in the face, I realized that he meant we should evenly break up our responsibilities for the next debate meet because he had offered to bring all of the snacks, but I knew how expensive that would be for him to do alone.

"Oh yeah, of course," I said with a shrug. "Without a doubt."

His eyes widened in shock. I had no idea why. There was no reason he should've been surprised that I wanted to help him pay for all of those snacks, there were twenty five hungry teenagers on the team. I was the one who was surprised that he asked to have all of that responsibility to himself. I knew he could handle it, though, he was a responsible boyfriend and responsible guy.

"Let me get a notepad," I said as I got up from the couch and made my way over to the kitchen counter where my mother usually left a pen and legal pad in case she wanted to make a quick grocery list. Taking them both up in my hands, I walked across the room so that I was standing over him behind the back of the couch. "The freshmen usually like sugary treats so what are we thinking? Donuts are a must, but they're for everyone except Tyler because he's been three months gluten free. Maybe just assorted candy, right? That's non-perishable and definitely portable. The sophomore class is definitely a wild card, though —"

"Wait, Mia," Landon tilted his back against the back of the couch so that he was looking up at me. "What in the world are you doing?"

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you think I'm doing?"

"Well, it seems —"

"Don't answer that question, babe," I said with a sigh. "Look, I'm trying to help you prepare for the big debate meet next Saturday. You said we should break up my duties so that they would be more manageable and done more efficiently and I think that any sacrifice made in the name of efficiency is well justified. So I am fully willing to do this for you. For us."

"Us? Mia, I don't think you understood what I was trying to say," he groaned. "Look, I hate to go about it all rudely, but I was saying I think we should break up with each other. Break up our relationship."

Well, that was definitely a misunderstanding for the history books. Here I was, helping my suddenly-ex-boyfriend plan the snacks for a debate meeting while he was telling me our relationship was over. And he had the audacity to come over here and tell me that too when I was already going though so much right now. To break my heart in my own house.

"You skinny bastard," I yelled, reaching down for his exposed neck and wrapping my fingers around it. "I swear to God I'm going to kill you!"

He was terribly lucky that he was stronger than me, because he was able to slip himself from my hold on him pretty easily. "Hey, hey, hear me out for a second," he pleaded, spinning around to face me and throwing his hands up in front of him. "I can explain, Mia. I really can."

"Okay, explain it then," I snapped. By the dumbfounded look on his face, I could tell he wasn't expecting to get this far when he thought over breaking up with me in his head. Did he think I was going to sit there and hear that he wanted to throw away what we had without even hearing the reason why? For someone who always reminded me how smart I am, he sure seemed to take me for an idiot. "Why the hell do you want to break up with me? Is it that other girl on the debate team, the sophomore who always wants to stay late for the meetings and help you organize the binders? If it is, I swear on everything I'll kill you."

"No, it's not that," he whined. "Kaitlin doesn't even like me like that, nor does it have to do with another girl! It's just complicated! It's not you, it's me! I don't know how to explain it without hurting your feelings!"

"Oh, well it's a little too late for that, buddy," I hissed between my clenched teeth, pointing fiercely at the door. "Just get out of my house, I don't want to talk to you!"

Among all of Landon's good and bad attributes, being able to take a hint was thankfully in their. With urgency like I had never seen before, he scrambled out of my living room, opening the door and taking off like a bat out of hell. All that was left behind him after that were his footsteps growing softer and softer as he made it down the hall. That and the broken pieces of the relationship we had shared for so long.

I considered myself a strong person, in the most humble way of saying that, but everything that had just happened only made me collapse straight to the floor and start sobbing. Landon had meant so much for me and I thought everything was just perfect between us, only for it not to be and for him to just dump me out of the blue — it was way too much for me to handle.

"Casey, could you turn it down for Christ's sake," I heard a familiar voice call out from my doorway, in that same condescending tone he always had reserved for me. "I'm trying to have a party next door and your crying is really killing the vibe."

I wasn't wearing makeup today, but even so, I still didn't want for Carter to see my tear stained face. Thankfully, I was slumped on the floor with my face pointed in the opposite direction of where he stood, so he wouldn't be able to see exactly how desperate I was when I cried out, "Carter, just leave me alone!"

He was silent for a minute and I wasn't sure if he were still there or if he had tip-toed off until I heard him sigh. "Look, you seem like you're in a bad mood, so I'll leave the door open in case you want to come over to my party. No offense, but you could really use a beer right now."

I rolled my eyes, trying to formulate something rude to say to him, but then I head his footsteps as they made their way back to his apartment and I was alone.