A Cruel Summer

Chapter 8

"There you are!" Misha shouts as Karlie and Taylor descend the stairs, "I've been looking everywhere for you! Where have you been?"

"Oh, Cara gave me a tour of the house and I was just catching up with Tay upstairs," she motions to the blonde standing next to her.

Misha looks at Taylor, "Oh my god, I'm sorry, I'm being rude. Hi, I'm Misha. Mikey's wife," she says with a laugh and a wave, "the concert was amazing!"

Taylor smiles and laughs, "I'm Taylor, it's nice to finally meet you! And thank you for saying that, I'm glad you enjoyed it," Taylor says as another woman approaches and throws her arms over both Karlie and Taylor's shoulders.

"I heard there's a little reunion going on here that I wasn't informed of," Gigi says with a smirk and turns to Karlie to give her a tight hug, "Hey, Klossy! Why didn't you tell me you were coming at dinner the other night?"

"Hey Gi," she says with a smile, hugging her back, "I didn't know I was coming until yesterday, got the tickets from Julia," she says with a laugh.

"Of course you did," she laughs and leans in to whisper in her ear, "Julia's the biggest Kaylor shipper ever. She showed me her Gaylor Twitter account at a shoot a few months ago, @KlossSwift4evaaa. You should check it out sometime," she giggles, pulling back from Karlie's ear.

Karlie just rolls her eyes and shakes her head with a smirk on her face as Taylor looks at her quizzically.

"God, it feels like 2014 all over again! The squad is BACK, baby!" Gigi exclaims, "We need to celebrate. Shots!" she says dragging Karlie and Taylor towards the bar where Cara was standing with two younger girls. Karlie recognized Sadie Sink instantly, as she had binged all of 'Stranger Things' in 3 days at the height of the pandemic. It took her a moment to register who the other girl was, though she looked familiar.

"Hey guys," Taylor says to the younger girls as they approach the bar, "do you know my, um, my friend Karlie? Kar, this is Sadie and Gracie. Sadie was the star of my short film and Gracie's one of the openers on tour! They're both so fucking talented," she says matter-of-factly, "oh," she says turning to Sadie and Gracie, "And this is Karlie. Karlie Kloss. Supermodel, non-profit coding camp founder, entrepreneur," she says, "you know, casual."

Karlie chuckles and shakes her head, "nice to meet you girls," she says simply.

"Kar – you drinking tonight?" Gigi interrupts.

"Yup, pumping and dumping," she answers as Gigi pushes a shot glass into her hand, before handing more off to the other girls.

Gigi raises her glass, "To Taylor. For finishing the first leg of the most iconic tour of our generation. And to being back together for the 1989 Tay's Version announcement! Wouldn't feel right to celebrate it without you," she says nodding her head in Karlie's direction, "Congrats, Taylor, you're a fucking superstar," she finishes and downs her shot as the other girls follow suit.

Karlie's head is starting to become a little fuzzy from all of the alcohol she has consumed throughout the night. This is her first time having more than a glass or two of wine since before getting pregnant with Eli, and her tolerance has clearly taken a dip.

Taylor seems to notice as well, "you okay, Kar?" she asks. Having once known Karlie so well, she can still tell when she's even just the slightest bit buzzed by the way her eyes don't open quite as wide as usual.

"Great," Karlie says with a wide, sunshiny smile, "just hot, I think. I'm going to go outside for a minute and get some air."

"I'll come with you!" Gracie immediately yelps out, "I could use some air, too."