Creativity Quote by Sabrina Carpenter

It’s a breakup line that dodges melodrama by smuggling grief into a polite, almost casual “maybe.” “Maybe we could’ve been friends” isn’t really about friendship; it’s a concession that the relationship was structurally doomed, and the speaker is trying to salvage a version of intimacy that doesn’t hurt. That conditional tense (could’ve been) does the heavy lifting: it rewrites the past as a missed fork in the road, turning incompatibility into fate instead of failure.

The real sting lands in “if I met you in another life.” That’s pop romanticism with a modern defense mechanism. It lets her honor whatever was real without reopening negotiations, because another life is the safest possible distance. No follow-up texts, no “let’s try again,” no messy accountability. Just a clean, cinematic container for regret. The line also flatters both parties: you were worth knowing, I was capable of caring, the timing was the villain. It’s a gentler way to say, “You’re not my person,” while still keeping the warmth of “you mattered.”

In Sabrina Carpenter’s lane of glossy, diaristic pop, this kind of phrasing fits the post-relationship era where closure is aestheticized and boundaries are marketed as maturity. The subtext is control: she’s narrating the end on her terms, offering a dignified exit ramp instead of a door slam. It works because it’s emotionally legible, quotable, and just ambiguous enough to sound like mercy while functioning as a final no.