CAROLINE'S POV
Being in New York City for the weekend was almost surreal. It wasn't the physical act of being in New York that made it surreal, but the mood surrounding everyone around me. They were all so happy, including myself. It was that dreamlike sort of contentment that scarcely happens.
Karlie, Taylor, and I were all at Taylor's apartment on Friday evening waiting for Taylor's brother, Austin, to arrive. He happened to be in town too, so Taylor invited him over for supper on a whim. I was setting the table when he knocked on the door. Taylor, who had been playing show-tunes for us on the grand piano in the adjoining living room, immediately went to the door to greet her brother. Karlie was in the kitchen with an apron on, putting the finishing touches on our meal.
"Hey Caroline." Austin's familiar voice said as he and Taylor wandered into the kitchen. The two of us made small talk as Taylor helped Karlie dish out the meal onto the plates on the table. He told me about the upcoming movie he was acting in and I told him about school.
"Alright, I think its all ready." Karlie said, examining her work as we all sat down around the table and dug in.
There was a certain calmness that washed over me as the four of us talked and laughed and ate our supper. I can't count how many times Taylor complimented Karlie's cooking and Austin and I made eye contact from across the table to share knowing looks. Long after we had finished eating we still sat there talking and telling stories.
"Oh my God, you would love my sisters. They all have your exact sense of humor." Karlie said, laughing after Austin had finished telling a story.
"We should all get together sometime!" Taylor chimed in with a smile on her face that hadn't faded all night.
"Definitely." Austin replied.
"So I heard you got some mail from your dad a few weeks ago Caroline." Austin said, turning to me and taking another sip from his glass of water.
"Yeah," I said with a smile growing on my face as I thought about my dad, "some big army guy stopped me in the middle of the toiletry section at Walmart and started crying because he had a letter for me." We all laughed at the strangeness of how it had all played out. I was so glad that I could finally have lighthearted moments when thinking about my dad. It was a huge step for me.
"He just recognized you or what?" Austin asked.
"Yeah. And I looked awful that day, I was wearing no make up and a baggy Vanderbilt t-shirt so thats really saying a lot about me that he recognized me like that." I joked.
"Oh yeah, Vanderbilt. Taylor's going to have a child in college." He laughed, turning to Taylor to tease her. But even her younger brother's mocking couldn't wipe the smile off her face that night.
"Don't remind me." Taylor said, shaking her head at her brother's behavior.
"A child in college and a girlfriend in college." Austin added, making Taylor go red and Karlie laugh out loud.
"I told Caroline that she should come to NYU with me but Taylor wouldn't have that." Karlie told Austin, while still looking at Taylor's red face and giggling.
It was dark outside when we finally cleared the dinner table and Austin had to go to get up for an early day of filming tomorrow. We all shared goodbyes with him and once Karlie, Taylor, and I had gotten all of the dishes into the dishwasher I headed upstairs to take a shower. Everything had been going so well all day that I felt like something bad would have to happen when I came back downstairs in order to even things out, but it didn't.
When I wandered down the stairs in my pajamas Taylor and Karlie had gone outside onto the balcony where all the city lights were visible. I sat down on a recliner in the living room and watched them through the window. I couldn't help but watch, Taylor seemed so happy that I couldn't keep my eyes away. Karlie, being a head taller than Taylor, was behind Taylor with her chin rested on the top her head and her arms wrapped around Taylor's thin body. They were swaying back and forth to the music that was the heavy traffic on the streets below.
Not much later, I saw Taylor spin around in Karlie's arms so they were facing each other. Karlie leaned down to kiss Taylors lips, but Taylor was smiling too much to kiss properly. I watched Karlie pull away and say something that made Taylor dissolve into laughter. I could see Karlie's face lit from the city lights and she looked absolutely enamored watched Taylor laugh in her arms. Before I knew it, Taylor had straightened up and this time she leaned in to kiss Karlie. This time, it was a long and deep kiss, so long in fact, that I finally had to turn away because it felt too personal for me to see.
I turned to look down at my phone but the whole time I was thinking about how happy I was for Taylor. She had found it. Her one true love. She deserved the world and Karlie was her world, she had told me so on the plane ride here. She didn't exactly word it like that though, she had said that Karlie and I were her world, but all I heard was the immense amount of love she had for Karlie. And I hoped I could find a love like that one day.
Just as I was thinking about how good it was that Taylor wasn't anxious anymore about their relationship being discovered I heard the screen door to the balcony open.
"Caroline you've got to come see this." Karlie said, sticking her head through the doorframe to talk to me. I noticed the faint red lipstick marks on her lips, but she hadn't been wearing red lipstick tonight, Taylor had. I walked past her and onto the balcony but she stayed by the door, still looking into the apartment.
"Meredith, do you want to come see too?" Karlie said in a singsong voice to Meredith, who was lounging by the screen door. Meredith looked up at Karlie and proceeded to walk in the opposite direction. This made Taylor laugh loudly, a noise that was music to my ears after all those nights of her having anxiety.
"What are you guys going to do when I'm gone?" I joked, looking from Meredith to Karlie's now defeated face. Karlie shut the screen door and engulfed me in a hug from behind the same way she was holding onto Taylor earlier.
"You aren't allowed to leave us. The cats don't love us like you do." Karlie joked before letting go of me.
"Look at the moon Care." Taylor said, pointing up. In New York City there were no stars because of the massive amount of light pollution. But tonight, even among the city lights, the full moon was brighter than I had ever seen it. It lit up all of our faces and seemed to be bigger than the earth.
"Whoa." I said quietly, taking in the beauty of the moment. We were all staring up at the moon when I went to sit in the chair we kept out on the balcony. I pulled my knees up to my chest and rested my head on the back of the chair so I could stare at the sky. At the same moment, Taylor moved over to where Karlie was standing and pulled her into a hug, resting her head in the crook of Karlie's neck as Karlie took her eyes off the moon to kiss the top of Taylor's head.
I had never felt peace the way I felt it that night. This was my family and I was so loved. Everything seemed to be right in the world. So right that none of us noticed the long lens cameras pointed right at us from the top of the building across the road.
