Carl stumbled down the stairs the next morning, pouring himself a cup of coffee. He never really liked coffee, but he thought it would be necessary today, he had barely gotten any sleep because he couldn't stop thinking about what might be the right thing to say to Rylee would be. He never thought of it, but he never got more than an hour and a half of sleep either. He had a short second of silence after pouring his cup of coffee before he heard footsteps stomping toward him. He lifted his head up to see Liam standing in front of him.
"What's up, bud?" Carl asked quietly.
"Fiona said you will make me breakfast." He told him.
"Oh, did she?" Carl asked, and Liam nodded and walked over to sit at the kitchen table.
Carl rolled his eyes and set down his cup of coffee to grab the pancake mix from the cupboard. He poured some of it into a bowl and then mixed water in while he waited for the pan to heat up.
"Liam, what are you doing today?" Carl asked, trying not to bore his little brother with silence.
"Watching T.V." Liam shrugged.
Carl chuckled as he poured the pancake dough onto the pan. He decided not to try to start another conversation with Liam, though, since he'd only get a vague response. He made a couple pancakes and put them on a plate with some syrup and brought them over to Liam, still holding the bowl from the pancake mix.
"Thank you." Liam muttered.
Carl turned around to clean up the mess, but froze when he saw Rylee standing in his kitchen.
"I, uh, came to talk." She said quietly.
Carl could feel his eyes widen and his heartbeat speed up as he began to quickly nod. "Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah."
He quickly turned around and tossed the bowl into the sink, too quickly and it made water splash over onto the floor. Rylee gasped quietly and carl turned to her.
"Sorry." He mumbled, "Let's go upstairs."
They go up to his room and sit on his bed, but neither of them know how to start a conversation, so they sat in silence. They sat in silence for too long, until it was so awkward that Carl coughed and spoke up.
"You wanted to talk?" Carl asked, being the first to talk, but making her start the conversation.
"Yeah I did, but I don't really know how to start." She admitted quietly.
"Just start at the beginning." Carl shrugged.
"Bonnie moved in." She said quietly.
"She moved out." He said quickly, as if that made it different.
"Yeah, Carl, but before that you invited her to move in." Rylee snapped.
"I know, ry, you're right." Carl sighed. "I don't know what else to do but apologize and tell you it won't happen again."
"You were barely even talking to me before that either, though," rylee sighed, "maybe we were going to break up, anyway."
"No no, I was just being a dick." He said quickly, "we weren't going to break up, I swear."
She didn't say anything back for a while, and it was worrying Carl, so he scooted closer to her and rested a hand on her leg.
"I'm gonna make it up to you, I'm not gonna fuck up like this again." he promised, "You know that right?"
"I don't know, carl." she whispered.
"How can I show you?"
"I don't know, I'm scared" she said quietly, her voice cracking at the end.
"I know, baby" Carl wrapped his arms around her, pulling her into his chest, "I'm so sorry I got us into this mess."
They stayed like that for awhile, not saying anything, but Carl was getting anxious to finish the conversation. "What are we gonna do?"
"I don't know"
"I really really want to try this again." He told her as she pulled away from their hug to sit at the edge of the bed again.
"I know, I'm just not sure it'll work." She said.
"It'll work." He told her quickly.
Rylee just sighed and took a deep breath as she leaned down to set her elbows on her legs and her head in her hands. She stayed there for a moment, then took another breath and stood up. "Let's go to the river."
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"What are you thinking about?" Carl asked rylee as he looked down at her.
She was laying down on the grass with her hands behind her head and a joint hanging loosely between her lips. The sun was shining down on her just right, and Carl had to resist the urge to just lean down and kiss her. He thought about just doing it, but he knew that now was definitely not the time.
"What are you thinking about?"
"I'm thinking about you being my girlfriend again." He told her.
She took a hit and then brought a hand out from under her head to remove it from her mouth. She exhaled smoke and then looked up at Carl, squinting from the sun.
"Okay."
Carl's eyes widened and he dropped his joint into the grass, stumbling to pick it up and put out what was left as he stuttered, "O-okay?"
She nodded, as she laid back down and took another hit, closing her eyes to avoid getting smoke in them.
"R-really?"
"As long as you mean what you said." She said as she put out the joint on the ground next to her.
"Oh, I mean it." Carl said quickly, nodding his head almost as fast as he was speaking.
"Okay." She said again
"So we can... So we... So we're dating again?" Carl stumbled over his words.
Rylee nodded, "We're dating again."
"Oh, thank god." he muttered as he quickly leaned down to kiss her.
He quickly got annoyed with the awkward position they were in, and broke away from the kiss for a second, muttering "come're." and pulling her onto his lap. He kissed her again, wrapping his arms around her waist to bring her closer as she brought her hands up to his hair. Carl kissed the corner of her mouth, then down to her jaw and neck.
"I missed you so much." He said quietly, peppering kisses along her collar bones, "You're so beautiful, I love you more than you know."
"Carl, stop." Rylee laughed as carl started to suck on a spot on her neck, leaving a mark.
"Hm?" he asked, leaning back a very small bit.
"Let's go home." She suggested quietly.
"Okay." he agreed, but started kissing her again, anyway. She tangled her fingers in his hair again before remembering that she wanted to leave. She pulled away, laughing lightly again.
"We really should go home." She told him.
"Yeah yeah, let's go." He nodded, lifting her by the waist so he could stand up, then pulling her up by her hands, and immediately into his arms.
"I'm so happy, baby." He whispered with a smile stuck on his face as he kissed the top of her head and squeezed his arms tighter around her.
"Me, too." She smiled up at him.
Carl leaned down to kiss her lips once more before they walked back home to spend the night together, just like they always had.
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(aw
i think idk)
