"I heard you." Carl said suddenly, stopping Rylee in her tracks as she was about to silently walk out the front door after hanging out with Ian, like she had a few times before.
"What?" She asked.
"The other day, when you came in my room before you left and I was sleeping." he clarified quietly, "I wasn't sleeping, I heard you."
"oh." rylee awkwardly played with the sleeve of her sweatshirt.
"It's okay if you didn't mean it. I know you didn't really want me to hear, you probably just said it without thinking or something." Carl mumbled quickly.
"O-Okay." Rylee nodded.
"You can just go." Carl said, "Sorry."
"Okay." Rylee sighed quietly and turned around. She walked to the door, then paused for a moment and turned around.
"I meant it." She said simply.
Carl's head shot up with a small smile tugging at his lips, and hopeful eyes staring back at her. "You did?"
"I did." She nodded, "But that doesn't change things."
"I know." Carl said quietly.
"I'm gonna go now. I'll see you later, Carl."
__________
"I just feel bad, Bax, he always looks so sad." rylee said into the phone.
"Ry, he moved another girl into his house, he should be sad for a while!"
"He made her move out." she mumbled.
"Not until you broke up with him!"
"I know, Baxter!" She snapped, "I know he fucked up but I still don't like seeing him sad like this."
"I get it, man." Baxter said calmly, "I'm just saying, he didn't seem this worried when you were sad about that girl living with him."
"how would you know? He didn't even talk to you."
"because he didn't make her leave until you left him!"
"He was worried about her." rylee told him softly.
"He should have been worried about you." baxter reminded her.
"I have to go." she said quickly, not waiting for a response before she ended the call and threw her phone across the bed.
She sighed and laid back on the bed, covering her face with her hands, trying to decide if she should go talk to Carl or not, but before she could make a decision, she heard a knocking at her door. She groaned and stood up from her bed to go open the door, revealing Carl, who was slightly pacing on her front porch.
"I don't know why I came." He said quickly as soon as he saw rylee, as if he was apologizing, "I was just walking down the street so i thought I'd- I'm sorry. i-"
"I think we should be friends." She told him, cutting off his nervous rant.
"You- you what?" he stammered.
"I think we should be friends." rylee repeated herself.
"You do?" he asked slowly
"I do." she nodded.
"Okay." he nodded. He wanted to say more, but he was nervous he'd say the wrong thing, so he stayed quiet. It hurt him to be just friends with rylee, but being friends was definitely better than avoiding each other like they had been doing.
