The Soldier's Girl (Under Editing)

Chapter 21

TAYLOR'S POV

I woke up in the middle of the night because I could hear Caroline moving around in bed. I knew what to do, I rolled over so I was facing her and put my arm around her body. She woke up and she was frightened, but she wasn't as scared as she was last night.

"You gonna be alright?" I whispered once she had quieted down. I could feel her head nodding and I started to pull my arm away. Before I could I felt her arms go around it, keeping it around her. I had only just found out that Caroline had nightmares last night. I'd heard her in the middle of the night before this, but I just assumed that she was a loud and squirmy sleeper. Now I knew what was actually going on.

"Taylor?" I heard Caroline whisper into the darkness.

"Hmm?" I replied. She never said anything, she just moved closer to me and buried her head in my chest. After a while I heard her breathing slow and get louder, I suspected that she'd fallen asleep. I was still awake holding her and stroking her hair. Then I didn't know that I wouldn't get any more sleep for the rest of the night.

Hour after hour passed by and I laid there thinking, I knew that I should be sleeping, but i wasn't really that tired. Before the sun even rose my mom was up and showering. And when the sunlight did start pouring into the hotel room Caroline started to stir. I realized that I was still holding her tightly so in loosened my grip a little so she could have room to move.

She took a breath through her nose and softly groaned before opening her eyes. She looked up at me squinting, I grinned at her and she tiredly giggled and scooted closer to me. It was a little odd to think of how the sweet innocent girl I see now is the same girl that cries and screams at night because of bad dreams. I hadn't made her talk about her dreams because my mom was here and if Caroline didn't feel comfortable saying it in front of her that was fine. I was just curious as to why she hadn't told me about her nightmares before.

I was going to get up and pack my things because we had a plane to catch soon, but when I tried to get up Caroline would pull me back.

"I have to get my bag packed." I laughed. Her eyes were pretty much closed and she groaned, she was still half asleep and I'm sure she wouldn't remember this later. I stayed in bed for a little bit longer cuddled up to her, I felt like just in the last day or two we'd gotten closer. If it weren't for this whole nightmare fiasco that had been happening in the middle of the night I don't know if we'd be snuggled up right now like we were.

She finally let me leave the bed when my mom came out of the bathroom. I didn't know why but sometimes I felt like she was different around my parents. Like she had to be perfect and impressive, but maybe it's just because she wasn't as comfortable around them as she was around me. The next 4 hours passed by and we were back in Nashville by lunchtime.

"How bout I just stay home sick from school tomorrow." Caroline said after we had eaten. She was on my bed and I was sitting on the floor organizing some things in my dresser.

"How bout no." I said still looking into a drawer.

"Come ooonnnnnn Taylor. We could just lay around all day and watch movies together, just me and you and it would be so fun." She told me while flopping down on the bed but then turning so she was on her side facing me with the covers up to her chin. This time I looked up at her and when our eyes met she wore the most ridiculous grin. It was a hard offer to pass up, but I knew better than to let her skip school.

"Why don't you want to go to school anyway?" I said after getting up off of the floor and joining her in my bed under a mess of blankets.

"Because I just want to be with you, Taylorrr." She said cutely dragging out the R in my name. She wore a pleading expression on her face.

"You're with me right now." I laughed while putting my top arm over her young body just like I had the last two nights. She took it as a cue to move in towards me. Once we had ourselves positioned just right for cuddling it looked a little something like this: we were facing each other on our sides but her face was in my neck and on the flat part of my chest right below it, my arm was over her and I could feel her breath on me.

I heard Caroline giggle and I looked down at her.

"What's so funny?" I asked smiling after I saw the huge smile on her face. She told me she didn't know but continued to laugh. I held her tighter and laughed with her. Her staying home tomorrow and us watching movies and cuddling like this was starting to sound better and better. But then I remembered that that was illegal.

We were lying in my bed like that for almost an hour, just basking in each others presence. We both got up eventually and went about the rest of our afternoon. That night at around 10 I went up to Caroline's room. I found her sitting on her bed with her pajamas on.

"I'm going to sleep okay? You come get me if you need me." I told her. She just nodded her head when I told her I was going to sleep but when I told her that she could come get me she looked up at me. We hadn't talked about her nightmares besides the few words that we shared in the middle of the night. She knew what I was talking about when I said that she could come get me now.

I went back to my bedroom but Caroline never came. I didn't know if that meant that she didn't have any bad dreams or she just wasn't going to tell me if she did. I was hoping for the first one.

The next morning we were driving to Caroline's school but caught in some traffic since I lived in the middle of the city and it was pretty busy.

"We could still skip." Caroline said after a while of being stuck at a red light.

"Umm no." I told her while trying to look ahead to see how many cars were backed up. Traffic started flowing again within a minute. Soon I was pulling up to the doors of Hillsboro High School.

"Seeya Taylor. Love you." She said before slamming the car door shut and entering the building. I had the day off today and I didn't have anything planned. Sometimes when Caroline was at school I got kind of lonely. I'd gotten so used to her being around I couldn't imagine living alone anymore. Before I even got out of the parking lot I got a text from Caroline asking if I could run home an bring her gym clothes back to her because she forgot them. That would mean I would have to fight this morning traffic again but I didn't care. I had nothing to do without Caroline anyway.