"I think I'm in love." Carl laid as straight as a soldier on his bed, staring at the ceiling. Mariana had gone out with Debbie for their food run, and Carl was left with Ian and Lip.

"With who?" Lip asked, ashes slowly fluttering from his cigarette. Mariana always begged Lip to stop, but he always ended up going back to smoking. No matter how many times she hid his cigarettes to try to preserve his life, he'd never listen.

"Mariana." Carl's heart fluttered at the mere thought of the Hispanic girl. His hands were laying on his stomach, which didn't help with the butterflies in his stomach.

"What happened with Dom?"

"Found out she was cheating on me with a frat boy." He shrugged.

"Yikes."

Carl turned to his side, facing the two boys. He was looking at Ian, still upset from his actions at the dinner table. Ian knew Carl liked Mariana, why did he have to mess shit up?

"Hey Ian."

"Yeah?"

"Why do have to fuck things up with me and Mari?" He glared at the ginger boy who was currently cleaning his shoes. Ian wore only a black under shirt and matching basket ball shorts.

"What do you mean?" He softly chuckled. His whole plan was to make Carl realize that he was meant for Mariana.

"You go and ask her to the movies? You sit next to her at dinner? You see that I like her." He furrowed his eyebrows.

"And yet you're not dating." Ian scoffed, continuing to clean his ragged shoes.

"Well we can't."

"Why not." Ian turned to Carl.

"Because."

"Because what?" Ian yelled loudly, the irritation in Ian's voice clear. There was tension in the room. It was silence apart from Ian's heavy breathing.

"Because I don't want to ruin our friendship." Carl finally croaked out. Tears slipped down his rosy cheeks.

"You know nothing could ruin your guys' friendship." Ian softly spoke, feeling sympathetic to his younger brother.

"I don't want to hurt her."