Sparks Fly: A Kaylor Love Story

Chapter 11: Taylor's Advice

Taylor spent most of the rest of the weekend hiding out in her room, listening to music. She wanted to ignore the Karlie situation, at least until Monday. Karlie seemed to be doing the same thing. Taylor didn't get a text from her all weekend.

On Monday morning, Taylor got ready for school as usual. She left her house and began to walk.

"Hi." Said a familiar voice. Karlie was waiting for her.

"Hey." Taylor said with a smile. Giving herself the weekend to decompress had done her a lot of good, and she felt more than ready to just be friends with Karlie, and to put the weirdness of the last week behind her.

The two girls walked to school together, talking and laughing like nothing had happened.

"This is nice." Taylor thought. "This is easy." She knew how she needed to deal with the situation. She needed to not let herself worry about it and just focus on being friends with Karlie.

And so that's what she did. Day after day, turning into weeks, she didn't allow herself to dwell on the possibility that she had feelings for Karlie. Eventually, a month had passed, then two, and Taylor scarcely even remembered that she'd had those feelings. Meanwhile, she and Karlie became close friends. They hung out all the time and had regular baking dates.

One Saturday afternoon, roughly two months after the kissing incident, the two of them were sitting on what had become their park bench - the one where they'd come to discuss where things stood between them two months earlier.

"Hey Taylor" Karlie said "there's something I want to tell you."

"Sure." Taylor said.

"Well, I didn't tell you sooner because I didn't want to jinx it but..." Karlie began before suddenly hesitating.

"What's up Kar? You can tell me." Taylor said with concern in her voice.

"I met someone." Karlie said. Taylor didn't say anything at first. She hadn't expected to hear that. Not that she had any problem with it. She and Karlie were just friends.

So why did she have the vague feeling that her heart had just been torn in two?

"Someone as in... someone?" Taylor said finally.

"Someone as in someone I might possibly have a crush on." Karlie said with a smile. Taylor forced herself to smile back.

"Anyone I know?" Taylor asked.

"Her name's Toni. She's in my history class. We've been texting a lot, and I'm pretty sure she's been flirting with me." Karlie said excitedly. Taylor sort of felt like crying, although she wasn't sure why. Hadn't she been the one who decided that her and Karlie were better of just being friends? This was the price she had to pay if she just wanted to be friends. She'd have to talk about people Karlie liked. But why was it making her so uncomfortable? The feelings she'd had during that first week were all gone. Just being friends was so much easier and less confusing.

"Does she know how you feel?" Taylor asked.

"Not yet." Karlie replied. "I don't know how to tell her. Like, I'm scared I'm misreading the whole thing."

Taylor wondered for a second if Karlie's fear of misreading the situation was a result of what happened between them.

"Does she know you like girls?" Taylor asked.

"Yeah." Karlie replied. "She asked me once. And she calls me cutie all the time. This is why I'm pretty sure she's flirting with me."

"Sounds like if you are misreading things, she isn't going to mind. I say just go for it. Tell her how you feel." Taylor was shocked at how confidently she was giving this advice to Karlie, when she didn't have the guts to follow it herself two months earlier. Although she figured it was probably a result of wanting Karlie to be happy. The two of them were best friends, and Taylor felt like she was duty bound to give Karlie romantic advice.

Karlie smiled. "Thanks Tay." she said, and gave Taylor a hug. "I'll text her tonight."

Taylor smiled back at Karlie. It was a forced smile. An attempt not to betray the fact that, in reality, she kind of wished it was her that Karlie was so excited about. Maybe two months earlier it had been, but Taylor had been too scared to listen to her own feelings, and now Karlie had apparently moved on.