Kaylor: The Timeline

Chapter 14.2

Karlie wakes with a start, as she suddenly feels consumed by a completely new sensation, one that she'd rather not have. Despite never having experienced it before, Karlie can confidently hypothesize that what she is currently suffering from is heartburn. I didn't know it could be this bad. Her chest and throat burn, and she begins to feel trapped and frustrated when swallowing becomes difficult.

She has an arm thrown lazily over Taylor, who is on her side facing away from Karlie, breathing quietly. Karlie, as slow as can be, lifts her arm off of Taylor, and eases herself further away from Taylor. It isn't until her body is completely perched on the edge of bed, does Karlie slowly sit up, still staring at Taylor, hoping not to wake her up. But Taylor turns around quite alertly when Karlie swings her legs off the bed.

"What— have you been awake? Have you slept?" Karlie asks in a whisper, the darkened room seeming like an inappropriate place for anything else.

Taylor silently shakes her head no.

"Damn it, Taylor," Karlie sighs. "I'll be right back, hold on."

Karlie isn't even aware of the headache she has until she stands up. She puts a hand to her forehead as she quietly pads out of the room, into the seemingly too bright hallway. She walks down the hall to the bathroom in a daze, now overcome with hiccups that manage to be painful. This is new.

She rummages through the medicine cabinet in search of antacids she's never had to touch before today, before returning to the bedroom.

"I feel horrible," Karlie grumbles, as she crawls back into bed with Taylor, hoping she'll be able to fall asleep despite her agitation.

"What's wrong?" Taylor asks, rolling over to face Karlie in the bed.

"My body is punishing me for everything you've made me eat," Karlie complains.

"I'm sorry," Taylor says concernedly as she softly places her hand on Karlie's neck.

"Why aren't you asleep?" Karlie asks.

"I tried to, but I couldn't," Taylor admits.

"Are you overthinking every single detail of the last couple of hours?" Karlie asks, already knowing the answer.

Taylor doesn't reply.

"Okay, roll over, we're playing a game because I want to go back to sleep and I'm not sleeping until you fall asleep first," Karlie says matter of factly.

"Karlie—"

"Roll over, missy," Karlie says, pushing at Taylor's shoulder until Taylor relents and rolls to her other side. "When I was little, well, when any of me or my sisters were little, and we couldn't sleep we played this. I'm going to draw on your back and you have to guess—"

"You're going to what?!" Taylor asks.

Karlie rolls her eyes and uses her pointer finger to trace a simple shape on Taylor's back. "What was that?"

"Um...a circle?" Taylor replies, sounding puzzled.

"Come on, that was an easy one, don't sound so unsure," Karlie teases. "Okay, how about this?" Karlie asks, as she traces the same shape with additional features.

"The sun," Taylor replies, before Karlie can even finish adding different protruding lines along the outer line of the circle.

"Okay, now I'm going to do harder ones," Karlie says. "Why are you wearing a dress to sleep? How am I supposed to put my hand up your back?"

"Just do it, I don't care," Taylor replies, a very different attitude than the one she had before Karlie had fallen asleep.

Karlie smiles, knowing just how easy it was to bring out a competitive edge in Taylor and the differences that it made. She slipped a hand up the back of Taylor's dress, looking underneath the covers and straining her eyes in the darkness hoping to see something nice to look at momentarily because of the hitched up fabric.