Kaylor: The Timeline

Chapter 7

March 2014

Karlie woke up feeling the older girl she was holding in her arms roll over. 

"Want water?" Karlie mumbles against Taylor with her eyes still closed, thinking of how she had felt waking up at Taylor's after drinking more than she should have.

"Yes, please," Taylor replies, voice sounding dry and gravelly.

Karlie gets out of the bed and slides a pair of slippers on. They aren't in as luxurious of a hotel room as they were the previous night, so she has to walk down the hall to a vending machine as they had already drank the complimentary water bottles last night.

As Karlie quietly walks down the hotel hallway, slightly hunched over with her arms crossed missing the warmth of the bed, she can't keep a smile from her face. The past few days have been such a whirlwind of confusing and new emotions, between realizing her feelings for Taylor and them possibly being reciprocated by the singer, and Karlie still couldn't believe that she was giddy over a kiss from Taylor. Two days ago Karlie never even considered Taylor in this way, at least she thought she didn't, and the fact that she was smiling over kissing her best friend was a strange thought to wrap her mind around. Everything had happened so quickly, so unexpectedly, but Karlie finds herself this morning to be more than thrilled with the way things have been progressing, even if it was confusing, and even scary, at first.

As Karlie grabs a water bottle from the vending machine and begins walking back to the room, she knows her and Taylor are going to have to talk about what happened last night, but Karlie doesn't feel the anxiety she had felt the previous morning. Karlie was more aware of her feelings, and she soberly embraced them last night. Although Taylor had been drunk when they began, Karlie really didn't think she still could have been that intoxicated hours later. The buzz of alcohol in the singer's veins may give her the confidence to be more forward about suppressed desires, but the younger girl plans on telling her alcohol isn't needed for that. 

I'm just going to tell her. I like her. Karlie's voice says in her head, allowing herself to feel slightly confident that Taylor will say the same to her. The happiness she feels at the thought of Taylor saying the same distracts her from feeling guilty about Josh, for now. She never intended to go behind Josh's back like this, but never had anything come so unexpected in her life before. It is surreal to her that this is even happening, she has every intention of talking to Josh about everything in the best way that she can. For now, she is going to figure things out with Taylor.

Karlie smiles as she walks back into their room, seeing Taylor in the same position she had left her. The younger girl climbs back into the bed and gets under the covers, and presses the cool water bottle against Taylor's forehead. Taylor's eyes open at the contact, and flashes a small grateful smile to the model as she takes the water bottle from her.

"How are you doing?" Karlie asks, watching Taylor sit up on her elbow to take a long drink from the bottle.

"I feel pretty gross. I remember absolutely nothing from last night, so if that is any indication of how I'm feeling, there you go," Taylor says, lying down besides Karlie once more. The taller girl's breath had caught at Taylor's words. This was not a situation Karlie had considered, was Taylor really that drunk? Surely she wasn't by the end of the night. 

"Nothing at all?" Karlie asks, not meaning her voice to sound disappointed.

"No, why did something happen?" Taylor asks, looking at Karlie appearing to be genuinely curious.

Karlie wasn't prepared for their talk to unfold in this way, so she is left with no choice but to make a quick second decision.

"No, nothing happened," Karlie replies. She is crestfallen to reply in this way, but maybe she was foolish to be happy about last night to begin with. Maybe it wasn't surreal, it just wasn't reality, period. "I stayed sober for the night, though," Karlie adds with a false laugh, hoping that if Taylor is bluffing she would come clean now, as Karlie admits she acted free of the influence of alcohol.