"Karlie," she said to me. "Let's get out of this town. Please."
"Tay--" I started to say.
"Please," she begged.
I gave my best friend a little smirk. She knew that was her cue. We ran out the door, hopped in the car, and backed out of the driveway faster than you could say "Taylor." We had been at my apartment the past few days, stuck inside because of the rain. It had poured the past three days, so we were trapped inside and watched movies all day. The thought her cuddling me on the couch and watching a movie made me grin.
She rested her arm on the car door and smiled to herself. "Karlie," she thought out loud. "I just realized--" she cut herself off and chuckled.
"What?" I asked, struggling to keep my eyes on the road.
"I-I just realized....that I'm only happy when I'm with you." She smiled with glee.
I couldn't help but return the smile.
The next thing I knew, "Bright" by Echosmith was blasting through the speakers of my car and the windows were rolled down. Taylor was doing her awkward but cute dance in the car, using a soda can as a microphone to lip sync. We were zooming past cars and sidewalks, carefree of any worries whatsoever. I looked over at Taylor, not paying any attention to the road.
"Karlie! You ran the red!" She gasped, but remained smiling.
"Oh, shit!" I yelled and laughed. Normally, I would freak out about running a red, but I had my favorite person in the world right next to me to keep me relaxed and happy.
"Keep your eyes on the road, alright?"
No, I wanted to say. It's hard not to look at you. I had to bite my lip to keep the words from flowing out of my mouth.
I kept driving, straight ahead, unsure of where I -- we -- were going. Taylor turned the music up a notch and spread her arms out -- like wings -- and had one arm out the window. She looked as free as a bird. And I wanted to join her. We got onto the highway, which barely had any drivers on the road.
"I wanna try something," Taylor said. "Open the skylight." I obeyed Taylor's command and opened the skylight, curious of what she was going to do. She unbuckled her seatbelt, stood on the glove box between the two front seats, and stuck the top half of her body out of the skylight. I turned up the radio and started to sing along to the beautiful melody of the song. She spread her arms out once again, and I still struggled to focus on driving safely. She returned to her seat when the song ended, with a grin on her pretty face.
"Jesus Christ!" I said, looking at her. "You're so distracting when you do that!" Though I admitted that, I didn't want to admit why. Taylor, however, seemed to want to know.
"Why am I so distracting?" She asked, her voice teasing me. "Is it because you lo-o-ove me?"
I felt my face go a tomato red, and I tried to hide my blushing. I almost slammed my face against the wheel. "No!" I almost shouted, even though it was the pure truth.
"Hrmph," she pouted, but didn't question any further. I couldn't help but smile at her disappointment of me denying my love for her. She faced back towards the road. A speed limit sign whizzed by, and I wasn't able to quite catch what the numbers were. Taylor did, however. She turned towards me, with a somewhat worried look on her face.
"What speed are you going at?" She asked a bit worriedly, turning around to look behind us.
"Ummmm," I said, looking at the car's dashboard. "Eighty-three...why?" I asked nervously. Deep down, I had a stomach-flipping feeling that I was driving way too fast.
