Girls Never Go Out of Style - A Kaylor Fanfic

Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Knots and butterflies. That's all that Karlie felt in her stomach as she drove to Taylor's house to pick her up on Saturday afternoon.

Her mind swirled with questions. Would she meet Taylor's parents? What would Taylor be wearing? Was Taylor as excited as she was? Would Taylor judge her junky old car? Did Taylor just say yes to be nice? Did Taylor like Karlie like Karlie liked Taylor?

Taylor's street was one that Karlie had rarely had a reason to drive down. Huge old oak and maple trees and equally stately historical houses lined the street on either side. It was one of the oldest streets in town, and Taylor's family living there told Karlie that they were pretty well off. Their house sat on the corner at the end of the street, rising out of a groomed, picket-fenced yard. It was all butter yellow siding and white gingerbread. Even though Taylor had only been here a week, it somehow looked like just the kind of house she should live in. It also made Karlie even more self-conscious.

But just when Karlie had started thinking that maybe this was a mistake, that she should put the car back in drive, pull away from the curb, and go, the front door of Taylor's house opened. And there she was, standing on the porch, the skirt of her light green dress falling around her knees and her hair falling in waves around her face. She smiled and raised a hand to wave to Karlie before closing the door behind her and rushing down the walkway to the car.

No matter what happened, at least Karlie had this moment, when she knew what it felt like to have the perfect Taylor Swift rushing toward her smiling like that.

___

"Someone's excited," Andrea Swift observed.

Taylor had been trying to hide it. Sure, she was sitting right by the living room window, but she was reading a book! Well, holding a book. The book was definitely in her lap. But between nervous daydreams and anxious glances out the window, she hadn't read more than a paragraph in the past half hour.

Finally, an unfamiliar car pulled up to the curb.

"Gotta go!" Taylor chirped. She grabbed her purse from where she had left it on the couch, smoothed down her skirt, and dashed toward the door.

"Don't we get to meet your new friend?" Andrea asked, but Taylor was already out the door and bounding to Karlie.

Meet Karlie? One day, maybe. But Taylor knew that with that meeting would come questions, assumptions, accusations. She didn't want to deal with that today. When she looked back on today, she wanted it to be a flawless, sunshiny memory.

Taylor was breathless when she settled herself into Karlie's passenger seat. If she had thought that Karlie was eye-catching when they met in the principal's office, now she knew that she had to upgrade that status to stunning. With her slicked-back hair, Karlie's face was all angular cheekbones and green eyes. In her white T-shirt and leather jacket, she was unlike any girl Taylor had ever seen.

"Hi."

"Hi."

Silence fell, the kind of silence that comes when two people have so much that they want to say to each other, but they know that it has to wait.

Karlie turned the key in the ignition, breaking the spell with the sound of the engine coming to life. "So," she said. "Where to?"

"Hey, I'm the one who's new. Just show me everything." Taylor laughed. "Show me your world."

Karlie laughed. "There's not much to it."

They drove through the quiet residential streets, each one more or less the same exercise in placid suburban contentment. Karlie steered them past cookie cutter houses and toward the square. They parked in front of the imposing brick courthouse, flanked by statues of long-dead and vaguely forgotten local founding fathers. The square held little shops, the pharmacy, the local library. Karlie pointed them out as she and Taylor walked around the square, making the circuit.