UNSOLVED

10

Author's Note:

thanks for all the comments guys :P hope you're ready for some more angst :)

***

Taylor woke up from the sound of rain hitting her window. She lazily opened her eyes. The room was still dark. She reached for her phone on the nightstand and groaned when she saw it was only a little after 6 am. She couldn't have slept for more than a few hours.

Then, the memories from the night before came rushing back. She threw her head back onto the pillow. The party. Cocktails. Karlie. The laundry room. Soft lips. Karlie leaving. The hot tears running down her own face.

Once more tears started forming in her eyes, and she did nothing to stop them. She lay there crying, thinking about what had gone wrong. Her cats started meowing and Olivia jumped onto the bed, but Taylor didn't reach out her hand to pet her like she usually would.

Why had Karlie left? Had Taylor misread the situation? Hadn't it been Karlie who had initiated the kiss? Karlie who had told her she missed her? Karlie who always reached out to her? Why had Karlie left?

She turned around and pulled the blanket over her face. The sound of the rain outside mixed with her quiet sobs. She fell asleep again.

She only woke up from Olivia's and Meredith's loud meowing, the cats demanding their breakfast. She sighed. Her face felt sticky from the dried tears. She slumped out of bed and filled the bowls with cat food. Then she simply stood in the room, not knowing what to do with herself. The sun had come up, so she opened the blinds. It was still raining, albeit lighter than before.

She forced herself to eat a poptart she found in her kitchen cabinet, then went back to bed. She couldn't remember if she had any plans for the day, but she didn't care. She checked her phone, but there were no messages from Karlie. Of course not. She only had a message from Abigail, asking why she had left the party so suddenly. Taylor replied and made up something about wanting to go to sleep early, then put her phone away.

The afternoon found Taylor sitting on her bed with her guitar, still in her pajamas. She was mindlessly playing a few chords, humming along. She hadn't played much since she had moved to NYC. The familiar feeling of the guitar in her hands was comforting. When she tried to put her sadness into words, her tears started falling again. She wiped them off the instrument with the sleeve of her shirt, then started singing whatever came to her mind.

The weekend went by in a daze.

***

By Monday, Taylor was ready to re-focus her energy on her work. She was glad to not have a video shoot planned so she could sit in front of her computer and do research on her next case unbothered. She didn't want to talk to anyone, all she wanted was to take her mind off Karlie.

"Hey Taylor, how was your weekend?" Abigail asked when they were both in the kitchen.

Taylor shrugged. "It was okay."

She knew she could tell Abigail, but she didn't want to bother her. Besides, she had no idea if she would accidentally out Karlie by telling her friend what had happened at the party. So, she decided to keep it to herself.

"You look ... tired." Abigail gave her a strange look.

"Yeah, I'm just feeling a bit under the weather, is all. That's why I left early too." Taylor didn't meet Abigail's eyes. For emphasis, she decided to drink herbal tea instead of coffee.

"This will make my throat feel better" she said and tried not to look like she'd rather drink anything else at this moment.

"How was your weekend?" she asked when they went back towards the office.

"It was great, I cooked dinner with my boyfriend." Abigail smiled.

Taylor hummed in response and smiled back, then went towards her desk. She didn't have to look up to know that Abigail was staring at her, trying to figure her out. Eventually, she heard Abigail resume typing and breathed out.

She decided that her next video should be on the Dyatlov Pass incident. It was a case that intrigued her, no matter how many times she read about it or how many theories she learned: Nine ski hikers die in 1959 in the Ural Mountains in Russia. Something had caused them to leave their tents during the night while not wearing enough clothing to survive the sub-zero temperatures. Most died from hypothermia, but the bodies of some also showed signs of physical trauma, and one was missing their eyes and tongue. Taylor shuddered.

She spent the next hours taking notes and outlining her video, then sent an e-mail to Emma with a summary and proposition when to start filming.

Taylor saved all her documents, then closed all the tabs and opened the Blaze website. They were encouraged to browse the website at the end of the work day to always keep up with the latest content. Taylor often forgot about it, however. She scrolled through the news. Helpful tips to clean your room. Top ten mistakes we all make when dying our hair. Fire fighter tells the dramatic story of how he rescued a family of five from their burning house. Is social media darling Karlie Kloss dating entrepreneur Joshua Kushner?

She took a double take. Wait, what?

She clicked on the article, hating the fact that she was giving it any traffic. A picture of Karlie and a guy Taylor didn't know but assumed was the business man appeared on her screen. Her heart started beating faster. The two had been photographed taking a walk in Central Park. They were laughing, seemingly enjoying themselves and oblivious to the paparazzi. Taylor squinted her eyes. The photos were way too close-up for them to not have seen a camera being pointed at them. And besides, since when did Karlie have to deal with paparazzi anyways? She was popular, sure, but she wasn't that famous.

She read the article. 'A source close to Blaze' had apparently confirmed the two of them dating. The article also mentioned Karlie's past at the company, and Josh's recent investments. Bullshit, Taylor thought. What kind of 'source' at Blaze writes an article ... about Karlie's dating life ... on the Blaze website? That just seemed invasive. Taylor knew for a fact that everyone at the company adored Karlie. And she also knew that journalistic integrity was something at least most people here cared about. She huffed.

Annoyed, she closed the tab and shut down her computer. She mumbled a goodbye to the others in the office, then left. On the subway, she put in her earphones and let her thoughts wander. The timing of the article was strange, to say the least, after what had happened Friday night. If Karlie was seeing someone, she would have surely told Taylor, and especially, most definitely, not passionately made out with her. Taylor sighed. It dawned on her that Karlie had really meant it when she had told her to forget about it.

Once safely within her own four walls, she couldn't keep the hot tears from falling any longer.