Girls Never Go Out of Style - A Kaylor Fanfic

Chapter 14

Chapter 14

Life is a funny thing. Your heart can be broken, shattered irreparably and barely beating, but still you keep going. If you smile when you're supposed to, no one has to suspect a thing.

This was a truth Taylor had learned well over the last few weeks.

"Taylor!" Andrea called up the stairs. "Are you ready yet?"

"Just a minute, Mom."

Taylor sat at the vanity in her room, surveying her reflection. Not a hair out of place, her red lipstick a perfect crimson bow. How long had she been sitting there, putting off the inevitable?

It was Friday night, and the Prestons were due over for dinner.

Andrea knocked lightly on Taylor's bedroom door and pushed it open. "Can I come in?"

You already did, Taylor thought. But that was something that Taylor Swift, model daughter and normal American girl, would never say. She kept her mouth shut.

Andrea came over to stand behind Taylor. Her eyes lit up, catching Taylor's in the mirror. "You look lovely, sweetie," she said, touching Taylor's hair lightly. "I'm glad you chose your pink dress for tonight."

You chose it, Taylor thought. You had it laid out for me on my bed.

"Are the Prestons here yet?" she asked.

"Not yet," Andrea answered, "but they'll be here soon. Do you want to come downstairs and help me put the finishing touches on dinner?"

In the kitchen, Andrea handed Taylor an apron and put her on salad duty. Taylor could feel her mother's eyes on her as she moved about the kitchen, rinsing the lettuce and chopping carrots.

"What is it, Mom?" she asked.

Andrea gave Taylor a sheepish smile and shrugged. "I was just thinking about how quickly you've grown up," she said. "You'll be eighteen soon. A young woman already."

"Mom," Taylor chided. Her birthday was coming up, but this year she wasn't that interested in celebrating. Everything felt flat without Karlie.

Taylor's eyes stung and she pushed all thoughts of Karlie aside. That was done. She would never talk to Karlie again. It was stupid to think about her.

"Eighteen," Andrea mused. "Soon you'll be cooking dinner in your own kitchen, for your own family."

The thought made Taylor's stomach drop. "Not that soon," she said. "In March I'll find out which colleges I got into. That comes first."

Andrea finished checking the roast and closed the oven door with a clatter. "Well, you never know where life will take you," she said.

"I don't know if I want to get married," Taylor said. Nevermind the silly daydream or two she used to have about Karlie. That was impossible, and would have been even if Karlie hadn't broken up with her. Women marrying each other? That would never happen. "And besides, I'm not even dating anyone."

"Taylor! What about Charles?"

God, why did I say that? Taylor thought. She had gotten lost in thinking about Karlie--which she wasn't even supposed to be doing in the first place--and forgotten herself. Forgotten that to everyone else, she was Charles Preston's girlfriend. She was the girl at his football games, the girl he took to the movies. No one knew that she was also the girl who thought up any excuse possible to go home early, the girl who turned away from his kisses under the pretense of shyness, the girl who pretended she was saving herself every time he suggested that they go out to the local makeout spot. The same girl who woke up some mornings doused in sweat, dreams of what she and Karlie had never found the privacy to do still fresh in her mind.