He tilted his head to one side, green eyes locked on mine. "They won't?"

"You put your penis inside of my vagina, D!" I whisper-hissed, pointing to my crotch. "And worse, I liked it!" My cheeks flamed as I spoke. "And then you went right ahead and ghosted me for the best part of a freaking week."

"I wasn't ghosting you, Dolly," he groaned, standing up. "I would never ghost you." Moving straight for me, he continued to speak, "The truth is that I've a lot of shit bottled up inside of my head. Shit that stems back years. Shit that I need to tell you about, but ain't ready to talk about." Stopping short in front of me, Daryl reached down and tipped my chin up, forcing me to look into his eyes. "Shit that will change everything between us."

"Everything?"

He nodded slowly. "I just got you back, Molls. I'm not ready for everything to change yet." I couldn't help but notice the guilt flicker in his eyes. "Does that make sense?"

"I don't know." Confused, I stared up at him. "Kinda?"

"I'll take kinda." His eyes burned with affection when he said, "You're my best friend. I don't give two shits how much time has passed. When I'm with you, like right now, even though you're all pissy and shit with me, it feels right. It feels like no time has passed at all. It feels like I'm home."

My heart.

Oh god.

"Yeah." I blew out a shaky breath. "I know what you mean."

"I care about you. A lot," Daryl continued. "And this ridge between us? This whole being shy and coy around each other bullshit?" He waved a hand around aimlessly. "It's been hanging in the air for way too long. I'm done with the distance, Molls. I'm done with being in denial."

"Wh-what are you saying, D?"

"I just wanna be around you, Dolly," he came right out and stated. "That's all. I wanna be all up in your space, taking up all of your free time, and spending all of my nights with you. There ain't anyone else I'm looking at."

"When you say you're not looking at anyone else…" I let my words trail off and exhaled a shaky breath, too afraid to get my hopes up. Feeling incredibly uncertain in this moment, I let my hands fall to my sides as I stared up at the only boy I ever loved.

"You mean…"

"I mean that I'm only interested in spending time with you."

Whoa.

"As friends?"

A flicker of something that looked almost like disappointment flashed in his eyes before he buried it with a smile. "Best friends."

I was wary and afraid, unsure and cynical. In the past week, he had blown hot and cold faster than I could snap my fingers. I couldn't be reckless with my heart. Not again. "I swear to god, Daryl, if you treat me like you did today again, I will never speak to you again. If you even think about ghosting me again –"