Summer Sanders is going through it. The pressures of school are mounting, and her home life is completely falling apart. Feeling bored and lonely on a Saturday night, she decides to get buzzed and surprise her hookup buddy with her best lingerie. Th...
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I CLOSE MY physiology exam packet, nervously debating if I should go through it to double check my answers for the fourth time. There's still five minutes left of our allotted test taking time. It wouldn't hurt to look again, but I'm finally feeling confident about my answers.
I hand my packet to professor Gallagher and give my final greetings to him before I leave his class for the last time.
With every completed exam, another weight is lifted off my shoulders and now with physiology behind me, I only have one more test to finish the semester out. Pharmacology.
It feels like my head is near bursting with knowledge of what feels like every medication known to man and its various effects on the human body. The headache sucks, but I do feel somewhat prepared for the exam tomorrow morning. You can never be too comfortable with professor Kane, though.
I hurry my pace down the long stairwell of the STEM building and maneuver past the corridor of the first floor to the lounge area.
Carter is sitting comfortably back against the orange couch in the center of the room. He flips through one of the science magazines that sit on the table, feigning interest.
I tap on the cover of the magazine and read its title. "You into nanotechnology now, pretty boy?"
Carter looks up, a smile forming on his plump lips. "Well, I'm not just pretty, I have brains too you know." He drops the magazine back onto the table and stands to wrap his arm over my shoulder. "How did your exam go?"
"I feel good about it. I think it went well."
He kisses my forehead and we exit out of the doors back to my room.
The May air is chilly this late afternoon. A welcomed cool down from the more humid morning we had. I take my scrunchie out of my hair, letting it pool over my shoulders. Carter pushes back the few curls that cover my face and kisses the bridge of my nose.
His phone goes off when we walk into my building. He looks at the name flashed on the screen and lifts his finger, asking for a moment.
"I'll just go to my room," I say.
He covers his hand over the phone and whispers. "Okay, I'll meet you there in a minute."
I know it's Sam calling. He's taken to being secretive about their relationship, leaving at the drop of a hat when she's off from school and work, or exiting the room to have private conversations he doesn't want me to hear.
Their dynamic is more strange to me than it's ever been. I don't know exactly what he's doing or saying to keep her clean. I don't know if she's even stayed clean since I last saw her. Something is very off. Then again, I haven't been in their shoes and I don't understand the full complexities of addiction.
I wish I could be let in but I know if Carter and I are gonna survive, it's best I stay out of things. At least until her custody battle is resolved.
He comes into my room after a while, letting out a heavy breath and pressing his lips together in a sort of grimace. Every part of me wants to ask what's going on with her. I wish we were in a place where he would tell me.
