Cowboy Like Me.

Chapter 19

Taylor's pov; 

I was just about to pack up and leave the studio when I got a text from Tree saying she needed to see me ASAP. I rolled my eyes before replying that I would be home in around half an hour. I didn't really want to meet with her; I had been trying to avoid her since Karlie and I had gotten back together, but she was my publicist, and I was going to be in her presence all of next week, so I couldn't avoid her forever. 

I said a quick goodbye to Jack who was the only one still left in the studio, before I made my way to the car where Joe was waiting to drive me home. Tree was already there when we pulled up and I just prayed that Karlie had actually gotten dressed for the day. When I left earlier, she had decided that she was going to skip the gym since because of our little fight, she was already extremely late, and we had arranged to have a quiet night in, so we could spend some time together before we had to part for work on Sunday. 

Walking into the house I cringed at the scene before me. Tree was sitting stiffly on one of the sofas, her back straight and looking extremely unimpressed and uncomfortable. Austin was lying on another sofa, clearly still hungover, his legs thrown over Zayn's lap who was sitting at the end on the sofa while they watched Harry Potter on the TV. Neither of them so much as flinched after hearing the door shut, seemingly too lethargic to even move. 

In one of the armchairs were Harry and Louis. Harry was sitting on the seat while Lou was in his lap as they both laughed at some video on Harry's phone. And in the kitchen making what I assumed was a salad was my girlfriend wearing sweats and a sports bra with her hair up in a messy bun looking as gorgeous as ever while she hummed along to I Knew You Were Trouble which was playing from the speaker on her phone. 

Under any other circumstances, I would have been delighted to come home to this scene, my nearest and dearest all in the same place just hanging out; what wasn't there to love? But with Tree sitting there looking much like a statue of The Mona Lisa, I just couldn't find it in myself to be happy about it. 

It was awful because all I wanted to do was go over to Karlie and wrap my arms around her waist, place a kiss on her neck before I told her I loved her. I wanted to help her with the rest of dinner and then sit and eat with my family whilst we laughed and talked about what we remembered from last night, but I couldn't do any of that. All I could do was greet the woman who seemed hell bent on keeping Karlie and I apart with a polite smile and a stiff hug.  

'It's good to see you, Tree,' I said with as much fake cheeriness I could muster once I pulled back. I heard two quiet snorts and I was sure Tree did too, but we were both mature enough to ignore them. Unlike the two childish people the sounds came from, who were, to no one's surprise, Karlie and Lou. 

Those two could be such a nightmare together sometimes. They really did bring out the inner child in each other, and whilst the majority of the time, it was hilarious to witness, other times it was just downright annoying. They constantly hyped the other up to do stupid shit, which ended up getting them both into trouble, they laughed at each other's silly jokes, and they argued like siblings. They really were nothing but big kids when they were in the presence of one another, and it amazed me just how well they got on.   However the thing that I adored the most about their friendship was that they always had the others back. God help you if you tried to come for one of them because it didn't matter what they had done the other would always defend them. And they were always there for one another; they were each other's biggest fan. Honestly, they were a force to be reckoned with, and I wasn't sure that the world was ready for the full extent of their friendship and I knew for a fact that Tree definitely wasn't prepared for them, which was how I knew that the next hour was bound to be interesting.