A/N: Title credit goes to my BFFL Jethro, who only gets to read this story when I decide to print out the chapters for him, we go to the library in school, or I copy the word files for him onto my jump drive. He's helped me with a lot of the planning in this story and constantly urges me to keep writing. Love you boy, as annoying as you get.

Chapter Fifteen: iDrag It Out Of You

Sometimes I just don't know how or why she does the things she does. But I knew why Carly was giving me the silent treatment as we packed up all of our things and headed out of the hotel. I knew exactly why she was giving me subtly dirty looks, by her standards, and sticking close to her boyfriend. Today was the day that we got back on the plane and made our way back to Seattle. I wouldn't tell her where I got the money for the trip. I didn't want to tell her what I had to subject myself to. She would be upset with me. Well, no: she would be glad that I told her the truth and upset that I did what I did, but reassured that I would never do it again. Carly has a strange way of accepting me. It changes just about every time I bring something new to our relationship, whether it be our friendship or that extra thing we have going that just... uh, doesn't have any kind of label attached to it.

It was tortuous watching Carly rest her head on Michael's shoulder instead of mine. But I couldn't do anything about it. Right now, I was alone. We were sitting in the waiting terminal at the airport, just waiting for our plane to come in. Some people had breakfast sandwiches and coffees, but I couldn't stand to eat right now. I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't even look at Carly right now. I mean, yeah, she's my best friend and I should be happy for her when she's happy, but we're kind of fighting. I mean, it's not like a full on verbal fight, it's just an unspoken ordeal where she just won't talk to me unless I speak up to her.

Our plane wheeled into the terminal and we grabbed our carry on bags, heading for the entrance to the stretched out hallway leading to the plane. Again, we were doomed to the tail end of the plane, strictly riding coach. No one really seemed to care. A lot of people were happy to be going home but there was the small group of hardcore travelers that just didn't want to leave this new country. I was stuck sitting next to Carls again, and I say stuck because we weren't on speaking terms so it was going to be hard.

Michael filed in to the window seat, putting Carly between us. That was fine by me. I knew we weren't going to have a secret rendevous in the bathroom, though I would totally love a round two with her right now, but I really wish we would be able to talk. I miss not talking to Carls already and it hasn't even been that long. She just started ignoring me this morning. Was it because I woke up before her and hopped in the shower maybe? I don't know. I did kiss her on the forehead before I took my shower and she did stir, but she didn't completely wake up. Ever since our date, we had been sneaking kisses constantly. She would purposely slip into the bathroom when I was getting in the shower, or she'd pull me into the bathroom and pin me against the door. Later, she would just tell the other girls in our room that she needed my help with the shower again or wanted my help with her hair. They bought it. They practically ate it up.

We were about an hour or so into the flight and Michael was sound asleep. Carly was watching whatever movie was playing but when she took off the headphones, I knew it wasn't worth watching. I had my hands resting on the arm rests, including the one that I shared with Carly, but I felt her hand slide into mine, our fingers lacing. It's now or never. I squeezed her hand and shifted a little; I even unbuckled my seat belt, which made Carly weakly gasp. I think she was just mocking me, though.

"I withdrew money from my mom's checking account and I sold some of my stuff to get the money for the trip." That was truthful. I took a couple hundred dollars from Mom's account after she cashed her paycheck. She doesn't even balance her checkbook regularly so I'm sure she won't miss it too much. And if she ever decides to sober up, I'll tell her I took the money and pay her back when I can get a job. I sold some old CDs and movies I had, and I sold my stereo system. I rarely used it anyway. I was still short, though. That's when I started searching through Mom's stuff. I found a stash of drugs, which I looked upon curiously and then I decided to sell them. I know I was being an enabler for young people, but I don't care. I'm selfish. I also sifted through some of the jewelry I had gained over the years from now estranged relatives and to my dismay, none of it was real.

It felt like a weight had been lifted off of my shoulders and my chest when I told Carly the truth. She didn't verbally respond to me. I saw her head turn away from me. Either she was looking out the window or checking to see if Michael was truly sleeping. Then she turned her head and pressed a kiss to my cheek, a lingering one. I could feel her smiling against my face. That's always a good thing, when she's smiling at me. She squeezed my hand too. Then she rested her head on my shoulder.

I ended up falling asleep with my head resting above Carly's. I even skipped the one meal that we were served on the plane. But it's okay. I had my best friend back. I mean, yeah, things were going to be a little tense between us but we were getting better. We were fixing our relationship everyday, little by little. When the plane landed in Seattle, I woke up first and put my seat belt on straight away. I made sure that Carly's was on too and she squeezed my hand.

"Are we in Seattle yet?" She asked softly. I kissed her hair and smiled softly.

"I think we're getting close. We didn't land yet, though," I told her quietly and she nodded against my shoulder, staying close. She squeezed my hand again.

"Are you going home when we get back to Seattle?" Her voice sounded quiet and I weakly shrugged. "If you don't feel up to going home, you can stay with me." I knew I was going to miss cuddling with Carly if I went home so I nodded.

"I don't think Mom would even remember that I'm coming home today," I informed quietly. Carly lifted her head from my shoulder and glanced over to Michael again. I looked away from her, keeping my eyes on the second movie that was still rolling. It was nearing the credits, I think, because I saw people starting to take their headphones off. That's when she caught me off guard. It didn't really matter because a lot of the people around us were sleeping or people we didn't know. With her free hand, Carly held my chin and caught my lips with her own. It was a short kiss but it made my lips feel all tingly.

"Thank you for telling me the truth," She told me quietly, pecking my cheek again. Moments after she settled into her seat again, Michael started stirring so she released my hand and I folded my arms over my chest. Then our plane landed. That meant that I could go back to sleep and in a familiar bed. Well, the bed that Carly and I had shared in Spain became very much like home, as long as I was in her arms or she was in my arms.

When we had our carry on bags and were heading off of the plane, and after we went through customs, we made our way downstairs to the luggage pick up area. Michael found his luggage and, although he wanted to stay and wait for Carly and I to get our suitcases from the carousel, Carly urged him to go home and spend time with his family, who probably missed him. She didn't really seem like she wanted anything to do with him, to be completely honest. As soon as Michael was gone, I felt her arm wrap around my shoulders. I wish she was holding my waist instead, but this was keeping my butterflies at bay right now.

"So, what exactly are we?" I asked her softly, turning my head to look at her. Out of the corner of my eye, I was still watching the carousel, paying subtle attention to look for our suitcases and be sure to grab them if need be.

"What do you want to be," She whispered back to me. Her eyes were glued to the carousel and I turned my head so that mine were as well. I drew in a deep breath.

"You know what I want to be, Carls." I informed her and she nodded weakly.

"No labels, okay?" She told me. "Labels are for soup cans, not people." She smiled brightly, taking her arm from around me and walking towards the carousel, grabbing her suitcase off of the conveyor belt. Moments later, I spotted my own suitcase and I lugged it off of the conveyor belt but someone was helping me.

"Lemme help you with that," I knew that voice anywhere, even if I didn't want to know it sometimes, especially when that voice was delivering flirts to my Carly.

"Benson," I muttered, forcing a smile.

"Puckett," He replied just as quietly. Once my suitcase was off the conveyor, I stepped forward and gave him a short hug. He offered to carry my suitcase for me, which I didn't object to him doing. When we turned around, Carly was talking to Spencer, who was carrying her suitcase for her as well. She came to stand next to me. The guys walked ahead of us, leading us to wherever Spencer had parked the car, while Carly and I walked several paces behind them, keeping Freddie and Spencer in our line of sight.

While we were walking back to the car, Carly slid her hand into mine. She didn't lace our fingers though, but that was fine with me. Freddie rode shotgun and he and Spencer seemed talk the whole ride back to the familiar apartment building in Seattle. I ended up falling asleep on Carly in the car and she woke me up by scaring me half to death with a kiss against my neck. Apparently we were alone in the car when she did that and I was mumbling her name in my sleep, but only she could hear me because Freddie and Spencer were too busy talking to one another in the front of the car.

"Let's go take a nap in my room, okay?" I nodded quietly to her and she pulled me into the elevator. We headed into her bedroom and she closed the door behind us. She led me to her bed and pulled back the blankets, insisting I get into bed first. I curled against her immediately and she giggled, threading her fingers through my hair slowly.

I fell asleep after a few minutes, trying to tell myself that I was awake and falling asleep, not already dreaming and dooming myself to wake up from this wonderful dream. That would suck so much if I woke up and all of this, I mean everything that I've been through with Carly, was just one big fucked up dream and I was like... a semi-conscious vegetable in the hospital. That would be terrible. That would mean I could never have sex again. Oh my gosh. I would never be able to eat real food again if I was a vegetable.

"Carls, if I ever get into a really bad accident, promise me that you won't let me become a vegetable... no matter how bad off I am,"

"You got it, kid." She replied, kissing my forehead. "Go to sleep; you're tired."