Girls Never Go Out of Style - A Kaylor Fanfic

Chapter 19

Chapter 19

"I appreciate your concern, Taylor. But we've already made our decision."

Taylor looked down at her hands, fingers twisted together in her lap, and shifted on the uncomfortable principal's office seat. She wondered if Mr. Smith had bought hard, stiff-backed chairs on purpose, to make the experience of talking to him even more unpleasant for the students who found themselves in his office.

"You can't expel Karlie," Taylor said. "You just can't."

"I don't see what choice we have." Mr. Smith leaned back in his chair and regarded Taylor impassively. "Karlie attacked Charles."

"But she didn't!"

"Did she not punch Charles?"

Taylor sighed. "Yes. But she did it to protect herself. To protect--" Taylor's voiced hitched. "She did it to protect me."

"That's not what Charles told us."

Well, of course it's not, Taylor thought. And of course Mr. Smith was going to listen to Charles. She peered balefully at the vintage trophies adorning the shelves of Mr. Smith's office. Souvenirs from his own glory days. Why would he interfere with someone else's?

"But it's not true," she said, her voice small.

"Charles said that he came into the hall after your peformance to congratulate you. That he found Karlie harrassing you."

"She wasn't harrassing me."

"Do you want to tell me what she was doing, then?" Mr. Smith cocked his eyebrow. He knew exactly what Karlie had been about to do.

He just wants to see if I'll say it.

"Karlie has been my closest friend since I came to this school," Taylor said. "She would never do anything to hurt me. Or anyone else."

"Karlie has a long history of getting into trouble, Taylor. Frankly, you would be better off without a friend like her."

Taylor knew that defending Karlie was pointless. But maybe there was another angle to try?

"Graduation is this weekend," she pointed out. "It doesn't seem fair to expel her this close to finishing high school."

And with a full ride to NYU waiting for her.

Mr. Smith stood. "Taylor, as I said, I appreciate your input on this matter. But it's settled. Karlie is no longer a student at this school. If she wants to graduate high school, she will have to do so somewhere else."

Mr. Smith walked around his desk and took Taylor by the elbow, gently pulling her out of her seat. This meeting was over, and it had been just what Taylor had feared it would be: a complete waste of her time.

"Now, Taylor. The school year is almost over. Go home. Get ready for graduation. Get ready for summer. Put Karlie Kloss out of your mind."

Before Taylor could protest, Mr. Smith had hustled her out into the hallway and closed the door in her face.

Fuck you, Taylor thought, most unladylike.

Buses had already run. It was a long way to her house, but Taylor didn't care. There was no way she was going to call her parents for a ride. Or Charles. She would walk it.

It was after dark when she finally made it home, her feet sore and her mood even more so,

"Taylor!" Andrea exclaimed as soon as her daughter walked through the door. "Where in the world have you been!"